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More than 900 people murdered, around 130 hostages and at least 2,500 injured left the country’s health system operating at maximum capacity. Israel has suffered”the worst massacre in its history“, as defined this morning by Major Libby Weiss, spokesperson for the Hebrew armed forces during a press conference in which El Comercio participated.
TO LOOK: How could Hamas carry out the worst attack against Israel without anyone detecting it?
The attacks carried out by the Palestinian Hamas militia – a group that controls the Gaza Strip and is considered a terrorist group by Israel – since Saturday morning can only be compared.”with what the Nazis or the Islamic State did”, guaranteed the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Eli Cohen, during the same videoconference organized for the international media.
For now, the Israeli government has declared the country in a state of war, completely blocking basic services and the supply of food and fuel to the Gaza Strip, and the Army has told the population that they must prepare.”spend the next 72 hours in bomb shelters”, according to Hebrew security sources who had access The trade.
A confrontation of this type raised the alarm at a global level, as the religious and territorial context could lead other nations and armed groups in the region to also join.
In this sense, some of the possible actors that would join the conflict could be Iran, accused of supporting and authorizing the Hamas attack; and the armed movement Hezbollah, which has exercised de facto control in Lebanon for years and which, in fact, has already begun firing missiles at northern Israel.
While nations such as Turkey or Egypt offered themselves as mediators in the conflict. In fact, Cairo has played a key role during the escalations of violence between Israel and Hamas in recent decades. Although the severity of this latest attack could cause this to change radically.
“Egypt can be and has been an important mediator, but this will come after a series of major coups by Israel. We will see Egypt’s intervention later, perhaps in a few days or weeks.“, advances The trade Gabriel Ben Tasgal, political analyst specializing in Middle Eastern affairs and director of Hatzad Hasheni.
“The possibilities of resolving this conflict through diplomatic means are practically impossible because what Hamas did was such a huge psychological blow that the only way for Israel to be able to regain the ability to intimidate the enemy is to deal a very strong blow to Hamas. But this blow must be forceful and intelligent. It’s difficult to do something like this when we have 130 Israeli citizens who will be used as human shields. I see no opportunity to resolve the problem through diplomatic means, unless Hamas magically says that it will hand over all those abducted and that they will leave the Gaza Strip. As this will not happen, in the coming days we will see important physical advances”, explains Ben Tasgal.
The analyst’s reading is in line with statements made this morning by Chancellor Cohen, who assured that the weekend’s attack is “a turning point”on the situation in the region and that your country“I will never forgive” what happened.
“We want to thank the international community for its solidarity and support for Israel. We seek to continue it as we fight terrorism because it will take time, not a few days, but a long time. We cannot allow this to happen in other places in the world, they must pay the price to ensure that whoever kills an entire family, elderly or babies pays the price“, said the minister to the international press.
The spokesman for the Hebrew Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lior Haiat, stated in the same vein, who assured that Israel “He is not negotiating with anyone at the moment, we are at war. This is not the time to negotiate”.
This would also undermine attempts by Turkey and Qatar to present themselves as mediators in the conflict. A position that Ben Tasgal asserts requires deeper analysis.
“Qatar’s role is especially negative, we are talking about a country that systematically donates 20 or 25 million dollars a month to Hamas. He is the main financier of the terrorist group that dominates the Gaza Strip. It is a negative role from an economic point of view and also from the propaganda it carries out through the most important channel in the Middle East: Al Jazeera. The Arabic channel broadcasts the jihadist propaganda of these groups, very different from what they do in English, it seems like two different channels. Even after the latest attack, Qatar was quick to condemn Israel despite being a victim“, Explain.
“As for Turkey, much depends on the strategy that President Erdogan intends to adopt. For many years, its attacks on Israel were very violent, but as a result of the economic crisis that its country is going through, it is trying to correct the mistakes it made with Israel so that, for example, the gas pipelines that will go to Europe pass through its territory.“adds the specialist.
From the Gaza Strip, Hamas threatened to execute the hostages if Israel continues its inadvertent bombing of the territory.
Minister Cohen also spoke about this, warning the militia of “Don’t hurt any hostages. Your safety is your responsibility. This war crime will not be forgotten”.
Since 2005, Israel has had no military or civilian presence in the Gaza Strip, a decision adopted unilaterally by Tel Aviv in an attempt to unblock peace negotiations with the Palestinians.
In 2007, the ANP lost control of the Gaza Strip, leaving it in the hands of Hamas, and over time this Palestinian entity was only increasingly weakened in the West Bank due to the strengthening of movements such as Islamic Jihad.
Mahmud Abbas himself, leader of the ANP, was unable to condemn the weekend attack and limited himself to blaming the “practices of Israeli colonialists and occupying forces” for the climb.
The strip receives most of its supplies from Egypt, the country with which it borders to the southwest, but also benefits from the provision of basic services on the Israeli side. During a visit to the Kerem Shalom border crossing in February this year, The trade He witnessed the controls that the Hebrew army imposes on trucks entering Gaza and also witnessed that both medicines and food enter the strip daily.
Now the big question is what will happen to the Gaza Strip after Israel launches its armed response?
“That is the big question: you cannot take back control of the Gaza Strip and hand it over to someone else. Who would they give it to, the Palestinian Authority (ANP), which is a weak authority and which they would overthrow in just 5 minutes? The Israeli strategy so far has been to weaken Hamas and not defeat it, possibly this time they will be content with arresting much of the Hamas leadership in this ground intervention”, comments Ben Tasgal.
Source: Elcomercio
I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.
