Thousands in Jerusalem have protested against the dismissal of the head of the internal intelligence services. The relatives of the hostages accuse the Prime Minister: “He has condemned them to death.”
By: Anna Maria Brogi – Avvenire
Published:
From Gaza, only images come out. The word “press” on the back of the jacket, Palestinian reporters from international news agencies send pictures from the hospital corridors, documenting the horror. On the white tiles streaked with blood of the Indonesian hospital in Beit Lahia, in the north, blood-stained white bags lie lined up, hastily tied.
Each one bears a name, written in Arabic with a marker. The corridor is crowded with men, but there are also women and children. A group stands next to two shorter bags, one of which is partially open. It shows the lifeless face of a four or five-year-old child, streaked with red. A child who could be the brother, with an astonished look and dry eyes, observes him. Instant silent snapshots of a pain that screams without being heard.
Thirty kilometers further south, at the European hospital in Khan Yunis, the pitch-black eyes of a little face aged six to eight stare accusingly at the camera. Behind him, a row of white bags. In the cold tally of the dead, the hospital spokesperson Shuhada al-Aqsa told al-Arabiya News that there were 710 since the beginning of the raids, in the night between Monday and Tuesday, plus over a thousand injured. Hamas’ ministry reports 91 killed and over 130 injured in the last day.
The Israeli ground operation, started on Thursday, continues throughout the Strip with the aim of “expanding the security zone.” It is forbidden to travel along the main thoroughfare, the Salah al-Din road that runs from north to south, and to cross the Netzarim corridor, created by the army to cut horizontally across the Strip. A witness told Reuters of “bulldozers protected by tanks” heading west from the areas where they were stationed near the border barriers to the east of Salah al-Din. The military has deployed along Netzarim and on the coast of Beit Lahia.
A barrage of rockets was launched from the Strip towards Tel Aviv, where sirens sounded several times. As early as 4 in the morning, the population, even in Jerusalem, had rushed to the reinforced rooms to shield themselves from the missiles of the Yemeni Houthis. But it is not only the sound alarms that shake Israeli society. After the government postponed the discussion on the hostages (59, 24 of whom are alive) to next week, to focus on the vote to dismiss the head of Shin Bet (the internal services), Ronen Bar – accused by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of investigating him and his entourage regarding illicit relations with Qatar – thousands marched in protest towards the Knesset and the Prime Minister’s residence in Jerusalem. Moments of tension were recorded when demonstrators tried to break through the security barriers and the police sprayed water and foul-smelling gas. The president of the Democratic Party, Yair Golan, was pushed to the ground by an officer.
The Minister for Diaspora Affairs, Amichai Chikli, said that with Bar removed, the intelligence “will be less political.” On Thursday evening, Netanyahu attacked the judiciary: “In America and Israel, when a strong right-wing leader wins an election, the left-wing Deep State uses the judicial system as a weapon to oppose the will of the people. They will not win in either country!” President Isaac Herzog intervened to reassure: “Israel’s strong and independent judiciary is an asset to our democracy.” Still on social media, the ultra-nationalist Itamar Ben-Gvir, now Minister of Security, wrote.
