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Israelis say Netanyahu neither capable nor willing to accept a deal
Yesterday, the Israeli army released a statement saying it carried out an extensive investigation into an air strike last November.
The military says it was targeting a senior Hamas official and had no intelligence there were captives in the vicinity. The bodies of the captives were recovered on December 14, and the military is finally acknowledging that an Israeli air strike is what killed them.
The military went on to say that it does not conduct air strikes, shelling, or any other sort of attacks when there is intelligence or information about the whereabouts of captives.
However, this is just one in a series of intelligence and security failures for the Israeli military throughout the last 11 months. The greatest of those failures was also back in December when the Israeli army shot dead three captives.
There’s been a lot of frustration from the Israeli public, from family members of Israeli captives, who have said Netanyahu’s policies and those of his cabinet are not to bring about the release of the remaining captives, saying that he is neither capable nor willing to accept a deal.
Israeli military report on captives puts pressure on Netanyahu
The decision by the Israeli army to acknowledge that its strikes killed three captives in Gaza in November should be understood within the context of current rifts in Israeli society and military, according to Hassan Barrari, professor of international affairs at Qatar University.
“I would say it has been politicised and the release of the investigation is political now given the fact that Gallant is supported by the army and trying to do something different from Netanyahu,” he told Al Jazeera in reference to Israel’s defence minister and the PM.
Barrari added that Gallant is backed by the army chief of staff Herzi Halevi and other commanders, who have been increasingly at odds with Netanyahu as the war has dragged on.
“I think the timing is also important and they want to put more pressure on Netanyahu to kill the idea that the military push will release the captives. Now it’s obvious that the more the Israelis will fight, the riskier it will become for the captives.”
Israel’s defence minister warns time running out to halt battle with Hezbollah
Israel’s defence minister has told the US that prospects for a halt in fighting with Hezbollah along the Israel-Lebanon border are dimming.
Gallant told the US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in a call that “the possibility for an agreed framework in the northern arena is running out as Hezbollah continues to ‘tie itself’ to Hamas,” an Israeli Defence Ministry statement said.
Hezbollah has traded near-daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces since October 8. The violence has killed hundreds of people in Lebanon and dozens on the Israeli side.
Netanyahu considering dismissing defence minister
Israeli media are reporting that Netanyahu is preparing to dismiss Yoav Gallant as defence minister and replace him with National Unity party Chairman Gideon Sa’ar.
The report by the public broadcaster Kan, which cited an unnamed source in the prime minister’s office, was released as Netanyahu and Gallant are believed to have been at odds over, among other things, an offensive into Lebanon.
Gallant is opposed to a major invasion of Lebanon at the moment, according to Israeli media.
Netanyahu’s office said reports about a replacement are “incorrect” but did not mention Gallant specifically. Sa’ar has previously rejected speculation that he is accepting a deal to bring him back into the Netanyahu-led coalition.
Ben-Gvir wrote in a post on X that he has been calling for Gallant’s dismissal for months and the time has come to do it “immediately”.
Israeli army arms citizens in the north with 9,000 assault rifles
The Israeli army and the defence ministry have finished arming citizens in the northern part of the country with some 9,000 IWI Arad assault rifles. This is on top of the 5,000 weapons provided at the start of the war on Gaza, according to a ministry statement cited by The Times of Israel.
Eyal Zamir, director-general of the ministry, reportedly said this is part of an ongoing project to “strengthen civilian defence squads that fought bravely on October 7”.
The assault rifles were bought for 50 million shekels (about $13m) and distributed among 97 communities in the north.
