The Israeli army has warned that carrying out the government’s demand to destroy Gaza City could take up to a year, potentially creating a crisis within its reserve forces, which are already facing a decline in mobilization and motivation to fight, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported Sunday.
اضافة اعلان
Backed by the United States, Israel has since October 7, 2023, carried out a genocide in Gaza that includes killing, starvation, destruction, and forced displacement, disregarding all international calls and International Court of Justice orders to halt these actions.
Haaretz quoted unnamed military sources as saying that “the army warns that implementing the political echelon’s demand to destroy Gaza City above and below ground could take about a year.”
It also warned that “a large-scale operation in Gaza City, similar to those carried out in Beit Hanoun (north) and Rafah (south), could trigger a crisis in the reserve system, which is facing declining mobilization and motivation.”
Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir reportedly told the political leadership that “the army does not intend to launch an assault on Gaza City until an area has been prepared to accommodate its residents.”
The report noted that “combat will begin only after completing the necessary operational and legal preparations, despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s demand to accelerate the start of the operation.”
According to Haaretz, “so far, no such areas (to which Palestinians from Gaza City would be displaced) have been established, which would require constructing infrastructure.”
The paper added that military sources estimate that while the evacuation of Rafah took two weeks, “evacuating Gaza, where about 1.2 million Palestinians reside, would take somewhat longer.”
Zamir has also presented the political leadership with a plan allowing the army to halt fighting quickly if negotiations between Israel and Hamas advance toward an agreement involving the release of captives and a ceasefire.
Tel Aviv estimates that around 50 Israeli captives are held in Gaza, including 20 alive, while more than 10,800 Palestinians remain in Israeli prisons, subjected to torture, starvation, and medical neglect that has claimed many lives, according to Palestinian and Israeli human rights and media reports.
“The army insists on exhausting negotiations and securing the release of as many captives as possible before launching the offensive, due to serious concerns over their safety during heavy combat,” Haaretz said.
It added that tensions are running high between senior military commanders and political leaders regarding the Gaza City operation and the risk it poses to captives’ lives.
Senior officers told the paper that “the Chief of Staff has no intention of acting unlawfully and is fully bound by the directives of Military Advocate General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi,” who is supposed to provide legal oversight of the army’s activities.
Last week, the Israeli army issued call-up orders for around 60,000 reservists expected to report for duty on September 2, according to Haaretz. Most are expected to replace regular forces in the occupied West Bank and along the northern borders with Lebanon and Syria, enabling those forces to take part in the Gaza City offensive.
On Saturday, Israel’s Maariv newspaper reported that “estimates within the security establishment suggest that Netanyahu’s government will collapse if the Gaza City occupation operation is not carried out.”
Ministers, led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, have threatened to withdraw from the government if it moves toward a prisoner exchange deal and a ceasefire.
The Israeli genocide has left 62,622 Palestinians dead and 157,673 wounded, most of them children and women, in addition to over 9,000 missing, hundreds of thousands displaced, and famine that has killed 281 Palestinians, including 114 children, as of Saturday.
For decades, Israel has occupied Palestine and territories in Syria and Lebanon, refusing to withdraw or allow the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, based on pre-1967 borders.
—(Anadolu)
