Click to see full-size image. (Israeli Defense Forces)
Israel’s major offensive against Hamas in Gaza City is causing frustration in Egypt, which is reported to be amassing forces in the Sinai Peninsula along the border with the Strip.
In two separate statements released on September 20, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said the offensive, codenamed “Operation Gideon’s Chariots B,” was still ongoing with the 162nd and 98th divisions advancing in Gaza City and destroying “terrorist infrastructure” there.
Elsewhere in northern Gaza, the IDF said the 99th Division’s forces directed strikes on several Hamas infrastructures and killed operatives. And in the southern part of the Strip, the Gaza Division destroyed additional Hamas sites, including tunnels, and killed several operatives in the areas Khan Younis and Rafah.
The IDF said in the first statement that the Israeli Air Force struck over 100 targets across the Strip overnight, and added in the second that an additional 120 targets were struck in Gaza City as a result of joint efforts by the 98th division and the intelligence.
Also during the day, the IDF acknowledged coming under fire for the first time since the start of its major offensive. According to the military, a soldier was moderately wounded after being hit by sniper fire while operating in the outskirts of Gaza City.
Al-Jazzer reported, citing Palestinian health officials, that at least 84 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire across the Strip during the day, including 69 in besieged Gaza City.
The deadliest attack saw an Israeli strike hitting al-Mu’atassim School in the western part of Gaza City. Dozens were killed or wounded in the strike, including children.
More than half of one million Palestinians who were living in Gaza City have already left, according to the IDF’s own estimates. While Israel is relieved by this mass displacement, Egypt is not.
Lebanon’s Al-Akhbar newspaper reported on September 20 that Egypt had warned Israel that it will increase its forces along the border with Gaza if there is a mass wave of Palestinians that migrate from the Strip.
Within 72 hours of such an event, Egypt would double the number of troops on the border and bring in heavy weaponry and helicopters into the Sinai, according to the report, which noted that Israel must approve the transfer of heavy weaponry and increases in troops into the peninsula as a part of the peace agreement with Egypt.
An Egyptian military source told the newspaper that the increase in military forces in the Sinai would deter Israel from forcing Gazans across the border.
Later, a report by Israel’s Channel 12, citing Israel and American officials, revealed that Israel had asked the United States to pressure Egypt over its military buildup in Sinai.
“What the Egyptians are doing in the Sinai is very grave and we’re very worried,” one of the sources told the news channel.
Separately, an Egyptian source told the Israeli Haaretz newspaper that the military build up in Sinai was without “offensive intentions.”
“[Egypt] sees peace with Israel as a strategic asset. Its main concern is that Palestinians will be forcibly uprooted from their territory,” the source was quoted as saying.
Additional Egyptian and diplomatic sources told the newspaper that Cairo is concerned that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to reduce Egypt’s troop presence in the Sinai in order to coercively remove Palestinians from the area.
Israel claims that its major offensive is meant to force Hamas to disarm and release all the remaining hostages. However, senior Israeli officials didn’t hide their desire to completely occupy the Strip and displace all Palestinians from there. Earlier this year, Israel and the U.S. were reported to be in talks with several countries that could host Gazans.
Egypt refused the displacement plan, and its worries now are very logical. With no one willing to host Palestinians from Gaza, the IDF may be planning to corner them along the border with Egypt in the hope of them breaking into Sinai, something that happened in the past.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence
NOW hosted at southfront.press
Previously, SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence was at southfront.org.
The .org domain name had been blocked by the US (NATO) (https://southfront.press/southfront-org-blocked-by-u-s-controlled-global-internet-supervisor/) globally, outlawed and without any explanation
Back before that, from 2013 to 2015, SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence was at southfront.com
mr shekelsteuin train me to scrub jew toilets–he pay my tuition akron janitor academy
egypt don’t have that thing to do anything against israel .
each day the us hegemon becomes a thing of the past, and each day all subservient countries seems to grow that “thing” called balls.
southfront idiots think egypt is going to save gaza…heheheh
no they don’t. sisi is a bought and paid for whore who sold his soul to the jooz long ago. he won’t lift a finger against his joo puppet masters. he just doesn’t want hundreds of thousands of starving refugees from the joo genocide dumped on him. whore sisi hasn’t sent a single loaf of bread into gaza.
hamas is losing, arab community foaming at the mouth about it lol
these quisling collaborator dictators have been in bed with the jooz for years. they aren’t foaming at the mouth about anything, they just drop their trousers and bend over.
alsisis is just a puppet in zio hands.