By Ephraim Agbo
After ten tense hours behind closed doors, Israel’s security cabinet stepped out with a decision that could reshape the war — or poison it beyond repair. By majority vote, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has approved an audacious push to seize Gaza City and lock it under Israeli control.
The mission’s stated objectives are sweeping:
- Disarm Hamas.
- Demilitarize Gaza.
- Recover all hostages — living or dead.
- Maintain Israeli security control indefinitely.
- Install a civilian administration excluding both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.
Ministers pledged that “humanitarian aid” will reach civilians outside combat zones. But that promise collides with a reality in which neighborhoods are already rubble, clean water is a rarity, and the dead number over 61,000.
Even Israel’s own Chief of Staff reportedly warned the plan is a dangerous overreach — one that could drag the IDF into months of urban warfare, endanger hostages, and deepen Israel’s global isolation.
A Father’s Fury
For Yehuda Cohen, the plan is personal — and unforgivable. His son, Nimrod, was dragged into Gaza by Hamas nearly two years ago. The cabinet’s announcement only fuels his rage:
“Every few months there’s a new plan — more political than military. Netanyahu doesn’t care about the hostages. Dead hostages are easier — no deals, no survivors to tell their stories. Once you convince the public they’re gone, you can bomb everything.”
Cohen’s words pierce through the political theater. To him, this isn’t strategy. It’s a betrayal — proof that the lives of citizens can be weighed and discarded in the balance of power.
From Gaza: A Voice in the Ruins
In Gaza City, Hamid Fathi Al-Qaid has already buried most of his extended family — thirty-five loved ones lost. Standing amid shattered concrete and silence, he warns:
“Yes, Hamas must be defeated. But retaking Gaza City again changes nothing in the long run. Without Palestinian Authority approval, no serious international force will help rebuild or govern. This plan risks wiping Gaza City off the map and killing the hostages too.”
His warning mirrors what diplomats and aid agencies are already saying: Gaza’s humanitarian collapse is accelerating, and this offensive could turn survival itself into a political bargaining chip.
The Question Israel Won’t Ask Out Loud
To its backers, this is strength — a final blow to Hamas. To its critics, it’s political brinkmanship dressed as security, a plan designed to extend the war rather than end it.
And behind the speeches, the press releases, the careful wording, lurks the question that hostage families whisper but leaders will never answer:
In the cold equations of power, are hostages worth more dead than alive?
No comments:
Post a Comment