The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was pressed from all parties on Sunday when his controversial plan to seize the city of Gaza took out a violent reaction within his government and in the streets of Israel, while deaths from malnutrition in the Gaza strip continued to rise.
At a press conference on Sunday, a challenging Netanyahu continued to deny that there is a hunger in Gaza and said the situation is being exaggerated. Netanyahu only admitted that there was “deprivation” in Gaza, but said that “no one in Gaza would have survived after two years of war” if Israel were implementing a “starvation policy.”
Netanyahu defended the new military offensive, saying that Israel had no “other option” but to “finish the job” and “defeat Hamas”, while stating that “hundreds of help trucks have entered Gaza.”
But his critics to the left say that his new proposed military offensive is likely to worsen the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and even more endanger the hostages that still have Hamas. The protests that asked for immediate fire attracted thousands of people on Saturday night in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities.
And for some extreme right members of the Netanyahu coalition government, the plan is not difficult enough.
Foreign Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has pressed Israel to impose sovereignty on Gaza, called him a “silly” measure, saying in a video message on Saturday night that did not support him.
Smotrich said the proposed offensive intended to press Hamas to accept a high temporal fire, and that, on the other hand, Israel needed an “acute and clear path” to victory over Hamas.
The dissatisfaction expressed by Smotrich, who said there was “lost faith” in the prime minister, threatens to destabilize the fragile coalition of Netanyahu.
The leader of the Israeli opposition, Yair Lapid, took the opportunity, asking Smotrich to join him to advance a bill to dissolve Parliament and celebrate new elections.
“In your own words, you admitted that Prime Minister’s policy is not leading to a decisive result in Gaza, does not return to our hostages and is not winning the war,” Lapid said in a statement, according to The Times of Israel. “You also added that you can no longer support the prime minister and support it.”
The United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting later on Sunday to discuss the offensive proposed by Israel, which has been convicted of Great Britain, France, Australia and other Western governments.
James Kariuki, the deputy permanent representative of the United Kingdom before the UN, asked Israel to reversed their decision, saying that the plan “will only deepen the suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.”
It comes in the midst of a hunger crisis in Gaza, where humanitarian aid has been limited since Israel raised a block of two and a half months in May.
The Gaza Ministry of Health said Sunday that five more people, including two children, had died from malnutrition and starvation in the last 24 hours, which takes the total of 217, including 100 children.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, general director of the World Health Organization, said Thursday that at least 99 people in Gaza, including 29 children under 5, have died from malnutrition this year, noting that the real toll was most likely higher.
The UN and other international organizations say that the humanitarian aid that arrives in Gaza through drops of air and in a small number of trucks is far from being sufficient to feed the population of the enclave of 2 million people.
On Saturday, a 14 -year -old boy named Muhannad Eid died after being hit by an aid package that was transmitted in air on Gaza, said his brother, Muhammad Eid.
“This is an aerial humiliation, it doesn’t help,” Eid said. “We need protection. We want international protection.”
With the last death, 23 people have been killed during aircops since the Israel-Ahamas War began 22 months ago, according to the Gaza Government Media Office.
“We have repeatedly warned about the danger of these inhuman methods and we have repeatedly asked for the safe and adequate entry of help through land crosses,” he said in a statement.
According to local health officials, more than 61,000 Palestinians, including thousands of children, have been killed since the war began on October 7, 2023, with the terrorist attack of Hamas against Israel. During that attack, the militants led by Hamas killed about 1,200 people and kidnapped another 251.
Of the 50 hostages that still have Hamas, Israel believes that about 20 are alive. The defenders of the hostages and the Netanyahu Army Chief himself warned that expanded military operations could put their lives in danger.
The plan, which the Netanyahu government announced on Friday, describes five goals to end the war: disarm Hamas, return to all hostages, demilitarize Gaza, take control of security of the area and establish “an alternative civil administration that is not Hamas or the Palestinian authority.”
These preparations are expected to take weeks or months, a delay that the fear of the Israeli government could leave room for a diplomatic solution that would undermine its objectives.
Experts have also questioned whether the plan would protect the Israelis or work at all.
Michael Milshtein, head of the Palestinian Studies Forum at the Dayan Center of the University of Tel Aviv, said the plan was full of “hollow slogans.”
“There is a very common slogan: ‘We will launch the hostages and defeat Hamas at the same time,” he said. “You cannot do both simultaneously. Hamas will execute them, or the IDF themselves could in the bombing.”
Netanyahu said Sunday that his goal was to take the hostages alive and recover the remains of those who had died.
“If we do nothing, we are not going to get them out,” he said. “The movement I speak has the possibility of getting them out.”
There are also questions about who would lead Gaza in the long term. Netanyahu said he intends to control the territory to the “Arab forces”, adding on Sunday that “several candidates” are being considered for the establishment of a new “transition authority.”
He has not specified who could be, apart from saying that it would not be Hamas or the Palestinian authority.
“That does not leave anyone,” said Hellyer, a senior associate member at the Royal United Services Institute of London. “No Arab country is going to be the executor of Israel on the ground.”
