An the 100th day of the war against Hamas, Israel is still far from achieving its war goals, according to a media report. As one of several reasons, the Israeli daily Haaretz cited that Israel was surprised by the size of the Hamas tunnels in the Gaza Strip.
The underground passages are therefore more sophisticated than expected. The leadership of the terrorist organization Hamas is relatively well protected from attacks. She probably surrounds herself with the hostages kidnapped from Israel. For these reasons it would be difficult to defeat them, the paper wrote. In addition to destroying the Islamist Hamas, Israel also wants to use the war to achieve the release of all hostages kidnapped in the Gaza Strip.
The report also said that the destruction of the exposed tunnels would take longer than the timetable envisaged for the military operation.
In the first two months of the war, there was also the assumption that Hamas would stop fighting due to the high losses in its ranks. This had not happened and it was doubtful whether it would happen again.
Members of Hamas’ military wing continued to fight as guerrilla troops after their battalions were destroyed in the north of the Gaza Strip, it said. The terrorists emerged from tunnels and attacked Israeli soldiers. This exacts a price on the army almost every day, Haaretz continued.
Source: OpenStreetMap; Infographic WORLD
The population in the Gaza Strip is not rising up against Hamas despite the catastrophic humanitarian situation. Despite the loss of control in the north of the coastal strip, people are still afraid of the organization that violently seized sole power there in 2007. In addition, the hatred of Israel is probably still greater than the anger towards the leadership of Hamas, the newspaper speculated.
Although Hamas’s losses are significantly greater than on the Israeli side, Israel is finding it difficult to achieve a strategic victory, according to Haaretz. There is a risk that the fighting will stagnate.
All developments in the live ticker:
8:16 a.m. – Four militants killed in clashes on Lebanon border
The Israeli military reports fighting in a disputed border area with Lebanon in which four militants are said to have been killed. The military said the men were trying to reach Israel from Lebanon. When they opened fire on soldiers patrolling the area, the Israeli military used artillery and grenade launchers. The incident occurred in the Schebaa Farms region.
7:42 a.m. – Baerbock emphasizes support for the release of the Hamas hostages
On the 100th day of the war between Israel and Hamas, Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) emphasized her support for the release of the hostages kidnapped by the Islamist Palestinian organization. “Children, parents, brothers, sisters and friends have been missing from Israel for 100 days. 100 days full of uncertainty, despair, sadness – and hope,” Baerbock explained on Sunday on the online service X, formerly Twitter. “We won’t give up, we won’t let up in our work until all the Hamas hostages are back home.”
5:46 a.m. – Israel is said to have arrested sisters of slain Hamas leader
Palestinian media reports that the Israeli army has arrested the sisters of Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri in two night raids near Ramallah. Al-Arouri was assassinated by Israel in Lebanon earlier this month.
5:30 a.m. – 120,000 take part in 100 Days of War March in Tel Aviv
According to the organizers, around 120,000 people drew attention to the fate of the hostages held in Gaza at a mass rally in Israel to mark the 100th day of the war in the Gaza Strip. The number given by organizers would make the rally one of the largest in Israel over the past year, which has seen regular mass demonstrations against the government’s controversial plan to restructure the judiciary.
The speakers at the rally, which began after sunset in the so-called “Hostage Square” in the center of Tel Aviv, included the relatives of the approximately 132 hostages who are still in the Gaza Strip, including French President Emmanuel Macron and the US -Ambassador to Israel, Jack Lew.
Demo in Tel Aviv to commemorate the 100-day hostage-taking by Hamas
Source: Getty Images/Amir Levy
Family members of the hostages expressed their frustration with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government at the rally that began in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening, the Times of Israel reported. They accused his government of not doing enough to bring home the hostages still held in the Gaza Strip. The time to save them is running out. The rally is expected to last until Sunday evening.
3:43 a.m. – Israel’s army reports exchange of fire on the border with Lebanon
There has been renewed mutual shelling on the border between Lebanon and Israel. A terrorist cell entered Israeli territory from Lebanon and fired on patrolling soldiers, the army said. The soldiers returned fire and four terrorists were killed, it was said. During the exchange of fire, our own troops fired artillery and mortars into the area. Just the day before there was mutual shelling on the border between the two countries.
1:19 a.m. – Israel’s Chief of General Staff: Increase military pressure on Hamas
Israel’s army wants to further increase military pressure on the Islamist Hamas on the 100th day of the war in the Gaza Strip. Israeli Chief of General Staff Herzi Halevi announced this on Saturday. “Pressure that will lead to the dismantling of Hamas and the return of the hostages,” he said. It was only through military pressure that many hostages were released, Halevi said.
The Hamas leadership is pinning its hopes on a ceasefire “and is convinced that this moment is near,” Halevi said. We will continue to be “determined and persistent”. “To destroy Hamas, patience is necessary and essential,” said the chief of staff.
He also addressed the ongoing confrontations with the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon, which is allied with Hamas. “The area in southern Lebanon is a combat zone and will remain so as long as Hezbollah operates from there,” Halevi said. “Hezbollah risks turning all of Lebanon into a combat zone, and at great cost,” he warned.
12:40 a.m. – Netanyahu: Israel is waging a “just war”
On the 100th day of the Gaza War, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once again vowed his country to fight “until complete victory.” The state of Israel, its armed forces and security services waged a “moral and just war, unparalleled, against the Hamas monsters, the new Nazis,” said the head of government, who is under pressure from domestic politics. “No one will stop us,” Netanyahu said, pointing to South Africa’s genocide lawsuit filed at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
“The hypocritical attack in The Hague against the state of the Jews, which arose from the ashes of the Holocaust, at the behest of those who came to commit another Holocaust against the Jews, is a moral low point in the history of nations.” said Netanyahu. The army found copies of Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” in the Hamas tunnels under the Gaza Strip. The Islamists of Hamas are “the new Nazis,” said Netanyahu, quoting Chancellor Olaf Scholz. He thanked him for Germany’s clear rejection of the genocide claim.
“We will continue the war to the end – to complete victory, until we have achieved all of our goals: eliminating Hamas, returning all of our hostages and ensuring that Gaza will never again pose a threat to Israel Netanyahu continued. It is also a war against “the axis of evil, led by Iran and its three proxies,” said the head of government, citing not only Hamas but also the Shiite militia Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen.
11:37 p.m. – Thousands protest against Gaza war around the world
Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators protested in London, Washington and other cities on Saturday against the war between Israel and the radical Islamic group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.