Israeli newspaper Haaretz condemned the ongoing "Gideon's Chariots" operation in Gaza, calling it a doomed and misguided military campaign lacking both domestic and international legitimacy on Friday.

The operation, according to the paper, is built on political illusions and military objectives that are neither clear nor achievable.

Military correspondent Yaniv Kubovich reported that newly issued operational directives to Israeli army commanders ranked captive recovery at the bottom of mission priorities, which reinforces longstanding concerns that the war’s publicly stated objective, the return of captives, was never taken seriously by either the government or military leadership.

Kubovich noted that the internal list of objectives undermines recent statements by Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir and military spokesperson Avi Dovrin, who publicly emphasized that freeing captives was the army’s primary mission.

In contrast, the actual orders show that this goal has been sidelined, casting doubt on the integrity of official messaging.

The editorial also pointed out a shift in language from "abductees" to "hostages," a change that seems more rhetorical than substantive. Haaretz argued that rebranding the captives does not change the reality on the ground or the lack of urgency in efforts to secure their release, which remain overshadowed by broader military aims.

Civilian casualties rise amid Gaza escalation

Haaretz emphasized that any realistic path to their release would require direct negotiations with Hamas, a route the current military campaign not only avoids but actively sabotages.

Even before the launch of the "Gideon's Chariots" operation, Israeli forces had intensified strikes across the Gaza Strip, killing at least 107 people in recent days, among them 32 displaced civilians who had been sheltering in a school in al-Bureij, nine of them children.

The editorial exposed the disturbing irony in Israeli soldiers urging residents to evacuate a mosque while simultaneously carrying out an airstrike on a nearby makeshift school shelter. This contradiction, Haaretz noted, reflects a broader strategy of displacement and destruction that undermines any claim of a humanitarian approach.

The newspaper concluded that "Israel’s" war on Gaza is operating without moral or legal constraints and is achieving no credible military objectives. It urged both the government and the military to end the campaign immediately and pursue negotiations that prioritize the lives of the remaining captives and the civilian population suffering under continued bombardment.