FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
JERUSALEM – The Palestinian families fleeing south are leaving behind the rubble and about a thousand are missing under the collapsed walls along the entire strip, according to rescuers who continue to dig and remove the concrete blocks. Where they hear a groan, a voice asking for help, they insert a cannula to at least bring water to those trapped. The water that has returned to Gaza’s taps after American pressure over the past 48 hours on the Israeli government to reopen the pipes. More than 2,600 people have died in the sand corridor, home to 2.3 million Palestinians, including civilians and Hamas paramilitaries who seized control of these 363 square kilometers from Palestinian President Abu Mazen in 2007. The bodies are now piling up in the refrigerators of the trucks; according to the Ministry of Health, it is too risky to take them to hospitals or cemeteries. A statement from the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA speaks of an “unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe”. “Gaza is strangled.”
600,000 – according to the Israeli Defense Forces spokesman – would have followed the evacuation order printed on leaflets dropped among the exposed gray cubes of the northern villages. The area that the army wants to clear of civilians is – and was – inhabited by over a million Arabs. On the generals’ maps, it is fully defined as the area where the upcoming land invasion will take place, right down to the buildings of Gaza City, the Strip’s most populous center. In addition, there should be security: American Secretary of State Antony Blinken managed to get Egypt to reopen the Rafah border crossing for the passage of aid and to allow Palestinians with foreign passports to leave the country.
“Our responsibility,” Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi announced to troops stationed at the border, “is to enter and reach the positions where Hamas is preparing, planning and firing attacks and rockets.” Attack them everywhere, every commander, every agent, destroy their infrastructure. In a word: Go and win.” The limited war cabinet defined the campaign’s four objectives: to destroy Hamas’ rule and its military capacity; Eliminate the terrorist threat from Gaza; resolve the hostage crisis; Protecting borders and citizens.
The maneuvers and bombings of the jets – just as incessant as the rocket launches on Israel as far away as Tel Aviv – are made even more complex by the presence of Hamas and Islamic Jihad prisoners: Israeli intelligence has identified 155 of them, the number is increasing day by day, and Isaac Herzog, the Israeli president, showed the American broadcaster CNN the manual found on one of the terrorists who attacked the villages, kibbutzim and towns surrounding Gaza at dawn last Saturday (leaving at least 1,400 dead). . He would give instructions on how to kill them live on social media and torture them with electric cables.
The second northern front, which the Israelis fear could open up – “we don’t want it, but if Hezbollah decides to go to war, they will pay a very high price,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant threatens – is looming A four kilometer long front conflict means that the military has declared an area closed to civilians on the border with Lebanon. The Iranian-backed Shiite organization attacked about 10 times, firing anti-tank missiles, one killing a civilian and wounding four, the army responded with artillery. A bullet hit the Unifil base in Naqura: According to the UN force’s findings, it should have been a shot from Lebanon.
Tehran is putting pressure on Hamas, the armed wing it has financed and equipped, at least if one listens to the words of Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian: “If the Zionist aggression does not stop, it will be the fingers of all parties in the region.” on the trigger.” ».