ABC: Israel's military has been given the green light to enter the Gaza Strip
The Israeli military has received the "green light" to launch a ground operation in the Gaza Strip, ABC News reports. The "first and last priority" of the ground operation will be the destruction of Hamas, Israeli Minister of Economy and Industry Nir Barkat stressed. The country's Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, met with the military and said that they would soon "see Gaza from the inside." For more information, see the material "Newspapers.Ru".
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that the IDF military may soon be ordered to enter the Gaza Strip. Now they have to "organize and be ready."
"Now you see Gaza from afar, soon you will see it from the inside, I promise you that the order will come," he said, while at the border with Gaza.
Speaking about the upcoming offensive, he noted that the many kilometers of tunnels built by Hamas in the Gaza Strip will become "the largest cemetery in the world."
"We will make every effort to return our hostages, to return our hostages alive...," he said, adding that after all, the "first and last priority" will be the destruction of Hamas.
Avi Dichter, a member of the Israeli security cabinet, said that at the moment the number of Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants (the organization is banned in Russia) in Gaza does not exceed 50 thousand.
Reuters sources claim that the Israeli ground operation will be distinguished by "unprecedented ferocity." Israel plans to "destroy the infrastructure of Gaza even at the cost of a large number of civilian casualties" and push the residents of the enclave to the border with Egypt. At the same time, Israeli officials admitted in a conversation with Reuters that the fate of the Gaza Strip is extremely uncertain. "Israel does not have an endgame for Gaza," one of the agency's interlocutors said.
Its width will depend on "the distance to the Israeli military or settlements."
The Hamas movement, in turn, stated that it is ready "for prolonged hostilities," RIA Novosti reports.
"We won't stop"
The Israeli ambassador to the European Union and NATO, Chaim Regev, said that the Jewish state "will go to the end" to destroy Hamas. The diplomat called on the EU to support the Israelis and thus prevent the growth of the terrorist threat in Europe. In his opinion, if you do not act as a "united front", "others will notice it and take advantage of it."
"We will not stop. Israel will go all the way and destroy Hamas," he stressed in an interview with Der Spiegel.
Regev added that Israel especially needs support given the pressure exerted on the country to force it to abandon the ground operation in Gaza.
Two-week truce
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on October 19 called for a two-week humanitarian truce between Israel and Hamas.
"I call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire for about two weeks," he said during a joint press conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry.
In addition, the Secretary General called for urgent delivery of food and medicines to the blocked region. The conditions in which the civilians of the Gaza Strip remain are getting worse every day. There is no food, water, medicine and electricity in the blocked area.
Israel launched the Iron Swords military operation in response to the Hamas attack on October 7. Israel announced a full-scale offensive on the Gaza Strip and called on its residents to evacuate. The New York Times reported that the ground operation was planned to begin on October 14-15, but it was postponed due to weather conditions.
Leonid Tsvetaev
