Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned in a televised message to the nation this Wednesday that Israel was preparing a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, although he did not specify when. Netanyahu has assured that the decision on when the armed forces enter the Gaza Strip will be made by the government. “The schedule of the military operation will be determined by consensus of the War Cabinet,” he said. On the verge of 20 days of state of war with the Hamas militia, the Israeli army is holding an impressive deployment on the border of the Palestinian Strip, ready for immediate action without yet launching the announced invasion to eradicate the Islamist movement, in which 1,400 Israelis were killed and kidnapped another 220 people on October 7, in the deadliest attack the Jewish state has experienced in its 75 years of existence. Netanyahu is responding to reports of alleged pressure from the US to delay the ground invasion of the Gaza Strip.
In his message, the Israeli head of government also encouraged civilians in his country to carry weapons and assumes that he has to give answers about his political responsibility for the Hamas attack: “October 7th was a black day.” […] Errors are investigated until the end. Everyone will have to give answers, including me. But all of this will only happen at the end of the war.”
Negotiations to release the hostages through the mediation of Qatar and fears of the conflict expanding at a regional level following threats against US bases in the Middle East are slowing the military advance. Netanyahu appears to have agreed to postpone an invasion that appeared imminent in the days after October 7. The goal would be for the United States to protect its military installations in Iraq and Syria with a dozen anti-missile shields, the Wall Street Journal reported this Wednesday, citing Israeli and American officials. The need to ensure humanitarian access to the coastal enclave, where 2.3 million people have been under a complete blockade for more than two weeks, is also the reason for the decision to postpone the ground offensive.
“Our goal is to eliminate Hamas’ military and state capabilities and return the hostages,” the prime minister said. “We are preparing for a ground invasion. I won’t specify when, how, or how much. Nor the different considerations that we make, which are largely unknown to the public and must be so so that we can protect the lives of soldiers,” he emphasized.
Despite this information about pressure from Washington, President Joe Biden has denied that he had asked Netanyahu to postpone the offensive in Gaza. Rather, he pointed out to the Israeli head of state the need to do everything possible to secure the release of the kidnapped hostages. “I told him that if it was possible to get her out safely, he should do that,” he said. “It’s his decision, but I didn’t ask him to make it,” he added.
In a press conference in the Rose Garden of the White House with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese this Wednesday, Biden defended the need for a solution to the Middle East conflict that includes the creation of two states, Israeli and Palestinian. , in peaceful coexistence. In his most positive statement on Palestinian positions since the start of the current crisis, he reiterated that Israel has a “responsibility” to defend its citizens, but stressed that in doing so it must also protect innocent civilians in Gaza.
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“We will ensure that Israel has everything it needs to defend itself against terrorists. That’s guaranteed. But we must also remember that Hamas does not represent the vast majority of the Palestinian people in Gaza or elsewhere,” Biden said.
“There is no going back to the situation as it was before October 7,” stressed the US President, who stressed the need for world leaders to commit to this solution, which is contained in the Oslo Accords and the official policy to make it a reality. American, which has never been used on site. Biden has also called for stopping attacks by “extremist” Israeli settlers on Palestinians in the West Bank.
The American president emphasized the need for Israel’s integration in the region and normalization of relations with Arab states. Before the crisis erupted, the United States acted as a mediator to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, the Arab world’s economic leader and guardian of Muslim holy sites.
Negotiations with Qatar
Washington has also called on Israel to halt its ground operations plans in Gaza after Qatar, which is mediating to release fifty hostages, warned that the Israeli invasion would ruin its negotiations. Qatari Prime Minister Abdulrahman al Zani assured this Wednesday that he hoped to be able to announce “progress” soon. “There is progress. “We have hope,” he added.
In his televised message, Netanyahu also stated that he was “doing everything possible to bring the hostages home.” He has also insisted that civilians from Gaza must move south, as the army has said in recent days. However, the area is not spared from Israeli bombings that occur throughout the Gaza Strip.
The concentration of infantry troops, tanks and artillery around the Mediterranean strip has been completed for days. The military commanders are just waiting for the order to advance. Meanwhile, the aircraft is continuously bombing targets of the Ezedín al-Qasam militia in the densely populated area. According to the Health Ministry of the Hamas-controlled Gaza government, more than 6,500 Palestinians have been killed since hostilities began. Of these, more than 2,700 are children. In Israel’s deadliest war to date with Hamas in 2014, more than 2,200 Palestinians died, including 538 minors.
About 400 children are dying or being killed every day in the Gaza Strip by Israeli bombings since the war began, Unicef reported this Wednesday. The de facto authorities in Gaza have accused Israel of focusing attacks on the south of the enclave, where they claim 65% of casualties were recorded this week, despite ordering the evacuation of the north of Gaza last year. Day 13 to avoid harm to the civilian population.
According to United Nations estimates, humanitarian aid barely reaches the 2.3 million people in the Gaza Strip, 1.4 million of whom are now internally displaced. Only a twentieth of daily needs arrive through the Rafah border crossing on the border with Egypt. Faced with a shortage of fuel essential to power electricity generators, UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, has announced that it will have to suspend its work from this Thursday. Six hospitals in the Gaza Strip have already had to suspend operations due to a lack of fuel.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces are relentlessly pursuing their invasion plans. “We are preparing the area for a significant increase in military activity,” said Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, one of the international military spokesmen. “This will happen in the second phase, so we are calling on civilians to move south,” he added.
In an unexpected turnaround after almost three weeks of war, Hamas fired two long-range rockets from the Gaza Strip this Wednesday. One towards Haifa, 140 kilometers north on the Mediterranean coast, and another towards Eilat, 300 kilometers south on the Red Sea coast. On the northern front, the army said it had attacked five Hezbollah units that were preparing raids from Lebanon. And in the West Bank, four Palestinians were killed by Israeli drone fire at a refugee camp in Jenin.
Washington is increasing its military deployment in the region
Since the outbreak of the crisis in the Middle East, the United States has rapidly increased its military deployment, targeting Iran. Their reasons: to serve as a deterrent force so that Iran and the militias supported by this regime do not intervene in the conflict and worsen it or spread it to other countries. And protect the troops stationed in the region, who have already noticed an escalation in attacks by pro-Rani guerrillas on their positions.
The Pentagon has recorded a dozen attacks in Syria and Iraq since the crisis began and is aware of its concerns that these incidents may become increasingly serious and numerous.
“We have deployed troops in the region since 9/11 to combat the Islamic State and others. (Our presence) has nothing to do with Israel. “My warning to the Ayatollahs is that if they continue to harass our troops, we will respond and they must be prepared,” Biden said in his speech to the press this Wednesday.
Washington is trying to quickly complete the deployment of elements of its advanced THAAD air defense system – similar to the one stationed in South Korea – and the Patriot missile defense system. It has also sent an amphibious group led by the warship Bataan, a ship specializing in communications detection, and two aircraft carriers to the area. The Gerald Ford, the largest of its kind in the world, is moored in the eastern Mediterranean with a mission to dissuade the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah from opening a second front against Israel. The Dwight Eisenhower is on its way to the Persian Gulf.
In addition, the Defense Ministry has placed more than 2,000 military personnel on alert for possible deployment to the Middle East, where they would be tasked with taking part in support rather than combat missions for the Israel Defense Forces. It has also increased the use of fighter jets, including F-16s and F-35s.
In a speech to the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned: “If Iran or its allies [en la región] They attack personnel from our country, we will defend our people. “We will defend our security quickly and vigorously.”
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