Israel’s operation against Gaza strengthens Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz

by time news

After a little over 48 hours, the Israeli operation “Aurora” seemed to have achieved its main objective on Sunday August 7: to neutralize the leaders of Islamic Jihad in Gaza. A ceasefire agreement, negotiated by the Egyptians, historical mediators of the conflict, was taking shape on Sunday evening.

A total of 31 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli bombardments, including six children according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, which also counted 265 wounded since Friday August 5. The Israeli strikes targeted the military infrastructure of the Islamic Jihad and its leaders: 15 members of the organization were killed, including Tayssir Al Jabari, commander of the Al-Quds brigades, and Khaled Mansour, the leader of the southern brigades. Twenty others were arrested in the West Bank. The response of Islamic Jihad, author of 350 rocket attacks towards Israel, will have generated only material damage and a few injuries.

Hamas weakened

Sunday, August 7, all eyes were on Hamas, the real holder of military and political force in the Gaza Strip. Was he or was he not going to join the fighting and turn the conflict upside down? “Hamas is weakened, strategically lost. He knows that Gazans do not have the strength to go into a long conflict,” said Hugh Lovatt, an analyst at the European Council on External Relations.

In the Gaza Strip, the situation has deteriorated considerably in recent hours: the blockade prevents the supply of Israeli fuel to the only power plant in the enclave, which is shut down. On Sunday, the Palestinian health ministry announced that generators in Gaza hospitals had only 48 hours of runtime left. On social networks, photos and videos showed worn faces and the distress of a population barely recovered from the previous conflict, a year earlier.

25,000 reservists mobilized

The Israeli army is at the initiative of this offensive, which had never happened since 2006, the date of the withdrawal from the enclave. She introduced her as a “preemptive attack” against the “immediate threat” embodied by the Islamic Jihad, close to Iran. It was the arrest of its leader, Bassem Al Saadi, on Monday August 1, in Jenin in the West Bank, which raised fears of imminent reprisals. The Israeli authorities were then prepared upstream: blocking of Gaza, roads, curfew on neighboring Israeli localities, rare call for 25,000 reservists…

“The Israeli attack was unnecessary, unprovoked and reckless,” believes Hugh Lovatt, who points to the absence of a concrete threat: “The only information on this ‘immediate threat’ was a possible anti-tank strike. It is very specific and it did not suggest a desire for escalation, especially since the situation was calm in Gaza. »

Legislation in sight

For many, the logic behind this attack is above all political: “Newly appointed Prime Minister Yair Lapid, in office for less than two months, intentionally put Israel on high alert for a military confrontation to bolster his political position ahead of Israel’s upcoming general elections, scheduled for November 1. », says political analyst Meron Rapoport.

And the Jewish state could come out a winner: “The Israeli army completed the surgical operation in 48 hours. Hamas has not moved. It’s a double victory for Yaïr Lapid and Benny Gantz, his defense minister, explains Denis Charbit, political scientist at the Open University of Israel. While the current caretaker government is classified as “left”, they will be able to play on the fact that they fired first and defended Israeli citizens. This is a real argument in the campaign against Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud, more attached to security issues, but who has never taken the lead in his attacks against Gaza. »

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