JERUSALEM — An Israeli attack that torched a displacement camp in Rafah — killing some 45 Palestinians and injuring 200 others — fueled international outrage against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and further divided the country over his war efforts .
In addition to global condemnation, Netanyahu is also under attack at home by Israeli officials inside and outside his party who call for a vision to end the war, as he expands a campaign to the southern Gaza city of Rafah despite of the US and other allies to urge restrictions.
The Israeli public largely supports the Israeli military, the IDF, and its campaign to ensure that the threat from Hamas is eliminated and that the hostages kidnapped from Israel during the Hamas attack on October 7 are returned.
But they are deeply divided over the conduct of the war, as illustrated by the response following the Rafah tragedy. Amid horrific images of charred bodies and dead children, some segments of Israeli society blame Hamas for operating close to civilian sites. But others said the carnage must stop.
Protests against Israel’s war in Gaza took place on Tuesday at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, with Jewish and Arab students protesting and counter-protesting against the war, the Times of Israel reported.
This followed Monday night’s protests in the mixed Jewish and Arab city of Haifa, where Hebrew media reported that around 100 people protesting called for an immediate end to Israel’s military operations. Eight people were arrested at this protest.
Some far-right personalities mocked the fire as part of the Jewish holiday of Lag BaOmer – where bonfires are the traditional custom – and which occurred on the same night as the Rafah strike.
“Children catch fire and the public in Israel celebrates, ignores, babbles or yawns – this is what our hell looks like,” wrote Yoana Gonen, in an opinion piece for the Left-leaning Haaretz newspaper.
“Israel is slowly sinking into a dark abyss, hand in hand with devastated Gaza.”
Netanyahu described the fire in Rafah as tragic, and said Israel is “thoroughly investigating and will learn from this, as well as our long-standing policy and conduct.” Israeli authorities allegedly told the U.S. that shrapnel from an attack aimed at senior Hamas leaders hit a fuel tank near a displaced persons camp.
But the resulting carnage underscored international alarm over Israel’s conduct of military operations and came just days after a key United Nations court issued a ruling for Israel to suspend its military operations in Rafah.
“These attacks must stop immediately. ICJ [International Court of Justice] orders and IHL [International Humanitarian Law] it must be respected by all parties,” European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borell said in a statement on social media site X.
French President Emanuel Macron said he was outraged by the Israeli attacks that killed so many people in Rafah.
“These operations must stop. There are no safe areas in Rafah for Palestinian civilians,” he said in a statement on X.
“I call for full respect for international law and an immediate ceasefire.”
The ruling is technically binding but largely unenforceable as Israel is not a party to the court. The US and Israel also argue that the ICJ has no jurisdiction in Gaza.
At the United Nations, Algeria, supported by Slovenia, requested an emergency session of the Security Council on Tuesday to discuss the situation in Gaza.
The closed-door meeting could put the US in a difficult situation, where it normally positions itself as one of Israel’s staunchest defenders – vetoing resolutions it says are biased against Israel. But the administration has also abstained from resolutions calling on Israel to implement a ceasefire, due to concerns that Israel’s operations in Gaza have gone too far.
As of Tuesday morning, the White House had not yet publicly commented on its assessment of the Israeli attack on Rafah. President Biden had already warned that he would suspend arms deliveries to Israel if the protection of civilian lives was not prioritized in Rafah.
Still, Netanyahu is rejecting calls to stop the war, and on Tuesday, Israeli tanks reportedly reached the center of Rafah for the first time. A separate attack killed 21 Palestinians in a cluster of tents near Rafah, in an area where Israel has advised civilians to move for safety. by Reuters.
Israeli leaders argue that international condemnation is strengthening Hamas’s position in ceasefire negotiations, which aim to secure the release of some 125 hostages that the US-designated terrorist group has held since it attacked Israel on October 7.
“Let me be clear: I will not give in or surrender. I will not end the war until we achieve all our goals. Our fallen heroes will not have died in vain,” Netanyahu said in a speech to the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, on Monday night.
But the US is reportedly working with Qatar to revive negotiations that collapsed earlier this month on what Israel said were unacceptable terms on the part of Hamas, calling for a full Israeli military withdrawal and a permanent ceasefire.
Other Israeli officials are leaving open the possibility of negotiations to release the hostages – with previous American proposals calling for a six to eight week ceasefire.
“We are making tremendous efforts and will continue to do so, both through kinetic activities and through reaching agreements,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Sunday, referring to hostage negotiations.
But the launch of at least eight rockets into Tel Aviv on Sunday, fired by Hamas from Rafah, some 120 kilometers away, reinforced among the public and soldiers that Hamas – and its threat to Israel – is far away. to be eliminated.
“We need to take a deep breath,” an Israeli combat commander who oversees security in Gaza’s Netzarim corridor told The Hill during an interview Monday.
“We understand that this will take a long time, if we really want to uproot Hamas, of course it will take a long time.”
The IDF has established the Netzarim corridor that bifurcates the north of the Gaza Strip from the south, which aims to prevent Hamas from regrouping in the north.
But the strategy is under pressure as IDF troops continue to battle groups of Hamas fighters in the northern city of Jabaliya, despite months of operations aimed at killing members of the group and destroying its infrastructure.
“You come to the region, you arrive in an area, you are cleaning. As soon as you get out, they will start and regain some of the momentum,” said the Israeli commander, whose name is withheld under IDF security protocols. “So that’s why it’s going to take a long time, and that’s part of it.”
Israelis also consider the war against Hamas necessary to deter threats from Iran and its proxy groups in the region, particularly Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Hezbollah’s arsenal – with more than 200,000 munitions, according to the Alma Research and Education Center – is seen as a more serious threat to Israel’s security than Hamas.
An estimated 60,000 Israelis are being evacuated from communities along the northern border, under constant attack from rockets, mortars, drones, anti-tank missiles and more.
“We have Hezbollah in the north. They need to understand that if they dare to do something, we can do to Lebanon what we did to Gaza,” said an Israeli deputy commander, speaking through a translator to The Hill on Monday, shortly after pulling out of the Gaza Strip after a few weeks. of combat service.
But despite the determination to continue the war, there is fatigue.
Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza is almost unprecedented in its duration – nearly eight months of active fighting. Netanyahu has so far avoided describing a vision for a post-war Gaza, with lively debates and political tensions over the direction the war is taking and when it might end.
The signs so far are that Israel is preparing for a long-term security presence in the strip, similar to how it operates in the Palestinian territories in the West Bank.
“I don’t believe this is the end of all wars, it won’t end,” continued the deputy commander.
“They [Hamas] We chose this war and we must pay the price for it. The price of war is always losing, everyone loses in war,” he stated. But he added that defeat depends “on who will lose the most.”
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
