Army operations in Gaza will not return captured Israelis, analyst says

A senior military correspondent for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Amos Harel, said the Israeli army’s war on the besieged Gaza Strip did not result in returning Israeli captives despite officials’ promising it would do so.

“Netanyahu continues to repeat his empty slogans [We will fight until victory], but in his case, this stems primarily from political survival considerations,” Harel said in an analysis published yesterday.

“Netanyahu realises that despite the growing popular support for an Israel-Hamas hostage deal, which may include difficult concessions, however, such a deal would lead to the dismantling of his government, because his far-right partners are likely to withdraw [from the coalition government] because of it.”

According to Harel, the War Cabinet is divided on the prisoner swap deal; on the one hand, Netanyahu, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer oppose a deal that includes a long-term ceasefire and the mass release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners, while on the other hand, National Unity Party ministers Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, and Shas head Aryeh Deri seem to support it, even at the expense of ending the fighting in Gaza.

Harel added that this largely means recognising Hamas’ victory in this round, due to strategic and defensive failures of enormous proportions.

According to Israeli figures, 136 Israeli and foreign nationals are still being held as prisoners of war in Gaza. During the humanitarian pause from 24-30 November, 86 Israeli and 24 foreign nationals were released, while Israel’s bombing and shelling campaign in Gaza has killed a number of others.

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