Israeli PM Netanyahu criticised plans announced by the military on Sunday to hold daily tactical pauses in fighting along one of the main roads into Gaza to facilitate aid delivery into the Palestinian enclave.
The military had announced the daily pauses from 0500 GMT until 1600 GMT in the area from the Kerem Shalom Crossing to Salah al-Din Road and then northwards.“When the prime minister heard the reports of an 11-hour humanitarian pause in the morning, he turned to his military secretary and made it clear that this was unacceptable to him,” an Israeli official said. The military clarified that normal operations would continue in Rafah, the main focus of its operation in southern Gaza.
The strange choreography of the messaging became stranger still when the govt suggested that Netanyahu only learned of the military’s plan from news reports. But analysts said it was likely that the prime minister was aware of the plan and that each announcement was tailored to different audiences. The whipsaw statements appeared to reflect the competing pressures facing Netanyahu, as he juggles demands from the Biden administration and elsewhere around the world with those of his own hawkish govt. His far-right coalition partners oppose any concessions in Gaza.
National security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who leads one of the nationalist religious parties in Netanyahu’s coalition, denounced the idea of a tactical pause, saying whoever decided it was a “fool” who should lose their job. The spat was the latest in a series of clashes between members of the coalition and military over the conduct of the war. It came a week after centrist ex-general Benny Gantz quit the govt, accusing Netanyahu of having no effective strategy in Gaza.