FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
JERUSALEM – Ashraf always ran fast, too fast, even when it wasn’t necessary. It was he who was in a hurry to show that the Strip has a highway, 41 kilometers from north to south, four lanes, the direction of travel more a hypothesis than a must. Now, on the asphalt paved by Qatar’s millions in donations after the last conflict, mothers slowly rub against their children’s cradles, pulled like sleds on the dry dust of a winter that never comes. The exodus continues along the corridor that the Israeli army protects: 4 hours a day is a certainty. But the starting points, the villages to be placed under protection, are only announced three hours in advance, a lottery when everything has already gone wrong.
The North is a battlefield, there would be 50 dead among those who sought refuge in a school. Some displaced people, in videos that have emerged on social media, curse Hamas and 17 clashes with Israel since the fundamentalists seized power over Gaza by force from President Abu Mazen in 2007. Insulting them while they are panting in the sun is not scary, at this point the fear of war remains of never returning to the abandoned house, even if it is in ruins, the United Nations estimates that 45 percent of the buildings are damaged. The jihadists have more pressing problems than breaking the legs of protesters like they did four years ago when people protested over the price of bread. Israeli troops have ended the siege of Gaza City, the generals announce that they have destroyed Hamas’s “stronghold” in the Shati refugee camp, they are now focusing their attacks on the hospitals, 37 soldiers have died since the land invasion began. In recent weeks, speakers have shown three-dimensional maps to illustrate the bunkers at various levels that would have been built by the jihadists under Al Shifa, the largest in the Gaza Strip, where 70,000 refugees also sought shelter; The pictures show a tent city in The square where the ambulances drive past was bombed yesterday morning. According to local sources, 13 people were killed.
There and near the Al-Quds Clinic the most violent clashes broke out, Tsahal snipers fired from buildings, one person was killed and dozens of children were injured. The General Staff’s goal remains to track down the Hamas command and hunt down its leader, Yahia Sinwar, who appears to be hiding in the reinforced tunnels dug beneath the sand. Palestinian groups can still fire rockets as far away as Tel Aviv (two were injured in the Mediterranean metropolis yesterday) to try to dictate the pace of negotiations over the 240 hostages taken on the day of the massacre: Al Arabiya, the broadcaster in the Property owned by the United Arab Emirates announces a possible deal to exchange women and children for mothers and children held in prisons by the Israelis. What they deny. While the northern front with Hezbollah continues to cause concern: 4 soldiers were injured in an attack.
The Palestinian dead since the start of the war have reached nearly 11,000, including yesterday the granddaughter of Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas abroad. “Too many,” explains Antony Blinken, the American Secretary of State: “The Israelis must make much more effort to avoid civilian casualties.” US diplomats – writes the Washington Post – expect that the number of deaths in the 35 days of Conflict deaths could be even higher. Joe Biden, the American president, and his advisers are equally concerned about the plans of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government: the goal – which the White House has supported – is the destruction of Hamas after the massacres in Israeli villages and towns on October 7, in which 1,200 people were killed. The international community is pushing for the sand corridor to return to the end of hostilities under the Palestinian Authority, with a transition period that could be managed by a multinational force. An idea that the Israeli prime minister dismissed during a visit to the areas surrounding the Gaza Strip: “Our forces will remain in control and guarantee security.”