Netanyahu’s reaction underlined political tensions over the issue of aid reaching Gaza (File)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized plans announced by the military on Sunday to hold daily tactical pauses in fighting along one of the main roads into Gaza to facilitate the delivery of aid to the Palestinian enclave.
The military announced daily pauses from 05:00 GMT until 16:00 GMT in the area running from the Kerem Shalom intersection to the Salah al-Din road and then northwards.
“When the prime minister heard reports of an 11-hour humanitarian pause in the morning, he turned to his military secretary and made it clear that this was unacceptable to him,” said an Israeli official.
The military clarified that normal operations would continue in Rafah, the main focus of its operation in southern Gaza, where eight soldiers were killed on Saturday.
Netanyahu’s reaction highlighted political tensions over the issue of aid reaching Gaza, where international organizations have warned of a growing humanitarian crisis.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who leads one of the religious nationalist parties in Netanyahu’s ruling coalition, denounced the idea of a tactical pause, saying that whoever decided it was a “fool” who should lose his job.
Divisions between Coalition, Army
The fight was the latest in a series of clashes between coalition members and the military over the conduct of the war, now in its ninth month.
It came a week after former centrist general Benny Gantz resigned from the government, accusing Netanyahu of not having an effective strategy in Gaza.
The divisions were exposed last week in a parliamentary vote on a law on conscription of ultra-Orthodox Jews into military service, with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant voting against it in defiance of party orders, saying it was insufficient for needs. of the military.
The coalition’s religious parties strongly opposed the recruitment of the ultra-Orthodox, provoking widespread anger among many Israelis, which deepened as the war progressed.
Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, head of the armed forces, said on Sunday there was a “definite need” to recruit more soldiers from the fast-growing ultra-Orthodox community.
Reservists under pressure
Despite growing international pressure for a ceasefire, an agreement to stop the fighting still appears distant, more than eight months since the October 7 attack by Hamas fighters on Israel triggered a ground attack on the enclave by Israeli forces.
Since the attack, which killed around 1,200 Israelis and foreigners in Israeli communities, Israel’s military campaign has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians, according to data from the Palestinian Ministry of Health, and destroyed much of Gaza.
Although opinion polls suggest that the majority of Israelis support the government’s goal of destroying Hamas, there have been widespread protests attacking the government for not doing more to bring home some 120 hostages who are still in Gaza after being taken hostages on October 7th.
Meanwhile, Palestinian health officials said seven Palestinians were killed in two air strikes on two houses in the Al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.
As fighting in Gaza continues, a low-level conflict along the Israel-Lebanon border now threatens to escalate into a wider war as near-daily exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and the Hezbollah-backed militia escalate. by Iran.
In a further sign that the fighting in Gaza could drag on, Netanyahu’s government said on Sunday it would extend until August 15 the period in which it would fund hotels and guesthouses for residents evacuated from Israel’s southern border towns.
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