The war against Hamas entered a new stage on Saturday, October 28 and will be “long and difficult,” warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, three weeks after the start of hostilities, triggered by the deadliest attack in the history of Israel.
Since Friday evening, the Israeli army has been operating on the ground with soldiers and armored vehicles, while intensifying its bombardments of the Gaza Strip launched after the massacres of October 7 during which 1,400 people were killed on the Israeli side, mainly civilians.
“The war in the Gaza Strip will be long and difficult and we are ready for it,” Netanyahu said Saturday at a news conference in Tel Aviv, adding that his army “will destroy the enemy on land and under earth “. A reference to the gigantic network of tunnels from where, according to the military, Hamas directs its operations.
Defeating Hamas is an “existential challenge,” said the Israeli Prime Minister, once again attacking Tehran. “I think 90% of Hamas’ military budget comes from Iran,” he charged. Now, Israel has initiated “the second stage of the war, the objective of which is clear: to destroy the military capabilities and leadership of Hamas; bring the hostages home,” Netanyahu said after meeting with the families of those held captive in the Gaza Strip. Israel’s prime minister has told the hostages’ families that he will explore “all options” to have them released.
The leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinouar, spoke on Saturday evening for the first time since October 7, declaring himself ready to conclude “immediately” an exchange of the hostages that the Palestinian Islamist movement is holding – 230 according to the Israeli army – against “all Palestinian prisoners” incarcerated by Israel. Hamas, which had threatened to execute hostages, estimates the number of them killed in the bombings at “nearly 50”. Only four women have been released to date.
“Several Hamas Terrorists Killed”
The Israeli army once again called on the Palestinians at dawn on Sunday to go to the south of the Gaza Strip, in a message posted on X (formerly Twitter). “Civilians from northern Gaza and Gaza City should temporarily move south of Wadi Gaza [the river that bisects the enclave in the middle], to a safer area where they can receive water, food and medicine. [On Sunday], humanitarian efforts in Gaza, led by Egypt and the United States, will be increased,” said General Daniel Hagari, an Israeli army spokesman. The IDF had already affirmed on Saturday that it now considered Gaza City and its region as a “battlefield” and reported “several Hamas terrorists killed” including an official “having taken part in the organization of the massacre of October 7.”
Hamas, for its part, claims that more than 8,000 people, half of them children, were killed in Israeli bombings. Local authorities, controlled by the Islamist movement, said a “large number” of people were killed overnight in airstrikes on two refugee camps in the north of the enclave.
Earlier, the Israeli command warned residents of the southern Israeli cities of Ashdod and Ashkelon against missile and rocket attacks. The emergency services reported no casualties. On the other hand, three people were injured during the day after salvos of rockets were fired from Gaza.
The UN fears a humanitarian catastrophe in the Palestinian enclave. Its Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, deplored on Saturday the “unprecedented escalation of bombings” which “compromise humanitarian objectives”, calling once again for an immediate ceasefire. The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Mirjana Spoljaric, found it “unacceptable that civilians have no safe place to go in Gaza amid massive bombings”, saying that “the world should not tolerate” what happens.
Telephone and Internet gradually restored
Around 2.4 million people live crowded together in this 362 square kilometer territory, lacking water, food, electricity, and since Friday, communications and the Internet. In total, 84 trucks of humanitarian aid were able to arrive via Egypt in a week, according to the UN, while 100 were needed per day.
The bombings on Gaza coincided with a communications and internet blackout. NGOs and UN agencies have reported losing contact with their teams in Gaza. Humanitarian operations and hospital activity “cannot continue without communications,” said Lynn Hastings, a UN official. Mobile phone services and internet access are gradually being restored in the Gaza Strip, several Palestinian media outlets and network monitoring organization Netblocks reported early Sunday.
Since October 9, Israel has imposed a “total siege” on Gaza, cutting off water, electricity and food supplies, while the Palestinian territory was already under an Israeli land, air and sea blockade since the Islamist movement took power more than sixteen years ago. “Many more” people will “soon die” due to the siege, said the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini.
Some surgical operations are carried out without completely putting patients to sleep, including amputations, due to the shortage of anesthetic products, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned on Saturday.
Very high tension in the West Bank
The international community fears a regional conflagration, while Iran, support of Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah, has issued warnings to the United States, a close ally of Israel. Tension is also very high in the West Bank occupied since 1967, where more than 100 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers since October 7.
On Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, where exchanges of fire are almost daily between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, the headquarters of the UN peacekeepers in the south was hit by a shell on Saturday, without of victim. A peacekeeper was slightly injured near Hula by bombings, according to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday described Israel as a “war criminal”, which immediately announced it was recalling its diplomats from Turkey. Mr. Erdogan also accused the West of being “the main culprit of the massacres in Gaza.” Tens of thousands of people also demonstrated in support of the Palestinians in London on Saturday, and thousands in Paris and Zurich.