Israeli efforts shift into Gaza’s south
MILITARY SAYS HAMAS COMMAND STRUCTURE DISMANTLED IN NORTH, FOCUS NOW ON BORDER
The Israeli military signalled that it has wrapped up major combat in northern Gaza, saying it has completed dismantling Hamas’ military infrastructure there, as the war against the terrorist group entered its fourth month Sunday.
Israel did not address troop deployments in northern Gaza going forward. Military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said late Saturday that forces would focus on the central and southern parts of the territory and strengthen defences along the Israel-gaza border fence.
The announcement came ahead of a visit to Israel by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who on Sunday was in Qatar, a key mediator. Biden administration officials have urged Israel to wind down its blistering air and ground offensive in Gaza and shift to more targeted attacks against Hamas leaders.
In recent weeks, Israel has scaled back its military assault in northern Gaza and pressed its offensive in the south. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists the war will not end until the objectives of eliminating Hamas, getting Israel’s hostages returned and ensuring that Gaza won’t be a threat to Israel are met.
The war was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel in which the terrorists killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took some 250 people hostage.
More than 22,800 Palestinians have been killed and 58,000 wounded since the start of the war, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. The death toll does not distinguish between combatants and civilians and has not been independently verified. Israel blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the group operates in heavily populated residential areas.
Hagari, the military spokesman, said scattered fighting in northern Gaza was to be expected, along with rockets sporadically being launched from there toward Israel. He said Hamas terrorists “without a framework and without commanders” were still present. The military, without presenting evidence, has said that it has killed more than 8,000 Hamas fighters.
Meanwhile, on another urgent diplomatic mission to the Middle East, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Sunday with Arab partners to press for their help in tamping down resurgent fears that Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza could spread.
In discussions with Qatar’s emir and Jordan’s king, Blinken spoke of the need for Israel to adjust its military operations to reduce civilian casualties and significantly boost the amount of humanitarian aid reaching Gaza, while stressing the importance of preparing detailed plans for the post-conflict future of the Palestinian territory.
The mission — that will also take him to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the West Bank and Egypt before he returns to Washington — is Blinken’s fourth to the region since the war began.
After a day of talks with Turkish and Greek leaders in Istanbul and Crete, Blinken met with Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi in Amman before travelling to Doha for talks with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to seek buy-in for U.S. efforts to tamp down resurgent fears that the war could engulf the region, ramp up aid to Gaza and prepare for an eventual end of hostilities.
King Abdullah “warned of the catastrophic repercussions” of the war in Gaza while calling on the U.S. to press for an immediate ceasefire, a statement from the Royal Court said.
Blinken’s visit comes as developments in Lebanon, northern Israel, the Red Sea and Iraq have put intense strains on what had been a modestly successful U.S. push to prevent a regional conflagration since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, and as international criticism of Israel’s military operation mounts.
“These are not necessarily easy conversations,” he said in Greece. “There are different perspectives, different needs, different requirements, but it is vital that we engage in this diplomacy now both for the sake of Gaza itself and more broadly the sake of the future for Israelis and Palestinians and for the region as a whole.”
Hours before Blinken’s meetings on Saturday, Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah militia fired dozens of rockets at northern Israel and said the barrage was an initial response to the targeted killing, presumably by Israel, of a top leader from the allied Hamas group in Lebanon’s capital this past week. Israel responded in what became one of the heaviest days of cross-border fighting in recent weeks.
Meanwhile, steppedup attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have disrupted international trade and led to increased efforts by the U.S. and its allies to patrol the vital commercial waterway and respond to threats.