The lines of tanks, self-propelled artillery, armoured vehicles and army bulldozers stretch across the horizon near Israel\u2019s border with Gaza. Pointing towards the enclave, they are ready to go. <\/p>\n
And yet, for days, they haven\u2019t moved. <\/p>\n
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have amassed huge number of troops and military hardware along the border almost immediately after Hamas launched the deadliest ever terror attack on Israeli soil on October 7. On top of its regular force, the IDF has also called up 300,000 reservists who reported to their bases within hours. <\/p>\n
But despite the build-up and the widespread expectations that a ground incursion was imminent, the IDF has so far refrained from putting boots on the ground, focusing instead on a large-scale aerial bombardment. <\/p>\n
The inaction has prompted questions about Israel\u2019s strategy \u2013 and its planned endgame for Gaza. <\/p>\n
On top of everyone\u2019s mind is the fate of the more than 200 hostages who are still held by Hamas in Gaza and who could be endangered if Israel invades. <\/p>\n
The hostages include Israeli civilians and soldiers\u00a0as well as foreign nationals\u00a0and children as young as 9 months. Among them are scores of hostages holding foreign passports from 25 different countries,\u00a0including Mexico, Brazil, the United States, Germany and\u00a0Thailand,\u00a0according to the Israeli government. <\/p>\n
This makes the situation even more complicated for Israel, because it needs to consider its allies\u2019 interests. <\/p>\n
Four of the people held captive \u2013 two Israeli women and two American woman \u2013 have been released in recent days, giving hopes that more could follow. <\/p>\n
US President\u00a0Joe\u00a0Biden, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron all visited Israel in the past few days. All stressed that Israel has the right to defend itself and offered support. But each also urged caution and pressed for more time to negotiate. <\/p>\n
They have also emphasized the need to avoid\u00a0further\u00a0civilian casualties. <\/p>\n
The IDF says its strikes are targeting Hamas and its infrastructure, but the civilian death toll has been enormous.\u00a0According to health authorities in the Hamas-controlled enclave,\u00a0more than 5,790 people, including more than 2,000 children have been killed so far,\u00a0although President Biden has said he has \u201cno confidence\u201d in those figures. <\/p>\n
At least 35 UN staffers have also been killed in Gaza, the majority due to Israeli airstrikes, according to the United Nations. <\/p>\n
The bloodshed has prompted huge anger and condemnation across the Arab world, sparking fears that if the campaign continues, the war between Israel and Hamas could spiral into a regional conflict. <\/p>\n
This fear is likely among the factors considered by the Israeli government as it weights the pros and cons of a\u00a0major ground offensive following its current aerial campaign. <\/p>\n
While the IDF has poured most of its resources into the areas around the Gaza Strip, it has also clashed with Hezbollah at its border with Lebanon.\u00a0If Israel goes all in\u00a0on a ground operation\u00a0of Gaza, the powerful Iran-backed Islamist movement could\u00a0see an opportunity to\u00a0intervene and attack from the north. <\/p>\n
Israel and its allies have warned\u00a0Hezbollah\u00a0not to get involved. Nevertheless,\u00a0Hezbollah\u00a0leader Hassan Nasrallah met top officials from Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad on Wednesday, according to a statement issued by\u00a0Hezbollah. <\/p>\n
Many nations and\u00a0international aid organizations, including the United Nations, have also been pressuring Israel to hit pause and allow more aid to come into the enclave. <\/p>\n
Gaza has been under\u00a0blockade\u00a0by Israel and\u00a0Egypt\u00a0for years, but after the Hamas attack, Israel also cut off its electricity, food, water and\u00a0fuel supplies. Israel has said it restored water supply on October 15,\u00a0Gaza water authorities say however they cannot verify that because there is no electricity to run a pumping station. The United Nations says civilians still have no clean water access and have resorted to drinking to well water that is \u201cextremely high in salt and poses immediate health risks,\u201d\u00a0according to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric. <\/p>\n
UN Secretary General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres has\u00a0repeatedly\u00a0called for a humanitarian\u00a0ceasefire and told the UN Security Council\u00a0on Tuesday\u00a0that \u201cclear violations of international humanitarian law\u201d are being witnessed in Gaza. His statements, which also said that Hamas\u2019 attacks had not happened in a vacuum, prompted\u00a0calls for Guterres\u2019 resignation from Israeli diplomats\u00a0for his resignation. <\/p>\n
While the IDF has said it is ready\u00a0the decision to launch any action sits with Israeli government, headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. <\/p>\n
Netanyahu has been facing the worst crisis of his entire political career even before the attack by Hamas. His plans for a judicial overhaul have sparked months of large scale protests and demands for his resignation. <\/p>\n
The fact that\u00a0Hamas\u2019 October 7 attack\u00a0came as a surprise to his government, the IDF and the Israeli intelligence community has angered the nation.\u00a0Polls published in Israeli media suggest Netanyahu\u2019s approval ratings have dropped after the attack. <\/p>\n
Netanyahu has tried to quash some\u00a0of\u00a0this anger by appointing\u00a0an emergency war cabinet with opposition leaders, but there have been already been speculations in Israeli media about cracks emerging. <\/p>\n
Netanyahu has always been more risk-averse when it comes to major decisions and a full-scale invasion into Gaza comes with huge political risks domestically and internationally.\u00a0The brutality of the Hamas attack\u00a0sparked a huge wave of solidarity among Israel\u2019s allies. <\/p>\n
But this support might start waning if the already horrific civilian toll in Gaza continues to climb. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, other members of the unity government and the IDF are insisting Hamas has to be \u201ctotally eliminated.\u201d <\/p>\n
Perhaps to\u00a0dismiss the speculations of disagreement, Netanyahu issued a statement\u00a0on Monday saying he was full agreement with his defense minister and the army. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe back each other\u00a0and we back the IDF \u2013 our soldiers and our commanders,\u201d he said, adding,\u00a0\u201cWe make the decisions here and in the War\u00a0Cabinet\u00a0unanimously.\u201d <\/p>\n
But, at least for now, there seems to be no decision. Netanyahu addressed the nation on Wednesday evening, repeating once again that the government is \u201cpreparing for a ground incursion.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI will not detail when, how or how many, or the overall considerations that we are taking into account,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile on the Gaza border, the troops remain ready. It\u2019s a tense wait, with drones buzzing overhead and the constant sound of explosions echoing through the open space. <\/p>\n\n
The lines of tanks, self-propelled artillery, armoured vehicles and army bulldozers stretch across the horizon near Israel\u2019s border with Gaza. Pointing towards the enclave, they are ready to go. And yet, for days, they haven\u2019t moved. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have amassed huge number of troops and military hardware along the border almost immediately <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":10685,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10684","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}