By Ali Ghorban Bagheri
The situation in the Gaza Strip is “open to all scenarios” now with the possibility of the conflict expanding beyond the besieged territory to include other countries, says a Lebanese political analyst.
Mohamad Hasan Sweidan, a political analyst and researcher on regional affairs, in an interview with the Press TV website, said Americans are trying to provide the Israeli regime with the cover to continue its aggression against Palestinians.
After 20 days of indiscriminate shelling of the besieged coastal strip, the Israeli regime on Friday escalated its attacks on the Gaza Strip, destroying a number of buildings and killing civilians.
The death toll in the Gaza Strip has reached near the figure of 7,500, most of them children, as the regime’s warplanes have been indiscriminately pounding the civilian areas of the territory.
Sweidan said the United States is deliberately not pressuring the Israeli regime to stop its aggression in the Gaza Strip but rather is threatening the regional resistance groups from joining the war.
“The main factor here is not political, it is humanitarian. I believe that the Israeli regime is not sure about the result of its ground offensive and for that reason, it prefers for the time being to kill as many Palestinians as it can,” the analyst told the Press TV website.
“Many Israeli and American journalists and researchers believe that entering Gaza on the ground will be a huge mistake since Hamas is really prepared for such a scenario. And it is important to state that continuing with this aggression against civilians will increase the chance of widening the war.”
The first attempt by the Israeli military to enter the Gaza Strip on Friday night ended in failure as the Gaza-based resistance groups offered firm resistance.
The al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, said in a statement that it was fighting Israeli forces in two areas inside the Gaza Strip early on Saturday as the war entered its 22nd day.
“We are confronting an Israeli ground incursion in Beit Hanoun (in the northern Gaza Strip) and east Bureij (in the center) and violent engagements are taking place on the ground,” the statement said.
Sweidan noted that it is hard to expect what scenario would emerge from the situation but the resistance clearly has an upper hand.
“Israel doesn’t really know who it is fighting and what Palestine means for people in Gaza. It doesn’t understand what it means to believe in something and be ready to sacrifice everything for it,” he said.
On what is happening on the southern borders of Lebanon, he said the Lebanese resistance is working in line with a strategy to keep the occupying forces busy.
The axis of resistance is also collaborating, the Lebanese analyst hastened to add, which is evident from attacks on American military bases in Syria and Iraq in recent days.
“I don’t believe the war will end anytime soon. Many experts believe that it may continue for weeks or even months,” Sweidan remarked, adding that escalation would make the Palestinian case stronger.
“The US has been working for many years to bury the Palestinian case. This war has proved that all the American efforts failed and will continue to fail,” he stated.
“The main difference between us and them is that we are willing to pay much more for the things we believe in and that is why victory will always be by our side.”
