5/13/2024–|Last updated: 5/13/202407:59 PM (Mecca time)
Statements by Israeli officials acknowledging their failure in Gaza are increasing, more than 7 months after the start of the war in the Strip.
Criticisms are mounting directed at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, due to their inability to achieve the war goals they declared, most notably the dismantling of Hamas and the release of detainees in Gaza.
Netanyahu said that Israel is bearing a “heavy and painful price” and is fighting what he called an “existential war,” noting that the Israeli army faces challenges that no modern army has faced.
He added that they will reconstruct the current Gaza envelope settlements, and will also build additional settlements, and stressed that “we will not allow a repeat of what happened on October 7.”
For his part, the far-right Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, said during the ceremony commemorating the dead Israeli soldiers today at the military cemetery, “We failed, and I bear responsibility for what was and what will be,” referring to the Al-Aqsa flood battle on October 7 last year.
A few days ago, Haaretz newspaper published an investigation into the failure of Israeli intelligence to anticipate the attack of last October 7, and concluded that operations of contempt, denial, and the cessation of collecting information about the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) for more than two years in the Israeli army led to the flood of Al-Aqsa.
The Israeli newspaper quoted current and former officials as saying that the army had stopped, since May 2021, collecting intelligence information about leaders’ meetings and Hamas training after the operation, which Israel called “Guardian of the Walls.”
It is noteworthy that Israeli Army Chief of Staff Herzi Halevy claimed responsibility for the failure of the attack on October 7, while the army is investigating the reasons for the failure and is expected to announce its results in the coming months.
For his part, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said that they would return the “kidnapped” from Gaza, whether they were alive or dead, whatever the cost.
The war continues
On the other hand, the office of Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Monday that he briefed US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on the Israeli military operation in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza, and control of the border crossing with Egypt.
The office stated, in a statement, that Gallant and Blinken discussed in a phone call overnight “the developments in Gaza and the specific operation in the Rafah area against the remaining Hamas brigades, and at the same time securing the crossing.”
Gallant described the war on Gaza as a war in which there is no choice, and it will shape the lives of Israelis for decades to come, stressing that the war will continue until the detainees are returned, and the authority and military capabilities of the Hamas movement are dismantled.
Meanwhile, The Guardian newspaper reported that the families of more than 900 Israeli soldiers in Gaza signed a letter calling on the army to stop the Rafah attack, which they described as a “deadly trap.”
The opposition accuses ministers, led by Ben Gvir and Smotrich, of preventing the conclusion of an agreement with Hamas for a prisoner exchange and a ceasefire, by threatening Netanyahu to withdraw from the government, which means toppling it.
Israeli losses
Earlier Monday, Israeli army data showed that 19 soldiers were injured, including 14 in ground battles in Gaza, during the past 24 hours.
According to announced data, the total number of wounded soldiers is 3,434 since the beginning of the war on Gaza on October 7.
The army also reported an increase in the number of wounded in ground battles in Gaza, since the beginning of the war until 1674.
As for the dead in the Israeli army, their number reached 620 soldiers and officers, including 272 in ground battles in Gaza.
The Israeli authorities face local accusations of covering up a much larger toll of deaths and injuries among the army’s ranks.
On Sunday, the Ministry of Defense reported that 716 members of the security and military services had been killed since the beginning of the war.
On October 7, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) launched Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, and launched an attack on the settlements surrounding the Gaza Strip, killing hundreds of Israelis and capturing others, in response to the ongoing Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people.