The axe fell on Monday, May 5, when Benjamin Netanyahu released an address on X, speaking directly to users "without the filter of media." And the Israeli prime minister was indeed completely unfiltered. Following a call-up of reservists on Saturday, he announced that the government had decided on a "muscular operation in Gaza." It is to begin after US President Donald Trump's tour in Gulf countries in mid-May, if no last-minute agreement is reached with Hamas.

Netanyahu asserted that this time the army would attack with the intention of remaining. "The Israeli forces will not intervene only to withdraw afterward," he declared. "We are not here for that. The objective is quite different." The Likud leader is planning a direct reoccupation of the coastal territory, breaking with the 2005 disengagement plan initiated by former prime minister Ariel Sharon, which he had opposed at the time.

The withdrawal of troops and settlers from Gaza had opened a new chapter in the territory's tumultuous history: an indirect occupation, with Israel retaining control over the land and maritime borders, airspace, electromagnetic sphere and even civil registry of the Palestinian territory. When Hamas took total control of Gaza in 2007, expelling its Fatah rivals by force, Israel placed the strip under blockade, with Egypt's cooperation.

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