By Ali Ghorban Bagheri
Israeli regime’s relentless bombardment of civilian areas in the Gaza Strip is a bid by the embattled regime to revive the morale of demoralized Zionist settlers, says a Palestinian analyst.
Yasser Ali, manager of the Al-Awda Association based in southern Lebanon, in an interview with the Press TV website, said the regime is desperately trying to lift the morale of the Israeli settlers.
“The savage bombardment of Gaza these days is just an attempt to boost the damaged morale of Israelis as well as an attempt to exact revenge, and is consistent with their infatuation for bloodshed and aggression,” Ali, who works with Palestinian refugees in southern Lebanon, stated.
Since the Hamas-led ‘Al-Aqsa Storm’ operation (also known as the Al-Aqsa Flood operation) last Saturday, the Zionist regime has been relentlessly bombarding the densely-populated civilian areas in Gaza.
More than a thousand Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in the indiscriminate shelling by the regime warplanes, and tens of thousands have been displaced internally.
On Tuesday night, al-Ahli Arab Hospital in central Gaza was also bombarded in a blatant new war crime by the Israeli regime, which has killed more than 700 people, according to the latest reports.
Ali described the Palestinian resistance operation as a “historic victory” for the Palestinian nation that dispelled the myth of the occupying entity’s invincibility and revived hopes that the Palestinian homeland would eventually be liberated.
He said the war prisoners held by Hamas will greatly boost Palestinians’ negotiating power and force the regime to give significant concessions, including the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners.
The regime has now imposed a total siege on the strip, cutting off electricity, water and other vital resources. It has also threatened to launch a ground invasion of the strip and eliminate the resistance.
On whether the ground invasion of Gaza is imminent, Ali said there are several factors deterring such an audacious Israeli operation.
“Israel is afraid of going ahead with the ground invasion of Gaza due to the presence of resistance forces and people. It fears huge casualties and also that more troops might be taken captive by Hamas,” he noted, referring to the factors preventing the regime from going ahead with the operation.
“This would totally ruin the regime’s reputation. That’s why it’s doing everything to push Palestinians out of northern Gaza to prepare the ground for another Nakba,” he hastened to add.
The Palestinian analyst further said that the Tel Aviv regime is also worried about a potential expansion of the conflict, fearing it might have to fight on two fronts, as it has had frequent clashes with Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance in recent days.
Moreover, a broader war in the region is also a real possibility, Ali stressed.
“A ground invasion of Gaza will broaden the scope of the war and can lead to a regional war. This is what the US has repeatedly warned about,” he remarked.
He pointed to the US deployment of its warships to waters near the occupied territories, saying the US and its allies are worried that such a regional war might break out and the regime will become history.
