Netanyahu criticizes tactical pause in Gaza campaign

The Israeli army has announced that it will hold a daily pause in fighting between 05:00 GMT and 16:00 GMT in the area from the Kerem Shalom checkpoint to Salah al-Din Street and northwards.

“When the prime minister received a report about the decision to hold an 11-hour daily morning military pause, he contacted the army leadership and made it clear that he could not accept this decision,” an Israeli official said.

The Israeli military has clarified that normal military operations will continue in Rafah, the center of Israel's current operation in southern Gaza, where eight soldiers were killed on Saturday.

Netanyahu's response underscored the political tensions surrounding aid in Gaza, where international organizations have warned of a worsening humanitarian crisis.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, leader of one of the religious nationalist parties in Netanyahu's ruling coalition government , condemned the idea of ​​a tactical pause, saying those who made the decision were "idiots" who deserved to be removed from office.

Division in government and military

The splits are the latest in a series of confrontations between members of Israel's coalition government and the country's military over how to conduct the war, which is now entering its ninth month.

The incident comes just a week after former general Benny Gantz resigned from the government, accusing Netanyahu of not having a clear strategy on Gaza.

Photo: REUTERS/Mohammed Salem.

These divisions were on full display last week in a vote in the Israeli parliament on a law requiring ultra-Orthodox Jews to serve in the military, in which Defense Minister Yoav Gallant voted against the law, going against party orders, claiming it was insufficient to meet the army's needs.

The religious parties in Israel's coalition government have strongly opposed requiring ultra-Orthodox Jews to serve in the army, leading to outrage among a significant number of Israelis, and this division has deepened as the war in Gaza has continued.

Israeli army chief Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi said on Sunday there was a “clear need” to recruit soldiers from the growing ultra-Orthodox Jewish community.

Reserve forces under great pressure

Despite international pressure calling for a ceasefire, a ceasefire between the two sides in the Gaza war remains a distant prospect, more than eight months after an October 7 attack by Hamas triggered an Israeli response in Gaza.

Since the attack, some 1,200 Israelis and foreigners in the Israeli community have been killed, and Israel's military campaign in Gaza has left more than 37,000 Palestinians dead.

Although polls show a majority of Israelis support the government's goal of destroying Hamas, protests are still spreading with criticism of the government's failure to fulfill its duty to return the 120 hostages still being held in Gaza to their homeland.

In a recent development, Palestinian health officials said seven Palestinians were killed in two airstrikes targeting homes in the Al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.

While fighting continues in Gaza, a smaller-scale conflict on the border between Israel and Lebanon is threatening to spill over into a wider war since exchanges of fire between the Israeli army and Hezbollah escalated to an almost daily frequency.

There are also signs that the Gaza war will drag on, as on Sunday the Netanyahu administration announced it would extend the deadline for providing funding for hotels and guesthouses to serve people evacuated from southern border towns until August 15.

Nguyen Quang Minh (according to Reuters)

Source: https://www.nguoiduatin.vn/netanyahu-chi-trich-viec-tam-nguoi-chien-thuat-cho-chien-dich-tai-gaza-a668685.html