‘There will be outcry’: War in Gaza could resume within weeks

The world should prepare for Israel to resume its war on Hamas with increased ferocity and implement a siege on essential supplies entering Gaza within weeks, a former top spokesman for the Israeli military has warned.

Jonathan Conricus, a retired lieutenant colonel who served in the Israeli military for 24 years, said he believed the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas will inevitably fall apart, even if the scheduled release of three hostages goes ahead this weekend.

Jonathan Conricus, senior fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, and former international spokeperson with the Israel Defense Forces, at Parliament House in Canberra.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“I think that there’s no doubt in most Israeli minds, military and political, that we will go back to fighting against Hamas,” Conricus said in an interview during a visit to Australia. “I think it’s only a matter of time before Hamas stops releasing the hostages and ends the ceasefire.”

He added that US President Donald Trump’s widely disparaged proposal to take ownership of Gaza and redevelop the strip should not be dismissed and could help pressure Palestinians to strike an enduring peace deal with Israel.

Conricus said he believed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu only accepted the current ceasefire deal because he had an “an advance understanding that when Hamas violates the ceasefire, Israel will have all the American backing it needs in order to go in and actually defeat Hamas”.

“This includes siege tactics, including preventing your enemy from having food, water and fuel to fight,” said Conricus, a former international military spokesman who became one of Israel’s most prominent public defenders at the beginning of the war in Gaza.

“I think that’s what Israel will be doing, and I think Israel will have American support of the entire [Trump] administration.”

The first phase of the ceasefire deal, struck in January, is supposed to last six weeks and see 33 Israeli hostages exchanged for about 1,900 Palestinian prisoners and detainees from Gaza ahead of negotiations on a long-term ceasefire and Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

Conricus acknowledged that Israel will attract international condemnation if it adopts more aggressive military tactics given the nation has already faced accusations of genocide and war crimes for the way it has waged the war against Hamas.

“I think there will be criticism, there would be outcry,” he said.

“We’ll have the usual chorus of Israel bashers, but it won’t matter this time, and Israel will go ahead and actually apply the strategies and tactics that it needs to defeat Hamas.”

Israel’s military said it has called up reservists in preparation for a possible resumption of fighting in Gaza after Hamas announced it would not free a further three Israeli hostages on Saturday and accused Israel of violating the ceasefire deal by not allowing enough tents and pre-fabricated homes into the devastated strip.

Hamas later said it would release the hostages as planned, but the long-term future of the ceasefire deal looks increasingly shaky.

The war in Gaza, triggered by the October 7 attacks which killed an estimated 1200 people in Israel, has led to the deaths of over 47,000 Palestinians, according to Hamas-run health ministry.

Michael Chaitow, executive director of the progressive New Israel Fund Australia, strongly disagreed with Conricus, arguing “there are no further military gains to be had in Gaza” and that the resumption of the war would only lead to more suffering.

“The only way the hostages have returned home en masse is through a ceasefire and hostage deal, and with the horrific state of the hostages revealed to the world last week, we know no one can afford to return to further warfare and the prolonged holding of hostages,” he said.

Israelis have been alarmed by the physical state of some hostages released by Hamas, including Or Levy, who was freed in February.Credit: AP

Conricus said Hamas remained a potent military and political force in Gaza after 15 months of fighting because the Biden administration had prevented Israel “from applying the adequate amount of pressure” on the listed terror group.

“What I mean is that we were not allowed to cut the supply of food, fuel, medical devices from Hamas, and we were forced to continue to allow that throughout the war,” said Conricus, who served as a platoon commander in Gaza in the early 2000s.

“Had we not been forced to continue to feed and clothe our enemy, then the war would have been shorter and there would have been far fewer civilian casualties. The suffering would have been much more limited.”

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant, accusing them of breaching international law by using starvation as a weapon of war.

Gaza has been left devastated by the Israeli bombardment. Credit: Bloomberg

The United Nations has said around 600 trucks a day carrying food, medicine and other essential supplies have entered Gaza since the ceasefire began, a dramatic increase from during the war.

Conricus said humanitarian aid should be allowed to enter Gaza, but limited to an international safe zone for civilians, suggesting the Al-Mawasi area near Rafah in southern Gaza.

He initially reacted with “astonishment and surprise” to Trump’s plan to take control of Gaza and relocate its residents to neighbouring Arab countries last week, but added: “I wouldn’t write it off...I think we should give it serious analytical thought and discussion.”

Accusing Palestinian leaders of rejecting multiple offers of a two-state solution over decades, he said Trump was trying to breathe life into a stalled peace process.

“The Trump proposition signals to Palestinians that time’s up,” said Conricus, now a senior fellow at the Washington-based Foundation for Defence of Democracies think tank.

“You’ve had more than 76 years to understand and embrace reality. You’ve refused to do it with your pipe dreams of returning to Jaffa and Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

“You’ve refused to recognise Israel’s right to exist in the ancestral land homeland of Jews, and you’ve continued to wage war against the Jews. You have said no to all peace offers proposed to you.”

Palestinian advocates have argued that Israeli offers of Palestinian statehood have never gone far enough, including that they did not secure a right of return for Palestinians who fled their homes during the creation of the state of Israel.

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