Israel Waits for Green Light from Washington*

News of success from the army in Gaza is expected to convince the Biden administration to approve a raid on the Al-Shifa hospital.

It is the first sign of hope since Oct. 7. Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced on Monday that Hamas has lost control over Gaza.

The Israeli army is, in fact, making progress in the north. According to the army, it has incapacitated 10 of 24 Hamas battalions. But until the fighting stops, the army still has a long road ahead of it. Gallant’s words thus have symbolic meaning more than anything else. They are supposed to evoke a sense of renewed strength in the face of images of fallen soldiers that appear on the front pages of every media outlet and to which new portraits must be added almost every day. Their death was in the service of an objective that is now in sight.

But Gallant’s message was directed primarily overseas because criticism of Israel is growing as more time passes and as complaints about the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza grow louder. Israel thus needs to signal that it has taken the right course of action. That is even more the case because, more than anything else, it needs a green light from Washington for the next, and probably most controversial, step: a raid on the Al-Shifa hospital.

The army’s announcement that it has excavated a Hamas weapons arsenal from a tunnel under another hospital and the army’s claims that it has evidence that hostages are being held there are expected to provide the decisive push in Washington.

*Editor’s update: The Israeli military began raiding Al-Shifa Hospital on Nov. 15 after this article was originally published.