The Israeli media focused on what it called the challenges of the next day in the Gaza Strip if an exchange deal was concluded and led to a more comprehensive ceasefire agreement. It also raised questions about the claims of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government that they were close to resolving the situation in the northern Strip.
In this context, Channel 13 military affairs analyst Alon Ben David asked about the day after the war, and said, “What will Israel do in the northern Gaza Strip? Will it allow the residents to return, or will it occupy the area and no one will return to it?”
The Israeli analyst reminded that the conditions for Palestinian resistance are that there will be no deal without allowing the population to return to their homes and areas.
While he acknowledged that everything was destroyed in northern Gaza, in Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun, Ben David said, “There are two million people gathered in the beach area (Al-Mawasi) in almost inhuman conditions, and they will return and try to rebuild.”
Former head of the army’s Planning Division, Nimrod Sheffer, believes that as long as Israel remains in Gaza, the killing and wounding of soldiers will continue, and “no matter how many homes we destroy, even if there is nothing left to destroy, rockets and mortar shells will be fired from time to time. This was the situation in all battles, and this is how it will be.” .
He warned that the situation would remain the same for Israel as long as the war in Gaza did not stop.
A flaw in the plan
Commenting on what the Israeli army claims is that the situation in northern Gaza is close to being resolved, former army spokesman Ronen Manelis said, “There has been a major flaw in the army’s operational plan in the Gaza Strip. We have been at war for a year and 3 months, and rockets are being fired at Jerusalem and on the Gaza Strip.” .
He added that the army had previously announced that the number of deaths was small, and after a year and three months it became clear that there were more than 40 army dead in the northern Gaza Strip, and in the battles of Jabalia the death toll reached 3 times their number in previous battles.
For his part, Moshe Ya’alon, Minister of Defense and former Chief of Staff, said – in a discussion session on Channel 13 – that the Netanyahu government allows extremists to occupy and displace Arabs.
He added, “They called it ethnic cleansing. They called it, as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich calls it, voluntary migration. Yes, all these statements lead us to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.”
Ya’alon declared that there was ethnic cleansing and war crimes being carried out by the army in Gaza, and his statements sparked a major storm in Israel.