The Gaza war has been raging for six months. Because of its catastrophic consequences, Israel is increasingly being sidelined internationally. There are mass protests at home.
The Gaza war has been going on for six months and the number of deaths is rising into the tens of thousands. And there is still no end in sight to the hostilities between Israel and the Islamist Hamas. While the USA wants to make a breakthrough in negotiations over a cease-fire and the release of hostages held by Hamas, which have been stalled for weeks, with a new advance in Cairo, Israel’s leadership under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sees itself under increasing pressure internationally, but also at home .
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities against Netanyahu’s government and demanded more serious efforts to release the hostages kidnapped by Hamas. According to media reports, these were the largest protests since October 7, when a massacre by Hamas and other extremist groups in Israel sparked the Gaza war.
Gaza war pushes Israel into isolation
On that day six months ago, the terrorists attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and kidnapping another 250 as hostages in the Gaza Strip. Israel’s armed forces responded with massive air strikes and a ground offensive that had a devastating effect.
According to the Hamas-controlled Palestinian health authority in Gaza, more than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed so far, although the figures, which are difficult to verify independently, make no distinction between fighters and civilians. The Israeli army recently announced the deaths of four more soldiers. Since the Israeli ground offensive began at the end of October, 260 soldiers have been killed, as the “Times of Israel” reported.
A large proportion of the 2.2 million inhabitants of the sealed-off coastal area no longer have a home and many are suffering from hunger. Because of its brutal warfare, Israel is increasingly isolated on the world stage. Even allies are now openly criticizing Prime Minister Netanyahu. There are increasing calls in the United States and Great Britain to stop arms sales to Israel.
At the same time, Netanyahu and his government are under increasing pressure at home. Critics accuse him of neglecting the protection of the Gaza border and of subordinating the country’s interests to his political survival. Many people in Israel are struggling with the traumatic consequences of the October 7 massacre.
Mass protests in Israel
During the mass protests last night, demonstrators lit several fires in the streets. There were clashes with the police, as media reported. Relatives of those abducted accuse Netanyahu of standing in the way of a hostage deal. During a week-long ceasefire at the end of November, Hamas released 105 hostages. In return, Israel released 240 Palestinian prisoners from its prisons.
According to Israeli estimates, almost 100 of the hostages remaining in the Gaza Strip are still alive. Israel and Hamas have been negotiating for months – but not directly with each other. Instead, the USA, Qatar and Egypt are acting as mediators. Talks about a ceasefire and the release of the hostages have been stalled for weeks. Washington wants to force a breakthrough.
Report: US pressures Israel to make concessions
As the Wall Street Journal reported, citing American, Israeli and Egyptian officials, the US government wants Israel to allow a limited return of civilians to the north of the embattled Gaza Strip at a new round of negotiations between mediators in Cairo. Hamas representatives say they plan to travel to Cairo today to continue negotiations. According to Israeli media reports, Israel’s war cabinet should meet for the time being to discuss whether or not to send a delegation to Cairo.
The return of Palestinian civilians to the north of the sealed-off coastal area, demanded by Hamas, was a key point of contention in the talks, the Wall Street Journal reported. Israel is ready to allow the return of 2,000 people, mainly women and children, to the north every day. A total of up to 60,000 Palestinians could return under a proposal considered acceptable by Israel. However, men between the ages of 18 and 50 would be excluded.
Hamas insists on its own demands
The people who fled the fighting in the south of the coastal area would therefore have to pass through Israeli military checkpoints so that armed Hamas fighters do not invade northern Gaza again, it said, citing Israeli and Egyptian officials. However, these conditions were rejected by Hamas. Hamas said it would not deviate from its own demands in the negotiations. These include, among other things, a permanent ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israel’s army from Gaza and the return of displaced people.
Netanyahu has repeatedly made it clear that he wants to “fight until total victory.” He has also so far rejected any plan for “the day after” that would involve handing over power in the Gaza Strip to Palestinian hands. “Nobody knows when and how this war will end,” Khaled Elgindy from the Middle East Institute in Washington told the US broadcaster CNN.
Meanwhile, Israeli opposition leader Jair Lapid says he will fly to Washington for talks. The US government’s relationship with Netanyahu has cooled, and the lines of conflict are now becoming very clear – also publicly. Tensions exist primarily because of the nature of the war and because, from the US perspective, Israel is blocking the delivery of sufficient humanitarian aid. Washington is therefore seeking proximity to Netanyahu’s political rivals such as Lapid.
Experts warn of anarchy in Gaza
“Israel cannot achieve its stated goal of eliminating Hamas because Hamas is an integral part of Palestinian society in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Its popularity has increased in recent months,” CNN also quoted Middle East expert Nathan Thrall as saying in Jerusalem.
“After Israel declared that it had defeated Hamas in the north, you see Israeli soldiers dying in the north every week,” Thrall said. It is obvious that Hamas will continue to exist after the war, whether Israel invades the southern city of Rafah, which is overcrowded with hundreds of thousands of refugees, as planned or not.
There will most likely be an indefinite Israeli military presence in Gaza, Elgindy told the broadcaster. “There will be something like a breakdown of law and order and more and more chaos. We will see warlords, gangs and clans (…) Gaza has become a place that is not really worth living in,” the expert was quoted as saying. If there is anyone who believes that this situation will bring security to Israelis, “that is a completely delusional idea,” Elgindy said.
US and Israel remain on alert over Iran
Iran’s announced retaliation following the airstrike on an embassy building in Syria has put Israel and the US on high alert. Both governments are preparing at full speed for an Iranian attack “that could take different forms,” CNN reported, citing a senior US government official.
Both US and Israeli targets could be targeted. According to broadcaster CBS, US government officials assume that an attack on an Israeli diplomatic facility is conceivable by the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan next week. The commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Hussein Salami, renewed threats against arch-enemy Israel. “No action by the enemy” will go unanswered, Salami said.
How and when Iran’s state power will react remains unclear. However, Khamenei’s statements were interpreted to mean that military action by his own armed forces could be imminent. Senior US government officials even believed a retaliatory strike was inevitable, CNN reported. The US is preparing for a “significant” attack next week.