The Israeli security cabinet early Friday approved a plan by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to expand military action in Gaza, in a decision that went against the recommendation of his military.

Mr. Netanyahu’s office said in a statement after the meeting that the Israeli military would “prepare to take control of Gaza City.”

Why does Israel want to control Gaza City?

Mr. Netanyahu said in interviews on Thursday that an expanded operation would ensure Israel’s security, drive Hamas from power, enable the return of hostages and pave the way for a temporary administration in Gaza, which he said Israel wanted to eventually hand over to “Arab forces.”

On Friday, after the meeting, Mr. Netanyahu’s office said the security cabinet had adopted “five principles for concluding the war,” including disarming Hamas, bringing back the hostages, demilitarizing Gaza, establishing Israeli security control over the enclave and setting up “an alternative civilian administration that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority.”

The announcement by his office seemed to stop short of saying Israel would take full control of the Gaza Strip, which Mr. Netanyahu earlier said was his plan.

Where is Israel’s military now?

After nearly two years of war, Israel controls about 75 percent of Gaza.

The main part outside its control is a coastal strip stretching from Gaza City in the north to Khan Younis in the south. Many of the two million Palestinians living in Gaza have squeezed into tents, makeshift shelters and apartments in that stretch of land.

Mr. Netanyahu’s office said the military would prepare to take control of Gaza City while providing humanitarian aid to the civilian population outside the fighting zones.

Some in Israel expect the military could gradually advance into areas where it had refrained from operating before, because hostages are thought to be held there. But the government did not explicitly lay out such plans in its announcement.

What would it mean for civilians?

For civilians in Gaza, the possibility of an escalated operation has raised fears that many more of them could be killed and that their living conditions, already miserable, could get even worse.

The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is devastating, with many people going without food for days at a time, according to the United Nations. Many Gazans have been displaced more than once since the war began, and more than 60,000 have been killed, according to the local health authorities, who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

“They’re talking about occupying areas that are packed with so many people,” said Mukhlis al-Masri, 34, who left his home in northern Gaza and is now in Khan Younis, where six of his relatives died in a recent bombing. “If they do that, there will be incalculable killing.”

How long would it take?

It would likely to take the military days or weeks to call up the reserve forces necessary for a push into Gaza City and allow time for the forced evacuation of tens of thousands of Palestinians from the new areas of combat.

,If the government decides to go further, the military believes it could seize the remaining parts of Gaza within months.

Who would govern?

Mr. Netanyahu said on Thursday that Israel did not want permanent authority over Gaza. “We don’t want to keep it,” he said. “We don’t want to govern it. We don’t want to be there as a governing body. We want to hand it over to Arab forces.”

Arab states could agree to participate in an international force, possibly handling security and administration, perhaps with foreign peacekeepers or contractors. But they would most likely want approval from, and a role for, the Palestinian Authority, which currently administers part of the West Bank and governed in parts of Gaza before Hamas came to power in 2007.

That means the Israeli security cabinet’s insistence on excluding the Palestinian Authority from any civilian government, as outlined in its announcement, could make it even harder to secure international engagement for its contentious plan.

What will Hamas do?

Hamas, responding to Mr. Netanyahu’s earlier comments about a full takeover, said on Thursday that “Gaza will remain resistant to the occupation and attempts to impose guardianship over it.”

The militants did not say in detail how they would respond. But Hamas has resisted calls to surrender throughout the war, and despite heavy losses among its leadership, it has continued to recruit new fighters.

Who has objected?

The Israeli military’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, is among those who pushed back against Mr. Netanyahu’s plan, according to Israeli security officials. He expressed concern that expanded operations would endanger the hostages, about 20 of whom are believed to still be alive in Gaza, and that it would put more strain on already-exhausted resources and troops and make the armed forces responsible for governing two million Palestinians, the officials said.

At a U.N. Security Council meeting on Tuesday, Miroslav Jenca, the U.N.’s assistant secretary-general for Europe, Central Asia and the Americas, called talk of expanded military operations “deeply alarming,” saying it “would risk catastrophic consequences for millions of Palestinians and could further endanger the lives of the remaining hostages.”