Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political problems have been piling up. More court proceedings in his corruption trial, public anger at his attempts to dismiss the head of the Shin Bet domestic intelligence service and a push from outside – and inside – his government to end the ceasefire in Gaza.

And so on Tuesday, he returned to war. Those problems seem less important, for now. His appearance in court was postponed, the protests planned against his dismissal of the head of the Shin Bet have been overshadowed and the politicians pushing for war have been satisfied.

Recommended Stories

list of 3 itemsend of list

Meanwhile, in Gaza, the consequences of Netanyahu’s decision have been horrifying with more than 400 Palestinians killed in just one night of bombing and the knowledge that this is likely just the start of more death and destruction.

Alon Pinkas, former Israeli ambassador and consul general in New York, told Al Jazeera that the overnight strikes ordered by Netanyahu were purely “about survival politics” for the prime minister, intended to distract “from the dismissal of the head of Shabak [Shin Bet]”.

Advertisement

The strikes had “zero military significance [and] no political end”, he added.

Netanyahu has been repeatedly accused by his opponents of having consistently manipulated Israel’s war on Gaza to his own political ends. Former United States President Joe Biden suggested as much in an interview in June, saying there was “every reason” for people to draw the conclusion that Netanyahu was prolonging the war for political reasons.

War will ‘bury’ the captives

But continuing the war and unilaterally ending the two-month ceasefire puts Netanyahu and his government at odds with an important constituency: the families of Israeli captives held in Gaza.

This group, whose voices are still respected by many Israelis, have seen each of the escalations ordered by Netanyahu and his far-right government as coming at the expense of their loved ones. There are 59 captives remaining in Gaza – both alive and dead – who were due to be released under the original terms of the ceasefire agreed with Hamas.

A statement released by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum on Tuesday echoed the sentiments of many in suggesting that Israeli leaders had no intention of honouring the ceasefire. It added that the government had decided to “sacrifice” the captives and the resumption of the bombing would “bury” them in Gaza.

“The hostage families demand a meeting this morning [Tuesday] with the prime minister, the defence minister and the head of the negotiating team in which [the officials] will clarify how they can guarantee that hostages won’t be affected by the military pressure and how they are planning to get them home,” the group said.

Advertisement

“Why aren’t you fighting in the negotiations room? Why have you backed out of an agreement that could have brought everyone home?” the forum asked the government.

One former captive held in Gaza, Noa Argamani, reacted to the news that Israeli attacks on Gaza had resumed with a broken-hearted symbol. Argamani was released after an Israeli military operation in June in which more than 270 Palestinians were killed. Her boyfriend, Avinatan Or, remains a captive in Gaza.

Argamani was among a group of former captives who met US President Donald Trump this month. It is unclear whether the families of the captives and those released will be able to move him to pressure Israel to come back to the negotiating table.

Standing Together, a progressive group made up of Israelis and Palestinian citizens of Israel, told Al Jazeera that it had already received “hundreds” of calls protesting against the strikes and was prepared to mobilise thousands at the suggestion of a full-scale renewal of fighting in Gaza.

“We are refusing to participate in a war that neglects and will kill our hostages,” Standing Together Co-Director Alon Lee Green said. “We refuse to kill and be killed in Gaza. We refuse to fight for this illegitimate government that is only fighting now to remain in power, despite what most people want.”

Far-right support

From its onset, the ceasefire has been criticised by many of those within Israel now cheering its apparent collapse.

Far-right former National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said in the wake of the strikes that he would return to the government after resigning in January in protest against the ceasefire terms.

Advertisement

Another member of the cabinet, ultranationalist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, whose January resignation over the ceasefire agreement was only averted after apparent reassurances from Netanyahu that he expected to break it, has also celebrated the Gaza killings.

Writing on social media, Ben-Gvir described the renewed attacks on Gaza – the majority of whose victims were children, women and the elderly – as the “right, moral, ethical and most justified step”.

Smotrich thanked God for a return to conflict, writing that the new wave of fighting would “look completely different” from the military campaign that has already killed more than 60,000 Palestinians. Israel will “need to remobilise with strength, faith and determination until victory with God’s help”, Smotrich said.

US position

The US has expressed its full support for Israel’s actions, even as the latter reneged on an agreement that Washington was one of the brokers of.

Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, had proposed an extension of the first phase of the three-stage ceasefire but supported Israel in changing the terms of the agreement and acknowledged Israel’s “red line” against allowing Hamas to keep its weapons.

The US also stood by as Israel blocked the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza and cut electricity this month to the one remaining desalination plant in an attempt to coerce Hamas into accepting Israel’s new terms – which ignored any talk of a permanent ceasefire.

The US, along with other guarantor nations, had previously promised to ensure that Israel would honour the terms of the ceasefire and maintain negotiations on a second phase and an eventual third phase that would end the war.

Advertisement

“Things are very different now,” Mitchell Barak – an Israeli pollster and former political aide to several senior Israeli political figures, including Netanyahu – told Al Jazeera, “We have a new [US] administration that says, ‘Release the hostages now – or else.’”

“The Islamic Resistance [Movement], Hamas, can no longer use the ceasefire, or even the hostages, as a bargaining chip,” he said of negotiations on the second stage.

“They’re alone. They don’t have any friends left, not in the White House, not in the Congress and not even on college campuses,” he said of the crackdown on support for Palestine across many US educational institutions.

“Trump has been clear: ‘Finish the job.’ The US will back anything that Israel chooses to do to achieve that end,” he said.