Bomb-ruptured buildings list like shipwrecks and paved roads have been churned into gravel. Gaza City, once teeming with street food and knotty traffic, is now reduced to almost nothing but dust and decay.
A short Israeli-military organized visit by international media on Friday was focused on Israel’s effort to destroy what it says is Hamas’ bomb making, intelligence machinery and tunnels. But the Hamas announcement late Friday that it’s accepted much of a peace plan laid out by US President Donald Trump and is moving toward releasing the remaining hostages poses a dilemma for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
While Israel hasn’t heeded months of international condemnation over its conduct of the war, the army began reining in its offensive in Gaza City after Trump demanded on social media on Friday that it stop bombing so the hostages can be freed. The military says it’s shifted to a more defensive posture, despite the mission — of completely destroying Hamas — not yet being accomplished.
For Netanyahu, a deal could mean not only that he doesn’t end the war on his terms but that his political coalition fractures and perhaps collapses. The far-right members of his government consider the defeat of Hamas more important than the release of the remaining hostages — 20 living and 28 dead.
“Obviously this puts Netanyahu in a political bind, up to his very neck. But what can he do?” Tel Aviv University political scientist Yossi Shain said. He added that Netanyahu may take the far-right members of his cabinet “aside and say, ‘Gentlemen, wait. Let’s get through the hostage release first.’ And he’ll hope that things thereafter will work for him.”
Trump has focused on the hostages as the key to ending the war that started when Hamas operatives invaded Israel two years ago, killing 1,200 and abducting 250 others. In the subsequent two years, Israel’s war in Gaza has killed more than 65,000 people, sparked a famine in parts of the enclave, according to a UN-backed body, and led another UN-backed panel to declare it a genocide.
Israel denies both the famine and genocide allegations. But its refusal to let in journalists, except in short embeds, has made independent verification impossible, and global opinion has turned firmly against its war effort.
Netanyahu has stood defiantly against rising international condemnation, and a growing coalition of Western allies that in recent weeks announced that they’d join more than 150 other countries in recognizing a Palestinian state.
The Israeli leader also wants the hostages out but he has repeatedly insisted that, equally importantly, Hamas must disarm and be denied any future in Gaza.
If a hostage release occurs — in exchange for as many as 2,000 Palestinian prisoners — a process may begin that keeps Hamas in some role in Palestinian politics. An upcoming meeting of Palestinian factions to discuss Gaza’s future will include the group.
Many world leaders — and even many in the Israeli security establishment — say Hamas has been sufficiently worn down by two years of war that it will no longer pose a danger.
The army acknowledges that Hamas is greatly diminished. But a senior officer who briefed the group of journalists brought to Gaza on Friday — and who spoke under military rules of anonymity — pointed to a hospital which, he said, was evacuated only two weeks ago and where he said a sprawling subterranean rocket factory was uncovered.
“We didn’t have enough time to make sure that all these terrorist infrastructures will be destroyed,” he said of the army’s previous invasion of Gaza City. “We came back to make sure there are not any tunnels like this.”
Netanyahu’s government approved the Gaza City advance in August as part of what Israeli planners described as a “conquer and crush” campaign replacing less effective earlier incursions. The plan stoked global outrage.
Trump, while supportive of Israel, has grown increasingly impatient with it and has been pushing both sides to reach a deal now. He’s also publicly campaigned to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, due to be announced this coming week.
Last Monday, Netanyahu accepted a 20-point peace plan put forth by Trump. Hamas now says it accepts much of it but needs to negotiate the rest.
It doesn’t accept disarmament and has made no reference to Trump’s idea of an international transitional governing body or its own dissolution. It also says Israel must fully withdraw but, according to the plan, Israel would hold onto a perimeter buffer zone. The question now is how much of the plan will remain after the next round of negotiations, which, according to an Israeli official familiar with the matter, will begin on Sunday.
A recovery of the hostages would be welcomed across the political spectrum in Israel. Leaving Hamas intact, with any weaponry or governing capacity, would be less so, although polls show Israelis increasingly willing to take any deal that frees those abducted on Oct. 7, 2023.
“It’s very hard to fight for two years,” the senior officer said. “Hamas is still fighting as a system. You can see it. It’s observing us. It’s looking for our weak points. When we surprise them at close range, from time to time they surrender. But mostly they just fight.”
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
