Repeated raids in Gaza raise prospect of endless war
Summary
An emerging insurgency in parts of the enclave that Israeli forces previously cleared threatens to extend the fighting.Israeli forces are fighting in a growing number of places in the Gaza Strip that they previously took and withdrew from, showing how Israel is struggling to eliminate Hamas and bring the Palestinian enclave under its control.
On Sunday, fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas militants intensified around Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis and Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, with the Israeli military saying it struck dozens of targets. Israeli troops previously fought battles in the same places in recent months and said that Hamas’s formations in those areas had been defeated and dismantled.
Israel’s war effort in Gaza has been hampered by the lack of a plan for how to stabilize the enclave after suppressing Hamas’s fighters. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected calls from Israel’s international partners, including the U.S. and key Arab countries, for a reformed Palestinian Authority to run Gaza.
Without a civil authority to restore order, security and basic services, and with the Israeli military disinclined to fully reoccupy the strip with troops on the ground, swaths of Gaza have descended into anarchy. The lack of security is impeding the delivery of humanitarian aid, contributing to a growing hunger crisis that international aid groups say is pushing Gaza’s population to the brink of famine.
Meanwhile, fighting around hospitals has raised concerns about the impact on a medical system already on its knees. The vacuum of security and governance has helped Hamas’s efforts to return to areas vacated by Israeli forces.
With no end to the war in sight, the pattern of repeatedly raiding Gazan hospitals and neighborhoods is turning into an endless ordeal for civilians and a source of growing diplomatic tensions between Israel and its allies, including the U.S.
The Biden administration is pressuring Israel to bring the war to a close soon, fearing the worsening international and domestic political fallout of the highly polarizing conflict. Israel’s war in Gaza has divided voters whose support President Biden needs for his re-election bid in November.
Israel’s invasion of Gaza followed the Oct. 7 attack by the U.S.-designated terrorist group Hamas on southern Israel, which killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, according to Israeli authorities.
Israel’s military response has killed more than 32,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to Palestinian health authorities, whose numbers don’t distinguish between militants and civilians. Israel’s military has said the total estimated death toll is roughly accurate but disputes the composition, saying over one-third of the dead are militants.
Israel’s declared war aim of eliminating Hamas as a significant military and political entity set a high bar that will be difficult to achieve, said Yossi Mekelberg, a Middle East analyst at London-based think tank Chatham House. “Anything less than that will be perceived as a failure," he said.
Israeli leaders proclaimed premature victories in Gaza City and Khan Younis, the enclave’s two biggest cities, said Mekelberg. Now, with much of the Gaza Strip destroyed and Hamas fighters re-emerging and using guerrilla tactics, Israel’s leadership is divided on how to craft a coherent war plan, he said. “Netanyahu’s government is reluctant to shift and seek a political solution to end this," he said.
Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said earlier this year that the war would enter a prolonged phase of raids against remaining points of resistance by Hamas in northern Gaza. The period of raids would give way to a plan for stabilizing the Gaza Strip, he said.
Some Israeli analysts say the repeated combat operations in Gaza City were part of the plan. “Once the Israeli forces are pulling out of a certain area, then [for] Hamas, it’s time to reconstitute," said retired Israeli Brig. Gen. Shlomo Brom. “And what we are trying to do is prevent it, by this raid on Shifa and other similar raids that will follow."
However, criticism is growing in Israel and among the country’s international allies that the war effort is stagnating. More than 100 Israeli hostages remain in the captivity of Gaza militants, despite months of military operations and negotiations aimed at their release. Israel has yet to locate Hamas’s leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, who helped orchestrate the Oct. 7 attack.
Israel is also grappling with how to oust Hamas from the city of Rafah on Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, where it says Hamas’s battalions are still intact. About 1.4 million civilians are sheltering in Rafah, most of them refugees from other parts of Gaza. The U.S. is urging Israel not to launch a major ground assault there, warning of disastrous humanitarian consequences, but Netanyahu said his forces will proceed with or without U.S. backing.
Israel has greatly reduced the number of its troops in Gaza, from a peak of more than 60,000 to just a fraction of that currently, according to Israeli military officials and analysts. Israel activated hundreds of thousands of reservists in the beginning of the war but has demobilized most of those who were sent to Gaza, partly to relieve the pressure on Israel’s economy.
“It works for a short campaign to have so many people not contribute to the economy," Mekelberg said. “Not for a war that lasts six months."
Carrie Keller-Lynn contributed to this article.
Write to Omar Abdel-Baqui at omar.abdel-baqui@wsj.com and Marcus Walker at Marcus.Walker@wsj.com
