2023-10-16 05:01:00
Israel continued to concentrate troops on Sunday in front of the Gaza Strip in view of an invasion of the Palestinian enclave, where the bombings unleashed after the Hamas offensive against its territory have already left more than 2,600 dead and a million displaced. Israeli troops are waiting for the political order to take action to fulfill the objective of destroying Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007. Meanwhile, the “large-scale” bombings on the Strip continue and in the last 24 hours they attacked more than 250 targets the terrorist organization, killing another commander of the organization.
Waiting for a political decision
The Israeli Army had asked civilians in the north of the enclave on Friday to move south “without delay”, but a spokesman for the force assured on Saturday night that the ground offensive would not begin on Sunday for humanitarian reasons. The tens of thousands of Israeli soldiers stationed around the enclave are waiting for a “political decision” to tell them when to begin the ground offensive, said military spokesmen Richard Hecht and Daniel Hagari.
The Chief of Staff of the Israeli Armed Forces, General Herzi Halevi, told the troops concentrated in the vicinity of the Gaza Strip that they would enter the enclave soon and would do so “to win.” The head of the Israeli Air Force, General Tomer Bar, announced that his planes are facilitating the conditions for ground intervention and that they would adopt “an aggressive approach” to ensure that his military could “act effectively during a ground operation “, in statements reported by the newspaper Time.
The Israeli Army announced this Sunday that it killed Billal al Kedra in Gaza, a Hamas commander responsible for the attack on the Nirim kibbutz, near the Palestinian enclave, where at least five people died according to the local press. The day before, he announced the death of two other Hamas military commanders, who, according to the Army, were some of those responsible for the deadly attack on the 7th of this month.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited troops stationed near Gaza on Saturday and warned that the offensive is still far from over. “Are you prepared for what is to come? It will continue,” Netanyahu declared in his address to the troops. The Israeli Army has already carried out incursions into the enclave, where they found some “corpses” of the kidnapped hostages.
The commandos of Hamas, an organization classified as terrorist by the United States, the European Union and Israel, captured 155 people and are holding them hostage. But the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, assured that “the policies and actions of Hamas do not represent the Palestinian people.” In a conversation with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Abbas said that the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is the only representative of that population, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA.
“An unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe”
In Gaza, bombings have so far killed 2,670 people, including more than 700 children, according to local authorities. The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Juliette Touma, said that around a million Palestinians abandoned their homes in the Gaza Strip due to the bombings and that “the number will probably rise.”
UNRWA stated that an “unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe” is occurring in Gaza. “Not a drop of water, not a grain of wheat, not a liter of fuel was allowed to enter Gaza in the last eight days,” said Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA. Israel announced this Sunday that it is partially restoring water supplies to the Gaza Strip, after closing the pipes last Monday, although it is not clear that the scope of the measure can alleviate the serious humanitarian crisis.
US President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that his country was working with the UN and Middle Eastern nations “to ensure that innocent civilians have access to water, food and health care.” Biden also assured Mahmoud Abbas of his “full support” in his efforts to bring humanitarian aid, “especially in Gaza.”
The American president warned Israel that reoccupying the Gaza Strip would be a “big mistake,” although he defended the Jewish state’s right to enter the Palestinian enclave to eliminate Hamas fighters.
Humanitarian aid, coming from several countries, is accumulating on Egypt’s border with the Strip. Egypt controls the only entrance to Gaza that is not under Israeli control, the Rafah border crossing, which remained closed this Sunday. UN Secretary General António Guterres called for immediate aid access to that small strip of land subjected to an Israeli blockade since 2006.
Pope Francis stated in his traditional Sunday Angelus prayer that it was “urgent and necessary to guarantee humanitarian corridors and help the population” of the Strip. Thousands of residents have been fleeing south since Friday amid ruins and with their belongings hastily stacked in trailers, carts, motorcycles and cars. But the southern part of the enclave is also the target of bombings according to the inhabitants and its hospitals are overflowing.
Risk of escalation in the region
The situation in Gaza is worrying both for its humanitarian aspect and for its potential to provoke a regional conflict. The Arab League and the African Union stated in a statement that an invasion of the Strip “could lead to a genocide of unprecedented proportions.”
Iran’s Foreign Minister, Hussein Amir Abdollahian, warned for his part that “no one will be able to guarantee” control of the situation if Israel invades Gaza. The US provided unwavering support to Israel, but at the same time expressed concern about the situation in Gaza and fears that the conflict will spread.
Washington sent two aircraft carriers to the eastern Mediterranean “to deter hostile actions against Israel,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced on Saturday. White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan warned of possible “direct involvement” by Iran.
Iran is Israel’s number one enemy and supports the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, which said Friday it was “prepared” to join Hamas when necessary. Tension is growing in southern Lebanon, bordering Israel, where a rocket hit the headquarters of the UN blue helmets this Sunday.
Hezbollah and Israeli troops closed a week of border skirmishes that left at least 16 dead in both countries. Among other actions, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for five missile attacks, to which the Jewish State responded with artillery and bombing, as has been happening in recent days in the midst of one of the worst escalations between the parties since the war fought by both in 2006.
A journalist from the Reuters news agency was killed and six other reporters from that outlet, AFP and Al Jazeera, were injured on Friday in bombings in the area. “If Hezbollah chooses the path of war, it will pay a very high price,” said Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
Far from calming the waters, the commander of the Southern Command of the Israeli Defense Forces also stated: “This is a war of the sons of darkness against the sons of light. This will be a massive war, it will be a deadly war, it will be a precise war and it will be a war that will change the situation forever.
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