2023-10-15 07:01:00
Exactly one week ago, on October 7, 2023, the terrorist group Hamas carried out the most serious cross-border attack that Israel had recorded in the last four decades. Without prior warning and in an attack that surprised the world, Palestinian militants broke the fence that separates Gaza from Israel and committed endless crimes against civilians and soldiers that still continue.
The panorama is devastating: while Israel reports nearly 1,500 Israelis murdered and dozens of foreigners and nationals kidnapped and tortured by Hamas, the war was concentrated against the Gaza Strip, a delicate territory that is overpopulated and that received a 24-hour ultimatum to evacuate 1.1 million people living in the north of that city.
In summary, the terrorist group Hamas, which is of Palestinian origin but does not represent 100% of the government of Palestine or its inhabitants, was the first to launch a ferocious terrorist attack on Israel, which is now defending itself by attacking one of the main territories of Palestine: the Gaza Strip.
Attacker of Gaza
Since Thursday, Israel began an offensive that does not give up and that, according to the United Nations Organization, UN, and dozens of other international NGOs, has caused hundreds of deaths and injuries that cannot be treated because “the attacks are also directed towards the medical population”, as denounced by the humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders.
Such is the offensive that Israel is preparing, which since last Friday ordered more than a million inhabitants living in Gaza to “leave the north of the Strip” before the military escalation planned by the Israeli government begins in response to the initial Hamas attacks.
And not only that. Since Friday, Israel also cut off all supplies of energy, food and drinking water to that area. A fact that millions of people have classified as war crimes and violation of International Humanitarian Law.
While this is happening, thousands of inhabitants fled in trailers, donkeys, carts, motorcycles or by car, making their way through the rubble and destroyed buildings.
For this reason, the eyes of the entire world are on that population because “devastating humanitarian consequences” could be caused if “this impossible mission of evacuating that number of people in such a short time continues,” as the UN Secretary General warned. , Antonio Guterres.
And, according to official information from the Palestinian Ministry of Health, as of this Saturday afternoon a total of 1,900 civilians had died in Gaza, a figure that, if true, would exceed the number of victims in Israel.
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Military prepares at the border
Despite the warning from the Israeli military forces, thousands of Palestinians continue not to leave their homes, because they have nowhere else to go or because they resist being displaced in the midst of the conflict. “Tens of thousands of other Palestinians did leave their homes in Gaza, although that too is an affront to their rights,” Guterres said.
This Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, under international pressure to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe, showed no signs of relaxing his determination to destroy Hamas, which has ruled the enclave since 2007.
“Are you ready for what’s coming? “This is going to continue,” the ultraconservative president proclaimed during a visit to soldiers deployed in front of the Gaza Strip.
In that same intervention, the Israeli army announced that it had eliminated two Hamas military leaders: Murad Abu Murad, “responsible for a large part of the deadly offensive” on October 7; and a commander of an elite unit “who led the attack against Israeli towns near the Gaza Strip.”
Hamas, for its part, launched a barrage of rockets against Israel this Saturday from Gaza.
The Israeli army, which also carried out ground incursions into the Palestinian territory on Friday, said this Saturday that it is preparing for “other major combat operations.”
Likewise, the Israeli government’s security advisor admitted that the intelligence services made “errors” that prevented them from foreseeing the Islamist attack, the deadliest suffered by the Jewish State since its creation in 1948.
Avoid humanitarian catastrophe
The Hamas attack and the war it unleashed fueled fears that the conflict would spread to other countries and that a humanitarian catastrophe could occur in Gaza.
“Even wars have rules,” Guterres recalled, calling for “immediate humanitarian access” to Gaza. “The health system is on the brink of disaster” and “the morgues are overflowing,” he added.
And not only him. US President Joe Biden also denounced “the humanitarian crisis” in Gaza, while reiterating his commitment to giving Israel “what it needs to defend itself and respond to these attacks.”
Likewise, the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, stressed this Saturday that international law “does not endorse” the evacuation of Gaza requested by Israel before launching a ground offensive.
Saudi Arabia, a heavyweight in the Middle East, announced that it was suspending discussions on an eventual normalization of its relations with Israel and the European Union (EU) announced that it will triple its humanitarian aid to 75 million euros (about 79 million dollars). to Gaza.
Hamas hostages
In the midst of the October 7 raid, Hamas took about 120 Israeli citizens, foreigners and dual nationals, hostage.
In fact, among that group it was believed that the Colombian-Israeli Ivonne Rubio and Antonio Macías could be included, two young people who this week were found dead and registered as the first Colombian civilians to die in the middle of that war.
Despite this, among the detainees who remain hostages are Israeli soldiers, women, children, the elderly and foreign workers.
Evidence of the abduction comes from images recorded and released by Hamas at the time of the abductions on October 7 or later.
According to the Palestinian group, which has threatened to execute them in the event of attacks against civilians, 22 hostages have already died in Israeli bombings, without this number being verifiable.
The search for Israel
Israel on Monday appointed Gal Hirsch, a retired general implicated in a corruption case, as coordinator to resolve the hostage crisis, whose appointment has been criticized by several experts.
An FBI negotiator is also present, as several American citizens are among the hostages. In the early hours of Saturday, a first Israeli incursion into Gaza was carried out “in search of evidence that would allow the location of hostages,” dead or alive.
Israel has an elite intelligence unit of the Israeli army that is best suited to intervene in this type of scenario: Sayeret Matkal. Among other things, it is responsible for rescuing hostages outside the borders.
The main difficulty remains in the midst of the chaos of the bombings to locate these hostages, knowing that Hamas is known for operating under a highly decentralized cell system.
One of the negotiators for the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011, Gershon Baskin, said that “amnesia and passage to the West Bank must be guaranteed to any Hamas fighter who hands over a hostage at the border.”
Mediators in the conflict?
Until now there are no official international channels.
However, a possible mediation is in the pipeline by Egypt, a historic negotiator between Israel and Hamas, as well as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), who affirm that they are talking to the movement. Palestinian Islamist.
“As a neutral intermediary, we are ready to carry out humanitarian visits, to facilitate communication between the hostages and their families and any possible release,” declared the ICRC regional director for the Middle East.
While this is taking place, the authorities agree that the priority is the kidnapped and missing people.
It is known that the Israeli Army has carried out its own intensive searches in Gaza and, according to them, this Saturday they found the bodies of some of the people kidnapped a week ago by the Islamist movement.
“We have found and located some bodies of Israelis who had been kidnapped on the perimeter of the Gaza Strip,” said Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, army spokesman, at a press conference.
Although they are not the only victims. In the most recent update from Palestine, the Government assured that the bombings launched from Israel killed more than 2,200 people, including civilians and soldiers, and that 724 of them were children.
For now, analysts agree that they do not see a possible de-escalation of the conflict between both countries as viable. On the contrary, it is believed that the attacks could increase their level of damage between this Sunday and next week, since Hamas has not stopped attacking and Israel threatened to use all its power by entering through Gaza.
With fear, the entire world is attentive to what may happen while the rulers are divided into three groups: those who only support Israel and direct all their communications to condemn the actions of Hamas, those who have directed their gaze on Palestine, ignoring the damage from the terrorist group – among them President Gustavo Petro – and those who are in the middle and condemn the attacks from both sides, such as the Chilean president Gabriel Boric and the Spanish Pedro Sánchez.
“In conflicts, civilians pay the highest price. War is not the solution. We need peace. We need peace now,” the United Nations stated in dozens of statements calling for peace and humanitarian solutions.
Dozens of foreign victims
Countries around the world have reported that some of their citizens have been found dead or remain missing after a week of war. Colombia, for example, reports two deaths and several citizens trying to return. These are some of the figures:
·The United States reported 27 deaths.
·Thailand: 24 dead and 16 hostages.
. France: 15 dead and several missing
. Argentina: 7 dead and 15 missing
. Ukraine: 7 dead and 9 missing
. Russia: 4 dead and 6 missing
. United Kingdom: 4 dead and several missing
. Austria: 3 dead and 2 missing
. Canada: 3 dead and 4 missing
. Philippines: 3 dead and 3 missing
. China: 3 dead and 2 missing
. Brazil: 3 dead
. Peru: 2 dead and 5 missing
. South Africa: 2 dead
. Portugal: 1 dead and 4 missing
. Chile: 1 dead and 1 missing
. Spain: 1 dead and 1 missing
. Mexico: 2 hostages
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