Israeli military and political officials are reported to be increasingly critical of prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu over his refusal to discuss plans for the aftermath of the conflict in Gaza.
Channel 12 TV News has quoted Israeli officials accusing Mr Netanyahu of repeatedly postponing such a discussion to avoid revealing a plan to give the Palestinian Authority a role in the administration of civilian affairs after Hamas has been dislodged.
Such a move could prompt his far-right coalition partners to quit the government.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Israel’s strategic affairs minister Ron Dermer have met in Washington to discuss planning for the aftermath of the war, including governance and security in the coastal enclave. US secretary of state Antony Blinken is due in the region next week for his fifth visit since the start of the war.
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Meanwhile, the two most prominent far-right ministers, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, have demanded that Israel either stop allowing humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip or change the way in which it is delivered, in response to reports that Hamas has been stealing some of the aid. Government officials insist that allowing the humanitarian aid into Gaza is vital for receiving US support.
The fighting continued across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday. The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) ordered residents to leave more than a dozen areas as troops pushed deeper into central Gaza, including Bureij and Nuseirat refugee camps. According to the United Nations, the affected areas were home to nearly 90,000 people before the war and include six shelters hosting about 61,000 displaced people.
The residents were told to move immediately to shelters in the nearby town of Deir al-Balah, where hundreds of thousands of refugees have already fled.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said 21,110 people have been killed in the war, which began on October 7th when Hamas gunmen stormed into Israel killing 1,200 people and kidnapping 240.
Jordan’s King Abdullah and Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah Al-Sissi said after a summit in Cairo on Wednesday that they rejected any Israeli move to expel Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
In a statement, both leaders also said the international community should pressure Israel to agree to an immediate ceasefire and allow enough aid into Gaza.
The bitter rhetoric between Israel and Turkey deteriorated further on Wednesday when Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan likened Mr Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler.
“They used to speak ill of Hitler. What difference do you have from Hitler? Is what this Netanyahu is doing any less than what Hitler did? It is not,” he said.
Mr Netanyahu responded by noting that the Israeli army is battling “the most despicable and cruel terrorist organisation” Hamas while Erdogan is “praising them and hosting their senior officials”.
“Erdogan is committing genocide of the Kurds, has broken the world record for imprisoning journalists who critique his government, and is the last person who can morally lecture us,” he said.
The Palestinian Red Crescent reported that six people were killed and four wounded in an Israeli military drone attack on a vehicle in Nur Shams, a refugee camp close to the city of Tulcarem in the occupied West Bank. The IDF said six “armed terrorists” were killed in the air strike after they threw explosive devices at troops which Israel said were carrying out an operation to arrest militant fugitives.
Heavy exchanges of fire continued on Israel’s northern border on Wednesday as Israel’s top general lieut gen Herzl Halevi said that the army remains “on high alert” for a further escalation.
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2023
