The Gaza war turns 100 days old. And what remains. It's your fourth month. There are already almost 24,000 deaths in the strip. There are still 136 Israeli hostages held by Hamas. Prime Minister Beniamin Netanyahu yesterday ruled out that the International Court of Justice could stop it. And on the streets of Jerusalem it is only expected to continue. It is even thought that it will get worse after the conflict has spread to the border with Lebanon against Hizbullah or to the Red Sea against the Houthi militiamen of Yemen.
The war in Gaza turns 100 days old, and Adan, a thirty-something merchant from the old city of Jerusalem, a Muslim, assures today – as others assured a month ago – that “the situation is very bad. We see what is happening, it is getting worse [due to the attacks against Yemen], but we do not watch videos or anything on our cell phones, for safety, because then they search for you.” Adan does not want to give his last name – also for security reasons, he explains –, he shows at the entrance to his souvenir shop an old map of Palestine before the State of Israel existed, and he says, resigned, that “we are going towards the third world war.” ”.
The words in the Middle East in the midst of the Gaza war are always serious. Adam's words, however, are no exception. A resident of Katzrin, in the Golan Heights, said the same thing to this newspaper a week ago. And some other member of the Israeli Government has said the same thing for weeks, pointing to Iran. It was reaffirmed by his newly elected Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, (just) ten days ago: “We are in the middle of the Third World War and Israel is its vanguard.”
In the Israeli vision, and after the massacre of October 7 with more than a thousand Israelis murdered, there are always seven fronts: Gaza and the West Bank, Lebanon – where hostilities with Hizbullah on the border are repeated every day –, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Iran, always Iran.
Nati and Judah, twenty-somethings, checked yesterday, Sabbath, the Jewish holiday, that no one took photos or recorded anything on the esplanade of the Western Wall. And they, dressed in phosphorescent yellow dungarees and a kippah on their heads, also believe that “the war will last a long time. We have already been at war for 100 days and there could easily be another 100, or at least until all the hostages are freed, Gaza is no longer a danger and Hamas is put an end to.
It is the same thing that the Israeli prime minister repeats with every rumor, pressure or suspicion of negotiation regarding a new ceasefire in the strip. The last time, for a possible Qatari plan that would involve deporting Hamas leaders from Gaza, withdrawing Israeli troops from the enclave, releasing the hostages in stages. “You know, the war with the Houthis [in Yemen] does not affect Gaza, we hate Hamas,” Nati and Judá argue, although they do criticize the high number of civilian victims in the enclave.
Defense experts, furthermore, do not indicate that there will be changes. Efraim Inbar, president of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, where several former senior military officials participate, explains to this newspaper that “the issue is that we have to change our defense policy, with more budget and more helicopters, for example, which We don't have enough. That is, not for large-scale wars, which are a thing of the past, but now, on a low scale.”
It is the type of war that drags on in Gaza. Nevertheless. Despite South Africa's complaint in The Hague against Israel for committing “genocide” in Gaza. Despite the fact that the Secretary of State of the United States, Antony Blinken, pressures Jerusalem to limit civilian casualties in the strip. And despite the European effort and a good part of the Arab countries to relaunch the Palestinian National Authority and the two-state project as a solution. After all, the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) published a survey in December – after conducting hundreds of interviews in the strip during the November ceasefire – that indicated that 48% of Gazans do not support Hamas. Even with the war.
The war, however, continues, and the Israeli army considers the north of the strip largely under control and concentrates its offensive in the center and south of Gaza, where the Hamas leaders are considered to be hiding, and they remain unaccounted for. Above all, fighting is taking place in the Khan Yunis area, which recorded at least 130 deaths yesterday. And we wait to see what might happen in Rafah, on the border with Egypt, if it ends up being confirmed that the Israeli Defense Forces will be mobilized to control the border crossing, as the prime minister has stated is being considered.
Inside Gaza, meanwhile, the numbers are critical. In the strip, it is estimated that 1% of its population has died and according to the UN, over 90% of all Gazans are displaced in theoretically safer areas in the south of the enclave. It is also reported that there is not enough food, hygiene, medicine, or gasoline. The head of humanitarian aid at the UN, Martin Griffiths, sums it up with an eloquent “it's horrible.”
