Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari stands in front of the entrance to a tunnel near the border with Israel on December 15, 2023, in the northern Gaza Strip. The Israeli army said this was the largest tunnel they had ever found in Gaza.
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Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari stands in front of the entrance to a tunnel near the border with Israel on December 15, 2023, in the northern Gaza Strip. The Israeli army said this was the largest tunnel they had ever found in Gaza.
Amir Levy/Getty Images
TEL AVIV, Israel — Amid growing frustration in Israel over where the eight-month war is going, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Wednesday accused Israel’s leadership of ignoring his request for discussions. about replacing Hamas rule in Gaza.
“Since October, I have repeatedly raised this issue in Cabinet but have received no response,” Gallant said.
His speech, broadcast live, was the harshest criticism of Israel’s war strategy in Gaza from Israel’s three-person war cabinet. It caused a political firestorm that could threaten Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s power.
How the controversy started
The “next day” debate in Gaza erupted when Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari was asked at a press conference Third whether Israeli troops will be sent to retake areas in Gaza from which they have withdrawn since there is no alternative governing body to Hamas. Hagari said displacing Hamas would put pressure on the militant group, but that was a question for Israel’s political leaders.
Netanyahu then spoke in one video released by his office Wednesday that discussions about the “day after tomorrow” strategy are meaningless until Hamas is defeated and said some of Israel’s efforts to replace Hamas are secret.
Gallant appeared to reject Netanyahu’s claims, saying no efforts had been made to establish an alternative to Hamas in Gaza. He called on Netanyahu to declare that Israel will not establish civilian or military rule in Gaza in the long term.
“The ‘post-Hamas day’ will only be achieved when Palestinian entities in control of Gaza, together with international actors, establish an alternative to Hamas rule,” Gallant said. said in his live speech. “Unfortunately, this plan was not put up for discussion, and worse still, an alternative discussion was not put forward to replace it.”
In response, some far-right members of Netanyahu’s ruling coalition have called for the defense minister to be replaced.
Gallant, a member of Netanyahu’s hawkish Likud party, challenged Netanyahu last March when he called on him to abandon the plan weaken the power of the Israeli judiciary. He said widespread opposition to judicial reform among the public and within military ranks is eroding Israel’s security. Netanyahu was fired Gallant, sparked mass street protests that forced Netanyahu to reinstate him.
Nadav Eyal, senior journalist at the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, Netanyahu said he is still stuck with Gallant for now, even though he is not happy with him. “Netanyahu does not want this defense minister to join his government,” Eyal said. “He’s too afraid to fire him right now because he knows that in a war, doing something like that would lead to consequences that you can’t foresee, including the very real possibility of about another dramatic night on the streets of Israel.”
The October 7 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel came about half a year after Gallant was reinstated. It was the bloodiest day in Israel’s history, sparking the country’s ongoing offensive in Gaza, the deadliest war in Gaza’s history.
Israeli settlers hold a barbecue as smoke rises from the Gaza Strip on Israel’s Independence Day, May 14.
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Israeli settlers hold a barbecue as smoke rises from the Gaza Strip on Israel’s Independence Day, May 14.
Ilia Yefimovich/image alliance via Getty Images
Israel’s far-right dream: Gaza settlements
With Mr Netanyahu offering no clear plan to replace Hamas’s rule, thousands of Israeli settlers and their supporters – including senior ministers in Mr Netanyahu’s government – have gathered. Tuesday’s agreement for Israel to build Jewish settlements on the ruins of destroyed cities in Gaza and encourage Palestinian emigration. .
The protest took place next to the Gaza border in the city of Sderot, as large columns of smoke rose across the border in Gaza.
It is held on Israel’s 76th Independence Day, which Palestinians commemorate each year as the Nakba, or disaster, when many Palestinians lost their homes and were exiled during the war that established Israel. . Palestinians marched this week in memory of parts of Israel and the occupied West Bank.
In a speech at a pro-settlement rally, far-right lawmaker Zvi Sukkot praised the immense destruction the Israeli army has caused in Gaza during more than seven months of war, saying that Israel’s enemies had to give up their land as a result of attacking this country.
Far-right Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir also addressed the protesters.
“To be a free man in our country,” Ben Gvir told a cheering crowd, referencing Israel’s national anthem, “is also to say to Biden, ‘Mr. President, this is ours. We’re going home to Gaza.’ “
Israel used to have settlements in Gaza. The government evacuated soldiers and settlers from the territory in 2005. Two years later, the Palestinian militant group Hamas took control of the enclave.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chairs a cabinet meeting in Kirya, home to Israel’s Ministry of Defense, in Tel Aviv, December 17, 2023.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chairs a cabinet meeting in Kirya, home to Israel’s Ministry of Defense, in Tel Aviv, December 17, 2023.
Menahem Kahana/AP
Netanyahu’s political constraints
Mr. Netanyahu said Israel does not intend to permanently recapture Gaza or resettle there, but he also opposed the US call. Gaza will be administered by a revived Palestinian Authority, a more moderate Palestinian leadership.
“In various Cabinet meetings and consultations, Netanyahu has talked about some form of Palestinian autonomy that would involve Arab countries like Palestine. [United Arab Emirates] and Egypt, with some international coordination,” writer Eyal said. “He was very determined to ensure that this would not include the Palestinian Authority or Fatah, the most dominant party in the Palestinian Authority and is, of course, a competitor of Hamas in Palestinian society. But he didn’t offer any plans for that.”
“No one talks about a two-way solution,” said Eyal Hulata, who served as Israel’s national security adviser under Netanyahu’s predecessor, Naftali Bennett, and is now a fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. government. We are talking about a vision of Palestinian self-governance, which has the support of the vast majority of Israelis. And Netanyahu, for his own political reasons, is unlikely to say that.”
New Gaza group billboards, depicting their mission to stabilize Gaza City, were displayed at the pro-settlement rally.
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New Gaza group billboards, depicting their mission to stabilize Gaza City, were displayed at the pro-settlement rally.
Daniel Estrin/NPR
At the protest, families were brought on stage, holding signs pledging plans to move into Gaza’s cities. At a card table, an organization called New Gaza presented a map of Gaza City’s neighborhoods with new names in Hebrew.
“There is a lot of room in the world for the people of Gaza. They can be absorbed in any country in the world,” said Chanie Luz, an Israeli native of Queens, NY. world. They cannot stay here. We cannot live with them.
When asked if she was prepared to settle in Gaza, she said: “I would love to build a resort village on the Gaza coast. I love the sea.”
Jackie Northam, Alon Avital and Itay Stern contributed to this report from Tel Aviv.
