Israeli Army Pulls Out Troops From Southern Gaza Without Meeting Its Primary Objectives - Israel News - Haaretz.com
On Saturday night, the last Israeli soldiers left Khan Yunis. After four months, the military operation in this city, the army's second largest since the war began, has ended. Thus, the four soldiers from the Commando Brigade who fell in a clash with armed men on Saturday afternoon were the last Israeli casualties in this phase of the fighting.
Effectively, the Israel Defense Forces no longer has any ground troops in the southern Gaza Strip. One brigade combat team remains in the corridor that severs northern Gaza from southern Gaza. A few other brigades are stationed just outside Gaza and will enter as needed.
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The IDF, and especially Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, are now highlighting the achievements of the Khan Yunis campaign – destroying a significant portion of Hamas' territorial brigades in that area, killing thousands of Hamas members and hitting command posts. This coincides with the publication of statistics for the first six months of the war. (The army thinks it has killed around 12,000 terrorists, which seems exaggerated.)
Israeli forces after leaving the southern Gaza Strip, on Sunday.Credit: Eliyahu Hershkovitz
But it's worth noting that so far, the two main goals of the Khan Yunis operation haven't been achieved. The two top Hamas officials in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif, remain at large. Nor has any breakthrough occurred in the hunt for the Israeli hostages held in Gaza, aside from the rescue of two hostages in Rafah two months ago.
The IDF and Shin Bet did find tunnels where Sinwar hid during the war. In those tunnels they found Hamas command posts, Sinwar's personal documents and gear, and cells and cages where the hostages had been held as human shields. Since then, he has apparently been moving among other hideouts in his complex deep under the ground of Khan Yunis.
It's reasonable to assume that Sinwar and Deif will eventually be killed or captured, given the effort being invested in this. Hamas' No. 3 in Gaza, Marwan Issa, was killed in an airstrike last month after he violated the rigid security protocols adopted by senior Hamas officials. It's even still possible that there could be a breakthrough in rescuing the hostages.
But the public should be told the truth: The enormous death and destruction the IDF is leaving behind in Gaza, alongside quite a few losses on our side, aren't currently bringing us any closer to achieving the war's goals.
Hamas' military and governmental capabilities are gradually being degraded, but the organization isn't close to being defeated. We aren't one step away from victory, as Netanyahu once again claimed on Sunday with no basis in reality, to the dismay of officers and soldiers who, regardless of their political views, can spot the deception.
Where do we go from here? There are three possible scenarios: 1) Further escalation with Iran and Hezbollah due a Tehran retaliation for the assassination of Gen. Hassan Mahadawi of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards; 2) unexpected progress in the negotiations with Hamas on a hostage deal, or 3) a new military operation in Rafah (or, alternatively, some of the refugee camps in central Gaza).
Alongside total victory, Netanyahu has repeatedly promised an invasion of Rafah. Initial preparations for this have indeed been made, but it would require massing forces in southern Gaza again and, above all, completing a plan to evacuate the vast number of civilians, some 1.4 million people, now crowded into the city.
Humanitarian aid is airdropped over Gaza City, in March.Credit: Mahmoud Essa/AP
Over the last half year, the IDF forcibly evacuated most residents of northern Gaza, and then Khan Yunis, southward. Its withdrawal from Khan Yunis will enable civilians to move north again into that city. Nevertheless, Israel doesn't seem to be taking the change in Western attitudes toward a possible invasion of Rafah seriously enough. The Biden administration no longer hesitates to publicly voice its opposition.
Over the past two weeks, senior Israeli and American officials have talked about the IDF's plans for Rafah. Possible understandings were discussed in a conversation with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. But a Zoom conversation with two people close to Netanyahu, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi, was apparently more tense.
The West's objections don't stem only from concerns about Rafah's population. There is also growing criticism of Israel's humanitarian aid policy and the harm it is causing Gaza's residents. While Israel officially denies the existence of famine in Gaza, the international community is growing more critical.
Last week's drone strike on an aid convoy, killing seven employees of the aid organization World Central Kitchen, will lead to further pressure on Israel to remove the obstacles to distributing aid. Once construction of the American pier south of Gaza City is completed, the plan is to send roughly 2 million meals a day into Gaza by that route.
The indirect talks between Israel and Hamas on a hostage deal resumed on Sunday when an Israeli delegation flew to Cairo to meet with mediators from Egypt, Qatar and the United States. Prior to the talks, government and defense sources told the Israeli media that the war cabinet has decided to give the delegation more leeway to negotiate, following a long time in which Netanyahu limited its room to maneuver.
But this leak should be viewed with due skepticism, since experience shows that most recent Israeli delegations have been sent mainly with a mandate to listen. And in that case, it will be very hard to make progress.
Relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages during a demonstration in front of the Knesset in Jerusalem on Sunday.Credit: AFP
It's hard to escape the impression that Netanyahu's position hasn't changed – he is very unenthusiastic about a deal, but he has a great interest in sending the Israeli public the message that he made every effort but Hamas thwarted an agreement. And Hamas may well help him with this message. Sinwar can see the growing rift between Jerusalem and Washington, and this could spur him to harden his positions.
Hamas wants three issues resolved in the talks over a two-stage deal, whose first stage would free around 40 hostages – women, the elderly and the wounded. The organization wants a cease-fire, a complete IDF withdrawal from Gaza (though Israel and the U.S. intend this to happen only in the deal's second stage) and an end to the corridor bisecting Gaza.
Israel – and both Gallant and IDF Chief of Staff Herzl Halevi support this position – says Hamas operatives must not be allowed to return from southern Gaza to the north, which means leaving the corridor in place. But Hamas insists on this point. It has even refused to discuss how many Palestinian prisoners Israel would free in exchange for the hostages before this dispute is resolved.
This seems like a surefire recipe for another failure in the talks, unless the negotiators insist on a broader mandate. And another failure could lead war cabinet member Gadi Eisenkot to finally take action.
The Israeli public is waiting for good tidings, and especially for the hostages still languishing in Hamas' tunnels in Gaza. Netanyahu – whose remarks on Sunday didn't even include a mention of hostage Elad Katzir of Nir Oz, whose body was returned to Israel this weekend – appears blind to this, even as his extremist supporters are attacking demonstrations by the hostages' families. But perhaps the growing public pressure will finally get some members of the security cabinet to budge.