As Israeli troops battled Hamas fighters in northern and southern Gaza on Tuesday, the Israeli government faced growing discontent from military officials.
Current and former senior military officials have begun to argue more openly that because the government has not implemented a plan for what follows the fighting in Gaza, Israeli troops are being forced – in the eighth month of the war – to fight again for areas in the northern part of the territory where Hamas fighters have returned. With no obvious end in sight to that cycle, and ceasefire talks seemingly stalled, the risks to soldiers are increasing.
Two Israeli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid professional repercussions, said some generals and members of the war cabinet were frustrated with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for failing to develop and announce a process to build an alternative to Hamas to govern Gaza. .
They said Netanyahu’s unwillingness to have a serious conversation about the “day after” has made it easier for Hamas to reconstitute itself in places like Jabaliya in northern Gaza, which Israel first attacked in October, and where it launched a new offensive. air and ground assault this week.
Eran Lerman, Israel’s deputy national security adviser from 2006 to 2015, said the backlash Israel faces in much of the world over the war and the rising death toll among Palestinians in Gaza is due in part to “a lack of a coherent vision for the next day.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has resisted calls to end the fighting, arguing that there can be no civilian government in Gaza until Hamas is destroyed. In a podcast interview on Monday, he said the territory first needed “sustained demilitarization by Israel,” because “no one will come in until they know that you either destroyed Hamas or that you are about to destroy Hamas.”
But with a growing number of analysts and officials questioning whether Israel can achieve such a broad goal, more vocal criticism from parts of the military reflects a gradually widening gap with Netanyahu’s government.
While Israeli strategists have said they expected troops to return to some areas of Gaza in later phases of the war, the two Israeli officials said that beginning to establish a new governing authority in Gaza would make things more difficult for Hamas and could lighten the load for the Israeli army.
Military leaders “are frustrated because they have been given a military mission that ends up repeating itself like Groundhog Day because the government has not responded to the most important strategic and political questions,” said Michael Koplow, an analyst at the US Policy Forum. Israel.
For Netanyahu, political considerations involve trying to hold together a government with right-wing parties that have demanded an all-out attack on Gaza despite American objections, and are unwilling to support what Arab countries have demanded as a prerequisite for their aid. in Gaza: a path towards a Palestinian state.
If Netanyahu deviates too far from their demands, they have threatened to overthrow the government, which could leave Netanyahu facing a series of corruption accusations without the powers he has as prime minister.
Dr. Lerman, a former deputy national security adviser, recently published a proposed plan with other Wilson Center scholars that calls for a multinational authority to manage and police Gaza, led by the United States, Egypt and other nations. It has been shared with Israeli authorities.
Other proposals have included efforts to strengthen the Palestinian Authority that now governs the Israeli-occupied West Bank, but the Israeli government has also rejected that idea, arguing that the authority is not a competent and credible partner.
Former Israeli officials warned of a lack of post-war planning even before the ground attack on Gaza began. On October 14, a week after the devastating Hamas-led attack that killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli officials, and sparked the Israeli military offensive, Tzipi Livni, former foreign minister, called on the government to consider the future of Gaza in the postwar.
“Otherwise,” he said, “we would be stuck there unnecessarily and at a high price.”
In an interview on Tuesday, he said this was exactly what had happened.
“Imagine if we had decided this earlier and started working earlier with the United States, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and the Saudis,” he said, referring to the United Arab Emirates. “It would be much easier.”
Johnatan Reiss and Gabby Sobelman contributed with reports.