The main objective of the Israeli offensive on Gaza is to drive out and eliminate Hamas, and so far neither has been achieved. The intensity of the intervention of the Israel Defense Forces on the strip only aims to go further.
And it goes further.
The Israeli army yesterday took control of southern Gaza City and ordered the evacuation of part of Khan Iunis. A day earlier he had discovered what he considers to be Hamas's central tunnel network. And the south, in theory a "safe zone" for Gazan civilians, also registers bombings near the border crossings.
Everything is more.
Its priority objective is to eliminate the triad that has been most illustrated in Israel since October 7, that of the surprise attack by Hamas on the Israeli towns closest to Gaza: Muhammad Deif, who believes he is the mastermind of the slaughter and leader of the armed arm of the organization; his second in command, Marwan Issa, and the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar.
But the words of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu already point further.
"We will not stop the war until we achieve all the objectives: eliminate Hamas and free all our hostages. The choice I propose to Hamas is very simple: surrender or die. They have and will have no other choice. And after eliminating Hamas, I will use all my strength to ensure that Gaza never again threatens Israel, neither Hamastan nor Fatahstan", he expressed this Thursday in an official note.
And it is that the Israeli prime minister and leader of the Likud is under pressure.
His religious right-wing government partners criticize him for allegedly supporting a post-Hamas Gaza run by the Palestinian National Authority (dominated by the Al-Fatah party and which governs the West Bank). Netanyahu answers in writing that neither one nor the other.
And then who? It's up in the air.
But the Israeli prime minister must also face the chain of mistakes that led to the death of three hostages at the hands of the army. And even more so when Hamas has announced that until the war stops there will be no talks to release more hostages.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh's recent trip to Egypt to discuss it came to naught. A senior Government source confirmed yesterday that there are still no talks for their freedom, but the faces of the hostages will continue to occupy most of the public spaces in Tel-Aviv and the country as before.
All the words, and all the deeds, as well, now point to a war that sounds more long-term by the day as the north of the strip runs out of hospitals for lack of fuel, personnel and supplies, as reported yesterday the World Health Organization; while half of the population of Gaza is starving, as reported by the World Food Program, 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 humanitarian crisis in Gaza follows a path that seems to have no end as rocket alerts returned in central Israel and Tel-Aviv yesterday and the Israeli army attacked Hizbullah positions in southern Lebanon . On Wednesday, the Israeli press also warned of its army's attack on Syrian areas "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 from Yemen's Houthis on Eilat, the main city in its southern end and that goes out to 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 powder keg that is the Middle East gets even more complicated.
