The Swiss newspaper "Le Temps" said that the third phase of Israel's war on Gaza - announced by Tel Aviv - will begin at the end of this month, and will be "less severe" at the military level, but it will take a long time, perhaps extending to years.

The newspaper explained - in a report by its correspondent in Jerusalem, Charlotte Gauthier - that the Israeli forces present on the ground in the Gaza Strip will withdraw from the towns, but will retreat to two areas considered crucial: the Netzarim axis, which separates northern and southern Gaza, and the Philadelphia corridor, which forms the border with Egypt in the far south. sector.

It pointed out that Yaakov Amidror, the former National Security Advisor to the Israeli Prime Minister, confirmed to the American “Time” magazine that “the deployment in these areas will be permanent, which will give us the flexibility to enter the Gaza Strip whenever necessary. A part of Hamas’ structures has not yet been destroyed because we have not combed it.” Everything, and next year we will intervene whenever we discover an active Hamas cell or structure. We will clean up everything that remains, kilometer by kilometer.”

Difficulty of investigation

Gauthier commented that this goal seems very difficult to achieve, as demonstrated by the operation launched by Israel in Rafah at the beginning of last May, and that Israeli military experts agree that trying to achieve it is likely to make this new phase last for years.

It added that this goal - i.e. implementing a new, less severe and long-term phase - raises some problems, including that the families of detainees in Gaza will understand that the government has abandoned their children, and quoted Gilad Havron - a father of one of the detainees - as saying that the matter simply means that the government has She abandoned the detainees, adding that what he sees is that the issue of detainees has become at the bottom of the government's list of concerns.

Yishai Dan Jawi, a relative of one of the detainees in Gaza, said that moving the conflict to a “less intense” stage is not enough. “What is required is the end of this war to return all the detainees.”

For its part, Hamas still requires a complete withdrawal of the occupation forces from the Gaza Strip in order to release detainees and a permanent ceasefire. These are requests that Israel categorically rejects, and demands the release of all detainees unconditionally.

Gautier quoted Amidror as saying that the third phase in Gaza allows sending forces to the north, and thus “we will be more prepared for a comprehensive confrontation with Lebanon.”

Source: Le Temps+ Al Jazeera