Why the ground attack in the southern Gaza Strip is focused on the Khan Younis refugee camp. Is Hamas Gaza leader Yayha Sinwar hiding there?
We don’t know where the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yayha Sinwar, is, he is said to be in the south of the Palestinian Strip, but no one knows for sure. Israeli troops are deployed in Khan Younis because, among other things, rockets are being fired towards Israel from the south of Arab territory. The rocket fires by Islamist organizations operating in the Palestinian enclave have not stopped since the escalation began almost two months ago, nor have the exchanges of fire. This is reason enough to launch the ground attack in the southern Gaza Strip. In parallel, Israeli intelligence believes that Hamas leaders are in the south and that one of the main objectives of this military operation is to eliminate the Islamist leaders.
The United States said the ceasefire was broken because Hamas failed to provide a credible list of hostages to be released as part of the final exchange of civilians and prisoners. Women and children are still trapped in the Gaza Strip. Should the international community do more to free them?
The international community must definitely do more to free these innocent people who were kidnapped from their homes on a Saturday morning, along with their children and their families. We know that they are not receiving any humanitarian or medical assistance. The International Red Cross had no access to it. Israelis feel that part of the international community is indifferent to the suffering of their people. Why hasn’t Hamas provided a credible list of hostages? Because Hamas plays with all parties to the conflict and this is part of their terror strategy: kidnappings, rape, torture… They also want to cause grief to Israeli families who do not know what the future of their loved ones looks like.
The White House is pushing to limit civilian casualties in this second phase of the war. Can Israel do more to prevent the deaths of Palestinian civilians?
Israel can always do more to alleviate the situation of the civilian population in the Gaza Strip, for example by allowing more humanitarian aid. They should also ensure that Palestinians have safe places to protect themselves. Israel cannot provide these shelters because Hamas has used the money it has received all these years to build shelters. Therefore, the civilian population of the Gaza Strip has no access to these areas from which Hamas also fires rockets. The Israeli army has divided the map of the Gaza Strip and is telling the population in real time where the fighting will be concentrated so that they can flee. No modern army has ever achieved this. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are trying to do their best. In fact, in this second phase of the conflict, no massive bombings are carried out and surgical strikes are usually carried out against specific targets to limit collateral damage.