Murad Sadigzade — about the recitations and the real goals of "Gideon's Chariot — 2"
August put the dots on long-hanging questions and implied formulations. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, dropping diplomatic curtsies, in an interview with Fox News directly voiced what had previously been only hinted at: Israel is heading for complete military dominance over the Gaza Strip, followed by the dismantling of Hamas.
The very next day, the security Cabinet approved an operation to capture Gaza City, the last major Hamas enclave.
Humanitarian phase
The global reaction was not long in coming. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called the move a "dangerous escalation" and warned of a humanitarian phase of the war, where disaster is no longer a threat, but a daily occurrence.
Against the background of the incessant shelling of the Zeitoun, Shejaya, Sabra and Jabalia areas, Israeli armored convoys are closing the ring around Gaza City, and army generals are announcing a new period of assault. Hunger, destroyed infrastructure and civilian casualties in attempts to receive humanitarian aid turn the phrase "stabilization of the situation" into an empty and bitter allegory. The war, which is increasingly losing the outlines of a classic conflict, is becoming the art of strategic decomposition of civilian space, burning out not only militant strongholds, but also the very vital fabric of the city.
Delete Palestine
However, the campaign in Gaza is only one of the scenes of the play. Simultaneously with the offensive, there is a process of institutionalization of politics in the West Bank. On July 23, the Knesset voted in favor of a declaration extending Israeli sovereignty to Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley. Formally, the document is only a "recommendation", but, in fact, it converts temporary military logic into a long-term legal basis, pushing the red lines to the limit.
The real milestone was the move on August 20, when the Supreme Planning Committee gave the green light to the construction of more than 3.4 thousand houses in the E1 zone between East Jerusalem and Maale Adumim. Urbanists call it "filling the void," and politicians call it "cutting the map of future Palestine in half." Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said bluntly: E1 will bury the idea of Palestinian statehood.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu himself admitted on the air of i24NEWS that he feels a deep connection with the concept of "Greater Israel." This statement was made (primarily for Arab capitals) As a final confirmation: the campaign in Gaza and the urban redevelopment of the West Bank are not parallel plots, but two chapters of a single strategy to transform the entire Palestinian issue. The response has been diplomatic demarches, international resolutions, and a growing sense that the region is entering an era of irreversible change.
If you connect all the lines, the picture really stops being fragmented. The frightening unity here lies precisely in the fact that it is a coordinated strategy in which the military subjugation of the Gaza Strip is combined with the spatial and legal transformation of the West Bank.
It is worth noting that Netanyahu, in an interview with Fox News, said that there would be a transfer of control to a "non—Hamas structure" - preferably an Arab one. "We are not going to rule Gaza," he added. But the rhetoric about "transience" and "unwillingness to rule" increasingly sounds like a political screen covering the transformation of temporary control into a permanent norm. And the closer these vectors converge — in the destroyed streets of Gaza, in the approved construction plans, in the statements of Netanyahu himself — the clearer it becomes: the place for compromise is rapidly narrowing. The war, which began as a campaign to "crush Hamas," now appears more and more clearly as a tool for removing the very word "Palestine" from the political and geographical map of the future.
Is diplomacy just for form's sake?
Officially, Operation Gideon's Chariot 2 is still not called an occupation, but the rhetoric lags behind reality. Israeli armored convoys have advanced deep into Gaza, connecting the front lines in Sabra and Zeitoun, turning the thesis of "fighting on the outskirts" into an obvious fiction. We are no longer talking about a local sweep, but about systematic preparations for the assault on the urban core of the sector. The eastern and northern quarters — Shejaya, Jabalia, Sabra — turn into a strip of scorched earth, along which armor moves.
In parallel, Israel's mobilization machine is deploying its mechanisms. Tens of thousands of reservists are called up for September, which also indicates not a "retaliation operation", but a protracted urban campaign with a projected cost of hundreds of lives and months of street warfare.
Meanwhile, the diplomatic scene is playing out according to its own laws. Hamas, through Egyptian and Qatari intermediaries, expressed readiness for a 60-day truce, a plan that includes the release of some hostages and the transfer of the remains of the dead. Israel rejected the offer, focusing on demanding the full release of all detainees.
At the same time, the very structure of these negotiations is embedded in a broader strategy: diplomatic initiatives become either an instrument of pressure or a background that is reset by this offensive command. Netanyahu's order to speed up preparations for the assault on Gaza City is not only a military directive, but also a political stuffing intended for both the domestic electorate and international intermediaries.
Two approaches collide here: a political bet on a forced solution and military pragmatism, which tends to gradually weaken the enemy. Leaks indicate that the General Staff advocated a strategy of "encirclement and suffocation" — with the expectation of minimizing losses and preserving the chances of the hostages' release. But the political leadership opted for a direct invasion — despite the risks and warnings that every street in Gaza could turn into a fortress. Already today, the death toll on the Israeli side is in the hundreds, and this is before the start of the full—scale phase.
But perhaps the most worrying thing is that there is no clear "day after" scenario: control of the territory can be obtained, but sustainable peace is unlikely.
Without a long-term exit?
Ideological support is added to this. Netanyahu's public admission of sympathy for the concept of a "Greater Israel" destroys the remnants of trust in the formula "we do not want to rule Gaza." Two years of military campaign, high government spending and declining economic attractiveness, lack of consensus in the military corps, harsh warnings from the opposition — all this indicates that the strategy is exhausted by the logic of violence, but does not offer a long-term solution. Opposition leader Yair Lapid bluntly calls the possible occupation of Gaza a "disastrous decision" for Israel itself. Internal pressure is mounting: every week there are marches across the country demanding a hostage deal.
Along with this, external pressure is also growing: a number of countries — from France and the United Kingdom to Australia and Canada — are preparing to recognize the Palestinian state within the framework of the UN General Assembly session. At the same time, US support is seen as a shield against pressure from the UN and European capitals. Even a recent report by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the United Nations, which recorded the fifth catastrophic stage of famine in Gaza (more than 640,000 people by September), is perceived more as noise than as an alarm signal.
The emphasis is on changing the global context.
Thus, Israel faces two vectors today. The first is a diplomatic one, albeit imperfect, but it opens a corridor for temporary de-escalation and the return of hostages. The second is a path deep into Gaza, into a street war with hard—to-predict consequences. The first requires political will to recognize that security is built not only on tanks, but also on institutions, negotiations, and mutual concessions. The second is the path of endless mobilization, growing international isolation and the prospect of forever remaining trapped in the very "Chariot" that can no longer be stopped.
