Israeli newspapers published on Sunday said that the occupation army’s operation in which it recovered 4 Israeli prisoners in the Nuseirat camp in the Gaza Strip is a tactical victory, not a strategic one.
The former head of the Intelligence Division in the Israeli army, Amos Malka, saw – in an article in the newspaper “Israel Today” – that the Nuseirat operation was more complex than the Entebbe operation in 1976, in which the Israeli army in Uganda freed 101 hostages held by a Palestinian group.
However, the writer Ben Caspit – the most prominent analyst for the newspaper “Maariv” – wrote an article entitled “Disgraceful Strategy” in which he said: “It is true that this operation restored to us some of our lost self-confidence and belief in our abilities, but one should not be confused: even on the day following this magical Saturday… The sun will rise from the same place, and Israel’s strategic situation will also remain in the same place: stuck, and there are 120 other prisoners in Hamas’ captivity, which means we need 30 more operations of this kind!”
He added, “The northern front is still burning with no end in sight. Those displaced from the north are still staying in hotels. Those who have returned to their homes in the south do not feel safe at all. Israel’s legitimacy is collapsing, and the world is once again completely against us, and the fronts are against us.” “It is strengthening and unifying, and negotiations on the hostage deal and ceasefire are stuck.”
The writer considered that “success in liberating 4 prisoners will not change the shameful strategic situation,” and launched a scathing attack on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu because of his way of managing the government, and said, “Netanyahu only needs partners to share the price with them, not the goods. If he were an Israeli patriot.” In fact, he would have set an agreed-upon date for the elections with them, invited Lapid and Lieberman to join the government by that time, and dismissed Ben Gvir and Smotrich, and this is what Netanyahu would have done before he became a puppet in the hands of the extreme right.
Drowning in the hole
As for Nahum Barnea, the famous writer and political analyst in the Hebrew press, he wrote in Yedioth Ahronoth that “the exceptional effort that was made to rescue these four, as well as the three who were rescued before, reminds us of the limitations of force. There are at this moment in Gaza approximately 120 kidnapped persons. According to Israeli army estimates “About half of them are alive, and there is no way to save all of them – not even most of them – in military operations.”
He added, “If someone believes that yesterday’s operation exempts the government from a deal, then he is living in an illusion. The opposite is true. The joy of saving the four only concretely embodies the need for the deal.”
He considered that “the operation did not relieve anyone of the problems that Israel has faced since October 7, neither the problem in the north, nor the problem in Gaza, nor the totality of problems that threaten Israel in the international arena. In each of these issues, the government continues to immerse itself in The hole she dug for herself. It wouldn’t hurt to go back – in this context – to the immortal advice of Denis Haley, who was the British Defense Minister: When you’re in a hole, stop digging.
We are far from absolute victory
As for the well-known writer and military analyst in Haaretz, Amos Harel, he stressed that “this achievement does not herald a strategic change in the image of war. In the eight months that have passed since the kidnapping of more than 250 Israeli soldiers and civilians, 7 kidnapped persons have been rescued in 3 different operations. It is likely that Hamas will now work to strengthen the guarding of the living kidnapped persons who remain in captivity, and will try to learn lessons from the weaknesses that were discovered in its defense system.”
He added, “It is illogical to expect that the remaining 120 abductees, many of whom are dead, will be released in a similar way.”
While he admitted that the freed prisoners “received relatively reasonable treatment,” he noted that “conditions for detainees in the tunnels are more difficult, and they do not have long to wait for appropriate operational conditions to be achieved.”
The writer concluded by saying that “Israel is not close to absolute victory in the Gaza Strip, and the return of a large number of kidnapped people will only happen as part of a deal that will require major concessions.”