LONDON: The truce in Gaza is unlikely to last much longer than Tuesday, with signs on Sunday that Israel was preparing to resume its air and ground offensive, The Guardian reported.
The four-day truce, which the Israel Defense Forces described as an “operational pause,” is set to expire on Tuesday contingent upon the transfer of 50 hostages held by Hamas. The agreement is extendable by a day for every 10 hostages released by the militant group.
“I can’t see the truce lasting more than a week,” Miri Eisin, a former Israeli military intelligence specialist who runs the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, told The Guardian.
Eisin said the IDF wanted to dismantle Hamas’ military capability and that “the only way to do that is through a systematic and careful ground operation.”
On Monday morning, IDF Chief of the General Staff Herzi Halevi told Israeli soldiers: “I saw reflected in your eyes the magnitude of the moment, the fighting spirit and determination to achieve all the objectives of the war.
“I heard you tell me, ‘We want to fight until we return the hostages.’ And so, we are doing just that,” he said.
Israel’s military estimates that it has killed between 1,000 and 2,000 Hamas fighters out of a 30,000-strong military force.
However, Israel has killed at least 14,800 Palestinians, mostly civilians, in Gaza, and wounded tens of thousands more. The Israeli military has dropped around 40,000 tons of bombs on the besieged enclave and carried out attacks on crucial public facilities, including hospitals and schools, Gaza authorities said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to eliminate Hamas, yet the group retains its capability for both combat and negotiation, The Guardian reported.
After a heavy bombing campaign, the IDF had surrounded the northern region of the Gaza Strip when the truce began on Friday; however, pockets of resistance remained. Satellite analysis suggests the destruction of between 40 percent and 50 percent of buildings in northern Gaza, turning areas such as Jabalia into urban wastelands, The Guardian added.
The IDF’s next target is the south, where Palestinian civilians were meant to flee, and specifically Khan Younis, where Israel claims Hamas’ headquarters and leader, Yahya Sinwar, are located.
Last Monday, Israel ordered people, many of whom had previously been displaced, to leave the city. It anticipates that people will flee west to the already congested coastal area of Al-Mawasi.
Any decision to relaunch the war rests with Israel’s war cabinet, chaired by Netanyahu, who promised right-wing coalition allies last week that it would resume after the 50 hostages were released to sell the deal to them. “I want to be clear. The war is continuing,” the PM said on Wednesday.
US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said the White House was having “a constructive conversation” with Israel on Sunday about ensuring that “any military action only takes place after civilians have been accounted for.”
H.A. Hellyer, a Middle East expert working with the Royal United Services Institute, told The Guardian it would be difficult to eliminate Hamas completely.
“The question is, what price will be visited on the population? And that price is not euphemistic. We have already seen horrific levels of civilians being killed,” he said.
