Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered troops to redeploy and continue the invasion of the Gaza Strip, though reports of some of the troops being moved out of the strip are a sign Israel is winding down the war.
Netanyahu denied that the war was coming to an end, but said it would continue “only on the basis of security considerations,” and that “all options are open” for further escalation.
The Israeli military’s operations today centered on shelling of the southern city of Rafah, with the Gaza Health Ministry putting the overall death toll in the war at 1,712 Gazans, 398 of them children under the age of 18. Over 9,000 have been wounded. The Israeli toll remains unchanged today, at 67 killed, 64 of them soldiers.
The apparent Israeli strategy at this point is to draw down the Gaza War to an eventual halt without any negotiated settlement, to avoid having to make any concessions on the blockade of the Gaza economy in a ceasefire.
It’s a considerable change from the take as recently as last night, when Israeli officials were hyping the “kidnapping” of a soldier, who in reality was killed earlier in the day, as a justification for escalation. By this morning, however, Israeli media were poking holes in the kidnapping story, and the military eventually conceded that the soldier was slain. Not long thereafter, reports emerged of troops leaving the strip.
The war, it seems, is simply stumbling toward a vague end, with massive death tolls and no resolution. Though Egypt is continuing to push their plan for a ceasefire, there are no longer any indications Israel is interested in coming to any deal under any conditions.
What should be the consequences to Israel for trashing the Gaza residents' homes? How do you deal with mental trauma like that which they have inflicted on especially children. Something about millstones – but that doesn't help the children. I imagine Christian missionaries are eager to get back there and go to work.
Netanyahu has lost big time here. His war aim was to reduce Hamas to a shell and he has failed in that. Now he claims that wasn't his intention all along, but it was just to destroy Hamas tunnels into Israel. He could have done that with ground-penetrating radar and seismic censors to detect them and armoured drilling rigs to penetrate them and pump them full of grout. And if you look at the casualty figures, although there have been more dead among the Palestinians, the majority of those were civilians, so 64 Israeli soldiers have died to kill perhaps 300 Hamas fighters, that is not exactly "cutting the grass" as demanded by the majority of Israelis. To have penetrated further into Gaza would have been even more costly in terms of casualties for the IDF, so he is now hoping peace will break out unilaterally with him not having to make any concessions to Hamas. But here's the thing, why should Hamas stop fighting? Just firing a couple of missiles a day towards Ben Gurion airport would be enough to cause Netanyahu significant embarrassment and require him to re-enter Gaza or negotiate with Hamas. The man is an arrogant idiot too stupid to realize that the 10 years "quiet" being offered by Hamas is as good as it gets.
The truth is that Israel is backing down on it's vicious and murderous assault on Gaza for one reason only: Increasing world wide condemnation of Israel's wanton slaughter of innocent men, women and children. The entire reason given by Israel for Israel's criminal assault on Gaza is a lie. Hamas had nothing to do with the deaths of the three Israeli who were kidnapped and murdered, the original reason given by Israel for the attack, until Israel shifted the reason to eliminating the "terror" tunnels. This is another lie because the tunnels end miles from Israel proper. That some of the tunnels come up near the illegal settler outposts on Palestine land, is entirely Israel's fault for allowing those settler camps in the first place. The world is no longer believing the propaganda shoveled out constantly by the Zionist criminals, evidence the world wide protests over Israel's actions. Even Americans are finally waking up to realize the threat Israel represents to every American, for our unconditional support of Israel's genocide, ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity and war crimes, is placing all Americans everywhere in danger. American main stream media is doing everything it can to defend Israel and by doing so is losing credibility with the American people, who will eventually turn to foreign news sources to learn the truth about Israel, the only remaining apartheid state in the world.