Israel meets renewed resistance from Hamas amid pressure to reduce civilian casualties

William Brangham:

There was fierce combat between Israeli troops and Hamas militants today across the Gaza Strip, as Israel's ground operations met renewed and heavy resistance from Hamas. Civilians, as ever, are caught in the middle, with the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry saying nearly 19,000 people have been killed in the enclave since October 7.

John Yang begins our coverage.

John Yang:

In Gaza City, Israeli troops engaged in heavy combat, their campaign against Hamas raging on, even after suffering their heaviest losses in weeks.

The IDF says nine soldiers were killed yesterday when they were ambushed in Gaza City's Shaja'ia neighborhood. The military had set operations in Northern Gaza all that wiped out Hamas' hold there. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said setbacks will not deter him.

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister (through interpreter):

We had a very difficult day, and every day we have precious boys who fall, the true heroes of Israel. I want to say in the clearest way, we continue to the end. I say this in the face of great pain, but also in the face of international pressures.

Nothing will stop us. We will go to the end to victory, no less than that.

John Yang:

It comes as global support for Israel's operation is dwindling by the day.

Man:

One hundred and fifty-three in favor, 10 against.

John Yang:

Last night, the U.N. General Assembly approved a nonbinding resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire. The United States was one of just 10 nations to vote against it.

Today, the "NewsHour"'s Laura Barron-Lopez pressed White House officials about President Biden's comment yesterday that indiscriminate bombing was eroding international support.

Laura Barron-Lopez:

After the president's comments yesterday talking about Israel losing support, the Israeli foreign minister said that Israel would continue its war with or without international support.

Do you have a response to that?

John Kirby, NSC Coordinator For Strategic Communications:

We're going to continue to support them, and, as the president expressed yesterday, we obviously don't want to see them lose international support for what they're trying to do. They have every right to defend themselves.

John Yang:

Earlier, Mr. Biden met with the families of the eight American hostages held in Gaza. It was their second meeting since October 7.

Na'ama Weinberg, Cousin of Hamas Hostage: Every day that passes by might be the last day of the hostages while they're alive. Every day, we hear about new names and new hostages that came there alive and now they're taken out as bodies.

John Yang:

In Gaza, residents already scrambling for food and shelter are now dealing with heavy rain. In the Jabalia refugee camp, mourners carry the dead through knee-deep water.

Across Gaza, tent cities muddied and wet are now practically uninhabitable.

Yasmin Mhani, Displaced Gazan (through interpreter):

I woke up my 7-month-old, who was soaking wet. We have just one blanket between all of us. Five people with only one blanket. There are no covers, no mattresses, no food, no water to drink. This is the fifth place I had to move to, fleeing from one place to another with nothing but a T-shirt on.

John Yang:

Only adding to the misery of hundreds of thousands of displaced Gazans.

For weeks, Biden administration officials have pressed Prime Minister Netanyahu to increase humanitarian aid, as well as reduce civilian casualties. And now President Biden is taking that up to a whole new level.

Natan Sachs is director of the Brookings Institutions' Center for Middle East Policy.

Mr. Sachs, what's behind this apparent public rift between President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu?

Natan Sachs, Brookings Institution:

Well, there are both substantive differences between the two parties and also political ones.

Substantively, the president and the prime minister see quite differently, especially the day after of the ground operation in the Gaza Strip. We're looking at probably the last few weeks of this phase of the ground operation. And what follows has been described very differently by the two leaders.

President Biden has said no Hamas ruling the Gaza Strip after the war, but also no Israeli reoccupation of the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu, on the other hand, has described an indefinite Israeli security overall responsibility in the Gaza Strip, believing that no other force, international or multinational, would have the wherewithal and they would agree to pay the price to conduct counterinsurgency in the Gaza Strip.

He's probably right in this assessment. But there's also other differences. The president sees a major role for the Palestinian Authority that currently controls parts of the West Bank, at least rejuvenated, reformed, but then entering into the Gaza Strip as the main Palestinian force there.

Netanyahu has staked out a position that that would be unacceptable and there would be no future at least for this current form of the Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip. That's a major difference between the two.

There's also politics involved. Biden has a lot of pressure domestically and internationally, and sees a need to make clear that he's been using not only his love for Israel, but also his pressure, the leverage that he's gained by showing this close affinity to Israel.

And Netanyahu is struggling for his political future himself. He's now trailing badly in the polls against the presumptive winner, would be Benny Gantz, who's currently in the coalition, but only temporarily.

And he's trying to stake out a position that would differentiate between him and Benny Gantz, in particular, on the question of the Palestinian Authority and whether there might be a Palestinian state and a two-state solution down the road, something Netanyahu is hinting that he is the only one who would prevent, as most Israelis are very fearful of it today, and hinting that Benny Gantz perhaps would not be able to prevent it.

John Yang:

You're talking about these differences, and they had been going on sort of behind the scenes in private talks between the two sides.

Why do you think President Biden is bringing this public now?

Natan Sachs:

Well, we're nearing the end of the year, and the American administration has said privately to the Israelis that this is likely the last few weeks of what the Americans would agree to as this phase of the ground operations, so major ground operations with a lot of Israeli forces in now the Southern and Northern Gaza Strip.

We're not going to see the end of fighting. Israel will continue to operate. And, of course, it depends on what it achieves in the last few weeks, whether it captures, for example, the leaders of Hamas who were behind the horrific attack of October 7, and it managed to degrade other Hamas infrastructure.

But, nonetheless, this phase is probably ending in a few weeks. And Biden has tried to put that pressure on Israel, make sure that Israel really does adhere to that kind of timeline, but also to set the stage for what comes after.

As I said, there's deep disagreements there. For Netanyahu too, this is an opportunity to voice it publicly, is not only an attempt to push back diplomatically, but also to signal to the audience that Netanyahu cares about most perhaps, and that's his voters.

He is trailing badly, as I said, and is really trying to stake out a political position that would allow him to remain in office for as long as possible.

John Yang:

Will this pressure from the United States, from President Biden have any effect on Prime Minister Netanyahu?

Natan Sachs:

It's a mixed bag there.

On the one hand, Netanyahu is answering to an Israeli public that is still very much traumatized by October 7, it is reliving the trauma, it is feeling it, talking about it incessantly daily, and has very little patience for concessions to Palestinians.

On the other hand, President Biden stood by Israel in a way that really moved Israeli hearts and minds immediately after October 7. And that gives him a lot of cachet, a lot of leverage in Israel. So Netanyahu will voice very strong public rhetoric against any pressure, but in private and in practice he often follows suit in terms of what the American administration wants.

So Biden has a lot of sway on Israel. And he's already used a lot of it in ways that some of them have not been public, but there is a limit to it. The Israeli public and the Israeli elites see it as a national interest now, national imperative to bring down Hamas.

And so that — in between there is where Biden has leverage.

John Yang:

And is there a real threat, do you think, that U.S. support could change, could go down, or maybe have strings attached, restrictions attached to it?

Natan Sachs:

I don't expect the fundamental support from President Biden to change. He clearly believes firmly in the main goal, which is that Hamas after October 7 cannot be allowed to rule a statelet neighboring Israel or any other country.

And in that, he is in full agreement with the Israelis. But we can see, and we have already seen a change in the American position that would give full support to the Israeli operation, including the supply of munitions, the very crucial supply of munitions.

There's another element in which I don't expect a change, and it's been a crucial one. And that's the war that we have not seen in the past two months.

And that's a war between Israel, a major war between Israel and Hezbollah and other Iranian supported groups. We have seen fighting, we have seen, in fact, war, but not at the scale that would be — that would show real devastation, both in Israel proper, but also in Lebanon, where the devastation between Hezbollah and Israeli war would be absolutely catastrophic, dwarf even what we have seen since October 7.

John Yang:

Natan Sachs of the Brookings Institution Center for Middle East Policy, thank you very much.

Natan Sachs:

Thank you.