Defense officials said to accuse government of seeking Gaza annexation over hostage deal

Officers quoted saying that the recent expansion of operations in northern Gaza was done with little military planning or intelligence information

The Neilah prayers, the final plea for atonement at the end of the Yom Kippur service, at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, October 12, 2024. (Paulina Patimer/Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)
The Neilah prayers, the final plea for atonement at the end of the Yom Kippur service, at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, October 12, 2024. (Paulina Patimer/Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)

Israeli security officials have reportedly accused the government of neglecting hostage negotiations with Hamas, instead prolonging the war as part of a possible plan to seize and resettle part of the Strip, according to the Haaretz daily.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly denied accusations that Israel is seeking to re-establish civilian settlements within the enclave as it battles Hamas, but far-right members of his cabinet have openly pushed to reverse Israel’s 2005 pullout of civilians and troops from Gaza.

At the same time, the government has faced allegations — including by defense officials, hostage families, and other informed sources — that it is not doing enough to bring about a deal aimed at freeing the approximately 100 hostages still in Gaza for over a year.

Unnamed defense officials cited by Haaretz on Sunday claimed that the political leadership hasn’t brought up the issue of the hostages with international mediators since the last round of negotiations collapsed in August.

The officials claimed that the issue had also not been addressed recently with the security establishment.

The report appeared to mark the first time security officials have suggested that renewed military activity in northern Gaza was ultimately aimed at the “creeping” resettlement of parts of the territory at the expense of concluding a hostage deal.

The security officials quoted provided no further details or proof to back up their assessment.

The report also claimed the decision to redeploy troops to the north of the Strip was made without exhaustive deliberations, against some security heads’ advice, and based on insufficient intelligence.

Families of hostages have repeatedly charged that Netanyahu has failed to prioritize bringing home their loved ones and has sought to prolong the war for narrow personal political reasons.

Protests urging the government to conclude a hostage deal erupted in several locations Saturday evening following the conclusion of Yom Kippur.

Activists held rallies centered around the High Holy Day’s theme of atonement, asking the captives for forgiveness and charging that the government doesn’t deserve to be pardoned for failing to return the abductees.

“You say you have atoned for your sins. You cannot atone for sins that were committed on purpose. You are knowingly neglecting them. You know military pressure endangers them. There will be no forgiveness,” said Yifat Kalderon, whose cousin Ofer Kalderon is being held in Gaza.

Attempts to reach another hostage deal with Hamas — following one in November that saw 105 hostages released during a weeklong truce in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners — have repeatedly failed and have largely gone stagnant as Israel has shifted its focus to fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon after a year of the terrorist organization’s near-daily rocket and drone attacks that it said were in solidarity with Hamas. The US and Israel also say that Hamas is not currently interested in a deal.

In September, Netanyahu told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in September he was weighing a plan promoted by a group of senior IDF reservists that would lead to the depopulation of the northern Gaza Strip.

Presenting the proposal to the committee, retired Maj. Gen. Giora Eiland said the offensive would “change the reality” on the ground in Gaza.

“We have to tell the residents of north Gaza that they have one week to evacuate the territory, which then becomes a military zone, [a zone] in which every figure is a target and, most importantly, no supplies enter this territory,” Eiland explained at the time.

The Haaretz report Sunday quoted military officials as saying that Eiland’s plan was illegal under international law and would harm the legitimacy of Israel’s other military actions. They also said it was unlikely the international community would allow Israel to put such a plan into action.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich at the Knesset in Jerusalem on September 9, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Far-right ministers have pressed to resettle Gaza ever since Israel invaded the enclave following the October 7 massacre with the aim of toppling Hamas and removing the threat of terror from its southern communities.

Earlier this month, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich reportedly said that the only way to achieve a hostage deal and bring home the hostages was to install a military administration and build settlements in the coastal enclave.

In May, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir declared that the “voluntary emigration” of Palestinians from Gaza should be promoted, Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi insisted that the resettling of Gaza was the only way to ensure Israeli security, and Religious Zionism MK Zvi Sukkot blamed the October 7 massacre on the 2005 Disengagement Plan.

Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (Courtesy: ICC)

Annexing parts of Gaza would violate international law and comes as the International Criminal Court (ICC) is expected to deliver its decision on its prosecutor’s request to issue arrest warrants for both Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes.

In May, ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan filed a request for arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant, alleging that they had committed crimes against humanity and war crimes in their prosecution of the war against Hamas in Gaza following the terror organization’s invasion and massacre on October 7 last year.

Requests were also issued against three Hamas leaders.

In response, Israel castigated the court’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, for failing to give the country the opportunity to investigate his allegations before seeking arrest warrants against its leaders, a fundamental principle of the ICC’s founding charter.

Israel launched the Gaza offensive in the wake of the October 7, 2023, Hamas assault on southern Israel that killed some 1,200 people and saw a further 251 taken hostage.

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