While the Israeli Army accompanies its intense bombings with a declared increase in its ground operations – and for the first time with an incursion from the sea – and accuses the armed wing of Hamas of having its headquarters under the Shifa Hospital in Gaza, the Islamist group He hopes that negotiations to free some of the 229 kidnapped people in his possession will delay the large-scale ground offensive. In the middle, the civilian population.
On the one hand, 130,000 Israelis have abandoned their homes in the face of projectiles and infiltrations on the southern and northern borders in a country in which there is practically no one who does not have an acquaintance or family member murdered, disappeared, survived or kidnapped in the jihadist attack. on October 7th. On the other hand, 1.4 million Palestinians desperately displaced in the enclave with more and more deaths and injuries and fewer buildings, infrastructure and services under the attacks, which this Friday were the most intense and caused the cessation of communications and the Internet before that at night, according to Palestinian sources, soldiers entered the northern area of ??Beit Janun and armed clashes took place with militiamen.
For the first time since the start of the war unleashed with the Hamas attack that killed 1,400 people in Israel, the Shayetet 13 Naval Force unit carried out a raid in southern Gaza. “The forces attacked a Hamas terrorist infrastructure and a complex of its naval command forces,” the Army said after confirming the second limited land incursion and before announcing its expansion at night. The declared objective, “to kill terrorists and prepare the ground for the ground operation,” indicates that these raids will be a growing constant pending what happens in the negotiations led by Qatar and Egypt to release hostages (especially dozens of children and elderly ) in the hands of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Information about “progress” in this regard appeared in several Arab media.
The outcome of the dilemma in the Israeli Government will guide the course of the war: ground offensive to end the armed wing and the Hamas regime or give time to the issue of the kidnapped people. Hamas hopes that this will be its Iron Dome to prevent the entry of thousands of soldiers, tanks and armored cars or at least receive fuel for its tunnels. Their pressure is directed at public opinion in Israel which, after the shock and calls for revenge at the beginning, now emphasizes the importance of the return of the kidnapped people. According to the Maariv newspaper poll, 29% of Israelis believe that the Army should immediately enter Gaza while 49% think it should wait.
“We demand conditions to release the hostages, including a ceasefire,” said Islamist leader Musa Abu Marzuk in an interview in Al Arabiya in which he took the opportunity to send a message to his allies: “We will try to get all those who want to fight with us, including Iran and Hezbollah. On Friday, the Air Force neutralized “hostile objects” coming from the Red Sea.
The blockade decreed after 7-O has been broken only by 84 trucks with humanitarian aid and a dozen foreign doctors for a week. “We must avoid transmitting the message that with just a few trucks a day the siege on humanitarian aid can be lifted. These are crumbs. What is needed is a significant and uninterrupted flow of aid to alleviate the lack of water, food and electricity,” declared the commissioner general of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, who demanded the entry of fuel to prevent the general collapse of the health system.
In a press conference in Jerusalem, he explained that about 160,000 liters a day are necessary for minimum needs and warned that his organization had fuel for this Friday. “There is a place where there is fuel, it entered through an agreement between Israel and Qatar through Egypt. Whether or not we have access to that fuel, it will only be possible if there is a de-escalation with Israel,” he indicated after 21 days in which According to the Hamas government, more than 7,300 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive.
Israel counters that Hamas has fuel to give to citizens instead of using it for their needs in the tunnels (ventilation system). Army spokesman Daniel Hagari called a special press conference to denounce that the Hamas headquarters and command room is located beneath Shifa Hospital as part of the tunnel complex. “We have evidence that hundreds of terrorists hid in Shifa and other hospitals after the massacres of 7-O. They endanger the lives of Israeli and Palestinian civilians,” denounced Hagari, showing graphics and a conversation between two Gazans – according to him – which confirmed it.
“These lies represent the prelude to a new massacre against our people,” responded the Islamist leader Izzat al Rishq, who added: “We ask the leaders of Arab and Muslim countries to take action and stop the genocide against our people.”
More than 30,000 Palestinians are in the Shifa area to find refuge while the bombing reached an unprecedented intensity this Friday afternoon, bringing the possibility of a major ground incursion closer. Beyond the death of a leader of the armed wing and a dozen commanders in the Hamas field and attacks on numerous infrastructures, the Air Force has intensified its attacks against the fundamentalist militia’s tunnel network.
