‘Everything will turn to dust’: As Gaza crumbles, its fate lies knotted to that of one man

For an odd, anxious period at the start of the week, it appeared as though Donald Trump’s confounding ability to reshape the world around him had slipped the borders of the United States and extended into Israel.

Last Wednesday, the US president demanded in a social media post that Israeli prosecutors abandon a corruption case against their country’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office in April.Credit: AP

“It is terrible what they are doing in Israel to Bibi Netanyahu,” Trump wrote. “He is a War Hero, and a Prime Minister who did a fabulous job working with the United States to bring Great Success in getting rid of the dangerous Nuclear threat in Iran.

“Importantly, he is right now in the process of negotiating a Deal with Hamas, which will include getting the Hostages back. How is it possible that the Prime Minister of Israel can be forced to sit in a Courtroom all day long, over NOTHING (Cigars, Bugs Bunny Doll, etc.). It is a POLITICAL WITCH HUNT, very similar to the Witch Hunt that I was forced to endure.”

Trump went so far as to link US military aid to the issue. “The United States of America spends Billions of Dollar a year, far more than on any other Nation, protecting and supporting Israel. We are not going to stand for this.”

Then, on Sunday, an Israeli court announced that it had accepted a request from Netanyahu to defer hearings to be held next week after meeting with the prime minister and security officials. “Following the explanations given ... we partially accept the request and cancel at this stage Mr Netanyahu’s hearings scheduled” for this week, the Jerusalem district court said in its ruling, subsequently posted by Netanyahu’s Likud party.

In truth, says Jonathan Rynhold, a professor of political science at Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv, the decision had nothing to do with Trump. Netanyahu has been successfully slow-walking his trial on bribery and fraud charges for half a decade. The case has even dragged in Australian James Packer, named as one of the suppliers of $US195,000 ($297,000) worth of champagne and cigars, though not accused of any wrongdoing or any other involvement in the case.

“The reason the trial takes such a long time is because he’s always got some reason why he can’t testify,” says Rynhold. “And some of it is justified because, you know, there are a lot of important things going on.”

And there are. In securing US involvement in last month’s strikes on Iran, Israel has managed to further weaken and isolate Hamas, an Iranian proxy, beyond the wrecked cities and towns of Gaza.

“This has to be the window to use the leverage that’s been created to drive towards the end of the war and getting all the hostages home,” former US Pentagon official and ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro told the Israeli journalist Neria Kraus on Tuesday.

Fire and smoke rise into the sky after an Israeli attack on the Shahran oil depot in Tehran.Credit: Getty Images

“Iran is weaker than it’s ever been, exposed in ways it has never been before – that should be leveraged, and I think can be leveraged, to get Hamas to be more flexible on the terms of the hostage deals.”

That same day, Trump issued another social media declaration, saying that Israel had “agreed to the necessary conditions to finalise the 60 Day CEASEFIRE, during which time we will work with all parties to end the War”.

Hamas confirmed it was considering the proposal. Tellingly, though, in its statement, the terrorist group emphasised that it wanted a US commitment that the ceasefire would lead to a permanent end to the war. This position has been a sticking point in previous rounds of negotiations, with Israel determined that the war should not end before it achieves what it views as a complete victory.

This would include a return of all remaining hostages and the removal of Hamas from Gaza. “There will not be a Hamas,” Netanyahu said at a public meeting on Wednesday. “There will not be a Hamastan. We’re not going back to that. It’s over. We will free all our hostages.”

Benjamin Netanyahu (pictured in court in December) has been able to successfully argue for delays to court proceedings against him.Credit: nna\Jorgebranco

Observers within Israel note there is more in play than the competing demands of Israel and Hamas. Netanyahu is also concerned with his political future and the personal legal threats he faces.

Rynhold believes Netanyahu sees the maintenance of power not only as a goal in its own right, but as a shield against prosecution, and that this will have an impact on peace negotiations. To maintain power, Netanyahu must balance the demands of the parliamentary coalition he has stitched together, which includes not only his right-wing Likud party, but members of far-right and Orthodox parties.

“I don’t think he can distinguish between what’s good for him and what’s good for the state of Israel. He just thinks whatever’s good for him is good for the state of Israel.”

Rynhold believes that even if Netanyahu could secure a comprehensive enough victory in Gaza to allow him to consider a peace deal, supported by the majority of voters, he might still perceive a political threat within his coalition. This could be an incentive for him to draw out negotiations.

There is an irony here. As Rynhold notes, Netanyahu built a strategy of tacitly supporting Hamas before the war to divide Palestinian power blocs.

As the politics play out, the carnage in Gaza has only intensified.

In January, Israel banned the United Nations’ lead relief agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, from operating, and between March and May, it blocked all food aid to Gaza in an effort to force Hamas to negotiate, driving more than 2 million people towards starvation.

Last month, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a private organisation backed by the US and Israel, took over food relief operations. GHF is now led by the American evangelical leader and businessman Johnnie Moore jnr, who once praised Trump’s proposal to take over the Gaza Strip, saying: “The USA will take full responsibility for [the] future of Gaza, giving everyone hope and a future.”

Israeli tanks take up position near the GHF aid hub in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.Credit: AP

GHF has limited distribution to four sites, rather than the hundreds the UN had used. Those sites soon became killing zones, with the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) firing machine guns and mortars at starving civilians gathering at the sites before they opened. According to a report by Haaretz last Friday, which quotes multiple unnamed IDF soldiers, some senior officers gave orders to shoot.

Netanyahu has denied the report. “These are malicious falsehoods designed to defame the IDF, the most moral military in the world,” he said.

The Associated Press has reported that American contractors guarding aid distribution sites are using live ammunition and stun grenades as hungry Palestinians scramble for food. “There are innocent people being hurt. Badly. Needlessly,” a contractor said.

According to the UN, more than 410 people were killed at GHF food distribution sites by June 24, while local health authorities say 600 have now been killed and more than 4000 wounded.

Israeli airstrikes and shootings killed 94 Palestinians in Gaza late on Wednesday and on Thursday, including 45 who were seeking humanitarian aid, hospitals and the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said on Thursday, according to a Washington Post report.

It describes families weeping over the bodies from a strike that hit a tent camp during the night as displaced people slept in southern Gaza. At least 13 members of a single family were killed, including at least six children under 12, the Post reported.

“My children, my children … my beloved,” wailed Intisar Abu Assi, sobbing over the bodies of her son and daughters and their young children, says the report.

Netanyahu is expected to travel to Washington on Monday as part of Trump’s intensifying efforts to secure a ceasefire, though his government appears determined to maintain its assaults in Gaza as a potential peace deal nears.

“We’ll do to Gaza City and the central camps what we did to Rafah. Everything will turn to dust,” a senior Israeli official told Axios. “It’s not our preferred option, but if there’s no movement towards a hostage deal, we won’t have any other choice.”

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