Fighting in North Gaza Intensifies, Rockets Fired Toward Tel Aviv

Facts

• Israel's bombardment of the northern Gaza Strip escalated on Thursday, with intense fighting being reported in and around Jabalia near Gaza City and Hamas firing rockets at Tel Aviv. Residents of the area said communications had been cut since Wednesday and that Israeli forces, including snipers, had fully encircled Jabalia. The World Health Organization reported Thursday the last hospital in the north of the Strip has effectively ceased functioning over the past two days.¹
• Israeli National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said Israel may soften its resistance to having the Palestinian Authority (PA) control Gaza after the war ends and that 'Israel has no interest in controlling civil affairs in Gaza' but that there needs to be a 'moderate Palestinian governing body' with 'broad support.' He stressed that the PA would need to be reformed; previous statements made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the PA returning to Gaza to govern the strip.²
• French Pres. Emmanuel Macron called for 'a truce leading to a humanitarian ceasefire,' though he did clarify that he believed Israel had the 'right to defend itself and fight terror.' He also said that, in fighting Palestinian militants, Israel did not need to 'flatten Gaza,' continuing a pattern of Macron's increasing criticism of Israel's military campaign.³
• A UN Human Rights Office report alleged that Israeli forces had summarily executed at least 11 unarmed Palestinian men in front of their family members in the al-Remal neighborhood of Gaza City. Though the UN confirmed the killings, 'the details and circumstances of the killings are still under verification' — the Israeli military has not released any information regarding the incident.⁴
• Gaza's health ministry reports that the conflict has killed over 20K people in the Gaza Strip, including 8K children. The official Israeli death toll stands at 1.2K people and there are still over 100 hostages being held in the Gaza Strip.⁵
• The UN Security Council was expected to vote again Thursday on a resolution calling for some sort of ceasefire in Gaza and the delivery of humanitarian aid, but it was delayed for a fourth time since Monday by the US. Washington said it was concerned that the resolution could 'actually slow down' humanitarian assistance into the Strip. The US still objected to a provision including the UN monitoring aid deliveries, saying it would take away Israel's screening abilities.⁶

Sources: ¹Reuters, ²The times of israel, ³Guardian, ⁴Reliefweb, ⁵Al and ⁶BBC News.

Narratives

• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by CNN. Though, of course, Israel has a right to dismantle Hamas's military capabilities, it must wage this war in a humane way. The amount of civilians being killed will only galvanize Palestinians against peace and push them into the arms of Hamas. A more thorough and surgical campaign is now needed to eliminate Hamas's leadership in Gaza, as Israel is losing global support.
• Pro-Israel narrative, as provided by Jerusalem post. Though this has been a tragic war, Israel cannot allow Hamas to survive. It also seems that the Biden administration wants to pressure Israel into a ceasefire, to which Israel must push back against such short-sighted thinking. Israel is a sovereign country and has the right to defend itself from terrorism and pursue its own interests. Hamas's military capabilities must be eliminated so that the group can never launch a terrorist attack like Oct. 7 again.
• Pro-Palestine narrative, as provided by Middle east eye. Israel continues to demonstrate that its war is not against Hamas but against the Palestinian people as a whole. Nowhere in Gaza is safe, and Israel has effectively rendered the north of the strip uninhabitable. Israel is killing Palestinians at an unprecedented rate and clearly wants to make the entire Gaza Strip unlivable. Though the US, Israel's biggest ally, wants to minimize the war's intensity, it must instead exert more pressure to end the war completely.

Predictions