Benjamín Netanyahu has already implied it on other occasions: its ultimate goal is to occupy the entire Gaza Strip, after having supervised a brutal military campaign that has destroyed the Palestinian territory and the possibilities of life for its population.
Now, with a famine in Gaza caused by several months of rigid Israeli block –incitated by the most radical ministers of the Netanyahu government, who have urged to cut all supplies to the Palestinians and to treat them as animals -, the prime minister returns to the table the “total occupation” of the strip while consuming their authoritarian drift internally. Netanyahu tries to purge all those internal enemies who try to stop their plans at a time when voices increase inside and outside the establishment to finish the war of punishment against the Palestinians. One of its main objectives is the country’s attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara, a key figure to maintain judicial independence, the separation of powers and control over the Executive.
According to Israeli media, Netanyahu had summoned for this Tuesday a security cabinet meeting (in charge of making decisions regarding Gaza’s War) to present a plan to reocupa Gaza, where Israel withdrew and dismantled the settlements in 2005.
However, the security cabinet did not meet on Tuesday after leaks were published on that supposed plan to expand the offensive and the presence of the troops in the Palestinian enclave, as well as the opposition of some security levels. After the rumors about the discrepancies between the Executive and the Chief of the General Staff of the Defense, the prime minister has met him for three hours, according to a brief statement from his office.
During the meeting, the Army Chief, Eyal Zamir, “presented options for which to continue with the Gaza campaign.” “Israel’s defense forces are prepared to carry out any decision of the Security Cabinet,” said Netanyahu’s office, without clarifying when that body integrated by ministers and senior security and military charges will meet.
Frictions with the Army
Given the tensions with the Armed Forces, the Minister of Defense, Israel Katz, also pointed out on Tuesday that when his government made decisions about the next stage of the offensive, the army must apply them, and that it is their role to ensure that it does.
During a visit to Gaza, the head of Defense said that it is necessary that the Israeli forces have a permanent presence in the so -called ‘damping zone’, which the army has been expanding in the past months in all areas of the border strip with the Hebrew State. According to the minister, the IDF must be deployed between “the enemy” and civilians, to avoid other attacks such as the one launched by the Palestinian group Hamas against communities in southern Israel in October 2023. “This is the main lesson on October 7,” Katz said in statements collected by the newspaper Haaretz.
The executive’s plans would translate into an extension of the war, in which more than 450 uniforms have died, and the military leaders have previously indicated that they oppose Gaza in the long term for the risk that a low intensity war with Hamas would lead to troops. In addition, the army is dealing with an increasing number of reservists who refuse to return to Gaza after a first period and have also increased soldiers that have committed suicide – according to figures revealed by Israeli media, 17 in which it goes a year.
On Monday, the Chief of the General Staff of the Defense issued a statement in which he announced that the men’s soldiers will not have to serve four more months of the period that corresponds to them. “It has been decided to give the soldiers some space to breathe, in the light of the intense fighting in different sectors of the armed forces in the last two years,” he explained in a statement. In this way, the Army does not apply the extension of 32 to 36 months of the military service proposed by the Executive and approved the Legislative in July 2024.
When this extension was approved a year ago to deal with the needs of the Army in Gaza due to the continuation of the offensive, the Israel Attorney General opposed publicly. Gali Baharav-Miara considered that extending the military service period without starting the recruitment of Jewish ultra-orthodox men went against the principle of equality.
A few months after the beginning of the war in Gaza, he began to focus on young people studying in religious schools, who have never had to do military service (mandatory for all Israeli men and women). In June 2024, the Supreme Court of Israel considered that there was no legal basis to exclude them and ordered to start their recruitment, although it has not yet been carried out in a broad and systematic way.
Netanyahu, supported by two ultra -orthodox parties (which abandoned the coalition, but they have not dropped the government), since then it seeks a formula to restore the exemption of the young people of that community with great weight in Israeli society.
Netanyahu’s enemies
Baharav-Miara has become Netanyahu’s main enemy due to its opposition to many of the measures and policies of the ultra-rightist government (it was designated by the previous one, in 2022). On Monday, the Executive unanimously voted in favor of dismissing the Attorney General, an unprecedented decision in Israel, where justice has been traditionally considered as an important counterweight to the powers of the Executive and Legislative.
The same Monday, the Supreme Court issued an order prohibiting the Government from applying the cessation of the Attorney General and appoint a substitute for the position until the court is pronounced. But several ministers have already said that they will ignore the high court and that they will begin to act as if Baharav-Miara was already ceased. For her part, the prosecutor described her “illegal” dismissal and promised that she and her office will remain faithful to the law and continue to perform their work professionally and honestly.
This is not the first confrontation of the government with Baharav-Miara, which from the State Prosecutor’s Office supervises the ongoing criminal trial against the Prime Minister. Netanyahu’s conflict with justice is also due to personal reasons, since the head of the Government faces several cases of corruption for which he could end in jail. In addition, since his mandate began at the end of 2022, the Executive has tried to carry out a wide judicial reform that, as critics and experts denounced, sought to limit the independence of the Judiciary and subject it to political power.
The prime minister has not stopped maneuvering to get rid of the Attorney General and other uncomfortable figures that try to stop their attempts to monopolize power and act without a clipper, at the same time as happy to its radical partners to stay in charge of the government. Baharav-Miara previously accused the prime minister to try to carry out a “regime change”, “under war and the deviation of public care.”
Another victim of Netanyahu’s purge this week has been Yuli Edelstein, deputy of his party (Likud), which was directed by the Parliamentary Committee for Defense and Foreign Affairs. In this case, Edelstein has been sacrificed to meet the demands of the ultra -orthodox, which require Netanyahu a law that renews the exemption of military service. From the Defense Committee, Edelstein had tried to introduce compliance and supervision mechanisms to ensure that those who are allowed not to do military service are really studying in a yeshiva or Talmudic school.
To the perceived enemies of Netanyahu has joined the Chief of the Army Eyal Zamir, to whom the son of the prime minister has indirectly accused being behind a “rebellion and attempted coup” against his father. In an answer in the social network X to a critical journalist with Netanyahu’s plans, Yair Netanyahu said: “This is a rebellion and an attempt with a military coup of a banana republic of Central America of the 70s.”
General Zamir assumed command of the Israel Defense Forces in March of this year. His predecessor, Herzi Halevi, presented his resignation in January 2025 for his “responsibility” in Hamas attacks on October 7, but the truth is that he had had frequent clashes and tensions with the Executive on the management of the offensive in Gaza.
The Government ignores hunger in Gaza
The families of the hostages that remain captive in Gaza (half a hundred, of which it is believed that only 20 are still alive) have been the ones who have pressed the most so that the Israeli government stops the offensive in Gaza and reaches an agreement with Hamas to obtain the release of the kidnapped. In the past days, relatives have made desperate calls after the Islamist group published videos of one of the hostages, Evyatar David, extremely thin. Hamas alleges that their hostages eat the same as the rest of the population. According to data from the Gazatí Ministry of Health, Israel has killed 188 people, including 94 children. The Israeli executive has not yet given to the pressure of the international community for the images of hungry children. Everything, while the figure of murdered by the Israeli offensive since October 2023 has exceeded 60,000.
Government sources cited by Israeli media admit that hostages would be at risk if the offensive is extended and the troops arrive in the areas of Gaza that have not stepped so far and where they could be retained – they are afraid they can be executed before the arrival of the soldiers, as already happened with six hostages in the past.
More than a week ago, Tel Aviv announced that it would allow the entry of humanitarian aid and its distribution by the United Nations agencies, but at this time the supplies that have reached the population are a minimal portion of what it needs. According to the UN Humanitarian Affairs Coordination Office (Ocha), “the conditions on the field remain largely to them”, despite the announcement of the Israeli army of safe and pausal humanitarian corridors in the attacks for the distribution of aid.
Source: www.eldiario.es
