In order to prevent the Palestinian-Israeli conflict from spilling over into a new Middle East war, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken quickly flew to the Middle East to "extinguish the fire." However, as soon as Blinken arrived in the Middle East and got off the plane, the Israeli army claimed to have occupied northern Gaza.
On the evening of the 6th, an Israeli military spokesman said that after three months of fierce fighting, the Israeli army had routed Hamas's military forces in northern Gaza and occupied the entire northern Gaza. Next, the Israeli army's focus is on the southern and central Gaza Strip, where the Israeli army will completely eliminate the Hamas military forces.
Just after the Israeli army announced that it had basically wiped out Hamas in northern Gaza, there were also major developments on the battlefield in southern Gaza. The Chief of the General Staff of the Israeli Army, Al-Halevy, together with the head of the Israeli intelligence service, Sinbet, and the commander of the Israeli Southern Command, entered Hamas's central tunnels in the Khan Younis area to inspect and assess the situation on the spot.
The chief of the Israeli army's general staff praised the Israeli army's tactics and pointed out that the Israeli army's absolute military superiority, such as the level of equipment, air superiority, logistics and supply, and so on, can eliminate all Hamas as long as the Israeli army continues to fight steadily.
With regard to how to attack Hamas, the chief of the Israeli army's general staff pointed out that it is necessary to attach importance to Hamas's intelligence collection work, to carry out "decapitation" operations against high-level officials, to locate and destroy rockets and other equipment, and to discover and destroy Hamas tunnels.
The Israeli military high-level entry into the tunnels in southern Gaza is obviously a show, but this show makes everyone see that it is unusual, that is, after several months of fighting, Hamas is no longer good. Although since the beginning of the war, Hamas has relied on flexible tunnel warfare and guerrilla warfare to maneuver with the advanced Israeli army, Hamas is surrounded, logistics are a serious problem, and many hospitals have become the focus of the Israeli army, so that wounded Hamas fighters do not receive timely medical assistance, and may become disabled or die.
Of course, Israeli attacks on civilian facilities have also resulted in the deaths of a large number of innocent civilians. On the night of the 6th, the Israeli army attacked a home in the Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, killing at least 20 people, for the simple reason that they suspected that the camp contained Hamas militants. According to the latest data released by the health department of the Gaza Strip on January 6 local time, since the outbreak of the Israeli-Israeli conflict on October 7 last year, the death toll in the Gaza Strip has risen to 22,722 and 58,166 injured.
The war in Gaza has caused a huge humanitarian catastrophe that many countries have mediated, and Qatar and Egypt have recently pushed for the resumption of negotiations between Israel and Hamas. Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Salman said Israel's continued bombardment of the Gaza Strip has heightened regional tensions. In particular, the attack on Aluri, the deputy chairman of the Hamas Politburo, has also affected communication between Qatar and Hamas, which has made negotiations on the release of detainees more complicated and difficult.
On the other hand, the United States does not want the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to spill over further. On the 5th, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the Middle East and arrived in Turkey. In the next week, I will go to 8 places including Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the West Bank.
On the same day that Blinken left for the Middle East, the defense secretary announced the concept of a "third phase" of the Gaza operation, with the goal of weakening the remnants of Hamas. During Blinken's last visit, Israel even tore up the ceasefire agreement in person, will this "firefighting trip" be as fruitless as the previous three times?