In Israel, they spoke about a plan to eliminate the top leadership of Hamas

The Israeli military’s upcoming offensive in southern Gaza is driven by the belief that intelligence gathered from hundreds of militants captured during the fighting in the north will allow them to find and destroy Hamas leaders, The Observer writes.

Israeli politicians and generals believe that removing top commanders – and Gaza faction leader Yahya Sinwar – is their best chance of triggering the collapse of an organization that is deeply entrenched in Gaza after nearly two decades of control of the Palestinian enclave.

Two current military officials with knowledge of the strategy for the next phase confirmed that the focus will be on using new intelligence to combat Hamas leaders.

Critics say the new strategy will do little so far to reduce the high cost of civilian life during the campaign.

Hopes for a new truce, which had been buoyed by Qatari and Egyptian mediators since the fighting began, faded over the weekend even as French President Emmanuel Macron said he was heading to Doha to work on a new agreement.

Both sides, which blamed each other for the failure of the original agreement, have publicly hardened their positions. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the Mossad delegation to return from Qatar, where it was negotiating a possible second truce, saying Hamas “has not fulfilled its part of the agreement, which included the release of all children and women according to the list that was handed over.” Hamas and approved by it.”

A senior Hamas official then told Al Jazeera that there would be no more hostage releases until a ceasefire was reached and all Palestinian detainees in Israel were released. “Let the war take its course. This decision is final. We will not compromise on this issue,” said Hamas deputy head Saleh al-Arouri.

The prospect of a military offensive in the south has spread terror in Gaza, where four out of five people have already fled their homes to crowded shelters, schools, tents and hospital corridors.

Since the end of a week-long truce, the area has come under increasing bombardment. Some 1.5 million civilians are facing a second displacement from what Israel initially considered safe to an even smaller part of Gaza.

Even Israel’s closest ally, the United States, has warned it must do more to protect civilians as it pursues Hamas in the latest round of fighting. US Vice President Kamala Harris, speaking on the sidelines of the Cop28 summit, said Israel has the right to defend itself, but not at any cost.

“As Israel defends itself, it matters how,” she said. – The United States is unequivocal: international humanitarian law must be respected. Too many innocent Palestinians have been killed.”

In Britain, opposition leader Keir Starmer also warned Israel against waging a war in southern Gaza that would be as bloody as its campaign in the north. “We cannot go back to the way the first phase of this war was fought,” he said. “Too many people, innocent individuals, have died in Israel and throughout Gaza… We must view this as a different phase.”

The Israeli military offensive has killed some 15,200 people, including at least 6,000 children and 4,000 women, according to Hamas-controlled Gaza authorities. They say more than 200 Palestinians were killed in the first 36 hours after the ceasefire was violated.

Under U.S. pressure over civilian deaths, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) views the total elimination of Hamas’ leadership as its best hope of achieving its goals of dismantling the paramilitary organization, forcing the return of Israeli hostages on acceptable terms, and ending the war within an acceptable time frame. for Washington.

“We are under American pressure, which is getting tougher. The American demand is to get rid of Hamas but stop killing so many civilians, says Yossi Alpher, an analyst and former Mossad official. – You can’t dismantle the infrastructure without killing a lot of people, but perhaps you can attack the leadership and eliminate [ХАМАС] thus, without killing many people.”

The Israeli government has designated the group’s Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar as its top target following the Oct. 7 attacks that launched the war, with Hamas killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians. But in the first stage of fighting inside Gaza, troops mainly captured territory and destroyed infrastructure. Israeli military officials previously admitted to The Observer that while Israel has killed a significant number of mid-level field commanders, it has failed to eliminate any of the group’s senior leadership.

Yahya Sinwar and other senior leaders are directing the movement from a vast network of tunnels under Gaza, and the Israeli military now believes they may be sheltering beneath the town of Khan Younis, which has been the target of attacks since the truce broke down.

More than 50 rockets hit targets in and around the city on Saturday, while at least nine people, including three children, were killed when a house was hit in the city of Deir al-Balah, also in the south, according to a hospital. where the bodies were taken.

There were also strikes in the north, where the casualties included renowned scientist Sufyan Tayeh, president of the Islamic University of Gaza and a leading researcher in physics and applied mathematics. He was killed along with his family, Reuters reports.

A military spokesman said Saturday afternoon that the IDF was focusing its attention on Hamas’ “centers of gravity” spread throughout the Gaza Strip.

“The IDF has learned its lessons. The goal will be to bring the war closer to the leaders so they can better negotiate the release of the hostages,” said Koby Michael, an expert at the Institute for International Security Studies in Tel Aviv. Any information will likely be fed into an artificial intelligence-based system called Habsora for “rapid target identification.”

Many experts are skeptical of claims that artificial intelligence systems have reduced harm to civilians by encouraging more precise targeting, pointing to widespread destruction of entire neighborhoods and death tolls in Gaza.

Last night Britain said it was stepping up efforts to find the hostages in Gaza. The Ministry of Defense will conduct reconnaissance flights over the Eastern Mediterranean. The British aircraft will be unarmed and only information relevant to the hostage rescue will be passed on to the appropriate authorities.

Israel’s allies and critics alike have warned that it has failed to make plans for Gaza’s post-war future, when rebuilding and managing the shattered enclave will pose a huge challenge; The UN says 60% of the housing stock has been damaged or destroyed. Concerns are likely to be heightened by Israeli plans to create a buffer zone on the Palestinian side of the Gaza border to prevent future attacks, which Reuters reported have been reported to regional powers and confirmed by a key Netanyahu aide. The prospect of closing part of the already small enclave is likely to spark anger in Gaza and beyond.