• Middle East The war between Israel and Hamas is in its first month with Gaza besieged and divided in two
  • War Israeli army rescues kidnapped woman: "We will use the information she revealed to us in an astonishing way"

On the sidelines of the month-long commemoration of the attack by the jihadist group Hamas to remember the 1,400 dead and call for the release of the 240 hostages, Israel carried out attacks and fighting in Gaza. From this city, in the north of the Palestinian strip, thousands of inhabitants left on Tuesday for the south in a war that seems to have no end in sight.

"A month ago, in a shocking murderous massacre, Hamas attacked us and beat us hard. On that terrible day, we did not accomplish our mission," admitted the head of the Southern Command, Yaron Finkelman, alluding to the biggest failure in the history of the Israeli army before lifting some of the secrecy around the location of its ground forces: "For the first time in decades, the army is fighting in the heart of Gaza City. In the heart of terror."

For some soldiers, it's also a personal mission. Like the reservist captain who exploded a tunnel found in the northern city of Beit Janun, remembering his uncle, Ofir Lipstein, a well-known community leader who died trying to stop terrorists a month ago in southern Israel. "Ophir used to say that the localities near the Gaza Strip were 95% paradise and 5% hell (referring to Palestinian shells). I want, not as an act of revenge but as an act of defense of the nation, to dedicate this explosion to him as one of the efforts to return 100% paradise to our populations."

Israel attacked a Palestinian commando near al-Quds Hospital, which, according to the army, "caused significant secondary explosions indicating the presence of a Hamas weapons depot in a civilian area," while Hamas accused the Air Force of "indiscriminate attacks." Defense Minister Yoav Gallant made the humanitarian truce conditional on the release of the hostages and said that one of the objectives of the war is "the liquidation of the terrorist leadership, including Yahia Sinwar," without specifying whether he believes the Hamas leader is in a bunker in Gaza that, due to its tunnels, He defines it as "the largest terrorist base ever built."

The armed wing of Hamas asked "not to believe Zionist propaganda" and boasted of damaging the advance of the Israeli army causing "great losses". The militiamen are confident in the effectiveness of the tunnels spread over several hundred kilometers to surprise and hit the enemy's forces - who are fighting with the help of the Air Force - waiting for some kind of truce as a result of international pressure or the negotiation of the hostages.

Those who do not have tunnels and bunkers in Gaza are its inhabitants under incessant bombardment. Many of them left the city and crossed the line into Wadi Gaza in search of a safer place in the south. It is estimated that more than 200,000 Palestinians remain in the north, while Palestinian NGOs put the number of internally displaced persons at 65 per cent of the population.

"We are human beings. What have they done to us? May Allah take revenge on those responsible," a Palestinian woman demanded to Arab media as part of a long line that left the Gazan neighborhood of Zeitoun, some with white flags, through the corridor established by the Israeli army on the Salah Al Din highway to reach the south. The Hamas government asked not to broadcast such images of residents leaving Gaza and showing Israeli tanks deployed to prevent the militants from preventing the evacuation.

According to Hamas' health ministry, 10,328 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in Israeli bombardments since the start of the war 32 days ago. Among them, 160 health workers when they were attending to the wounded and sick, according to the World Health Organization, which, after informing of the entry of its aid trucks, clarified that it was not enough in the face of the needs. "The population is exhausted and the first responders are practically powerless. In the face of the catastrophe, a ceasefire is a matter of vital urgency," said Claire Magone, director of Médecins Sans Frontières.

The Day After in Gaza

The consensus in Israel on the need for a military operation tobreak with the armed wing and regime of Hamas and release those kidnapped "in a war imposed on October 7" extends to the rejection of the occupation of the Gaza Strip after withdrawing 18 years ago. The Israeli leadership affirmed to the U.S. The U.S. government rules out two post-war scenarios: the control and presence of both Hamas and Israel.

"I think Israel should have overall responsibility for security indefinitely because we've seen what happens when we don't have it. When we don't have this security responsibility, what we have is the eruption of Hamas terror on a scale we couldn't imagine," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview with ABC television. Asked about the high number of civilians killed in Gaza, he questioned the credibility of the tally, adding that among them "there are thousands of terrorists."

Opposition leader Yair Lapid is betting on the return of the Palestinian Authority to Gaza, from which it was expelled by Hamas in 2007. But Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, already heavily criticized by Islamists for this possibility, does not want to be seen as coming back thanks to the tanks of the common enemy and calling for a comprehensive solution for the Palestinian people. The veteran leader, who accuses Israel of "war crimes in Gaza," had in the past denounced Hamas for its actions in Gaza, such as hiding in Shifa Hospital.

"For those who think Hamas will disappear, Hamas will remain anchored in consciousness ... of our people, and no force on earth will be able to annihilate or marginalize them," warned Palestinian Islamist leader in Lebanon Ossama Hamdan. He added in a three-pronged message to Ramallah, Jerusalem and Washington: "Our people will not allow the U.S. to continue its abuse." If the U.S. imposes its plans to create an administration that suits it and the occupation, our people will not accept a new Vichy government."

Memory of the 7-0

With half a million reservists mobilized and citizens displaced, Israel on Tuesday recalled the largest terrorist attack in its history that occurred a month ago. The call for the release of the 240 abductees, who include 38 children (including a 10-month-old baby), women and the elderly, was expressed in prayers at the Western Wall and in their photos displayed on the Walls and Parliament in Jerusalem and in the Tel Aviv Museum. This city in the heart of Israel fell night, once again, to the sound of sirens in the face of bursts of rockets announced by the armed wing of Hamas as a "response to the massacres in Gaza".