The main objective of the Israeli offensive on Gaza is to behead and eliminate Hamas, and so far neither one nor the other has been achieved. The intensity of the intervention of the Israel Defense Forces in the strip only aims to get worse.
And it's getting worse.
The Israeli army yesterday took control of the south of Gaza City and ordered the evacuation of part of Khan Yunis. A day earlier he had discovered what he considers Hamas' central tunnel network. And the south, in theory a “safe zone” for Gazan civilians, also registers bombings near the border crossings.
Everything is going further.
Its priority objective is to put an end to the triad that has been most evident in Israel since last October 7, the day of the surprise attack by Hamas on the Israeli towns closest to Gaza: Mohamed Deif, who believes himself to be the mastermind of the massacre and leader of the armed wing of the organization; his second, Maruan Isa, and the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Sinuar.
But the words of Prime Minister Beniamin Netanyahu already point further.
“We will not stop the war until we achieve all its objectives: eliminate Hamas and free all our hostages. The choice I propose to Hamas is very simple: surrender or die. They have and will not have any other option. And after eliminating Hamas, I will use all my strength to guarantee that Gaza never again threatens Israel, nor Hamastan nor Fatahstan," he expressed this Thursday in an official note.
And the Israeli premier and leader of the Likud is under pressure. His government partners on the religious right criticize him for supposedly supporting a post-Hamas Gaza alongside the Palestinian National Authority (dominated by the Fatah party that governs the West Bank). His relevant National Security advisor, Tzachi Hanegbi, suggested this Thursday if it was a “reformed” and “moderate” one. Netanyahu responds in writing later that neither one nor the other.
And then who? She remains in the air.
But the Israeli prime minister must also confront the chain of errors that led to the death of three hostages at the hands of the army. And even more so when Hamas has communicated that until the war stops there will be no talks to free more hostages.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniye's recent trip to Egypt to discuss it comes to nothing. A high government source confirmed yesterday that there are still no talks for his release, but the faces of the hostages will continue to occupy most of the public spaces in Tel Aviv and the country as is the case until now.
All the words, and all the facts, point today to a war that day after day sounds more long-term, while the north of the strip is left without hospitals due to lack of fuel, personnel and supplies, as reported yesterday World Health Organization; while half of the population of Gaza is dying of hunger, according to the World Food Programme, and while the dead here exceed 20,000, including more than 8,000 children, according to the calculations of the Government of the Palestinian enclave.
The United Nations Security Council has postponed this morning for the fourth consecutive time the vote on a resolution on Gaza to request a ceasefire in the strip that allows the passage of humanitarian aid.
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza continues on a path that seems to have no end as rocket alerts returned yesterday in central Israel and Tel Aviv and the Israeli army attacked Hizbullah positions in southern Lebanon. On Wednesday, the Israeli press also warned of the attack by its army on Syrian posts "in response to projectiles fired from the Golan Heights." As if that were not enough, the Israeli Government says that it will not tolerate attacks or threats by the Yemeni Houthis on Eilat, the main city in its southernmost tip and overlooking the Red Sea.
It is in Eilat where some of the displaced inhabitants of the towns bordering the Gaza Strip that were attacked on October 7 live.
The tinderbox that is the Middle East becomes even more complicated.
