Only a deal will end the fighting
Evacuation of Rafah could take many weeks
There will be no resolution of the war in Gaza and Lebanon without one or more diplomatic agreements, IDF sources said on Wednesday.
The military believes it has significant military achievements on both fronts, but that diplomatic moves by the political echelon will be necessary to translate those military wins into long-term progress and stability.
Absent a stable plan for managing Gaza post-war, the IDF believes that Hamas can easily still return to areas where it previously achieved operations control, as occurred with Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza.
Likewise, the IDF does not foresee a scenario where it completely defeats Hezbollah, which means at some point there needs to be an agreement of some kind, even if the deal comes from coercion by Israel’s military.
The operation in Shifa Hospital is expected to continue for at least a few more days, given that some dozens of terrorists are still holed up in two buildings at the sprawling complex. This will mean that the operation will take at least two weeks when it was originally estimated to take one week.
Despite claiming that it has obtained significant new intelligence regarding Israeli hostages and Hamas’s leadership, there are no current signs that the IDF will imminently be able to save more hostages or kill more of the leadership.
Honing in on Rafah, the IDF is not close to an operation in the coming weeks, though after Ramadan, such an operation could be more possible.
Even in that scenario, it is expected that it would take
AIPAC, his office reported. The prime minister said that US support during the Israel-Hamas war is important and deeply appreciated by Israel and that Netanyahu and US President Biden are open about their disagreements when it comes to an operation in Rafah.
Talk of the difficulty in protecting civilians during a large-scale incursion into Rafah is becoming “almost mass hysteria,” Netanyahu told the delegation, saying that civilians in Rafah can go to other parts of the Gaza Strip, where they would be supplied with aid.
Netanyahu also touched on Iran, telling the delegation that around a week ago, the Islamic Republic officially moved from an ideological position of wanting to destroy Israel to a practical plan to destroy the state.
“The formal policy is to shift from an ideological position of destroying Israel to a practical, long-term plan to bring about the destruction of the state,” said Netanyahu.
Israeli government spokesperson Avi Hyman said on Wednesday that the US abstention in the vote on the UN Security Council resolution that passed Monday represented a change in the US position because it did not link a hostage deal with a ceasefire, which previous resolutions had done.
Hyman echoed the prime minister, saying that the resolution sent a message to Hamas that they would be able to achieve a ceasefire without the release of the hostages.
No one will force Israel into a ceasefire, Hyman added, quoting Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and stating that this is the official position of the Israeli government. “We have no choice. If the US decides not to back us now, we will have to finish the job,” he said, still quoting Dermer.
Despite the canceled delegation, conversations between Israeli officials and their US counterparts are ongoing, said Hyman, again referring to remarks made by Dermer in the media on Tuesday.
The White House reported Wednesday that the Prime Minister’s Office has agreed to reschedule the meeting on Rafah with US officials and that the White House is working to set a date for the meeting.
“We can’t miss the fact that there’s an agreement to have a meeting here to talk about the Rafah operation. We’re going to set this date in the upcoming days to have this meeting about the Rafah operations,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. “We’re going to share our side; they’re going to share their side, and that’s what you do. That’s what diplomacy is about.”
Jean-Pierre again denied that the abstention from voting in Monday’s UNSC vote indicates a change in messaging or policy.
The White House, along with the State Department, continued to face scrutiny on Wednesday over their explanation of the non-binding nature of the resolution and the significance of the decision not to vote.
US Senator Lindsey Graham also met with Netanyahu, who thanked him for his consistent support. Graham said that this was his fifth visit to Israel since October 7. “I have your back and your country’s back,” Graham told Netanyahu in a meeting that was videotaped and posted on X on Tuesday.
“It’s OK to have disagreements among allies and among friends, and that happens on occasion,” Graham said, adding that the destruction of Hamas is non-negotiable “for the civilized world.”
“Here is my advice to you and your country: get on with it,” said Graham, who also called the claim that Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war “a form of blood libel.”
Netanyahu will meet with the parents of soldiers held hostage by Hamas on Thursday, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum announced Wednesday. The parents will demand answers from the prime minister on how he intends to bring their children home, according to the forum.
Families of hostages addressed the UN’s Human Rights Council in Geneva. It was the first time hostage families spoke at an official UN assembly, the forum announced Wednesday.
Yarden Gonen, sister of hostage Romi Gonen, told the assembly that Romi and 18 other young women are being held by “those who committed all those horrifying acts on the 7th of October.
“They are being used as slaves, dressed as dolls. They are suffering sexual abuse. They are being used,” she said.
Ella Ben Ami, daughter of hostage Ohad Ben Ami, asked the members of the Human Rights Council what they could have done to return her father to her mother, who was also held captive and released after 54 days. “What have you done to unite all the hostages with their families?”
Hannah Sarisohn, Reuters, and Tovah Lazaroff contributed to this report.