Israel vows to turn Gaza’s tunnels into cemetery ahead of ground storming
Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, October 19: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted a video on his telegram channel showing himself delivering a pep talk to the soldiers near the border with Gaza. Netanyahu exhorts in the video that “the part of the country fought like lions; are you ready”.
Netanyahu’s posting of the video was accompanied with the Israeli Economy Minister Nir Barkat said that “the hostages and civilian casualties will be secondary to the priority of destroying Hamas”. He further stated that the “tunnel network will become the world’s biggest cemetery”. His remark was in the context of the challenges faced by the Israeli defence forces in Gaza where they may have to enter the vast network of tunnels to fight the Hamas.
The imminent prospects of Israel launching the ground strike got further urgency on the back of Tel Aviv announcing the decision to close down embassies in a number of the Middle East countries, including Turkey. Israeli embassies have been facing massive protests in the wake of the rocket strike against a hospital in Gaza. However, European intelligence reports gave a new twist to the claims of Palestinians of 500 people being killed, saying that the casualty was inflated 10-20 times.
With the ground storming becoming imminent, the Rafa border is going to be opened for the humanitarian assistance to be given to the Palestinians in the Gaza area. Amos Harel writing in Haaretz, and Israeli daily, underlined that US President Joe Biden has drawn a line for Tel Aviv that Washington will provide deterrence to Israel while also ensuring humanitarian assistance to the civilians in Gaza. The US State Department on Thursday mentioned on multiple occasions the interests of civilians as Israel vows to eliminate the Hamas.
Israeli officials on Thursday asserted that the Hamas will not have a border with Israel after the ground action is launched. Israel is now speaking in terms of a buffer zone between Israel and Gaza. The security analysts are also stressing that Israel may encounter roadblocks during the ground action because of the bombardment of Gaza after the October 7 Hamas attacks. The rubles of the destroyed buildings strewn on the streets may hamper the movement of the Israeli forces, who will also have to enter the tunnels where the Hamas are operating from. Also, the Hamas will have no escape route out of the tunnels, noted the security experts.
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