JERUSALEM — On Tuesday, Israel’s top military commander resigned, citing intelligence and security failures preceding Hamas’s surprise attack that ignited the Gaza war.
Simultaneously, Israel launched a major military operation in Jenin, West Bank. According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, this operation resulted in at least six deaths and 35 injuries.
Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, the highest-ranking Israeli official to resign in response to the October 7th security breaches, acknowledged the military’s failure to adequately defend Israel.
The October 7th attack, involving a land, sea, and air assault by Hamas, resulted in the deaths of approximately 1,200 individuals, mostly civilians, and the capture of over 90 people, with an estimated one-third of the captives now deceased.
In his resignation letter, effective March 6th, Halevi stated that the military, under his leadership, had failed in its duty to protect Israel. His term, originally scheduled for three years, began in January 2023.
Israel previously announced a large-scale military operation against Palestinian militants in Jenin, a city that has experienced repeated Israeli incursions and clashes with militants in recent years, even before the October 7th attack.
This latest operation occurred shortly after the commencement of a six-week ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza, which includes the phased release of 33 militant prisoners in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians held by Israel. The first release of prisoners happened on Sunday.
Israel gained control of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem during the 1967 Middle East war. Palestinians aspire to establish an independent state encompassing these territories.
The ceasefire does not extend to the West Bank, which has witnessed escalating violence since the war’s onset. Israeli forces have conducted numerous operations there.
Attacks on Palestinians by Jewish extremists have also increased, including a violent incident in two Palestinian villages on Monday night, coupled with retaliatory Palestinian attacks on Israelis.
Hamas denounced the Israeli operation in Jenin, urging Palestinians in the occupied West Bank to intensify attacks.
Islamic Jihad, a smaller and more radical militant group, also condemned the operation, viewing it as a sign of Israel’s failure in Gaza and a desperate attempt by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to shore up his coalition.
Netanyahu has faced criticism from his far-right allies concerning the ceasefire, which involves Israeli troop withdrawals from populated Gaza areas and the release of numerous Palestinian prisoners, including those convicted of deadly attacks on Israelis.
The ceasefire has already shown Hamas retaining firm control of Gaza, despite fifteen months of war that resulted in tens of thousands of Palestinian deaths and…
One of Netanyahu’s former coalition partners, Itamar Ben-Gvir, left the coalition on the day the ceasefire began, weakening but not destroying Netanyahu’s parliamentary majority. Another right-wing leader, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, has threatened to leave the coalition if Israel doesn’t resume the war after the ceasefire’s first six weeks.
Israel’s military campaign has caused the deaths of over 47,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to local health authorities. They report that women and children constitute over half the casualties, but don’t specify the number of combatants among the dead.
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