by Kirill Semenov
[REGNUM] Israel resumed its offensive against Hamas on Tuesday, breaking a two-month truce, but as before, most of the victims were civilians. The attacks hit across the Strip, including Khan Younis and Rafah in the south, Gaza City in the north, and central areas such as Deir al-Balah. And the list of targets appears to be growing.
Yes. So very satisfying.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the military to take “decisive action” against Hamas over its refusal to release all prisoners held in Israel. “From now on, Israel will act against Hamas with increasing military force,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement. The Israeli military said it was carrying out “ massive strikes against terrorist targets ” belonging to Hamas and ordered civilians in several areas to evacuate, raising fears of further mass displacement.
NEW VICTIMS
It is significant that Israel does not deny that the country’s leadership, by going for escalation, itself violated the terms of the agreement with Hamas and explained this by some kind of preventive actions against terrorist attacks being prepared by the movement.
In particular, an unnamed Israeli official told CNN on Tuesday that the massive attack in the Gaza Strip was "preemptive" and said the strikes "will continue as long as necessary and will go beyond airstrikes."
The official declined to provide any details about what he said was Hamas's "readiness to carry out terrorist attacks, build up its forces and rearm," but said the strikes targeted the group's "mid-military command, leadership and terrorist infrastructure."
At the same time, according to the most preliminary data, 404 Palestinians were killed and 562 wounded as a result of the actions of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in just the past 24 hours.
Gaza's Health Ministry said many children were among those killed in the attacks. "More than 130 children and many women" were killed, including entire families, Gaza Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal said.
Video footage from Gaza showed scenes of panic and chaos across the strip, with relatives carrying wounded loved ones covered in bloody blankets to overcrowded hospitals and rescue workers transporting patients in ambulances or on stretchers. The strikes resumed after some Gazans had already returned to their destroyed homes. Many had buried loved ones, while others were searching for any information about missing family members and friends.
The official number of missing people in Gaza is unknown, but it is estimated that 14,222 people are still under the rubble of destroyed buildings, while the total number of Palestinian deaths since October 2023 has already exceeded 50,000.
And now the Palestinians of Gaza are once again facing another terrible ordeal. How long it will last, no one can predict yet, but it is clear that one of the main goals of the strikes was to put pressure on the civilian population.
"PREEMPTIVE" STRIKE
Hamas has already stressed that it views Israel's attacks as a unilateral breach of the agreements and a cancellation of the deal and the truce that came into effect on January 19.
"Netanyahu and his extremist government are deciding to cancel the ceasefire agreement, exposing prisoners in Gaza to an unknown fate," Hamas said in a statement. The movement is calling on people in Arab and Islamic countries, as well as " free people of the world " to take to the streets to protest the attack.
Hamas has strongly rejected Israeli claims that it has violated the Gaza ceasefire and is preparing attacks on Israel, and has apparently chosen not to respond militarily hours after Israel resumed fighting in Gaza.
The movement said that the claims that Hamas was preparing to attack Israeli troops were " baseless " pretexts to justify Israel's return to war and were intended to " mislead public opinion."
Western journalists, including CNN, agree, noting that Hamas has been known to refrain from attacking Israel or its soldiers in Gaza since the ceasefire went into effect on January 19.
However, Israel's actions have already been approved by the White House. Thus, White House press secretary Caroline Levitt said that Israel consulted with US President Donald Trump about the strikes.
"As President Trump has made clear, Hamas, the Houthis and all those who seek to terrorize not only Israel but the United States of America will pay a price," she told Fox News.
TRUMP APPROVES
The attacks on Gaza come at a time when the United States itself has launched a major air offensive against Yemen's Houthis from the Ansar Allah movement, subjecting Yemen to its heaviest bombing since 2015. So the actions of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu in many ways seem coordinated.
Netanyahu expects that the resumption of attacks will finally crush the Palestinians' will to resist and force them to accept Trump's plan, launching the process of their gradual deportation from the Strip. Against the backdrop of the bombing of Gaza, directions for their eviction will also be selected.
Trump, for his part, must neutralize the Houthis, who are essentially the last combat-ready element of the “axis of resistance,” which can not only block shipping in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the Red Sea, but also strike directly at Israeli territory.
At this stage of the conflict, Ansar Allah is the only “link” in the axis that is capable of supporting Hamas not only in words but also in deeds.
Therefore, the current attacks on Gaza can be seen as an attempt to change the terms of the deal that Israel initially agreed to under US pressure.
However, Trump, perhaps inspired by his plan to “reconstruct” Gaza, felt that the deal was no longer relevant and could simply be thrown in the trash.
It is also clear that the initial agreements between Hamas and Israel may have been a deceptive maneuver on the part of Netanyahu and Trump. Their main goal was to try to return as many Israeli prisoners as possible during the first stage of the deal, and then resume hostilities.
Many experts warned about this, whose opinions were reflected in the publications of the REGNUM news agency.
BURIED DEAL
Let us recall that in the first stage of the deal, which was supposed to last 42 days, Hamas committed to freeing 33 prisoners: minors, women (both civilians and military personnel) and civilian men over 50 years of age.
In exchange, Israel promised to release 30 Palestinian prisoners for every civilian hostage and 50 for every female soldier.
Israeli forces were to withdraw from densely populated areas to the outskirts of the Gaza Strip, additional UN aid would be sent to the enclave, and displaced Palestinians would begin to return home.
On the 16th day, negotiations are expected to begin on the implementation of the second stage, which is also planned to last 42 days and will include a declaration of “sustainable calm.”
At this stage, Hamas is to release the remaining male captives (soldiers and civilians) in exchange for an as yet unagreed number of Palestinian prisoners and the beginning of a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, which is to be completed by the end of the second stage.
However, Israel, instead of continuing to implement the terms of the deal and start negotiations on the second stage, refused and demanded an extension of the first stage and the release of all Israeli prisoners. And Donald Trump supported it in this.
ALTERNATIVE PLAN
Continuing the ceasefire and moving to Phase 2 of the deal was unacceptable to Israel, as it required an end to the war and left room for Hamas to govern Gaza, while the organization's militias would continue to act as a "shield" for the strip and pose a constant threat to Israel.
That is why Steve Witkoff's alternative plan emerged - a transition to a new ceasefire, but with an extension of stage 1. However, Hamas could no longer agree to this, and the Arab countries continued to demand a transition to stage 2.
Trump, for his part, is obsessed with his Gaza reconstruction plan and was also outraged by the Arab League's alternative plan, which did not take into account American recommendations regarding the eviction of Palestinians from Gaza and the complete elimination of Hamas.
As Israeli analyst Zvi Barel wrote : " Israel does not appear to be seeking an administrative or diplomatic solution to the Hamas presence in Gaza. Based on statements by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ministers, Israel's goals are to destroy Hamas and perpetuate its own control over Gaza 'for as long as necessary.'
Thus, Arab proposals for the governance of Gaza by Arab or multinational forces, not to mention the Palestinian Authority, are not part of the plans that Israel intends to accept.”
Therefore, from Netanyahu’s point of view, and Trump’s as well, a renewed military campaign against Hamas was inevitable.
The Arab countries refused to directly state the need to destroy the movement, and any future for Gaza with Hamas was unacceptable to Washington and Tel Aviv. Moreover, it was unacceptable with the Palestinians, who must leave Gaza.
Despite the refusal of Arab states to accept Palestinians from Gaza, Israel and the United States continued to work out a “program” for their exodus.
In particular, back in early February, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz instructed the IDF to prepare a plan that would allow residents of the Gaza Strip to “voluntarily leave” the Palestinian region and “go to any country willing to accept them.”
"The plan will include options for exit through border crossings, as well as special mechanisms for sea and air routes," Katz wrote on social media.
FRIGHTENING DYNAMICS
Naturally, in order to force the Palestinians to start fleeing the Strip, it is necessary to once again create conditions that will force them to live under constant threat of life, hunger and other deprivations. And so another wave of massive bombings should push the Palestinians to become more “responsive” to Trump’s plan. Residents of Gaza, according to this logic, should demand that the international community start taking them to countries that are ready to accept them. Perhaps, against the backdrop of new barbaric attacks, such countries will indeed be found.
It is not yet clear whether the attacks will continue for a longer period of time or whether the US and Israel are trying to persuade Hamas to accept the Witkoff plan, which includes extending the ceasefire in exchange for the release of prisoners without moving to the second stage. But it is clear that the US-Israeli tandem does not intend to take into account anyone's alternative opinion in the region, even if it is Trump's closest allies, such as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Trump believes that he is capable of setting the rules of the game in the Middle East, changing his own decisions and imposing new ones that he deems necessary.
He offers talks to Iran in exchange for its silence over events in Gaza and Yemen.
He is forcing Saudi Arabia to resolve the Houthi problem by force, which Riyadh seemed to have abandoned completely. Trump is saying to the Saudis: let's go back to war and drive these Houthis out of Sana'a, and that will be better for Saudi Arabia than peace with them.
This approach and this dynamic for the Middle East look frightening in many ways.
It is very difficult to predict where Trump's games will lead the region. But in any case, such steps by the US-Israel tandem do not add optimism to other Middle Eastern states. Tehran has less and less incentive to believe in Trump's readiness to fulfill the obligations he will undertake if negotiations on Iran's nuclear program begin with Russia's mediation.
This means that the risk of Israeli strikes on Iran, retaliatory actions by Tehran and, consequently, a full-scale war in the region is increasing.
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Fifteen of the nineteen WTC hijackers were Saudis, and most major jihadi commanders were Saudis, to include Osama bin Laden. 
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Saudi Arabia has been forced to scale back its $1.5trillion plans for a 106-mile linear desert city, according to reports, in a humiliating decision for the kingdom. The Line - part of the country's audacious and futuristic NEOM project - was meant to be home to around 1.5 million residents by the end of the decade.