Main events on August 7th
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would ‘take control of all Gaza,’ in a television interview, adding that Israel did not want to oversee governing responsibilities and would hand them over to an unspecified third party.
- The number of Palestinians who have starved to death due to Israel’s brutal siege on Gaza rose to 197 people, including 96 children. The WHO says that about 12,000 children in Gaza under the age of five were acutely malnourished at the end of July, the highest number on record.
- The Lebanese government approved a US-backed proposal to disarm the paramilitary group Hezbollah by the end of the year. Hezbollah officials said it would not disarm before Israeli forces, still occupying Lebanese territory in defiance of a truce agreement, left the country.
- The rights watchdog Human Rights Watch released a report stating that Israel has carried out hundreds of attacks on schools sheltering displaced people in Gaza since the beginning of the war, including “unlawfully indiscriminate” strikes with US-provided munitions.
Netanyahu appears ‘lost’ despite series of victories
He’s lost. Netanyahu has been used to winning battles and having superior military force. He’s been able to maintain a coalition government during war, divide the opposition, control the various wings of the government, maintain US support and win wars in a dozen days throughout the region.
But when it comes to Gaza, despite the fact that he’s killed anywhere between 60,000 and 120,000 people, displaced some 2 million people, destroyed more than 90 percent of the Strip, he’s still not able to declare victory, he’s still not able to impose a ceasefire, and he still doesn’t have an exit strategy.
What does he do? If he pulls out now, he’s going to be seen as the man who destroyed Gaza but was not able to bring security because Hamas still survived, is still functioning, and will take control of Gaza the next day. If he stays, he’s going to have the wrath of his generals who have been warning him ever since the withdrawal of troops in 2005 that the Israeli military does not want to get involved in an occupation on the ground in Gaza.
Israelis rally in Tel Aviv to demand captive release
