On Monday, the Israeli army (IDF) launched plans to evacuate 28 Israeli villages located less than two kilometers from the border with Lebanon. The evacuation plans come after Hezbollah fired rockets from southern Lebanon on Sunday at the village of Shtula right on the border. Israeli health personnel have confirmed that one person was killed and three were wounded in the attack. The Israeli military itself attacked targets in Lebanon after the Hezbollah attack. Before and after – the city of Beit Hanoun in northern GazaPlanet Labs PBC/Reuters Has mobilized 360,000 soldiers Israel’s ground invasion is approaching, and the IDF has mobilized approximately 360,000 soldiers. The strategic target when Israel enters the Gaza Strip is Hamas: – They are walking corpses. It is only a matter of time. That’s what Jonathan Conricus, spokesman for the IDF, says about people associated with Hamas. He states that civilians are not targets in the military operation. When asked who will rule the Gaza Strip if the Hamas leadership falls, Conricus says that “we’ll have to look at that eventually”, but that Israel has no plans to occupy the Gaza Strip. The UN estimated on Saturday that over a million Palestinians may be internally displaced in the Gaza Strip after Israel issued an evacuation order for 1.1 million Palestinians in northern Gaza. – The UN calls this collective punishment. What do you think about it? – It is absurd and unfair. Such statements only come against Israel when Israel defends itself. If there had been other democracies defending themselves, you would not have heard such statements, says Conricus to news. Palestinians with dual citizenship have traveled to the border crossing with Egypt, hoping to leave Gaza. Photo: IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA / Reuters IDF: Israel is able to handle multiple fronts Israel has reinforced its forces on the northern border with Lebanon after several days of Hezbollah attacks, the Israeli army (IDF) says. – Hezbollah tried to divert our operational efforts from the Gaza Strip with several attacks yesterday, says IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari on Monday. Hagari claims the Hezbollah militia attacked Israeli villages on the border on instructions and with the support of Iran, which he says has put Lebanon and its citizens at risk. Israel will respond decisively to any attack on its territory, says Hagari, who claims the army is capable of handling conflicts on two or more fronts. Attacked “without reservations” Since the war between Hamas and Israel broke out on 7 October, at least 2,700 have been killed on the Palestinian side, and 10,800 are said to have been wounded. In addition, around 1,000 people have been reported missing. It is feared that many may be lying under houses that are in ruins after airstrikes, the Palestinian Ministry of Health says. Most of the victims are civilians. Even before an Israeli ground invasion has begun, figures on the number of people killed show the dimensions of Israel’s air operation against Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has specified that Israel will act “without reservations and without respite” to destroy Hamas’s military capability. In just under a week, the death toll in 2023 has surpassed the number killed in 2014, the year of the bloody 50-day war. Before Hamas’ attack on October 7, 227 Palestinians and 29 Israelis had been killed. Reacting to Norwegian condemnation Earlier on Monday morning, Conricus held a press conference in Israel, where NTB was present. Here he directed criticism at Norway: – I think it is strange that the condemnation from Norway is directed at Israel and not Hamas, because it is Hamas that governs Gaza. They are responsible for this situation, Conricus told NTB. The lieutenant colonel refers to Jonas Gahr Støre’s condemnation of the blockade and the measures that are now directed at civilians in Gaza. The Norwegian prime minister called Israel’s evacuation order for 1.1 million Palestinians “a recipe for great suffering”. Støre has previously also condemned Hamas’ attacks on Israeli civilians and asked that the hostages be released: – Norway strongly condemns the attacks against Israeli civilians, and asks that they be stopped immediately, Støre told NTB last week. On Monday, the Israeli Defense Force updated the number of Israeli and foreign hostages from 155 to 199. The Israeli army is preparing a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip. Photo: GIL COHEN-MAGEN / AFP Ground operation pending In a video chat from Israel, Conricus says that a ground operation is “closer now than a day ago” and emphasizes that no country can teach Israel about proportionality in its response to Hamas’ attacks, unless they myself have been to Israel and witnessed the consequences. He rejects that the international community can set a red line for how large civilian losses can be in the Gaza Strip: – No one in the international community can set red lines for Israel. We defend ourselves. We are waging a legal war against a terrorist group that attacked our civilians, says Conricus. Confusion over ceasefire The news agency Reuters reported on Monday morning that the US, Israel and Egypt have agreed on a ceasefire in southern Gaza, which was to begin on Monday at 8 Norwegian time. The source was Egyptian officials. This was to happen in connection with the Rafah crossing from Gaza to Egypt being opened to foreign nationals and Palestinians with dual citizenship. According to NBC, the border crossing was to be opened at 9 Monday morning. But both Hamas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were quick to reject this. The Israeli Prime Minister says there is neither a ceasefire nor the creation of a humanitarian corridor for foreign nationals out of Gaza. The Rafah crossing has been essentially closed to Palestinians since 2007, as part of Egypt’s blockade of the Gaza Strip. Egypt has kept the crossing closed since Tuesday last week, after Israel attacked the area three times. The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs asks Norwegian citizens inside the Gaza Strip to assess how safe it is to travel south. Several Palestinians with dual citizenship have traveled to the border crossing in Rafah, which borders Egypt. Photo: IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA / Reuters Biden: – Sure that Israel will follow the rules of war – I am convinced that Israel will act according to the rules of war. These are standards that democratic institutions and countries follow, said the US president in an interview with “60 Minutes” on Monday night. – And then I am sure that there will be an opportunity for the innocent in Gaza to get access to medicine, food and water. Biden says he agrees that Hamas must be eradicated: – But that there must be a path to a Palestinian state. As for support for Israel in the form of forces, Biden says that this is not necessary. He bases it on the fact that Israel has one of the best fighting forces. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Israel on Monday to hold talks on the conflict with Hamas, according to AFP. Blinken is back in Israel after visiting six Arab countries in the past few days. Biden also warned that the terrorist threat in the United States has increased as a result of the unrest in the Middle East. Photo: AP Warns against occupation of Gaza Biden believes it will be a big mistake if Israel goes for an occupation of the Gaza Strip. He bases it on the fact that Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people. But invading and wiping out extremists is necessary, says Biden. Israel’s UN ambassador Gilad Erdan says in response to Biden’s warning that they have no intention of doing so. But emphasizes to CNN that they must do what is necessary to wipe out Hamas. On the night of Monday, there were also reports that Biden is planning a visit to Israel, but this has not been confirmed by the White House. Eleven Palestinian journalists killed in the Gaza Strip, according to a trade union At least eleven Palestinian journalists have lost their lives in Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip since the Hamas attack on October 7, according to a Palestinian trade union. The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate confirmed the number on Monday afternoon. A Reuters journalist was also killed in a rocket attack in southern Lebanon on Friday, according to the news agency itself. Other international journalists were also injured in the attack, including from AFP, Al Jazeera and Reuters. Israel has carried out a series of extensive rocket attacks on Gaza since Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel on Saturday 7 October. Since then, several hundred people have been killed and many thousands injured in both Israel and the Gaza Strip. The UN demands a humanitarian pause The UN and several international organizations have demanded a humanitarian pause. And that the blockade, which causes people in Gaza to have critical shortages of water, food and electricity, is lifted. – Israel has not turned off the water supply to Gaza. People drink unclean water, which threatens the lives of the residents, says spokesman for the Ministry of Interior Eyad, Al-Bozom. On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin will speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. – The most important thing now is to stop the attacks and start the process of reaching a political solution, says Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy adviser to the Interfax news agency. Russia also put forward a proposal in the UN Security Council for a humanitarian ceasefire last week. The hospitals in Gaza only have power out on Monday, according to the UN. Photo: Adel Hana / AP
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Will evacuate 28 villages – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
