A large screen dominates the interior of a tent located on the edge of a military base in the Negev desert. Dozens of blue squares represent Israeli soldiers on the ground, 20 kilometers away, northeast of Gaza City. Inside the headquarters of one of the Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) infantry brigades, operations officers coordinate search and destroy missions into Hamas tunnels from afar.
Two weeks after the start of its ground offensive inside the Gaza Strip, Israel has about four divisions (about 10,000 soldiers) in the territory. Some of the columns are making their way towards the center of Gaza City. Others operate in the surrounding cities, which are now almost empty, and go house to house in search of tunnel entrances. "It will be our only chance to take out everything we can of Hamas's underground network," says one of the officers, referring to the organization's 500-kilometer tunnel system. "We don't know how long we will be able to operate and we have to make the most of it while we can."
Western support for Israel's campaign is already flagging. On November 10, Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, called for a ceasefire in Gaza and stated that while he supported Israel's right to respond to the Hamas terrorist attack of October 7, "de facto, there are babies, "There are women, there are elderly people who are bombed and die. There is no reason for that and there is no legitimacy." However, Israel's closest ally, the United States, has not yet demanded a ceasefire, so the IDF is wasting no time. Still, the Israeli military has reached a point in its campaign where the Israeli government's stated objectives – destroying Hamas's military infrastructure and rescuing the 239 hostages still held in Gaza – are coming under increasing strain. .
In recent days, much attention has been paid to hospitals in central Gaza, especially Al Shifa Hospital, the largest. They have become places of concentration, not only for the wounded, but also for thousands of civilians who remain in the city, taking refuge around them. A doctor at Al Ahli Hospital stated that the facility's blood supply had run out on November 12, making it impossible to give patients transfusions. Israeli intelligence services believe that Hamas' main clandestine headquarters are also located beneath the hospitals. Al Shifa staff have accused Israel of shooting at them and killing patients by cutting off power.
On November 12, the IDF announced the opening for civilians in Al Shifa and two other hospitals of an evacuation corridor along the road leading south of the Israeli perimeter. Israeli officials say the order to launch a final assault on hospitals they say are Hamas headquarters has not yet come from the war cabinet led by Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu. That same day, Jake Sullivan, US national security advisor, while admitting "information from open sources" that Hamas used hospitals as weapons depots and command posts, told CBS News that his country "does not "You want to see hospital shootings where innocent people, patients receiving medical care, are caught in the crossfire."
The main reason for the cabinet's reluctance is the hope of reaching an agreement with Hamas on the release of a large number of hostages; Israel hopes to free at least a hundred. In exchange, it would release some Palestinian prisoners (it has 4,450 in its jails) and allow more supplies, including fuel, into Gaza.
Indirect talks on many kinds of agreements are taking place in Qatar and Egypt, but the last word will go to the head of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, who is Israel's main target. It is unclear whether a deal would postpone the IDF's attempt to destroy all Hamas facilities around or under the hospital; It seems unlikely that they will abandon it. As tense negotiations continue, Israel is trying to urge as many of Gaza City's remaining civilians, believed to number around 100,000, to also leave for the south.
Now, the Israeli government's refusal to commit to any form of Palestinian control of Gaza after the war is also undermining international support for its campaign. Some members of the far-right coalition have called for Israel to reoccupy Gaza and rebuild the settlements it dismantled there in 2005.
Netanyahu has denied that there are any such plans, but has also insisted that Israel must retain, after the war, "general control of security; including the ability to enter whenever we want to eliminate terrorists who may appear again." . He has also ruled out the return of the Palestinian Authority, overthrown by Hamas in a coup in 2007, stating that he "raises his children to hate Israel, to kill Israelis, to eliminate the State of Israel" and that its president, Mahmoud Abbas, "still does not condemn the terrible massacre 30 days later."
The Biden administration has already made clear that it wants the Palestinian Authority to control Gaza once the fighting ends and is working to make it that way in the future. Netanyahu, whose public support has been plummeting, seems more concerned with clinging to his dwindling nationalist base than dealing with the fate of the enclave if Hamas is ousted from power. However, in a sign that he may not always be in office, Israeli officials are already quietly working on plans for a Gaza under Palestinian Authority control.
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Translation: Juan Gabriel López Guix
