New strikes are ‘just a beginning’ said Netanyahu, after Trump inspires Israel to seize territory with massive military onslaught
In Gaza this weekend, the mood is darker than it has been at perhaps any time in this long, appalling war. Last Tuesday Israeli warplanes, tanks, artillery, drones and ships launched a wave of strikes, shattering the increasingly fragile pause in hostilities that had brought respite to the devastated territory for nearly two months. The ceasefire had also brought hope which, Palestinians in Gaza said, made the return to violence that much more unbearable.
In a video statement last Wednesday, Israel Katz, Israel’s defence minister, called on 2.3 million people in Gaza to “banish Hamas”, saying “the alternative is complete destruction and ruin”.
Two days later, as air strikes continued and the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) seized a key strategic corridor that divides Gaza, Katz issued a new ultimatum, this time telling Hamas to give up the 59 hostages it is still holding or “lose more and more land that will be added to Israel”. He said that the IDF would use “all military and civilian pressure, including … implementing US President Trump’s voluntary migration plan for Gaza residents”.
These last lines were important. A second phase of the ceasefire deal agreed in January was supposed to start three weeks ago and lead to an eventual definitive end to the war. A principal reason for Israel ditching this plan in favour of a 30- to 60-day truce with no such endpoint is that Israel’s most senior policymakers feel not just empowered but even inspired by the new incumbent of the Oval Office.
The Israeli government has adopted Trump’s lexicon of internal enemies. Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, last week railed against the leftist deep state that supposedly opposes the will of the Israeli people.
Trump’s loud proposal to displace the entire population in Gaza so it can be turned into the “Riviera of the Middle East” has made the previously unspoken desire of many increasingly influential actors in Israel into a project that can be publicly discussed – and even possibly realised in the relative short term.
