Israel’s military is continuing operations in the Gaza Strip today, assuring that the unprecedented Iranian attack on Saturday night into Sunday will not divert it from achieving the goals set in the war against Hamas.
“Although we have been attacked by Iran, we have not lost sight, not for a moment, of our vital mission in Gaza, which is to rescue our hostages who are in the hands of Hamas, Iran’s proxy,” said last night Commander-in-Chief Daniel Hagari, spokesman for the Israeli armed forces.
He announced the deployment in the coming days of two additional reserve brigades to the besieged Palestinian enclave. According to the Israeli military, there are hostages being held in Rafah, on the southern tip of the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he is determined to launch a full-scale ground offensive against the city, which he sees as the last stronghold of Hamas, a Palestinian Islamist movement in power since 2007 in the enclave. And this despite all the warnings from Washington and other capitals, who fear a bloodbath as Rafah is home to hundreds of thousands of Gazans who were displaced from other areas.
According to UN estimates, around 1.5 million people have gathered in the city, most of them in makeshift camps. Yesterday, unable to take it anymore, thousands took the coastal road north, after the — false — rumor spread that the Israeli army was now allowing displaced people to return home.
“You Can’t Breathe”
“I can’t stay in the south any longer, it’s too crowded. You can’t breathe down there. It’s horrible,” explained Basma Salman, one of them.
The Israeli military was quick to deny the rumours. “The northern Gaza Strip is a war zone,” a spokesman said. Gazans told AFP they heard gunfire as they tried to move north.
Noor, about thirty years old, preferred to turn back. “They shoot people, I changed. We don’t want to die.”
Schools are opening again
Hamas and Israel accuse each other of sabotaging indirect negotiations to reach a ceasefire. However, “diplomacy is not dead”, assured yesterday John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council of the White House.
Israel’s military announced that schools across most of the country, which were closed for security reasons on Saturday due to a threatened attack by Iran, will resume normal operations from today.
Analysts call Israel’s retaliation inevitable
“The big question is not only whether Israel will act, but what it will choose to do,” a US official told AFP, assuring that the US would not participate in “any” such operation.
Iran seems intent on avoiding further escalation, according to Nick Heras, an analyst at the US-based New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy. The attack was designed “for the whole world to see, but not to lead to the outbreak of war in the region,” he ruled.
SOURCE: APE-ME
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