As always, Hamas' response to the proposal the American president offers could have been anticipated beforehand: dodging, tricks, and returning to the base formula – demanding Israel's total capitulation on three parameters: retreat from the entire Strip area without a buffer zone, steady supply, and pledge to end the war.
Netanyahu's office foresaw this when they conveyed on the evening the formula was released that Israel accepts it, yet Hamas will certainly dodge. The US kept the formula vague to maintain an opening for Hamas' consent, yet despite Israel's significant concession within the formula and withdrawal from the five principles for ending the war (Strip demilitarization, no Hamas control, and Israeli-controlled buffer zone, among others) and pledge to discussions on ending the war under Trump's sponsorship, the terror organization demands more.
If Hamas continues refusing even the new proposal on the table for returning all hostages on day one and entering mandatory negotiations to end the war – the schedule for entering Gaza City, Hamas' control fortress, stands unchanged. This means Trump's threat, along with the IDF's operational plan, is now without additional signaling but rather a last launching point before implementation. Based on recent hints from Defense Minister Israel Katz, the building collapse plan in Gaza is anticipated to progress even before the intended ground entry. The sought effect, beyond reshaping Gaza's skyline – pushing the population out.
So far, based on Israeli evaluations, approximately 100,000 civilians have left the city while hundreds of thousands more stay in it, and the aim is to quicken and amplify the trend. Oddly, contrary to evacuation operations previously that started with evacuation alerts and directly proceeded into military action – now there is worry that this evacuation-execution formula is being directed against Israel. Rather than declaring evacuation and keeping corridors clear for evacuation, and they have been clear for months and were seemingly utilized to move hostages to Gaza, the IDF is stalling. Beyond that, a legal assessment stated that while there are civilians in Gaza, it is prohibited to disconnect it from supply sources.
The restriction of internal IDF measures, which ultimately damages the capacity to accomplish goals and the operational capabilities of the soldiers, emerges periodically at the cabinet table, yet is not met with opposing orders from the political echelon. The latter might still protest that the military does not follow them; yet, aside from remarks from certain cabinet ministers, this is not provided at all in the directing sections by the prime minister. Warnings of the kind the defense minister often issues and the prime minister sometimes issues have a brief effect, versus a shell impact and tunnel destruction in Gaza. Following extended months of time-squandering, the moment has arrived to leave keyboards to analysts, allow the artillery to speak, and achieve the necessary outcomes – eliminating the threat to the Gaza periphery and bringing back the hostages.
The murderous incident yesterday in Ramot and the drones flying from Yemen are not fresh threats. One demonstrates the abilities of a homicidal nation whose members display abilities under those identical old threats to kill Jews. The other is a result of scattered handling of a new terror branch that developed at our threshold while we were understandably occupied with nearer and more critical threats.
Israel acknowledges that the drones heading to Israel recently from the Houthis are a fresh production, demanding an understanding of how to confront them. Due to low-altitude flight, Air Force pilots must perform extended tracking within the country until the threat is destroyed.
The task of interception and the ongoing presence of the Houthis as a threat distant from our borders are not destiny and demand a shift in Israel's reality perception. It appears that, comparable to the rocket threat from the Gaza Strip that got only a technological answer, they are attempting the unsuccessful approach again here and being pulled into cycles rather than a concluding strike against the Yemeni terror organization. The elimination of the government leadership two weeks back was an initial sign in this war in the correct direction from Netanyahu, Katz, and Zamir, yet to confirm its impacts, additional strikes are required until the whole organization is demolished, and not pull Israeli citizens into the next cycle.
Concerning attacks generated by the Palestinian Authority, Netanyahu and Katz vow to broaden IDF action against terror bases in the camps in the upcoming weeks. Here, too, besides effective daily prevention by security forces, strategic security reasoning is required – if government ministers identify the Authority as the chief of the terror issue, why does it persist in its existence? The numerous arenas at our threshold demonstrate one fact, apart from the significance of a powerful army and vigilant intelligence: The Palestinian enemy is equipped and lethal and has not abandoned one established aspiration – eliminating the Jewish state. While this enemy possesses abilities and aims, Israel cannot afford to sleep on watch.
