For months, Israelis had only heard of hostages being killed or declared dead in Gaza. The “lucky” families were those whose remains of their loved ones were recovered by soldiers, at great risk, and taken to Israel for burial.
So Saturday’s daring rescue of four live hostages instantly boosted morale in Israel and offered at least a momentary victory for the country’s embattled Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
But on Sunday the euphoria was already giving way to a harsher reality. The intense air and ground attack that accompanied the rescue killed dozens of Palestinians, including civilians, according to Gaza health officials, belying Israel’s claims that the operation was a resounding success, at least internationally. And the operation failed to resolve any of the deep dilemmas and challenges plaguing the Israeli government, according to analysts.
Eight months into its devastating war in Gaza, Israel still appears far from achieving its stated goals of dismantling Hamas’s military and governance capabilities. And Israelis fear time is running out for many of the hostages in Gaza. About a third of the 120 remaining have already been declared dead by Israeli authorities.
At the same time, Israel’s leadership is grappling with an escalation of hostilities along the northern border with Lebanon and fighting growing international isolation and opprobrium over the war in Gaza, including accusations of genocide that are being heard. by the International Court of Justice in The Hague. .
The rescue mission “does not solve a single one of the problems Israel has been facing since October 7,” Nahum Barnea, a prominent Israeli political columnist, wrote in the popular Yediot Ahronot newspaper on Sunday.
“It does not solve the problem in the north; it does not solve the problem in Gaza; and it does not solve the host of other problems that threaten Israel internationally,” he added.
The stability of Netanyahu’s government is at stake.
Pressure has increased on the Israeli government to reach an agreement with Hamas for the release of all remaining hostages. But the fate of the Israeli proposal for a truce and exchange of hostages and prisoners, as outlined by President Biden more than a week ago, remains uncertain. The Biden administration and Israeli officials say they are still waiting for a formal response from Hamas to determine whether negotiations can resume.
Israelis are now debating whether the hostage rescue operation will help or hinder the prospects for such a deal, one that, if it goes ahead, could threaten Netanyahu’s power, with those on the far right in his ruling coalition vowing to quit. and overthrow his government.
The rescue of the four hostages is likely to bolster the arguments of those who say that Israeli military pressure on Hamas and continued ground operations in Gaza are necessary to bring the rest of the hostages home.
But for many Israelis and relatives of the dozens of remaining hostages, the return of just four crystallized the obvious: that such complex military operations can probably only save a few of them and pose a great risk to the military.
The Israeli media has paid little attention to the high death toll reported by officials in Gaza as a result of the rescue operation. Neither the Israeli military nor Palestinian health officials provided a breakdown of civilians and combatants killed in the attack.
The army’s chief spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, made clear the limits of what the army could do in a briefing with journalists on Saturday, saying of the remaining hostages: “We know we cannot conduct operations to rescue everyone.” of them because the conditions that allow it do not always exist.” The largest number of hostages who have been released (more than one hundred) were released under an earlier agreement for a temporary ceasefire and an exchange of hostages and prisoners in November.
The operation also underscored Israel’s plight: without forces on the ground, the military would be unable to carry out any rescue operations or continue to dismantle Hamas’ capabilities. But Hamas has made any progress on a hostage deal conditional on Israel’s commitment to a permanent ceasefire and the full withdrawal of its troops from Gaza.
For Hamas, which lost four of its remaining bargaining chips on Saturday, the deadly Israeli operation could harden its position. The group hinted that the rescue operation could make things worse for the remaining captives.
“The operation will pose great danger to the enemy’s prisoners and will have a negative impact on their conditions and lives,” spokesman for the group’s military wing, Abu Obeida, said in a statement on Saturday.
Experts said some of the remaining hostages could now be moved from civilian apartment buildings, like those housing the four who were rescued on Saturday, to harsher conditions in underground tunnels where they will be harder to reach.
“Hamas will try to learn lessons” from the operation and take more precautions to keep the hostages inaccessible, said Avi Kalo, an Israeli lieutenant colonel in the reserves and former head of the military intelligence department focused on soldiers missing in action.
“For Hamas this is not a turning point,” he said, adding that the group still has many hostages. “Four less is not something that will drastically change reality,” she added.
Some Israelis compared Saturday’s high-risk operation to the legendary Entebbe raid nearly 50 years ago, when Israeli commandos rescued more than a hundred hostages, mostly Israelis, held in Uganda by pro-Palestinian plane hijackers. Netanyahu’s brother Yonatan, the commander of that raid, died during the mission.
Netanyahu himself attempted to link the two on Sunday, announcing that just as the raid on Entebbe was retroactively named Operation Yonatan, in memory of his brother, the government had approved the army’s proposal to name Saturday’s raid “Operation Arnon,” in honor to Arnon. Zamora, the Israeli police commando who died in a shootout during the mission in Gaza.
Many Israelis had already accused Netanyahu, whose approval ratings plummeted after October 7, of trying to cash in on the rescue by rushing to greet the freed hostages at the hospital near Tel Aviv, where they were recovering and reuniting with their families. .
His office then released a slew of photographs and video clips from the hospital, where Netanyahu also made a public statement, breaking the custom of avoiding government activity during the Jewish Sabbath.
Relatives of the hostages who have not returned said they had not received such personal attention from the prime minister. Avi Marciano, whose daughter Noa, a soldier, was kidnapped on October 7 and murdered in Gaza, wrote in a Facebook post on Saturday that in the six months since her death was announced, “the prime minister has not come. He hasn’t called either.”
One indicator of the evolution of government policy, or lack thereof, was the pending decision by Benny Gantz, former military chief and Netanyahu’s main political rival, to withdraw his centrist National Unity party from the emergency government in times of war.
Gantz joined the government shortly after October 7 out of what he said was a sense of national responsibility and became a key member of Netanyahu’s war cabinet. Three weeks ago he issued an ultimatum, saying he would withdraw from the government by June 8 unless Netanyahu outlined a clear and strategic path forward, including making decisions and plans on how to free the remaining hostages in Gaza and for the Gaza’s postwar government. the territory, among other issues.
Gantz had planned to address the nation Saturday night, but because of the hostage rescue he postponed his long-awaited announcement by 24 hours. His departure from the party would not immediately bring down the government; Netanyahu and his remaining associates would still have a majority in Parliament.
But it would send a clear signal that even after Saturday’s dramatic attack, not much has changed.