The Israeli army will have to “execute” political decisions on the war in the Gaza Strip, the Minister of Defense said on Wednesday, when dissensions are expressed in his ranks in the face of the prospect of a total occupation of the Palestinian territory.
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While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is preparing to announce a new phase of operations to defeat Hamas “totally” and bring back the Israeli hostages selected in Gaza, the media echoes the reserves, even the opposition of the chief of staff, the lieutenant-general Eyal Zamir.
Kan 11 public television revealed Wednesday that General Zamir, during a meeting the day before, had warned of the “trap” that would be a total occupation of Gaza.
The Israeli press is unanimous to predict a new climbing of the military offensive, including in areas where the hostages and in the most densely populated sectors could be retained.
In the besieged and bombed Gaza Strip, where thousands of Palestinians are crowded every day around food distribution points, the civil defense announced on Wednesday the death of 20 people, killed when a truck loaded with food turned to the crowd.
An official of doctors without borders, Caroline Willemen, described a “devastating” humanitarian situation in the territory, where “the hunger crisis” persists.
“In addition to that, we continue to see patients get shot or crush on help distribution sites,” she added on social networks on Wednesday.
“Law and duty”
According to the daily Maariv, General Zamir warned on Tuesday “that a decision to intensify the fighting could lead to the death of the hostages still alive” and would have reiterated “his opposition to a decision to fully conquer the Gaza Strip”, already occupied by Israel between 1967 and 2005.
“It is the right and the duty of the chief of staff to express his position in the appropriate forums,” said Defense Minister, Israel Katz on Wednesday.
“But after decisions are made by the political level, the army executed them with determination and professionalism (…) until the objectives of the war are achieved,” he said on X.
The head of the opposition, Yaïr Lapid, said that “the direction in which the government is committed to the death of all the hostages by hunger, blows and torture”.
According to the press, a meeting of the security firm chaired by the Prime Minister is scheduled for Thursday to make the final decisions on the new phase of the war.
“It is necessary to completely overcome the enemy in Gaza, to release all our hostages and to ensure that Gaza will no longer constitute a threat to Israel,” reaffirmed Mr. Netanyahu on Tuesday.
At the war against Hamas since the attack on October 7, 2023 against Israel, the Israeli government faces increasing pressure to find a way out of the conflict.
Israeli opinion is alarmed by the fate of the 49 hostages still retained in Gaza, including 27 declared dead by the army, while international and more votes amounted to the sufferings of the more than two million Palestinians, threatened with “widespread famine” according to the UN.
In recent days, the pressure has grown up again on the Prime Minister after the broadcast by Hamas and the Islamic jihad of propaganda videos showing two Israeli hostages, Evyatar David and Roma Braslavski, very weakened and very emaciated, who have aroused anger and emotion in Israel and abroad.
AFP
“Dangerous roads”
During the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, a truck loaded with food turned into the sector of Weseirat, in the center of Gaza, “while hundreds of civilians expected food aid,” the Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told AFP.
“The truck had been forced by the Israeli army to take dangerous roads,” in poor condition after being bombed, he said.
The government of Gaza, under the authority of Hamas, accused Israel of “deliberately hindering” the distribution of aid and of obliging “the drivers to take overloaded routes of hungry civilians”.
An Israeli military official told AFP that the army was not involved in this accident.
Israel had softened at the end of May the humanitarian blockade which he had imposed in early March on the Palestinian territory but the quantities authorized to enter, by land or aerial drops, are deemed insufficient by the UN.
The attack of October 7, 2023 led to the Israeli side the death of 1219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count made from official data.
The Israeli offensive conducted in retaliation left at least 61,158 dead in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to data from the Ministry of Health of Hamas, deemed reliable by the UN