FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
JERUSALEM – A bag of flour costs 450 shekels, over 110 euros, sugar has disappeared from stores and is bought on the market, coffee, eggs, cookies are luxury goods that no one can afford because they are not available. Autumn in the Middle East has not yet brought the worst of the cold, Palestinians are cutting wood wherever they can find it – trees or doors of destroyed houses – to boil water. Over 1.8 million internally displaced people have fled south along evacuation routes ordered by the Israeli army and are now pushing towards Rafah and the border with Egypt. Where they survive crammed together in tents. “There is nothing to eat and 21 of us are under the covers,” Etimad Hassan told the Associated Press. The death toll is almost 18,000, a third of these fighters.
“It is hell on earth,” denounces Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. The collapse of hospitals and the progressive failure of sewage systems during the 65-day war leads to the spread of disease. The Israelis also know this, who identified viruses in the blood tests of the hostages released after almost two months of captivity that they had affected the aquifers. A hell that the residents – says the ANSA correspondent from the Gaza Strip – are beginning to blame Hamas for: “We were drawn there, in the end we will be expelled.”
The jihadist leaders declare that “no other kidnapped person can return without negotiations,” 137 remain. Israeli military sources – writes Haaretz newspaper – admit that “war pressure is currently unable to create the conditions for the offensive.” focuses on Khan Younis, where Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas, is apparently hiding. “It’s over, surrender, don’t die for him,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announces to the group’s paramilitaries. Intelligence estimates that of the captured Palestinians – photos of prisoners in their underwear have circulated on social media – only 10-15% belong to Hamas.
Qatar reiterates that it has not given up its mediation efforts: the fundamentalists have released 105 people – kidnapped in the October 7 attacks and 1,200 Israelis massacred – in exchange for the release of almost 300 detained Palestinian women and minors, the break from a week into the fighting, the arrival of 200 trucks carrying military aid. “The bombing and the offensive are reducing our options,” commented Mohammed bin Abdelrahman Al-Thani, the prime minister of the small Gulf kingdom.
In recent years – as the New York Times reconstructs – the sheikhs have poured billions of dollars into the jihadist organization. The suitcases of money were approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: the right-wing leader wanted to divide the Arab factions – the fundamentalists wrested control of Gaza from President Abu Mazen in a coup – and make negotiations on the creation of a Palestinian state impossible.
Another decades-old doctrine that Bibi has had to abandon is that of friendship – as he defines it in his autobiography – with Vladimir Putin: during an hour-long phone call, he expressed complaints about his “anti-Israel positions.” » and total disagreement over Russian cooperation with the Iranians. Which complicates the front in the north, where Hezbollah from Lebanon injured numerous soldiers with a drone.