Le Monde: For more than 70 days… Israel hasn’t achieved any decisive success against Hamas

A report by French Le Monde newspaper, that asked about the goal of the Israeli military campaign in the Gaza Strip, and whether the goal was to destroy Hamas or to destroy Gaza?

After more than two months, Israel hasn’t achieved any decisive success against Hamas, while the Gaza Strip is being systematically destroyed at great human cost to the population.

Le Monde stated, “Benjamin Netanyahu rushed recklessly into the trap set for him by Hamas in Gaza… After 70 days of war, since it began an attack aimed at eradicating Hamas, Israel has succeeded in eliminating only one important leader, and that is Ahmed al Ghandour, in northern Gaza”.

Le Monde stated, “While half of Gaza City in the north has already been destroyed, Israeli bombing continues to sow the seeds of destruction and death in the center and south of the Strip”.

The map distributed by the Israeli army to identify the targeted areas, to inform residents where to flee, is based on a document that is half a century old.

It was established in 1971 under the authority of Ariel Sharon.

By recycling the 1971 map to frame, the current attack on Gaza shows the extent to which military thinking in Israel has remained frozen in denying the humanitarian reality in this region.

The report noted that not only have the strikes become more lethal against the population than they were in previous attacks, but the Israeli army doesn’t care that dozens of civilians are exposed to collateral damage when targeting a single Hamas official, even those of lower rank.

Senior Israeli military officers told the Financial Times that the Gaza campaign could continue for several more months, until the elimination of Yahya al Sinwar, Muhammad al Deif, and Marwan Issa, his deputy.

The fact that these three men are the only ones targeted by the most powerful army in the Middle East is worrying in itself.

As for the number of 7,000 Hamas fighters whom Israel claims to have killed, this number seems greatly exaggerated.

This number reflects the size of all adult males who have been killed since the start of the attack, in which 70% of the victims were women and children, and this reinforces fears that behind the declared desire for revenge lies the desire to eliminate not only Hamas, but also the Gaza Strip.

Le Monde report indicated that Netanyahu says that he wants to reduce the population of the Gaza Strip, where large buffer zones will be carved out, while Egyptian President Abdelfattah al Sisi and King Abdullah II, King of Jordan, have been unusually firm in their tone since the beginning of the crisis due to a speech.

Like this, and for the good reason that, in addition to internal unrest, the forced displacement of even a portion of Gaza’s population would lead to unprecedented risks of regional escalation in Egypt and Jordan.

Le Monde concluded, “Maybe it’s not too late to prevent such a worst-case scenario”.