As renewed ceasefire efforts continue to falter, Israel is pressing forward with what its military is calling the “second phase” of a 19-month war with the Palestinian Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip.
Officially referred to as “Gideon’s Chariots,” the operation has given rise to reports that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) was planning through the latest round of hostilities to indefinitely hold parts of Gaza, further restricting movement for Hamas and more than two million Palestinians who live in the war-torn territory.
“Our target is to dismantle Hamas’ military and governing capabilities,” IDF spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said in response to Newsweek‘s question during a recent virtual press briefing. “Our way to do that is to fight them, hold the ground, make sure we take away their infrastructure.”
Shoshani acknowledged growing speculation that the Israeli military aimed to retain open-ended control of vast parts of Gaza, a notion reinforced by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s comments Monday in which he stated that “our large-scale entry is essentially about taking control of all of Gaza and stripping Hamas of any ability to loot humanitarian aid.”
“We explained this was something we’re doing to further advance our military goals, to fight Hamas,” Shoshani said. “And when the agreement was set in place, we were able to fold everything and leave within hours. So, for us, our presence on the ground is to fight is to fight terror and to fight Hamas, to make sure we do that in an effective way.”
‘Lessons Learned’
Israel has been engaged in the longest and deadliest war in its history since October 7, 2023, when Hamas led a bloody surprise attack, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 more, according to Israeli officials. Of those taken captive, 58 hostages are still believed to be in Gaza, less than half of whom are thought to be alive today.
More than 400 Israeli personnel have been killed since the IDF launched ground operations in Gaza.
The Hamas-controlled Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza has thus far recorded more than 53,600 deaths throughout the war, without distinguishing between combatants and non-combatants. Thousands more have been killed elsewhere, including in Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank, as a result of Israeli military action, according to local monitors, media outlets and authorities.
Israel has claimed staggering losses among the ranks of Hamas: up to 17,000 fighters, including top leaders like Mohammed Sinwar, who was killed in a strike last week in southern Gaza. Sinwar is the brother of Yahya Sinwar, the group’s previous leader who was killed in October. Yet Hamas has demonstrated a capacity throughout the war to continue recruiting and replacing senior figures.
Asked about what sets this operation apart from past offensives in Gaza throughout the ongoing conflict, Shoshani said that the IDF was adapting its tactics to prevent Hamas from retaking territory previously cleared by Israeli troops.
“Whenever we finish fighting somewhere, we ask ourselves what we did and what we didn’t do that was right, and try to be more efficient next time,” Shoshani said. “I think one thing we saw at the beginning of the war, and we got a lot better at it as time goes by—not to say we haven’t done that, but we have also got a lot better at it—is really having a thorough process of digging up the infrastructure underground, making sure that those terrorists are not hiding or running away to hide behind civilians and then grouping once we leave an area.”
Now, the IDF “will stay and hold the ground in areas we’ve already fought for longer,” he said, asserting that “we have to be a smart army,” especially given Hamas’ own prowess for learning from the battlefield.
“Hamas is also learning throughout this war, having their lessons learned. We have to have our lessons learned,” Shoshani said. “We have to make sure that our knowledge is improving faster than their knowledge of our ways, that our knowledge of their ways is improving faster than theirs.”
On Sunday, British daily The Times reported on a leaked map purporting to show plans by the IDF to force civilians into three areas in north, central and south Gaza, while establishing four zones of Israeli military control throughout the rest of the territory.
Pressed for comment on the map, an IDF spokesperson told Newsweek that the Israeli military “doesn’t disclose its forces’ locations.”
While the IDF’s strategy may be shifting, Israeli officials assert that the goals outlined by Netanyahu at the onset of the conflict remain unchanged.
“The objectives of this war—that Iran-backed Hamas terrorists initiated on October 7—remain unchanged: bringing home every single hostage still brutally held in Hamas captivity and ending Hamas as a dangerous political force on Israel’s southern border,” Israeli spokesperson to the United Nations Jonathan Harounoff told Newsweek.
Backlash Abroad
The new IDF operation is also distinguished by a growing level of condemnation emanating from abroad, both from NGOs and governments, including those allied with the United States.
“The Israeli authorities’ decision to allow a ridiculously inadequate amount of aid into Gaza after months of an air-tight siege signals their intention to avoid the accusation of starving people in Gaza, while in fact keeping them barely surviving,” Pascale Coissard, Doctors Without Borders emergency coordinator in Khan Younis, said in a statement shared with Newsweek on Tuesday.
“This plan is a way to instrumentalize aid,” he added, “making it a tool to further Israeli forces’ military objectives.”
Zoe Daniels, International Rescue Committee country director for the Palestinian territories, argued Tuesday that “the decision to allow limited food aid to enter Gaza barely scratches the surface of what is needed.”
“We are encouraged to see nine trucks with nutrition supplies entering yesterday – the first aid to enter Gaza in over ten weeks,” Daniels said in a statement shared with Newsweek. “But what people in Gaza need is consistent, sustained access to all essential supplies—not just food and medicine, but also water, fuel, and hygiene items. Without this, humanitarian operations cannot function.”
A number of U.S. allies have also criticized the level of aid being allowed to pass into Gaza, while also condemning Israel’s decision to conduct new operations in Gaza despite ongoing ceasefire negotiations in Qatar.
Canada, France and the United Kingdom issued a joint statement Wednesday in which they asserted that the “level of human suffering in Gaza is intolerable,” while calling on Israel “to stop its military operations in Gaza and immediately allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza.”
“Israel suffered a heinous attack on 7 October,” the joint statement read. “We have always supported Israel’s right to defend Israelis against terrorism. But this escalation is wholly disproportionate.”
“We will not stand by while the Netanyahu Government pursues these egregious actions,” it continued. “If Israel does not cease the renewed military offensive and lift its restrictions on humanitarian aid, we will take further concrete actions in response.”
The three nations also expressed their support for the ceasefire efforts being pursued by Egypt, Qatar and the U.S., hoping to revive a post-war plan put forth by Egypt and endorsed by the Arab League in March. That framework would see international peacekeepers deployed to Gaza and the West Bank, with Gaza put under the temporary control of an administrative committee made of independent Palestinians until being handed to a reformed Palestinian National Authority.
Netanyahu hit back at the joint statement, writing on social media that, “by asking Israel to end a defensive war for our survival before Hamas terrorists on our border are destroyed and by demanding a Palestinian state, the leaders in London, Ottawa and Paris are offering a huge prize for the genocidal attack on Israel on October 7 while inviting more such atrocities.”
Other Western countries such as Ireland, Norway, Spain and Sweden have also recently issued statements criticizing Israel’s new offensive, as have more than a dozen nations elsewhere across the globe, including much of the Arab world, Bolivia, Chile, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan and Turkey.
Iran, which backs Hamas and acts as the head of the Axis of Resistance coalition that has conducted attacks from Israel on multiple fronts, has also repeatedly condemned Israel’s actions in Gaza.
Meanwhile, protests continue to erupt worldwide, including across U.S. college campuses. President Donald Trump‘s administration has issued warnings to a number of universities over allegations of antisemitism at such demonstrations.
Most of the opposition to the war has been expressed peacefully, yet violence has emerged. Two young Israeli diplomats were shot dead Wednesday night in Washington, D.C., by a gunman who shouted “free, free Palestine” upon being detained by authorities. The FBI called the attack an act of targeted anti-Semitic violence.
Rift Between Trump and Netanyahu
Despite criticism over the amount of assistance now being let into Gaza, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio welcomed Israel’s decision to allow some level of aid to pass through, a move he credited to engagement from the Trump administration during testimony delivered before the Senate on Tuesday.
Since winning the presidential election in November, Trump has vowed to put an end to the war that has rattled the Middle East. His Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, is widely credited with playing a crucial role in reaching a breakthrough on a ceasefire proposal first outlined by former President Joe Biden last year, leading to a temporary truce that began a day before Trump’s inauguration in January.
The deal broke down in March, however, with Israel restricting aid into Gaza and soon resuming attacks. U.S. officials have since attempted to revamp ceasefire talks and even engaged directly with Hamas earlier this month to secure the release of dual U.S.-Israeli citizen Edan Alexander.
Israel-Hamas talks have been playing out amid ongoing Israeli operations in Gaza for the past couple weeks, though little progress has been recorded. Netanyahu’s office announced Tuesday that the premier had recalled senior delegation officials, citing what it claimed to be Hamas’ refusal to agree to a framework outlined by Witkoff.
The developments have been accompanied by indications of a growing rift between Trump and Netanyahu, including the White House’s decision to pursue direct talks with Hamas and its negotiation of a ceasefire with Yemen’s Ansar Allah — widely known as the Houthi movement — which did not include the group’s attacks on Israel. The administration is simultaneously pursuing direct nuclear talks with Iran and has pledged to lift sanctions on Syria.
The divide between the two leaders has been downplayed by officials on both sides, however, and a U.S. State Department spokesperson said that the administration was placing the blame on Hamas for the conflict due to what said to be repeated rejections of ceasefire offers.
“President Trump has made clear the consequences Hamas will face if it continues to hold the hostages, including the bodies of four Americans,” the State Department spokesperson said. “Hamas has rejected repeated ceasefire proposals and therefore bears sole responsibility for this conflict.”
The State Department spokesperson with whom Newsweek spoke also referred to earlier remarks made by Rubio during an interview with CBS News on Sunday.
“What the President is saying is he doesn’t want to end the war until Hamas is defeated,” Rubio told CBS News, as highlighted by the State Department spokesperson.
“Now that doesn’t mean that there isn’t some way that we can achieve that through a cease-fire and some peace mechanism… That remains our goal, and that’s what we continue to be focused on,” Rubio said at the time. “But in the absence of such an agreement, we anticipate that Israel will continue forward with their operations.”
Hamas Questions Trump
Hamas had initially welcomed the opportunity to speak directly with the Trump administration, considering Alexander’s release a “goodwill gesture” to the White House. The group has since somewhat softened its messaging against the U.S. in public statements, though it continues to condemn Trump’s proposal for the resettlement of Palestinians away from Gaza, a vision endorsed by Netanyahu.
Newsweek has reached out to Hamas for comment.
Responding to Netanyahu’s recent statement that any ceasefire would have to be temporary until all of Gaza came under Israeli control, followed by the implementation of Trump’s plan, Hamas accused the Israeli leader of “thwarting the negotiating process and destroying the chances of releasing prisoners” in a statement issued Thursday.
“The terrorist Netanyahu’s discussion of the Trump plan for displacement as one of the goals of his brutal war places the responsibility on Washington to clarify its position on the crime of forced displacement under the threat of genocide, at a time when it is playing the role of mediator to end the war,” Hamas said.
“The international community must take action to impose measures that ensure an end to the brutal massacres of innocent people in the Gaza Strip, and hold war criminal Netanyahu accountable,” the group added, “as he continues to confirm his intention to committing brutal genocide, starvation, and forced displacement, in defiance of all international laws and conventions.”
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