While Israel is preparing to add tens of thousands of reserve soldiers to the battlefield in Gaza, the logic of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seems to be this: the victory against Hamas will come from an even greater barrier of soldiers in the coming weeks.
“We didn’t finish the war,” Mr Netanyahu explained on Sunday, while his security cabinet had registered Battles. “We will perform this operation with an united army, with a powerful army and deeply dissolved soldiers.”
But it is not clear how those extra hunters will change a dynamic that is seen for 18 months of war in which hundreds of thousands of soldiers have Pummeled Hamas -Wagersof Residents in Gaza Caught in the middle, but have not succeeded in achieving the goals of Israel to destroy the militant group or to release all hostages.
And it remains uncertain whether the Israeli army goes back to Gaza before President Trump will arrive in the middle next week for meetings in Saudi Aarabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Two reservists who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to make comments to the news media, said they had received call-up orders in June.
Since The collapse of a two-month ceasefire In March, Israel blocked food, medicines and other humanitarian aid to reach Gaza. And the Israeli Air Force has already renewed its heavy bombing of the enclave.
Now the government is ready to expand its ground offensive, with the aim of entering cities in Gaza and Hamas to submit to the requirement of Israel to permanently resign.
The question is whether a return to such fights is a route map until the end of the hostilities or only an intensification of a fatal conflict with deteriorating consequences for Palestinians and the Israeli hostages are still being held by Hamas.
Tamir Hayman, who served as the intelligence leader of the Israeli army for four years, said that the attempts to put pressure on Hamas with overwhelming force, after more than a year and a half war were “exhausted” “exhausted”.
“Eliminating Hamas as a terrorist organization by military force is only very difficult,” said Mr. Hayman, who is now executive director of the Institute for National Security Studies, a think tank in Tel Aviv. He said that Israel would be better off to end the war with Hamas, which is considerably weakened and can be kept under control after the fighting.
The Israeli army has not provided any details about how the reservists will be used. But two Israeli officials, who have asked an anonymity to comment on military plans, say that it will include different brigades that are looking for so -called operational superiority in different parts of Gaza.
The Trump government has sought a new ceasefire, but Hamas has put an end to the war and a withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, while Israel has insisted that Hamas has disabled, which the group refused to do.
The Israel call-up of soldiers is also a message to the hard supporters of Mr Netanyahu, some of whom were relieved that the army had not completed the task of not eradicating Hamas. Promising a more intense phase of the war can be a good domestic policy for him.
Israeli officials have said that they believe that it was the power and intensity of their military campaign in Gaza last year that was bound by Hamas Let go of some hostages And to accept a ceasefire in January.
Hours after the terrorist attacks of Hamas on October 7, 2023, in which 1200 people were killed in Israel, with 251 others hostage, Mr Netanyahu ordered the mobilization of 360,000 reservists, which contributed to the standing army of the land of around 170,000 soldiers.
Since then, more than 50,000 Palestinians have died, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which makes no distinction between civil and military deaths. About 130 hostages have been released and the Israeli army has collected the bodies of at least 40 others. It is thought that about 24 hostages are still alive, according to the Israeli government.
When Israel and Hamas agreed with the January-fire deal, Mr Netanyahu said that credit should go to the “painful blows that our heroic hunters have landed on Hamas.”
“This is exactly how the conditions were made for the turning point in his position and for the release of our hostages,” he said during a national address.
But other voices, such as Yair Lapid, the opposition leader of Israel, have expressed serious doubts about the strategy. “I fear that the intensity of the fighting will dictate the fate of the hostages,” said Mr. Lapid on the Israeli army radio. “What is the goal? Why are they calling reservists at? Expansion of the regular service and all without defining a goal – that’s how you win a war.”
In a statement on Monday, the organization that represents the families of hostages insisted on the government not to broaden the war.
“The expansion of military operations brings all hostages to a serious risk,” said the families. “We beg our decision makers: give priority to the hostages. Save a deal. Bring them home – before it’s too late.”
AARON BOXERMAN And Natan Odenheimer Contributed report from Jerusalem.