Top Israeli officials divided over how to handle war
By Julia Frankel, Najib Jobain and Bassem Mroue
JERUSALEM — A member of Israel’s War Cabinet cast doubt on the country’s strategy for releasing hostages held by Hamas, saying only a cease-fire can free them, as the prime minister rejected the United States’ calls to scale back its offensive.
The comments by former Israeli army chief Gadi Eisenkot late Thursday offered the latest sign of disagreement among top Israeli officials over the direction of the war against Hamas, now in its fourth month.
In his first public statements on the course of the war, Eisenkot also said that claims the dozens of hostages could be freed by other means amounted to spreading “illusions.”
Meanwhile, a communications blackout in the territory entered in its seventh day Friday, the longest such blackout since the war began. The lack of communications hampered the coordination of aid deliveries and rescue efforts.
Sparked by an unprecedented Oct. 7 Hamas raid into Israel that killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw about 250 others taken hostage, the Israeli assault has pulverized much of the Gaza Strip, home to some 2.3 million people. Israel has said more than 130 hostages remain in Gaza, but not all of them are believed to be alive.
Israel’s offensive, one of the deadliest and most destructive military campaigns in recent history, has killed nearly 25,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, and uprooted more than 80 percent of the territory’s population.
The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza said Friday that 142 people were killed and 278 people wounded the previous day, raising the total death toll since Oct. 7, to 24,762. and the total number of wounded to 62,108.
Israel has also cut off all but a trickle of supplies into the besieged territory, including food, water and fuel. Several dozen trucks with critical supplies now enter Gaza each day, just a fraction of the prewar volume of about 500 trucks. Both the United States and United Nations have said more aid needs to be delivered.
The United States, Israel’s closest ally, has provided strong military and political support for the campaign, but has increasingly called on Israel to scale back its assault and take steps toward establishing a Palestinian state after the war — a suggestion Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has soundly rejected.
Speaking during a nationally televised news conference Thursday, Netanyahu reiterated his longstanding opposition to a two-state solution, arguing that a Palestinian state would become a launching pad for attacks on Israel.
The U.S. has said the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority, which governs semiautonomous zones in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, should be “revitalized” and return to Gaza. Hamas ousted the authority from Gaza in 2007.
Washington has also called for steps toward the establishment of a Palestinian state. The Palestinians seek Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem for their state. Those areas were captured by Israel in 1967.