In an official statement from the Prime Minister's Office, it was announced that as part of the occupation of the Gaza Strip, "The IDF will prepare to take control of Gaza City while providing humanitarian aid to the civilian population outside the combat zones." The statement listed "five principles for ending the war," which the Cabinet "adopted by majority vote": disarming Hamas, returning all hostages - "both the living and the deceased," demilitarizing Gaza, maintaining Israeli security control over Gaza, and "the existence of an alternative civilian government that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority." Netanyahu's office also stated that "the vast majority of Cabinet ministers believed that the alternative plan presented (the IDF Chief of Staff's plan) would neither achieve the defeat of Hamas nor the return of the hostages."