Six months of war

Netanyahu is coming under enormous pressure, both at home and abroad, by his handling of the war.

- AJAY SINGH

As the Gaza war enters its seventh month, Israel is no closer to attaining its military aims than it was when it began. Their offensive has nothing to show, except for the destruction of Gaza, around 33,000 civilian casualties, the displacement of over 1.7 million, a likely escalation of the war, increasing global isolation and a growing divide within Israel itself in the manner in which the war has been conducted and the direction in which it is headed.

Israeli forces have rampaged the way from Gaza city in the north, then towards Khan Younis in the South, and now are poised for operations in the southernmost tip of Gaza—Rafah, where they claim three Hamas battalions and the remnants of the Hamas leadership have been hemmed in. An offensive to clear this last enclave will be merely a repeat of their actions earlier—an indiscriminate bludgeoning that will attain nothing tangible, but cause even higher casualties amongst the 1 million Gazans concentrated there. Even though Netanyahu has promised to go ahead with the Rafah offensive, world pressure and the fact that even the USA has called the impending offensive as “The crossing of a red line,” may hold their hand.