Israeli leader found a political window to step up humanitarian aid but remains under intense pressure

NZ Herald

28-07-2025

His far-right coalition members, who have for months called for a total 'siege' of Gaza and eventual Israeli reoccupation of the strip, have vowed to vote down a truce deal to end the fighting. But for now, they have been outmanoeuvred.
Itamar Ben Gvir, one of the two far-right politicians excluded from the security cabinet meeting, said in a radio interview that the decision to pause Israeli military fighting during daylight hours and allow land and air deliveries of food parcels into the battered enclave was done 'deliberately' without him and that Netanyahu's people 'told me old wives' tales about them not wanting me to violate the Sabbath'.
More than two-thirds of Jewish Israelis said last month they opposed increasing humanitarian aid into Gaza, according to a poll published by the Israel Democracy Institute. The poll was taken before international concerns over hunger in Gaza spiked over the past month.
Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called the easing of aid delivery restrictions into Gaza 'a good strategic move, which we should not detail further'.
Smotrich's statement suggested that the policy change could be temporary, with Netanyahu himself saying that a 'tactical pause in fighting' and entry of 'minimal' amounts of aid into Gaza did not contradict ongoing combat to help achieve Israel's two war aims of eliminating Hamas and freeing the 50 remaining hostages, of which 20 are presumed to remain alive.
Political analysts said that in shifting Israel's aid policy on Gaza, Netanyahu is continuing his longtime tactic of buying time rather than committing to strategic decisions.
Yaki Dayan, former Israeli consul general in Los Angeles, said that even the Trump Administration is getting 'fed up' with the lack of a firm decision.
'Time is running out,' Dayan said. 'You can't stay in this stasis that we're in now, with the international pressure increasing all the time. So the US is saying, either go for a full deal, or go for conquest of Gaza, both options that we will support, but we want to see a decision made.'
Netanyahu faces these choices as national elections, scheduled for next year, grow closer.
Though he saw a brief spike in popular support following Israel's 12-day war with Iran last month, poll numbers show that he could face difficulties cobbling together another ruling coalition.
Much of the right-wing base is outraged over the management of the Gaza war and its failure to deliver on the Prime Minister's promise to eliminate Hamas.
At the same time, polls show that most Israelis support a negotiated truce with Hamas that would bring the hostages home, even if this meant Israeli troops would withdraw from Gaza and give up the military advantage they have by controlling vast swathes of the enclave.
Dissatisfaction with Netanyahu is also growing as the number of Israeli soldiers killed rises.
Hamas ambushes and other guerrilla tactics have brought this death toll to 898, the highest in decades.
Thousands of reservist soldiers have been called up to serve on Israel's various fronts, for hundreds of days.
Many Israelis view the hostages as the top priority and prefer that Israel's leaders use economic, diplomatic, or other levers of influence to oust Hamas 'that do not require troops to be sitting inside Gaza', said Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, a non-partisan think-tank based in Jerusalem.
He said that Netanyahu, who is even facing growing pressure from the Israel Defence Forces to reach a hostage deal, 'is manoeuvring, as the most skilled and seasoned political practitioner in the country', while looking ahead to the elections slated for 2026.
'Netanyahu has three months of political calm, and then we are coming closer to an election,' Plesner said.
'There is a growing realisation that the war the way it's conducted is not moving us forward to either of the war goals.'
Netanyahu's governing coalition is already teetering.
Earlier this month, two ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties quit the coalition because Netanyahu had not enshrined into law the long-standing military exemption afforded their community, stripping his Government of its parliamentary majority.
Netanyahu's Government now has only 50 of the 120 Knesset seats, challenging his ability to pass legislation or chart a new wartime strategy.
'Now that the coalition is already on the verge of collapsing, Netanyahu has about three months to do whatever he wants before he has to gather all the coalition partners again and decide whether to dissolve the Knesset and go for early elections or try to survive another year,' said Gayil Talshir, a political scientist from Hebrew University.
Either way, she said, he will need to change course of Gaza.
'He has no room left to manoeuvre,' Talshir said. 'He has to finish the war in Gaza.'