The weather, which is expected to improve today, will allow the IDF to tighten its grip on the center of Gaza City. The full takeover of all parts of the city will be completed within a week, unless an agreement is reached to release hostages that leads to a ceasefire lasting several days.
This takeover was achieved under fighting, sometimes fierce, under difficult conditions. The 36th Division, led by the Golani Brigade, took over the Zeitoun neighborhood, while the 162nd Division, led by the Givati Brigade, entered the Jabaliya refugee camp. The IDF also paid a bloody price in these battles for dead and wounded fighters, although in at least two cases the casualties were caused by our forces' fire. This requires the command in the field to be precise and meticulous, in view of the large number of forces in such a crowded and complex area.
Still, the IDF can credit it with an impressive achievement in its activity so far. In recent years, it has been argued that a ground incursion into Gaza would be a particularly complex challenge, for which the IDF is not prepared. The challenge is indeed complex, but it turns out that the IDF is well prepared for it. The aerial softening was efficient and focused, and the activity of the forces was well synchronized and saturated with intelligence accumulated in movement.
IDF activity in the Gaza Strip, photo: IDF Spokesperson
IDF forces activity in Rimal, Gaza's prestigious neighborhood, photo: IDF Spokesperson
IDF activity in the Gaza Strip, photo: IDF Spokesperson
In the meantime, the IDF is also coping well with the humanitarian challenge. Tens of thousands of residents remain in Jabaliya, and an effort is now being made to persuade them to move south in order to enable more focused fighting against the Hamas battalion operating there.
Subsequently, the IDF will also act to remove residents of central neighborhoods that have not yet been taken over to the south, and it has already been made clear that even after the activity is expanded to the center and south of the Gaza Strip, the residents who evacuated will not be allowed to return to their homes until the entire campaign is completed.
Gazans moving from north to south of the Gaza Strip, Photo: AP.
Gazans moving from north to south of the Gaza Strip, Photo: Reuters
Humanitarian operations are complex. This is the case in the complicated operation to remove the premature babies from Shifa Hospital and transfer them to a hospital on the Egyptian side of the border, and the involvement of members of the military rabbinate in the Gaza Strip, in an attempt to advance a solution to the issue of the abductees.
A third example is the intensive interrogations of Hamas operatives detained during the activity, mainly for the purpose of extracting intelligence.
Wild Hezbollah offensive in the north
These military moves are accompanied by a permanent asterisk, due to the issue of abductees. The IDF and Shin Bet are investing tremendous operational and intelligence efforts in seizing every opportunity, but it seems that only a deal will enable a certain solution to the most charged and complex part of this campaign.
Against this background, one can understand the distress of the families of the abductees in light of the unnecessary debate held yesterday in the Knesset on the issue of the death penalty for terrorists. Members of Itamar Ben-Gvir's party should expect nothing that is not cheap populism, but from his cabinet and coalition colleagues and from the Knesset administration, one can demand to avoid similar displays of insult in the future.
Nasrallah. The stakes are rising, Photo: Reuters
And while all eyes are on the south, Israel and Hezbollah are raising the stakes in the north. The fact that the air force destroyed what it called an "advanced surface-to-air missile battery" yesterday slipped almost under the radar, but it led yesterday to Hezbollah's wild attack on the division headquarters in Birnit. The assessment that both sides are not interested in war remains the same, but a concerned look north is needed now more than ever.
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