Fighting again in Jabalia
Hamas provokes cat-and-mouse game with Israel’s army
May 12, 2024, 5:01 p.m
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Israel’s military chief complains about the “Sisyphean work” of his troops: Hamas terrorists are once again hiding in cities in Gaza from which they have actually already been expelled. The Israeli army is therefore expanding its operations in the north, but is also making further advances in Rafah.
The Israeli army expanded its attacks in the Gaza Strip at the weekend to include places where the military had already been deployed. Israeli soldiers have begun a new operation in the refugee district of Jabalia in the north of the coastal area, the military said. The military wing of the terrorist organization Hamas also reported serious clashes between its fighters and Israeli troops in Jabalia. The Israeli army is also continuing what it says are “precise” advances in the refugee-crowded city of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip and in the Al-Saitun neighborhood in the north of the coastal strip.
The army had intelligence information that Hamas had tried to rebuild its previously destroyed infrastructure in Jabalia. Israel had called on the civilian population in the refugee district to evacuate before the new operation.
The Times of Israel reported that the army estimated the presence of 100,000 to 150,000 Palestinians in the Jabalia area. The Palestinian relief agency UNRWA expressed “extreme concern” about the evacuation calls for Rafah in the south and Jabalia in the north of the coastal strip. Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned Israel on Saturday against expanding the operation. “We consider an offensive on Rafah (…) to be irresponsible,” he said in Potsdam.
Families of dead hostages insist on a decent burial
There were angry protests against the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel on Saturday evening. “As long as Netanyahu is in power, the hostages will not return (…) Netanyahu is leading Israel to complete ruin,” Israeli media quoted a statement from relatives of the hostages as saying.
On the eve of Israel’s Day of Remembrance for Fallen Soldiers and Terror Victims, the relatives of hostages killed in the hands of Hamas called for a dignified burial for their dead. On October 7, terrorists from Hamas and other groups in Israel killed 1,200 people and kidnapped another 250 people as hostages in the Gaza Strip. After an exchange for Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons, it was recently assumed that 132 of them were still in the coastal strip. However, it is assumed that many of them are no longer alive.
The unprecedented massacre triggered the Gaza war. On Saturday, the Israeli army called on the population in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza, which borders Egypt, to leave other areas in the east and, for the first time, in the center of the city. At the beginning of the week, Israel began deploying ground troops initially in the eastern outskirts of Rafah. Since then, “dozens of terrorists have been eliminated,” underground terror tunnels have been uncovered and large quantities of weapons have been seized, said army spokesman Daniel Hagari. It’s not just aid organizations that fear that an expansion of the Israeli offensive could lead to hundreds of thousands of civilians being caught between the fronts.
US offers Israel intelligence assistance in Rafah
According to a media report, the USA has offered Israel help in tracking down leaders of the Islamist Hamas in exchange for refraining from a major offensive in Rafah. As the Washington Post newspaper reported on Saturday (local time), citing four people familiar with the US offer, the US would help the Israeli military with intelligence support to locate the whereabouts of Hamas leaders and the terrorist organization’s underground tunnels. American officials have also offered to provide Israel with thousands of emergency shelters so that the army can set up tent cities for the residents of Rafah who are being evacuated.
The Israeli army justifies the military action in Rafah, which was threatened months ago, by wanting to destroy the last Hamas battalions and destroy the smuggling tunnels suspected to be under the border with Egypt.
Due to the lack of a political strategy for the period after the war, Israel’s army has to repeatedly fight in places in the Gaza Strip, such as now in Jabalia, which it had actually previously taken and from which it had already withdrawn, complained Chief of General Staff Herzi Halevi, according to media reports, during security consultations with Netanyahu . “As long as there is no diplomatic process to establish a non-Hamas administration in Gaza, we will have to repeatedly launch campaigns in other places to destroy Hamas’ infrastructure,” the Israeli military chief was quoted as saying in the Times of Israel ” quoted. “It will be a Sisyphean task.”
Biden sees Hamas as having a duty
Netanyahu recently spoke on US television about the future of the Gaza Strip, saying that if Hamas were defeated in the sealed-off coastal area, there would likely be “some kind of civil administration,” possibly with the help of the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and other countries “. This is about states that want “stability and peace”.
However, Emirati Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Sajid made it clear on Saturday on the online platform X that they would not take part in any possible civil administration with other states. His country will not allow itself to be drawn into any plans to “provide cover for Israel’s presence in the Gaza Strip.” Netanyahu also has no authority to initiate such a step.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden reiterated Hamas’ responsibility with regard to the indirect negotiations for a ceasefire and the release of hostages. “You know, there would be a ceasefire tomorrow if (…) Hamas released the hostages – women, the elderly and the wounded,” Biden said on Saturday at a campaign event in Medina, Washington state, according to press representatives traveling with him. National Security Council communications director John Kirby said Friday that negotiations were at an impasse. Egypt, together with the USA, now wants to persuade the parties to the conflict to be more willing to compromise.
Israel: South Africa acts as the legal arm of Hamas
Meanwhile, according to media reports, a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit a residential building in the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon during the night. Three people were injured. Hamas has recently increased its attacks on Israeli towns from the Gaza Strip, including the Kerem Shalom border crossing, through which humanitarian aid supplies arrive.
The Israeli government, meanwhile, called on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague to reject South Africa’s renewed urgent application to prevent genocide against Palestinians. South Africa acts as the legal arm of Hamas, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein wrote on Saturday on to prevent. Among other things, Israel should immediately withdraw from Rafah.