Israeli media reports indicated that the Israeli army suffered new losses among its ranks during military operations in the Gaza Strip, amid mounting internal criticism of the continuation of the war and failure to achieve its declared goals.
Military affairs correspondent for the Israeli Channel 13, Or Heller, reported that 3 Israeli soldiers were killed in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip, following the explosion of mines planted by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in a Merkava tank.
Heller pointed out that this incident raised the number of deaths among the Israeli army in Beit Hanoun to 6 within one week.
In an analysis of the situation, Channel 12 political affairs analyst Amnon Abramovich said that last month alone witnessed the killing of 16 Israeli soldiers, not including those seriously injured.
Abramovich described the military operations as “chasing after ghosts,” pointing out the difficulty of completely eliminating all Hamas elements.
War failure
In a related context, former Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot strongly criticized the management of the war, considering that the failure to achieve the goals of the war in Gaza after a year and 3 months was a “failure” and “an indication of a flaw in the war plan.”
He stressed that the declared goals of the war, which are achieving absolute victory, removing threats, eliminating Hamas’ military capabilities, and recovering the kidnapped, have not yet been achieved.
In a scene that reflects the state of division within the Israeli military and political establishment, Kan 11 political affairs correspondent Michael Shemesh revealed a sharp verbal altercation between National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Chief of Staff Herzi Halevy during the Security and Political Ministerial Council meeting, over the description of Hamas and Hezbollah members if They were not “terrorists or activists.”
In the context of the mounting criticism, a spokeswoman from the “Gisha” movement said at the “Reject War Conference” that the widespread use of explosive and penetrating materials by Israel led to a large number of victims in Gaza, including multi-generational families, noting the unprecedented scale of destruction. Historically.
In a remarkable testimony, Shahar Zahiro, a relative of an Israeli prisoner who was killed in Gaza, revealed that the Israeli army had transformed into what he described as a “militia army,” pointing to the spread of extremist religious slogans among the ranks of the soldiers.
Zahiro criticized the army’s policy in dealing with civilians, questioning the contradiction in standards between what happened on October 7, 2023 and what is happening in Gaza.