Total war between Israel and Hamas

The escalation between the Israeli Army and the Palestinian militias has risen several steps at once with the bombardment, after being evacuated, of a 12-story building in Gaza, which housed the offices of some international media, or new bursts of projectiles against Tel Aviv and surroundings. In the past, the intensification of the spiral of violence served paradoxically at times as the prelude to a truce. The question is whether it will also be more virulent in this escalation than the others.

After six days of a massive Israeli air offensive, the death toll given this Saturday by the Ministry of Health of the impoverished enclave controlled by the Islamist group Hamas reached 140 dead, including 34 children.. In Israel, the number reached 10, including two minors..

In the morning, all eyes turned to the Shati refugee camp in Gaza following the attack that killed 8 children and two women from Abu Hatab's family.. The shelling hit the three-story building in which they were. “The house was attacked without Israel notifying us before,” said Abu Hatab, who asked the head of Hamas's armed wing to take revenge: “We are all soldiers of Mohamed Deif, kill them.”

“I saw the bodies of four people, including children, being rushed to the hospital. I couldn't hold it and ran back to my house,” said a neighbor, Said Alghoul, noting that he saw Israeli planes launch three missiles. The medical team revealed that a baby survived.

For the Hamas spokesman, Hazem Qassem, “it is a massacre. This crime reflects the incapacity of the occupation in the face of resistance in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem.”. The Israeli Army affirmed that its fighters acted in the area of Shati against important heads of Hamas and indicated that they do “everything possible to avoid harm to civilians”.

“Since the escalation that Hamas began by attacking Jerusalem, we have evidence that 75 Hamas and dozens of Jihad terrorists have been killed, while at least 20 civilians in Gaza were killed by Hamas shells that fell short and fell on their territory. “said military spokesman Roni Kaplan.

Dozens of projectiles against Tel Aviv

Hamas's response to the Shati attack resulted in dozens of projectiles against Tel Aviv and its surroundings, even reaching the Arab-Israeli town of Taibeh, further north, where not a few inhabitants celebrated by distributing sweets.

The impact of a projectile in a house caused the death of an Israeli in Ramat Gan (adjacent to Tel Aviv), which returned to the nightmare of 1991 when Iraqi President Saddam Hussein threw 39 scuds to try to provoke Israel's reaction and thus break the US-Arab alliance in the Gulf War. “Enough is enough! Hamas terrorists must be finished off,” said Sason in Ramat Gan.

The Israeli retaliation was resounding and immediate: the destruction of a 12-story building in Gaza that, among other clients, housed the Al Jazeera chain and the US news agency AP.. The Army called the owner of the building to evacuate it. “You are in danger. I ask you to get out of there,” said an Israeli officer on the phone in Arabic to the owner who, for his part, asked him for another 10 minutes to vacate the emblematic tower.

Finally, after being evacuated, Al Jalaa collapsed due to “three powerful missiles” as reported by AP, whose president Gary Pruytt was “shocked and horrified”. Al Jazeera announced that it will take legal action. According to the Army, the building was also used as the “general command of the Hamas Joint Intelligence” and Jihad and served as a “human shield” for its troops.. It is the third building of more than ten floors destroyed by Israel.

Capacity for six more months

The armed wing of Hamas promised “a devastating response” warning that it would “shake Tel Aviv”. According to their spokesman, Abu Oveida, they have the capacity to launch projectiles into Tel Aviv for another six months.

The UN, which called for an immediate ceasefire, reported 10,000 displaced people who had to leave their homes fleeing the bombs in the coastal enclave. Precisely on the day of Nakba (Catastrophe) in which the Palestinians remembered this Saturday the 700,000 who were expelled or fled from their homes in the war of 48 after the independence of Israel, UNRWA (UN Agency for Palestine Refugees ) opened its schools to those who saw their homes destroyed or damaged.

Although in such a virulent day, talking about a truce seems surreal, the mediation continues to work behind the scenes to at least achieve a temporary ceasefire. The US special envoy, Hady Amr, who arrived in Tel Aviv on Friday, joined the Egyptian mediation to achieve a truce.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu justified today to US President Joe Biden the bombing of the AP offices. “Netanyahu stressed that Israel is doing everything possible to avoid any harm to those not involved” in the conflict, the Israeli prime minister's office said in a statement.. “The proof is that the buildings that have terrorist premises are evacuated from people not involved before being attacked”. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas received his first phone call from Joe Biden since arriving at the White House on Saturday, his services in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, said.. In it, the US president asked Abbas that Hamas should stop “firing rockets at Israel”. Likewise, Netanyahu has assured that they are doing “everything possible” to avoid or limit the death of civilians but that the Israeli operation in Gaza “has not finished” and that it will continue as long as “necessary”.

After speaking with Biden and in a special appearance before the cameras, Netanyahu justified the offensive by recalling the attack by Hamas last Monday and said that the towers attacked in Gaza “are used as bases and offices for terrorist groups.”. According to him, the building destroyed this Saturday and for which he receives international criticism, “serves Hamas's military intelligence.”

For its part, Hamas would be interested in a truce due to the punishment of both its armed wing (forces, infrastructure and arsenal) and Gaza itself (buildings, electricity, etc.) after an offensive that its leadership did not expect to be so massive.. In addition, he would allege that he managed to surprise Israel on the first day, did not stop firing projectiles and took over the leadership of the cause for Jerusalem.

Israel? The official version is that “the offensive will continue until calm returns and they no longer attack our cities”, but they are unofficially considering a truce in the coming days.. In the military leadership, the damage inflicted on Hamas in just six days is believed to be higher than in 50 days in the 2014 war.. There are voices, however, that call for continuing the offensive to completely destroy Hamas' capabilities.

The fear of new fronts (huge wave of internal violence between Arabs and Jews, the West Bank and Lebanon with the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah) is key in decision-making after one of the most violent weeks in recent years. It is quite possible that the destruction of the tower that served as the headquarters of some international media will raise the pressure on Israel to start on the road to a ceasefire.

<p