It has been 100 days since the war in Gaza began. And what's left It's his fourth month. It already adds up to almost 24,000 deaths in the strip. There are still 136 Israeli hostages in the hands of Hamas. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ruled out yesterday that the International Court of Justice can stop it. And on the streets of Jerusalem it is only predicted to continue. It is even thought to get worse after the conflict has spread to the border with Lebanon against Hezbollah or the Red Sea against Yemen's Houthi militias.
It has been 100 days since the war in Gaza began, and Adan, a merchant in his thirties from the old city of Jerusalem, a Muslim, asserts today - as others asserted a month ago - that "the situation is very bad. We see what's happening, it's getting worse [due to the attacks against Yemen], but we don't watch videos or anything on our mobile phones, for safety, because then they look for you". Adan does not want to give his last name - also for security, he explains - at the entrance to his souvenir shop there is an old map of Palestine before the State of Israel existed, and he lets go, resigned , that "we are heading for the third world war".
Words in the Middle East amid the Gaza war are always grave. The words of Adan, however, are not an exception. A resident of Katzrin in the Golan Heights said the same to this newspaper a week ago. And the same has been said for weeks by some member of the Israeli Government, pointing to Iran. This was reaffirmed by his newly elected Minister of Foreign Affairs, Israel Katz, ten days ago: "We are in the middle of the third world war and Israel is its vanguard".
In the Israeli vision there are always seven fronts: Gaza and the West Bank, Lebanon - where hostilities with Hizbullah on the border were repeated yesterday -, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Iran, always Iran.
Nati and Judà, in their twenties, checked yesterday, Saturday, the holiday for the Jews, that no one took photos or recorded anything on the esplanade of the Wailing Wall. And they, dressed in phosphorescent yellow overalls and a quipana on their heads, also believe that "the war will last a long time. We've already had 100 days of war and there could easily be another 100, at least until all the hostages are released, Gaza is no longer a danger, and Hamas is eliminated."
It is the same thing that the Israeli prime minister repeats with every rumor, pressure or suspicion of negotiations on a new cease-fire in the strip. The last, for a possible Qatari plan that would involve deporting the leaders of Hamas from Gaza, withdrawing Israeli troops from the enclave and releasing the hostages in stages. "You know, the war with the Houthis does not affect Gaza, we hate Hamas", argue Nati and Judà.
Defense experts, moreover, do not indicate that there should be changes. Efraim Inbar, president of the Institute of Strategy and Security in Jerusalem, where several former high-ranking military officials also participate, explains to this newspaper that "the point is that we have to change our defense policy, with more budget and more helicopters , for example, that we don't have enough. In other words, not for large-scale wars, which are a thing of the past, but now, on a low scale. It is the kind of war that continues in Gaza. In spite of everything Despite South Africa's complaint to The Hague against Israel for committing "genocide" in Gaza. Although US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is pressuring Jerusalem to limit civilian casualties in the strip. And despite the European and Arab countries' efforts to relaunch the Palestinian National Authority and the two-state project as a solution. After all, the Palestinian Center for Policy Research and Surveys (PCPSR, in English) published a poll in December - after conducting hundreds of interviews in the strip during the November ceasefire - which indicated that 48% of Gazans do not support Hamas. Even with the war.
The war, however, continues, and the Israeli army mainly assumes control of the north of the strip and concentrates its offensive in the center and south of this territory, where they believe that the leaders of Hamas are hiding, who they remain unlocated. Fighting is mainly taking place in the area of Khan Iunis, which recorded 130 deaths yesterday. And we are waiting for what can happen in Rafah, on the border with Egypt, it is finally confirmed that the Israeli Defense Forces will be mobilized to control the border crossing, as the Prime Minister has confirmed is being studied.
Inside Gaza, meanwhile, the numbers are critical. In the strip, it is estimated that 1% of the 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 petrol. The head of humanitarian aid at the UN, Martin Griffiths, sums it up with "it's horrible".
