A wider regional war in the Middle East, where the conflict is already raging between Hamas and Israel, remains a “significant risk,” warned UN under-secretary-general for peacekeeping operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix: “There is still a very significant risk of escalation at the regional level,” he said, adding: “We are still very much in a very, very dangerous situation,” Lacroix said on the sidelines of the meeting of EU defence ministers.
“One of the risks, particularly in southern Lebanon, is that both sides do not understand exactly where the other stands in terms of calculation,” the UN representative said.
Geng Shuang, China’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, urged Israel to provide security guarantees and facilitation for polio vaccination in Gaza, in his speech at the UN Security Council briefing on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian issue.
Stressing that China supports the appeal of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the ambassador called on Israel to provide security guarantees and facilitation for vaccination work “responsibly towards its children and those of the region.”
Against the backdrop of the Israeli offensive in the central part of the Gaza Strip, the humanitarian situation has deteriorated significantly: about a week ago, IDF units began moving towards the southern outskirts of Deir al-Balah, establishing control along the Salah ad-Din highway.
Every day, Palestinian media reports are increasingly reporting on the shortage of medicines and drinking water: due to the constant Israeli attacks, only three of the 18 wells in the settlement are currently functioning.
Adding to the problems is the constant flow of refugees from the south of the enclave, as Israeli troops have repeatedly reduced the humanitarian zone.
Israel also pushed for a military operation in the West Bank this week, despite United Nations concerns that it is “fueling an already explosive situation.” Israel has described its raids on towns and refugee camps in the northern West Bank as “counter-terrorism” operations.
The Israeli government voted on August 30 to maintain a military presence in Gaza’s Philadelphia Corridor, an issue that has proved a key sticking point in ceasefire talks with Hamas. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet has all but endorsed the policy. Hamas has insisted that Israeli forces leave the area, which runs along the Egypt-Gaza border south of Palestinian territory, once the truce begins. Netanyahu has said his soldiers are needed there to prevent Hamas from smuggling weapons into Gaza from Egypt. Israeli cabinet members said their vote would bring a ceasefire closer because it would make clear to Hamas that it must compromise, according to the report. Netanyahu said the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, which triggered the war in Gaza, “was possible because the Philadelphia axis was not in Israel’s hands,” the report said.
Two ministers did not vote in favor: Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who opposed the measure, and Itamar Ben Gvir, the minister of national security, who abstained. Ben Gvir chose not to vote because Netanyahu proposed a troop reduction and the national security minister does not want any reduction.
Gallant opposed the proposal because he argued it would delay a truce, rather than force Hamas to agree to one more quickly, and potentially cost the lives of more hostages. Netanyahu also says that Israel will maintain forces along the second Netzarim corridor, which bisects Gaza, to prevent Hamas fighters from returning to the northern parts of the territory. Hamas opposes this request.
Israel has effectively expanded its air campaign against enemy targets in Syria since the start of the war in Gaza, stepping up strikes that have killed several militants and blown up fuel and weapons supplies. The strikes reportedly amount to 180.
According to Israeli intelligence, Hezbollah is reportedly supplied by Iran through Syria, and so targeting this flow would cut off supplies.
On August 30, the Israel Defense Forces said that the head of Hamas in Jenin was killed in a counter-terrorism airstrike in the West Bank.
Wassem Hazam was “eliminated during the counterterrorism operation in the northern Samaria area,” the IDF wrote on X. “He was identified together with a terrorist cell in a vehicle in the area. Hazem was involved in carrying out and directing gun attacks and bombings and continued to promote terrorist activities in the Judea and Samaria area,” the IDF said.
The IDF added that Maysara Masharqa and Arafat Amer, who the IDF said were operating under Hazem’s command and “took part in gun attacks against Israeli communities,” were also killed by IDF aircraft while attempting to escape from a vehicle in which they were traveling with Hazem.
Since Tuesday evening, IDF, ISA and Israel Border Police forces have been operating against terrorist cells of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror organizations in the West Bank. “So far, the forces have eliminated 20 terrorists in exchanges of fire and airstrikes and arrested 17 suspects linked to terrorist activities. They have also destroyed dozens of explosive devices and confiscated large quantities of weapons,” an IDF statement said.
At the same time, together to the operation in Northern Samaria, the IDF and ISA completed an operation in the Far’a area in the Jordan Valley Brigade.
In the northern Gaza Strip, Israeli troops launched another series of attacks on the capital of the Palestinian enclave and satellite towns. There was also a shooting in the southern outskirts of the Az-Zeitoun district.
In the central part of the Enclave, the first case of polio was recorded. Previously, over one million vaccines had been delivered to the region, which were distributed to medical facilities that continued to operate.
In the southern Enclave, IDF militants occupied Dar al-Salam Hospital on the outskirts of Khan Yunis and advanced further along the Salah ad-Din Highway, where they almost reached the central part of Bani Suheil.
In the West Bank, Israeli security forces conducted one of the largest raids in recent weeks, resulting in the arrest of more than 40 local residents and the killing of several Palestinian commanders.
Along the border with Lebanon, the situation remains tense. Both sides continue to exchange attacks and report the destruction of targets, but for now the situation remains relatively stable.
Hezbollah in the early afternoon of August 31 said: “We bombarded enemy soldiers on Mount Nader with rocket weapons and scored direct hits”; the Islamic Resistance: “We targeted a deployment of occupation soldiers on Mount Nader with rocket weapons and scored a direct hit.”
The Islamic Resistance also claims to have hit “an occupation soldiers position in the Metulla site with an assault attack and we inflicted confirmed casualties on them”.
Israeli Army Radio reports a stabbing at the Egyptian-Israeli border of 6 people at the Taba crossing
At 17:15 the Israeli Army states: “Our forces have been operating for 72 consecutive hours in 3 terrorist hotbeds in the West Bank”
The Commander of the Al-Quds Brigades in the West Bank states that: “The enemy will see in the coming days what we will do to its soldiers and vehicles in the northern West Bank (…) Our operation with Al-Qassam in Tel Aviv is an important message that everyone must receive and it will not be the last (…) We tell Netanyahu and the enemy leaders that it is too late to eliminate the resistance project in the West Bank, the cells extended in all cities and camps are now operational (…) The blood of the fighters of the Al-Quds Brigades in the West Bank, Gaza, Damascus and Lebanon mixes to confirm that the camp is one (…) The martyrdom of Commander Abu Shuja and his brothers will set the battlefields ablaze to take revenge on the enemy and the more a martyr ascends to God, the higher the rates of adhesion to the resistance (…) We are working with all the forces of the resistance in the battle against the terror of the camps, as is the case with the field work in Gaza”.
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Antonio Albanese e Graziella Giangiulio
