Military analyst asks if Netanyahu is pursuing a 'one-state solution'

As Israel begins its offensive to control Gaza City, a retired Air Vice-Marshal turned military analyst who has been in contact with members of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) told CGTN there is no clarity on the offensive's plan.

"I speak to a number of my IDF colleagues in Israel and I think frankly there is no military solution now to the challenge that Prime Minister Netanyahu appears to presenting, which is to somehow destroy all of Hamas," Sean Bell told CGTN. 

Bell cited a letter sent in early August to Donald Trump by a group of 600 retired Israeli security officials, including former heads of intelligence agencies. They asked the U.S. President to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to immediately end the war in Gaza, saying "It is our professional judgement that Hamas no longer poses a strategic threat to Israel."

Bell said the letter-writers maintained "there is no real prospect of any achievement militarily by continuing, and all you do is risk the lives of the hostages – but also the lives of IDF soldiers."

Ahead of the planned ground offensive to occupy all of Gaza City, the IDF called up about 60,000 reservists – and Bell noted that many across Israel will be feeling the threat of military risk.

"It's going to put a lot more of their soldiers in harm's way," Bell said. "And it's not just the 60,000 that have been mobilized. It's also 20,000 that have had their mobilization extended. That will be a grave worry to many of the Israeli citizens."

'Politicians have to define the end state'

Bell expressed concern that there is no clarity over Israel's intentions. 

"The military can't achieve an end in itself – the politicians have to define the end state, and the military try to work out how to achieve that. And if the end-state is actually a two-state solution, this isn't the route to doing it," he said. 

"If the end stage is to release the hostages, then most of the hostages to date have only been released through negotiation and some sort of ceasefire. So it's very difficult to see what the political objectives are here."

Israel has also approved – after two decades of vociferous international opposition – a controversial settlement project that would effectively cut off the occupied West Bank from East Jerusalem and divide the territory in two, with far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich saying the plans will "bury the idea of a Palestinian state".

"If you stand back a few paces from this conflict and look at what Israel's doing in the West Bank," Bell said, "and also the nature of how it seems to be trying to make life intolerable for Palestinians in the Gaza, you could be forgiven for thinking that actually this is a pursuit of a single-state solution, and that Prime Minister Netanyahu has therefore got his sights set on that.

"He's not declaring that publicly, he doesn't appear to be declaring that to his military. And therefore you've got this slightly difficult task for the military being asked to perform with no real prospect of knowing or how or when, how successful it will be, or when it will be achieved."