The intensive phase of the Israeli ground offensive in the Gaza Strip is coming to an end, says Defense Minister Galant. Meanwhile, concerns are growing that the war could spread to the entire region. The News.
According to the Defense Ministry, the intense fighting by the Israeli armed forces against the Islamist Hamas in the north of the Gaza Strip has ended. The intensive phase of the ground offensive will soon be over in the south of the sealed-off coastal strip in the area of the city of Khan Yunis, the newspaper “The Times of Israel” quoted Israeli Defense Minister Joav Galant as saying.
“At the end of the war, there will no longer be a military threat from the Gaza Strip. Hamas will not be able to control the Gaza Strip and act as a military force. The Israel Defense Forces will have full freedom of action to do whatever it takes Defense of the citizens of Israel is necessary,” Galant said. “It may take a long time, but this is how it will end – with total victory.”
Although the period of intense fighting will soon end, the armed forces must maintain military pressure to secure the release of the remaining Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip. “If the fire stops, the hostages’ fate will be sealed in Hamas captivity for many years,” Galant said. “Without military pressure, no one will talk to us. The hostages can only be freed from a position of strength.”
In view of the numerous civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip, international pressure on Israel has recently increased to at least reduce the intensity of the attacks. For weeks, Washington has been pushing to move from the intensive phase of heavy bombing to more targeted strikes against the Islamist Hamas. The news portal Axios reported that US President Joe Biden is “increasingly frustrated” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his rejection of most of the US government’s recent requests on the Gaza war.
Israel’s army: Dozens of terrorists killed again
Meanwhile, Israel’s army says it is again killing terrorists in the Gaza Strip. In Beit Lahia in the north of the coastal region, dozens of members of Palestinian terrorist organizations were killed in an army operation, the military said. Soldiers also discovered around 100 rocket launchers and 60 ready-to-use rockets. Hamas and other extremist groups still occasionally fire rockets toward Israel. The information could not initially be independently verified.
Continued concern about the expansion of the war
Following rocket attacks by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard on targets in Iraq and Syria, there is growing international concern that the Gaza war will spread to the entire region. In view of repeated confrontations between the Israeli army and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah on the border between Lebanon and Israel, UN Secretary-General António Guterres had previously warned of a conflagration.
The attacks by the Houthi rebels from Yemen on shipping in the Red Sea also have the potential to draw more and more parties into the conflict. Like the Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the Lebanese Shiite organization Hezbollah, the Houthis belong to the so-called “Axis of Resistance,” a network in the fight against Israel.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards are shelling targets in Iraq and Syria
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it fired several ballistic missiles at targets in Iraq and Syria. The attacks were revenge for, among other things, the devastating attack in the southern Iranian city of Kerman at the beginning of January and the killing of a high-ranking IRGC officer at the end of December, the IRGC web portal announced last night (local time).
The target of the attack in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil was a spy center of the Israeli secret service Mossad. According to eyewitnesses, several rockets hit near a new US consulate under construction. According to security sources, four civilians were killed. The US government condemned the Iranian missile attack on Erbil. According to Iranian information, the attack in Syria was carried out by the terrorist militia Islamic State (IS).
According to the state news agency Irna, the shelling was the country’s most far-reaching rocket operation to date, covering a distance of more than 1,200 kilometers. This should also be a clear signal to the arch-enemy Israel. It would be roughly the same distance that rockets from the west of the country would need to reach Tel Aviv or Jerusalem.
UN Secretary General worried about expansion of Gaza war
With a view to the situation on the border between Israel and Lebanon, UN chief Guterres has already expressed great concern about the Gaza war spreading to the wider region. “I am deeply concerned by what is unfolding,” Guterres said. “It is my duty to deliver this simple and direct message to all sides: Stop playing with fire on the blue line, de-escalate and bring the violence to an end.”
The blue line marks the border between Israel and Lebanon. Since the beginning of the Gaza war, there have been repeated confrontations there between the Israeli army and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah. It is allied with Hamas, but is considered significantly more powerful. In addition to an immediate ceasefire, Guterres also reiterated calls for the release of all hostages and an investigation into the sexual violence committed by Hamas and others in the October 7 massacre.
Hamas releases hostage video – concerns for the lives of those kidnapped
Hamas again released gruesome video footage of Israeli hostages. The video showed, among other things, a young woman talking about the alleged deaths of two male abductees in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip. Military spokesman Daniel Hagari said afterwards that there was great concern for the lives of the two male hostages. He rejected Hamas’s claim that they were killed by the Israeli side. At the end of the Hamas video, a bloody male corpse can be seen.
Even more than three months after the massacre on October 7th, in which terrorists from Hamas and other Palestinian organizations killed more than 1,200 people in often brutal ways and kidnapped around 250 others into the Gaza Strip, 136 people are still being held in the coastal strip. Israel estimates that around two dozen of them are no longer alive.
According to US information, Houthis are again attacking freighters in the Red Sea
According to US information, the Yemeni Houthis again attacked a container ship in the Red Sea. The US military’s regional command said the rebels had fired an anti-ship ballistic missile at the M/V Gibraltar Eagle. It was therefore shot down from Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen. According to the information, the ship was a US freighter flying the flag of the Marshall Islands. There were no injuries or damage.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak justified the air strikes against the Houthi rebels and threatened new actions if ships continued to be attacked in the Red Sea. “The threat to shipping must stop,” Sunak said in Parliament in London. “Illegally detained ships and crews must be released. And we remain prepared to put our words into action.”