‘Sacrifice’ captives: Israel divided over end of ceasefire in Gaza

Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, has been having more political issues. More court proceedings in his corruption trial, public outcry over his government’s failure to appoint a head of the Shin Bet domestic intelligence service, and a push to end the Gaza ceasefire, both inside and outside his administration.

He then resumed his combat on Tuesday. For the time being, those issues seem less significant. His court appearance was postponed, the protests against his dismissal of the Shin Bet’s head were postponed, and the politicians who were promoting war were satisfied.

In Gaza, the effects of Netanyahu’s decision have been harrowing, with more than 400 Palestinians killed by bombings in one night and the knowledge that this is most likely just the start of more devastation and death.

Former Israeli ambassador and consular general Alon Pinkas claimed that the overnight strikes by Netanyahu were merely “about survival politics” for the prime minister and were meant to detract “from Shabak]Shin Bet’s dismissal.”

He continued, “There was no political end to the strikes, and there was no military significance.”

His opponents have repeatedly accused Netanyahu of repeatedly influencing Israel’s conflict with Gaza to achieve their political goals. There was “every reason” for people to conclude that Netanyahu was prolonging the war for political reasons, according to former US President Joe Biden in an interview in June.

The captives will be “buried” in war.

However, Netanyahu and his administration are at odds with a significant constituency: the families of Israeli captives in Gaza, who continue the conflict and unilaterally end the two-month ceasefire.

This group, whose voices are still revered by many Israelis, believes that their loved ones were the victims of each of the far-right government’s and Netanyahu’s orders. 59 prisoners, both alive and dead, were scheduled to be released in Gaza in accordance with the original ceasefire agreement reached with Hamas.

Many people’s sentiments were echoed by a statement released by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum on Tuesday, which claimed Israeli leaders had no desire to uphold the ceasefire. The government had stated that it would “sacrifice” the captives and that they would be “buried” in Gaza if the bombing resumed.

The hostage families want a meeting with the prime minister, the defense minister, and the head of the negotiating team this morning to discuss how to ensure hostages won’t suffer from military pressure and how to get them home, according to the group.

Why don’t you fight in the room where the negotiations are taking place? Why did you withdraw from a deal that might have brought everyone home? the government was contacted by the forum.

Noa Argamani, a former prisoner of war in Gaza, received a demeaning message when she learned that Israeli attacks on Gaza had resumed. Following a June military operation by Israel that resulted in the deaths of more than 270 Palestinians, Argamani was freed. In Gaza, her boyfriend, Avinatan Or, is still at large.

Former captives who met US President Donald Trump this month included Argamani. Will the captives’ families and those who have been released be able to persuade him to put pressure on Israel to resume negotiations?

A progressive group called Standing Together, which is composed of Israelis and Palestinian Israeli citizens, reported to Al Jazeera that it had already received “hundreds” of calls calling for the strikes and was prepared to mobilize thousands at the suggestion of a full-scale resumption of fighting in Gaza.

Alon Lee Green, Standing Together Co-Director, stated, “We are refusing to participate in a war that neglects and will kill our hostages.” In Gaza, we “refuse to kill and be killed.” Despite what the majority of people want, we refuse to fight for this corrupt government, which is only fighting now to maintain power.

support for the far-right

Many in Israel who are now enthralling the ceasefire have criticized it since its beginning.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right former national security minister, said he would step down from the government after the strikes in January in protest of the ceasefire terms.

Ultranationalist finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, whose resignation from the ceasefire agreement in January was only averted following ostensible assurances from Netanyahu that he anticipated it would violate, is also a member of the cabinet.

Ben-Gvir described the recent attacks on Gaza as the “right, moral, ethical, and most justified step” in a social media post.

Smotrich thanked God for a new conflict, claiming that the new wave of fighting would “look completely different” from the military campaign, which has already claimed the lives of more than 60, 000 Palestinians. According to Smotrich, Israel will need to “remobilize with strength, faith, and determination until victory with God’s help.”

US position

Even though Israel reneged on a contract that Washington was one of the brokers of, the US has reiterated its full support for the country’s actions.

Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy, had suggested extending the first phase of the three-stage ceasefire, but he backed Israel in changing its terms and reaffirmed Israel’s “red line” against allowing Hamas to keep its weapons.

In an effort to coerce Hamas into accepting Israel’s new terms, which ignored any mention of a permanent ceasefire, Israel also blocked the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza and cut electricity this month to the only remaining desalination plant.

Prior to the ceasefire, the US and other guarantor countries had pledged to work with Israel to keep the talks moving forward in the direction of a second and a third phase that would bring the war to an end.

According to Mitchell Barak, an Israeli pollster and former political aide to several senior Israeli politicians, “We have a new US] administration that says, “Release the hostages now … or else,” “things are very different now.”

He criticized the second stage of negotiations, saying that “The Islamic Resistance]Movement] Hamas can no longer use the ceasefire, or even the hostages, as a bargaining chip.

They are by themselves. He cited the crackdown on support for Palestine in many US educational institutions as saying that they no longer have any friends. They do not even have any friends in the White House, Congress, or college campuses.

Source: Aljazeera