It’s a wait and see situation in the Gaza Strip. The waiting time for humanitarian aid, which according to Egyptian television should arrive today via the Rafah border, will reportedly amount to 20 trucks, a number considered insufficient to meet the needs of the Palestinian enclave that has been blockaded since the Hamas attack on Israel. And the wait for the Israeli land invasion, which has still not materialized despite threats. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told soldiers at the border on Thursday that they would soon see the Gaza Strip “from the inside”, indicating the offensive could be close.
The arrival of twenty aid trucks was the agreement reached by US President Joe Biden after the meeting in Tel Aviv with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But there will already be more than a hundred trucks of humanitarian aid at the Egyptian border, and World Health Organization (WHO) Emergency Director Michael Ryan believes that twenty trucks will be just “a drop in the bucket of what is needed”. In addition, Israel said it only authorized the access of food and water, without saying anything about fuel, which the WHO says is essential to keep generators running in the hospitals that are still functioning.
“We need food, water, medicine and fuel now. We need it on a large scale and in a sustainable way, it is not a small operation that is needed”, said United Nations Secretary General António Guterres, who was in Cairo. “In simple terms, this means that humanitarian organizations must receive aid and be able to distribute it safely,” he added, calling on Israel to facilitate unlimited aid distribution and for Hamas to release the hostages it took during the surprise operation on 7 October had brought. , which also killed about 1,400 people in Israel.
Nearly two weeks after the attack by the Palestinian terrorist organization, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, the promised Israeli offensive “by sea, air and land” to “crush” Hamas has not yet materialized. Israel’s response has only come through the air, with continued bombardment of the Palestinian enclave – in response to a constant launch of rockets by terrorist groups. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have also admitted to some occasional raids to kill terrorists along the border or search for the nearly 200 hostages (including 30 children) that the terrorist group has taken – it is not known how many are still alive are.
According to reports from Gaza authorities (i.e. Hamas), Israeli bombings have already killed 3,200 people. A number that some are questioning, especially after the explosion in the Gaza hospital on Wednesday. The Palestinians spoke of almost 500 deaths, but European and North American intelligence services question this balance, explaining that the explosion only hit the parking lot. A source from the former told AFP that there were only 50 deaths, while one of the latter told CNN that there were between 100 and 300. The West has also argued that the explosion was not caused by an Israeli missile, as Hamas claimed, but by the failure to launch a rocket ship of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (another terrorist group active in Gaza), which confirms Israel’s version. Islamic Jihad denied responsibility.
Land offensive
Amid the mutual accusations, the wait for the so-called land offensive may come to an end, if we trust Minister Yoav Gallant’s words to the army at the border: “Now they see Gaza from afar, soon they will see it from within. Order will come,” named
Netanyahu, amid visits by Western leaders – after Biden, he received British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday, this Thursday, he was also among the soldiers at the front. “We will win with all our strength,” the prime minister said, telling the army that “the entire people of Israel is with you and we will deal a heavy blow to our enemies to achieve victory.”
The military may have the support of Israelis, but Netanyahu does not benefit from the sympathy that the leader of a democratic country usually receives at the start of a war or national security crisis. – The The economist Consider, for example, that then-President George W. Bush’s support rose from 51% to 90% after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the US.
Netanyahu was already in negative territory due to the controversy surrounding judicial reform, but this is evident from a study published by the Israeli newspaper Maariv on the eve of the attack, it appeared that the Likud was regaining ground. The ruling parties then received 55 deputies (they currently have a majority in the Knesset with 64), while the Likud received 28. A week later, the survey revealed that the governing parties had only 42 deputies. Netanyahu’s party alone lost nine seats (to 19).
On the other hand, the National Union of Benny Gantz (a former general who has put aside differences with the prime minister and is now in the ‘war cabinet’) won 12 seats compared to 29 the week before, and elected 41 deputies alone.
When asked directly who they consider the most suitable leader to become prime minister, 48% of respondents last week said Gantz, compared to 29% who said Netanyahu. And regarding who they wanted to lead the government after the war, only 21% say the Likud leader should continue, while 66% say “someone else.” The Israeli newspaper is expected to publish a new study today, which will make it clearer whether the trend continues to point in this direction, as the development of the war could change everything. The numbers show that Israelis, at least initially, are placing some blame on the government for what happened.
Source: DN
