Israel abandoning captives to hunt Hamas leaders, say military officers
Israel abandoning captives to hunt Hamas leaders, say military officers
Officers tell MEE the war has become personal for Netanyahu, who is planning a long-term presence in Gaza 'partially approved' by the US
Israel has abandoned its goals of freeing the captives in Gaza, instead seeking to establish a long-term presence with its Rafah ground offensive and pursue top Palestinian leaders, Israeli military officers have told Middle East Eye.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, three officers, one of whom is serving in Gaza, questioned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s strategy in the ongoing war on Gaza, which has killed at least 34,800 Palestinians and failed to return captives taken by Hamas on 7 October.
One officer told MEE the government’s aims were unclear and the objective of rescuing captives and destroying Hamas had “collapsed”.
The officer told MEE that Israel’s military had become “obsessed” with Sinwar and the upper echelons of the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas.
Have they ever shown much care to getting prisoners back? The terrorists goal seems to be to kill every Palestinian and level every building in Gaza. The freeing of prisoners is just rhetoric to get the public to accept genocide.
I dont think the Israeli government ever has particularly, but they are in trouble if the public start believing that en mass. Sadly it seems that the Israeli public dont really care how bad things get for Palestinians (or actively want them harm and to seize their land), but there seems to be real anger over not putting getting hostages back as the main objective, with Hamas agreeing to a prisoner swap leading to ceasefire but Isreal rejecting it I can see that getting more intense.
