9 February 2024
It has been more than three months since the Simchat Torah War began, a war the likes of which Israel has never seen, and where the end is not yet in sight.
The Israel Defense Forces’ operation against Hamas is “progressing and achieving its goals,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stated early February. Gallant stated that 18 Hamas battalions had been dismantled and about half of the Hamas terrorists killed or seriously wounded. Israeli forces stepped up airstrikes on Rafah Thursday, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to expand the military offensive into the southernmost Gaza city, where over a million Palestinians have crowded into amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
More than half of the Gaza Strip’s population has fled to Rafah, on the mostly sealed border with Egypt, which is also the main entry point for humanitarian aid. Egypt has warned that any ground operation there or mass displacement across the border would undermine its four-decade-old peace treaty with Israel.
In Khan Younis, a senior military officer said troops were “peeling back” Hamas’s infrastructure. Khan Younis is the hometown of Hamas’s Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar, mastermind of the October 7 murder and kidnapping spree in southern Israel that sparked the war.“I assess beyond a doubt that he is in Khan Younis – along with some of the remaining Hamas leadership,” an Israeli officer said.
The United States issued strident warnings against Israel expanding a large-scale offensive into the city, warning of catastrophic consequences unless civilians sheltering in the city were accounted for.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in the Middle East this week. The U.S. is leading efforts to mediate a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas that would result in release of some or all of the hostages still held by Hamas. So far these efforts have been unsuccessful. Hamas this week proposed a ceasefire plan that would see a four-and-a-half-month truce during which hostages would be freed in three stages, and which would lead to an end to the war, in response to a proposed outline sent last week by Qatari and Egyptian mediators and backed by the United States and Israel. This proposal was rejected by Israel as “delusional”.
Blinken and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “held a long and in-depth meeting in private” at the latter’s Jerusalem office on Wednesday. During his last visit, Blinken expressed support for “tangible steps” towards the creation of a Palestinian state in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, speaking during a meeting with Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.
Before arriving in Israel, Blinken visited Qatar, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The U.S., along with mediators Egypt and Qatar, has continued to push for a hostage release agreement that would be accompanied by a truce, with a Hamas delegation arriving in Cairo for negotiations. Egypt pressured Israel to also send representatives but Jerusalem refused to do so.
The campaign against Hamas in Gaza is part of a six-front war with the Iranian axis of evil: Gaza, Judea and Samaria, Syria, Yemen, and Iraq. In recent weeks, the situation on the front with Hezbollah in Lebanon has escalated, and the IDF appears to be preparing for a major operation, possibly within weeks, unless international efforts to mediate are successful.
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