Israel: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused requests from security officials to make plans for Gaza after the end of war with Hamas while the Israeli forces expanded its ground offensive in the coastal strip, reported Guardian.
Meanwhile the death toll in Gaza since the start of war on October 7 has reached 21,000, as per the local health ministry with thousands more trapped under rubble, and 55,000 others injured. About 85 per cent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced while a latest food security assessment by the UN said that 90 per cent of Gaza is starving.
According to Israel’s Channel 12, three requests were conveyed to the prime minister’s office on behalf of the directors of the Mossad, the Shin Bet, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of staff and the defence ministry for a meeting to discuss “the day after” Israel declares it has achieved its goals against the Palestinian militant group in control of the Gaza Strip.
All the requests have been refused, the network reported. “Time is running out and decisions need to be made already about how to act with regard to all the relevant actors inside and outside the Gaza Strip. The Americans want explanations,” an unnamed security official was quoted as saying.
There are allegations against Netanyahu and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, that they have also turned down the requests to discuss the long-expected transition from the current “high intensity” stage of fighting to a new phrase focused on the more precise targeting of Hamas’s leaders.
