Gaza/Tel Aviv. According to experts, Hamas is resorting to guerrilla tactics. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is far from “total victory”. The news in summary.
According to experts on the Gaza war, Israel is still far from victory over Islamic Hamas. “Hamas is present throughout the Gaza Strip,” Joost Hiltermann of the think tank International Crisis Group told the Wall Street Journal.
“Hamas is far from defeated.” The terrorist organization has switched to guerrilla tactics, fueling fears in Israel that it will end in an “eternal war,” the newspaper reported. Israeli Defense Minister Joav Galant had warned the night before that the lack of an alternative to Hamas rule in Gaza threatened to undermine Israel’s military successes.
The US shared Galant’s concern that Israel had no plans for this, a senior US official told the Times of Israel. This allows the terrorist organization to reposition itself in areas vacated by the army and regain control. This was “concerning,” they said.
Reports of airstrikes in northeast Lebanon
Meanwhile, Lebanese media reported heavy Israeli airstrikes in the Baalbek area of northeastern Lebanon. Initially there was no confirmation of this from Israel. According to the Israeli military, the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon recently fired around 60 projectiles into northern Israel.
The militia itself claimed to have fired dozens of rockets at the headquarters of the aerial surveillance unit near Meron. The attack was a response to the “assassination of the Israeli enemy.”
The Israeli army said it killed a senior Hezbollah commander in an airstrike in southern Lebanon. Baalbek is located about 100 kilometers from the Israeli-Lebanese border and is considered a Hezbollah stronghold. Since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, there have been daily military clashes between the Israeli army and Hezbollah militia and other groups in the border zone between Israel and Lebanon.
USA: having difficult negotiations with Israel
The US government, however, reiterated its support for the country amid reports of a new shipment of weapons worth billions of dollars to Israel. However, concerns may be shared with allies, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said, in light of Israel’s controversial actions in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
“And we have made it very clear that we want to ensure that (Israel) is able to defend itself.” US President Joe Biden has threatened Israel that a major ground offensive in the city packed with internally displaced people would have consequences for the US. make weapons deliveries. Jean-Pierre made it clear that the US had assumed that until now this was a limited operation by the Israeli military in Rafah – and not a major ground offensive.
Expert: There is no power vacuum in Gaza
Regardless of whether Israel fully attacks Rafah or not, Hamas will likely survive and continue to exist in other areas of the isolated coastal strip, according to current and former Israeli military officials and US intelligence officials, the Wall Street Journal wrote.
Hamas used a so-called “hit and run” tactic in which small groups of fighters attacked from ambush and then quickly disappeared into underground tunnels, security analysts were quoted as saying.
Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip is already producing results, but Hamas is already largely decimated militarily, said Defense Minister Galant. “But as long as Hamas maintains control over civilian life in Gaza, it can rebuild and strengthen itself, letting the Israeli army return and fight in areas where it has already been deployed.”
There is no power vacuum in the Gaza Strip, Michael Milshtein, former head of the Palestinian division of Israeli military intelligence, told the Wall Street Journal. Any location evacuated by the Israeli army will be occupied by Hamas. “Right now there is no alternative to Hamas,” Milshtein said.
Defense Minister calls for alternative to Hamas government
Yesterday Galant criticized Israel’s indecision on the question of who should govern in Gaza after the war. Palestinian representatives – accompanied by international actors – must take control and thus create a government alternative to the Hamas government, the Defense Minister recommended. Otherwise, there were only two negative options left: continued Hamas rule or Israeli military rule.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on the other hand, had previously stated that it was useless to talk about the future administration of the coastal strip before a victory over Hamas. Until it is clear that Hamas no longer governs Gaza militarily, no other representative will be willing to take over the civilian administration in Gaza – “out of fear for their safety”.
What today becomes important
In connection with Israel’s military offensive in Rafah, the International Court of Justice in The Hague is once again considering an urgent application against Israel. South Africa calls for the immediate withdrawal of Israeli troops from Rafah to prevent genocide against Palestinian civilians.
The situation has deteriorated extremely due to Israeli attacks and the survival of the people is threatened. The United Nations’ highest court set two days for the hearing. Today South Africa has the say, Israel will respond tomorrow.
So far, Israel has firmly rejected all allegations. The Jewish state invoked its right to self-defense after terrorists from Hamas and other extremist groups attacked southern Israel on October 7 last year, killing 1,200 people.
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