Israel launches large-scale attack on Gaza after announcing a cessation of operations in the southern Strip

This Tuesday, the Israeli army unleashed one of the largest large-scale attacks in Gaza since the beginning of the year, when it reported the end of military activity in the north of the Strip. A few hours earlier, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant had announced an upcoming cessation of military actions in the center and south of the enclave. Former General Gallant thus adheres to the plans presented at the beginning of the invasion, on October 27, to end operations within three months in the Palestinian coastal territory. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has linked his political survival to a total victory against Hamas, believes, however, that the fight could last “several more months” and that is why he has just presented an extraordinary war budget of about 15 billion. of euros.

Amid the obvious division in the Israeli Cabinet, the bombings have devastated large areas of southern Gaza, despite the announcement of the end of the “intensive phase” of the war. The attacks have been concentrated in Khan Yunis, but have also hit dozens of Hamas rocket launch pads in Beit Lhaya, on the supposedly inactive northern front of the Strip, after an unusual wave of rocket launches. More than 150 Gazans lost their lives in the Israeli attacks on Tuesday, according to a report by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the enclave, which has raised the death toll since the start of hostilities to 24,280, more than 1% of the population. Of the territory.

“In northern Gaza the war has already come to an end,” Minister Gallant insisted on Monday night. In the south, where hundreds of thousands of civilians have gathered at Israel's request to flee the fighting in the north, “the operations will end very soon,” he announced, while on the border between Israel and Lebanon, meanwhile, hostilities they intensify day after day

The escalation is highlighting the threat of an expansion of the war in northern Israel against the pro-Iran Hezbollah militia. This Tuesday, the army launched successive artillery and combat aviation attacks against southern Lebanon. For the first time since the outbreak of the conflict in Gaza, Israel has recognized a special forces commando operation against a Hezbollah unit that threatened to infiltrate Israeli territory.

Meanwhile, in Brussels, in a new twist of international pressure, the Twenty-Seven agreed this Tuesday to add the political leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yahia Sinwar, to the European Union's blacklist of terrorists, in which they already appear. since last month other officials of the Islamic movement, classified as terrorist by the EU, including Mohamed Deif, military leader. The decision is part of the “EU response to the threat posed by Hamas and its brutal and indiscriminate terrorist attack” against Israel on October 7, in which Sinwar and Deif have been identified as its main masterminds.

The inclusion of Sinwar on the EU terrorist blacklist implies the freezing of all funds and assets that the Hamas leader may have in European territory, in addition to the prohibition of European operators from providing him with funds or any other economic resources. In December, the EU Council announced that, in addition to Deif, commander of the Izedin al-Qasam Brigades, it included his deputy, Marwan Issa, on the list.

The conflict in Gaza has tested European foreign policy, which in this extreme has not achieved the political unity manifested in the other major conflict of the moment, the war in Ukraine, as the High Representative for Foreign Policy of the EU, Josep Borrell. The head of European diplomacy recognized a month ago that he had not yet achieved the unity of the Twenty-Seven to also act, through sanctions, against the violent “extremist” settlers in the West Bank, as he proposed at the beginning of December.

“It is a fair and moral decision. I thank all our friends who supported this decision,” the Israeli Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, celebrated the European decision in a message on his X account (formerly Twitter). “We will continue to eradicate the root of evil, in Gaza and wherever it raises its head,” Katz warned.

Washington Air Raid

On the other hand, in the third US airstrike in five days against Huthi militia targets in Yemen, Tomahawk missiles from US forces hit a facility on Tuesday where cruise missiles were stored, the type that the rebel group supported by Iran used against merchant ships in the Red Sea, reports Macarena Vidal Liy from Washington. The military action ordered by the Pentagon comes a day after a Houthi missile hit a US merchant ship in the Gulf of Aden, leaving no injuries and causing only minor damage to the cargo area.

On Friday, the United States and the United Kingdom attacked more than 60 targets in 28 points in Yemen to try to stop the Houthis' harassment of merchant ships passing through the Red Sea, through which 15% of world trade passes. The next day, American planes hit a rebel group's radar system in Yemen. The President of the United States, Joe Biden, and the British Government warned that, if the hostile acts of the militia continued in those waters, they would repeat these types of actions.

In defiance of Western warnings, the guerrilla launched a missile at a US warship on Sunday, although the projectile was shot down before reaching its target. On Monday, the Houthis attacked the merchant ship Gibraltar Eagle; They fired a second rocket, which exploded in mid-flight without causing damage. The Houthi rebels say they attack Israeli or Israeli-bound ships to put pressure on Israel's offensive in Gaza. On Monday, the militia also declared American and British ships targets.

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