TEHRAN- Nine months into Israel’s brutal war on the Gaza Strip, the regime of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is struggling to contain the fallout from its military failures.

Since launching war on Gaza on October 7, Netanyahu has vowed to continue the onslaught until total victory over Hamas and elimination of the Palestinian resistance group. 

Netanyahu, also known as Bibi, has claimed that the war will lead to the release of Israeli and foreign captives. 

The Israeli premier, however, has failed to deliver on his promises.

In line with efforts to cover up the Israeli battlefield defeats at the hands of Palestinian resistance fighters, Netanyahu told US President Joe Biden in a phone call on Thursday that he wants to deploy a delegation to Qatar for negotiations with Hamas. 

The Israeli cabinet said in a statement following the phone conversation that "Prime Minister Netanyahu updated President Biden on his decision to send a delegation to continue the hostage negotiations and reiterated the principles that Israel is committed to, especially its commitment to end the war only after all of its goals have been achieved."

The Israeli cabinet’s statement acknowledges that the Netanyahu regime will only be able to secure the release of the remaining captives through talks.  

Nonetheless, it says Israel will not stop the war until achieving its goals which mainly pertain to the destruction of Hamas's military and governing capabilities.

Netanyahu’s decision to send negotiators to Qatar came after Hamas said it had presented new “ideas” to Qatari, Egyptian and Turkish mediators on how to reach a ceasefire and captive-exchange deal.

“We exchanged some ideas with the mediator brothers with the aim of stopping the aggression against our Palestinian people,” a Hamas statement said on Wednesday. 

Biden proposed a ceasefire plan for Gaza on May 31 and described it as an Israeli proposal.

The United Nations Security Council approved a US resolution in June backing Washington’s ceasefire plan which called for ending the Gaza war.

Hamas welcomed the ceasefire plan but the US has accused the resistance group of blocking progress towards it. 

Netanyahu, however, has not stated directly whether he supports the ceasefire plan. 

Over the past months, Israelis have held protests calling on the Netanyahu cabinet to reach a deal with Hamas to free the captives. They have accused Bibi of prioritizing his political interest over the lives of the captives. The demonstrators have also demanded snap elections and Netanyahu’s resignation. 

More than 1,100 people were killed when Hamas carried out a surprise military operation in southern Israel dubbed Al-Aqsa Storm on October 7. Nearly 250 Israeli and foreign nationals were also taken captive. Dozens of the captives still remain in Gaza following a prisoner swap deal between Israel and Hamas in November last year.  Al-Aqsa Storm was followed by Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. 

The Israeli army has killed more than 38,0000 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly children, and wounded over 87,000 others since the war broke out. But the Netanyahu regime has been unable to bring the Palestinian resistance to its knees which has resulted in widening political rifts in Israel. 

Last month, Benny Gantz resigned from the Israeli war cabinet, saying, “Netanyahu prevents us from moving forward to a real victory [in Gaza]”. His resignation not only dealt a blow to the Netanyahu cabinet but also put a spotlight on political divisions in Israel. 

Gantz is not the only official who admitted that Israel has failed to achieve its military goals in Gaza. 

 “This business of destroying Hamas, making Hamas disappear — it’s simply throwing sand in the eyes of the public…. Hamas is an idea; Hamas is a party. It’s rooted in the hearts of the people — anyone who thinks we can eliminate Hamas is wrong,” Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military spokesman said in June. 

Netanyahu is currently between the devil and the deep blue sea. 

On the one hand, he will be held accountable for failing to prevent the Al-Aqsa Storm operation if he decides to end the war. On the other hand, the continuation of the war will claim the lives of more Israeli soldiers and deepen his regime’s international isolation.

Netanyahu’s rhetoric is just an attempt to put on a brave face as the Israeli army is sinking deeper into the quagmire of the Gaza war.