The Safety Cabinet of the Government of Israel gave green light in the early hours of this Friday to a military plan proposed by Prime Minister, Benjamín Netanyahu, to occupy the city of Gaza, in the north of the enclave, despite the opposition of the army.
After about ten hours of meeting, the Israeli government released a statement where Netanyahu’s plan is presented to “defeat Hamas”, which includes occupying the city of Gaza, without clarifying what will happen to the rest of the enclave despite the fact that the prime minister had declared his intention to extend the operation to the entire strip before starting the debate session with the cabinet.
The fact that it is a partial guarantee to the initial Netanyahu plan confirms the internal discrepancies that existed. A few hours earlier, Netanyahu had insisted on a land invasion of the enclave despite the reluctance of the army. In an interview with the American television network Fox News, Netanyahu had declared that his government intends to control Gaza to “guarantee her safety”, “eliminate Hamas” from the territory and “deliver it to a civil government that is not Hamas or seek the destruction of Israel.”
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, has demanded from Israel “immediately” its plan to “militarily take the occupied Gaza Strip.” “It goes against the decision of the International Court of Justice that says that Israel must end its ocpation as soon as possible.”
The security cabinet meeting should have taken place on Tuesday, but was postponed for those discrepancies, after it was leaked that Netanyahu was going to present a plan to reocup Gaza, after 22 months of a brutal offensive that has left a wide destruction and more than 60,000 Palestinians dead in the enclave.
According to information published by the Israeli media, the military leaders opposed the new plan of the Executive in Gaza, much of whose territory is already controlled by the Israeli troops, who do not want to remain in the long -term strip for the risk and wear that would entail a low intensity conflict with Hamas militiamen.
Hours before the meeting, the Chief of the General Staff of the Defense of Israel, Eyal Zamir, referred to the tensions with Netanyahu. In a statement released by the Army, he said that “the culture of debate” is “a vital component” of Israel’s defense forces, “both internally and externally.” “We will continue to express our position without fear, in a professional, independent and forceful way,” he said.
During the meeting, as Channel 12 has published, Zamir said: “The life of the hostages will be in danger if we continue with this plan to occupy Gaza. There is no way to guarantee that we will not hurt them.”
Hundreds of people, including relatives of hostages and exrehenes, had demonstrated Thursday afternoon at the gates of the Netanyahu office to protest their plans, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. The collective of the families of the kidnapped is the one that has opposed and exerted publicly pressure for the government to end the war with a negotiated agreement for which Hamas was released to their loved ones.
For its part, the Islamist group Hamás has warned in a statement that for Israel “it will not be bread eaten” to expand its offensive in Gaza and will lead to “pay a high price.” “What the Netanyahu war criminal plans is to continue his genocide and displacement strategy committing more crimes against our Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip,” he said.
Discarded the complete invasion
“The Israeli Defense Forces (FDI) will prepare to take control of the city of Gaza while guaranteeing the provision of humanitarian aid to the civilian population outside the combat areas,” concrete the statement.
The Government also ensures that the cabinet adopted “by majority of votes” five principles to finish the war: disassemble of the occupied West Bank.
According to the statement, an “alternative plan” was ruled out at the meeting, considering that it would not “achieve the defeat of Hamas or the return of the hostages.” Without more official allusions, Israeli media collect that this plan would have arrived from the Chief of the General Staff of the Israeli Army, Eyal Zamir, who had already faced Netanyahu by expressing his rejection of occupying the entire strip.
In recent days, the main media of the country leaked Netanyahu’s intention to expand the offensive to the areas where they are believed to be hostages in a several phase plan. In the first one, the troops would occupy the city of Gaza and force the displacement of the million gazaties that are concentrated in this northern city to the area of Mawasi (South), already crowded with displaced.
Subsequently, Israel would seek to control in a second phase of the refugee camps in the center of the strip, places where the incursions of the troops have been limited. In all those points, Israel estimates that they are living alive.
The official information disseminated by the Israeli government, however, does not confirm any more action than to take the city of Gaza. The Palestinian militias still retain 50 captives, from which only twenty would remain alive, according to Israel. The UN warned Wednesday that if Israel starts this plan there will be “catastrophic consequences” for the Gazati population.
Rejection of opposition and other countries
The opposition leader, Yair Lapid, said after knowing the security cabinet agreement that “is a disaster that will lead to more disasters.” “This is exactly what Hamas wanted,” he said in social networks. “In complete contradiction with the opinion of army and security positions, without considering the erosion of the attack forces, Ben Gvir and Smotrich take Netanyahu to a movement that will take months, will cause the death of the kidnapped, the death of soldiers and tens of billions of cost for taxpayers,” he said.
From abroad, there are already positions contrary to this invasion by countries such as the United Kingdom, whose ambassador to Israel has assured that the operation will only “lead to more deaths”, or Australia, through its Foreign Minister, has demanded the end of this attack. Spain had already raised its rejection in recent days to the Netanyahu Plan, before this final writing was approved, ensuring that it was an illegal invasion.
Protests have also occurred internally. The Israeli police arrested nine people in Tel Aviv on Thursday night during the protests against the intention of the prime minister, Benjamín Netanyahu, to take control of the Gaza Strip, although for the moment the plan approved by the Israeli government refers only to the city of Gaza, in the north.
According to a police statement, protesters cut a road in Tel Aviv during an illegal march and disobeyed police orders to refuse to get out of it. “They even attacked the agents, burning bonfires and tires on the roads and throwing tear gas against the police,” says the note.
Source: www.eldiario.es
