'What they are searching for is, of course, the Hamas militants in the tunnels underneath the strip'

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00:00 Benjamin Netanyahu himself has described this as the second phase since the war started,

00:07 restarted rather after those October 7th events. What exactly is Israel's strategy here in terms

00:13 of its military offensive into Gaza as it stands? Well, they don't tell us exactly what their

00:21 strategy is. What we can see with our own eyes is that it's not a massive ground offensive covering

00:29 the whole of Gaza. It's limited to the northern half of the Gaza Strip and it is an escalation,

00:36 but it's not the full firepower that Israel has lined up at the Gaza border. So tanks go in,

00:42 infantry goes in, APCs go in, and they go quite slowly and they go forward slowly. And what they

00:48 are searching for, of course, is the Hamas militants in the tunnels underneath the Strip,

00:55 where they are at the moment. And they have reported today that a certain number, they didn't

01:00 say how many, they said dozens of Hamas militants were killed in combat when they emerged from the

01:07 tunnels. And perhaps that I could say to you is part of the strategy, in addition to the aerial

01:13 bombardments, which we have been watching, I think, since day two or three or since Israel began to

01:19 respond now 22 days ago, to the attack now 22 days ago. I think I'd like to also talk about

01:27 the humanitarian situation, because we have heard from Israel's Defence Force spokesman,

01:33 the spokesperson, that two things are changing. One is they've been turning on,

01:37 starting again a pipe, a water pipe, so turning the water back on to the south of the Gaza Strip

01:45 while they're still calling on civilians in the north of the Gaza Strip to move south.

01:50 And that they are planning also to reintroduce or to agree to the humanitarian aid convoys coming in

01:58 at something like 100 trucks a day. And it's being reported here that that is the suggestion or the

02:04 influence of Washington, because once again, there was a conversation between US President Joe Biden

02:10 and Israel's Prime Minister. I think it's also significant that the chief prosecutor for the ICC,

02:16 the International Criminal Court, was on the border of Gaza today at the Rafah border crossing.

02:22 And he said, described it as a tragic time, said he could only see Gaza, he couldn't get in. But

02:28 he did remind everyone, I think, that there are complaints that he is investigating about events

02:35 in Israel, alleged war crimes and about crimes committed by Israel. And I think it's very pointed

02:43 that he was at the Rafah border crossing today. And he does say, of course, impeding relief

02:48 supplies to Gaza's population may constitute war crimes under the International Criminal Court.

02:53 That is a development that we will keep our eye on. But now, obviously, with all these

02:57 humanitarian problems, resource issues on the ground in Gaza, there is one thing which has

03:03 remained constant despite everything. That's rockets coming from Hamas.

03:08 That's right. I mean, that is definitely worth commenting on because there's rocket fire into

03:15 Israel, including up to Tel Aviv, so quite far from the border every day, numerous times a day.

03:22 So the one thing that does seem to be functioning still is Hamas with its network of tunnels under

03:28 the ground. There was an interview given to The New York Times in which a Lebanese official was

03:33 quoted as saying that they have there enough, you know, hundreds of thousands of litres of fuel,

03:39 enough to generate electricity for them, enough to power their rockets, which are all fuel powered,

03:44 food, medicine, everything they will need to function and to build more rockets for three

03:51 to four months. I think he was saying that as a warning to Israel to think clearly, to think

03:56 carefully about what it's getting into. But it also raises the question of what is the relationship

04:02 between Hamas and the civilians in Gaza? Because the people who are being protected from the

04:09 Israeli bombing is the Hamas militants. It's not the people going underground to take cover. So

04:16 there is that suggestion that Israel has frequently made that Hamas is using the humans,

04:22 the Gazan civilians as human shields. And you can see a procedure here whereby it's protecting

04:30 itself. And I just want to say there was an interview with Khaled Mashal, who is a Hamas

04:35 politician who lives outside of Gaza. It was on Saudi television. And he was asked about this,

04:41 you know, did you consult the people of Gaza before you launched that October the 7th attack

04:46 in Israel, knowing that it was going to bring retribution upon them? And he said, they're

04:52 prepared to suffer because we are achieving the goal of conquering Israel, defeating Israel. That's

04:59 the point of resistance. You know, that's all very well for him to say. He's living in Doha,

05:04 in Qatar, in Doha, in some luxury. And the people of Gaza who are not consulted are the ones paying

05:10 the price. So lots of

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