The USA apparently wants to gain time and, according to a media report, is advising Israel to wait before launching a ground offensive against Hamas. The reason for this is primarily efforts to release hostages and provide care for civilians.
While the Israeli military continues to carry out air strikes on targets in the Gaza Strip in close succession, a major ground offensive that has been expected for days has not yet been launched. According to a report in the New York Times, the US government is now advising Israel to wait before launching a ground offensive against the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.
According to the newspaper report, the US government hopes to get more time for negotiations to release the more than 200 hostages in the hands of Hamas. Further civilian casualties should also be avoided and more aid supplies should reach the population in the sealed-off Gaza Strip.
And there is another reason why the US government wants the ground offensive to be postponed: it wants to prepare for possible attacks by pro-Iranian groups on US targets in the region, they say. Such attacks are expected to increase as Israeli troops move into the Gaza Strip.
Help for residents in the Gaza Strip
Meanwhile, the third aid delivery from Egypt began across the border into the sealed-off Gaza Strip. More than a dozen trucks crossed the border at the Rafah crossing, several news agencies consistently reported. There is still a lack of fuel, which the hospitals urgently need for operations.
Israel: Hundreds of Hamas targets attacked
Israel said it intensified its shelling of the Gaza Strip and bombed hundreds of Hamas military targets. The targets included “tunnels containing Hamas terrorists,” “dozens of command centers,” and “military camps and observation posts,” the Israeli military said.
The terrorist organization Hamas said at least 70 people had been killed in the new Israeli attacks. Hamas also continued its shelling from the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army said it thwarted the attack using two drones.
EU discusses humanitarian ceasefire
Meanwhile, the European Union wants to prevent the war from spreading, but is divided over the means. On the sidelines of a meeting with her EU colleagues in Luxembourg, Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock expressed reservations about a possible humanitarian ceasefire that other countries support.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for a temporary end to the fighting between Israel and Hamas on the sidelines of the Middle East summit in Cairo at the weekend. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell backed the call: “Personally, I think a humanitarian (fire) pause is necessary so that humanitarian aid can come in and be distributed,” he said in Luxembourg.
Hamas: More than 5,000 dead so far
Since Israel responded to the attack by Hamas terrorists with counterattacks on their positions in the Gaza Strip, a total of more than 5,000 people have been killed, including 2,000 children, according to Hamas figures that could not be independently verified.
With the air strikes on the Gaza Strip, Israel responded to the major attack by Hamas on October 7th, in which, according to Israeli information, around 1,400 people were killed and 222 people were kidnapped as hostages. As a result, Israel announced a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, for which tens of thousands of soldiers have already been massed on the border with the Palestinian territory.
Smaller Israeli units have already begun isolated operations in the Gaza Strip, among other things with the aim of freeing hostages. According to Israeli information, one Israeli soldier was killed and three others were injured in the Gaza Strip during one of these operations.