• Crisis The Gaza Strip: a blockaded, drowned and dead-end territory
  • Drama The catastrophe in Gaza, without water, food and with attacks every half hour: "We have lost everything, God help us"

On the sixth day of the war against Hamas that is wreaking havoc in the Gaza Strip and in response to the deadliest attack on its citizens, Israel raised military and rhetorical fire. The testimonies of the multiple murders in the kibbutzim and the increase in the death toll (at least 1,300) have contributed to the fact that the promise is no longer to destroy the "military capabilities" of the jihadist group but its own regime in the Palestinian enclave. An objective that would only be possible with a ground offensive that would significantly raise the death toll that exceeds 1,300 and destroyed houses in the Gaza Strip.

Israel faces the war with the full support of the US reflected in the repeated speeches of its president Joe Biden, the supply of Tamir missiles to guarantee the reserves of anti-aircraft batteries in a campaign that is long and the visit of its Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, who on Thursday was moved by the images and accounts of the testimonies of the massacre in the communities bordering the Gaza territory.

"I come not only as secretary of state but as a Jew. My grandfather fled the pogrom in Russia and survived the Nazi concentration camps. That's why I understand on a personal level the significance of the murders of Israelis and Jews around the world," he said in Tel Aviv. The White House revealed that 27 Americans were killed by Hamas.

"The message I bring to Israel is that you may be strong enough to defend yourselves on your own, but as long as America exists, you will never have to. We will always be by your side," Blinken said.

The message was addressed not only to Netanyahu but also to Iranian leader Ayatollah Khamenei and Lebanese group Hezbollah group Hassan Nasrallah.

The head of US diplomacy, who met with survivors of the massacre at the musical party for peace, denounced that "Hamas has as its only agenda the destruction of Israel and does not care about the welfare and future of the Palestinian people."

"We appreciate the support of President Biden and the American people in our war against the barbarians of Hamas," said Netanyahu, who denounced beheadings and burning of people alive last Saturday.

"October 7 is the most horrible day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust," he said, launching a key element in his speech: "Hamas is IS." In this regard, the army said it had found a flag of this terrorist group in the equipment confiscated from Hamas militants in Kibbutz Sufa.

Israel intensified its attacks in such a way that from Ashkelon, 14 kilometers from Gaza, some can be heard. In the last day, the Air Force killed a commander of the Hamas Naval Force and destroyed targets of the elite unit (Nukba) that led Saturday's attack and several buildings, with advance notice to the inhabitants, based on information about Hamas command centers taken from interrogations of those who infiltrated southern Israel.

On Thursday, the army warned residents in Beit Lahia that it was going to launch a new raid, so they had to leave that area in northern Gaza. Hamas, for its part, demanded that they not leave. Gaza already has nearly 400,000 displaced people for a nightmare that has just begun as UN facilities are not enough to house so many people.

"We have dropped more than 6,000 bombs against Hamas in Gaza. It's just the beginning until we finish them off. We will wipe out everyone who participated in the heinous crimes," Air Force Chief Tomer Bar said after hitting 4,000 targets.

Security Failure

The army's top official, Herzi Halevi, appeared before the cameras to take responsibility for the weekend's defensive failure and promise that it will be investigated when the war ends.

"The one who decided this despicable attack was Yahya Sinwar (leader of Hamas), the sovereign of the Gaza Strip and his organizational chart is targeted for killing. We will attack them and dismantle their systems," a spokesman said.

The Tsahal promises to reach not only Sinwar—hiding underground for fear of Israeli bombs—but all of Saturday's participants to either shoot, kidnap or simply encourage him. For example, Mustafa Shahid, who filmed their murders and broadcast them on social media. Three days later, an Israeli missile killed him.

In the face of the serious humanitarian crisis in Gaza in the making and the denunciations of local and international aid agencies about what they consider collective punishment after the declaration of the closure, the Minister of Energy, Israel Katz, responded yesterday that they will not supply fuel, water and electricity "until the return of the Israeli abductees to their homes. Humanitarian in exchange for humanitarian and that nobody gives us a lesson in morality."

Hours before the October 7 attack, the Israeli military leadership held urgent consultations after receiving warnings of "strange movements" on the Hamas border, but remained faithful to the idea that this Iranian-backed movement "is not interested in escalation." Therefore, it did not take urgent measures limiting itself to a new consultation early in the morning. But more than a thousand Hamas troops came forward and vehicles, paragliders and motorcycles entered Israel.

An attack planned for two years

Netanyahu was informed at 06:29 a.m. when an attack planned for two years had already begun, according to one of its leaders, Ali Baraka. "We made them believe that Hamas had pledged to rule Gaza, that it wanted to focus on its 2.5 million inhabitants and that it had totally abandoned the resistance," Baraka told Russia Today TV. Baraka claimed that Hamas only informed its allies of other Palestinian factions — Hezbollah, Iran, Turkey and Russia — once the invasion began, and said any prisoner exchange deal should include Hamas prisoners held in the United States.

Salah Harouri, a senior Hamas leader abroad who has been on Israel's radar for years, which considers him the mastermind of attacks in the West Bank, put the number of attackers at about 1,200. In an interview with Al Jazeera, he denied that they wanted to harm civilians in Israel and said Gaza citizens also penetrated the border.

Hamas is mostly trying to get rid of the "IS" label. It is one of the reasons why he would try to make some kind of exchange for Palestinian prisoners with Israel to free himself and free himself from his enormous responsibility for hostages with foreign nationality or women. Hamas is holding more than 100 hostages, according to Islamist leader Musa Abu Marzouk. Yusuf, his brother, reportedly killed in an Israeli air strike in Rafah.

Hamas still expects a "revolt" of Palestinians in the West Bank and Israel as happened in the escalation in 2021. In the territory occupied by Israel in the war of 67, demonstrations in favor of Hamas take place with increased clashes with Israeli soldiers. In Israel, however, the Arab minority strongly censures Hamas's actions in its unexpected and bloody attack. The increase in destruction and deaths in Gaza may bring about a change in behaviour in this sector.

Just as their country was going through the biggest internal crisis in its history due to the controversial judicial reform plan and the five elections since 2019, Israelis have come together again. And not only in the emergency government of the war. This has required the largest attack in its history. There is consensus that Hamas has broken all red lines and in almost the entire ideological arc demand that it pay for it with a forceful response. If the war as predicted will take weeks and even months with the more than likely invasion of Gaza, Hamas will end up with thousands of casualties, Gaza semi-destroyed and a high number of civilians killed in Israeli attacks.

Huge mobilization

The mobilization in Israel is enormous. Not only military with 350,000 deployed, but also social. Blood donation centers fill up daily as videos circulate in which dozens of balconies in entire neighborhoods sing the anthem in unison. Since Saturday you can see more Israeli flags on cars and houses. "We are at our worst. Imagine the 11-S, then multiply it by 10, "says Avi Atias who took the risk of leaving his house in Ashkelon, under the daily rain of shells, to do some shopping.

After several days in which he was unwilling or unable to condemn Saturday's attack, Palestinian President Abu Mazen expressed rejection of "the practices of killing civilians or abusing them on both sides because they contravene morality, religion and international law." Abu Mazen's waning relevance is reflected in Israeli indifference to his reaction in the early days. The veteran Rais rules the West Bank and, unlike his internal rival fundamentalist, supports a peace agreement based on the two-state solution. Never has this formula been so far from being applied in reality.

  • Israel
  • Hamas
  • Palestine