JERUSALEM: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said Israel was “one step away from victory” in the Gaza war. “But the price we paid is painful and heartbreaking.”
He was speaking in a cabinet meeting marking six months of the war that broke out on Oct 7 after an unprecedented attack on Israel by Hamas militants. Though Israel has routed Hamas in much of Gaza, and fighting seems to have slowed, the conflict is being drawn out by Israel’s reluctance to either hold ground it has captured or transfer its control to an alternative Palestinian leadership, creating a power vacuum.
By dragging on for so long, the war has become the longest involving Israel since the 1980s.And the ramifications extend far beyond the Gazan border – including increasing domestic pressure on US President Biden, who has continued to supply arms to Israel even as he expresses greater alarm over its actions, and the threat of the violence spilling over into a regional conflict between Israel and Hamas allies, like Iran.
He was speaking in a cabinet meeting marking six months of the war that broke out on Oct 7 after an unprecedented attack on Israel by Hamas militants. Though Israel has routed Hamas in much of Gaza, and fighting seems to have slowed, the conflict is being drawn out by Israel’s reluctance to either hold ground it has captured or transfer its control to an alternative Palestinian leadership, creating a power vacuum.
By dragging on for so long, the war has become the longest involving Israel since the 1980s.And the ramifications extend far beyond the Gazan border – including increasing domestic pressure on US President Biden, who has continued to supply arms to Israel even as he expresses greater alarm over its actions, and the threat of the violence spilling over into a regional conflict between Israel and Hamas allies, like Iran.