{"id":280824,"date":"2024-01-28T09:12:44","date_gmt":"2024-01-28T09:12:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=280824"},"modified":"2024-01-30T08:06:04","modified_gmt":"2024-01-30T08:06:04","slug":"israel-losing-war-in-gaza-commanders-admit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=280824","title":{"rendered":"Israel losing war in Gaza, commanders admit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ali Abuminah \u2013 The Electronic Intifada Jan 20,2024<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Israel is losing its war against the Palestinian resistance in Gaza, senior commanders have told The New York Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter more than 100 days of war, Israel\u2019s limited progress in dismantling Hamas has raised doubts within the military\u2019s high command about the near-term feasibility of achieving the country\u2019s principal wartime objectives: eradicating Hamas and also liberating the Israeli hostages still in Gaza,\u201d the newspaper reported<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael has established control over a smaller part of Gaza at this point in the war than it originally envisaged in battle plans from the start of the invasion, which were reviewed by The New York Times<\/em>,\u201d the paper added.<\/p>\n

The Israeli military leaders admit, according to the Times<\/em>, that their advances have \u201cbeen stymied by a Hamas infrastructure that was more sophisticated than Israeli intelligence officers previously assessed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Failure on the battlefield has led Israeli commanders \u201cto conclude that the freedom of more than 100 Israeli hostages still in Gaza can be secured only through diplomatic rather than military means,\u201d according to the Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Many of the Israelis remaining in Gaza are in fact military personnel \u2013 prisoners of war.<\/p>\n

The unnamed Israeli generals who spoke to the Times<\/em> consider that \u201ca drawn-out battle intended to fully dismantle Hamas would most likely cost the lives of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza,\u201d the paper states.<\/p>\n

The purpose of the leaks appears to increase the pressure on the Tel Aviv government led by Benjamin Netanyahu to end the war and seek a negotiated way out of Israel\u2019s predicament.<\/p>\n

The Times<\/em> cites one expert to bolster the Israeli generals\u2019 analysis.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically, it\u2019s a stalemate,\u201d Andreas Krieg, a lecturer in security studies at King\u2019s College London, told the Times<\/em>. \u201cIt\u2019s not an environment where you can free hostages.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you go into the tunnels and you try to free them with special forces, or whatever, you will kill them,\u201d Krieg added. \u201cYou either will kill them directly \u2013 or indirectly, in booby traps or in a firefight.\u201d<\/p>\n

That assessment is underscored by the accusations of Maya Sherman that the Israeli army killed her soldier son who was being held in Gaza.<\/p>\n

The Israeli army claims<\/a> it found the bodies of Ron Sherman and another Israeli prisoner of war in a resistance tunnel in Gaza last week.<\/p>\n

But Maya Sherman does not buy the official story that her son\u2019s cause of death could not be determined and accuses the Israeli army of gassing him to death.<\/p>\n

\u201cRon was indeed murdered,\u201d she asserted<\/a>. \u201cNot by Hamas, think more in the direction of Auschwitz and the showers but without Nazis and without Hamas. Not by accidental fire, not by friendly fire, but premeditated murder: bombs with poison gas,\u201d she wrote<\/a> in a Facebook post.<\/p>\n