Blick-Ausland reporter experiences a new phase of the war in Israel: “The only thing that matters is the return of the hostages”

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Is this what it is, the ground offensive that Israel has been announcing for weeks and that is feared by 2.3 million people in Gaza? The Israeli Defense Forces do not want to officially confirm this. But the fact is: even 12 hours after tanks and elite units invaded the Palestinian coastal strip, Israeli troops were still on the move in Gaza on Saturday afternoon.

On Friday afternoon I was still standing in Kfar Aza, a kibbutz that was attacked by Hamas terrorists, less than a mile from Gaza. The Israeli army fired artillery shells at close range every minute at Hamas positions in Gaza. Fighter jets roared across the cloudy sky.

Saturday evening I woke up to the thunderous sound of Israeli military aircraft in my hotel room in Nazareth, northern Israel. From the nearby air base, Israel carries out repeated attacks on Syria and Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon.

Women’s bodies defiled and childishly tortured

Acoustically speaking, the war is in full swing. At least 1,400 Israelis and probably more than 6,000 Palestinians have lost their lives since the Hamas attack on October 7 – in a number of brutal ways. In Kfar Aza, senior Israeli officer Golan Vach, 49, told me that he had personally recovered the raped bodies of women and tortured children from the rubble of the kibbutz. In recent days I have heard horror stories from Gaza about wailing children fighting for their lives under the rubble of bombed houses, out of reach.

After last night’s violent Israeli attacks on Gaza, it seems clear: the war in the Middle East has entered a new phase. Israeli Defense Minister Joaw Gallant (64) also put it this way on Saturday. Perhaps this was a final “warning shot” from the Israelis to Hamas to finally release the more than 220 hostages kidnapped to Gaza. Perhaps it was the progressive start of the ground offensive, as the secret negotiations for the release of the hostages failed and Israel is now going full force against Hamas.

The people here in Israel are all saying the same thing: “We want our hostages released. That’s all that matters.” I don’t know what my contact in Gaza, with whom I communicated almost daily, would have to say about last night. I couldn’t reach him on Saturday.

Source: Blick