The decision was made early on Friday and comes after Netanyahu said before the meeting that Israel intends to temporarily take full control of the entire Gaza.
It is unclear why the statement only refers to conquering Gaza City and not an occupation of the entire Gaza Strip.
But a ground offensive in Gaza City, which despite great devastation is believed to house a million people, has previously been said to be a first step in the more comprehensive plan to occupy the entire area, according to Israeli media.
Military critical
Israel's military has been critical of the plans to take over the entire Gaza and pointed out that such an offensive would put the remaining, about 20, hostages in danger, according to media reports.
The Israeli Prime Minister said before the meeting that Israel will "remove" Hamas from Gaza and "hand over the area to a government that is not Hamas or anyone who advocates that Israel should be destroyed”.
Hamas responded on Thursday that Netanyahu's plans to take control of the entire Gaza are "a shameless coup" against the negotiations on a ceasefire that will affect the Israeli hostages.
Israel's security cabinet has also adopted five principles to be achieved in order to end the war, according to the Prime Minister's office.
Hamas must be disarmed, all hostages must be released, the Gaza Strip must be "demilitarized", Israel must maintain "security control" and an "alternative civil administration that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority (which governs the occupied West Bank)" must be established, according to the requirements presented in numbered order.
Great risks
Israel already controls about three-quarters of the war-torn Gaza Strip. A larger ground operation risks once again displacing hundreds of thousands of people and further disrupting the possibility of delivering emergency aid.
It puts the civilian population of Gaza in an even more precarious situation, since the majority live in these 25 percent that Israel now wants to take over, said Middle East expert Anders Persson, political scientist at Linnaeus University, to TT on Thursday.
