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What awaits us?
Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, said yesterday that Gaza should be unified with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority once the war ends, the strongest signal yet from the Biden administration about what it would like to see at the end of the war. Israel’s fight. against Hamas. But what Israel will do in Gaza is largely unclear.
For insight, I turned to Patrick Kingsley, the Times’ Jerusalem bureau chief, who covers Israel and the occupied territories.
What do you expect for the next few weeks?
If Israel goes ahead as planned with its invasion, the coming weeks could be the bloodiest of the war yet. According to Hamas-led Gaza health authorities, approximately 1,400 Israelis and more than 10,000 Palestinians have already died in Gaza.
That death toll could rise once Israel begins fighting in earnest inside the urban warren that is Gaza City, which is the Hamas stronghold and the main target of Israel’s invasion. Once Israeli forces enter Gaza City en masse, we will see very intense urban warfare, in part because this is Hamas territory. It is where they have built and dug hundreds of kilometers of underground tunnels from which they can emerge and launch ambushes that will hinder the progress of the Israeli army.
The bigger question is what the Israeli military will do once it reaches the hospitals in central Gaza City, which they claim are the headquarters of Hamas’ military command. Hamas denies that claim, but Israel insists that is where Hamas’ leadership is hiding. While they have not said this clearly, the implication is that they will have to take over these hospitals to complete their goal of driving Hamas out of the Gaza Strip. Doing so would lead to fierce fighting within a place that is supposed to be off-limits during a war. And we could be about to witness some very disturbing scenes of violence within places that are supposed to be sanctuaries.
What is the end of Israel in Gaza?
Israel’s plan is still quite vague. They have said they want to disband Hamas’s political leadership and military capabilities. They have also said they will maintain control of Gaza security “indefinitely.” But it’s unclear how long they plan to take to do so, or how much time the U.S. government will give them to do so before they begin withdrawing their support. It is also unclear how much time Israel has to do that before there begin to be regional repercussions (such as the entry of Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia, into the war) that force it to rethink its strategy in Gaza.
What will Israel do if it takes over the Gaza Strip?
That’s not clear either. There are calls within Israel to permanently reoccupy it and establish Israeli settlements there, just as they did before 2005, when Israel withdrew from the enclave. There are suggestions that the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the occupied West Bank, could take over power in Gaza. And there are also suggestions that a regional peacekeeping force has some kind of authority over Gaza.
What is the mood in Israel?
It is one of confusion, deep pain and grief. October 7 was the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust ended, according to Israeli officials, and the thought of families burned alive by Hamas or its allies, civilians gunned down in the streets, in their homes, has been extremely trigger.
Everyone – or what seems to be everyone in Israel – knows someone who has been killed or kidnapped, and many families have sons and daughters who have been called up to defend the northern border with Lebanon or participate in the invasion of Gaza. So there is a nervous energy in the air and a deep feeling of grief.
There is also a deep sense of anger against the government and security services for allowing the October 7 attack to occur. And there is a lack of faith, according to recent polls, in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ability to lead Israel out of this crisis.
How do Palestinians feel?
The atmosphere among the Palestinians is one of real terror and fear. They fear a massive displacement from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. They are already grieving and mourning the deaths of the largest number of civilians in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since 1982, when Israel invaded Lebanon. And they fear much more bloodshed.
As Israel’s bombing continues and Israel’s ground invasion moves closer to the heart of Gaza City, they also feel abandoned by the West and the United States, which they perceive to have completely sided with Israel.
Washington loses its pandas
The three pandas at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington (Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and her cub, Xiao Qi Ji) were loaded onto a plane yesterday and flown to China. His departure marked the end, for now, of an era of panda diplomacy, a symbol of ties between the United States and China.
Many American fans were saddened by the pandas’ departure, but zoo officials said the two oldest pandas were of appropriate ages (25 and 26) to return to China, where they will join 150 other pandas in a lush nature reserve. .