As the evening approaches, the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Herzi Halev, addresses the soldiers stationed on the southern border of the Gaza Strip: “Our responsibility now is to invade the Gaza Strip – he underlines this carefully.” Words: Go to the places where Hamas prepares, trades, plans and fires rockets. Attack them everywhere, every commander, every agent, destroy the infrastructure. In a word: we have to win. We are going to do something big and important to change the situation for a long, long time. This is a great mission, a great privilege. Do it by doing your best.
On CNN, Israeli President Isaac Herzog shows a manual confiscated from terrorists: It describes in gory detail the phases of the kidnapping of Israelis in the October 7 attack, the torture techniques with electric shocks, the executions, the use of prisoners as human shields. Meanwhile, inside the Gaza Strip, Hamas continues to fire rockets at Tel Aviv and is holding hostage over 2 million Palestinians and 120 Israeli civilians (as well as from other nations) captured in the October 7 attack. The Israeli plan is clear: the strip will be divided into two parts. In the north, the attacks, the hunt for Hamas leaders and militia members, the search for the 120 hostages hidden in the 480 kilometer long tunnel network. There is a security area in the south where Israel decided yesterday afternoon, in agreement with Biden, to reactivate the water supply and thus send a signal to the Palestinians. However, the siege continues and military airmen are determined to support the work of the troops who will invade by land (but also by sea, as the military leaders have explained). According to the Israelis, of the 1.1 million Palestinians living there, 600,000 have left the northern area so far. Almost 50 percent are still stuck in the risk area.
WAIT
An indiscretion by the New York Times, citing an internal Israeli army source, postponed the start of the land attack by a few days due to weather conditions (large-scale infantry attacks have already taken place). Yesterday, the army gave Palestinians in the north an additional three hours to move south and outlined the path they must follow to move safely. Some explosions recently, which occurred directly on the specified route, claimed around seventy lives. Accusations of non-compliance with the ceasefire have been made against the Israeli army. Yesterday the answer was: “It’s just fake news, we didn’t bomb the civilian convoy.”
The line reiterated by Israel is that the ground attack will only take place once the evacuation of the southern part of the Gaza Strip is completed. “We are laying the foundation for the most effective ground maneuvers,” repeats Israeli Air Force commander Tomer Bar. The armed forces announced that they had killed Bilal al-Qadr, commander of Hamas’s Nukhba unit, commander of Khan Younis unit. The humanitarian emergency in Gaza is worsening.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health has updated the figures of the tragedy: 2,450 victims of the Israeli raids in Gaza, 9,200 injured. The civil protection agency adds: There are still 1,000 people under the rubble. The attack by Palestinian terrorists on Saturday, October 7, claimed 1,300 lives in Israel, mostly civilians. What is striking is the violence with which the militiamen attacked that day, inexplicably, even with the perverse logic of terrorists, the community of Thai workers, poor people who came from the other side of the world and to whom Hamas showed no mercy: The number of Thai deaths stands at 27, according to the latest data updated by the Bangkok government. Yesterday it was announced that terrorists in a kibbutz had also killed Holocaust survivor Gina Smiatich, 90, on October 7th. What will happen in Gaza? Just yesterday there were hundreds of Israeli attacks that destroyed Hamas command centers and rocket and missile launch sites. Images were also released of recovered weapons in the terrorists’ possession – a huge arsenal that shows how carefully the death plan had been prepared. With every hour that passes, hospitals on the Strip move closer to collapse. The United Nations refugee agency states that “around a million people are displaced in a week, while thousands continue to leave their homes.”
APPEAL
International concern is growing because a massacre would be an unacceptable tragedy. And it would also be fuel for the entire region’s fire, Hamas’ true political goal. For this reason, Biden urged Israel to be cautious. And the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, warns: “The humanitarian situation in Gaza is rapidly deteriorating.” Rockets from Gaza are also continuing to be fired at Tel Aviv: a delegation of American senators who visited the country had to flee to emergency shelters . The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt “will be opened for humanitarian assistance in the Gaza Strip” as Egypt has asked to allow the departure of around 500 Americans: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced this from Cairo.
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on Il Messaggero