Israel unveils plans for ‘three-phase war’ in Gaza to ‘destroy’ Hamas

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced this on Friday Israel has a three-phase plan that will lead to “a new security reality” for its citizens and release them from responsibilities for the Gaza Stripcurrently controlled by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.

Gallant reported this roadmap during a meeting with members of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee (Parliament) at the headquarters of the portfolio he heads.

The minister said there will be three phases: “We are now in the first, a military campaign that currently includes bombing and will later include maneuvers; with the aim of neutralizing terrorists and destroying Hamas’ infrastructure.”

He added that in a second phase there will be “low intensity operations”. to eliminate “pockets of resistance”.

And it will be followed by one third period during which Israel will be released from its “responsibility for life” in the Gaza Strip and a new security reality will emerge for the country’s citizens, he stressed.

During the meeting, in which Gallant briefed delegates on the current war, he indicated that “Hamas sealed its fate” when it decided to attack Israel on October 7.

In this sense, he specified that the aim of the Israeli counterattack is “to eliminate Hamas and destroy both its military and administrative capacity, as well as the complete elimination of Israeli responsibility over the Gaza Strip and the creation of a new security reality.” in the region”.

Israel continues to concentrate forces around Gaza with the threat of a ground offensive, in response to the worst attack on its territory since its founding in 1948.

“Now they see Gaza from afar, soon they will see it from within,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said during a troop inspection on Thursday.

For his part, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also visited his troops on the front line near the Gaza enclave and asked them to “fight like lions” and “win with all necessary force.”

Netanyahu vows to ‘destroy’ Hamas, which has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007. At least 4,137 people have been killed in the bombings launched by Israel since then in this Palestinian enclave, including more than 1,500 children, according to local authorities.

Rockets were also launched from the Palestinian enclave towards Israel, AFP journalists confirmed.

Any military escalation by Israel in Gaza will be “catastrophic” for the population, warned Filippo Grandi, the head of the UN refugee agency.

While waiting for humanitarian aid to finally enter the Gaza Strip, where supply has been completely underutilized since the war between Hamas and Israel on the 7th, this country is experiencing multiple fronts of tension, with peaks this Friday at both the borders with Lebanon and the West Bank .

Israeli bombings

Despite the announcements, political agreements and expectations, the opening of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip is still not a reality, hampered by the difficulty of the repair works on the access roads, destroyed by Israeli bombardments, while the “urgency” to provide aid increase.

At least 18 people were killed this Friday by a bombardment by the Israeli army on the Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyry in Gaza, where hundreds of people took refuge, including families with children, the Gaza Strip Ministry of Health reported, which was under de facto control . by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas since 2007.

The Israeli army acknowledged that its fighter jets had attacked a Hamas command and control center in Gaza, resulting in “damage to a wall of a church in the central area.”

Following Hamas’s terrorist attack on southern Israel, which killed 1,400 people and kidnapped more than 200, mostly Israelis, Israel’s response so far has left at least 4,137 dead and 13,162 injured in the Gaza Strip. The army, which is already amassing a large number of troops and equipment at the border, has not yet taken place.

Two released

Since the offensive by Hamas militants almost two weeks ago, around 200 people have been kidnapped by the group and are currently being held in the Gaza Strip, and the majority “are still alive,” the Israeli army said on Friday.

Of the hostages, “more than twenty are minors, between ten and twenty are over 60 years old,” he said.

A Hamas spokesman announced the first release of two American hostages: a mother and her daughter. (JO)