The war promises to be long ” And ” intense “. Returning from the Gaza Strip on Monday, December 25, Benjamin Netanyahu wanted to reassure the elected officials of his party, Likud, who were worried about seeing the pace of fighting slowing down without the maximalist objective of the Israeli government – destroying Hamas – having been achieved. . The Prime Minister told them: “We will intensify the fighting in the days to come and this will be a long war that is not going to end any time soon. » He thus intends to maintain the leadership of the radical right, which prefers the annihilation of the Islamist movement to the release of the hostages.
These speeches follow the worst days of the war which began on October 7 after the Hamas attack in Israel. On the Palestinian side, 70 people were killed by an airstrike on Sunday in the Maghazi camp, in the center of the strip, according to the local health ministry, which estimated in the evening that 166 victims had been counted in twenty-four hours. This is as much as during the entire Israeli operation “Pillar of Defense”, in November 2012, which lasted six days. In total, the report from the local health ministry shows nearly 20,500 Palestinians dead in two and a half months of the offensive.
On the Israeli side, 14 soldiers were killed over the weekend. Five of them in their vehicle, attacked with a rocket launcher by a Hamas fighter in the south of the enclave. Four others because of explosive devices – the location of the attack was not specified by the army. But on Saturday, members of the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamist movement, showed on their Telegram channel the reuse of unexploded Israeli rockets to target five Israeli tanks in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Syria. strip, right against Gaza City. In total, 156 soldiers have lost their lives since the start of the ground invasion, which began on October 27. In recent days, the announcement of the discovery of the bodies of five hostages who died in captivity added to this grim toll, and the death of three others killed by the army earned Benyamin Netanyahu the booing on Monday at the Knesset, by the families of those still in the hands of the Islamist organization.
Four divisions deployed
This is how this asymmetrical war is taking place, waged in an uncertain environment, where the conquered territories are never really held, where Hamas continues to set ambushes without seeking direct confrontation, to break the motivation of the soldiers mobilized for many weeks and sowing doubt about the relevance of the operation in part of public opinion. The organization uses a network of tunnels whose number and dimensions continue to surprise the IDF and complicate the advance of troops.
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