Will He, Or Won’t He? That Is The Question As US Frustration With Netanyahu Mounts – Analysis

James M. Dorsey

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Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu appears determined to depopulate Gaza by hook or by crook, even if he has bowed to US pressure by agreeing to a reduced military presence in the Strip as part of a temporary ceasefire.The reduced presence, involving a withdrawal from the Morag Corridor that separates Rafah from the rest of Gaza, would complicate Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz’s plans to corral hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in a tent camp on the flattened ruins of the Strip’s southernmost city close to the Egyptian border. 

That hasn’t stopped Israel from seeking to depopulate Gaza by ensuring that the Strip is unliveable and uninhabitable in the hope that Palestinians will “voluntarily” relocate to a third country. While allowing some food and essential goods into Gaza after preventing any humanitarian aid from entering for 130 days, Israel continues to throttle the flow so that it remains far below what is needed.In addition, Israel complicates access to whatever aid makes it into Gaza by restricting distribution to the one site operated by the controversial Israel and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation near Rafah and some United Nations-managed points. 

Daily Israeli attacks kill tens of desperate Palestinians, as many risk travelling to the Foundation’s distribution hub or looting the UN convoys allowed entry.In what appeared to be an attempt to coerce Hamas into a ceasefire agreement, Israel this week issued a forced evacuation order for Palestinians in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. Israeli leaflets dropped urged Palestinians to leave because the military was about to “operate in areas where it has not operated in the past.

Simultaneously, Israel’s Arabic-language military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Avichay Adraee announced the imminent Israeli operation on X.Many of those Hamas commanders Israel has not killed are believedto be hiding in eastern parts of Deir al-Balah that have so far been spared the brunt of Israeli assaults. The families of Hamas’ remaining hostages, kidnapped during the group’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, fear that their loved ones may also be in eastern Deir al-Balah.