Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant recently stepped down after Benjamin Netanyahu fired him. The position is now the responsibility of the former defense minister Israel Katz. Israel’s people very much disapprove, with mass protests being sparked throughout the country. Citizens saw Gallant as the only moderate voice in a far-right regime, and thus saw his removal as a sign that Netanyahu is uninterested in returning hostages in Gaza. The Israel military group handling aid to Gaza, COGAT, is also preparing to open a new aid crossing into Gaza. However, COGAT did not specify when the crossing will open or if aid will be sent to north Gaza, which is one of the places the war has hit hardest. Israel’s offensive in north Gaza is preventing up to 95,000 Palestinians from receiving aid. The Israeli military has also said that they are allowing 300 trucks of humanitarian aid per day from the UAE, falling short of the US’ goal of 350.
With the new protests in Israel as a result of Gallant’s firing, this creates a new problem for Israel to be dealing with. Israel’s people are clearly unhappy, and want the hostages in Gaza to be returned home. But after Netanyahu’s decision, citizens are viewing this as increasingly unlikely. The dire humanitarian situation in north Gaza also makes COGAT uneasy, as they haven’t guaranteed aid to that region. With 95,000 people at risk, it probably won’t look good to the UN or to Palestine. COGAT’s lack of statement also on when the new aid crossing will open will definitely irritate the people who need it most, and if that question is left unanswered, more protests could take place.
There are now a lot of parties involved in the Israel-Hamas conflict, including Iran, Hezbollah, and the UN. Now that Katz has been reinstated, it will be up to him as well as other high ranking Israeli officials to decide how to respond. The job of any government official during a war is surely more difficult, and Hamas and Hezbollah will likely take note of this and respond however they see fit. The protests in Israel make the Jewish country vulnerable, which terrorist groups will also take note of. Now that we are discussing different theories in class, I’d say that this aligns most with realist theory. All these groups in the area want to achieve their own goals, and some are more willing to be aggressive than others. Considering the world is in a state of anarchy according to this theory, the states in the area of conflict have been trying to abolish the state of Israel practically since its forming, and it likely won’t stop anytime soon.