The American Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, arrives in Israel today to take “concrete measures” to alleviate the deaths and suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza and stop the attacks by settlers on Palestinians in the West Bank, the only way to prevent “the overflow.” , the objective of this visit full of urgency and drama, as he advanced before embarking on his second trip to the region.
Yesterday, the pro-Iranian Hizbullah militia used more sophisticated weapons and larger attacks on northern Israel and today, for the first time since the beginning of the war, the leader of this Shiite militia, Hasan Nasrallah, will speak. That is to say, the Iranian regime, a key actor in containing or overflowing the war in the Gaza Strip, will now speak out bluntly.
Although Israel defends its right to conduct the war as it sees fit and claims to be doing so in accordance with international laws, the White House, not to mention the rest of the Western and Arab capitals, try to humanize the Israeli offensive, as has been seen this week in a succession of gestures. Yesterday, Egypt opened the Rafah border crossing for the second consecutive day to admit 341 Palestinians with dual nationality, on condition that they do not stay more than a few days in the country. The pact reached by Qatar, the US and Egypt – with the approval of Israel – places 7,000 Palestinians who could benefit from this escape route in the coming days. Among those who left yesterday was a second Spaniard, Jesús Pérez Arellano, who worked at the United Nations Middle East Peace Office (UNSCO), after an anesthetist from Doctors Without Borders did so on Wednesday. Likewise, he has increased the rate of entry of humanitarian trucks into Gaza, 102 yesterday, of which 46 transported food, eleven drinking water and the rest medicines and medical supplies. Although the figure is far from the 450 who did it daily before the war, it is well above the none or twenty at most in the first weeks of the war.
In a seemingly minor but significant gesture after the total blockade of the strip imposed by Israel after the massacre of October 7, the ambassador in Germany invited potential countries to send hospital ships to care for the wounded in Gaza. offer that could be covered in the coming days by the French military ship Tonerre, on its way to these Mediterranean waters.
The sense of diplomatic urgency to reduce the drama of civilians is better understood after the Hizbullah militia yesterday substantially increased its attacks on the northern area of Israel, depopulated by civilians, but with a significant Israeli military deployment. The pro-Iranian militia, a "terrorist organization" according to the US and the EU, yesterday launched 19 simultaneous attacks against Israeli positions using guided missiles, heavy artillery and, for the first time, two drones with explosives. Israel responded with air strikes and fire from tanks and artillery forces. Although the population was evacuated two weeks ago, the images of burning cars last night in the Israeli city of Kiryat Shimona conveyed the hypothesis of a full-fledged second war front and the memory and shadows of the last war between Israel and Lebanon, in 2006. And knowing that Hizbullah has the weapons capacity to reach beyond the depopulated farms and kibbutzim of northern Israel. Hence the importance given to the statement that the aforementioned Nasrallah, a Shiite cleric and one of the most influential – and disturbing – figures in the region will make early this afternoon. His entrance into the scene highlights the gravity of the moment.
The war in Gaza has been corroborating, day after day, how complicated it is to square a war in overpopulated urban territory with the Israeli desire not to suffer more casualties than necessary. Gazans pay the bill for the Israeli bombs and the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7, with a predictable response. The UN agency for Palestinian Refugees (Unwra) confirmed yesterday the destruction by bombs of four schools in two refugee camps. It is unknown whether the refugees in these centers were children or adults, but the truth is that they caused 23 deaths, according to said source.
“Gaza will be a curse for Israel and its soldiers will leave in black bags,” said a spokesman for Hamas's military branch. For now, the drama increases daily and all the efforts of the international community are limited to valuable gestures for those who benefit from them, but insufficient to stop a war in an urban jungle. With a difference that harms Israel. The great urban battles in Mosul or Raqa against the Islamic State were developed with less consideration, but with a smaller population trapped between two fires. And without the amount of merciless media and images that every day generates a war that already seems long and does not last a month.
