"We will occupy Gaza and we will stay there for a long time."

After the government approved the launch of a new major offensive, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also intervened with a short video: "We will launch a massive operation in Gaza. To defeat Hamas and free the hostages. There will be a movement of the population to protect them. This time the army will not enter and exit Gaza as in the past, the reserve forces will be mobilized to remain in the occupied territory for a long time ," he said.

War plans that include the "conquest" of the Strip and the maintenance of the captured territory, with the forced expulsion of the Palestinians. And that have thrown the hostages' families into panic . Tensions, already high in the country, have skyrocketed. Families have reached the Knesset to protest and ask the reservists to refuse to fight. Dozens of protesters have blocked the roads leading to government offices in Jerusalem, with clashes between demonstrators and security .

The offensive, however, will not begin immediately: the army will wait for the conclusion of the trip of the American president Donald Trump to the Gulf countries, from 13 to 16 May . A time window for the ultimatum of Israel to Hamas: an agreement on the truce and the release of the hostages in the next ten days, otherwise the operation 'Gideon's Chariots' will be unleashed (biblical figure known for having led a small Israelite army against a numerically superior enemy, managing to defeat him).

In recent days, and in the run-up to the cabinet meeting, Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir warned the prime minister and ministers of the risks: "Israel could lose the hostages if it launches a large-scale operation in the Strip," he made clear. This danger does not seem to worry the far-right minister Bezalel Smotrich , who during the heated nightly discussions of the political cabinet, and the clash with the head of the IDF, argued that the war should be used to re-establish the Israeli settlements in the Strip , dismantled in 2005 with a unilateral decision by the then prime minister Ariel Sharon.

(Unioneonline/L)

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