Rifts emerge among top Israeli officials over war

RIFTS are emerging among top Israeli officials over the handling of the war against Hamas in Gaza.

A member of the country’s war cabinet cast doubt over the strategy for releasing hostages and the country’s prime minister rejected the US’s calls to scale back its offensive.

Only a ceasefire deal can win the release of dozens of hostages still held by Islamic militants in Gaza, and claims they could be freed by other means was spreading “illusions”, said former army chief Gadi Eisenkot, one of four members of the war cabinet, in his first public statements on the course of the war.

Mr Eisenkot’s comments are the latest sign of disagreement among political and military leaders over the direction of Israel’s offensive on Hamas, now in its fourth month.

Sparked by an unprecedented October 7 Hamas raid into Israel which killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw about 250 others taken hostage, the Israeli assault has pulverised 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% of the territory’s population.

Israel has also cut off all but a trickle of supplies into the besieged Gaza Strip, including food, water and fuel.

Several dozen lorries with critical supplies now enter the territory each day, just a fraction of the pre-war volume of about 500. Both the US and United Nations have said more aid needs to be delivered.

A communications blackout in the territory was in its seventh day yesterday, the longest such blackout since the war began. The lack of communications hampers the coordination of aid deliveries and rescue efforts.

The US, Israel’s closest ally, has provided strong military and political support for the campaign but has been increasingly calling 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.

In a nationally televised press conference, Mr Netanyahu reiterated his longstanding opposition to a twostate solution, arguing that a Palestinian state would become a launchpad for attacks on Israel.

Israel “must have security control over the entire territory west of the Jordan River”, Mr Netanyahu said, adding: “That collides with the idea of sovereignty. What can we do?”

The US has said the internationally recognised Palestinian Authority, which governs semi-autonomous zones in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, should be “revitalised” 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.

On Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, US secretary of state Antony Blinken said the two-state solution is the best way to protect Israel, unify moderate Arab countries and isolate Israel’s arch-enemy, Iran.