The announcement seemingly came out of nowhere on Sunday when it was first released via Israeli military channels in English and Arabic: the army would “suspend” its daytime fighting along a major corridor. humanitarian aid in southern Gaza until further notice.
Amid some immediate confusion over the scope of the pause, a clarification quickly followed, this time in Hebrew and apparently for domestic consumption. This change does not mean the end of fighting in the southern Gaza Strip, the statement said, adding that the campaign in the southernmost town of Rafah continues. Military officials said daily breaks were intended only to facilitate the increased distribution of food aid in Gaza, where international organizations have issued dire warnings about hunger.
The strange choreography of the message became even stranger when the government suggested that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu only learned of the military plan through the media and signaled its disapproval.
But analysts say it is likely the prime minister was aware of the plan and that each announcement was tailored to a different audience. These outlandish statements appear to reflect the competing pressures Mr. Netanyahu faces, as he juggles the demands of the Biden administration and elsewhere around the world with those of his own hawkish government. His far-right coalition partners oppose any concessions in Gaza and he relies on their support to stay in power.
The new policy surrounding the humanitarian corridor — where the military said it would suspend fighting every day from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. — took effect Saturday, according to military officials. But Mr. Netanyahu insinuated that he only learned of the plans on Sunday morning.
“It’s classic Bibi,” said Amos Harel, a military affairs analyst for the left-wing newspaper Haaretz, referring to Mr. Netanyahu by his nickname. Like other experts, he said the announcement was unlikely to come as a complete surprise to him, even though military commanders have not briefed him on the exact timing of what they call a tactical shift.
“He has a mask for every occasion,” Mr. Harel said in an interview. “For the Americans, he needs to show he’s doing more to get help. For the Israeli public, he can say ‘I didn’t know’ and opt for plausible deniability.”
A statement issued on Sunday by an anonymous government official, whose name and position could not be made public in accordance with protocol, said that when Mr. Netanyahu learned of the humanitarian pause, he found it unacceptable. . The prime minister was then assured, the statement added, that there was no change in the army’s plans regarding the fighting in Rafah, the southern Gaza city, near the corridor which was the subject recent operations.
Shani Sasson, a spokesperson for Cogat, the Israeli agency that oversees policy for the Palestinian territories and liaises with international organizations, said the move was aimed at clearing a backlog of more than 1,000 trucks that had already been inspected by Israel and were waiting. on the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom terminal.
“We are asking humanitarian organizations to come and collect the aid and distribute it,” Ms Sasson said. “It’s up to them.”
The army’s decision coincided with the start of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha and uncertainty over the fate of Israel’s proposed ceasefire with Hamas, which includes a hostage exchange against Palestinian prisoners. Officials said Hamas demanded unworkable changes to the proposal backed by the Biden administration and approved by the United Nations Security Council.
The “tactical pause” also comes as Israel awaits another international report due this month regarding food insecurity in Gaza. A previous report in March, warned that half of Gaza’s population faced “catastrophic” food insecurity and imminent famine.
Mr. Netanyahu and his Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, are also threatened with arrest for war crimes by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. They were accused of using starvation as a weapon of war.
Israel has presented Rafah as the last stronghold of Hamas’ organized battalions and the military operation there as the last major stage of the war. The army has now taken control of the corridor along Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, which has long been a main conduit for arms smuggling into the territory.
Israelis are increasingly wondering where the war is going and when it will end. The cost for both parties continues to rise. At least 10 Israeli soldiers were killed in combat this weekend and an 11th died from wounds sustained days earlier.
Around 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7 that sparked the war, and in total more than 300 Israeli soldiers have since been killed in action.
More than 37,000 Palestinians have been killed so far in the war, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
In an interview this weekend with Israel’s Channel 12, Gadi Eisenkot, a former military leader and now centrist politician who left the wartime emergency government with his party leader, Benny Gantz, last week , accused Mr. Netanyahu of putting his political needs ahead of those of national security.
Mr. Eisenkot said the influence of one of Mr. Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners, Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister, was a constant presence in discussions within Netanyahu’s cabinet. war, even if Mr. Ben-Gvir is not a member of this decision-making body.
Mr. Ben-Gvir and the far-right Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, have openly criticized military leadership during the war and have also vowed to bring down Mr Netanyahu’s government if he agrees to a ceasefire agreement before the complete destruction of Hamas – a goal many experts say is unattainable.
As could be expected, Mr. Ben-Gvir was quick on Sunday to attack the army’s announcement of the humanitarian pause in a context of social media postdenouncing it as a “crazy and delusional approach” and adding that “the evil fool” who decided it “must not continue in his position”.
Mr. Ben-Gvir did not specify who he was talking about.
Gabby Sobelman reports contributed.
