How Netanyahu squandered his moment to halt the war in Gaza

“Israel is in the tightest spot it has been in at any point in the war,” Michael Koplow, an analyst at Israel Policy Forum, a New York-based research group, said.

“It is dealing with a societal crisis over the continued war and plight of the hostages, a military crisis over the lack of clear aims and reservist fatigue, a diplomatic crisis over its close European allies lining up to unilaterally recognise Palestinian statehood, and an existential crisis over its eroding standing in the US,” Koplow said.

The protraction of the Gaza conflict also reflects US President Donald Trump’s failure to capitalise on the leverage he accrued during the war with Iran. By joining Netanyahu’s attacks, Trump gave Israel a symbolic victory. At the time, analysts expected him to demand that Netanyahu repay the favour by drawing the war in Gaza to a close.

“He had all the leverage in the world to say to Netanyahu, ‘Now we need to end this,’” Daniel Shapiro, a fellow at the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based research group, and a former US ambassador to Israel, said.

“Instead, Netanyahu seemed to persuade Trump to give him more time,” Shapiro said. “Now, things are just dragging and dragging.”

Within Gaza, the delay’s result has been catastrophic. Despite Israel’s sudden decision to let in more food last week, Palestinians in Gaza are still dying every day from starvation, according to Gaza’s health authorities.

Israeli soldiers have continued to shoot and kill civilians trying to access a deeply problematic new food distribution system that forces people to cross Israeli military lines to reach distribution sites. Desperate for alternative sources of food, large crowds of civilians continue to block and ransack aid convoys.

Within Israel, the delay has heightened discontent among the government’s critics. If Netanyahu appeared decisive and bold with his strikes on Iran in June, now he is once again perceived as dithering and beholden to the views of his far-right coalition partners.

A growing number of Israelis – either concerned for the hostages held by Hamas, or about the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, or both – are calling for an end to the war. On Monday, a group of former security chiefs – including two former army chiefs of staff, three former heads of Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, the Shin Bet; and three former directors of the Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency – released a video that ended with the caption: “End the war!”

The generals said the war, which was set off by Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, began as a just war but has since become endless and pointless.

“It was a defensive war,” Ami Ayalon, a former Shin Bet chief, said in the video. “But once we achieved all its military objectives, once we achieved a great military victory against all our enemies, this war stopped being a just war,” Ayalon added. “This is leading the state of Israel to the loss of its security and its identity.”

Netanyahu says the war’s objectives have not yet been achieved – that the battle must continue until Hamas has been destroyed and the 20 remaining living hostages in Gaza are released. Hamas and its allies released videos in recent days of two such hostages, looking starved and skeletal.

“We will not be broken,” Netanyahu said in a statement on Sunday after the footage was circulated online. “I am filled with an even stronger determination to free our kidnapped sons, to eliminate Hamas, to ensure that Gaza no longer poses a threat to the state of Israel.”

Loading

Yet the government’s critics say Hamas is already decimated, its leaders mostly dead and its arsenal severely depleted. They fear that continued fighting in Gaza will do little meaningful damage to Hamas, but will endanger the hostages still held in the enclave, and further harm Israel’s tattered reputation.

For nearly 18 months, Netanyahu has avoided halting the war so he can keep intact his coalition government, which includes senior ministers who seek to annex Gaza and replace much of its Palestinian population with Israeli civilians.

The backbone of Israel’s fighting force – its part-time military reservists who combine battlefield service with civilian life – has become increasingly exhausted, traumatised and reluctant to return to what is now Israel’s longest-ever high-intensity war.

Now, even full-time soldiers are battle weary: Three conscripts were sentenced to jail last month for refusing, on mental health grounds, to re-enter Gaza, prompting a public outcry that led to the cancellation of their jail terms.

Compounding these frustrations, the government is pushing ahead with efforts to extend an exemption from military service for ultra-Orthodox Jewish Israelis, whose leaders have long backed Netanyahu.

The government is also investing time and resources in firing the attorney-general, who oversees Netanyahu’s long-running prosecution for corruption. Netanyahu denies the corruption charges, and he has said his government’s efforts to overhaul the judicial system are unrelated to the trial.

But to his critics, those moves have bolstered the impression that Netanyahu has prioritised his own personal interests above his country’s cohesion and its strategic goals.

Loading

“Netanyahu stymied the chance to bring all the hostages home three times, and some say it was four times,” wrote Nahum Barnea, a veteran Israeli commentator, in a column Monday. “Make no mistake: He wanted the hostages to return no less than others, but unlike other people, he wasn’t prepared to pay the price.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter.