The war between Hamas and IsraelDossierThree months after the Israeli army's land invasion of the Palestinian enclave, which left thousands dead, the Jewish state believes that the intensive phase of operations “will soon end.”
Towards a respite for the people of Gaza? The “intense” phase of fighting in the southern Gaza Strip will “soon end,” while “in the northern Gaza Strip, this phase is coming to an end,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Tuesday, January 16, claiming that the Hamas brigade Khan Yunis did this “disintegrating”. During the night, Israeli planes bombed the area of the southern Gaza city, the epicenter of ground fighting and airstrikes in recent weeks, where the local Hamas leadership was located, according to the Israeli army.
With this invasion, Israel entered “a new phase of the war.” On Friday, October 27, the Israeli army began an “unprecedented” land invasion in the north of the Gaza Strip, before expanding its operations “to the entire” Palestinian enclave in early December, with the aim of crushing the Islamist movement. This “intense phase” in the war between Hamas and Israel has led to the deaths of more than 24,000 Gazans, according to unverifiable Hamas figures, and the displacement of 1.4 million people, according to UN estimates. “We clearly said that the intensive phase of operations would last about three months,” the Israeli defense minister recalled.
According to the press office of the Palestinian Islamist movement, Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip in the evening and night hours from Monday to Tuesday left a total of 78 dead and many injured. “Our enemies and our friends are following the war in Gaza and watching us. The future of the State of Israel here on our land depends on the outcome of this war,” added Yoav Gallant, whose government previously approved a revised budget for 2024 that added $15 billion (13.7 billion euros) in spending, to cover the war costs of the conflict.
For his part, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, reiterated his call for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire,” which he said was necessary to ensure humanitarian assistance but also “to facilitate the release of the hostages.” “We continue to call for rapid, safe, unhindered, comprehensive and continuous humanitarian access to and through Gaza,” he told reporters, adding that “nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”
The war was triggered by an unprecedented terrorist attack by Hamas on October 7 in southern Israel that killed about 1,140 people on the Israeli side, most of them civilians killed on the same day, according to an official count by the AFP news agency emerges Israeli figures.