By James Mackenzie
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized plans announced by the army on Sunday to impose daily tactical pauses in fighting along one of the main roads into Gaza to facilitate the delivery of aid to the Palestinian enclave.
The army had announced daily breaks from 05:00 GMT to 16:00 GMT in the area from Kerem Shalom Crossing to Salah al-Din Road and then north.
“When the prime minister heard reports of an 11-hour humanitarian pause in the morning, he turned to his military secretary and made it clear that this was unacceptable to him,” an Israeli official said.
The army made clear that normal operations would continue in Rafah, the main focus of its operation in southern Gaza, where eight soldiers were killed on Saturday.
Netanyahu’s response underscored political tensions over the issue of aid entering Gaza, where international organizations have warned of a growing humanitarian crisis.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who heads one of the nationalist religious parties in Netanyahu’s ruling coalition, denounced the idea of a tactical pause, saying whoever decided it was a “fool” who should lose his job .
DIVISIONS BETWEEN COALITION, ARMY
The row was the latest in a series of clashes between coalition members and the military over the conduct of the war, now in its ninth month.
It came a week after centrist former general Benny Gantz left the government and accused Netanyahu of not having an effective strategy in Gaza.
The division was laid bare last week during a parliamentary vote on a law to conscript ultra-Orthodox Jews into the army. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant voted against it, contrary to party orders, saying it was insufficient for the military’s needs.
Religious parties in the coalition have strongly opposed conscription for the ultra-Orthodox, sparking widespread anger among many Israelis that has deepened as the war has dragged on.
Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, the head of the army, said on Sunday there is a “clear need” to recruit more soldiers from the fast-growing ultra-Orthodox community.
RESERVISTS UNDER STRESS
Despite growing international pressure for a ceasefire, an agreement to stop the fighting still seems far away, more than eight months since Hamas fighters’ attack on Israel on October 7 led to a ground attack on the enclave by Israeli troops.
Since the attack, which killed some 1,200 Israelis and foreigners in Israeli communities, the Israeli military campaign has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians and destroyed much of Gaza, according to Palestinian Health Ministry figures.
Although polls show most Israelis support the government’s goal of destroying Hamas, there have been widespread protests attacking the government for not doing more to bring home the approximately 120 hostages still in Gaza after being taken hostage on October 7.
Meanwhile, Palestinian health officials said seven Palestinians were killed in two airstrikes on two houses in the Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza Strip.
As fighting continues in Gaza, a lower-level conflict on the Israel-Lebanon border now threatens to spiral into a broader war as the almost daily firefight between Israeli forces and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia has escalated.
In a further sign that fighting in Gaza could drag on, Netanyahu’s government said on Sunday it would extend until August 15 the period in which it would finance hotels and guesthouses for residents evacuated from southern Israeli border towns.
(Additional reporting by Ari Rabinovitch, Maayan Lubell and Nidal al Mughrabi; Editing by William Mallard, Frances Kerry and Bernadette Baum)
