He political and military leadership of Israel has launched during the last hours a cold water jug to the expectations of a new partial truce between Hamas and Israel that would allow the release of the hostages that are still in the hands of Palestinian Islamist group and that it becomes the prelude to a definitive ceasefire. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has warned that his army “will intensify the fighting“in the hours to come and that the war “will be long”, exactly the same words used hours later by the chief of the Army General Staff, Herzi Halevi, proclaiming that “there are no shortcuts to dismantling a terrorist group.” During the last hours, at least 241 Palestinians They have lost their lives as a result of the bombings with renewed forces against a hundred targets in the impoverished and destroyed strip.
In an opinion article published by ‘The Wall Street Journal’, Netanyahu has listed the objectives of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in the strip. “Hamas must be destroyed, Gaza must be demilitarized and Palestinian society must be deradicalized. These are the three requirements for peace between Israel and its Palestinian neighbors in Gaza.” However, the balance to date of two months of military offensive is not particularly brilliant. The bulk of the leadership of the Palestinian extremist militia remains at large, in particular the three commanders who, according to the Hebrew country, planned and executed the terrorist operation against southern Israel, in which nearly 1,200 civilians lost their lives: Mohamed Deifleader of the Al Qassam Brigadeshis right hand, Marwan Issaand the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yahia Sinwar. The three are directing Hamas military operations from underground bunkers and even negotiations for the release of hostages.
Even if the Jewish State achieves the goal of ending his life, the aspirations to deradicalize Hamas formulated by the Israeli Prime Minister today sound like a pipe dream. In the past, the Hebrew armed forces have assassinated historical Hamas leaders, such as Sheikh Ahmed Yasin either Abdel Aziz Rantisi, and then reconstitute itself again.
Immune to discouragement
Immune to discouragement, the humanitarian community, led by the UN, continues to press for a ceasefire. Officials of the World Health Organizationdependent on the United Nations, has been able to visit the Deir el Balah hospital, in the center of Gaza City, in the last few hours, where they were able to hear “heartbreaking stories”, with entire families who have lost their lives after a bombing in the refugee camp ofand Al Maghazi, close to the health center where up to 70 people could have died. “This latest bombing of a Gaza community demonstrates why an immediate ceasefire is needed,” WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on the social network X. “A humanitarian truce in Gaza is the only way forward.” “he declared for his part Filippo Grandihead of the UN refugee body.
Within Israel, those who are putting strong pressure are the relatives of the hostages still held by the Islamist group, who have already become an opposing force against Prime Minister Netanyahu. On Monday, a group of them interrupted a speech by the leader in Parliament with shouts, with shouts of “now, now” and banners demanding negotiations for the release of their people. Since the start of the Israeli military offensive, they have staged a multitude of rallies demanding an end to the fighting and the start of talks. Hamas has already said that it is not willing to release more hostages until there is a commitment from the Israeli authorities to stop military operations. Mediators from Egypt and Qatar are working to reach a consensus between both parties to achieve a new ceasefire, although according to the statements of both sides, the positions remain very far apart.
Another of the great fears is that the offensive in Gaza will degenerate into a large-scale regional conflict, in which the Shiite militia Hezbollah, strong in southern Lebanon, and other regional actors. On Israel’s northern border they are searched daily exchanges of fire, and since October, two hundred people have lost their lives in this area as a result of the fighting, particularly in Lebanese territory: mMore than 120 Shiite militiamen16 belonging to palestinian militias and one twenty civilians.
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The US, for its part, is also becoming increasingly involved in the conflict by attacking positions of pro-Iranian groups in Iraq, which has sparked a lively protest from Baghdad Government.