Relatives of the Israeli hostages who have been held by Hamas since the massive attack launched by the Palestinian group on Israel on 7 October 2023 have condemned and harshly criticised the announcement by the Israeli government led by Benjamin Netanyahu of a new plan to expand its military operations in Gaza, which would include the capture and control of Palestinian territory and the displacement of its population to the South, considering it tantamount to ‘sacrificing the hostages.’
Israel’s security cabinet ‘unanimously’ approved the expansion of military operations in the Palestinian enclave and called up tens of thousands of reservists for a new offensive aimed at ‘conquering’ the Strip, according to Israeli security sources cited by the Haaretz newspaper. Netanyahu himself reportedly said that the plan is ‘different from previous ones’ because it is not based on isolated incursions but on the ‘conquest of territories and the permanent presence’ of Israeli troops in them.
Israeli government sources confirmed to Haaretz that the new operation ‘will include, among other things, the conquest of the Gaza Strip and control of the territories, and the displacement of the Gaza population to the south for their protection’; ‘powerful attacks against Hamas’ are also specified, without specifying their nature, but the Chief of Staff of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), General Eyal Zamir, announced yesterday that the army was calling up “tens of thousands of reservists” to participate in the new offensive.
Protests by relatives of the hostages
Although Netanyahu’s executive maintains that this new operation in Gaza is aimed at forcing Hamas to release the hostages still held captive after the apparent failure of negotiations, numerous critics of the plan but also the families of the hostages themselves have denounced in recent hours that the offensive amounts to ‘sacrificing’ the dozens of hostages in Hamas’ hands, ‘prioritising the capture of territory‘ at the expense of their lives, according to the newspaper Haaretz.
‘The plan approved by the government deserves to be called the Smotrich-Netanyahu Plan for sacrificing the hostages,’ said a statement issued by a platform bringing together the families of Israeli hostages and missing persons, referring to the Ffinance minister, the far-right Bezalel Smotrich. A key figure in Netanyahu’s cabinet, Smotrich flaunts a Jewish supremacist and anti-Arab ideology and has previously expressed his desire for Israel to annex the West Bank and Gaza.
In addition to military expansion in Gaza, Israeli government sources cited by Haaretz also claim that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ‘continues to push’ Trump’s plan for the Strip. Criticised by almost the entire international community, the US president’s plan aims to turn the Palestinian enclave into a territory administered by Washington, which would transform it into a luxury resort on the Mediterranean; in exchange, it would mean the expulsion of the native population of Gaza, who would have to be taken in by countries such as Egypt or Jordan, despite the fact that both governments have already categorically rejected this possibility, which is nevertheless supported by Netanyahu’s ultra-conservative government.
Israel resumed operations in Gaza on 18 March amid stalled negotiations with Hamas following the ceasefire announced in January between the two sides, which the Israeli executive only accepted under pressure from Trump. Since then, the Israeli air force has resumed intense bombing raids on the impoverished Palestinian enclave. Military figures such as General Zamir himself have warned of the risk that Netanyahu’s plan poses to the lives of the Israeli hostages; even Israeli President Isaac Herzog recently denounced that ‘the hostages are no longer the priority’ for ‘Bibi’s’ government.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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