The ultranationalist prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and an Israeli opposition leader announced on Wednesday the formation of a “emergency government” until the end of the war with Hamaswhich again launched rockets against Israel while the artillery of the Jewish State crushed Loop.
“After a meeting (…) held today, both agreed to establish an emergency government and a war cabinet”indicates a statement about the meeting between Netanyahu and the centrist former Defense Minister Benny Gantz.
Netanyahu’s coalition government, the most right-wing in Israel’s history, controls 64 of the 120 seats in Parliament. With the incorporation of Gantz’s National Unity Party, it will reach 76 seats.
The main opposition leader, Yair Lapid, is not part of the alliance, although the statement stated that he has “reserved” a position in the war cabinet.
This announcement comes five days after the offensive launched against Israel by Hamas from the Gaza Strip, governed since 2007 by the Palestinian Islamist movement.
The attack by land, sea and air left more than 1,200 dead on the Israeli side, including 169 soldiers, according to the Army, as well as hundreds of civilians massacred by the Islamists in agricultural cooperatives and at a music festival.
Dozens of people are also listed as missing or held hostage by Hamas.
Israel responded by bombing the Gaza Strip, but also mobilized 300,000 reservists and deployed tens of thousands of soldiers around the enclave and on the northern border with Lebanon, where this Wednesday it once again crossed fire with the pro-Iranian Hezbollah movement, an ally of Hamas. .
In Gaza, at least 1,055 people have been killed and 5,184 wounded in Israeli bombings so far, according to local authorities.
“Crush” Hamas
Netanyahu promised on Wednesday “smash” to Hamas and stated that any member of the Palestinian Islamist movement could be considered a “dead man”.
“Hamas is Daesh [acrónimo en árabe de la organización yihadista Estado Islámico] and we are going to crush them just as the world destroyed Daesh,” he stressed.
Israel has bombed the Gaza Strip since Saturday and maintains the siege of the region after cutting off the supply of water, electricity and food. More than 2.3 million Palestinians live in difficult conditions in this 360 km2 territory.
:quality(75)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/elcomercio/GQ2DCOJNGEYC2MJRKQZDIORUGQ.jpg)
According to the Hebrew Army, several targets of the Islamist movement were hit in the bombings. Hamas instead indicated that the attacks hit homes, factories, mosques and shops.
“We are trapped, we don’t know where to go and we can’t stay because our apartment is covered in broken glass and shrapnel.”Mohammed Mazen, a 38-year-old Gazan father of three, told AFP.
For their part, the Arab League foreign ministers condemned the Israeli siege on Wednesday and demanded the sending “immediate” of help for the inhabitants.
Israeli Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel stated in an interview with AFP that the government was determined to “eradicate” to Hamas, so that “no one in the world even has the idea of using what happened [en Israel] like a model” to plan future attacks.
The Islamist group threatened to execute the hostages if the bombing of Gaza continued without warning. Among the captives are young people kidnapped while participating in a music festival on Saturday morning, where some 250 people were massacred, according to an Israeli NGO.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is negotiating with Hamas for the release of the hostages, a Turkish official source told AFP.
The Hamas offensive took Israel by surprise although, according to US Congressman Michael McCaul, head of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Egypt alerted the Israelis “three days” before the attack.
Egypt did not officially comment on this information, published in the press several days ago. The armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad said Wednesday that they launched rocket attacks against southern and central Israel.
In Ashkelon (south), “a rocket hit” in a hospital, the health center reported, specifying that “There were no injuries.”
Eleven workers from the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) have died since Saturday in the Strip, reported Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN secretary general.
The International Federation of Red Cross Societies and its Red Crescent counterpart reported that five of their members died in these five days, both in Israel and in the Palestinian enclave.
Israel announced on Tuesday that it had regained control of its border with the Strip, after days of fighting with Islamists. Some 1,500 bodies of Hamas fighters were found in the area, he said.
Regional escalation fears
The Hamas offensive sparked multiple international condemnations and concerns about an escalation that could set the region on fire. At least four Palestinians were also killed this Wednesday when a group of armed Israeli settlers attacked a town south of Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said.
The army also killed two other Palestinians, bringing to 29 the number of Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank since the offensive launched by Hamas.
US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby announced Wednesday that a second aircraft carrier would be available to support Israel if necessary.
Russian President Vladimir Putin urged opening negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians and warned against a “spread” of the conflict.
The Chinese emissary in the Middle East, Zhai Jun, called for a “immediate cease fire”during a telephone conversation with a Palestinian official, indicated the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Source: Gestion
Ricardo is a renowned author and journalist, known for his exceptional writing on top-news stories. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he is known for his ability to deliver breaking news and insightful analysis on the most pressing issues of the day.
