The announcement, first made public through the Israeli military’s English and Arabic channels on Sunday, was seemingly abrupt: the army was “pausing” daytime fighting along the vital humanitarian corridor in southern Gaza until further notice.
There was brief confusion over the scope of the ceasefire, but a clarification, this time in Hebrew, quickly followed, apparently aimed at domestic audiences. The statement said the change did not mean a halt to fighting in southern Gaza, which continued in the southernmost city of Rafah. Military officials said the daily ceasefire was only intended to facilitate increased distribution of food aid to the Strip, where international agencies have issued dire warnings about famine.
The strange choreography of messages was made even stranger by the government’s suggestion that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu first learned of the military’s plans through news reports and expressed his disapproval.
But analysts say the prime minister may have known about the plans and that each announcement was tailored to a different audience. The fiery remarks seem to reflect the conflicting pressures Netanyahu faces as he juggles demands from the Biden administration and the rest of the world with those of his own hardline government. His far-right coalition partners oppose any concessions in Gaza, and he counts on their support to stay in power.
The new policy for the humanitarian corridor took effect on Saturday, with troops suspending fighting from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day, military officials said, but Netanyahu implied he was not aware of the plan until Sunday morning.
“Typical Bibi,” Amos Harel, a military analyst at the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper, nicknamed Netanyahu. Like other experts, he said the announcement would not have come as a total surprise to him, even if military commanders had not provided an update on the exact timing of what they called a tactical shift.
“He wears a mask in all circumstances,” Harel said in an interview. “To the Americans, he needs to show he’s more committed to providing aid. To the Israeli audience, he can try for plausible deniability, saying, ‘I didn’t know.'”
A statement on Sunday from an anonymous government official, whose name and title cannot be published by custom, said Netanyahu had learned of the humanitarian ceasefire and found it unacceptable. The statement added that he was later assured that there was no change in military plans for the battle in Rafah, a southern Gaza city near the corridor that has been the focus of recent operations.
Shani Sasson, a spokesman for Kogat, an Israeli agency that oversees Palestinian policy and liaises with international organizations, said the move was intended to clear a backlog of more than 1,000 trucks that had already been inspected by Israel and were waiting on the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom crossing.
“We are asking aid organizations to receive and distribute the supplies,” Sasson said. “It’s up to them.”
The military’s action coincided with uncertainty over the start of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha and the fate of an Israeli proposal for a ceasefire with Hamas that would include the exchange of hostages and Palestinian prisoners. Officials said Hamas had demanded unworkable changes to the proposal, which was supported by the Biden administration and approved by the U.N. Security Council.
The “tactical pause” comes as Israel awaits a new international report on food insecurity in Gaza, due to be released this month. The previous report, in March, said: Warned He said half of Gaza’s population faces “catastrophic” food insecurity and imminent famine.
Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galant also face war crimes charges from the International Criminal Court in The Hague, where they are accused of using starvation as a weapon of war.
Israel has described Rafah as the last remaining Hamas battalion stronghold and its military operation there as the final phase of the war. Its forces now control a corridor along the southern Gaza border with Egypt that has long been a main route for smuggling arms into the Gaza Strip.
Israelis are increasingly wondering what will happen in the war and when it will end. Tolls on both sides are mounting: At least 10 Israeli soldiers were killed in fighting this weekend, and an 11th died from wounds sustained just days earlier.
The war began with a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7 that killed about 1,200 people, and more than 300 Israeli soldiers have been killed in fighting since then.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians, more than 37,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war so far.
Gadi Eisenkot, a former army commander and centrist politician who last week quit the war-time emergency government along with his party leader Benny Gantz, accused Netanyahu in an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 this weekend of putting his own political needs ahead of national security.
Eisenkot said the influence of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, one of Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners, was ever-present in war cabinet discussions even though he was not a member of that decision-making body.
Ben Gvir and far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich have openly criticized the military leadership throughout the war and have vowed to topple Netanyahu if he agrees to a cease-fire before Hamas is completely destroyed, a goal that many experts say is unattainable.
As expected, Ben Gvir was quick to criticize the military’s announcement of a humanitarian ceasefire on Sunday. Social Media PostsHe denounced it as “insane and delusional approach” and added that the “evil fools” who made the decision “should not remain in their positions.”
Ben Gvir did not specify who he was referring to.
Gaby Sobelman Contributed report.
