Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant affirms that in the northern part of the Gaza Strip the most intense phase of the war “is coming to an end” and that in the south “it will end soon.” But on the ground nothing changes, and in Israel, in the Palestinian territories, even in Aqaba, on the Jordanian-Israeli border, ask anyone who asks, they insist: “This will last.”
The offensive is intense, especially in Khan Yunis, in the south of the Palestinian enclave, in search of Hamas leaders. Although it occurs throughout Gaza. And organizations such as the Institute for the Study of War confirm that the Islamists are reorganizing in the north. And, in fact, last Tuesday, from the Palestinian enclave, fifty rockets surprised Israel.
All misgivings about the effectiveness of the offensive were aroused. Again. “The war in Gaza can continue until 2025,” Israeli Prime Minister Beniamin Netanyahu confessed that same day to leaders of towns near Gaza, as captured by a local channel. Thousands of Israelis displaced by living near the strip also do not want to return for now.
And in the Israeli streets everything talks about war, one that will be a long war. And it is reflected in the localities that are most targeted by Hamas. In Dimona, east of Gaza, which houses a nuclear reactor on which all threats always fall. Or in Ashkelon, where the Rutenberg thermal power plant serves as the border between the city and Gaza. Or in Ashdod, which hosts the country’s most important port, the Eshkol thermal power plant, and which borders another nuclear research center, Soreq.
The area around Gaza is critical for Israel. And in its streets there is still a long war. Despite the fact that the agreement between Hamas and Israel mediated by Qatar has made it possible this week to distribute medicines to Gazans and Israeli hostages. Despite the fact that Israel numbers 136 still being held captive by Hamas in the enclave after the massacre on October 7 in which more than 1,200 Israelis were murdered. Despite the fact that the Gaza Ministry of Health says that there are more than 24,000 dead in the strip (around 10,000 children) and that 90% of Gazans (1.9 million people out of 2.2 in total) They are displaced to the south, to an area, in principle, “safe”, but where there are also bombings.
The fifty projectiles launched from Gaza this week reminded us that for Israel, normality is far away if the objective is, beyond freeing the hostages, beyond ending Hamas, to ensure that the strip is no longer a threat.
In Dimona, in the Negev desert, between streets that accumulate sand and peeling two-story buildings (a faithful reflection of the 1950s, when President David Ben Gurion proposed to populate the area), Amos Sarig, the municipal spokesman, who looks a pendant that demands the return of the hostages home, explains: “We cannot be in an emergency all the time, we have returned to routine, also because now there are groups that monitor the town and there is no fear. We are prepared. We believe in the Zionist ideal! Will the war last until 2025? It’s possible”.
And why?, he is asked. I didn’t hesitate: “Look at the covid, we thought it was for a month and it lasted for years. Or look at the war in Lebanon, which lasted from 1982 to 2000. Two years of war is not enough. Of course it can be.” And in Dimona, in fact, the day before yesterday, with no missile alerts in the city, the Sky Dew appeared in the skies, the large, white, airplane-shaped balloon that the army launched in 2022 to detect enemy drones and missiles, divert them and reduce them. He looked at Gaza. Perhaps because in October Hamas claimed to have attacked it.
In Ashdod and Ashkelon, just north of Gaza, the same thing is happening. One followed by the other, one and the other similar because they are full of cranes and residential areas and skyscrapers (built or still under construction) on their coast, tension and suspicion reign in both, even if it comes from afar, as the old stops indicate. of buses, which are made of reinforced concrete against projectiles.
Ashkelon and Ashdod look from afar like Benidorm, Platja d’Aro or any city full of high-rise second homes on the coast and lower ones in the interior. And Ashdod even has a marina shaped like a palm tree like in Dubai, because the sun shines here, it is hot, there are dunes, the sand is whitish and fine and today almost no one lives there even though the moorings are full of boats. and an Indian couple takes selfies in front of them.
“We are a country used to alerts,” explains Yossi, a resident of a block next to the Ashdod marina. He has just bought an apartment, he details, but he lives in a settlement near Ramallah. He further adds that most of the neighbors are people from the interior, for example from Jerusalem, Beersheba and other more southern parts. Or Americans and French, who are no longer there.
Furthermore, over 60% of the country’s merchandise traffic passes through Ashdod and also a good part of what goes (or went) to the Palestinian territory. And in the port, now a desert of people, security also reflects general concern. When trying to access the area, a police officer, armed with a rifle and a smile on her face, decides (after asking “who are you?”, “where do you come from?”, “the passport, please”) that “in fact there is no one you can ask, no one you can talk to, no one you can be here, no one you can come.”
No sooner said than done.
In Ashkelon and Ashdod, north of Gaza overlooking Gaza; in Sderot, just 2.5 kilometers from the strip; even in Dimona, further to the east although a Hamas target, the fighter jets or the distant sound of artillery is constant, but they hardly disturb anyone. The war has been normalized. It’s already routine. Because the war, on the ground, asked by each other, only aims to continue. And yesterday, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, in Switzerland, in other words, the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, supported him sitting next to a photo of Kfir Bibas, a baby who just yesterday celebrated his first year of life held captive by Hamas. : “Israelis can’t think about peace talks right now.”
The war points to the long term while attacks on the Lebanese border with Hizbullah, violence in the streets of the West Bank, regional tensions with Iran, Syria or the Houthis in Yemen, who yesterday sounded missile alerts in Eilat, intensify. the southernmost city in Israel.
