Israel turns goals in the Gaza war

Israeli leaders have made it clear different goals for Expanding the war in GazaSpreading confusion on how to achieve goals and what terms may end the renewed campaign.

The primary goal is to pressure Hamas to launch dozens of remaining hostages in Gaza. But other goals appeared.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel had “rose equipment” in Gaza, seized more lands, hit the militants and carved the pocket. He repeated his final goals of crushing Hamas’s military capabilities and ending its rule over Gaza, and neither of them was achieved in more than a year of war.

The Defense Minister, Israel Katz, said, a day before the army was seizing more lands to protect its border forces and towns, indicating the possibility of a long -term presence.

During the weekend, Mr. Netanyahu said that Israel would enable what he described as voluntary migration in Ghazan, without clarifying where they would go.

If all these different goals have created uncertainty about what will come, this may be intended.

The military president, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, said on Wednesday that Israel “will maintain operational ambiguity and the element of surprise” during a field visit to Gaza. “The only thing that can stop our progress is our hostage version!”

It seems that the Israeli forces gradually dissect the pocket to separate areas, partly to surround and restrict the Hamas fighters movement who re -assemble their ranks in different areas, according to analysts.

But since the areas of military attacks in Gaza had already invaded them several times before, as well as some new issues, questions about what the forces can do this time that they could not do in more than 15 months of fighting.

“The government has not yet provided a diplomatic framework that can be applied that translates military achievements into achieving the goals of the war over time and justifying the prices paid to them,” said Assaf Orion, retired Israeli dean who is now a older colleague at the Washington Institute for the near East Policy.

The ambiguity of Israel around the end of the game in Gaza can also satisfy the right -wing members of the coalition of Mr. Netanyahu and support his grip on power by leaving an open option to completely revive the pocket, and eventually build new Jewish settlements there.

It is also unclear how the campaign will help the remaining hostages who were transferred in the Hamas -led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which sparked the war. Hamas insists on negotiations as the only way to liberate them, demanding that the full Israeli forces be withdrawn from Gaza and a permanent end of the war.

Israel has adapted any end of the war to disarm Hamas and its leaders leaving Gaza, the terms that the group rejected.

The former hostages have witnessed that their circumstances in captivity were only worsened with an increase in Israeli military pressure and that they were afraid to kill them at any moment by their kidnappers or the Israeli bombing.

To a large extent, Mr. Orion said about Israel’s renewed attack, “It is a development that presents the life of the remaining hostages.” On Wednesday, a group representing the hostage families said they were “terrified” to wake up to Mr. Katz’s announcement about the expansion of military operations in Gaza.

Israel broke a two -month ceasefire with Hamas on March 18 after talks to extend the suspended truce.

In the weeks that followed, the Israeli forces regained most of the Netzarim corridor, a road that divides the northern and southern half of Gaza. On Wednesday, Mr. Netanyahu said that the Israeli forces were seizing another east and west corridor in southern Gaza.

The army has thick parts of a buffer zone inside the vicinity Issuing sweeping evacuation orders.

On Thursday, the army issued more evacuation warnings to the neighborhood residents in Eastern Gaza City before the operations there.

This has led to the displacement of more than 140,000 people in Gaza since the ceasefire collapsed, According to the United Nations.

More than 1,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire collapsed, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, which does not distinguish between civilians and fighters. On Thursday, the ministry said that the bodies of 97 people had arrived at hospitals in Gaza the day before.

The ministry also said that the bodies of 27 people were said to have been killed in an Israeli strike in a school that turned into Gaza City that had arrived at the hospital. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and fighters on the charges of victims and circumstances that were not clear.

The Israeli army said it was looking into the reports and was unable to comment immediately. In the past, Hamas was accused of including itself among the civilian population.

In another tactic aimed at pressuring Hamas, Israel stopped entering all commercial goods and humanitarian aid to Gaza a month ago, which led to a decline in prices by local merchants and deficiency. World Food Program, United Nations Agency, He said This week, it has been ran out of the necessary flour and fuel for that Keep bakeries in Gaza open.

Gaza officials say more than 50,000 people were killed in the pocket in the war that was pushed by Hamas’s -led attack on Israel, which killed about 1,200 people, according to Israeli officials, which were transferred to 250 to Gaza as hostages.

Israel believes that up to 24 live hostages are held in Gaza, along with the remains of about 35 others.

Rasgon man The reports contributed.