Netanyahu’s Gaza takeover plan heightens war tensions • FRANCE 24 English

Netanyahu confirms what many have suspected for months, that the Israeli military indeed plans to take over Gaza City. Though mediators from Egypt and Qatar are reportedly still working on a framework for peace, the announcement undeniably marks a major escalation in the now 22-monthlong war. While Germany said that it would suspend arms exports to Israel for uh for use in Gaza in response. Hamas describing the new plan as a new war crime, one that amounts to sacrificing the lives of the remaining hostages. That announcement also sparking a new wave of protests in Israel with demonstrators also describing it as a death sentence for the Israeli captives still held in the Gaza Strip. For more, we’ll cross now to our correspondent than Noga Tarnipolski. Hi Noga. So again, this announcement was expected, but the details actually surprisingly remain really quite scant. That’s right, Erin. Good to see you. The details are completely scant. Uh, an entire day almost has passed all of Friday, and the Israeli government has yet to explain what exactly it voted on late last night. This is a cabinet meeting that started at 6 pm. The vote was taken at 5:00 a.m. So, 11 fairly stormy hours of debate as far as we understand. And we just have some tentalizing hints. For example, the government’s declaration, the announcement that it made, the statement says that the prime minister enjoyed the majority of his minister’s votes. Clearly, none of these votes taken were unanimous. We don’t know yet what the debate was about, although there is some suspicion given the Israeli military’s clear and overt opposition to any plan to occupy uh the entire enclave of Gaza. We think that that may have had an impact that some ministers may have gotten cold feet. There’s also this very intriguing difference between the full takeover of Gaza that Prime Minister Tanya announced on a Fox News interview yesterday just hours before the cabinet meeting, the full enclave being occupied by Israel versus the authorization by the cabinet for the Israeli army to occupy the city of Gaza. These are two quite different things. Nonetheless, the Israeli government is at loggerheads at this point with its own top military brass, possibly with the reservists, with its population and with its international allies. So, Noga, I mean, this means that Netanyahu’s government is ignoring not only growing domestic pressure uh but also really widespread international condemnation. I mentioned Germany earlier just moments ago. We also heard from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the European Union, all of them condemning uh this this announcement and also uh saying that it needs to be reversed. So with that in mind, is executing this plan even going to be realistic. That’s a great question. Prime Minister Netanyahu obviously believes that he has the full support of US President Donald Trump and that that is enough at least for now. But one of the questions that Israeli journalists are asking today is who’s going to fight this war? The Israeli army is based is a unique system based on conscripted soldiers and on massive reserve forces. So this new operation would require months of a new draft of hundreds of thousands of reserves. To my the best of my understanding, they are now at this point 22 months into war responding at a rate of between 30 and 40%. It could be very difficult for the Israeli army even if it wanted to to put into place um this plan. In addition, there are wider and wider protests by Israeli parents whose children whose 18-year-old high school graduates are conscripted to the army who are saying, “I don’t want my kid to die in vain.” There were thousands of such pro people out at such protests last night. No Tarnipolski then sounds like this story is to be continued. Uh thank you very much as always for that context.

Israel plans to seize Gaza City in its 22-month war with Hamas, raising fears for civilians and hostages. Mediators from Egypt and Qatar are proposing a deal to free all hostages in exchange for ending the war and withdrawing Israeli forces. Noga Tarnopolsky has more details on this unclear plan which divide within Israeli military forces.
#Gaza #war #Israel

🔔 Subscribe to France 24 now: https://f24.my/YTen
🔴 LIVE – Watch FRANCE 24 English 24/7 here: https://f24.my/YTliveEN

🌍 Read the latest International News and Top Stories: https://www.france24.com/en/

Like us on Facebook: https://f24.my/FBen
Follow us on X: https://f24.my/Xen
Bluesky: https://f24.my/BSen and Threads: https://f24.my/THen
Browse the news in pictures on Instagram: https://f24.my/IGen
Discover our TikTok videos: https://f24.my/TKen
Get the latest top stories on Telegram: https://f24.my/TGen

17 comments

  12. Allowing UN aid was a strategy devised to reduce international backlash for a bit and do something much worse. Never expect good intentions from BB. He is never honest!

Comments are closed.