IAccording to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s army has now killed around half of all battalion commanders of the Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip. He said this at a press conference on Tuesday evening. Hamas is gradually losing control of the sealed-off coastal strip, added its Defense Minister Joav Galant. The army previously announced that it had now advanced “into the heart” of Khan Younis, the largest city in the south of the Gaza Strip. At the request of the army, hundreds of thousands of people seeking protection fled from the previously fiercely contested north to the south of the area.
According to a media report, the US government assumes that Israel’s massive ground offensive in the south will continue until January. As US broadcaster CNN reported, citing several senior US government officials, Israel could move in a few weeks to a “less intense, more localized strategy” targeting specific Hamas terrorists and leaders.
The White House is “deeply concerned” about how Israeli operations will develop in the next few weeks, an official was quoted as saying. World public opinion is increasingly turning against the current ground offensive, in which thousands of civilians are being killed, the broadcaster reported.
USA: entry restrictions for extremist settlers
The growing tensions in the West Bank are also a cause for concern. In response, the US government is issuing entry restrictions that are aimed, among other things, at extremist Israeli settlers. There has been an alarming increase in violence, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said on Tuesday.
During the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel conquered, among other things, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Around 600,000 Israelis live there today in more than 200 settlements. The Palestinians claim the areas as part of their own state. The UN Security Council in 2016 called these settlements a violation of international law and called on Israel to stop all settlement activities.
Meanwhile, Miller sent words of warning to Israel in the Gaza war. Efforts must be made to provide more aid supplies for the Gaza Strip. “Not enough is being done right now,” Miller said Tuesday evening. The number of trucks currently arriving is around 100 per day. The number is lower than during the ceasefire that expired last Friday, Miller also explained. “It has to be higher.”
The UN human rights office complained that Israeli attacks that targeted or affected civilian infrastructure “raise serious concerns about compliance with international humanitarian law and significantly increase the risk of atrocities.” According to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health, more than 16,200 people have now been killed in Gaza. This cannot currently be independently verified, but the UN and observers point out that the authority’s figures have proven to be credible overall in the past.
Meanwhile, Israel’s leadership remains relentless: “We will not forget and we will not forgive,” said Netanyahu. The Gaza War was triggered by the worst massacre in Israel’s history, carried out by terrorists from the Islamist Hamas and other terrorist groups on October 7th in Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip. More than 1,200 people were killed. According to the latest information from the Israeli army, 138 hostages are currently still being held by Hamas and other extremist groups.
The Israeli military says it is now also taking action against Hamas strongholds in the south of the coastal area. In the end, Galant predicted that there would no longer be a single Hamas battalion in the Gaza Strip that could pose a threat to Israel. The Israeli army assumes that the terrorist organization has a total of 24 of these military departments, each with around 1,000 members. The information could not be independently verified.
Biden condemns Hamas sexual violence
Netanyahu, meanwhile, criticized human rights organizations and the UN for not speaking out about Hamas’ sexual crimes against women. US President Joe Biden condemned Hamas’ sexual violence. In recent weeks, survivors and witnesses to the October 7 attacks have described “horrifying accounts of unimaginable atrocities,” Biden said.
Hamas now understands that no one is saving them, neither the Iranians nor the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, Galant said. According to Lebanese information, several people were injured and one dead in renewed shelling on the border between Lebanon and Israel on Tuesday. The Lebanese army said at least one soldier was killed in an Israeli attack on a military site in the border area. He is the first Lebanese soldier to die in the current conflict. Three others were injured.
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