Middle East. Netanyahu: “Many More Months of War.”

The number of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the ground operation on October 27 last year has risen to 194, following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack that cost the lives of more than a thousand civilians. As the IDF itself stated on its website, a total of 530 Israeli soldiers have been killed since the beginning of the conflict.

Israel will not succumb to international pressure and will continue to fight until complete victory. The war against Hamas “will continue on all fronts until all objectives are achieved.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed this at a press conference in Tel Aviv. “The victory,” Netanyahu emphasized, “will still take many months, but we are determined to achieve it.”

According to Arab countries, Europe, and, above all, the United States, the solution to be sought in order to achieve a lasting and durable peace in the Gaza Strip is the “two peoples and two states” solution. Netanyahu, on the contrary, said that “the government under my leadership will not accept anything less than total victory,” which does not include the creation of a Palestinian state.

“I say it again: only military pressure will lead to the release of the hostages,” Netanyahu continued. The Prime Minister further listed among the goals, in addition to the return of the abductees, the elimination of Hamas and the assurance that it would no longer pose a threat to Israel. In the Gaza Strip, he continued, “there will be no party that promotes terrorism, finances it, and sends terrorists against us.”

“In any future agreement, Israel must securely control all territory west of the Jordan,” he concluded. “And it goes against the idea of sovereignty. What can we do about it? The Prime Minister should be able to say ‘no’ to our friends.”

As for the situation in the Red Sea region, after the fourth missile strike by the US-led military coalition, Yemen’s Houthi rebels, whose attacks hamper maritime traffic, guaranteed “safe passage” for Chinese and Russian ships. As stated by Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, one of the political leaders of the pro-Iranian Shiite militias, “no ship affiliated with the USA or Britain will be able to cross one of the world’s main trade routes. The losses of the aggressor countries are higher than Yemen’s,” al-Bukhaiti said.

“For other countries, including China and Russia, shipping in the region is not at risk. In addition, we are also ready to ensure the safe passage of their ships in the Red Sea,” the Houthi spokesman added. “Instead, Israeli ships or those with even a tenuous connection to Israel will not have the slightest opportunity to cross the Red Sea,” al-Bukhaiti emphasized, adding: “Our goal is to increase the economic costs to the Jewish state in order to stop the massacre taking place in the Gaza Strip.”

But in today’s very complex and interconnected world, it is sometimes very difficult, almost impossible, to understand the true identity of a particular commercial vessel. On January 17, a brand-new car transport vessel named “BYD Explorer No.1” set sail from the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, carrying more than 5,000 electric vehicles built at BYD’s Chinese factory to Europe, to the port of Flushing, Netherlands, and then to the German port of Bremerhaven. Chinese automakers, including BYD, Chery Automobile, and SAIC Motor, have placed purchase orders to counter rising shipping costs.

But as China’s official Xinhua news agency wrote, “the BYD Explorer No.1 ship was built by China’s Yantai CIMC Raffles shipyard for Israeli shipping company Zodiac Maritime.”

And now it is totally unclear whether a Chinese-built ship with thousands of Chinese vehicles on board, but run by Israelis, will be able to enjoy the privileges that the Houthis promised Russia and China.