Without losing sight of the increasingly warlike northern border against the Lebanese group Hezbollah, Israel has deployed tens of thousands of soldiers in the south to begin at any moment the ground search for troops, tunnels and weapons of the fundamentalist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip under pressure from incessant bombs.
The intensification of the air attacks that have hit Gaza territory for a week, the weather conditions and the pace of the dramatic evacuation of several hundred thousand inhabitants from the north to the south of the Palestinian Strip will mark the timing the beginning of the ground offensive. The second phase of the war between Israel and the Gaza militias could give way to the first between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, which has the help of Hamas commandos in southern Lebanon.
In a meeting with officers and soldiers deployed in southern Israel, army chief Herzi Halevi confirmed the ground incursion: “Our responsibility now is to enter Gaza, reach the places where Hamas prepares, operates, plans and launches ( (projectiles). Hit them hard anywhere, any operative, destroy their entire infrastructure. In a word, win“.
“You are going to do something big and important that should change the situation for many years in a clear way,” said Halevi, alluding to the relationship with Gaza since it was controlled by Hamas in 2007 and after the most serious armed attack that Israel has suffered in its history.
The volume and distribution of Israeli troops along the border line with the Gaza Strip suggests that, with the operational plans already approved, the only thing missing is the Government’s order. At the moment, numerous drones and fighter jets are heading in constant flights to the Gaza Strip, continuing an offensive with a balance, according to the Gazan authorities, of at least 2,450 deaths since Saturday, October 7.