FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
JERUSALEM – The tanks commanded by Beni Aharon were the first to enter the sand corridor as attacks turned into invasions. Now the commander of the 401st Brigade admits on Israeli television that he does not know whether he, an amateur DJ, can stand on the stage of the Tomorrowland festival, as every year, where 400,000 people from all over the world come together to dance. It is expected in July.
It is not psychological warfare to demoralize Hamas leaders. The colonel is aware that it will take a long time. Even though Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced yesterday that the fundamentalists “have lost control of the north of the strip.” No international pressure will stop us.” However, Ben Caspit, one of Israel’s best-known journalists, writes in Al Monitor magazine that “the diplomatic clock is ticking,” namely the one on the wrist of American President Joe Biden. Netanyahu once again rejects the White House’s plan to return the strip to Palestinian Authority control.
The protests from the families of the hostages – at least 240 – are becoming increasingly violent. Last night thousands marched with them across the country demanding a ceasefire and a prisoner exchange. Yoav Gallant, the defense minister, says that Kfir, a 10-month-old baby held in Gaza, “is the same age as my nephew, we will do everything we can to bring her home.” The anger of those at who lost their relatives in the massacres of October 7th is growing; the number is now 1,200 dead, estimates range from 1,300 to 1,400. There were clashes with supporters of the ruling right-wing extremist coalition.
For strategists, the immediate objective in time – and now in meters, say some sources in the hundred – is to track down the jihadist bosses who, according to intelligence, are hiding in the bunkers dug under Shifa Hospital. the largest in the area. Upstairs there are 700 beds, which are often not enough on normal days, over 2,500 hospital patients, incubators that no longer work (a premature baby would have died), the dialysis machines no longer work.
Only 2,000 of the 70,000 displaced people who had sought refuge here would stay, the fighting is getting closer and closer, “we are under siege,” Ashraf Al Qidra told Portal. He is an official in the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health. Palestinian deaths in these 36 days of conflict total over 11,000.
Tsahal spokesmen reiterate that the fundamentalist paramilitaries have “turned the hospitals into strongholds” and explain that they are in contact with the doctors and that today they agreed to help them transport the children to other hospitals. They claim to have killed Ahmed Siam, the commander in the north of the strip “who held a thousand Palestinians hostage and prevented them from moving through the corridors protected by humanitarian breaks.” The death toll among soldiers is 43; yesterday five died from an explosive planted at the entrance to a tunnel.