Even the biggest blow to the Israeli army in three months of invasion in Gaza does not make Benjamin Netanyahu hesitate. After announcing that 24 soldiers were killed on Monday, 21 in a single attack, the prime minister insisted on his mantra: “the fight” will continue until “absolute victory is achieved”, which despite doubts in Israel about the The goal of the war remains to eliminate Hamas and recover all the hostages.
Condolences were mixed with triumphalist rhetoric among his ministers and even among opposition representatives. No one wanted to show a crack of weakness or hesitation. The head of Defense, Yoav Gallant, even expressed that the “fall of combatants is a requirement to achieve the objectives of the war”.
What Netanyahu did promise is to “learn the necessary lessons”. The death of the 21 soldiers, all reservists between the ages of 22 and 40, happened just 600 meters from the border, in an area of ??central Gaza under supposed Israeli control and while the uniformed men were installing mines to collapse two buildings. According to the military and its ongoing investigation, Hamas members hiding in a field attacked one of the buildings with a self-propelled grenade (RPG) and then launched another at a tank that tried to counterattack, causing the death of the two soldiers who were in the vehicle. The RPG fire possibly set off explosives planted by Israeli soldiers, causing the buildings to fall and killing 19 soldiers who were there or nearby.
There are already 217 dead Israeli soldiers since October 27, the date on which the ground incursion began. And with the intensification of the siege on Khan Iunis (south of the strip), where hand-to-hand combat is increasingly fierce, the number will only increase. Yet, for now, collective support for the war has not waned.
“They are our children, our brothers, it is terrible – said an Israeli resident of Jerusalem to the Reuters agency – but we must do what is necessary so that October 7 does not happen again”.
Under this premise, the army reported yesterday that it had completed the siege on Khan Iunis, with the advance of its tanks from the west towards the Mediterranean. This move has cut off the escape route for Palestinian civilians, who in recent days had suffered another forced exodus due to Israeli attacks. With what they were wearing, dozens of them have tried to reach Rafah, the last city, where more than a million exiles are crowded in terrible sanitary conditions and with little access to water and food.
“The smell of death, the only smell I know, is filling the place,” writes Dr. Mahmud Abu Shamala on Facebook. He is stuck with patients and displaced people at the Nasser hospital, the largest still operating in the Strip. With the incessant bombing and shooting, what used to be courtyards in the center are now burial spaces for corpses due to the impossibility of reaching a cemetery.
Two smaller hospitals are blocked by Israeli forces, which make it impossible to care for new wounded. In Amal, the main base of operations of the Palestinian Red Crescent, it was destroyed by artillery from an Israeli tank and the organization has lost contact with the site; and in Al Jair Israeli soldiers broke in and arrested some of the staff, according to Palestinian officials.
While the offensive seems shielded in Israeli public opinion (aside from a minority who raise their voices for a cease-fire), Netanyahu’s leadership is indeed subject to increasing scrutiny. And the families of the hostages have risen to the forefront of criticism of a Government that they feel has failed them and is not doing enough to “bring them all home”. This has been the demand since the first day, but 109 have already passed and that is why the focus of protest is multiplying, with two camps in front of the Prime Minister’s residence in Jerusalem and in front of his holiday home in Caesarea .
“It is not a cliché when we say that time is running out. Every day in captivity is hell. The soldiers and hostages were abandoned under your watch and now it’s time to save them”, claims Gabriela Leimberg, released by Hamas in November. The woman, of Argentine origin, is still waiting for her brother and brother-in-law. They are part of the 136 abductees who remain in Gaza, awaiting an agreement for their release.
A deal for which there are “ongoing negotiations”, according to Qatar, but which do not come to fruition. A proposal – released Sunday by The Wall Street Journal – for a three-month ceasefire to release the hostages, end the war and set the path to a Palestinian state in exchange for Arab nations recognizing Israel was totally rejected by the Netanyahu Government.
In turn, it has transpired that yesterday Tuesday Hamas rejected an Israeli counter-offer of a two-month truce for the return of the kidnapped, the partial withdrawal of troops from Gaza and the release of a certain number of Palestinian prisoners, among other points. As long as Israel sticks to the goal of “destroying Hamas” and the Islamist group does not budge from its ambition to only release the hostages in exchange for a permanent ceasefire, it will be difficult for an agreement to materialize soon.
