Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has been give 3 weeks to come up with a end game plan for the Israeli/Hamas conflict by Benny Gantz, who sits on the Israeli war cabinet…..
Gantz stepping out of the government would probably end the Netanyahu control of the government….
Gantz wants …’ a six-point plan to bring back the hostages, address the future governance of Gaza, return displaced Israelis to their homes and advance normalization with Saudi Arabia, among other issues.’…..
All this while Israeli troops (IDF) still is ingaged in fighting with Hamas forces in Norther Gaza…..
I highlight the Gaza conflict economy below and it’s hit and miss operation….
Benny Gantz, a centrist member of Israel’s war cabinet, said on Saturday that he would soon leave the country’s emergency wartime government unless Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu worked to immediately answer major questions about the future of Israel’s war.
“If you choose the path of zealots, dragging the country into the abyss, we will be forced to leave the government,” Mr. Gantz said in a televised news conference. “We will turn to the people and build a government that will earn the people’s trust.”
Mr. Gantz, who leads the National Unity party, said he would give Mr. Netanyahu until Jun. 8 — about three weeks — to reach an agreement in Israel’s war cabinet on a six-point plan to bring back the hostages, address the future governance of Gaza, return displaced Israelis to their homes and advance normalization with Saudi Arabia, among other issues.
His party’s departure would not by itself topple Mr. Netanyahu’s government, which would still hold 64 seats in the 120-member Parliament. But it would end a fragile wartime partnership that helped keep Israel unified and provided Mr. Netanyahu’s hard-line coalition with more moderate faces, boosting the country’s legitimacy abroad.
In a statement, Mr. Netanyahu fired back that Mr. Gantz was essentially calling for “Israeli defeat” and would allow Hamas to remain in power. He also said Mr. Gantz was “choosing to place ultimatums for the prime minister, rather than for Hamas.”….
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Israeli forces said on Saturday that they had recovered the body of Ron Binyamin, 53, an Israeli man held hostage in Gaza since the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7. On the morning of the attack, Mr. Binyamin — a husband and father of two daughters — had set out on a bicycle ride with friends near Be’eri, a small kibbutz near the Gaza border. Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military spokesman, said Hamas militants killed Mr. Binyamin and took his body back to Gaza, where his remains were retrieved on Thursday night along with those of Yitzhak Gelernter, Shani Louk and Amit Buskila.
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The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a group representing relatives of those captured on Oct. 7 during the Hamas-led attack on Israel, said a rally on Saturday evening in Tel-Aviv drew a crowd of 100,000 people. Ambassadors to Israel from the United States, England, Germany and Austria all spoke, pledging to continue their efforts to secure a deal to bring home the hostage.
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Israeli ground forces pressed onward in the eastern outskirts of the city of Rafah on Saturday, the Israeli military said. Strikes and artillery fire have continued to resound across the area, according to aid officials sheltering in western Rafah. In a statement on Saturday morning, Hamas said its fighters had fired on Israeli troops in eastern Rafah and close to the Rafah border crossing. Although Israel has labeled the operation “limited,” the United Nations aid agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, said on Saturday that 800,000 people have had to leave Rafah, while satellite imagery shows widening destruction.
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The White House national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, was visiting Saudi Arabia on Saturday for talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and was scheduled to be in Israel on Sunday, where he was to meet with officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The White House national security spokesman, John Kirby, said on Friday that Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Netanyahu would discuss hostage talks, the humanitarian crisis and the “enduring defeat of Hamas through both military pressure and a political plan.” Israel and Hamas have held indirect negotiations in an attempt to reach a deal that would free at least some hostages in exchange for a cease-fire, but they appear to be stalled.
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Gaza shake’s off the destruction and births a war conflict economy…..(That runs on Israeli shekels)
In the seven months since Israel started bombarding Gaza and imposed a siege in response to the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack, the enclave’s economy has been crushed. People have been forced to flee their homes and jobs. Markets, factories and infrastructure have been bombed and flattened. Farmland has been scorched by airstrikes or occupied by Israeli forces.
In its place, a war economy has arisen. It is a marketplace of survival focused on the basics: food, shelter and money.
Humanitarian aid labeled “Not for resale” and looted items end up in makeshift markets. People can earn a few dollars a day evacuating displaced people on the backs of trucks and donkey carts, while others dig toilets or make tents from plastic sheeting and salvaged wood…
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The economy is now largely driven by the restricted supply and desperate demand for aid. Before the war, some 500 trucks carrying humanitarian aid, fuel and commercial goods entered the Gaza Strip each day.
After the war began and new Israeli restrictions were imposed, that number fell significantly, to 113 a day on average, though it has increased modestly in recent months. Even with the improvements, it is far below what aid agencies say is necessary to feed Gazans….
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Residents say that officials and ministries associated with the Hamas-run government are present in some capacity, especially in the south.
While some Gazans say the police have tried to force war profiteers from selling goods at inflationary prices, others have accused Hamas of benefiting from looted aid….
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May 18, 2024 – ISW Press
Israeli forces expanded clearing operations in eastern Rafah on May 18. The IDF 401st Brigade is “deepening the raid” in eastern Rafah, according to the IDF. Israeli forces destroyed militia infrastructure and killed about 50 Palestinian fighters in the area. Israeli forces also destroyed a weapons production site. An IDF lieutenant colonel said that the IDF has begun attacking Hamas’ Rafah Brigade. Several Palestinian militias claimed attacks targeting Israeli forces in the al Tanour neighborhood, indicating that Israeli forces have advanced to the area. A Palestinian journalist reported that Israeli forces advanced and engaged Palestinian fighters in the Jninah and Brazil neighborhoods in eastern Rafah.
image…The Times of Israel