Amid Chaos on the Ground in Gaza, IDF Struggles With Israeli Leaders' Calls for Annexation
This was the week when everything came unglued. Last week, American and Israeli sources were still talking, with a modicum of enthusiasm, about a possible approaching deal for the release of half of the Hamas-held hostages. Those hopes, which seemed rather unwarranted from the outset, faded at the end of last week.
The turning point in world public opinion, due to the atrocious images coming out of the Gaza Strip, changed the balance of power in the negotiations. The condemnations of Israel's actions in the wake of the mounting reports about famine across the enclave made it plain to Hamas that it had reaped an unexpected advantage. Since then, it appears for the meantime that the negotiations are stuck. The hasty dispatch of U.S. President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff to Israel on Thursday night attests to another American effort – late in coming and with limited prospects – to get the ball rolling again.
The consequences of the humanitarian disaster – whose circumstances are real, even if Hamas is exaggerating them and using them for propaganda purposes – aren't confined solely to their impact on a hostage deal. This is not a problem of Israeli hasbara, or public diplomacy – it's an intolerable reality. After the bombing, the mass killing of civilians (who account, by a cautious estimate, for about two-thirds of those killed to date), and the systematic leveling of the cities and villages of the Gaza Strip, now there is famine, too. Even if these are pockets of famine, the danger that the phenomenon will become more widespread is clear.
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It's impossible to disavow the fact that in the present circumstances, this is largely the work of Israel. For 19 months, since the massacre on October 7, 2023, until this May, the population of Gaza suffered, but for the most part not from hunger. The absurd plan to take control of the aid through an inexperienced "American" foundation, which claimed that it could take care of the needs of all the enclave's residents, was doomed to fail from the start.
Israel, which was garnered considerable international sympathy after the massacre, and set out to attack Hamas from a clear sense of the justice of its cause, has completely lost direction – and has also lost international understanding along the way. This week's crop of developments is a cautionary tale: France, Britain and Canada announced support for the establishment of a Palestinian state; 27 Democratic senators voted for a bill that would prevent arms sales to Israel (70 senators voted against, but the number of supporters was unprecedented); and the European Union is talking about suspending Israel from the agreement that enables its citizens to enter EU countries without a visa.
Demonstrators lift placards and chant slogans during an anti-government protest in Tel Aviv on July 31, 2025, calling for a stop to the war in Gaza, and for the release of Israelis held hostage by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip since October 2023.Credit: AFP/JACK GUEZ
An agreement with Hamas could have been struck as early as January 2024. The price would have been the mass release of Palestinian prisoners and the conclusion of the war without a decisive victory over Hamas, in exchange for the release of all the hostages. Hamas has barely budged a millimeter from its position since then; it's very doubtful that it will do so in the future.
In May 2024, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted on the conquest of Rafah, ignoring reservations of the Israel Defense Forces' General Staff and the Biden administration. After the conquest of the city, which entailed less killing than the warnings had forecast, the army really didn't have much left to do in Gaza. Since then, we've been treading water. Netanyahu claims that the continuation of the war in Gaza has enabled the achievements of the campaigns in Lebanon and Iran. It's far from certain such a close connection exists between the fronts.
Last week, against the backdrop of worldwide condemnations and American pressure, Netanyahu grasped the magnitude of the disaster and the scope of the diplomatic tsunami that was developing in its wake. This produced the frenzied decision last Saturday to immediately turn on all the aid taps and pour in the food that Gaza had been deprived of in recent months. But the Gazans' suffering won't disappear overnight, just like it's impossible to hide the destruction on the ground, despite the IDF's demand that foreign correspondents not photograph Gaza from above during the flights to air-drop food into the enclave this week.
People step on a piece of paper with the image of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during a protest in support of Palestinians, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Paris, France July 31, 2025.Credit: Tom Nicholson/ REUTERS
The fact that Israel is again stuck in the Gaza mire is not another chapter in the "march of folly," as is often argued. After all, there is no mistake here of misunderstanding the picture, no innocent error of judgment or failure to grasp the anticipated results. Netanyahu knew, and knows, exactly what he is doing. He is simply determined to do everything for his government to survive, even at the expense of increased danger to the lives of the hostages.
The results are clear. The IDF is becoming ever more stuck, even as some officers and politicians continue to float vain hopes of an imminent victory. Netanyahu is ignoring the situation, just as he played down the warnings he got before October 7. At the same time, Israel is becoming an isolated pariah state. "It's not a march of folly," says a former senior defense figure. "It's a march of cynicism, evil and callousness, with full knowledge and open eyes. The army is cooperating with it, most of the media are feigning innocence under a cloak of 'balance,' and the people are worn down, frightened and paralyzed."
While the messianic right in the government envisages a complete conquest of the Strip, confusion is growing in the IDF's internal deliberations. Some describe a mood of bewilderment in the General Staff and chaos in the field, with the army at its wits' end. IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir is now warning about the consequences of a move to fully occupy the Strip: greater danger to the hostages, more soldiers killed and a heavier burden on the combat troops in both the regular army and the reserves.
IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir in Gaza's Khan Younis, last week.Credit: IDF Spokesperson's Unit
If no deal is forthcoming, Zamir may recommend tightening the closures on the parts of the Strip where the Palestinian population remains, under Hamas control. This comprises over 2 million people (and 20 living Israeli hostages) who have been shunted by the IDF into three enclaves whose total area amounts to about a quarter of the Strip: Gaza City, the refugee camps in the middle of the Strip and the Mawasi region in the south.
The case argument is that such a closure will require fewer soldiers in the Strip. Forces were already thinned out this week, with the departure of the 98th Division from northern Gaza. However, what the army is proposing is comparable to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. The damage to the IDF complements the damage to Israel's international standing. The grinding war of attrition has consequences: severe problems with operational discipline, which show up as accidents in the Strip but also in most of the deadly incidents against the enemy; reserve and regular combat troops' growing weariness; mental breakdowns and soldiers who request not to return to combat duty; and suicides.
The government and its blind followers claim that the media's reporting is assisting the enemy in the war, but the soldiers who have been fighting since October 7 are desperate for help, including from journalists. There are regular army brigades, such as Givati and the 401st Armored, whose troops have hardly been on leave in 19 months. This week, in a highly unusual event, mothers of combat soldiers demonstrated outside of Zamir's home, demanding that he call for a cease-fire. It's hard to believe that it will happen as explicitly as that.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, right, holding a pamphlet titled 'Settling in the Gaza Strip,' at the Knesset last week.Credit: Sraya Diamant
Zamir doesn't have to resign – that would actually please Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and his ilk, who are now searching for an aggressive-aggressive chief of staff, in contrast to the merely aggressive one who disappointed them. But Zamir has room to do things he hasn't done: unilaterally pull part of the forces out of the Strip, focus on deployment in the perimeter, and demand that the security cabinet hold a detailed meeting about the implications for the IDF of the offensive moves that ministers are calling for. The weekly leaks about how Zamir raised his voice in a quarrel with Smotrich, Itamar Ben-Gvir or Orit Strock aren't enough. They serve both sides, but are totally useless in terms of the fate of the war.
Prisoners of Smotrich
Why did Witkoff take the trouble to come to Israel after Netanyahu went out of his way all week to meet U.S. expectations and send aid into Gaza? Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi visited Washington at the beginning of the week, for meetings with Trump administration officials. But apparently there are things that the president wants to extract from the prime minister privately, through his confidant Witkoff. Even more than Zamir, the person who can still influence the course of events is Trump. If he brings real pressure on Netanyahu, for the first time since last January, he might achieve something. But in the current reality, Hamas is also a hard nut to crack.
FILE PHOTO: Khalil al-Hayya, a high-ranking Hamas official who has represented the group in negotiations for a cease-fire and hostage exchange deal, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press, in Istanbul, Turkey, April.Credit: Khalil Hamra,AP
This week, Khalil al-Hayya, a high-ranking Hamas figure in Qatar, caused a furor in the Arab world. Hayya, who left the Strip before October 7 on a mission for Hamas' leader Yahya Sinwar, in an unsuccessful attempt to coordinate the timing of the massacre, addressed a question to the Egyptian people and its leaders: "Why are your brethren dying of hunger next to your border, close to you?" He called on the people of Jordan "to continue the popular uprising and step up the effort to curb the Israeli crimes." Both governments, which don't suffer from excessive popularity, took Hayya's remarks at face value: as an attempt by Hamas to whip up the already angry masses in both countries, in the light of the images coming out of Gaza.
Contrary to the reactions in the Arab world and the West, the messianic right wing in the government is acting like it's in a parallel universe. This week saw a rebranding effort by ministers and lawmakers and also (astonishingly) by forums that include a few families of hostages. They're not hostages, we were told. They are prisoners of war, and prisoners are returned at the end of a war, not during it. At the moment, this effort to win hearts and minds doesn't appear to be enjoying success. Because how can civilians who were abducted from their homes while still in pajamas, or while dancing at a music festival, be described as soldiers guarding the homeland? And how will the lives of the hostages who are still miraculously alive amid this horror be preserved if the IDF enters full-blast into the refugee camps in the center of the Strip? Smotrich et al. will figure it out.
Smotrich initially responded with uncharacteristic media silence when he didn't sever relations with Netanyahu after finding out that the prime minister had compromised with the Americans over the aid issue behind his back. Chaim Levinson revealed the answer in Haaretz: Netanyahu promised Smotrich that after he's done placating Trump, he'll ramp up the military pressure on Hamas. The new goal is annexation. If Hamas persists in its refusal to accept a partial deal to return half the hostages, Israel will punish the terror organization by permanently annexing areas along the perimeter of Gaza, in the region abutting the border fence with Israel.
Demonstrators rally in the Gush Katif settlement bloc in the Gaza Strip, April 27, 2004, to protest Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw settlers from Gaza.Credit: Reuters
The target is the northern section – the area from which the Israeli settlements of Dugit, Elei Sinai and Nisanit were evicted during the disengagement, 20 years ago this monthh. The same strategic geniuses who explained two months ago that Hamas was close to breaking because it was distanced from the aid supply channels are now teaching us that the way to inflict pain on Arabs is to deprive them of territory. (Gen. Evelyn Barker, who commanded the British forces in Palestine, explained that the way to inflict pain on Jews is through their pocket.)
Netanyahu still apparently prefers a deal, if Hamas will show flexibility in its hard line, which has grown harder since the onset of the famine. This is not what his coalition partners are interested in. From their point of view, the threat of annexation may be a means to an end – to frighten Hamas – but in practice, it's a goal. It's been a long time since the messianic right has been satisfied with defeating Hamas. Its aim is occupation, eviction and settlement.
Indeed, Smotrich asserted this week that this time, he won't make do with just the Katif Bloc – he wants the whole Gaza Strip. In the background is another demand of his: the reconquest of Gaza City. Netanyahu is suggesting that he settles for a perimeter, and maybe the northern section. Who is the real prime minister of Israel? The head of Likud or the head of a faction that is below the electoral threshold in the polls? We'll wait and see, and we'll wait for Trump's call.