As diplomatic chiefs of the United States and European Union work to contain the expansion of the Gaza war across the Middle East, Israel is sending conflicting signals about the future of the conflict. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed this Sunday that “the war should not be stopped until all objectives are achieved: the elimination of Hamas, the return of all hostages and that Gaza no longer poses a threat.” [para el Estado judío]“. “I say this to both our enemies and our friends,” he warned at the start of the weekly government meeting, on the eve of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s arrival in Israel.
However, the army has already declared the Ezedin al-Qasam militia, Hamas's armed wing, “dismantled” in its fiefdom in northern Gaza, while the Defense Ministry is pushing forward post-war plans and ordering the demobilization of tens of thousands of reservists who were called up three months ago. He Chief spokesman for the armed forces, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, announced late Saturday that Israeli troops had “completely dismantled the military structure” of Hamas in the northern Gaza Strip, eliminating about 8,000 Palestinian militants there. “Now we are focusing on dismantling the Hamas units in the center and south of the Gaza Strip,” he assured, although with a “different approach,” the details of which he did not elaborate on, as well as the size of the Islamist unit forces are active in the various armed forces of the territory.
The defense minister, former Gen. Yoav Gallant, referred Friday to “operations against specific targets,” in contrast to the massive bombings that have been common in the past three months. In the Rafah pocket on the border with Egypt and in the besieged Khan Younis refugee camp (south of the Gaza Strip), almost two million civilians live together in inhumane conditions. Israel claims Hamas's military wing hides its leadership in a network of tunnels that it says traverse both populated areas, creating an “underground city full of terrorists.”
Military intelligence sources cited by the Hebrew press admit that there are still groups of Hamas fighters in the north of the Palestinian enclave, but they now only act on their own, outside the organization's chain of command, in ambushes and isolated acts of sabotage against Israeli forces . “Right now we are focusing on the central and southern Gaza Strip,” Rear Admiral Hagari said, “based on the experience in the conflict so far.”
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The international community, led by the US and EU, has called on Israel to minimize the harm caused to civilians by its military operations. Bombings in Gaza in the last few hours have killed at least 113 people, according to the health ministry of the enclave, which has been de facto ruled by Hamas for 17 years. The toll from three months of hostilities now stands at nearly 23,000 dead in the Gaza Strip, 70% of whom are women and minors.
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At least two Palestinian journalists were killed in an Israeli attack this Sunday, including Hamza al Dahduh, son of Al Jazeera television's delegate in Gaza, Wael al Dahduh, who lost part of his family in the Israeli bombings. Mustafa Thuraya, who accompanied him in a car near Rafah, also died, authorities in the Gaza Strip reported. Qatar-based network Al Jazeera has accused the Israeli army of “deliberately targeting” Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip, most of whom worked with international media whose presence on the ground has been banned by the Israeli government since the start of the conflict . At least 110 journalists have been killed in Gaza since October 7, according to Palestinian sources, including intellectuals and online news outlets. The Committee to Protect Journalists limits the number of reporters killed in Gaza to 77.
An Israeli military vehicle, this Sunday next to the Gaza border. MENAHEM KAHANA (AFP)
In addition to curbing the deaths of civilians in the Palestinian enclave, international diplomacy is particularly concerned about the escalation between the Israeli army and the Hezbollah militia on the Lebanese border following the death of Hamas number two, Saleh el Aruri, in an attack in Beirut . The exchange of blows reached its highest level in three months of conflict on Saturday when Hezbollah attacked a strategic air surveillance center in the northern Galilee. This Sunday, both sides reduced the intensity of hostilities. Israeli planes bombed positions belonging to the pro-Iranian group after intercepting an “enemy aircraft” that entered Israeli airspace. Lebanon's Shiite militia confirmed that five of its fighters were killed by Israeli strikes on Saturday.
Senior U.S. government officials expressed concern that Netanyahu could expand the war into Lebanon for reasons of “political survival,” according to the Washington Post published on Sunday. These sources also noted that US defense intelligence had warned that it would be difficult for the Israeli military to launch a successful invasion of Lebanon as long as its operations remained focused on the Gaza Strip. Thousands of Israelis, summoned by the relatives of the 139 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza since October 7, demanded the prime minister's resignation in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening.
Two more journalists killed
The inexorable expansion of the conflict also threatens the West Bank, where at least seven Palestinians were killed this Sunday in an attack by an Israeli artillery drone on the city of Jenin in the north of the territory, a stronghold of armed groups and radical Palestinian movements that evade control , the Palestinian Authority's control and where clashes have been going on for more than a year. An Israeli border police officer also died when a bomb exploded in front of her vehicle near Jenin.
A four-year-old Palestinian girl was also killed this Sunday by Israeli border police at a checkpoint near Jerusalem. Police opened fire on a car driven by a Palestinian who allegedly tried to run them over. The little girl was traveling in another vehicle.
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