Alwaght- On Friday, Israeli army resumed its ground offensive on Gaza, bringing back war to the blockaded Palestinian enclave after three months of fragile ceasefire.
The occupation army started its operation in the north, and the government talks about plans to advance southward. In a statement, the army called for residents of Shejaiya neighborhood in eastern Gaza to evacuate. It stated that the army is expanding its area of control as a "security zone."
Israel resumed its operation in Gaza with a series of heavy airstrikes on March 18. It had withdrawn its forces after a two-month ceasefire agreement that saw the release of 38 prisoners held by Hamas in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
The occupation forces are also concentrated around the ruins of the city of Rafah in the southernmost part of Gaza. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that 65 percent of the area is now in “protected” areas, or areas under evacuation orders, or both.
An Israeli military source told Ma’ariv newspaper that several brigades are operating in Rafah, with the Givati forces in Shaburah and the 14th Brigade in Tal as Sultan. Three divisions are currently active in Gaza: The 143rd Division and the 252nd Division in the northern and central Gaza Strip. These forces are operating in Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya. And the 16th Division is in the Netzarim Axis.
The Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources familiar with the matter, that Israeli Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir wants to decisively destroy Hamas with a massive ground offensive before making any decisions on a political solution. He is prepared to deploy enough forces to occupy the Strip indefinitely.
Israeli ministers have said the operation will continue until the 59 hostages are returned from the Gaza Strip. However, Hamas says it will not release them unless there is a deal to end the war.
Meanwhile, efforts to resume talks brokered by Egypt and Qatar have failed. “There are no contacts at the moment,” a Palestinian official familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Abu Obaida, the spokesman to Hamas military wing Al-Qassam Brigades, stated that half of the hostages are kept in areas where the Israeli military issued evacuation orders, and so their lives are in danger as Israeli operations unfold.
Netanyahu's aims and Trump's green light
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced that the ground offensive is aimed at putting strains on Hamas to make it abandon its negotiation conditions.
Thr Israeli officials' comments suggest that the operations are coordinated with the Americans, according to Amos Harel of Haaretz newspaper.
"It is no accident that Steve Witkoff, the US president's envoy, has disappeared from the media scene in recent days. Washington appears to have left Israeli hands open to military action, hoping to improve its bargaining power in the negotiations," Harel added.
However, pieces of evidence and timing of the offensive suggest other objectives, leading the Israeli public opinion to dismiss the authorities’ claims of an attempt to free the prisoners as a lie and a fabrication, especially since the rejuvenated operation came at a time when Netanyahu’s corruption trial was underway and hardline ministers upped their threats to dissolve the cabinet if the ceasefire plan and withdrawal from Gaza were implemented.
Gaza residents say the occupiers’ aim is to permanently expel them from large areas, including some of Gaza’s last agricultural land and water infrastructure.
Hamas officials have also seen the operation as part of the US President Donald Trump’s plans, who in February announced his desire to relocate Gaza residents to neighboring countries and turn the Strip into a US-controlled beach resort.
Netanyahu's recent statements, which in recent days have talked about goals for the new operation, have briefly included freeing prisoners, forcing Hamas and the Islamic Jihad to lay down their arms, deporting their leaders abroad, and displacing the rest of the population of the Strip as part of the implementation of Trump's plan.
He announced in a cabinet meeting that the army has changed its plans in the Gaza Strip and that at the end of the attack, Hamas would lay down its weapons, its senior officials in Gaza and the West Bank would be allowed to travel abroad, and Tel Aviv could implement Trump's plan for voluntary migration.
In confirmation of this, a senior Israeli official told the media during his visit to Hungary: "Israel is negotiating with more than one country to absorb Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, and Israel's plan to transfer residents of the Gaza Strip is very serious.
"What we want to see is to free the prisoners, dismantle Hamas, and then use the opportunity for a large voluntary migration process. We are talking about over a million people. The Gaza Strip has been reduced to rubble, and we are working on this plan," the official said.
Now with these comments, it becomes clear that the aims of the fresh ground offensive have to do with the "generals' plan" which focuses on Rafah and Beit Lahia.
According to Avi Ashkenazi of Ma'ariv, the Israeli army intends to divide Gaza in four sectors with the aim of pressuring Hamas. The forces of the 36th Division, which have begun their operations in the southern Gaza Strip, are working to establish the Morag Axis, which separates Khan Yunis and Rafah. The Morag Axis will be parallel to the Philadelphi Axis in the north and to the Netzarim Axis in the center of the Gaza Strip in the center.
Citing reserve colonel Hezi Nehama, Al Jazeera reported that there is a plan to occupy Rafah, which is supposed to lead to two options:
First: Expanding the operation into a grand plan to occupy the entire Gaza Strip and "cleanse" it using 6 military divisions.
Second: Trying to prolong the first phase to rescue a number of prisoners.
In this regard, writer Wissam Afifeh, speaking to Al Jazeera, believes that Israel is trying to occupy Gaza gradually and with temporary US support, which includes occupying Rafah, the northern Gaza Strip, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun, and expanding the buffer zone along the eastern half of the Gaza Strip towards the center.
He said: "The division of the Gaza Strip through transverse axes such as the Morag, Netzarim, Kasfim and Meflasim axes, and the large areas that have been added to them on both sides of these axes on the edge of the line of fire of the ground forces, proves that the occupiers are trying to displace half of the population who are moving towards the west of the Gaza Strip."
However, Tamir Hayman, the former head of the Israeli army’s military intelligence, warned in an article published by Israel's Channel 12 about the consequences of this scenario, saying that maintaining the army throughout Gaza would require a large military presence, which would come at the cost of reducing the presence of forces in the West Bank and the northern borders (with Lebanon), which would lead to a decrease in the sense of security and an increase in attacks.
The large volume of reservist deployments required for this mission would also jeopardize their readiness, harm the economy, and negatively affect Israel's foreign trade.
Internal chaos scenario
Along with its large-scale ground operations to pave the way for the new dream Tel Aviv has seen for Gaza residents in association with the US, the Israeli government has restored to its agenda the scenario of stirring internal chaos in Gaza.
As part of the plan, in recent days, the Israeli army has resorted to targeting government figures in the Gaza Strip, aid workers and aid organizations, and police officers. Using treasonous and submissive elements within Gaza and with the support of regional media, Israel seeks to promote a picture of civil opposition and revolt against Hamas with the aim of sowing division.
This approach is considered a step towards implementing the "Plan of the Next Day" that the Israelis are pursuing to establish a dependent and obedient local government.
Abu Awad, a Palestinian political expert, told Aljazeera that Israel may mull a plan similar to that it executed in the West Bank in the 1970s through which is spread chaos and destabilized the region using Zionist criminal gangs and Palestinians recruited by Israeli security apparatus, something granted the Israelis the excuse to execute security control on the region.
But despite all these conspiracies and military and economic blockade cowardly imposed on defenseless people of Gaza over the past two years that have led to massacare of the civilians especially women and children, the Palestinian resistance has always shattered the Israeli dreams and certainly Trump's support for Netanyahu will not manage to save him from a certain defeat against Hamas. As Trump had to walk back from his plan, Netanyahu will have no way but to yield to negotiations to free the prisoners and get rid of home pressures.
