Any Middle East solution for the foreseeable future must include the Israeli military's control of the entire West Bank, Prime Minister Netanyahu said yesterday.
The Israeli army today continues to bombard the southern Gaza Strip heavily, against the background of the chaotic disputes between Israel and the US over the potential establishment of a Palestinian state, and at the same time the spread of the conflict to Yemen.
In the early hours of the morning, witnesses reported heavy gunfire and repeated airstrikes in Khan Younis, the largest city in the southern Gaza Strip, an area where the Israeli military says leaders of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas are hiding.
The Palestinian Red Crescent denounced the "intense" artillery fire in the area where the Amal ("Hope") hospital is located, while the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reports that there are many dead and wounded due to overnight strikes in Khan Younis, the epicenter of hostilities. in the pouch in recent weeks.
"Soldiers supported by artillery and air force eliminated dozens of terrorists (in hand-to-hand combat)" in Khan Younis, Chahal, the Israeli army, announced, asserting that it had reached "the southernmost" part of the Gaza Strip so far after it began ground operations, initially in the north of the Palestinian enclave.
In the Gaza Strip, where at least 80% of the population has been forced to flee their homes due to shelling or fighting, the humanitarian situation is becoming increasingly critical. The World Health Organization (WHO) announced overnight that it has recorded 24 cases of hepatitis A, a contagious kidney disease, as well as "thousands" of jaundice cases, which are "probably" linked to the spread of this form of hepatitis.
"The inhumane living conditions – almost no drinking water, no clean toilets, no ability to disinfect one's surroundings – will allow hepatitis A to spread further," underlined Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus via X (formerly Twitter) , the head of the WHO, calling the health situation "explosively dangerous".
The trigger for this war was an unprecedented attack by Hamas' military wing on southern sectors of Israeli territory on October 7 that killed some 1,140 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official statements by the authorities.
About 250 other people were abducted and taken to the Gaza Strip when the attack took place. About a hundred were released when a week-long truce was declared at the end of November. According to Israeli authorities, 132 still remain in the Palestinian enclave, but 27 are believed to be dead.
In retaliation, Israel has vowed to "wipe out" the Palestinian Islamist movement in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007, and its military operations have since killed at least 24,620 people, the vast majority of them women and children, according to Hamas' health ministry. , which also mentions 61,830 injured.
A Palestinian state?
"We will settle for nothing less than total victory, which means the elimination of terrorist leaders, the destruction of Hamas' operational and military capabilities, the return of our hostages home, the demilitarization of Gaza and full security control and above all what enters" the enclave, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted yesterday.
For this "victory" it will take "months", which will be "long", he warned. Before adding that "Israel must maintain security control over the entire area west of the Jordan" river, which he called a "necessary condition" for any "solution", although he acknowledged that this "goes completely against the idea of (Palestinian) national sovereignty' in the West Bank.
"Obviously we see things differently," commented the spokesman for the US presidency's national security council, John Kirby, when asked about the statements of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, who appeared to reject US calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state.
For the US, Israel's main ally and key supporter of its military operations against Hamas, the creation and recognition of a viable Palestinian state is essential to "true security".
During the night, the Israeli army carried out raids in various sectors of the occupied West Bank, especially in Tulkarem, where the Ministry of Health of the Palestinian Authority speaks of at least 6 dead since yesterday Wednesday.
The international community is increasingly concerned about the spread of this war, the daily exchanges of fire on the Israel/Lebanon border, the proliferation of Houthi attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, and, in the last week, the intensification of American bombing in Yemen.
West Bank under Israeli control
Referring to the scenario for the post-war period in the Gaza Strip, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that any solution in the foreseeable future must include the Israeli army's control of the entire West Bank.
This, the head of the Israeli government acknowledged during a press conference, is in absolute contradiction with the idea of creating a sovereign, independent Palestinian state. "What are we supposed to do?" demurred when asked whether and to what extent the U.S. is drawing up plans for the "post-Netanyahu" era that envision the establishment of a Palestinian state.
In the talks he has with representatives of Washington, he emphasized, he resists attempts to dictate any reality that, in his opinion, would pose a threat to Israel's security. "The prime minister of Israel must be able to say 'no' when necessary, even to our best friends," Mr Netanyahu insisted.
"From every area we withdrew from, what we got was terrorism, horrific terrorism," added the head of what is described as the most right-wing government in Israel's history. This, he listed, took place in southern Lebanon, the Gaza Strip and areas of the West Bank. This is why control of the West Bank is so important, he insisted.
About 3 million Palestinians live in the occupied West Bank, including about 490,000 Israeli settlers, in settlements that are considered illegal under international law but the vast majority of them are recognized by the Jewish state.