Opposition has come from many sectors, including the security establishment.
The Israeli cabinet’s decision to escalate its war on Gaza, disregarding the humanitarian crises it has caused there already, appears to have angered as many in Israel as in the international community, though not necessarily for the same reasons.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had to backtrack on his idea of seizing all of Gaza after pushback from a military widely regarded as being exhausted.
Under the new “plan”, Israel will seize Gaza City and, according to an anonymous Israeli official talking to the Associated Press, Gaza’s “central camps” as well as al-Mawasi in the south.
Defending his new idea on Sunday, Netanyahu told journalists that Israel had “no choice” but to “finish the job and complete the defeat of Hamas”.
Israel has spent 22 months killing 61,722 people and destroying nearly all of Gaza, ostensibly for that very purpose.
Many in Israel, including the families of the remaining captives held in Gaza, object to the escalation. So why is Netanyahu doing it, and how has this landed in Israel? Here’s what we know.
It’s not clear.
Many in the international community, from the European Union to the United Nations, have condemned the idea. Even many of Israel’s formerly stalwart allies, like Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, have condemned it.
Not as many as he’d hoped.
While hard-right ministers like ultra-nationalist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir still support Netanyahu’s coalition, their loyalty seems conditional.
Both had been among a cohort of hard-right politicians who had objected to the suggestion that humanitarian aid be allowed into the enclave in May, following worldwide outrage over starvation there, before falling into line with government policy and Smotrich even diverting extra funds for aid earlier this month.
Both ministers, and their sizeable constituencies, want a full Israeli seizure of all of Gaza, the “razing” of Gaza City, and what they describe as the “voluntary” migration of Gaza’s population, once the territory has been rendered uninhabitable.
Why does Netanyahu want to do this?
On Saturday, Smotrich released a video criticising Netanyahu’s plans to limit the invasion to Gaza City, saying he had “lost faith” in Netanyahu’s leadership. He later clarified that he would remain in government nonetheless.
No.
Earlier in the same week, more than 600 former Israeli security officials wrote to US President Donald Trump to implore him to use his influence over Netanyahu to bring the war to a close.
“Everything that could be achieved by force has been achieved. The hostages cannot wait any longer,” the Commanders for Israel’s Security (CIS) group said in a post on X, where it shared the letter.
No.
Tens of thousands of people, including many of the captives’ families, have taken to the streets to protest against the decision to escalate the war.
In mid-July, a poll carried out by the Israeli Democracy Institute found 74 percent of Israelis supported a negotiated end to the war that would see the return of the roughly 50 captives remaining in Gaza.
Among them were 60 percent who had previously voted for the prime minister’s coalition.
Loudly.
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