According to the well-known analyst of Washington Post David IgnatiusIsrael has decided to shelve the idea of conducting a large-scale offensive to Rafah and to act in a more limited way in the city in the southern Gaza Strip on the border with Egypt, heeding US requests in recent weeks.
“Limited offensive. Washington agrees” – Based on behind-the-scenes conversations with US officials, Ignatius writes that the Israeli government has abandoned its original plan to send two Israeli Army (IDF) divisions to Rafah. This, for the Washington administration, is a sufficient guarantee to believe that the targeted offensive will lead to fewer civilian casualties among the Palestinians and therefore it is expected that Biden will not oppose it.
Only on Monday, before receiving the news of the request for an arrest warrant against him by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, the Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant he had reported to the White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, visiting Israel, the operation in Rafah will expand in the coming weeks. The IDF estimated that the war will continue “for many more months”, without specifying in what manner.
According to Ignatius’ sources, Tel Aviv believes that around 75% of Hamas’ organized military capacity has been destroyed and that the Rafah operation will eliminate much of the remaining. However, recent war developments, with fighting also resuming in the north of the Strip (Jabalia, Nuseirat And Gaza City), show that the Islamist group led by Yaya Sinwar it adopted a guerrilla technique, melting into the population without leading to direct clashes. “This will be a continuing headache for Israel, which plans to conduct regular raids against insurgents, just as it does now in the West Bank,” writes Ignatius, imagining the future scenario in Gaza.
A post-war plan: Netanyahu’s stumbling block – Some Israeli defense ministers and officials also reportedly agreed to one post-war strategy, on which, however, distances remain with the political wing of the ultra-right that supports Netanyahu in government and with the prime minister himself. Last week the centrist war cabinet minister Benny Gantz, a former general, threatened to resign if the executive did not propose a plan for the “day after Hamas”. According to Ignatius’ sources, the plan on which a general agreement was reached will provide for a Palestinian security force dependent in part on theAuthority Palestinian and overseen by a governing council supported by moderate Arab states such as Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. This is the original US plan, but the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already publicly rejected it. Hamas would be ready to accept a “transition” towards this governing entity as.
France supports arrests for Netanyahu, Gallant – Paris officially announced its support for the decision of the Prosecutor’s Office of the International Criminal Court (ICC), led by Karim Khanto request, on Monday, international arrest warrants for “war crimes and crimes against humanity” against Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Gallant, as well as the three main Hamas leaders Yaya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh.
“France supports the International Criminal Court, its independence and the fight against impunity in all situations,” wrote the Ministry of the Foreign French in a press release issued on Monday night. Remembering that it had condemned the massacre of October 7, the dicastery of Catherine Column wrote that “France has warned for many months of the need for strict compliance with international humanitarian law, and in particular the unacceptable level of civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip and inadequate humanitarian access” and underlines the need for a political solution lasting in Gaza.
The Tel Aviv government has recalled that it does not recognize the authority of the Criminal Court and all Israeli politics have stigmatized the choice to equate the country’s leadership with that of Hamas in the request for arrest. “The ICC wants to undermine our right to self-defense,” Gallant said. Prosecutor Khan had explained that this is not the case.
The positions of other states on the ICC The Belgium declared broad support for the ICC decision, Ireland, Spain and Slovenia accepted the decision as it was issued by an independent legal body recognized by the States. The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrel declared that “all States which have ratified the Statute of the Court. At the opposite, Kingdom United (which does not recognize the International Criminal Court), AustriaAnd Germany they expressed concerns about the “equalization” between Hamas and Israel that would result from Khan’s decision. The President of the United States (who do not recognize the ICC) Joe Biden defended Israel before international justice, calling the request for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders “outrageous”. His head of diplomacy, Anthony Blinkenstated that Prosecutor Khan’s decision is “shameful”.
If the judges of the Preliminary Court of the ICC decide to validate the arrest warrant requested by the prosecutor’s office for Netanyahu And Gallantin theory, all 124 Member States of the International Criminal Court would be obliged to arrest them if they went to their territory. The ICC has no police force to enforce its mandates and relies on the willingness of its member states to cooperate. The mandates will likely only complicate some diplomatic trips by Israeli leaders. The actual trial for the crimes of which they are accused cannot begin unless they are first ducts The arrestsas ICC legislation does not allow proceedings in absentia.
IDF operation in the West Bank: 7 dead – At least seven Palestinians were killed and nine wounded in an “anti-terrorism operation” by Israeli forces in Jenin, in the West Bank, announced by the IDF on victims, including a surgeon from Jenin Aseed Jabareen hospital, a teacher and a pupil, and 10 injured, two of whom are in serious condition. The IDF reported having “shot several armed men”. The clashes reportedly took place near Jenin and Wadi Burqin.
Hezbollah commander killed in Lebanon – The Israeli army announced that it had killed in a raid in Tyre, in Lebanon“the terrorist Qassem Saqlawi, Commander of the rocket and missile system in Hezbollah’s central coastal sector.” According to the IDF military spokesperson, Saqlawi was “responsible for planning and executing numerous rocket attacks against Israel.” Last night, a series of Hezbollah rockets launched towards the western Galilee fell in an open area. In response, the army struck a Hezbollah launch site in the area Ramyehin southern Lebanon.
