As Israel moves closer to launching a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip and urges its citizens to move south, it continues its massive air strikes against the Islamist group Hamas and its soldiers carry out several limited incursions into Gazan territory. The objective is to locate the more than 100 hostages who were kidnapped in the lethal jihadist attack on October 7.
“We have searched and collected some samples that may contribute to the effort to locate the missing people,” announced the military spokesman, Daniel Hagari, about the action near the border in which his infantry troops “killed several terrorists in the area and aborted Hamas cells, including one that had fired anti-tank missiles at Israel. “Just a week ago, Israelis were fighting among themselves over the judicial reform plan in the biggest internal crisis, the West Bank was simmering, The normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel seemed to be waiting around the corner and the Hamas leadership was completing negotiations with Qatar and Egypt on increased economic aid that promised calm with Israel. But the massive attack by the Izzedin Al Qassam Brigades against towns, several border bases and a massive music festival that caused 1,400 deaths in Israel dynamited the local, regional and international board. The Israeli offensive is the harshest in the Gaza Strip in recent decades, with more than 1,800 dead, the unprecedented kidnapping of Israelis in Gaza, the record tension between Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah since the war in 2006 that Any moment can explode, demonstrations of protests in Arab countries and the “return” of the US to the region to stage support for its Israeli ally against the Iranian axis.
Under the rain of projectiles from the militias against Israel, reaching the Haifa area for the first time and while the massive bombings that sow panic among the Palestinians do not stop, northern Gaza has become a key theater of the war. There, Israel addressed the inhabitants with leaflets and messages asking them to leave their homes and head south “in the next 24 hours.”
The request, defined by the UN as “impossible” and a new source of the worsening of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, is interpreted as a step to “facilitate” the land incursion that would begin in that area. With the Israeli government raising the goal from “damaging Hamas’ military capabilities to “ending” its regime, the ground offensive seems inevitable. On Friday night, tens of thousands of soldiers were preparing for an operation that will mark the third phase of the war after the surprise attack by Hamas in Israel and the massive aerial retaliation. “We have asked by all means the inhabitants in northern Gaza to leave their homes for their safety and protection but Hamas, which is worse than Daesh tells them not to do it and puts them in danger to be their human shield from their attacks,” Hagari protested about a step that seeks to prepare a scenario in which combats between soldiers and militiamen take place in areas without Palestinian civilians.
The main northern area affected would be the city of Gaza, which has 400,000 inhabitants and which according to Israel is the origin of a large part of the projectiles. 40% of the projectiles against Israel are aimed at Ashkelon although yesterday they also reached Tel Aviv.
“The occupation attempts to spread and circulate false propaganda through various means, with the aim of creating confusion among citizens and undermining the stability of our internal front,” Hamas warned, asking residents to “stand firm in the face of aggression” and not leave their homes.
The UN and various local and international aid agencies warned of the “devastating” consequences of the evacuation of more than a million people in the crisis that Gaza is going through under the blockade of the electricity supply and under constant bombardment. “They ask to evacuate their houses to a safe place but there is no safe place in Gaza,” says a Palestinian quoted by Al Jazeera, the Qatari channel, close to Hamas.
The Israeli Army flatly denied the accusation by Human Right Watch that it used banned white phosphorus in two attacks carried out this week in Gaza and Lebanon. Although the US has always supported Israel in the escalations against the militias in Gaza (until certain phase asked him to seek a truce), this time it is unprecedented support. As was the Hamas attack and Israel’s retaliation. After the visit on Thursday of the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, who yesterday was in Jordan where he met with the Hashemite monarch Abdullah II and the Palestinian president, Abu Mazen, this Friday it was the turn of the Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. “This is not a time for neutrality, nor for false comparisons or giving pretexts to terrorism,” he assured, promising a military umbrella to Israel against Hamas, which he also compared to Daesh, in a war that appears to be long and hard.
