Bringing War to the West Bank and Controlling the Philadelphia Corridor

It’s still going on now ten dayshas left 36 dead – according to Palestinian authorities – and it does not seem like it will stop anytime soon. “The time will come when we will uproot the roots,” Gallant added before detailing that, to “prevent terrorism”Israeli troops will have to intensify their activity on Palestinian territory.

With ground attacks -with ground troops, snipers, armored vehicles and bulldozers– and by air – with explosive drones and aviation -, Israeli troops have deployed operations in four areas, known strongholds of militia movements: in the towns and refugee camps of Jenin, Tulkarem and Tubasto the north, and to Hebron to the south. There, they argue, they are trying to dismantle Hamas militias and Islamic Jihad. And there, they repeat, they will stay “as long as necessary” until they end the threat.

It is true that from the first days of the incursion, the army announced that it had killed Wasem Hazemone of the Hamas leaders, and two other fighters, “in an airstrike against the vehicle in which they were trying to flee.” That same Thursday, Israeli forces eliminated several members of a “Armed terrorist cell in Jenin region“, according to a military statement.

However, in a place plagued by a vast and precarious refugee campsThe attacks also left civilian victims, some of them minors, with no connection to the armed groups. Without going any further, a few days ago, a 14 year old boyMuhammad Kanaan was killed in one of the fields by an Israeli sniper, according to the Palestinian news agency. WafaAnother 16-year-old girl died. bullet in the head as he looked out of the window of his home, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

In addition to these deaths, which report more than 330, the number of Palestinians (militiamen but also civilians) who lost their lives in the West Bank this year, the Israeli macro-operation has also left a trace of destruction. The soldiers They blocked access towards major cities, destroying houses, roads and infrastructure with bulldozers, causing water and electricity services to be cut off.

Thus, the Israeli army appears to have, on a smaller scale, responded in the West Bank. the fence which has been applied in Gaza since the start of the war on October 7.

The Philadelphia Corridor

The decision to move military operations to the West Bank did not end land, sea and air attacks on the Gaza Strip. The pressure intensified after the Israeli army discovered in a tunnel in RafahIn the south of the enclave, the bodies of six of those kidnapped by Hamas during the terrorist attacks a year ago and executed in cold blood.

The death of these hostages triggered a wave of indignationn spread across the country. In recent days, tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets to protest against the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu (whom they hold responsible for the deaths) and demand a ceasefire that brings back the hundred Israelis still in the hands of Palestinian militias.

In an attempt to calm things down and justify the continuation of the offensive in Gaza despite the pressure to conclude a truce, Netanyahu discovered the philadelphia corridor -the 14-kilometer border between the territory of Gaza and Egypt- a new indisputable military objective. In the same way as the Al Shifa hospital, which had to be entered to put an end to the enormous “Command and Control Center” underground, controlling this area has now become “a strategic imperative”.

That’s how the prime minister explained it this week in a televised press conference that ended up becoming a defense of why going down this path permanently is “the only way “win the war” and “bring back the hostages.” The reason? Because, according to Netanyahu, when the Israeli army abandoned Gaza in 2005, the Philadelphia Corridor “has become a smuggling zone for weapons supplied by Iran“The same ones that later allowed Hamas to launch its large-scale attack on October 7.

“We will not abandon the Philadelphia corridor, even during the 42-day period included in the proposed interchange agreement. [de rehenes y presos]. We do not want to leave Gaza and then return; we want to stay. I am committed to bringing back the hostages, but leaving Philadelphia won’t be enough“, insisted Bibi (the name by which the Israeli politician is commonly known).

To strengthen your thesis, showed Lebanon, from which Israel withdrew 24 years ago. “They told us that we could come back if they fired missiles at us, but we can’t do it because of international pressure,” he complained, in clear reference to governments that accuse him of not wanting to reach a ceasefire.

Lebanon, a front still open

Today, the border with Lebanon constitutes one of Israel’s open fronts. From there, the Israeli army exchanged attacks with the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah – made in the image and likeness of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards – for a year. Wednesday It was a particularly intense day.Israel recorded nearly 100 Hezbollah rockets, but said almost all were intercepted and others fell in open spaces.

Precisely, August was the month in which the militia launched more rockets into Israeli territory since the two sides began crossfire on October 8, with a total of 1,307, according to data from Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, the Shin Bet.

The increase in the number of rockets fired by the pro-Iranian group, does not overcome Israeli airstrikes perpetrated against Lebanese territory, according to an analysis at the end of August by the Beirut Urban Lab research center collected by the Efe agency. According to this think tankSince October, Hezbollah has launched some 1,700 rocket volleys, while the army has launched more than 7,400 against Lebanon.