David E. Rosenberg
Not many Israelis are looking forward to another year of war in Gaza. The army brass and the majority of Israelis support a deal to free the 100 or so hostages still held by Hamas in exchange for ending the conflict. But the decision-makers oppose such an agreement, and that includes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his acolytes, and—more importantly—leaders of the messianic far right. This group represents a small minority of voters but one that quite literally calls the shots in today’s Israel. If they have their way, which is probable, the war will never really end. Rather, it will morph into a violent occupation, accompanied by Jewish settlement and eventually annexation.
For months, the fighting in Gaza has been eclipsed by more dramatic events on Israel’s other fronts—the operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon that forced the militant group to accept a cease-fire, the tit-for-tat attacks with Iran, and the sudden collapse of the Assad regime in Syria. Nevertheless, the war in Gaza is grinding on.
Palestinian military and civilian deaths have increased by another 3,900 over the past three months, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The brunt of the fighting since October 2023 has occurred in the north and especially in the Jabalia refugee camp, which has been frightfully destructive—even according to the high bar set by Israeli operations in Gaza. The north’s prewar population of around 1.5 million has been reduced to one-fifth of that, mainly through forced evacuation. Those who remain are being driven out by a scorched-earth policy that approximates the harsh measures contained in the so-called “generals’ plan” devised by reservist officers, which aim to clear north Gaza of its inhabitants and declare it a military exclusion zone.
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