Israeli army chief Herzi Halevi resigned on Tuesday, acknowledging his responsibility for the ‘failure’ to prevent a Palestinian Hamas attack on 7 October 2023, on the third day of a fragile ceasefire in Gaza.
Following the entry into force on Sunday of the first phase of the truce, which led to the release of three Israeli hostages and 90 Palestinian prisoners, the Islamist movement Hamas announced that it would free four other Israeli captives in the Gaza Strip on Saturday.
According to the Israeli army, ‘three or four more hostages’ are to be freed each week during this phase, which is due to last 42 days.
This marked the start of a process that is still uncertain and should, in principle, put an end to the war, which was triggered by the unprecedented attack by Hamas, which took power in Gaza in 2007.
‘Acknowledging my responsibility for the army's failure on 7 October’ 2023 in southern Israel, “I ask to be relieved of my duties”, wrote General Halevi in his letter of resignation.
But he admitted that ‘the objectives of the war (had) not all been achieved’, stressing that ‘the army will continue to fight to pursue the dismantling of Hamas’ and for ‘the return of (all) hostages’.
In the same breath, opposition leader Yair Lapid called for the resignation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. ‘Now it's time for them to assume their responsibilities and resign, the Prime Minister and his entire catastrophic government.’
The Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data. Of the 251 people kidnapped that day, 91 are still being held hostage in Gaza, 34 of them dead according to the army.
In retaliation, Israel launched a devastating offensive in the besieged Gaza Strip, killing at least 47,107 people, most of them civilians, according to data from the Hamas Ministry of Health, and causing a humanitarian disaster.
According to General Halevi, some ‘20,000 Hamas agents’ were killed during the war, as well as ‘the majority’ of its leadership.
After a year of laborious negotiations, Qatar and the United States, the two countries mediating with Egypt, announced a ceasefire agreement on 15 January, a few days before Donald Trump returned to the White House.
After his inauguration on Monday, Mr Trump nevertheless declared that he was ‘not sure’ that the truce would hold.
Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed ben Abdelrahmane Al-Thani called on Israel and Hamas to show ‘good faith’ in implementing the agreement.
Any violation or political decision ‘could obviously lead’ to its ‘collapse’, said the Qatari diplomatic spokesman.
‘I remain optimistic’ about the “success” of the truce, Yitzhak, a 59-year-old bus driver, said in Jerusalem. ‘Things will change now that Trump is in power.’
Congratulating Donald Trump on Monday, Benjamin Netanyahu repeated that he wanted to ‘destroy Hamas's military capabilities and put an end to its political power in Gaza’, after saying that he reserved the right to resume the war.
Hamas said that the truce depended on Israel ‘honouring its commitments’.
Considerably weakened, this movement is still far from being wiped out, according to experts.
After the truce, armed and hooded Hamas fighters were seen in parts of Gaza, while uniformed members of the security forces were deployed in several streets, according to AFP images.
‘What we want is order and security,’ said Abdelrahmane al-Bardawil in Gaza City (north). ‘The government has deployed in force’, he was pleased to say.
During the first phase of the truce, 33 Israeli hostages are to be released in exchange for around 1,900 Palestinians held by Israel, and the Israeli army is to withdraw from areas of Gaza.
During the same period, 600 lorries of humanitarian aid are due to enter the Palestinian territory every day. On Monday, 915 lorries entered the territory, according to the UN.
Meanwhile, thousands of Palestinians, displaced like almost all of the territory's 2.4 million inhabitants, returned to their homes amid mountains of rubble to find the ruins. In Jabalia (north), residents have set up tents in front of their destroyed homes.
According to the UN, it will take up to 15 years to rebuild the territory, where almost 70% of buildings have been damaged or destroyed.
The rest of the timetable for the truce agreement remains uncertain. The terms of the second phase, which should see the definitive end of the war and the release of all hostages, are due to be negotiated over the next six weeks.
If the first two stages go according to plan, the third and final stage will involve the reconstruction of Gaza and the return of the bodies of the dead hostages.
In the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, the Israeli army announced that it had launched a military operation in Jenin to ‘eradicate terrorism ’Ten Palestinians were killed, according to the Palestinian Authority.
And in Tel Aviv, four people were injured, one of them seriously, in a knife attack, the emergency services announced. The assailant, described as a ‘terrorist’ by the police, was killed.
With AFP.
Comments