Israel categorically excludes any ceasefire in Gaza, under any circumstances, no matter what it says or even if the international community pressures, "because it would be surrendering to Hamas. This is a struggle of civilization against barbarism. I trust and pray that the civilized nations will support our struggle", pointed out a defiant Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday evening, in words addressed to a foreign audience.
Although the numbers in the Gaza Strip are overwhelming – 8,300 dead, a third of them minors, according to the Hamas authorities – the Israeli prime minister made an impassioned appeal to Western countries in the name of the values that distinguish them. "Israel's struggle is your struggle", he said, to try to reverse the trend of international opinion in favor of a ceasefire in the Strip, in view of the deterioration of conditions due to its more than two million inhabitants after ninety-three days of war.
For Netanyahu, history supports the resounding and explicit rejection expressed yesterday of a possible ceasefire. In his opinion - and there are many Israelis who share this version -, Israel has given weeks to the civilian population of Gaza to move south, something that many Palestinians have not been able to do because Hamasels have prevented it "on the edge of gun" a few times, always according to the Prime Minister's thesis.
The remarks by Netanyahu, who few Israelis see as having a political future once the war is over, were filled with historical references in order to defend the right to end Hamas at any cost because it amounts to barbarism. Even in the most just wars, "there have been civilian deaths." And he mentioned a little-known episode of the Second World War, unlike others mentioned yesterday such as Pearl Harbor or the recent September 11, 2001. It is an air attack by the British RAF on the headquarters of the Gestapo in Copenhagen in 1944. The pilots missed and their bombs fell on a nearby school. "No one stopped the fight against Nazism" because of this, he said.
Netanyahu looks good on television – another thing is the future that awaits him for his responsibility in the security fiasco of October 7 – and he resorted to the same moral and argumentative tone that has been heard from the mouth of other leaders since the attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States. Some phrases, for example, seemed copied from those used by President George W. Bush to justify the invasions of Afghanistan or Iraq. "Israel is fighting the enemies of civilization" and referred to Hamas as "the barbarians, the world of fear and darkness." Finally, a quote: “The Bible says that there is a time for peace and a time for war. And now is the time of war."
At the same time, Israel is intensifying the offensive in Gaza and boasts of having killed "dozens of terrorists" in buildings and tunnels since the beginning, on Friday, of the ground phase and of already having armored and infantry units in the vicinity of Gaza in what appears to be a maneuver to cut the strip in two. Both parties give limited and partial information, which makes it impossible to determine at this time who is progressing in their goals and their cost in human lives.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) claimed to have freed a soldier, Ori Megidish, kidnapped by Hamas in the course of ground operations. His state of health was good and he had been able to reunite with his family.
The deterioration of daily life in Gaza has only been alleviated by the return of communications - a concession attributed to Washington yesterday - and the promise of a substantial increase in humanitarian aid in the coming hours. It remains to be seen whether UNRWA, the UN agency for the Palestinians, can re-establish control of their depots and supply points. Four of these points have remained inoperative after the assault on the population on Sunday. "Right now people are in survival mode," described a spokesman for the organization.
