Gaza | Israel plans to harass Gaza at least for the rest of the year

Israel plans to harass Gaza at least for the rest of the year. The matter is revealed by Israel’s national security advisor Tzachi Hanegbin from an interview given on Tuesday to an Israeli public broadcasting company.

They talk about the interview, for example Times of Israel and Reuters news agency.

Target is to destroy the “military and administrative capacity” of the extremist organizations Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

According to Hanegbi, without the destruction of Hamas, there can be no reconstruction and Israel cannot maintain its independence.

An extremist organization Hamas has ruled the Gaza Strip since winning the 2006 elections. After the victory, it quickly clashed with the traditional Palestinian ruling party, Fatah, which remained in power in the West Bank.

Israel has blockaded Gaza since the summer of 2007. It is often said that Egypt also participates in the blockade, but according to Hanegbi, this has not been enough.

So Israel announced on Tuesday evening that it had taken the entire border between Gaza and Egypt under “operational control”. Israel said it had found 20 tunnels in the area through which weapons and other supplies were delivered to Gaza.

According to Hanegbi, Israel wants to cooperate with Egypt in order to stop arms smuggling.

Israel does not want to occupy Gaza with a population of 2.2 million permanently, Hanegbi announced. However, he, like the Israeli leadership, was completely vague about what would happen after the destruction of Hamas.

“We are trying to plan for it,” Hanegbi said, hoping a new civilian administration would “emerge” in Gaza.

Hamas is, for example, a terrorist organization according to the EU and the United States. The Gaza administration, for example the Ministry of Health, has been responsible for it.

The continuation of Israel’s offensive month after month without a clear plan for the future governance structure of Gaza has caused criticism even within the Israeli government. Minister Benny Gantz has threatened to leave his party’s government if a concrete plan is not created.

On Wednesday, also the US foreign minister Antony Blinken reminded Israel of the need to make a clear plan for the first day after the war.

If there is no plan, that day will never come, Blinken warned.

At the same time, Israel continued to attack southern Rafah. At the same time, it has also re-attacked the Jabalia refugee camp and other areas it claimed months ago to have cleared of Hamas fighters.

Israel launched its most massive military operation in years after Hamas launched a bloody surprise attack on Israel on October 7, killing at least 1,170 people and taking about 250 hostages.

According to Israel, it has since killed approximately 15,000 Hamas terrorists. 639 of Israel’s own soldiers have died, the Times of Israel says.

The number of civilian casualties continues to rise.

Secretary General of the UN António Guterres told about the beginning of the week already mourning the deaths of more than 36,000 Palestinians and around 1,500 Israelis in “relentless violence”.

Guterres separately mentioned the “horrific acts of terrorism” carried out by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups in Israel on October 7, Israel’s “devastating attack” on Gaza, and the continued indiscriminate rocket attacks on Israel from the Gaza side.