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Netanyahu under Pressure over Israel Troop Losses, Hostages

A person holds an Israeli flag with an image depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as people protest against his government in Tel Aviv, Israel, January 20, 2024. (Reuters)
A person holds an Israeli flag with an image depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as people protest against his government in Tel Aviv, Israel, January 20, 2024. (Reuters)
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Netanyahu under Pressure over Israel Troop Losses, Hostages

A person holds an Israeli flag with an image depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as people protest against his government in Tel Aviv, Israel, January 20, 2024. (Reuters)
A person holds an Israeli flag with an image depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as people protest against his government in Tel Aviv, Israel, January 20, 2024. (Reuters)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces a mounting crisis after Israel's worst day of troop losses in the Gaza war as well as growing protests over his failure to bring hostages back.

The military's strategy in the Palestinian territory is under intense scrutiny following the death of 24 troops on Monday, Israel's biggest one-day loss since its ground offensive in Gaza started in late October.

Among those killed were 21 reservists, who died in a single incident.

The incident, which saw rocket-propelled grenade fire hit a tank and two buildings the soldiers were trying to blow up, was deemed a "disaster" by Netanyahu.

Emmanuel Navon, a lecturer at Tel Aviv University, told AFP the troop losses "affect everybody, because almost everybody in the country has a son or brother or a relative (fighting in Gaza)".

Israelis would now be increasingly asking "what is the strategy... Do we really keep going until we finish Hamas?" he added.

At the same time, splits have emerged in Netanyahu's war cabinet following protests in Tel Aviv and outside his Jerusalem home, where relatives of hostages staged a rally Monday chanting "everybody and now" to urge the return of captives.

"The current mood in the war cabinet is very bad," said Julia Elad-Strenger, a lecturer at Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv.

Netanyahu's steadfast vow to eliminate the Palestinian militant group Hamas in response to the October 7 attack is increasingly seen within the cabinet as incompatible with returning hostages held in Gaza, experts told AFP.

War cabinet divided

Two members of the five-person war cabinet, Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, have rejected Netanyahu's stance that only military pressure on Hamas will allow the return of hostages, the experts said.

"According to Netanyahu there can be no victory with Hamas left standing, according to Gantz and Eisenkot there can be no victory with hostages lost," said Reuven Hazan, a professor of political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Eisenkot, whose son died fighting in Gaza, gave an interview last week in which he split from Netanyahu's long-held position.

"It is impossible to return the hostages alive in the near future without an agreement (with Hamas)," he told Israeli broadcaster Channel 12.

Netanyahu has vowed "total victory" over Hamas in response to the unprecedented attack by its fighters on October 7 that resulted in the deaths of about 1,140 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

The militants seized about 250 hostages and Israel says around 132 remain in besieged Gaza, including the bodies of at least 28 dead hostages, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli data.

In response to the attack, Israel has launched a relentless offensive in Gaza that has killed at least 25,490 people, around 70 percent of them women, young children and adolescents, according to the latest toll issued Tuesday by Gaza's health ministry.

'Worst point'

Netanyahu has rejected suggestions that his government should hold another round of talks with Hamas to reach a similar deal to one struck in November that led to the release of 80 Israeli hostages.

Under that deal, brokered by Qatar, the United States and Egypt, a seven-day humanitarian pause was agreed that allowed aid deliveries into Gaza, while hundreds of Palestinian prisoners were released in exchange for hostages.

The Israeli premier doubled down on his refusal to enter talks with Hamas on Sunday, saying: "The conditions demanded by Hamas demonstrate a simple truth: there is no substitute for victory."

Netanyahu said Hamas had set conditions for the release of more hostages that included an end to the war, withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and guarantees that the group will stay in power.

Experts said they expected the Israeli premier to continue the war as a tactic to remain in power, even as pressure to change course mounts.

"I think he has made a decision to keep this war going and not just for his political interests, but endless war is his strategy in general," said Mairav Zonszein, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group.

"As far as Netanyahu is concerned, if the war lasts beyond 2024 that's better for him politically because it gets October 7 further away from us and it gives him a chance to rebuild," said Hazan of Hebrew University.

"Right now he is at the worst point in his entire career," said Hazan.

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Facing Calls to Disarm, Hezbollah Ready to Discuss Weapons if Israel Withdraws, Senior Official Says 

Mourners attend the funeral of Hezbollah fighters, killed before the November 27 ceasefire with Israel, in southern Lebanese village of al-Taybeh, near the border with Israel on April 6, 2025. (AFP)
Mourners attend the funeral of Hezbollah fighters, killed before the November 27 ceasefire with Israel, in southern Lebanese village of al-Taybeh, near the border with Israel on April 6, 2025. (AFP)
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Facing Calls to Disarm, Hezbollah Ready to Discuss Weapons if Israel Withdraws, Senior Official Says 

Mourners attend the funeral of Hezbollah fighters, killed before the November 27 ceasefire with Israel, in southern Lebanese village of al-Taybeh, near the border with Israel on April 6, 2025. (AFP)
Mourners attend the funeral of Hezbollah fighters, killed before the November 27 ceasefire with Israel, in southern Lebanese village of al-Taybeh, near the border with Israel on April 6, 2025. (AFP)

As calls for Lebanon's Hezbollah to disarm gain momentum, a senior Hezbollah official told Reuters the group is ready to hold talks with the Lebanese president about its weapons if Israel withdraws from south Lebanon and stops its strikes, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

The prospect of talks aimed at securing Hezbollah's disarmament - unimaginable when it was at the zenith of its power just two years ago - underlines dramatic shifts in the Middle East power balance since Israel pummeled the Iran-backed group in a devastating conflict triggered by the Gaza war.

President Joseph Aoun, who vowed when he took office in January to establish a state monopoly on the control of arms, intends to open talks with Hezbollah over its arsenal soon, three Lebanese political sources said according to Reuters.

Hezbollah emerged severely weakened from the 2024 conflict with Israel when its top leaders and thousands of its fighters were killed and much of its rocket arsenal destroyed. The blow was compounded when its ally Bashar al-Assad was toppled from power in Syria, cutting its supply lines from Iran.

The senior Hezbollah official said the group was ready to discuss its arms in the context of a national defense strategy, but this hinged on Israel pulling out its troops from five hilltops in south Lebanon.

"Hezbollah is ready to discuss the matter of its arms if Israel withdraws from the five points, and halts its aggression against Lebanese," the senior official told Reuters.

Hezbollah's position on potential discussions about its arms has not been previously reported. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity due to political sensitivities.

Hezbollah's media office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The presidency declined to comment.

Israel, which sent ground troops into south Lebanon during the war, has largely withdrawn but decided in February not to leave the five hilltop positions. It said it intended eventually to hand them over to Lebanese troops once it was sure the security situation allowed.

RENEWED FOCUS ON HEZBOLLAH'S ARMS

Despite a ceasefire since November, Israeli airstrikes have kept pressure on the party while Washington has demanded Hezbollah disarm and is preparing for nuclear talks with Hezbollah's Iranian backers.

Hezbollah has been the most powerful of the paramilitary groups Iran has backed across the region.

Reuters reported on Monday that several Iranian-backed militia groups in Iraq are prepared to disarm for the first time to avert the threat of an escalating conflict with the Trump administration in the US.

Hezbollah has for years rejected calls from its critics in Lebanon to disarm, describing its weapons as vital to defending the country from Israel. Deep differences over its arsenal spilled into a short civil war in 2008.

The party's critics say it has unilaterally dragged Lebanon into conflicts and the presence of its large arsenal outside of government control has undermined the state.

A US-brokered ceasefire with Israel requires the Lebanese army to dismantle all unauthorized military facilities and confiscate all arms, starting in areas south of the Litani River, which flows into the Mediterranean some 20 km (12 miles) north of the Israeli border.

Two sources familiar with Hezbollah's thinking said it is weighing handing to the army its most potent weapons north of the Litani, including drones and anti-tank missiles.

CALL FOR A DISARMAMENT TIMETABLE

Aoun has said Hezbollah's weaponry must be addressed through dialogue because any attempts to disarm the group by force would prompt conflict, the sources said.

Patriarch Beshara Al-Rai, the head of Lebanon's Maronite church, said last week it was time for all weapons to be in state hands, but this would need time and diplomacy because "Lebanon cannot bear a new war".

Communication channels with relevant stakeholders are being opened to "begin studying the transfer of weapons" to state control, after the army and security services had extended state authority across Lebanon, a Lebanese official said, saying this was a move to implement Aoun's policy.

The issue was also being discussed with parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, an important Hezbollah ally, who plays a key role in narrowing differences, she said.

US envoy Morgan Ortagus, who visited Beirut at the weekend, repeated Washington's position that Hezbollah and other armed groups should be disarmed as soon as possible and the Lebanese army was expected to do the job.

"It's clear that Hezbollah has to be disarmed and it's clear that Israel is not going to accept terrorists shooting at them, into their country, and that's a position we understand," Ortagus said in an April 6 interview with Lebanon's LBCI television.

Several Lebanese government ministers want a disarmament timetable, said Kamal Shehadi, a minister affiliated with the anti-Hezbollah Lebanese Forces party. Shehadi told Reuters disarmament should take no more than six months, citing post-civil war militia disarmament as a precedent.

A timetable -- which presumably would impose deadlines on the process -- is, he said, the "only way to protect our fellow citizens from the recurring attacks that are costing lives, costing the economy and causing destruction".

He said he and other ministers hoped the full cabinet would endorse the idea and task the minister of defense with preparing the timetable. "We're going to keep asking for it," he said.

The most recent conflict began when Hezbollah opened fire in support of Hamas at the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.

Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Qassem in a March 29 speech said his group no longer has an armed presence south of the Litani, and had stuck to the ceasefire deal while Israel breached it "every day". Israel has accused Hezbollah of maintaining military infrastructure in the south.

Hezbollah has put the onus on the Lebanese state to get Israel to withdraw and stop its attacks. Qassem said there was still time for diplomatic solutions. But he warned that the "resistance is present and ready" and indicated it could resort "to other options" if Israel doesn't adhere to the deal.