Far-right Israeli Minister of National security, Itamar Ben-Gvir has warned against anyone stopping the Israeli military before “Hamas has been defeated and all the abductees returned.”
In a post on X, Ben-Gvir also said that any reduction in military activity in Gaza would signal a failure of Netanyahu’s limited three-person war cabinet and called for its immediate dismantlement.
“It’s time to return the reins to the expanded cabinet,” he said
Currently, there is a lot of pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu both internationally and domestically as his country wars against Hamas.
On the international front, U.S hopes to see Israel shift towards a lesser intense type of fighting within the next few weeks and that position has been reiterated by multiple American officials.
On the domestic scene, Netanyahu is facing increased pressure from the families of the captives and the “Bring them back now” movement, and this situation has even become more high-stakes after three Israeli captives were killed inside of Gaza by the Israeli military.
There are more than 100 captives still being held inside of Gaza.
Meanwhile, U.S support for Israel amid Gaza onslaught is affecting perceptions across Middle East.
Middle East Analyst, Helen Lackner said that over the past several weeks, senior U.S officials have talked “about not making the situation worse for civilians while at the same time, they’ve done absolutely nothing to stop the Israelis killing civilians by the thousands.”
The death toll in Gaza hit at least 20,000 on Tuesday, according to the media office in Gaza, but Lackner pointed out that this does not include the many Palestinians “who are dead under the rubble.”
“This is something that is having a very strong impact on the populations throughout the Middle East, who are increasingly angry and frustrated and very depressed by what is happening,” she opined.
“This massacre – what most people nowadays call a genocide – in Gaza is something which is very, very strongly affecting peoples’ views of the US and I suspect that the perception of the US throughout the Middle East … has dropped way below zero, if it ever was any higher than that.”
Helen Lackner
Israel’s Mass Evacuation Order In Khan Younis Sparks Fear Among Civilians
In Gaza, an Israeli military order to evacuate an area covering about 20 percent of central and south Khan Younis has sparked fear among civilians in the south of a further expansion of Israel’s military operation.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the Israeli military ordered the immediate evacuation of an area covering some 20 percent of central and southern Khan Younis city on Wednesday.
It is said that the evacuation orders were sent to UNRWA, particularly to the majority of evacuees inside UNRWA evacuation sites that have been designated as shelters for displaced Palestinians.
Given that the vast majority of people in the northern part and Gaza City have been displaced to the central part of Gaza and Khan Younis, twenty percent seems large.
Now the southern part of Khan Younis is right at the edge of Rafah, this is the entrance to the main road of Rafah city.
This means more pressure on health facilities in Rafah city as well as aggravating humanitarian living conditions of people who are already overwhelmed by the ongoing military and air strikes taking place.
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