US PRESIDENT JOE Biden’s national security advisor will visit Israel today to hold discussions with prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet “about timetables” for the operation, as a sign of the US pressure on Israel.
Its leaders intend to press ahead with the Gaza Strip war against Hamas, despite coming under increasing international pressure, including from key ally the United States.
Biden national security official Jake Sullivan told the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday that there may be a shift from the “high intensity military operations of the kind we have seen over the past weeks”.
His visit comes in the wake of Palestinian militants carrying out one of the deadliest single attacks on Israeli soldiers since the Gaza invasion began, killing at least nine in an urban ambush. The Israeli military confirmed the attack.
It’s s a sign of the stiff resistance Hamas still poses despite more than two months of devastating bombardment.
The ambush in a dense neighbourhood comes after repeated recent claims by the Israeli military that it had broken Hamas’s command structure in northern Gaza, encircled remaining pockets of fighters, killed thousands of militants and detained hundreds more.
The tenacious fighting underscores how far Israel appears to be from its aim of destroying Hamas — even after the military unleashed one of the 21st century’s most destructive onslaughts.
For Sullivan, he has said there is “disagreement” between Israel and Washington over how a post-conflict Gaza would be governed.
Speaking yesterday, Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said any plan for post-war Gaza that does not involve the Palestinian militant group “or the resistance factions is a delusion”.
He said Hamas was ready for talks that could lead to a “political path that secures the right of the Palestinian people to their independent state with Jerusalem as its capital”.
Washington and London announced further sanctions yesterday against Hamas, targeting “key officials who perpetuate Hamas’s violent agenda”.
Military objectives
Biden said on Tuesday that he told Netanyahu that Israel is losing international support because of its “indiscriminate bombing”.
“Israel doesn’t seem to be anywhere near achieving its military objective,” Mairav Zonszein, a senior Israel analyst with the International Crisis Group, wrote on X, pointing to Tuesday’s deadly ambush.
“With Biden already signalling loss of patience, with no signs of a hostage release and Israel’s economy overstretched, and with a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions in Gaza, Israel could find itself in a much worse position the day after, with a lot of losses and no win,” she wrote.
Israel doesn't seem to be anywhere near achieving its military objective, and with every day that passes, the hostage number goes down as more dead bodies are discovered. How much longer does it think it can go like this? /3
— Mairav Zonszein מרב זונשיין (@MairavZ) December 13, 2023
Biden urged Netanyahu to change his government, which is dominated by hard-right parties.
But the offensive is being conducted by a war Cabinet that includes two politically centrist retired generals, and it has overwhelming support among Israelis from across the political spectrum.
In Israel, attention is still focused on the atrocities carried out on October 7, when some 1,200 people were killed, mostly civilians, and some 240 people were taken hostage, around half of whom remain in captivity.
The military says 115 soldiers have been killed in the ground offensive.
There has been little media coverage or public discussion of the plight of civilians in Gaza, even as international outrage has mounted.
‘Unparalleled’ damage
The war, now in its third month, was launched after the unprecedented October 7 attacks on Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas that Israeli officials say killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
It has left Gaza in ruins, killing more than 18,600 people, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, and causing “unparalleled” damage to roads, schools and hospitals.
The day after the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly backed a non-binding resolution for a ceasefire, more strikes hit Gaza and battles raged, especially in Gaza City, the biggest urban centre, and Khan Yunis and Rafah in the south, AFP correspondents said.
Wintery rain lashed the territory, where the UN estimates 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.4 million population have been displaced, living in makeshift tents as supplies of food, drinking water, medicines and fuel run low.
The UN warned the spread of diseases — including meningitis, jaundice and upper respiratory tract infections — had intensified.
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