Israel has renewed its attacks on Gaza. Experts say it's because Netanyahu has goals of his own

If the death toll from this week's resumption of Israeli airstrikes has left any doubt that Israel has returned to war in Gaza — including more than 130 Palestinian children killed in a single day, according to UNICEF — then new evacuation orders for Gazans and the return of Israeli ground troops to the strip should be proof enough.

Whether anyone should be surprised is another matter.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has consistently said he won't end the war until there is a definitive end to Hamas, even though regional analysts say that's nigh impossible.  

And Israeli pundits have long insisted that Netanyahu sees the war's prolongation as his best chance at political survival given an ongoing corruption trial and his own coalition government's dependence on hardline Jewish nationalists who want the war to continue.  

"The real reason for resuming war is to satiate the annexationist war-lust of the far right, and win the prime minister more time in power," wrote Esther Solomon, editor-in-chief of the left-leaning Israeli newspaper Haaretz, on Thursday.

It certainly prompted the quick return to the cabinet of Itamar Ben-Gvir, an ultra-nationalist settler leader who resigned his post when Netanyahu agreed to the January ceasefire deal that foresaw the staggered release of Israeli hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinians from Israeli jails.

"This is the correct, moral and most justified move, in order to destroy the terror organization Hamas and return our hostages," Ben-Gvir said earlier this week after Netanyahu's cabinet re-appointed him as Israel's National Security Minister.

But many Israelis, including supporters and family members of the hostages, don't agree, and have been demonstrating against Netanyahu's decision to resume the war, saying it puts the hostages' lives at risk. It's pressure the Israeli prime minister has resisted over the course of the past year.

"What is going to be happening is that the hostages are going to get killed and the government of Israel is sacrificing the hostages in favour of Netanyahu's own political survival," said Gershon Baskin, a well-known Israeli political activist who backs a two-state solution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. 

"If we want to get the hostages home — which should be the primary objective of any Israeli government, which it is not — it requires us to end the war and to withdraw from Gaza."

The war was sparked after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel border communities, which killed about 1,200 people and took some 250 others captive, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel responded with a military campaign in which more than 49,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza health officials. Thousands more are feared still buried and uncounted under the rubble.

The now-defunct ceasefire — which came into effect on Jan. 19 and lasted for 42 days — saw the release of 25 hostages held by Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza and the bodies of eight others in exchange for some 1,800 Palestinians in Israeli jails. 

The pause also offered traumatized Gazans the prospect of sleeping without fear, a chance to find and bury their dead, and the likelihood of more humanitarian aid reaching the stricken territory.