Tel Aviv: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finally declared that there will be no Palestinian state and that the region belongs to Israel. On Thursday, the Zionist leader signed an agreement, officially moving forward with his settlement expansion plan in the occupied West Bank. The move will make any future Palestinian state virtually impossible, Al Jazeera reported.
Netanyahu said that his government is going to double the population in East Jerusalem. The region, however, carries particular significance to Palestinians since it is their choice for the capital of their future state.
Al Jazeera writes that all Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which were occupied from 1967, are illegal as per international law, no matter if they have Israeli planning permission.
Meanwhile, it is learned that there is a growing discontent among Benjamin Netanyahu’s soldiers in continuing with genocide and related war crimes in Gaza, mass murdering Palestinians, The Wire reported.
Netanyahu has mobilised some 40,000 reservists for his Gaza offensive on Tuesday, and another 90,000 troops are due for mobilisation by the end of 2026, according to The Wire.
According to the news agency, Israel has mandatory national conscription for those leaving high school for a period of 18 to 36 months, though there are some exemptions. Also, there is a compulsory reserve duty for some units until the age of 40. Report suggests that after the October 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas, 3,60,000 reservists were summoned for duty, alongside the 1,00,000 high-school leavers on duty.
The mentioned one was one of the largest mobilisations in Israel’s history. However, nearly two years into the war in Gaza, commanders are struggling to find reservists who are willing to serve. When some calculations show a 30 per cent decline in reserve deployment, Israel’s national broadcaster Kan says it's closer to 50 per cent.