TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel approved plans Monday to seize the Gaza Strip and to stay in the Palestinian territory for an unspecified amount of time, two Israeli officials said, a move that, if implemented, would vastly expand Israel’s operations there and likely draw fierce international opposition.

The new plan, which was approved in an early morning vote by Israeli Cabinet ministers, also calls for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to move to Gaza’s south. That would likely amount to their forcible displacement and exacerbate an already dire humanitarian crisis.

Details of the plan were not formally announced, and its exact timing and implementation were not clear. Its approval came hours after the Israeli military chief said the army was calling up tens of thousands of reserve soldiers. The plan may be another measure by Israel to try to pressure Hamas into making concessions in ceasefire negotiations.

A third person, a defense official, said the new plan would not begin until after U.S. President Donald Trump wraps up his expected visit to the Middle East this month, allowing for the possibility that Israel might agree to a ceasefire in the meantime. All three officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing military plans.

Later Monday, the Israeli military targeted Houthi rebels in Yemen’s Red Sea city of Hodeida with a punishing round of airstrikes. The strikes came a day after the Iranian-backed rebels launched a missile that hit Israel’s main airport. The rebels’ media office said at least six strikes hit the Hodeida port. Other strikes hit a cement factory, the rebels said.

Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 after a decades-long occupation and then imposed a blockade on the territory along with Egypt. Capturing and potentially occupying the territory again for an indefinite period would not only further dash hopes for Palestinian statehood, it would embed Israel inside a population that is deeply hostile to it and raise questions about how Israel plans to govern the territory, especially at a time when it is considering how to implement Trump’s vision to take over Gaza.

Since Israel ended a ceasefire with the Hamas militant group in mid-March, Israel has unleashed fierce strikes on the territory that have killed hundreds. It has captured swaths of territory and now controls roughly 50% of Gaza. Before the truce ended, Israel halted all humanitarian aid into the territory, including food, fuel and water, setting off what is believed to the be the worst humanitarian crisis in nearly 19 months of war.

The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages. Israel says 59 captives remain in Gaza, although about 35 are believed to be dead.

Israel’s offensive has displaced more than 90% of Gaza’s population and, Palestinian health officials say, killed more than 52,000 people there, many of them women and children. The officials do not distinguish between combatants and civilians in their count.