As the presence of Israeli troops increases in the Gaza Strip with face-to-face confrontations with members of the armed wing of the fundamentalist group Hamas, the northern front is heating up even more, and this Sunday several bursts of projectiles were fired for the first time from Lebanon against the cities of Kiryat, Shmona and Nahariya in northern Israel. Despite the gradual lifting of the telephone and Internet blackout and the increasing influx of humanitarian aid trucks, Gaza is going through one of its worst moments in decades and is desperately calling for a ceasefire after 23 very hard days.
The total war against Hamas is accompanied in Israel by the internal battle over responsibility for the colossal failure that allowed the worst terrorist attack in its history. 7-O marks the past, present and future of Benjamin Netanyahu, who is experiencing his lowest hours as prime minister.
The Israeli army he merely reveals that more forces have entered the Palestinian enclave and disseminate images of tanks on the coast of Gaza without giving the exact location or number of its soldiers, tanks and armored cars. The size is smaller than in a large-scale ground offensive, but larger than the words “expansion of ground actions” might suggest. For the moment, Israel prefers ground attacks in and from the northern Strip targeting Gaza City to a full-fledged invasion. A formula advised by the US and forced by the situation of the kidnapped people and the possibility of intervention Hezbollah. That is, gradual and slow advances supported by intense fire from above.
Dozens of militiamen were killed and two Israeli soldiers were wounded in various clashes in the coastal area of Gaza or at the exit of one of the numerous tunnels dug by Hamas precisely to thwart the advances of its hated enemy. Israel increased its military pressure on Gaza with the aim of encircling it in the coming days. For this reason, it has intensified its requests and warnings, increasingly urgent, so that residents and health centers are evacuated from a city that could become a scene of war.
The Palestinian Red Crescent denounced the “threats” of the Israeli army to immediately evacuate the Al Quds Hospital in Tal Hawa (southern Gaza), indicating that the surrounding area was “deliberately” bombed as a form of pressure. The big question is what will happen to Al Shifa Hospital. On the one hand, it is the one that treats most of the wounded and concentrates Gazans seeking refuge from the incessant bombings. On the other hand, its underground area is, according to Israel, the command center and hiding place of the Ezzedin Al Qassam Brigades.