Netanyahu’s plan to expand Israel’s fighting in Gaza meets with doubt

The Security Council in Israel met on Sunday and approved plans to escalate the military campaign in Gaza. It seems that the logic of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is this: Victory will come against Hamas than a barrage of military force in the coming weeks.

Mr. Netanyahu announced on Sunday, while the Security Council signed that they had not finished the war. The expansion of the fighting. “We will perform this process with a unified army, with a strong army and deepened soldiers.”

But it is not clear how these additional fighters will mainly change the dynamic of more than 18 months of war hundreds of thousands of soldiers. Hamas fighters racketwith Population in Gaza He fell in the middle, but failed to achieve Israel’s goals in destroying the armed group or launching all hostages.

It is still not certain whether the Israeli army will return to Gaza before President Trump arrived in the Middle East next week to attend meetings in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Two of the reserve soldiers who spoke, provided that their identity was not disclosed because they were not allowed to make comments on the media, that they had received summonses starting in June.

since The ceasefire collapsed for two months In March, Israel prevented food, medicine and other humanitarian aid from reaching Gaza. The Israeli Air Force has already renewed its heavy shelling of the pocket.

Now, the government is preparing to expand its ground attack as well, with the aim of re -introducing cities in Gaza and forcing Hamas to undergo Israel’s permanently.

The question is whether to return to this type of fighting is a road map until the end of hostilities or just an intensification of the deadly conflict with the consequences of the Palestinians and Israeli hostages are still detained By Hamas.

Tamir Hayman, who served as the Israeli army intelligence chief for four years, said that attempts to pressure Hamas with overwhelming force “exhausted” after more than a year and a half of the war.

“The elimination of Hamas as a terrorist organization by the military force is very difficult,” said Mr. Hayman, who is now the CEO of the Institute of National Security Studies, a research center in Tel Aviv. He said that Israel will be better at ending the war with Hamas, which has been greatly weakened and can be kept after the fighting ends.

The Israeli army did not provide details about how to deploy reserve soldiers. But two Israeli officials, who asked not to reveal his identity by commenting on military plans, say that it will include many brigades that seek operational superiority in several parts of Gaza.

The Trump administration has sought a new endowment, but Hamas demanded an end to the war and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, while Israel insisted that the disarmament, which the group refused to do.

The Israeli call to soldiers is also a message to the supporters of the solid line of Mr. Netanyahu, who were dismayed because the army did not complete the task of eliminating Hamas. The promises to a more intense stage of war can be a good local policy for him.

Israeli officials said they believed that it was the strength and intensity of their military campaign in Gaza last year, which pressed Hamas to Release And accept the ceasefire in January.

Hours after Hamas’s terrorist attacks on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 people in Israel, with 251 others who were transferred to hostility, Mr. Netanyahu ordered the filling of 360,000 reserve soldiers, adding to the permanent army in the country to about 170,000 soldiers.

In the fighting since then, more than 50,000 Palestinians have died, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, which does not distinguish between civil and military deaths. About 130 hostages were released and the Israeli army recovered the bodies of at least 40 others. It is believed that about 24 hostages are still alive, according to the Israeli government.

When Israel and Hamas agreed to the ceasefire in January, Mr. Netanyahu said that credit should go to “the painful strikes that our heroic fighters fell to Hamas.”

He said during a national speech: “This is exactly the way the circumstances were created for the turning point in its location and the issuance of our hostages.”

But other voices, such as Yair Lapid, the leader of the opposition of Israel, have expressed serious doubts about the strategy. “I am afraid that the fighting will dictate the destiny of the hostages,” Mr. Lapid said on the Israeli army radio. “What is the goal? Why do they call reserve soldiers? Extending regular service and all without setting a goal – this is not how to win the war.”

In a statement on Monday, the organization, which represents the hostage families, urged the government not to expand the war.

The families said: “The expansion of military operations exposes every hostage a great danger.” “We ask our decision makers: giving priority to the hostages. Securing a deal. Bring them home – before it is too late.”

Aaron Bokman and Natan Odinheimer She contributed to the reports from Jerusalem.