Israeli soldiers watch a military dog, during an operation that is part of the Israeli offensive on Gaza, in this handout picture released on Feb. 21, 2024. (Credit: Israeli army/Handout via Reuters)
BEIRUT — The former Chief of Staff of the Israeli army has sent a letter to members of the war Cabinet warning that their military operations in Gaza were failing, according to Israeli media reports.
The Israeli Channel 12 news outlet reported on Monday that the letter, sent last week and leaked by Gadi Eisenkot himself, outlined "an increasing difficulty in achieving the goals of the war."
Eisenkot wrote that "the strategic outline of the war has stalled" and the lack of progress in its military operations in Gaza "is threatening ... the strategic situation of the State of Israel."
“No determinative decisions have effectively been made in three months. The war is conducted in accordance with tactical objectives, without meaningful moves to achieve the strategic objectives,” Eisenkot is quoted as writing.
The letter represents a broadening schism in the war-time coalition between Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party and Minister Benny Gantz's National Unity party, of which Eisenkot is also a member. Times of Israel reports that Gantz' reputation has soared in public opinion polls, while Netanyahu's has sunk dramatically.
In mid January, Eisenkot sat for an interview with Channel 12 news where he made similar criticisms of Netanyahu's approach to the war on Gaza. Times of Israel quotes him as saying: “Whoever speaks of the absolute defeat [of Hamas in Gaza] and of it no longer having the will or the capability [to harm Israel], is not speaking the truth. That is why we should not tell tall tales.”
The opinion seems to be shared among the wider public as well. According to a poll released Wednesday and cited by AFP, the majority of Israelis do not believe their army will achieve a "total victory" over Hamas.
Netanyahu had repeated in recent days what he has been hammering since he launched the war on Gaza: that he is aiming for a "total," or "absolute," victory against Hamas. Israeli forces are engaged in fighting in Khan Younis and preparing for an offensive against Rafah, a city at the southern tip of the territory that is home to over 1.4 million Palestinians and is overflowing with people who have fled from bombardment elsewhere in the Strip.
According to a barometer by the Israel Democratic Institute (IDI), a Jerusalem-based analysis center, just 38.3 percent of Israelis consider such a victory "very" or "moderately" likely, and 55.3 percent consider it "not very" or "very unlikely." Some 6.4 percent of those polled had no opinion.
In early January, the Israeli army claimed to have dismantled Hamas in the north and had pulled out some brigades. By mid-January, the military was sending tanks back in and fighting reignited to a level of intensity not seen since the New Year.
Further signs that Hamas has resurfaced in the north, or perhaps was never fully dismantled, come in the form of news that the Palestinian movement, ruling the Gaza Strip since 2007, had redeployed police services and was paying the salaries of civil servants there.
The Israeli government claims it has killed around 12,000 Hamas fighters, while Hamas officials say around half that number have been killed. Israel's stated goals in its war on Gaza are to dismantle Hamas, return all hostages, and ensure Gaza no longer poses a threat its existence.
Of the around 250 hostages that were taken captive on Oct. 7, 100 were released in a Qatar-brokered exchange agreement in November, three were released through military rescue operations, and three were shot and killed accidentally by Israeli troops. Israel estimates that 134 hostages remain, 32 of which have died, either on Oct. 7 or in Gaza. Hamas says the Israeli offensive in Gaza is contributing to the worsening of conditions for hostages in the Strip.
Similar sentiments in Lebanon
In Lebanon, at a funeral on Wednesday commemorating a fallen fighter, Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah made similar comments, saying Israel's "military goals for this war have failed, and what the enemy is doing right now is killing and destruction."
Fadlallah also said that "the resistance in Gaza is still fighting inside the cities and camps, and now [Israel] is threatening Rafah. But, its destiny in Rafah is the same as in Khan Younis."
Hezbollah officials, including its leader Hassan Nasrallah, have often accused Israel of causing destruction in southern Lebanon as a way of balancing out its failures in Gaza.
Nasrallah had announced in his first speech after the war began that Hezbollah's main goal in its involvement at the Lebanon-Israel border is that their ally Hamas is not defeated.