10/14/2023 10:43 pm (current 10/14/2023 10:50 pm)
Evidence of an Israeli ground offensive is mounting ©APA/AFP
The Israeli army announced a ground offensive against Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip. The army said on Saturday night in Tel Aviv that it was preparing for an “integrated and coordinated attack by air, sea and land” on the Islamist group. Preparations, which also include the call-up of hundreds of thousands of reservists, are almost complete. An army spokesman said the operation would “take a long time”.
The forces are already deployed across the country and are ready to “increase readiness for the next phases of the war, with a focus on a significant ground operation,” he said. A “wide range of plans for offensive operations” are being prepared. Shortly before, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had announced the next phase of the war against the terrorist group. During a visit to troops near the Gaza border on Saturday, he told soldiers: “Are you ready for the next phase? The next phase is coming.” In the video, soldiers can be seen shaking their heads.
“Our goal is to completely destroy the government and military capabilities of Hamas and other terrorist organizations,” the army spokesman said. Gaza City residents should leave their homes “and not return until we say so,” he stressed. Hamas is trying to prevent evacuations, he added. The reason for the Israeli action is an unprecedented massacre, with more than 1,300 deaths last weekend in Israel’s border areas with the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, there were new rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip against Tel Aviv and central Israel. Israeli media reported that ten rockets were fired into the large area of the coastal metropolis. Initially there were no reports of injuries. There were missile alarms in the morning and afternoon. Rocket alarms were also raised again in the south of the country. In the evening, the Israeli army also reported that two rockets were fired from Syria into Israel. They fell into open areas. The military responded to the bombardment with artillery fire. It was initially unclear who was responsible for the shooting. According to Syrian activists, it was a militia closely linked to the Lebanese Hezbollah.
US President Joe Biden held discussions with Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday. He called for an end to all attacks and “totally” rejected the evacuation of the Gaza Strip demanded by Israel. Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey had already harshly criticized Israel’s demand. The UN also called for the order to be revoked. On Saturday night, the World Health Organization (WHO) called for the “immediate” withdrawal of the call for the evacuation of hospitals in the north of the Gaza Strip.
It has been a foregone conclusion since Thursday that there will be a ground offensive. At that time, the Israeli army issued an ultimatum calling on the population of the north of the Gaza Strip to move south of the narrow coastal strip. After the ultimatum expired, the army again gave residents six hours on Saturday to follow a marked escape route to Khan Yunis. One million people were affected by the evacuation call. According to the army, hundreds of thousands of people have already headed south. “We are certain this will take time,” military spokesman Richard Hecht said Saturday.
The terrorist group Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, uses the civilian population as a human shield and refused to evacuate. Palestinians will not leave the Gaza Strip or the West Bank and will not travel to Egypt, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said in a TV address on Saturday. “Our decision is to remain in our country,” he emphasized. Haniyeh accused Israel of war crimes in a letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres and also met Iranian Foreign Minister Hussein Amirabdollahian on Saturday night. The meeting reportedly took place in Qatar’s capital Doha, videos from Iran’s state news agency IRNA showed. The Gulf Emirate, which hosted the World Cup last year, is one of the most important supporters of Hamas terrorists.
According to the Vienna Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there are currently “around three dozen” Austrians and their families in Palestinian territory. They were all in the southern Gaza Strip, APA reported on Saturday night. In contact with Egypt and Israel, efforts are being made to allow all those who wish to leave the country to do so through the Rafah border crossing.
The Israeli army reported on Saturday night the discovery of the bodies of some Israelis kidnapped by the radical Islamic group Hamas. They were found on the edge of the Gaza Strip, he said. An army spokesman later said there were currently 126 hostages in the Gaza Strip. The number of military casualties is 279. The army had previously reported that it had also killed the person suspected of being responsible for the massacre of Israeli civilians in attacks on Hamas operations centers in the Gaza Strip. Merad Abu Merad, head of Hamas’ aerial surveillance system in Gaza City, was largely responsible for directing the terrorists during the massacre, the Israeli military said Saturday morning. Ali Kadi, who as commander of an elite unit led the attack by armed fighters on towns in southern Israel a week ago, was also killed in an airstrike, the army said on Saturday.
The Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah attacked Israeli positions again on Saturday. The organization announced on Saturday that “much of the occupants’ technical equipment” at Shebaa Farms had been destroyed. An exchange of gunfire at the border left two civilians dead and several homes damaged, a Lebanese politician said on Saturday. Later, Hezbollah also reported a death, but did not comment on the exact circumstances. Israeli National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi emphasized that the actions of the Hamas-allied Shiite militia have so far been “below the escalation threshold.” Israel does not want to enter into a war on two fronts. “We hope that Hezbollah does not provoke the virtual destruction of Lebanon,” he said. Earlier in the day, the Israeli army dismantled a “terrorist cell” that wanted to enter the country from Lebanon.
Gaza Strip rulers reported the number of Palestinians killed on Saturday night at 2,228. In addition, 8,744 people were injured, the Gaza Strip’s Ministry of Health reported on Saturday. According to Hamas, nine hostages, including four foreigners, also died in Israeli airstrikes. The Al-Ahli Christian Arab Hospital in Gaza City was also damaged by an Israeli airstrike. As the Anglican Archbishop of Jerusalem, Husam Elias Naoum, announced on Facebook on Saturday night, two floors of the building were partially damaged, Kathpress reported.
The humanitarian situation in the coastal strip inhabited by two million people was followed with great concern at an international level. After talks in Cairo, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called for rapid humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip. “The people of Gaza lack everything right now,” she said. The European Commission announced the tripling of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip to more than 75 million euros. UN emergency aid coordinator Martin Griffiths said on Saturday that the situation in the Gaza Strip was “rapidly becoming unsustainable”. There is no electricity, no water, no fuel and food is running out, Griffiths said. He criticized humanity for having “failed” in the current conflict.
EU summit President Charles Michel has scheduled a video summit of EU heads of state and government for Tuesday afternoon to determine the Union’s future course of action in the conflict. Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg (ÖVP) advocated the establishment of “humanitarian corridors” in the Ö1 “Journal as a guest”, but at the same time also clearly supported Israel. “All civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip are attributable to Hamas,” he said. It is “shameful and very disturbing” that “there is not the slightest clear distance from the Palestinian Authority”, criticized Schallenberg, who, however, spoke out in favor of a distinction between the Palestinian people, Hamas and Fatah of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.