Without losing sight of the increasingly warlike northern border against the Lebanese group Hezbollah, Israel has deployed tens of thousands of soldiers in the south to begin at any moment the land search for troops, tunnels and weapons of the fundamentalist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Gaza under pressure from incessant bombs.

The intensification of the air attacks that have hit Gaza territory for a week, the weather conditions and the pace of the dramatic evacuation of several hundred thousand inhabitants from the north to the south of the Palestinian Strip will mark the timing of the start of the offensive by land. The second phase of the war between Israel and the Gaza militias could give way to the first between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, which has the help of Hamas commandos in southern Lebanon.

In a meeting with officers and soldiers deployed in southern Israel, army chief Herzi Halevi confirmed the ground incursion: “Our responsibility now is to enter Gaza, reach the places where Hamas prepares, operates, plans and launches ( projectiles). Hit them hard anywhere, any operative, destroy their entire infrastructure.. In a word, win.”

“You are going to do something big and important that should change the situation for many years in a clear way,” said Halevi, alluding to the relationship with Gaza since it was controlled by Hamas in 2007 and after the most serious armed attack that Israel has suffered. in its history.

The volume and distribution of Israeli troops along the border line with the Gaza Strip suggests that, with the operational plans already approved, the only thing missing is the Government's order.. At the moment, numerous drones and fighter jets are heading in constant flights to the Gaza Strip, continuing an offensive with a balance, according to the Gazan authorities, of at least 2,450 deaths since Saturday, October 7.

Avi, a reservist from Jerusalem, will surely be part of the massive incursion into Gaza. His opinion reflects the general feeling among uniformed and non-uniformed people in his country.. “We have no choice but to go in and kill the terrorists. For too long we have allowed a fundamentalist regime that hates us and also screws the inhabitants of Gaza two meters from our homes,” he told us, considering the actions of Hamas in the lethal infiltration that caused more than 1,300 deaths and 150 kidnapped “typical of the Nazis or the pogroms”.

The Israeli authorities began this Sunday, in fact, the evacuation of the city of Sderot, the most important located in the vicinity of the Gaza Strip, with a view to the beginning of a large-scale ground military operation.. The city has been the target of rocket fire from the Palestinian enclave for years. More than 60,000 Israelis living in the south of the country have already abandoned their homes for this reason.

Other reservists were called up from further afield such as Madrid, Rome and New York in a massive airlift of Israelis.. In this tense border area, the Tsáhal's missions now focus basically on attack, defense, logistics and civil protection. This is the largest mobilization of reservists in a country that, shocked by Black Saturday, has turned to the war against Hamas.. “The Jewish people live! United in the rear and united in the front,” is a slogan that can be seen on posters distributed next to the country's flags on the roads that lead to the border and to the still closed kibbutzim.. Routes with a large police and military presence (also due to fear of new infiltrations) and firefighters and auxiliaries (who respond to each impact of a projectile fired from Gaza). Citizens from the rest of the country arrive to bring food and other goods to the deployed forces while more than 60,000 from the south have abandoned their homes.

The very poor Palestinian enclave completed its ninth night of nightmare with air attacks unprecedented in their intensity that hit senior members of the armed wing (like this Sunday Billel Al Kedra, responsible for the attack on Kibbutz Nirim), but also houses and roads. Israel indicates that it attacks all infrastructure that serves Hamas, whether underground projectile launchers or a 12-story building that it believes contains the fundamentalist group's command rooms.

Hamas tried to prevent – sometimes physically – the continuation of the evacuation of inhabitants from the north to the south of Gazan territory. It is estimated that between half a million and 600,000 people completed the departure from areas such as Beit Lahia or Beit Janun to the south, which this Sunday received water from Israel. Whether due to pressure from the US or for operational reasons to encourage the arrival of Palestinians from the north, Israel has opened the tap in the south after several days of closure in which products such as water, fuel or electricity did not enter.

Gaza City is key both in the evacuation and future incursion and in the treatment of the wounded in its hospitals. Two of them informed Israel that they refuse to move to medical centers in the south, theoretically safer but equally overwhelmed as the search work among ruins. The World Health Organization (WHO) defined the Israeli request as a “death sentence”. “WHO strongly condemns Israel's repeated orders to evacuate 22 hospitals caring for more than 2,000 patients in northern Gaza,” it said in a statement, warning that “the forced evacuation of patients and health workers will further worsen the current catastrophe.” humanitarian and public health.

The flight of displaced people to the southern area of Khan Yunis is followed with concern by Egypt, which hopes that they will stay there and that they will not end up knocking en masse at its doors in Rafah.. Strongly pressured by Washington, Cairo will give the green light to the arrival of foreigners trapped in Gaza as long as they can verify that their documents are real. In other words, to prevent tens of thousands of Palestinians from temporarily settling in the Sinai. Beyond condemning the Israeli attacks by pointing out that “it is no longer a defense action but collective punishment”, the Egyptian Rais, Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, promotes the sending of humanitarian aid “to relieve the pressure.”

In an interview with CNN, US national security advisor Jake Sullivan noted that Egypt gave the green light for the entry of its fellow citizens, but the first group could not cross the border due to the action of Hamas.. “Civilians in the Gaza Strip deserve access to water and medicine and we are actively working to ensure that this is the case,” he added, confirming his support for the attacks against Hamas and pressure to avoid a humanitarian crisis even though it seems inevitable.

“We have been able to help 520,000 people, but we are running out of supplies, we cannot get anything in or out or guarantee the safety of our staff,” denounced the executive director of the UN World Food Program, Cindy McCain, after confirming the shortage of wheat flour, electricity or water. The closure of the Gaza power plant forced bakeries and shops to close, his organization had reported last Saturday, warning that in the bakeries it contacted there was a shortage of wheat flour, electricity or water.. “There are rules, even in war, and we must make the protection of aid workers and civilians a priority. “Civilians will starve without our help,” he added.

Another key factor for the ground incursion in the short term and the outcome of the crisis in the long term is the issue of the around 150 kidnapped. There are more and more clues about an agreement, sponsored by Qatar and with active intervention by the US, for the release of babies, children and elderly women who have been in the hands of the fundamentalist group for more than a week.

In his first meeting with families of those kidnapped, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated this Saturday that one of the objectives of the operation is to achieve their release.. “My father explained to me what he suffered in the Nazi concentration camp, but I never imagined that I would have to see how they murdered innocent people or abused corpses,” lamented Dudi Zalmanovich, representative of the families, expressing a feeling that partly explains the Israeli consensus on the air and ground offensive against Hamas.

In a striking gesture, Netanyahu has invited US President Joe Biden to visit Israel in the coming days.

When all eyes were focused on Gaza this weekend, Hezbollah and Israel were approaching a large-scale confrontation although it is not in the interest of any party. The pro-Iranian group claimed responsibility for firing at least six anti-tank missiles against Israel, causing the death of a civilian for the first time in this crisis, in response to the death of several militiamen and a journalist in Israeli retaliation in recent days by projectiles or infiltrations. In mid-afternoon, he announced that he had attacked 15 Israeli positions in the “warming up” of the border before the helpless gaze of the Lebanese army and the concern of the UN forces, led by Spanish general Aroldo Lázaro.. This Sunday, a missile hit the headquarters of UNIFIL troops in the Naqoura area without causing any casualties.

Within Hezbollah, more and more voices are heard threatening war if Israel invades the entire Gaza Strip. Iran, patron of the Lebanese militia and sponsor of Hamas, makes its position clear. “It cannot be that Iran remains a spectator in the face of the situation,” warned the Iranian Foreign Minister, Hosein Amir Abdolahian, in an interview with the Qatari channel Al Jazeera.. In no coincidence, the Iranian, who defined Israel's attacks as “crimes”, met in Doha with the leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyah.

Common foxes (Vulpes vulpes) arouse the same conflicting passions among the British as Brexit. Some consider them a plague or an evil aberration, and only want to hunt them down or exterminate them.. Others venerate them as the vanguard of rewilding, a living symbol of the return of wildlife to cities.

It is estimated that in the United Kingdom there are more than 33,000 urban foxes roaming freely in parks, gardens and streets. And 10,000 of them have their habitat in London. In the Tower Hamlets district, the foxes go out to make a living at the same time that the brokers close their portfolios in the City and Canary Wharf, accentuating the black and white contrast between the poorest district and the financial heart from the city.

All these insights have served photographer Carlos Alba (Madrid, 1984) to spin a disturbing visual tale titled I'll Bet the Devil My Head, with the foxes letting themselves be guided by their survival instinct on the asphalt, in contrast to the privileged office workers. that come from betting their head on the devil (in reference to Edgar Allan Poe's story).

“My intention has been to document the hardship of making a living in the East End, with the paradox of being surrounded by two of the largest financial centers in the world,” emphasizes Carlos Alba.. “My idea is that the book acts as a global fable of inequality, with the use of the fox that has been so familiar to us since Aesop's fables 2,500 years ago.”

Cunning is the mark of the fox, and Alba had to manage to “interact with them in an organic way”, following their trail and locating their burrows, “learning their schedules and customs.”. He waited for them with the patience of a wildlife photographer, and almost always surprised them “with the violent aesthetics of the flash at night, to give greater drama to the visual story.”

Thus he achieved snapshots such as the fox reflected in a puddle in the middle of the street, the cubs playing, the adults hunting or fighting to mark their territory…. Because urban foxes are very like them: elusive, cautious, solitary. Anyone who has come across them in London will have noticed this.. And only very occasionally do they act aggressively towards humans, even though the tabloids (the same ones that defend fox hunting and Brexit) come out with alarming headlines of children injured by a fox.

Carlos Alba, former colleague in EL MUNDO, drew an unexpected parallel between the great division caused by the European Union and “the tensions over the foxes”. Brexit won, but the foxes voted to remain. And there they continue, reminding us that “we humans have to find a better way to share the planet with wildlife.”

I'll Bet the Devil My Head is presented on October 18 at the La Fábrica bookstore in Madrid. Carlos Alba's photographs will then be exhibited starting October 25 at Art Photo in Barcelona. In London, meanwhile, Matt Maran has also approached urban foxes from his perspective as a nature photographer. His book Fox: neighbor, villain, icon tells of the explosion of wildlife in the city during the pandemic, following the trail of a family of foxes in a community garden and discovering along the way their importance “as guardians of the urban ecosystem.” .

Agree on new economic and defense agreements. Security guarantees in the region and the possibility of supporting Saudi Arabia in the development of its own nuclear program. These are some of the promises of the United States to Riyadh, in an attempt to achieve a historic agreement to normalize relations between its two main allies in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia and Israel.

But months of direct and indirect talks between the three appear to have stalled since October 7, when a Hamas attack on Israel sparked a new war and bombings in the Gaza Strip.. Although Riyadh has not publicly admitted that the rapprochement has been frozen, several officials in the country have communicated it to international news agencies.

“Saudi Arabia has decided to suspend the debate on possible normalization and has informed US officials,” one of the diplomatic sources told AFP.. Saudi and US sources have confirmed that Washington pressured Riyadh to condemn the Hamas attack, but the Arab country abstained.. This distancing represents a fiasco for the United States, which is trying to normalize relations with its ally Israel, in a region where the Palestinian cause remains an important issue.

For his part, the US National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, rejected that the talks were “on hold” and assured that the three countries are focused on the most immediate challenges.. The Saudi monarchy has never recognized Israel and did not make a gesture of joining the 2020 Abraham Accords, negotiated by the United States, in which several Arab countries such as Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates or Morocco normalized relations with Israel.. However, after months of diplomatic work, Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman noted a month ago that “every day they are closer” to an agreement with Israel, although he insisted that the Palestinian issue seemed “important” to him.. “We need to solve that part. “We need to make life easier for Palestinians.”. The war between Israel and Hamas has forced Riyadh to rethink its most immediate foreign policy priorities.. The country, home to Mecca and Medina, the holiest sites for Muslims, exerts great influence on the region and Muslims around the world.

Since the outbreak of the war, Riyadh has tried to reduce the escalation of tension between Israel and Hamas. This Sunday he received a visit from the US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, who described the meeting as “very productive”, on his tour of six Arab countries and Israel to reduce tensions in the region.. Bin Salman also discussed the war with Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi. It was the first call between the two leaders after their countries announced the normalization of relations after seven years of lack of communication.

Bin Salman expressed the kingdom's “opposition to any form of attack against civilians and the loss of innocent lives” and reiterated Riyadh's “unwavering stance in defending the Palestinian cause,” the monarchy's statement said.. Saudi Arabia also criticized Israel's order to evacuate the northern Gaza Strip, causing the displacement of more than a million “defenseless civilians,” it denounced in its harshest statement since the start of the war.

The war in Gaza seems to have frustrated this diplomatic rapprochement that worried several actors in the region. Mainly to Iran, Israel's enemy that has ties to the Hamas group and Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite group that has a political arm and an armed one.. It also raises questions about whether the United States can ignore the Palestinian issue in its attempt to help Israel improve its relations with countries in the region.

A young man radicalized and monitored by the intelligence services, a father expelled from the country for the same reason, a brother serving a sentence for terrorism…. Two days after the stabbing of a teacher in Arras, northern France, more details are becoming known about the alleged murderer and his family. And the question arises: why the attack was not prevented, taking into account the profile of the assailant and his family.

Mohamed M. 20 years old, he was radicalized and booked for it. His family was also under suspicion and, in fact, his older brother is serving a sentence for advocating terrorism and for having participated in an attempted attack on the Elysée, as confirmed by the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin.

Criticism of the Government is growing for these cracks in the system that allowed Mohamed M.. enter the institute where he studied on Friday and stab a teacher. The president of National Rally, Jordan Bardella, has asked for Darmanin's resignation. The minister does not believe that there has been “a problem with the intelligence services”. At a press conference on Saturday, he recalled that they dismantle a terrorist attack every two months. Darmanin also said that from now on all foreigners who have a suspicious profile will be expelled.

The family of the alleged murderer, of Russian origin, arrived in France in 2008, when he was a child. The family had applied for asylum in 2014, which was rejected, and there was a collective expulsion order, which was ultimately not executed.

Manuel Valls, Minister of the Interior at that time, explained why: They met the conditions to stay: “They had been on French soil for more than five years, the children were small, they were attending school and they spoke French,” he explained to the media. Telegram me.

“At that time, the family did not have any particular suspicions and did not represent any public order problem,” said the former minister.

Mohamed M. He was enrolled in the school where he stabbed the teacher on Friday. He lived in a radicalized family nucleus. His father was booked and was expelled from French territory in 2018. There is also his older brother, who is serving a sentence in Paris for advocating terrorism and for having participated in an attempted attack on the Elysée.. Mohamed's phone was tapped, but investigators have explained that his conversations showed no indication that he could act.. On Thursday he was subjected to a police check, but nothing unusual was detected either.

Marc (not his real name) went to class with Mohamed. On Friday he was behind the police cordon that protected the institute where they both studied, talking with other friends, without explaining very well “how Mohamed could do that.”. “He never said anything against France, he never did anything that made us think he could do something like that,” says the 21-year-old boy.

This Sunday a rally was held in Arras in tribute to Dominique Bernard, the stabbed teacher. There are a dozen people still in police custody, of which two have been released this Sunday. The attacker's sister, his mother and his uncle remain detained. The aggressor appears “uncooperative” and did not want to explain to investigators the motivations for his attack.

The dirtiest electoral campaign that Poles remember culminates today in the polls. It has been life or death and the tension in the European capitals is felt. For the opposition Civic Coalition led by the former prime minister and former president of the Council