TEL AVIV: Israel has told Washington that it won’t yield to American or other pressure to reach a cease fire with Hamas in Gaza in the face of the fiercest fighting since 2014.
The atmosphere is clearly not conducive to negotiation especially with the news late today that Israeli ground troops are moving into Gaza. “This time Hamas will pay the full price for its actions. Gaza will have to perform huge reconstruction work to fix the heavy damage caused by Israel since the fighting began,” a defense source told BD today.
Politicians here are not speaking on the record because of the ongoing political chaos in Israel, but in private they say that Israel should not accept any demands for a ceasefire. Israel has made it clear that it will not accept the proposals for a cease fire initiated by Egypt and Turkey.
A senior defense source said today that Israel should keep attacking the large arsenal of rockets in Gaza and the production lines.
“The whole area is looking at what the U.S will do. If America puts pressure on Israel to accept a cease fire the Hezbollah in Lebanon will understand that Washington is completely out of the region. The U.S policy in the Middle East and the Gulf is based on very wrong assumptions. For example, after President Biden declared that the Houthi rebels are not terrorists they kept attacking Saudi Arabia. That encouraged Riad to start talking with Teheran,” the source said. “They read the map that shows America is running out of the Middle East and the Gulf.”
The senior defense source added that the fact that Washington is sending a special envoy only to Israel, is a bad sign: “He will talk only with Israel, but not with the Hamas. Strange mission.”
President Joe Biden called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday. “My expectation and hope is this will be closing down sooner than later, but Israel has a right to defend itself,” Biden told reporters at the White House.
According to a White House readout of the call, the president, “conveyed his unwavering support for Israel’s security and for Israel’s legitimate right to defend itself and its people, while protecting civilians.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken emphasized his country’s support for Israel in its fight against Hamas, in a press briefing on Wednesday.
“To be very clear, we strongly condemn the rocket attacks out of Gaza that are targeting innocent Israeli civilians, and Israel has a right to defend itself,” Blinken said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Blinken on the phone on Wednesday and thanked him for US support for Israel’s right to self-defense, a right that the Secretary of State reiterated in the conversation.
The Israeli airforce has performed hundreds of air strikes against Hamas targets in Gaza, including storage places of rockets and launchers. Israeli has also killed five high ranking officers of Hamas who were in a meeting in a hiding place that was uncovered by real time intelligence.
The air force also destroyed some highrises in central Gaza that house the headquarters of some Hamas departments, as well as civilians. The buildings were destroyed using the “Knock On Roof” method. A small unarmed missile is launched, and hits the building, signaling a planned full force attack hours later.
Today, Hamas launched big salvos of rockets, some with a range of more than 200 km. Israeli experts told BD that these rockets were built with help from Iran. “Iran is helping its proxies in the Middle east and Gulf region to develop long-range rockets. This we can see in Yemen, where the Houthi rebels use these rockets to hit Saudi Arabia and in Gaza,” the Israeli defense source said.
The missile strikes came one day after the IDF bombed a Hamas team preparing to launch an armed drone into Israel from the Gaza Strip. The drone was destroyed immediately after crossing the border fence.
Israeli sources told BD that the drone was basic, but there is updated intelligence that Iran is trying to send its advanced armed drones to the Hamas. The Israeli air force also targeted the facilities of the Hamas maritime force that has been preparing attacks.
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