The Secretary of State of the United States, Antony Blinken, will travel to Israel to express his support for the authorities of that country in the face of the unprecedented attack by Hamas, which has led to a new war with Gaza.

The head of American diplomacy will also visit Jordan. His plane is expected to take off tomorrow, Wednesday, from Washington and land in the region on Thursday.

President Joe Biden has tasked him with carrying the message that “the United States is on Israel's side,” Blinken himself revealed to the press.

Since Saturday's attack, Blinken has held dozens of calls with his counterparts in the Middle East to express the United States' unwavering support for Israel and to seek international condemnation of Hamas' actions.

He has also urged governments that have relations with Hamas to pressure the Palestinian Islamist group to release all hostages and to discourage other regional actors from entering the conflict.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller explained in a press conference that Blinken will bring to Israel “a message of solidarity and support,” and will offer help to Israelis “in their fight against the terrorists who launched these horrible attacks.”

Biden called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again on Tuesday and then promised in an institutional statement that his country will give Israel everything it needs to defend itself.

The president also confirmed that there are American citizens among those kidnapped by Hamas and raised to 14 the number of US nationals who have died in Israel.

For his part, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan detailed that there are at least 20 missing Americans, although he clarified that this does not mean that all of them are Hamas hostages.

Sullivan ruled out the deployment of US troops on the ground for now and stated that the aircraft carrier that the Pentagon has mobilized in the region is not to combat Hamas but to dissuade other actors, such as Iran or Hezbollah, from attacking Israel.

Biden's advisor reiterated that, although Iran has financed Hamas for years, the United States has no evidence that the Iranian Executive was behind the attack.

The official death toll in Israel exceeds 900, although the bodies found in the liberated areas today may increase the number, and the injured exceed 2,900, while the intense bombings on the Strip have also left 900 dead and more than 4,500 injured. .

Hurricane Lidia intensified this Tuesday to category 3 during its advance through the Pacific towards western Mexico, where it would make landfall at night, reported the National Meteorological Service (SMN).

In the last record, the center of the cyclone was located 210 kilometers southwest of Cabo Corrientes and 260 kilometers southwest of Puerto Vallarta, both municipalities in the state of Jalisco, detailed the National Water Commission (Conagua).

The phenomenon presents maximum sustained winds of 185 kilometers per hour, gusts of 220 kilometers per hour and a movement towards the east-northeast at 24 kilometers per hour, the warning added.

“A prevention zone for hurricane effects is maintained from Manzanillo, Colima, to Roblito, Nayarit, including the Marías Islands,” the SMN warned.

Due to Lidia's circulation, “torrential” rains are forecast in the states of Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima, Michoacán and Guerrero, as well as “punctually intense” rains in Sinaloa and Durango.

There would also be “very strong occasional” rainfall in Baja California Sur, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes and Guanajuato.

“Such precipitation will cause reduced visibility, landslides, flooding or flooding, as well as an increase in the levels of rivers and streams,” the report detailed.

Likewise, the Meteorological Service predicts winds with gusts of 150 to 170 kilometers per hour and waves of 6 to 8 meters high in Jalisco and Nayarit, in addition to gusts of 130 to 150 kilometers per hour and waves of 4 to 6 meters high in Sinaloa. .

There will also be gusts of 100 to 120 kilometers per hour with waves of 3 to 5 meters high in Colima and Michoacán, and of 70 to 90 kilometers per hour and waves of 2 to 4 meters high in Baja California Sur and Guerrero.

In this context, the SMN asked “to take extreme precautions for the general population in the areas of the mentioned states due to rain, wind and waves, including maritime navigation, and to comply with the recommendations issued by the authorities of the National Civil Protection System.”

Lidia is the twelfth named cyclone of this season in the Pacific, where Adrian, Beatriz, Calvin, Dora, Eugene, Fernanda, Greg, Hilary, Irwin, Jova and Kenneth have also formed.

Of them, the most damaging has been Hilary, which left four dead in August in the states of Baja California, Baja California Sur and Sinaloa.

The Government of Mexico predicted in May the formation of up to 38 named cyclones in the 2023 season, of which five could hit the country.

The horrors of war have no limits. This was confirmed by the Israeli soldiers who arrived this Tuesday at the Kfar Asa kibbutz, where they found 40 murdered babies, some of them decapitated.. In this rural settlement, attacked by Hamas, hundreds of civilian and military bodies have also been found. This occurs in the midst of the escalation of the war, in which there is also once again crossfire between Israel and Lebanon and threats from Yemeni rebels to attack the Israeli state if the United States intervenes militarily in the Gaza Strip.

The journalists who were taken by the Israeli Army to Kibbutz Kfar Asa could not believe their eyes. Among the rubble and burned homes and cars lay hundreds of bodies, among which were babies.. “It's not a war, it's not a battlefield. “It is a massacre, it is a terrorist activity,” Israeli General Itai Veruv told reporters, Reuters reports.. Furthermore, the troops said, Hamas militants not only murdered the residents of the kibbutz, but also took dozens of people hostage.

This rural settlement is located less than five kilometers from where Iván Illarramendi lived, one of the two Spanish citizens who remain missing.. The whereabouts of Maya Villalobos is also unknown, whose family is dismayed by the lack of news.

Added to the tragic event in Kfar Asa is the discovery of 1,500 bodies of members of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) near the border with the Gaza Strip.. “We are talking about terrorists who entered Israel,” said Israeli soldiers. These same sources reported that there had been no new infiltrations into Israeli territory during the last night.. According to the latest estimates, more than a thousand people have died in Israel and 2,600 have been injured, while in Palestine the death toll rises to 900 and the number of injuries is around 4,250.

However, during the afternoon of this Tuesday, hopeful news was also released: 30 Israelis who had disappeared after the Hamas attack carried out last Saturday were found alive. “Yesterday at 9:00 p.m. (local time) a distress call was received about a group of missing citizens. “The line personnel verified the details of the incident and were able to locate them,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.. The people were found near the Ein Hashlosha kibbutz.

Another day of crossfire

On this fourth day of war it was also reported that the Israeli army killed two senior Hamas officials. They are Yoad Abu Shmala, Minister of Economy of the Gaza Strip and member of Hamas; and Zacaría Abu Maamar, a senior official of the same organization and head of the internal relations department, said a statement from the press office of the Israeli forces.. The bombing continued throughout the afternoon, among which the attack on the Israeli city of Ashkelon and the attack on the Port of Gaza stood out.. Later, missiles were also fired from Lebanon towards Israel, attacks to which the latter responded with artillery fire.. At the last minute, Israel announced that it had also responded to projectile attacks coming from Syria.

In addition to the involvement of a third country in the conflict, there is also concern about the threat made by Yemen's Houthi rebels, who are backed by Iran.. Specifically, they stated that they would attack Israel with “missiles and drones” if the United States decided to intervene militarily in the war.. The group's leader also warned that they are in “continuous coordination” with Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), as well as with the “axis of resistance,” referring to other movements such as Hezbollah.. For his part, the president of the United States, Joe Biden, stated that his country will provide Israel with everything it needs to defend itself.

Israel maintains suspicions about Iran's involvement in the attack carried out by Hamas, but the Iranian government denies it. “The enemy says that Iran is behind the operation and it is a mistake,” said Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. However, the reality is that Iran is one of Hamas' main allies and that country celebrated the attack carried out by Hamas with fireworks. “We kiss the forehead and hands of the intelligent and skilled designers of this operation and the Palestinian youth, we are proud of them,” said the leader.

No place to go

This Monday, Israel ordered a total blockade in Gaza, so the Palestinian territory has been left without food, water, electricity and fuel.. As of this Tuesday, it has also been completely isolated by land, because Egypt has closed the Rafá border crossing, the only one that is not controlled by the Israeli state.. Most of the border crossings between Gaza and Israel were closed years ago and the territorial waters are under the control of the latter.. Gaza's airport was destroyed by Israel in 2001 and the Palestinian enclave's airspace is also under Israeli control.

The European Union has stated that “aid will continue” to Palestine.. According to Josep Borrell, head of European diplomacy, “We consider Hamas a terrorist group, but the Palestinian Authority is our ally. Not all the people of Palestine are terrorists.. Cutting off humanitarian aid to Palestine would be counterproductive,” he said.. Borrell also affirmed that Israel “has the right to defend itself” from the attacks it has received, but clarified that it must do so in accordance with International Law.

Some 270 citizens that Spain repatriated this Tuesday night from Israel with a first military plane have completed the boarding procedures from the Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, and are passing air controls to take off at 11:00 p.m. local time ( 20:00 GMT), as planned.

With suitcases and their belongings, hundreds of Spanish citizens, most of them tourists and some residents of Israel, gathered this afternoon in the departure terminal of the Israeli airport to make the final arrangements with personnel from the Spanish embassy and the emergency consular authorities to their evacuation.

Some of them were tourists, who these days were also caught by surprise by Saturday's attack from the Gaza Strip by the Islamist group Hamas, which led the region into a major armed conflict.

“I arrived in Israel ten days ago to visit a friend” and “on Saturday we woke up to the news of the attacks,” Jorge Santesteban, a young man from Madrid, told EFE who, after seeing “the seriousness of what happened,” began to look for ways to return to Spain.

Santesteban says he felt safe because when the attack from Gaza occurred, he was in Eilat, the southernmost city in the country, where the rockets launched by the Palestinian militias that did hit other parts of Israel did not reach either. “We decided to stay there and keep calm and the next day I went to Tel Aviv and started looking for flights,” he added.

But the flight he found for this Tuesday was canceled and in the morning he contacted the Spanish embassy in Israel, which proceeded to process his repatriation with the military plane that will take the Spaniards home tonight.

Pablo García and Juan Pérez, both long-time residents of Israel and employees of an Israeli company for which they worked on the construction of a gas pipeline in the Dimona area, in the south of the country and dozens of kilometers from Gaza, will also take that flight. , where sirens sounded and rockets arrived.

Another 200 will also be evacuated

“We felt a little disconcerted about what was going to happen; from the first moment we didn't go to work, and when they sent us back to work on Monday, we decided to give up and go home,” says Juan Pérez, who Just like his partner, he decided to resign due to the insecurity situation. “The best thing is to leave Israel for now until it calms down and then we'll see,” says Pérez.

This same Tuesday, the Spanish Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, announced the sending of two military planes, and after this first one, pending departure from Israel, it is expected that there will be another to evacuate more than 200 Spaniards who saw their commercial flights canceled .

The Government of Spain is not considering the evacuation of the approximately 10,000 Spaniards who live permanently between Israel and the Palestinian territories, but it is considering sending a military plane to carry those displaced for tourism or business.

Many commercial flights arriving and leaving Israel have been canceled due to the armed conflict and the alerts due to the rockets launched from the Gaza Strip, which also reached the outskirts of Tel Aviv this Tuesday.

Ben Gurion Airport has seen a lot of traffic with passengers from countries like Italy or Mexico who are being repatriated by the respective governments.

The president of the United States, Joe Biden, promised this Tuesday that his country will give Israel everything it needs to defend itself in response to the attack carried out on Saturday by Hamas and which has caused an escalation of violence with hundreds of fatalities on both sides. “We must be absolutely clear: we stand with Israel,” the president said in a speech from the White House.

“We will ensure that Israel has what it needs to take care of its citizens and defend itself, to respond to this attack. There is no justification for terrorism. There is no excuse. Hamas does not defend the right of the Palestinian people to dignity and self-determination. Their stated goal in relation to the state of Israel is to kill the Jewish people. They use Palestinian civilians as human shields,” Biden said in particularly harsh statements.

“Women raped, attacked, displayed as trophies. Families hid in terror for hours on end, desperately trying to keep their children quiet so as not to attract attention.. And thousands of wounded, alive, but carrying with them bullet holes and shrapnel,” said the American president, who also highlighted that, “like any nation in the world,” Israel “has the right to respond” to the “ferocious” attacks carried out by the “bloody hands” of members of the Palestinian group, according to CNN.

“There is no justification for terrorism,” Biden reiterated, also adding that the attack is reminiscent of the “worst” actions perpetrated by the Islamic State, as reported by NBC News.

The US president has also assured that Washington has reinforced its military forces in the Middle East region, while it has also increased assistance to Israel with ammunition and material for the 'Iron Dome' anti-aircraft system.

“We are going to ensure that Israel is not left without these critical assets to defend its cities and its citizens,” he stressed, adding that Washington is “ready” to incorporate new assets “if necessary”, referring to the deployment, announced on Sunday , from the aircraft carrier 'USS Gerald R. Ford'.

Likewise, Biden has assured that security has been increased in buildings used by the Jewish community in the United States.. “The Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation work closely with state and local authorities and Jewish community partners to identify and disrupt any insider threats,” he added.

Hamás means 'enthusiasm' or 'fervor' in Arabic. This is what this paramilitary organization that declares itself jihadist, nationalist and Islamist wants to represent for the Palestinian cause.. Hamas is also the acronym for Harakat al-Muqáwama al-Islamiya, in Arabic, Islamic Resistance Movement.

Some of the precursor groups of Hamas were “The Coalitions of the Land of Isra'”, and “Islamic Fighting Movement”. At its birth, Hamas presented itself as a branch of the international Muslim Brotherhood movement, founded in Egypt in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna, which advocates the application of Islamic law in various aspects of daily life.. However, the connection with said movement has never really exceeded the merely ideological.

When was Hamas born?

It was founded in 1987 during the course of the first Intifada by Sheikh Ahmed Yasin, a paraplegic Quranic student in Gaza City.. Although its first statement is from December 1987, its founding letter is from August 1988. It presented itself as a branch of the international Muslim Brotherhood movement.. The Sunni branch of Islam is the dominant one in Hamas.

In the beginning they had help from Israel, which in this way tried to weaken the until then hegemonic Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), of Yasir Arafat, and Al Fatah, the organization founded by Arafat and the main component of the PLO.. Hamas's military wing, the Izzedin al-Kassam Brigades (BIK), did not take shape until 1991.

What's your objective?

Hamas' founding charter states that its objective is the establishment of an Islamic State in the historic region of Palestine, which would include present-day Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with its capital in Jerusalem.. However, in 2017 it revised its purposes. A new document called for “the establishment of a completely sovereign and independent State of Palestine, with Jerusalem as its capital, on the borders of June 4, 1967”. To achieve this, Hamas supports armed struggle.

How were your beginnings?

Hamas began a wave of kidnappings and attacks in 1992. The mastermind of the attacks was Mohamed Deif, who would later be the head of BIK and today is considered the mastermind of the unprecedented Palestinian attack on Israel this past weekend.

How is it organized?

Hamas has a series of dependent organizations that carry out their activities in very diverse areas, ranging from the cultural and religious assimilation of young people through the madrasa, to social assistance to the most needy Palestinians (and their own families). members killed or imprisoned in Israeli prisons), representation in Palestinian political institutions through the Change and Reform list, or the armed struggle of the BIK.

How many?

The military faction of Hamas is estimated to be nearly 20,000 strong.. But the Gaza Strip has about 2 million inhabitants, of which more than 600,000 reside in Gaza City.

How is it financed?

Since that distant 1987, Hamas has received economic support from many parties, including governments such as Saudi Arabia, Iran and Syria (despite the fact that the latter two belong to the Shiite branch of Islam, a rival to the Sunni branch).. Some Gulf oil sheikhs have also personally contributed to its financing.

Since part of its work is to assist those most in need, Hamas receives funds from many charities located outside the Palestinian territories.. Today it is considered backed by Iran, which finances and provides weapons and training (as would have been demonstrated by the surprise offensive this October).

What is your relationship with the Palestinian Authority like?

After the Oslo Accords, negotiated by Yasir Arafat and Isaac Rabin (Prime Minister of Israel), the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) was created in 1994, which implied its division. Hamas denounced Arafat and the PLO. For its leaders, the dialogues between Arabs and Israelis, including the Oslo Accords, were a “waste of time.”

In 2006, the Change and Reform list, linked to Hamas, ran in the Palestinian general elections, obtaining an absolute majority, which gave it the power to form the government led by Ismail Haniye, which generated a series of sanctions by some Western and Arab countries.

After a series of clashes and growing tension with rival Fatah, in 2007 armed organizations loyal to Hamas in the Gaza Strip eventually expelled Fatah supporters and took control.. Hamas took over the government of the Gaza Strip, while Fatah maintained that of the West Bank. Palestinians have not voted for a legislative assembly since 2006, nor a president since 2008.

The Hamas Government in Gaza has since been subject to a blockade by Israel and Egypt that prevents the entry of food, medicine, construction materials, weapons and other products into Gazan territory.. In 2017 there was reconciliation of the parties and the Palestinian National Authority returned to Gaza. The creation of a Palestinian unity government, the calling of general elections and the transfer of control of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt to the ANP were agreed.

How much and how has Hamas killed?

Hamas began a campaign of suicide bombings in 1994 with unprecedented frequency. Without sophisticated weapons, Yahya Ayyash, known as “The Engineer”, manufactured bomb belts and with them carried out a campaign of suicide bombings (they gradually abandoned shootings and kidnappings).. Islamic Jihad adopted this tactic and so did Fatah's Al-Aksa Martyrs' Brigades in the second Intifada in September 2000.

Ayyash became a priority target for Israel. On January 5, 1996, Ayyash was assassinated by the Shabak (Israel's general internal security and intelligence service) who had planted a bomb in his mobile phone.

In 2004, the last suicide attacks by their brigades occurred, which began to attack the Israel Defense Forces and launch Qassam rockets (their name is taken from the Ezzedin al-Qassam brigades) from the Gaza Strip against southern Israel.. After the start of the 2008-2009 Gaza Strip Conflict, they also launched the more powerful Grad and Katyusha.

Is Hamas terrorist?

The organization as a whole or at least the military faction (BIK) is considered a terrorist group by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada, as well as by other powers, and, of course, Israel.. In contrast, the UN has not designated any part of the organization as a terrorist group.

The son of parents who became refugees after being expelled from their homes in Majadal, Ismail was born 60 years ago in Al-Shati, a refugee camp in the north of the Gaza Strip.. Now, the current leader of Hamas is once again in the spotlight after the attack on Israel by the Palestinian group's militias, and his image as a moderate leader in the Islamic Resistance Movement is called into question.. But what is its story?

From the university to Hamas

In 1987 Ismael graduated in Arabic Literature from the Islamic University of Gaza, a center highly influenced by the religious and political tenets of the Muslim Brotherhood with a predominance of anti-Israeli sentiment.. Just then, after finishing his studies, he took part in the Intifada and joined Hamas.

Two years later he was imprisoned by the Israeli authorities – for three years – for participating in the First Intifada and belonging to Hamas.. And after his release in 1992, he went into exile in Lebanon with Ahmed Yassin, Abdel Aziz ar-Rantisi and other senior Hamas politicians, although a year later he returned to Gaza and was appointed dean of the Islamic University. During those years, Hamas gained importance for its actions in Israel; suicide attacks with explosives in markets, civilians and buses.

The 'moderate' face of Hamas

Three years after the airstrike that attempted to end his life in vain, and that of the founder and leader of Hamas, Ahmed Yassin (who would die a year later), Ismail Haniya began to become more and more popular, and ended up becoming the face moderate member of the organization, which won the legislative elections in Palestine in 2006.

He briefly served as Palestinian prime minister, until he was fired by the president in 2007.. Ten years later he became leader of Hamas, and in 2021 he was elected again. Its position has always been that of pragmatism, betting on breaking the international isolation to which the movement has been subjected, always without disturbing the hardest wing.

In fact, in 2017, the organization introduced a series of amendments to its 1988 Founding Charter in which Haniya announced a certain shift towards less radical positions, such as accepting the creation of a State of Palestine on the pre-war borders. from 1967, something unthinkable in the original text. However, the violent incursion of the militants into Israel is something that does not fit with Haniya's 'moderate speech', what will the leader have to say now?