Not even the biggest blow to the Israeli army in the three-month invasion of Gaza makes Beniamin Netanyahu hesitate. After announcing that 24 soldiers died 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 the doubts in Israel about the future of the war continues. being to end Hamas and recover all the hostages.
Thus, condolences were mixed with triumphalist rhetoric among his ministers and even among representatives of the opposition. Nobody wanted to show a trace 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 those 21 soldiers, all reservists between 22 and 40 years old, occurred 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 demolish two buildings.
According to the army and its ongoing investigation, Hamas members hiding in a field attacked one of the buildings with a self-propelled grenade (RPG) and then threw another at a tank that was trying to counterattack, causing the death of the two soldiers who were in the field. vehicle. The RPG fire possibly set off explosives set by Israeli soldiers, causing buildings to collapse and killing 19 who were there or nearby.
There are already 217 Israeli soldiers killed since October 27, the start date of the ground incursion. And with the intensification of their siege on Khan Yunis (southern of the strip), where hand-to-hand combat is increasingly fierce, the number will only increase. For now, however, collective support for the war has not waned.
“They are our children, our brothers, it is terrible,” an Israeli resident of Jerusalem told the Reuters agency, “but we have to do what we must so that October 7 does not happen again.”
Under this premise, the army reported yesterday that it had completed the encirclement of Khan Yunis, with the advance of its tanks from the west towards the Mediterranean. That movement has cut off the escape route for Palestinian civilians, who in recent days had suffered another forcible exodus due to Israeli attacks. With their clothes on, dozens 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 food and water.
“The smell of death, the only smell I know, is filling the place,” writes Dr. Mahmud Abu Shamala on Facebook. He is trapped with patients and displaced people in the Nasser hospital, the largest still operating in the strip. With the incessant bombings and shootings, what were downtown patios are now burial spaces for corpses due to the impossibility of reaching a cemetery.
Two other smaller hospitals are blocked by Israeli forces, making it impossible to care for new wounded. Al Amal, the main base of operations for the Palestinian Red Crescent, was hit by artillery from an Israeli tank, and the organization has lost contact with the site; and in Al Jair, Israeli soldiers stormed and arrested some staff, according to Palestinian officials.
While the offensive seems armored in Israeli public opinion (apart from a minority that raises its voice for a ceasefire), Netanyahu's leadership is subject to increasing scrutiny. And the relatives of the hostages have emerged at the forefront of criticism of a Government that they feel has failed them and is not doing enough to “bring everyone home.” That is the demand from the first day, but 109 have already passed, and that is why the sources of protest are multiplying, with two camps in front of the prime minister's residence in Jerusalem and in front of his vacation 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 surveillance and now it is time to save them,” claims Gabriela Leimberg, released by Hamas in November. The woman, of Argentine origin, is still waiting for her brother and her brother-in-law. They are part of the 136 kidnapped people who remain in Gaza, awaiting an agreement for their release.
A deal for which there are “negotiations in progress” according to Qatar, but which do not come to fruition. A proposal – reported Sunday by The Wall Street Journal – for a three-month ceasefire to free the hostages, end the war and set a path to a Palestinian state in exchange for recognition by Arab nations of Israel was rejected. outright by the Netanyahu Government.
In turn, it has emerged that Hamas yesterday ruled out an Israeli counteroffer 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 its goal of “destroying Hamas” and the Islamist group does not budge from its ambition of only releasing the hostages in exchange for a permanent ceasefire, it will be difficult for an agreement to be finalized soon.
