Israel’s defense minister pushed back against international calls for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, saying the current phase of the operation against the Hamas militant group could go on for months.
“Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday rejected international pressure for a ceasefire in Gaza and signaled the brutal assault will continue for months or even longer.
In just over two months of Israel’s campaign in Gaza, at least 18,000 Palestinians have been killed, including over 7,000 children, and over 49,000 have been injured. The casualty numbers provided by Gaza’s Health Ministry are believed to be lower than the true death toll as they do not account for bodies stuck under the rubble.
On top of the massive death toll from Israel’s airstrikes and ground operations, health services in Gaza have collapsed, and Palestinians are facing severe food shortages. The international charity Doctors Without Borders has said its employees in southern Gaza have seen ‘the complete collapse of health care services in the area, along with the rest of the health care system in Gaza’.
The horrific scenes coming out of Gaza have prompted more calls for peace and negotiations, but the U.S. is not fazed and continues to provide unconditional military support for Israel and vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire.
Speaking to The Associated Press, Gallant said Israel’s war in Gaza would ‘take time’ and suggested that the current phase of the war, which involves constant airstrikes and heavy ground fighting, will last for weeks and that further military action against ‘pockets of resistance’ would continue for months.
National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi made similar comments over the weekend, saying that the time it will take to achieve Israel’s goals on Gaza ‘cannot be measured in weeks … and I’m not sure it can be measured in months’. Financial Times recently reported that Israel expects its operations in Gaza to last over a year.
Israeli officials are claiming they’ve killed 7,000 Hamas fighters since October 7th, but the number is not confirmed”. -Dave DeCamp, Antiwar
As international condemnation of Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip has progressively increased over the past nine weeks, the Israeli government runs the risk of losing American support for its offensive in Gaza the longer its war on Hamas persists.