Rifts seen among top Israeli leaders
Officials disagree over hostages, war’s direction
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% 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.
The United States, Israel’s closest ally, has provided strong 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 to the investigative program “Uvda” on Israel’s Channel 12 television, Eisenkot said the Israeli hostages “will only return alive if there is a deal, linked to a significant pause in fighting.” He said dramatic rescue operations are unlikely because the hostages are apparently spread out, many of them in tunnels.
Claiming hostages can be freed by means other than a deal “is to spread illusions,” said Eisenkot, whose son was killed in December while fighting in Gaza.
In a thinly veiled criticism of Netanyahu, Eisenkot also said strategic decisions about the war’s direction must be made urgently and that a discussion about an endgame should have started immediately after the war began.