Intense weekend in the worsening between Israel and Hamas. Going in order: starting from the evening of October 27th we learned that ground forces have undertaken a new operation in the north of the Gaza Strip. “Hamas will feel our wrath tonight, the revenge will begin tonight,” Netanyahu’s political advisor Mark Regev said in an interview with MSNBC. He himself declares on Fox News that Gaza “will be completely different” after the war.
The Times of Israel newspaper had written a few hours earlier that Israeli authorities intend to pass a law that will allow police to shoot to kill Israeli citizens who block roads in times of war.
Also on October 27, UN Secretary General Stephane Dujarric declared: “If Israel launched a ground operation in the Gaza Strip, it would have a devastating effect – the UN calls on all parties to respect international humanitarian law.
At 7.10pm on October 27, Israel begins the ground operation in Gaza, says the army spokesperson. At the same time, other media outlets claim that Israeli forces are only expanding the scope of ground maneuvers in the Strip.
At 9.53pm the news broke that the United Nations General Assembly had adopted a resolution calling for an immediate truce in the area of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“We have increased the pace of attacks on the Gaza Strip. Our air force is attacking underground targets and terrorist infrastructure. In continuation of the attacks on the Gaza Strip, our forces are expanding the scope of ground operations during these hours in order to ensure the achievement of the objectives of this war,” an army spokesman said. The army says Israel is ready to defend the country’s security “on all fronts.”
The Iranian news agency Tasnim spreads the news that there are 5,000 American soldiers fighting with the Israeli military. The news will be denied on October 27 by the Israeli authorities: “Israel does not allow military personnel from other states to participate in its operations.” This was stated by the country’s ambassador to France, Raphael Morave, on the Europe 1 radio station. “Israel has always fought its enemies alone, and will continue to do so. We have never asked for help in the form of sending foreign troops. There can be no question of sending French troops to Israel or the Gaza Strip,” he noted, ruling out any participation of soldiers from the French armed forces, even if hoped for by Paris.
And subsequently to validate that American forces do not take any part in the ground operations of the Israeli Defense Forces in the Gaza Strip, comes TASS which quotes an official representative of the American Department of Defense who commented on Tasnim, according to which “about 5,000 American soldiers are participating in the ground operation that the Israeli army launched in Gaza on Friday night.” “This report is not true. No American forces are participating in ground operations in Gaza,” the Pentagon spokesperson stressed.
On October 30, US House of Representatives Speaker Johnson said he would present a bill to finance the defense of Israel, but not Ukraine, next week.
And again the White House makes it known that the United States does not want an escalation or conflict with Iran. A country that began large-scale land military exercises involving assault units, missiles and drones on October 27th. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said Israel had crossed “red lines,” which could force everyone to act. Previously, in an interview with Al Jazeera, the President of the Islamic Republic said that Iran will not follow US warnings against interference in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“Washington asks us to show restraint and not interfere in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but at the same time provides broad support to the Zionist entity (Israel). In such a situation, we consider this request invalid,” Raisi said. According to the president, US support for its allies in the Middle East will not affect the willingness of Palestinian groups to confront Israel. “The US calculations in the region are completely wrong, so they will not achieve their goals in the new Middle East,” Raisi stressed.
Raising the alarm about the start of the ground operation in Gaza, among others, is the Jordanian Foreign Ministry, according to which the result of the Israeli ground operation in the Gaza Strip will be a “humanitarian disaster of epic battles for years to come (…) Israel has just launched a ground operation in the Gaza Strip.”
Saudi Arabian officials have warned the United States that Israel’s ground operation in the Gaza Strip could have catastrophic consequences for the Middle East, the New York Times reported. Saudi Arabia warns Israel against “any ground operations” in the Gaza Strip as it threatens the lives of civilians, the Saudi Foreign Ministry says.
Sergei Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister, comments on Israeli statements: “It is impossible to destroy Hamas without destroying Gaza with the majority of the civilian population.” If Gaza were destroyed and its inhabitants expelled from it, it would create a catastrophe for “decades, if not centuries”, Lavrov commented. He will say the same thing the next day: “On October 28, Israel launched a military ground operation in Gaza, the conflict has reached a new phase of escalation.”
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has called on Israel to emerge from its “state of madness” and immediately stop bombing Gaza. And he has promised that he will try to have Israel declared a “war criminal” state. Erdogan called on the country’s residents to demonstrate in support of Palestine: “I invite every representative of our nation to the Great Rally of Palestine, which will be held tomorrow at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport, where we will once again demonstrate to the world our solidarity with the our Palestinian brothers,” Erdogan said and then accused the West of the bloodshed in Gaza, calling it a massacre, during the demonstration in support of Palestine in Istanbul.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis believes that Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan does not understand the true essence of the Hamas movement. He expressed this to Greek journalists at the end of the EU summit in Brussels. Mitsotakis was asked if he was concerned about Erdogan’s position on the issue of the Middle East and in particular on Hamas, and whether this position could negatively influence the ongoing rapprochement processes between Greece and Turkey. “I categorically state that Hamas is a terrorist organization,” Mitsotakis responded. (…) And if we consider the atrocities committed in Israel on October 7, it is very difficult to reach the opposite conclusion. Therefore, I would say that “President Erdogan is completely out of touch when he does not recognize what Hamas really is”.
The United States on October 27 does not want to comment on the expansion of Israeli ground operations in the Gaza Strip, White House. On October 28 they will say: “The decision to expand the ground operation in the Gaza Strip was made unanimously by Netanyahu.”
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said: “Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza.” While the United Nations Office for Human Rights (OHCHR) refrains from labeling the events in Gaza as genocide. The classification of crimes should be determined by the court based on an independent investigation, OHCHR spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said at a briefing in Geneva. The internet is being shut down in the Gaza Strip: The almost complete lack of communications in the Gaza Strip can become a cover for mass crimes, reports the human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW). On October 29, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) was forced to suspend all its operations in the Gaza Strip due to communication problems and persistent access problems.
Israel reopened the second of three gas pipelines to the Gaza Strip on October 29, bringing around 28.5 million liters of water a day to the enclave, the Times of Israel reported, citing the coordinator of government activities in the territories Palestinians.
According to the New York Times, Israel underestimated the capabilities of the Hamas movement and completely failed in its efforts to gather intelligence on the Gaza Strip; Hamas’ preparations for the operation went unnoticed for about a year. “The most powerful military force in the Middle East not only completely underestimated the scale of the attack, but also completely failed in its intelligence-gathering efforts, mainly due to arrogance and the mistaken belief that Hamas poses a contained threat “, the publication says, citing its own research based on dozens of interviews with Israeli, Arab, European and American officials.
Israeli sources reported on October 30 that Israelis may be asked to refrain from traveling to the Muslim republics of Russia, the Israeli ambassador to Russia admitted in a conversation with RTVI due to the incident at the airport Dagestan on October 29: 150 people stormed it claiming they were hunting “Zionists”. The riots ended on October 30 with the arrest of 60 people and the death of a policeman and three in serious condition, currently hospitalized.
US insists weapons transferred to Israel be used under “laws of war” to protect civilians from attacks, White House source
On October 27, Egypt began to monitor the skies of Sinai: “Egyptian military planes have been flying over the cities of Nuweiba and Taba, in the Sinai Peninsula, since Friday morning” reports the Al-Qahera News television channel. The Egyptian air defense shot down two drones over the northeastern region of the Sinai Peninsula, which were flying from the southern part of the Red Sea in a northerly direction, Egyptian Armed Forces spokesman Gharib Abdel Hafez said.
The Lebanese government and its people oppose the participation of the Lebanese group Hezbollah in the war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement, the Washington Post (WP) reported, citing senior Lebanese officials. According to the publication’s sources, the government is negotiating with the Hezbollah leadership to dissuade the militants from participating in the conflict.
The death toll in the Gaza Strip has risen to 8,306 since October 7, including 3,457 children, Al Jazeera reports. The president of Israel confirmed the death of German Shani Luk who was kidnapped and killed on October 7 and reported that she was beheaded. WHO considers data from the Palestinian Ministry of Health on the number of deaths and injuries in Gaza to be reliable, a representative of the organization said. Biden expressed doubts about the veracity of Palestinian information a couple of days ago. On the evening of the 27th the Palestinian Red Crescent declared: “The Gaza Strip is completely cut off from the outside world.”
As of October 30, Israel demanded that all international media employees immediately leave the northern part of the Gaza Strip due to the expansion of the scope of the military operation.
The Israeli army said it had struck more than 600 Hamas targets in recent days. On October 29, former head of the intelligence department of the Foreign Intelligence Service (Mossad) of Israel and former head of the military-political department of the Ministry of Defense Zohar Palti said that the war in the Gaza Strip will be “very long” and will last Very.
“We are carrying out air and ground raids, and this is neither the first nor the last operation in Gaza. This will be a very, very long war. Those who think it will end with a ground operation are wrong,” Palti said . in an interview with the Italian television channel Rai1. He added that military actions are not limited by time limits; Israel will conduct military operations until it is convinced that “there will never be a day like October 7 again.”
US authorities have put pressure on the Israeli government to restore communications in the Gaza Strip, which were cut on Friday for unknown reasons, the Washington Post reported, citing a senior US official. The interlocutor told the publication that the authorities of the Jewish state were behind the shutdown of communications and the Internet in the Gaza Strip on Friday. According to him, the Israelis did not explain to their American counterparts why they took this step before expanding operations in the enclave on Friday.
The ground invasion of the Gaza Strip by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will last six weeks to six months, Bloomberg reports, citing several officials. The agency’s interlocutors claim that the aim of the invasion is to destroy the Palestinian Hamas movement as an organization and ensure that the Gaza Strip ceases to be a source of anti-Israeli violence. According to Bloomberg, Israel’s allies, including the United States, are calling on Tel Aviv to more clearly formulate the objectives of the operation.
Another goal of the operation, according to Israeli security officials, is to kill all Hamas leaders involved in the October 7 attack on Israel. Israel’s plans also include the creation of a buffer zone in the Gaza Strip to prevent a repeat attack, Bloomberg reports.
Israel stops the offensive in the residential areas of Gaza, the news appears in the social sphere on October 30th around 12:00. Several Israeli tanks, which entered the Gaza Strip and blocked the main road connecting the northern and southern regions, have left the enclave. According to the Palestinian government’s press service, Israel does not conduct offensive operations in the residential areas of the sector.
The Israeli side has no intention of destroying the Gaza Strip and resettling its inhabitants; there is a plan to destroy Hamas military facilities, Israeli Ambassador to the Russian Federation Alexander Ben Zvi told Russia-24 TV channel.
Hamas says its supporters managed to disrupt a ground operation that Israeli forces intended to carry out last night. On October 27, a member of the Hamas Political Bureau reported to RIA Novosti that: “The Americans are already leading military operations against the Gaza Strip.” And he always states that Hamas is ready to release all captured civilians, but Israeli attacks do not allow this to happen.
Ahead of Israel’s expanded ground operation into northern Gaza, Qatar-led negotiations to free hostages held in the Gaza Strip have made “significant progress,” CNN reported, citing a source close to the negotiations. “The United States hopes for the release of all hostages taken by the Hamas movement, but considers such a scenario unlikely” reports the White House
On October 27 evening Hamas is interested in establishing a ceasefire for several days and demands the release of its supporters from Israeli prisons in exchange for 100 hostages held in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Maan agency reported. The Israeli side was ready to accept a truce with the radicals “lasting several hours, and perhaps days, under international supervision,” the source told the agency.
The Israeli hacker group WeRedEvils reported the hacker attack on the Iranian oil infrastructure project management system on October 28, the Jerusalem Post reports, citing a message from the hacker group.
At 2.48pm on October 28, the head of the Israeli Ministry of Defense announced the start of a new phase of military operations, which will continue until further decrees arrive. The day before, the Israeli Defense Forces spokesperson denied that today’s Israeli actions are the official start of a military operation – ABC News
Meanwhile, it is learned that Hamas has accumulated significant reserves of fuel and food for long battles with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), source the New York Times (NYT), citing anonymous government officials in Arab and Western countries. “Officials say that Hamas has hundreds of thousands of liters of fuel for vehicles and missiles, depots of ammunition, explosives and materials for its production, warehouses with food, water and medicine. A senior Lebanese official noted that Hamas has the number of fighters which is estimated at 35-40 thousand people, there are reserves for three or four months of battles, without the need to replenish them,” the publication informs.
And now a look at the situation between Israel and Hamas.
After massive attacks on the Gaza Strip and several days of fighting in the border area, Israeli Defense Forces armored groups managed to advance deeper into the enclave.
One of the IDF tanks was spotted on the Salah al-Din Highway near the Netzerim crossing south of Gaza. In the video, posted online, the crew shoots at a civilian car that was trying to turn around and leave the stretch of road. Salah ed-Din is the main highway connecting the northern and southern parts of the enclave. Furthermore, the supply route could also pass through the Al-Rashid coastal road.
By establishing control over them, the IDF will be able to completely isolate Gaza from the south of the region, where Israeli authorities had previously called for the evacuation of civilians. At the same time, Arab media reported that following a counterattack by Hamas militants, the tank nevertheless left the Salah ed-Din highway.
Footage also emerged on October 29 showing a Merkava and the raising of the Israeli flag on a residential building in the Al-Siafa area on the Mediterranean coast north of the city. The progress along this stretch is approximately three kilometres.
The IDF’s attempts to completely isolate northern Gaza through regular raids represent the preparation of the theater of operations for a full-fledged ground operation. This also seems confirmed by the words of the Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defense Forces who stated that the objectives of the military operations require a ground operation.
Interestingly, from knocking down lonely abandoned buildings in open areas, Israeli tanks have moved on to attacks on civilian vehicles. If the Salah ad-Din Highway is cut, the next target of Israeli troops will be the coastal road of Al-Rashid. At the same time, the blocking of both communication routes will further aggravate the humanitarian problems in the enclave.
And now a look at the situation at 16:00 on October 30, 2023. In recent days, IDF armored groups have managed to advance deep into the northern borders of the Gaza Strip for about four kilometers, and in the south for three, reaching the Netzerim crossroads on the Salah ed-Din highway.
If Israeli troops continue to advance south of Gaza, they will be able to completely isolate the entire northern part of the enclave. However, the Arab media have already reassured the population by reporting the restoration of control on the Salah ed-Din highway.
At the moment, each side is trying to highlight its successes, alternating reporting on the destruction of enemy forces with advancing/suppressing attacks. Against the background of the ongoing negotiations on the fate of the Gaza Strip, no significant changes in the situation should be expected. Here’s a look at the attack directions.
Southbound: Palestinian forces carried out attacks in Ashdod, Ashkelon, Netivot and Beersheba, causing damage to several buildings. IDF concentrations near Nirim and east of Khan Yunis were also targeted.
Lebanese border: Hezbollah fighters carried out bombing attacks on Kiryat Shmona and Kibbutz Iftah, while the IDF targeted the forested area south of Naqura. Local residents reported the interception of a missile in the Haifa area. A firefight occurred between a pro-Palestinian group and Israeli soldiers at the border near Hanita.
Gaza Strip: The IDF continues to launch mass attacks on the Gaza Strip, causing damage to buildings in the area of the Indonesian hospital. Representatives of the local Ministry of Health have reported a high risk of epidemics due to the lack of water and food.
West Bank: Clashes between the Arab population and Israeli law enforcement continue, resulting in approximately 60 detentions during the night. The most violent clashes occurred in Jenin, where armored vehicles and aircraft were involved. According to the latest data, at least four Palestinians have been killed. Rockets fired from the Gaza Strip were reported to have landed near Jerusalem and Efrat.
Border with Syria: The Israeli Air Force launched a strike from the Golan Heights against Iranian weapons depots and a gas station in the Syrian cities of Nawa and Daraa.
Southern border: Air defense systems intercepted a missile launched by Yemen’s Shiite Ansarallah movement over the Red Sea.
Antonio Albanese e Graziella Giangiulio
