Strikes from land, air, and sea: over a hundred dead on the first day of the new offensive. Forty percent of the capital, a Hamas stronghold, has been captured, but it will take months to regain full control. We set no time limits.

FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT

TEL AVIV - For a roof, the sky. For a destination, nothingness. Escaping Gaza City costs $250 a kilometer, if you want to jump in a battered, overcrowded van heading south. The other night, Hosni Hawa took his children in his arms and left. Only with his clothes on, on foot. Fire was raining everywhere, he told the Arabic channel Radio Alshams, from where a journalist, his cousin, called him. His battery was low: We walked in the dark, the explosions behind us. We went where the leaflets told us to. They are the leaflets that the Tsahal, the Israeli army, throws at all those who decide to leave. They twirl in the air, climb over the barbed wire walls, and reach the Ashkelon waterfront: Citizens of Gaza—it says in Arabic—, staying in this area is very dangerous! If you go south, to Mawasi, you will find tents, water, and food!

370,000 have fled, another 600,000 are still unknown. Until dawn, not even Hosni wanted to leave. But when the deluge unleashed by Gideon's Chariots began, the earth was shaking everywhere and my two children were crying too much, he too set off. Everyone wants to escape, everyone has understood that it's over. But they can't. They have no money. Heading south is difficult. Too expensive, taking the van: who has them, $1,500 to go six kilometers? Only the sharks who make money on the black market, some Hamas bosses. There is no safe place left in Gaza City — says Hosni — but not even outside. Every neighborhood is a target. Every house is under fire. And so you leave with nothing, towards nothing.

City in flames

Gaza destroys. Sparta reigns. The morning is on fire and excited, while Palestinian Hosni walks desperately through the flames, Defense Minister Israel Katz wakes early and, in the fury of the attack, plays his zither on X: Gaza is burning!, along with a photo of the fires on the rooftops. He reviews the 162nd and 98th Divisions, those that have entered the midnight inferno. He salutes the 99th, which is supposed to cover the buffer zone between the Strip and Israeli territory. He praises the Gaza Division, which patrols the Rafah side, towards Egypt. He announces that the 36th will soon join and that 60,000 reservists have been called up, to add to the 70,000 who had already been enlisted.

Laurels and triumph. But no mention of the thousands of young people resisting a war they consider too dirty: The participation rate was very high, between 75 and 85% in almost all units. This means that the reason for this mission is understood. Katz is satisfied: We will not give up, nor will we turn back! We want to take control of Gaza City, because it is the symbol of Hamas's government. The murderous Sinwar brothers—he exclaims, referring to the two murdered Islamic leaders, Yahya and Muhammad—have ruined Gaza City. The Palestinians know this. If Gaza City falls now, Hamas falls too. And if Hamas does not ultimately release the hostages and disarm, all of Gaza will be destroyed.

Going on for months

Forty percent of the city is captured. Two to three thousand Hamas militants still need to be tracked down, and it's plausible that many will try to escape Gaza City amidst the flood of displaced people. It will take several months to fully control the capital, predicts an Israel Defense Force spokesperson, and more months for the rest of the infrastructure: we're not setting ourselves any time limits. This is what the Chief of Staff, realistically, told Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu from the beginning:"As commander," General Eyal Zamir commented,"it was my duty to present all the risks and opportunities." Now, the return of our hostages is a war objective and a national and moral commitment. The threat has changed, but we have changed too: we are better prepared. There's no backtracking, despite the military's concerns. He's a well-aligned and protected general: The IDF is the people's army, this is its source of strength: it serves the people and acts for their good. This is a crucial operation. And what about war crimes? We have opened escape routes to evacuate the population, Netanyahu comments. We are operating in accordance with international law, Zamir argues, and we are doing everything possible to prevent harm to civilians. In this campaign, we are working to defeat a terrorist organization that declares on every platform that its goal is to eliminate the existence of the State of Israel.

Dozens of deaths

One hundred and six dead, reports Al Jazeera: one every fifteen minutes. Ten thousand children in need of urgent care in Gaza City alone, the UN denounces: most of them reduced to skeletons by months of famine. What is happening is morally, politically, and legally intolerable, stunned UN Secretary General António Guterres : I will report this terrible situation to the International Criminal Court. With this operation, says neighboring Egypt, we are on the brink of a new phase of total chaos.

We were only asking for a humane solution to an inhumane situation, says Father Ibrahim Faltas, vicar of the Custody of the Holy Land. Midway through the morning, in the parish of the Holy Family, a phone call arrives to Father Gabriel Romanelli: it's Pope Leo, who wants to know what kind of night it was for the 450 refugees in the church. The situation has been bad for some time now, explains the parish priest, and now it's getting much worse. There are lots of rumblings to the west of the city, and luckily we're in the east. We don't have much. But what we have, we distribute. Bread and water, some medicine, daily Mass, Mother Teresa's nuns together with the most seriously disabled who can't escape anywhere. Ambulances are needed, but they're nowhere to be found in the entire Strip. In the darkness, a few flashes of lightning: they managed to celebrate a wedding, says Father Gabriel, and before the bombs, a baby was even born.