The conflict in the Gaza Strip continues to heat up with Israel's announcement that fighting could continue until the end of 2024, while the death toll and casualties in this hot spot continue to rise.
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| Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip on January 7. (Source:AP) |
On January 7, Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Herzi Halevi visited the West Bank - the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, Xinhua reported.
Here, General Halevi said that 2024 will be "challenging" and Israel "will definitely be fighting in Gaza until the end of this year", implying that the current full-scale conflict between this country and Hamas may cool down but not end.
Mr Halevi warned of the possibility of violence erupting “on other fronts, especially in the West Bank”, where tensions have been rising since the conflict in the Gaza Strip began on 7 October 2023.
Noting that Israel will increase "pressure" in the northern border area with Lebanon, where the IDF is fighting Hezbollah, he said: "Hezbollah has decided to join this conflict. We are increasingly causing heavy damage to them."
On the same day, Al Jazeera TV channel quoted Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari warning that the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon was "putting the future of the region in danger, all for the benefit of Hamas".
| This is a time of deep tension in the region. The conflict could easily spread, causing more instability and suffering. |
Meanwhile, on January 8, Reuters quoted a statement from the health agency in the Gaza Strip saying that 73 Palestinians were killed and 99 injured in Israeli airstrikes on this conflict zone in the past 24 hours.
To date, the conflict between Hamas and Israel has killed about 1,200 people in Israel and 22,722 Palestinians.
Regarding international developments, according to The National News, during US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's ongoing trip to the Middle East, the diplomat warned that the conflict between Israel and the Hamas Movement in Gaza could "metastasize" in the wider Middle East region.
"This is a time of deep tension in the region. The conflict could easily spread, causing more instability and even more suffering," he told reporters.
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