Jerusalem / Abdel Raoub Arnaud / Anatolia

Hebrew newspaper Maariv said on Friday that Israeli army chief Herzey Halevy informed US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on Thursday that the war in Gaza would take more than a few weeks.

Halevy’s words came in response to Blinken’s question on the matter, the newspaper quoted two Israeli sources familiar with Thursday’s meeting with the Israeli military cabinet in West Jerusalem.

He said: “Blinken raised the issue on his own initiative, and how long the Israeli army’s operation in Gaza is expected to continue in its current scope, which includes very large ground forces.”

According to the newspaper: “Blinken explained that (US President Joe) Biden’s administration is concerned that continued Israeli military action in Gaza, especially with the scale and intensity it is currently taking, will significantly increase international pressure. On Israel and America.”

He continued: “According to the sources, Blinken asked Israel to take additional measures to ensure that the operation in the southern Gaza Strip does not cause serious harm to civilians.”

It reported that Halevy responded that “the IDF’s operation in Gaza, including in the southern region, is expected to continue for more than a few weeks.”

Maariv pointed out that the Biden administration “has yet to call for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, or demand that Israel cease military action.”

He added: “But there is deep concern in Washington about the resumption of military action in the Gaza Strip after the (temporary) ceasefire that ended on Friday morning, especially about the (anticipated) Israeli military action in the south of the Gaza Strip, home to two million Palestinians.

He added: “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Levy told Blinken that ground operations in southern Gaza would be less harmful to civilians than airstrikes.”

On Friday morning, a temporary cease-fire in the Gaza Strip ended on November 24 with Qatari-Egyptian mediation and lasted for 7 days, during which prisoners were exchanged and humanitarian aid brought into the enclave of about 2.3 million people. Palestinians.

During the pre-ceasefire round, the Israeli military repeated its messages, which asked residents of the northern Gaza Strip to move to the southern Gaza Strip, but targeted the displaced in areas and roads it said were “safe”. It committed documented massacres, which met with international and international condemnation.

Since last October 7, Israel has been waging a devastating war in the Gaza Strip that has caused massive infrastructural destruction and tens of thousands of civilian casualties, most of them children and women, in addition to an unprecedented humanitarian disaster, according to an official Palestinian official. and UN

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