Israel does not stop in Gaza and advances to take control of ever-larger parts of the Strip, gaining ground in the outer districts of Gaza City and then reaching the center of the city. The action of the ground forces of the ‘Givati Brigade’ and the tanks, supported by increasingly incessant air attacks, also struck near the Shifa hospital, the largest in the Strip. Hitting, as reported by Hamas, “a convoy of ambulances headed towards the Rafah crossing, causing at least 13 deaths and many injuries“. An operation confirmed by the Israeli military spokesperson who however specified that the column of emergency vehicles was carrying militiamen and weapons. And that only one vehicle was hit: “The identified ambulance was used by a Hamas terrorist cell in proximity to their position in the battle zone”. In the attack “several” militiamen were killed, he added, underlining that “Hamas’ method is to use ambulances” for its transfers.
In operations conducted today by Israeli forces, another raid – again according to the Hamas authorities – then hit displaced Palestinians who were moving from north to south on the coastal road Al-Rashid, which connects the north to the south of the Strip. The death toll – said the spokesperson for the Palestinian faction’s health ministry – is at least 14 people, including women and children: “A new massacre by the occupying forces”. Israel, which has long maintained that The Hamas command is hiding under the Shifa hospital who crammed 500 thousand liters of fuel there, reiterated that “it is a war zone” and that civilians in the area “were repeatedly urged to evacuate to the south for their safety”.
Meanwhile, the relentless attacks on the positions of Hamas and other factions continue: The army’s specialized units are mainly engaged in searching for and neutralizing tunnels. In Beit Hanuon in the north-east of the Strip combined forces discovered one just six kilometers, on the other side of the border, from the Israeli town of Sderot.
The soldiers of the ‘Yahalom’ unit together with armored bodies, identified the entrance to the tunnels and filled them with explosives, blowing them up. And the hunt for the leaders of Hamas continues in parallel: in an attack – announced the military spokesperson – Mustafa Dalul, commander of the ‘Sabra Tel al-Hawa’ Battalion which since the beginning of the war had played “a role in central in the organization of combat with the troops in the Strip”. Dalul, according to the same source, “in recent years has held a series of positions in the Hamas battalions and in the Gaza City brigade”.
Since the start of hostilities among the senior leaders of Hamas and other factions eliminated, at least 10 were among those who directed and planned the murderous attack on October 7 on the kibbutzim along the Strip. Furthermore, in the recent attack on Jabalya, the army announced that it had found “battle plans, maps, means of communication and command orders for the militias” in the Hamas stronghold, hidden in civilian buildings.
In the tough fighting with Hamas inside Gaza, Meanwhile, the number of dead Israeli soldiers is rising: at least 23 since the start of ground operations. In the now collapsing humanitarian situation in the Strip, for the third consecutive day around 250 foreigners left the Rafah crossing, including another 7 Italians, while another 10 aid trucks entered the Strip. But not the fuel: Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office reiterated, also in the meeting with the American secretary of state Antony Blinken, that Israel will not allow the entry of fuel, for fear that Hamas would seize it.
On the 29th day of the war, however, there was no news regarding the hostages, whose localization has also been carried out by American drones for about a week. Meanwhile, the death toll in Gaza continues to rise: according to Hamas, which does not distinguish between civilians and militiamen, it has reached 9,227, of which 3,826 minors and 2,405 women, while over 32 thousand are injured.
The leader of Hezbollah against the USA
The United States, “primarily responsible for Israeli crimes committed in Gaza”they must prepare for a long regional war of attrition on the Palestinian, Lebanese, Yemeni and Iraqi fronts: because the Middle East we knew before October 7 “no longer exists”, and because “we will continue to exert strong pressure on Israel.” The words of Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the pro-Iranian Lebanese Hezbollah who delivered the long-awaited first public speech since the outbreak of hostilities on 7 October, have put the USA at the center of the Middle Eastern war equation attempting to overshadow Iran’s role. Above all, Nasrallah has resolved the doubts of those who still feared a regional expansion of the conflict ongoing between Israel and Gaza and between Israel and the pro-Iranian Lebanese Shiite movement. No larger-scale war will break out between Hezbollah and Israel, because “we have already been at war since October 8 against the Zionist enemy,” said the adamant general secretary of the Party of God.
Nasrallah is not just a political and military leader but boasts direct descent from the prophet Muhammad. His words, spoken live on TV in front of thousands of followers gathered in Beirut, in southern Lebanon, in the Bekaa valley, in Iraq and Yemen, therefore have a very significant specific weight on a regional scale.
In his speech lasting an hour and a half, Nasrallah first of all addressed the families of the approximately 60 fighters (“martyrs on the way to Jerusalem”) of Hezbollah killed by Israel in these first weeks of the war: “They are not dead, but they are alive and are in God’s paradise” . Then he announced a long trench conflict against the enemy: ours is a long war “which will be won on points and not with a knock out… it will take time before we manage to deal the final blow”.
On the ongoing battle in Gaza, Nasrallah said that the first objective is to stop Israel’s attacks and that this will still be a victory for Hamas. Then, addressing the Jewish State, Nasrallah outlined the limits of the Party of God’s offensive from southern Lebanon: “Since October 8, we have attracted a third of the Israeli armed forces, including elite units; we have forced the authorities to evacuate 43 illegal Israeli settlements (the kibbutzim along the northern front); we are exerting and will continue to exert very high military, political, economic and social pressure”.
The Hezbollah leader later stated that neither Iran nor the Lebanese Party of God itself was aware of the Hamas operation of October 7th. And he reiterated that Tehran does not command the leaders of the anti-Israeli resistance in Lebanon and Palestine. “It was a 100% Palestinian action”, said the Shiite leader, “the decision was not shared with other factions of the Islamic resistance. They decided and carried it out”.
Finally, the message directed to the Americans: stop the aggression against Gaza, “you are primarily responsible for Israeli crimes in the Strip, Israel is an instrument in your hands”. “Be very careful”, added Nasrallah, still speaking to the US, because “our comrades in arms in Yemen and Iraq have already taken action” against Israeli and US targets, in reference to the attack on the Israeli port of Eilat, claimed by the pro-Iranian Yemeni government, and the recent back-and-forth in Iraq and Syria between US forces and Iraqi militias close to Tehran.
In the meantime, the Rafah crossing remained open today, for the third consecutive day, allowing other foreign citizens to leave Gaza, while the conflict between Hamas and Israel continues to rage in the north of the Strip. The nightmare is also over for a third group of Italians: 10 people, including citizens with dual citizenship and accompanying Palestinian family members, announced Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani. While for the 4 humanitarian workers and little Minerva, who left in recent days, the doors of their homes have already reopened, or in any case it is a matter of little. After the agreement reached between Egyptians and Israelis on the opening of the crossing, hundreds of foreigners, citizens with dual passports and injured people managed to escape from Gaza.
So far there would be around 1,500 people, including dozens of children
As for the Italians, the latest group to enter Egypt is made up of 10 people: 7 with dual nationality and 3 Palestinian family members.
The process was the same for them too: assisted by the staff of the Italian Embassy in Egypt upon their arrival in Rafah, they then headed towards Cairo, to leave for Italy as soon as possible. Another “positive result, given that among these people there are two young pregnant women, and a particularly fragile elderly lady”, explained Tajani, recalling that in all “there are 17 people including Italian citizens, dual Italian-Palestinian citizens and family members Palestinians we have secured.”
As for his compatriots remaining in the Strip, Tajani pointed out that they continue to be followed “closely, through the Crisis Unit, the Embassy in Cairo and the Consulate General in Jerusalem”. Among them there are “two compatriots who work for the International Red Cross and the United Nations, and who in recent days have decided to remain in Gaza to continue helping people in need”.
Meanwhile, for the first two groups of Italians to leave Gaza, it is already time to hug their loved ones again. Without forgetting the drama they left behind. “I am fine, it is what I have left that is most important, the situation is dramatic, the international community must intervene with concrete actions, there cannot be a continuous massacre”, she told journalists upon her arrival at Bergamo airport. cooperator of the Gazzella Giuditta Brattini association. She left the Strip together with three other humanitarian workers, Laura Canali of Human Rights Watch, Maya Papotti of Action against Hunger and Jacopo Intini of the NGO Ciss. Intini, in particular, boarded at Cairo airport for Italy together with his Palestinian wife Amal Khayal, little Minerva and mother Bayan Alnayyar. For the 6-year-old girl, who escaped from the hell of Gaza City in time, it is a wonderful gift for her birthday, which is celebrated today.