Troops and commanders speaking to ynet described a growing sense of uncertainty and frustration among soldiers who report daily incursions and activity by terrorists just west of the yellow line but are permitted only to relay information to intelligence units rather than act directly.<\/p>\n
A reserve lieutenant colonel who served in the sector about two weeks ago said units regularly detect Hamas terrorists \u201cwearing vests\u201d and observe activities such as planting explosive devices and rebuilding infrastructure deeper in the enclave. \u201cWe collect this and pass it to intelligence,\u201d he said. \u201cWe do not open fire into the Strip except in cases involving a specific identified suspect and only with approval from command and higher. That creates frustration among troops, but they understand it\u2019s the situation for now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reservists also said two assumptions have taken hold in recent weeks: that the full task of disarming the Strip will ultimately fall to the IDF, and that U.S. approval is required for virtually every step. \u201cThere\u2019s a growing belief in the army that only the IDF can act to disarm Gaza, not any other actor, and it\u2019s also very hard for us,\u201d one reservist said. \u201cIn practice, control over the Strip was ceded to the United States. Without approval from the American command \u2014 you can\u2019t do anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another reservist who arrived on the line about a week ago echoed similar concerns. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen very few incidents of terrorists crossing,\u201d he said, \u201cbut they come among civilians, set up tents near the yellow line and try to establish infrastructure \u2014 it\u2019s a known pattern of operation. We control the area east of the yellow line with observation and fire, we\u2019re physically in the zone \u2014 but west of the yellow line there\u2019s no IDF ground hold, and that\u2019s where Hamas terrorists in vests are moving around. That\u2019s troubling, without question.\u201d<\/p>\n
A staff sergeant in reserve told ynet that \u201cnothing happening beyond the yellow line is permitted for us to act on \u2014 we simply can\u2019t do anything about it.\u201d He said the frustration is compounded by what he described as \u201ca missed political opportunity.\u201d \u201cNow that Hamas is weakened, we\u2019re not pushing for a diplomatic change. What\u2019s happening with full disarmament of the Strip? Where\u2019s progress on the Trump plan? We sacrificed more than 300 days for this, to enable a sane future for the country \u2014 we reached a point where we could push political change,\u201d he said. \u201cInstead, we\u2019re going in place, going nowhere. I don\u2019t know who we\u2019re waiting for. Meanwhile Hamas recovers and grows stronger. We\u2019ll find ourselves in endless cycles again. We\u2019re missing a golden opportunity that\u2019s unlikely to return soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
The complaints from reservists come amid a broader debate in the military about rules of engagement. Last Friday, an apparent breach of those rules led to heavy artillery fire on a school in the Dajr Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City, near Shuja\u2019iyah. A preliminary investigation indicated that the strike was ordered without required approval from a regional commander or the chief of staff because the target was designated a \u201csensitive identification.\u201d The building was struck and burned; at least three children were killed, and several other civilians were wounded. Southern Command is still investigating the incident.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, there are few signs that Hamas is moving to disarm itself, even symbolically. Efforts to resume searches for the last remaining hostage, Ran Gvili, were reportedly postponed this week due to weather and other operational issues. The fact that most of the hostages \u2014 particularly those still alive \u2014 are now believed to be back home has reduced pressure on both sides to compromise or advance toward a future Gaza without Hamas control.<\/p>\n
Military assessments suggest senior Hamas leaders remain at large and directing operations from underground, while lower\u2011level operatives are increasingly visible above ground, often under the guise of civilian life and performing internal administrative tasks. In many parts of the territory from Jabalia to Rafah, checkpoints and patrols controlled by Hamas are increasingly active, asserting a semblance of governance despite extensive war damage.<\/p>\n
At the same time, Hamas appears to be injecting significant funds \u2014 reportedly tens to hundreds of thousands of shekels daily \u2014 into its recovering treasury, leveraging increased humanitarian aid flows allowed by Israel of around 4,200 truckloads per week. Aid shipments, including food and other goods, have been entering at between 600 and 800 daily, and Hamas is reportedly extracting revenue from private sector trade to tax or impose levies on Gazans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Troops and commanders speaking to ynet described a growing sense of uncertainty and frustration among soldiers who report…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-198634","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}