US says Hamas far from beaten despite mass casualties, destruction
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The US has suggested that the Israeli occupation does not have a solid exit strategy from Gaza, as Hamas fighters have regrouped in the North.
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Displaced Palestinians evacuate from the Tal al-Zaatar refugee camp in northern Gaza on Saturday amid renewed aggression by Israeli forces. (AFP)
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) increased airstrikes on northern Gaza on Monday, facing a reconstituted Hamas in regions it claimed to have cleared and raising new concerns about the Israeli strategy in the war, while the US voiced some of its sharpest public condemnation yet.
"Israel" has insisted on invading Rafah, a city in southern Gaza where over a million people had taken refuge, to achieve its primary goal of "eliminating" Hamas' presence in the territory following months of combat further north.
However, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken cautioned on Sunday that even a full-scale ground attack on Rafah would fall short of that aim.
During an interview on NBC's Meet the Press, Blinken expressed that the Israeli government was "on the trajectory, potentially, to inherit an insurgency with many armed Hamas left or, if it leaves, a vacuum filled by chaos, filled by anarchy and probably refilled by Hamas."
He added that even after a Rafah invasion "there will still be thousands of armed Hamas left," adding that "we’ve seen, in areas that Israel has cleared in the north, even in Khan Younis, Hamas coming back."
He decried the "horrible loss of life of innocent civilians," days after Biden admitted that the Israeli occupation had killed civilians in Gaza using bombs supplied by the US, marking the first instance of such an admission by any US official since the genocidal war on the Strip began last October.
'Israel' should focus on post-war strategy for Gaza
Rather than focusing on an assault on Rafah, "Israel" should concentrate on providing a viable post-war strategy for Gaza, Blinken noted.
He revealed that he spoke to Israeli Security Minister Yoav Gallant on Sunday reiterating the US opposition to an invasion of Rafah, and Gallant's office revealed that the two discussed "the precise operation in the Rafah area against remaining Hamas battalions."
The contact occurred amid growing tensions between the two allies over "Israel's" murderous behavior in Gaza.
Negotiations for a fresh ceasefire appear to have gone down, and President Joe Biden vowed last week to block the sale of some armaments to "Israel" if it launched a full-scale attack on Rafah.
According to the UN, about 360,000 Palestinians were forced out of the city once designated as a "safe zone" since the IOF deployed tanks.
The Gaza Health Ministry reported being "hours away" from a complete collapse of the health system as electricity is on the verge of going out from the lack of fuel.
Andrea De Domenico, head of the United Nations humanitarian agency, OCHA, stated Thursday that "Israel's" blockade of major crossings into Gaza has shut off the main entrance route for supplies, notably gasoline, making humanitarian operations nearly impossible.
De Domenico told AFP that while "Israel" claims to have reopened Karem Abu Salem on Wednesday, getting supplies in remains extremely difficult, adding that the Rafah gate, through which all petroleum into Gaza flows, remains blocked, implying that no fuel is entering. The crossing was seized by the IOF last week.
Hamas far from defeated
Despite the devastating toll on the people in Gaza, Hamas appears far from defeated.
Palestinian Resistance factions are still engaging IOF across multiple battlefronts in Jabalia, situated in the north of the Gaza Strip, and the city of Rafah in the South. They are actively pursuing occupation soldiers and their vehicles, confronting them in intense close-range confrontations using a diverse range of weapons.
Blinken's deputy, Kurt Campbell, said that "Israel's" current strategy against Hamas will not lead to "total victory." Campbell commented on the situation in the Gaza Strip during a NATO Youth Summit in Miami, where he explained that the Biden administration had been "struggling over what the theory of victory is" in Gaza.
"Sometimes when we listen closely to Israeli leaders, they talked about mostly the idea of some sort of sweeping victory on the battlefield, total victory," Campbell said.
"I don’t think we believe that that is likely or possible," the top official underlined.
