“We have moved into a new phase in the war. Last night [Friday], the ground in Gaza shook. We attacked above and below the ground. We attacked all terrorists of all ranks and in all places,” said Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, hours after its fighter jets bombed 150 underground targets and its soldiers remained deployed in the northern Gaza Strip in the largest ground incursion of the war against the Hamas jihadist group that began three weeks ago. .
“We entered the second phase of the war with clear objectives: destroying the military and government capabilities of Hamas and the release of those kidnapped,” declared Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, confirming the expansion of ground operations. He added: “We have eliminated countless killers and destroyed countless terrorist infrastructures. It is just the beginning. The war inside the Gaza Strip will be long and difficult.”
A ground offensive that, in statements by the head of the Army, Herzi Halevi, is necessary “to achieve the objectives.” Which is it? The dismantling of Hamas, border security and maximum efforts to return all those kidnapped in Gaza, Halevi listed, pointing out that there are a large number of dead in the ranks of Hamas. Like the rest of the officers and leaders, he carries on his shoulders the heavy burden of not having prevented the mega-attack of 7-O.
But even without thousands of uniformed men in the alleys of Gaza, the attacks are already so intense that on the one hand, relatives of the 230 people in the hands of Hamas and Islamic Jihad met urgently with Netanyahu to demand that they not be put in danger. theirs; On the other hand, a blackout was caused in the Palestinian enclave. A large part of Gazans and UN agencies were left without communications or internet. The World Health Organization reported that its workers, like the rest of Gaza’s inhabitants, spent a night “in darkness [due to lack of electricity] and fear.” The Palestinian Red Crescent indicated that it cannot communicate with its health teams in Gaza. According to the UN, “civilians cannot receive updated information on where they can access humanitarian aid, nor which places are more or less dangerous.” Never before have Gazans been so supported at the headquarters of the international organization in New York and so isolated in the strip between Israel and Egypt.
According to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health, more than 7,700 Palestinians (70% of them civilians) have been killed in the military campaign that Israel launched in response to the deaths of more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, in the attack. Hamas in kibbutzim, cities, a music festival and in several military bases near the border.
The possibilities of a ground offensive multiplied this Saturday at noon when the Army sent this warning in leaflets and other media: “For residents of the northern Strip and Gaza City, this is an urgent warning: temporarily evacuate to the for their safety. Hamas has placed military facilities and forces in civilian areas and is using them.”
Israel released the recording of the interrogation of one of the participants of the 7-0 in which he admits that hospitals, including Al Shifa, are used by the armed wing of Hamas to hide. This one denies it. Israel shared information in this regard with the US and is putting pressure on the leadership of Shifa, where some 30,000 Palestinians are also hiding in search of refuge, to evacuate an area that could be the scene of fighting. In a telephone conversation with Gallant, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin reiterated his support for the war against Hamas and the release of hostages and stressed the importance of protecting civilians and guaranteeing humanitarian aid in Gaza.
In contrast to the two previous incursions, the one that began this Friday kept the Infantry, Engineering and Artillery forces in northern Gaza after clashes with militiamen in the northern Bet Janun and the central Bureij. According to Israeli media, at least 50 militants were killed.
Except for some interventions from land and sea, the operation was carried out to date by fighters, drones and helicopters. They were the ones who, for example, reached yesterday the head of the Hamas air unit, Asem Abu Rakaba, whom Israeli Intelligence accuses of being responsible for the drones and paragliders on October 7, and the commander of the Naval Force of Gaza, Ratib Abu Tzahiban, mastermind of the recent foiled plan for the infiltration of commandos on Zikim Beach.
Israel believes that the rhetoric about the ground offensive, the widespread images of tanks in Gaza territory and the increase in aerial fire have a psychological effect both in causing Gazans to abandon their homes and take refuge in the South and in causing Hamas to free the kidnapped But they also influenced their families, worried that the path to ending Hamas would end the lives of their loved ones. “It has been the worst of all possible nights. Every minute seems like an eternity,” the committee of representatives stated, demanding that their freedom be Israel’s number one priority. The fear is evident: many of the targets attacked are underground, since it is suspected that hostages are found in the alternative underground city created by Hamas in Gaza.
The efforts for his release, especially in the case of foreigners and 30 children, are marked by leaks, messages in the sphere of psychological warfare and statements such as that of the spokesman for the armed wing, Abu Oveida, who this Saturday conditioned him to that Israeli prisons be “completely” emptied of Palestinian prisoners.
Musa Abu Marzuk, who was part of the Hamas delegation visiting Moscow, revealed that the Russian Foreign Ministry presented him with a list of eight Israelis with Russian nationality who could be in their hands. “We are looking for them to free them, we see Russia as a close friend,” he commented on behalf of a group that this Saturday claimed responsibility for the firing of projectiles against Tel Aviv and the southern area around the Dimona nuclear power plant and denounced, like others Arab countries, “war crimes against Gaza.
Egypt warned Israel that a ground offensive would cause “serious dangers and unprecedented humanitarian and security consequences.” Cairo opens the Rafah border crossing for the entry of humanitarian aid, which Israel plans to allow to increase to about 80 trucks in the coming days as the incursion deepens, but not for the departure of several thousand foreigners or dual nationals of a strip turned into hell. The intensity of the Israeli bombings has no origin in these lands. After the bloodiest attack in the history of Israel, Haaretz newspaper analyst Amos Harel wrote that “the population of two million inhabitants is going to suffer greatly due to the action led by the dictatorial regime in the Strip, which at the same time “it seems to have no less popular support.”
Black Saturday violently interrupted the accelerated process for the normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia within the framework of the agreement that the US was sewing. Riyadh condemned the Israeli attacks and opposed a vast ground offensive. Although far from the cameras, Riyadh wants the defeat of Hamas, which he considers another arm of Iran. Now, the toll of deaths and destruction in Gaza leaves him no choice but to align himself with the anti-Israel Arab and Muslim front.
