Israel’s final assault on Khan Yunis, the Hamas stronghold in the south of the Strip, has begun. The army is intensifying its operations, the special units and the commandos of the 98th division are fighting street by street to hunt down “the terrorists”. Starting with Yahya Sinwar, the leader of the Islamic faction believed to be primarily responsible for the attack on 7 October, and the elusive Mohammed Deif, head of the al Qassam Brigades, the key wing of the organisation. The army has surrounded Sinwar’s house, but there is no trace of him: instead he seems to have hidden somewhere in the network of tunnels under Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, is determined: «I have already said that our forces can reach anyone in the Gaza Strip. They are now surrounding Sinwar’s house. It is not his fortress and he can escape. But it’s only a matter of time before we catch him.”
Hamas and the rapes of Israeli women, the terrible stories of witnesses during interrogations
This is not the time for a new ceasefire, the US also reiterated, convinced that a truce now “would not only strengthen Hamas but, in some way, validate the attacks of October 7th”. Agreeing with the American statements, Israeli security sources added that it could take up to a month before sufficient military pressure is exerted on Hamas to open a new window for a truce and the subsequent release of the 138 hostages still held captive in Gaza. Furthermore, according to the same sources, to achieve this objective, military operations will have to continue both in the north and in the south of the Strip.
The army – which so far has 84 dead soldiers – continues to increase pressure to dismantle the military structure of Hamas and the other Palestinian armed factions throughout the Strip, even if the road still appears long. This is demonstrated by the new discovery in the north of an arms depot defined by the army as one of Hamas’s “largest” and which contained “hundreds of grenade launchers, dozens of anti-tank missiles and explosives, long-range rockets, grenades and many drones”. , the military spokesman said. “All terrorist structures were found near civilian buildings in the heart of the population,” he underlined, once again indicating this circumstance as “further proof that Hamas uses Gaza residents as human shields.”
And on the future fate of the Strip, Netanyahu then reiterated that, as long as he is prime minister, the Palestinian National Authority will not control Gaza. “Those who educate their children about terrorism, finance it and support their families will not be able to govern Gaza after the end of Hamas,” he thundered, replying to President Abu Mazen who said he was ready to regain control of the Strip once the conflict in the Palestinian enclave is over.
And while Hamas continues to launch rockets towards southern Israel, in the north Hezbollah has claimed 11 attacks from Lebanese territory, now a true second front in the conflict. The IDF responded with intense fire across the border: an Israeli drone fired at a civilian house in Mays al Jabal, killing one person and wounding two others. And targeting a Hezbollah military command and infrastructure. The situation has now led Israel to want to “remove” Iran’s allies in Lebanon beyond the Litani River on the basis of UN Resolution 1701. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that if this does not happen Israel will act “with all means to at his disposal”, including military ones. To the south of Israel, the threat of the Houthis, Tehran’s Yemeni allies, has also returned, who claimed responsibility for the launch of a surface-to-surface missile towards Eilat, intercepted by the Arrow system. And while Israel has kicked off plans for 1,738 new homes in part of East Jerusalem, pressure continues on Qatar to convince Hamas to let the Red Cross visit the hostages amid growing fears of their conditions: from those who have returned to freedom More and more stories of violence and sexual abuse are emerging.
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