Israel’s military on Thursday said five soldiers had been killed in fighting in the northern Gaza Strip, more than seven months into its war against Hamas militants. The latest fatalities take the number of Israeli troops killed in the Gaza military campaign since the start of the ground offensive on October 27 to 278.
“Attached is a statement from the IDF spokesperson regarding the names of five IDF martyrs whose families were notified. In the incident in which the late Capt. Roi Beit Ya’akov, the late Sgt. Gilad Aryeh Boim, the late Sgt. Bezalel Shashua, the late Sgt. Daniel Hamo and the late Sgt. Ilan Cohen fell, three soldiers from the 202 Battalion were seriously injured,” the IDF spokesperson said in a statement.
Fighting has raged in recent days in northern Gaza, with an Israeli army spokesman saying there were “attempts by Hamas to rebuild its military capabilities” months after Israel had declared the Palestinian armed group’s command structure in the area dismantled. Fierce battles and heavy Israeli bombardments have been reported in north Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp and the central Nuseirat camp since the army launched a “targeted” operation focusing on the southern city of Rafah in early May.
The news of friendly fire came as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was publicly challenged about post-war plans for the Gaza Strip on Wednesday by his own defence chief, who vowed to oppose any long-term military rule by Israel over the ravaged Palestinian enclave. The televised statement by Defence Minister Yoav Gallant marked the most vocal dissent from within Israel’s top echelon against Netanyahu during a seven-month-old and multi-front conflict that has set off political fissures at home and abroad.
Netanyahu hinted, in a riposte which did not explicitly name Gallant, that the retired admiral was making “excuses” for not yet having destroyed Hamas in a conflict now in its eight month. But the veteran conservative premier soon appeared to be outflanked within his own war cabinet: Centrist ex-general Benny Gantz, the only voting member of the forum other than Netanyahu and Gallant, said the defence minister had “spoke(n) the truth”.
While reiterating the Netanyahu government’s goals of defeating Hamas and recovering remaining hostages from the Oct. 7 cross-border rampage by the Islamist faction, Gallant said these must be complemented by laying the groundwork for alternative Palestinian rule. “We must dismantle Hamas’ governing capabilities in Gaza. The key to this goal is military action, and the establishment of a governing alternative in Gaza,” Gallant said.
“In the absence of such an alternative, only two negative options remain: Hamas’ rule in Gaza or Israeli military rule in Gaza,” he added, saying he would oppose the latter scenario and urging Netanyahu to formally forswear it. Gallant said that, since October, he had tried to promote a plan to set up a “non-hostile Palestinian governing alternative” to Hamas – but got no response from the Israeli cabinet.
(With agency inputs)
Comments
0 comment