Israel in the war “more determined than ever”

While the accidental killing of three Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip by its own soldiers continues to stir people, the government is undeterred in continuing its war against the Hamas. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu emphasized that military pressure on Hamas must be maintained. This is the only way to defeat them and ensure the return of all those abducted. “We are more determined than ever to continue to the end, until we destroy Hamas and bring back all of our abductees,” Netanyahu said.

Meanwhile, released hostages, relatives of hostages and hundreds of supporters demonstrated again on Saturday evening in Tel Aviv for the release of those still abducted in the Gaza Strip. Noam Perry, a relative of one of the hostages, accused Netanyahu’s war cabinet of saying military pressure was necessary to get the hostages released. “Now more and more hostages are coming back as corpses,” said Perry. According to Israeli estimates, 112 hostages are still being held.

Meanwhile, Israel‘s Chief of General Staff Herzi Halevi took responsibility for the accidental killing of the three Israeli hostages. “The army and I as its commander are responsible for what happened and we will do everything to prevent such cases from repeating in the future of the fighting,” he said in a video published on X.

Military chief: Shooting is not allowed when the flag is white

At the same time, he made it clear that people with a white flag who wanted to surrender should not be shot at. Rules of engagement were violated when the hostages were killed on Friday. “The three hostages did everything to make us recognize them as such – they had their shirts off so we could see they weren’t wearing explosive belts, and they were holding a white flag,” Halevi said.

At the same time, he pointed out that the soldiers were in an active combat zone. Terrorists are active there in civilian clothing and every decision in a split second can mean the difference between life and death. The only consolation for the families of the fallen soldiers is that their deaths were not in vain, said Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, according to the newspaper “The Times of Israel”. Therefore, they will “ensure that we continue to fight until we achieve total victory,” said Netanyahu.

The situation for civilians in Gaza remains unbearable

Meanwhile, the situation of the Palestinian civilian population remains unbearable. Gaza’s largest hospital, Shifa, was badly damaged and was only “minimally functional.” and must urgently be able to resume at least the most basic functions “to continue to provide care to the thousands of people who need life-saving medical care,” said the WHO on Sunday.

The emergency room has its own team as a “bloodbath”. described in which new patients arrive every minute. In the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip, only a handful of doctors, a few nurses and 70 volunteers would be left under “incredibly difficult” conditions. working conditions. The operating theaters are not functioning because there is a lack of fuel, oxygen, specialist staff and supplies. There was also no blood for transfusions, it was said.

US President Joe Biden had called on Israel to to show more consideration for the civilian population in the war that has been going on for more than two months. After discussions with the Israeli leadership, the US government recently expressed the expectation that Israel would benefit from military action with “high intensity.” to “more targeted” Operations will be skipped. A time period for this was not mentioned.

Hamas’ million-dollar business remained untouched for years

According to a newspaper report, Israel’s security authorities had uncovered millions in transactions by the Islamist Hamas years ago, without the governments of Israel or the USA taking immediate action. As the “New York Times” reported that in 2018, security authorities were able to obtain detailed lists of assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars from a computer belonging to a senior Hamas official.

Nevertheless, for years none of the Hamas companies listed there had been sanctioned, neither by the Israeli government nor by the USA. At that time, no pressure was exerted on Turkey, the hub of the Hamas financing network, to close it down.

Hamas controlled mining, chicken breeding and road construction companies in Sudan, two skyscrapers in the United Arab Emirates, a real estate developer in Algeria as well a real estate company listed on the Turkish Stock Exchange. The newspaper wrote that the relevant documents had been viewed.