Xinhua News Agency, Jerusalem, November 6 (International Observation) The Palestinian-Israeli conflict continues for a month, and the international community strongly calls for peace.
Xinhua News Agency reporter Lu Yingxu Wang Zhuolun
By November 7, the new round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict that has captured the world’s attention will be one month old. The conflict has caused heavy losses to both Palestine and Israel. Massive civilian casualties and displacement have caused serious humanitarian disasters. This conflict will have a profound impact on the internal political situation of both Palestine and Israel, regional security and even the world situation. The international community issued a strong call for a ceasefire and an end to the war, calling for urgent action to cool down the situation as soon as possible.
high intensity conflict
On October 7, the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) launched a surprise attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip. On the same day, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu declared that the country had entered a “state of war.”
According to figures released on the United Nations website on November 5, this round of conflict has caused nearly 10,000 deaths and more than 20,000 injuries on the Palestinian side, while about 1,400 people have died and more than 5,000 people have been injured on the Israeli side. 62% of the population in the Gaza Strip has been displaced, and the humanitarian disaster is severe.
Judging from the intensity of the conflict, data from the Israeli think tank Institute for National Security shows that as of November 6, Gaza armed groups had fired more than 9,000 rockets at Israel. The Israeli army said on October 12 that it had dropped about 6,000 bombs on the Gaza Strip in less than a week.
Judging from the scope of the impact, after a new round of conflict between Palestine and Israel broke out, Hezbollah in Lebanon supported Hamas. Its military organization fired rockets and artillery shells at Israeli military positions, and the Israeli military responded with heavy artillery. This is the largest conflict on the border between the two countries since the Lebanese-Israeli conflict in 2006. The Houthi armed forces in Yemen have also launched multiple cross-border missile and drone attacks on Israel. The conflict has also spread to Syria and Iraq. U.S. military bases in these two countries have been attacked many times, and the U.S. military has also attacked military targets in Syria. In addition, in addition to the Gaza Strip, Israel has also had multiple conflicts with Palestinian armed groups in the West Bank.
It is not easy for Israel to achieve its military goals
IDF spokesman Hagari said on the evening of the 5th that the Israeli army had “divided the Gaza Strip into two parts” and would carry out a “major strike” operation against Gaza. He said that Israel’s war against Hamas has entered an important stage. Encircling northern Gaza and separating it from the southern Gaza Strip is an important step for the Israeli military’s operations.
According to a report in the Times of Israel on October 29, Israeli Defense Minister Galante recently announced that the military plan is divided into four steps: the first step is air strikes and limited ground operations; the second step is expanded ground operations; the third step is Post-Hamas era; the fourth step is for Israel to stop delivering gas, water, electricity, etc. to Gaza. Netanyahu previously said the fighting in the Gaza Strip would be “long and difficult.”
However, analysts pointed out that this round of conflict is likely to be difficult to advance as Israel plans.
First, eliminating Hamas will not be easy. Kobe Michael, a senior researcher at the Israel Institute for National Security Studies, told Xinhua News Agency that the biggest difficulty facing the Israeli military is the spider-web-like tunnels under Gaza City. These tunnels are 40 to 60 meters deep and hundreds of kilometers long, so the Israeli military must deal with them carefully. Liu Zhongmin, a professor at the Institute of Middle East Studies at Shanghai International Studies University, believes that even if Israel occupies Gaza, it will be difficult to achieve its goal of wiping out Hamas.
Secondly, there are doubts about Israel’s ability to support long-term huge military expenditures. Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on October 25 that the average daily direct expenditure of this round of Palestine-Israel conflict exceeds US$200 million, which does not include other projects such as mobilizing reserves and dealing with combat losses.
Furthermore, the international community’s calls for a ceasefire and an end to the war are growing, and Israel is facing increasing diplomatic pressure.
Palestinian political analyst Samir Anabtawi told Xinhua News Agency that the Israeli government and military have repeatedly stated that military operations in Gaza will be very difficult. This is paving the way for public opinion and preparing the people to accept huge losses. And the Israeli army may withdraw from the battle at any time.
Impact on the internal affairs of Palestine and Israel and the situation in the Middle East
Analysts believe that the direction of this round of conflict may determine Netanyahu’s political fate. Some Israeli media polls show that if an election is held now, the Likud party led by Netanyahu may win only 19 seats, far lower than the current 32 seats.
On October 30, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attended a press conference in Tel Aviv.Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Zhuolun
From an internal Palestinian perspective, the Palestinian National Authority has now lost complete control over Jenin, Nablus and many other West Bank cities. Pakistani political analyst Akram Atallah said that if the Israeli army cannot eliminate Hamas, then after this battle, Hamas’s influence in Pakistan will be greatly increased, and the situation of the Palestinian National Authority will be even more difficult.
This round of conflict has once again strained relations between Israel and regional Arab countries. In the Middle East, Saudi Arabia has suspended negotiations on the normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel promoted by the United States; Jordan and Turkey announced the recall of their ambassadors from Israel; Bahrain announced the recall of its ambassador to Israel and terminated economic relations with Israel.
Israeli writer and journalist Meron Rapoport pointed out that Netanyahu had previously committed to bypassing the Palestinian issue and reconciliation with Arab countries, but this round of conflicts reminded Israelis that if they want to achieve peace with Arab countries, the Palestinian issue must be bypassed. Don’t go there.
Spillover risks are temporarily controllable
Analysts pointed out that in addition to the Gaza armed organizations, the Lebanese Hezbollah, the Syrian armed organizations, and the Yemeni Houthi armed groups are also involved in this round of conflicts. However, from the current point of view, the risk of conflict spillover is still within the controllable range, and there are no signs of the expansion of the war. obvious.
So far, the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel has been limited to 3 to 4 kilometers in the border area. Although Hezbollah leader Said Hassan Nasrallah had a tough attitude towards Israel in his speech on the 3rd, he did not mention expanding the scale of the operation. On the whole, sporadic missile attacks from Syria and Yemen can only provide support.
In addition, although the United States has two aircraft carrier battle groups deployed in the Mediterranean and provides weapons, ammunition and financial support to Israel, it is unlikely to directly participate in the war. Anabtawi pointed out that the United States also faces other problems internationally, such as the Ukraine crisis, and therefore does not want to be directly involved in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
The international community strongly calls for a ceasefire
The Gaza Strip is currently in a serious humanitarian crisis. UN officials said that nearly 70% of those killed by air strikes in Gaza were women and children. The international community continues to reiterate calls for a humanitarian ceasefire.
The emergency special session of the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution on the situation between Israel and Palestine by a high vote on October 27, calling on Israel and the Palestinian conflict parties to immediately implement a long-lasting and sustained humanitarian truce, thereby promoting the cessation of hostilities. United Nations Secretary-General Guterres issued a statement late at night on November 3, calling on Hamas to immediately and unconditionally release all hostages held in Gaza. He also stated that in the past month, civilians in the Gaza Strip have been besieged and killed, and their homes have been destroyed. Blown up, without aid, “this has to stop.”
The foreign ministers of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates met with US Secretary of State Blinken in the Jordanian capital Amman on the 4th, urging Blinken to persuade Israel to agree to a ceasefire. Many Latin American countries have also expressed dissatisfaction with Israel through diplomatic actions. Bolivia announced that it would cut off diplomatic relations with Israel, and Colombia, Chile, and Honduras recalled their ambassadors to Israel. On the 4th, tens of thousands of demonstrators marched from Washington to Milan to Paris, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
As a staunch ally, the United States has repeatedly expressed support for Israel since the outbreak of this round of conflicts. It not only sent additional military forces to the Middle East and provided a large amount of military assistance to Israel, but also vetoed the adoption of draft resolutions by the United Nations Security Council on the situation between Palestine and Israel. However, as the humanitarian crisis intensifies and protests continue in the United States, the Biden administration is facing greater political pressure.
The conflict between Palestine and Israel has been going on for one month. It is urgent to cease fire and stop the war and prevent a larger-scale humanitarian disaster. The international community must take practical actions. (Participating reporter: Liu Weijian)
(Editors: Cui Yue, Liu Yeting)
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