Israeli media focused its attention on the goals of the war on the Gaza Strip, with a former Israeli minister talking about “secret goals” maintained by the ruling Likud Party and the extremist ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.
Former Israeli Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot said that there are declared goals for the war and secret ones, “to which Ben Gvir, Smotrich, and a major part of Likud adhere,” noting that this explains many of the decisions related to prisoners, “the day after the war,” and humanitarian aid.
Eisenkot – a former minister in the War Council – added that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in “permanent duality”, as he rules out the return of settlements and military rule to the Gaza Strip, but this is actually happening.
In this context, an Israeli professor at the Ariel Settlement University demanded that the Gaza Strip be “free of enemies,” in an implicit acknowledgment of the necessity of displacing two million Palestinians.
Professor Amos Azaria did not mind the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in order to achieve the return of settlement in Gaza, holding the dead Palestinians responsible for not accepting forced displacement from their lands.
The Israeli Channel 13 said that the fighting in the Jabalia camp and Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip is “harmful and difficult,” and estimated the presence of about 200 resistors from the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in Jabalia, “fighting to the death.”
The Israeli channel also estimated that the ground operation in northern Gaza – which began early last October – would continue for several more weeks.
According to the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth yesterday, Thursday, the military censorship has so far announced the killing of 29 soldiers in the battles in northern Gaza, confirming that 3 brigades belonging to the 162nd Division have been fighting in Jabalia for 48 days.
On the northern front, Channel 13 quoted military commanders – whom it did not name – asking about the goal of the ground operation in Lebanon despite the army finding missiles of various types, stressing that all of Lebanon is full of these missiles, and that Hezbollah has been intensifying its fire in recent days.
In turn, the Arab affairs correspondent for the Israeli Channel 12, Ohad Hamo, believes that Hezbollah is working on two tracks, one on the ground and the other on negotiations, indicating that the party works on the field like Israel and what it is trying to impose.
He pointed out that the party is increasing pressure and focusing a lot on the Tel Aviv area in central Israel, expressing doubts about the success of the negotiations despite Lebanese and American optimism, and reminded of the fate of the Gaza negotiations.
Since last September 23, Israel has expanded its war against Hezbollah to include most of Lebanon’s regions, including the capital, Beirut, through air raids of unprecedented violence and intensity.
It also began a ground incursion into its south, relying on 5 military divisions operating along the border with Lebanon: 210, 98, 91, 36, and 146. The division includes more than one military brigade, and according to military standards, it includes more than 10,000 soldiers.