The Israeli offensive in Gaza is concentrated in Khan Younis without forgetting the rest of the strip. And it doesn't let up. Nor do they ease hostilities with Hezbollah on the border with Lebanon. But, behind closed doors, the one who is in the target is the Prime Minister of Israel, BeniaminNetanyahu.
After 100 days of war and after “100 days in hell” of the hostages in the hands of Hamas, as their relatives and thousands of Israelis throughout the country recalled yesterday, criticism of the premier and the Government is gaining momentum. Even more so when the military wing of the Islamists reported that “many” of those kidnapped “have probably been murdered recently” and attributed “all responsibility” to Israel.
Yesterday, at the beginning of the Israeli Government meeting, Netanyahu recalled that “100 days ago the Hamas monsters invaded Israel and massacred us. They raped and burned our citizens and took them hostage. We have returned half of them. We are doing everything we can to bring everyone back home. These efforts continue even now. “We will do this at the same time as completing the other objectives of the war.”
Among the relatives of the hostages, however, it is “enough!” the cry that is heard the most now. Frustration wins. And the expanding fatigue was summed up yesterday in Tel Aviv in a massive demonstration by Lishi Miran, a resident of Kibbutz Nir Oz and wife of one of the hostages, who expressed: “What victory are you talking about? You abandoned us".
Hours before, thousands of people blocked one of the main highways in Tel Aviv also in protest against the Government. And in Jerusalem days before there were even protests at the entrance to the parliament, the Knesset.
Criticism of Netanyahu and his Executive has always been there. So far more in the background. But in yesterday's meeting Netanyahu insisted that the war will last "many more months" and the relatives of the more than 130 kidnapped since October 7 demand changes.
Netanyahu knows he is under pressure. The Government seems to disdain the latest ceasefire proposal promoted by Qatar to release the hostages in stages and deport the Hamas leaders, which would also imply withdrawing troops from Gaza. And the hostages ask to take steps towards any pact that could lead to their release.
The Government itself, furthermore, sees divisions. Every few days internal dissent leaks out of the Cabinet. The last one, this weekend, between the Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, and the National Security Advisor, Tzachi Hanegbi, currently one of the people closest to Netanyahu.
Furthermore, it is still not understood how October 7 could have happened. The spokesperson for the University of Haifa, Ilan Yavelberg, a reference center also on Defense issues, explained to this newspaper that the attack on October 7 “was a surprise. That day everything went terribly wrong, but it is not the issue now, but the war. The protests at the moment are minority. Why it happened doesn’t matter, it doesn’t help.”
Yavelberg expressed it while videos of the soldiers on the front jumped on his computer screen. However, here too the critical voices rise in the face of the lack of clear progress in the three objectives that the premier himself has set: freeing all the hostages, making Gaza non-dangerous and putting an end to Hamas.
The Israeli army, in fact, has still not located Hamas leaders in the Palestinian enclave after three months of offensive and after killing, according to its calculations, some 9,000 Islamist fighters. In total, Gaza already has nearly 24,000 dead, most of them women and children, according to international organizations.
