Hamas fights to the death and sows corpses in the towns near Gaza

Hamas militants and numerous residents left Gaza on Saturday with a desire for revenge that filled the small agricultural towns surrounding the enclave with blood. The majority of victims occurred in those first hours of confusion and chaos in which a colossal failure of the security system opened the doors of Israel to the enemy and the enemy massacred neighbors who thought themselves safe behind the separation fence. Some escaped death because they were chosen as hostages and were taken to the interior of the Strip as valuable loot for a future prisoner exchange.

The nightmare that began on Saturday for the Israelis is not over, far from it. Hamas and Islamic Jihad maintain their positions outside Gaza and the army reported fighting in “Be’eri, Kfar Azza, Zikim, Nahal Oz, Kissufim and other points.” The Erez Pass, the main access point to the Strip, also remains in the hands of Islamists willing to prolong this situation as long as possible because they know that the war will be long and they will soon have to fight in their own streets. The armed forces raised the number of holes opened by the Palestinians in the separation fence to 29 and acknowledged that the majority have not been able to close so far.

Chaos and insecurity

Chaos and insecurity reign in southern Israel, where nerves led security forces to open fire on Israelis whom they mistook for enemy infiltrators. The desire of the uniformed personnel is to evacuate the civilian population to carry out a cleaning operation street by street, house by house, but that is impossible in the middle of the fighting. The military spokesman, Daniel Hagari, assured that they have killed “hundreds of terrorists” and have managed to arrest “dozens”, but the fight continues. Hagari appealed for patience to ask for explanations about the error in the security systems because “now we are in the middle of a war.”

A Hamas spokesman confirmed its intention to prolong the fighting outside as much as possible and said that “we managed to repel the enemy attack during the night and day.” He further explained that they maintain a supply line to bring aid and ammunition to their troops. This situation represents a permanent security threat due to the high risk that some militants are already in other points much further away from the interior of Israel to commit attacks in the future.

In the latest air operations, the army demolished the houses of Hamas leaders, but the leaders of the movement have been in the tunnels from the first minute of the offensive. The civilians of the Strip are those who do not have any type of shelter to protect themselves from the massive bombings of this “revenge” promised by Benjamin Netanyahu.

Egypt and Lebanon

Hamas asked the Arabs of Israel and the West Bank to rise up against the Jewish State, but for now what it has achieved is solidarity in the form of attacks from Lebanon and Egypt. The Shiite militia Hezbollah launched mortars against Shebaa Farms and Israeli artillery responded immediately. A few hours later, the Egyptian media reported the death of two Israeli tourists and their guide in Alexandria, killed by a police officer.

The fronts are multiplying for an Israeli Government that, like the rest of the country, remains in a state of shock after the surprise operation by land, sea and air by Hamas. In addition to maintaining their positions within Israeli territory, the Islamists achieved another important objective with the capture of dozens of hostages. ‘The Wall Street Journal’ reported the first contacts of the Netanyahu Executive with Egypt to ask for mediation in this large-scale prisoner crisis. The radical group announced that it has two demands to free them: “Totally clean Israeli prisons of Palestinian prisoners” and “the lifting of the blockade.”

Egypt’s role will once again be fundamental in a future negotiation and, from Turkey, the president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, also offered to launch diplomatic efforts to calm the situation. The Turks have a good relationship with the Israelis and with Hamas, which has a political office in Istanbul. Erdogan recalled that “this conflict has always been at the center of most conflicts in the region” and defended that “it is now necessary to establish a Palestinian State with its capital in Jerusalem”, as demanded by the two-state solution.

While Israel received messages of support from the West and Netanyahu spoke for the second time with Joe Biden, support for Hamas came from Iran. The president, Ibrahim Raisi, defended the “legitimate right of the Palestinians to defend themselves” and pointed to the Israelis as “responsible for the instability in the region.”