Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced Saturday that 12 Hamas commanders have been killed since the war began, but the group’s leader in the Gaza Strip still needs to be eliminated. “We will get Yahyan Sinwar and eliminate him. If Gazans get there before us, it will shorten the war.”he declared at a press conference, showing a photo of Sinwar and inviting the Palestinians to kill him.
Shortly after Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel on October 7, which killed 1,400 people, Israeli authorities had already said that Yahyan Sinwar and Mohammed Deif, the top commander of the Al-Qassam Brigades (the armed wing of the Palestinian terror group), were the targets to be shot down. Both will be hidden in the network of tunnels that cross the Gaza Strip and are built to withstand Israeli bombardments. Since the start of the war, they have caused the deaths of nearly 9,500 people (a third of them children), according to figures from Gaza’s Ministry of Health, controlled by Hamas.
“At the end of the war, there will no longer be Hamas in Gaza,” the defense minister insisted. “There will no longer be a security threat from Gaza to Israel and Israel will have the absolute freedom to take whatever security action it sees fit against anyone who raises their head in Gaza. [para ameaçar Israel]” added Gallant, who confirmed a total of 28 deaths among the Israeli army since the start of the ground offensive.
The advance of Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip continues, including a night raid in the southern area. The city of Gaza has reportedly been surrounded for several days and bombing continues. According to Hamas, at least 15 people were killed and 70 injured this Saturday in an attack on the United Nations school in Al-Fakhura, Jabalia refugee camp.. According to the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees, the school is “used as shelter for displaced families”. “At least one attack hit the playground where tents were set up for displaced families. Another hit the school where the women were baking bread,” they said in a statement.
This Saturday, Israel had not claimed responsibility for this attack, unlike the attack the day before on an ambulance stationed at the entrance to Al-Shifa Hospital. The Israel Defense Force (IDF) claims the ambulances are being used by Hamas terrorists, one of whom was targeted in the bombing. United Nations Secretary General António Guterres wrote on Twitter (renamed after Hamas deliberately uses ambulances for terrorist purposes).
Last Saturday, authorities in Gaza (controlled by Hamas) suspended the departure of foreigners and dual nationals through the Rafah border, the only border with Egypt, after Israel refused to allow injured Palestinians to leave for treatment in Egyptian hospitals. The White House announced Friday that a third of the names on the list of injured persons to be transferred, provided by Hamas, were fighters and members of the terrorist group, explaining that this was “unacceptable to Egypt, the US and Israel.” . The border was therefore closed to all exits, even though humanitarian aid was still coming in: at least 30 trucks.
The call for a ceasefire is being repeated around the world, both during demonstrations – including in Israel – and around diplomatic tables. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met in Amman on Saturday with the heads of diplomacy of five Arab countries – Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates – who are calling for an immediate ceasefire. But the US insists this would only buy Hamas time and only defends “humanitarian ceasefires”, and the day before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected them without the prior release of the approximately 240 hostages Hamas had taken to the Gaza Strip.
Turkey has now announced that it has withdrawn its ambassador from Israel, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan saying he holds Netanyahu personally responsible for the deaths of civilians in Gaza. ‘Netanyahu is no longer someone we can talk to’, he said. Before the war in Gaza, Ankara had drawn closer to Israel; Erdogan first met the Israeli prime minister in New York in September. Blinken will be in Turkey today and tomorrow and a meeting with the Turkish president has not yet been confirmed.
Source: DN
