developments in the military and diplomatic fields of Gaza; Equal probability of ceasefire and escalation of conflicts

According to the international group Tasnim news agency, while many media and experts based on the news published by the American, Egyptian or Zionist statesmen are speculating about establishing a six-week ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, but there is still a conflict between the Israeli army forces and the fighters of the movement Islamic Hamas and Islamic Jihad are going on.

Netanyahu and the right-wing members of his cabinet due to the decrease in popularity in the polls and the possibility of leaving the power of interest They do not point to a lasting ceasefire before the realization of the three objectives of the war, i.e. “eliminating Hamas commanders, forces and infrastructure”, “changing the geopolitical situation of Gaza (creating buffer zones and, if possible, building Zionist settlements)” and finally “freeing Israeli prisoners”. .

On this basis, the regime army, with the green light of the state of national emergency, plans to attack the last refuge of the Palestinian refugees through a military campaign to the south of Gaza. try to achieve the pre-announced goals of the war. Some experts believe that Tel Aviv should be ready to intensify political pressure from within the Israeli society if it cannot assassinate prominent people such as Yahya Sanwar or Mohammad Zaif or the headquarters of Hamas.

On Sunday, March 3rd, the Israeli army published a short report on the latest activities of the regime’s various brigades in different parts of Gaza. According to this report, Tel Aviv claimed that the 401st combat brigade destroyed targets belonging to the Hamas movement, such as factories and weapons production warehouses, during operations in the last two weeks.

On the other hand, the Hamas media unit also announced the targeting of Israeli forces and military vehicles in El Zeitoun area by publishing videos. At the same time, the Zionists resumed a new wave of combined operations west of Khan Yunis and airstrikes against the Rafah region, especially near the Philadelphia axis. It is interesting to note that despite the actions of the Zionists to destroy the offensive power of the resistance, but after 150 days of the war, sporadic attacks by Hamas on the Zionist cities continue. For example, on Saturday, March 2, resistance forces targeted Hatsarim in the Negev with 4 rockets.

With increasing media speculation about the possibility of establishing a temporary ceasefire (probably for six weeks) in the Gaza strip, the Israeli army launched ground-air operations in southern Gaza with the aim of finding senior commanders of the resistance, finding prisoners and Access to the main Hamas tunnels has intensified. On Saturday, Osama Hamdan announced that peace talks will be held on March 2nd and 3rd in Cairo. On Monday, the spokesperson of the US Ministry of Foreign Affairs also announced the continuation of negotiations for the establishment of a temporary ceasefire and the release of prisoners. He emphasized that the realization of this will help to increase the sending of humanitarian aid to Gaza. On the other hand, Hamas officials announced that if Tel Aviv is looking for a prisoner exchange, it must agree to a complete and lasting ceasefire. Some analysts believe that the regime To achieve two key goals, Zionists seek to achieve a temporary ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. The first goal of the Zionists is to create a safe corridor for the transfer of women, children and elderly men from the Rafah region to the north of the occupied territories, so that the amount of human casualties will decrease with the end of the ceasefire and the all-out attack of Israel on southern Gaza.

On this basis, Benny Gantz, the leader of the National Camp Coalition, traveled to Washington to seek consultation with White House officials regarding a temporary ceasefire in Gaza. According to “The Times of Israel”, Kamala Harris, the first vice president of the United States of America, during the meeting with Gantz, as always, supported Israel’s brutal policy towards Gaza and the right of the regime to “defend itself”.

However, to control the anger of progressive and Arab-American forces, Harris expressed concern about the humanitarian conditions in Gaza by employing controlled literature and called for an end to the war in the Palestinian territory. He had previously called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza in a rare statement. During his trip to Washington, Gantz met and talked with National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, White House Middle East Affairs Officer Brett McGurk, Secretary of State Anthony Blaiken and Senate Majority Leader McConnell. White House officials are worried that if a temporary ceasefire is not declared in Gaza by March 10th, they should be ready for the escalation of conflicts and even the beginning of the third intifada in the West Bank. Last week, Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the political office of Hamas, in a statement called on the people of the West Bank to go to Al-Aqsa Mosque at the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan.

The remaining of a large number of Israeli prisoners in the hands of the resistance forces and their deaths during the attacks of the regime army has caused the families of the victims to increase the pressure on the “Bibi” government to end the war. For example, this week the family members of the Israeli prisoners, appearing before the Knesset, demanded an immediate stop to the conflicts and reaching an agreement for the exchange of prisoners. It seems that the continuation of this process and the gradual decrease in the number of prisoners will intensify the gap between the mentioned families and the government, and at the same time increase the scope of street protests in different cities of occupied Palestine.

Author: Mohammad Bayat, expert on Middle East issues

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