Now into the ninth month of the war and after more than 37,000 deaths in Gaza, tension is growing between the army and the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, who also maintains clear differences within the Government coalition and with the American ally. The army itself has recognized that meeting one of the main objectives set out in the Israeli offensive, which is to end Hamas, is an entelechy and even more so if a serious alternative is not designed to fill the power vacuum left by the fundamentalist militia and to be able to take the reins of the Strip once the war situation is over. The main military spokesman, Daniel Hagari, made explosive statements on Israeli television channel 13 on Wednesday night that call into question Netanyahu’s plans and that raised a lot of dust.
Hagari was clear in the interview when drawing the panorama in the Palestinian enclave: “To tell people that there will be no terrorism in Gaza, that there will be no military operations, that there will not be a single rocket, that there will not be a single armed man, is lying. . There will be terrorism in Gaza. Hamas is an idea. To replace the people who do civil services, the people who distribute food or steal food, you need to create something else and allow it to grow,” he said in front of the cameras. Aware of the impact of these statements, the Qatari network Al Jazeera, expelled by the Israeli authorities, broadcast them almost immediately.
Immediately, the head of the Government replied to the spokesman and assured that the security cabinet that he himself leads as prime minister had set itself the objective of the military and political destruction of Hamas and that this was also the commitment of the Armed Forces, according to a statement released by his office. That forced the army and Hagari to affirm through the social network
“The commanders and their servants are fighting with determination and persistence to destroy the military capabilities and governmental and organizational infrastructure of Hamas in Gaza, a clear military objective,” they said in X. “In his words, the spokesperson referred to the destruction of Hamas as an ideology and an idea, and he said it clearly and explicitly. Any other statement takes things out of context,” clarified the note published on the social network.
In another interview, Hagari also told the Israeli public media Kan that he does not have 100% certainty that all the hostages remaining in Gaza can be rescued in special military operations and that it is most likely that the majority will be released. within the framework of an agreement with Palestinian fundamentalists.
Dead hostages
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Beyond the political aspect, only about 50 hostages of the approximately 250 that Hamas kidnapped in Israel on October 7 are still alive, according to the newspaper The Wall Street Journal. The data was offered by mediators in the conversations about the kidnapped people and by a US official familiar with intelligence information, according to the newspaper. The newspaper recalls that 116 remain captive, but this figure includes those believed to be dead. Israel has officially confirmed that of those hundred, 43 are dead.
Senior diplomatic and defense officials have privately criticized the lack of a strategy to end the military campaign in Gaza, according to the newspaper Haaretz, while warning that the demand to “overthrow the Hamas regime and destroy its military capacity” is not an achievable objective. Netanyahu’s lack of alternative for the future of the Strip receives constant criticism. In the midst of this atmosphere, the war cabinet, which made the most delicate decisions of the conflict, was blown up with the departure of centrists and military experts Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, who lost a son in one of the ambushes. to the occupation troops in Gaza.
The prevailing climate is reflected in these words from Netanyahu last Sunday: “In order to achieve the goal of neutralizing Hamas’ capabilities, I have made decisions that have not always been accepted by the army leadership. “We have a country with an army, not an army with a country.”
This new disagreement after Hagari’s words highlights the increasingly hostile atmosphere that Netanyahu faces, who in addition to the friction with the military maintains clear differences with the members of the government coalition and with the United States authorities. , Israel’s main ally. Since last May, in addition to focusing their offensive on Rafah, in the far south, Israeli troops have been forced to reopen battles in different areas of the enclave where Hamas had already been defeated in previous months.
The reappearance of armed resistance in places such as the Jabalia refugee camp, north of Gaza City, demonstrated a few weeks ago that the strategy proposed by Netanyahu was not working and that, despite the enormous difference in Israel’s military potential against to Palestinian groups, the “total victory” that Netanyahu so frequently alludes to is not within reach in the short and medium term.
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