Conflict in the Middle East: Israel decides to expand the fights in Gaza

Around 22 months after the beginning of the Gaza War, Israel’s leadership decided to further tighten the fights in the coastal strip. The Israeli security cabinet approved a plan to take the city of Gaza, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced in the early morning. The committee approved a corresponding military operation after hours of consultations.

According to the Prime Minister’s office, the security cabinet also decided five principles to end the war in the Gaza Strip. These included the military control of the coastal area by Israel and the complete disarmament of the Islamist Hamas as well as the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip. Afterwards, an alternative civil government should also be built there.

According to media reports, Israel is currently controlling around three quarters of the largely destroyed coastal strip, in which a total of around two million Palestinians live. A speculation has been speculated since the beginning of the week by the Gaza Strip by Israel. According to the official announcement, the plans that have now been decided do not go that far for the time being.

The TV broadcaster N12 reported on a high-ranking civil servant, who has now decided to focus exclusively on the city of Gaza in the north of the coastal area. The aim was to evacuate the residents in refugee camp in the central section of the Gaza Strip – this should happen until the beginning of October. There were no official details at first.

Possible negotiation tactics in ceasefire talks

For months of indirect negotiations between Israel and the terrorist organization Hamas about a new ceasefire and the release of other hostages had previously been unsuccessful.

“I understand exactly what Hamas wants. She doesn’t want a deal,” the Netanyahu had recently explained in a video message. He was now even more determined to free the hostages, to smash Hamas and to ensure that the Gaza Strip, under the rule of the terrorist organization, will never be at risk to the state of Israel.

Media previously speculated that the now specific announcement of an expansion of the fights could also be part of a negotiation tactic in order to massively put Hamas under pressure in the negotiations for a ceasefire. Israeli politicians indicated such a strategy. The N12 broadcaster reported that the mediator states of Qatar and Egypt would already put pressure on the Hamas to return to the negotiating table.

Netanyahu: Israel does not want to fill Gaza permanently

In an interview with the US broadcaster Fox News shortly before the start of the security cabinet session, Netanyahu said that Israel wanted to take control of the entire Gaza Strip, but did not permanently occupy the area. Hamas should be liberated in order to finally hand it over to other forces. This should be forces that, like the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas, did not call for the destruction of Israel.

Netanyahu continued: “We don’t want to keep it (the Gaza Strip). We want to have a security limit. We don’t want to rule it.” Specifically, Netanyahu said that he wanted to hand over the Gaza Strip to “Arabic forces”.

Worry about remaining hostages

According to Israeli assessment, there are currently 50 hostages in the violence of Hamas, of which around 20 are still alive. According to media reports, the army leadership had expressed concerns about the original plan to complete the Gaza Strip.

Again and again it was warned that such an advance could endanger the hostages. Members of the kidnapped people had also spoken out against military attempts to exemption and urged an agreement to terminate the war. Critics accuse Netanyahu of extending the war for political reasons to satisfy his coalition partners.

The Gaza War was triggered by the attack by Hamas and other Islamist terrorist organizations to Israel on October 7, 2023, in which around 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 were delayed as hostages into the Gaza strips. Since then, more than 61,000 people have been killed by the Hamas controlled health authority.

Warning of famine and looting

The United Nations had described a further tightening of the fights as “deeply alarming”. Such a step could have “catastrophic consequences for millions of Palestinians”, warned the UN diplomat Miroslav Jenca a few days ago. According to satellite shots, around 70 percent of the houses are destroyed or badly damaged using satellite shots. In Chan Junis and parts of Rafah it should be 80 to 90 percent.

The UN and international aid organizations have already urgently warned of a famine in the contested Gaza Strip, in which around two million people live under catastrophic conditions. Israel again allows larger amounts of relief goods to the blocked area. However, many of these deliveries do not reach the most needy because they are looted before they are looted – by civilians and armed groups.