‘State of war’: Why Israel has escalated attacks in Gaza

Israel has escalated its attacks on the Gaza Strip in the past week, with at least four Palestinians killed across the devastated enclave, including a 40-year-old woman in Khan Younis, in the past 24 hours amid daily violations of the October “ceasefire”. Medics and local health officials report more than 25 Palestinians have been killed in the past week alone, taking the number of people killed since the ceasefire to more than 800. The enclave has been devastated by more than two years of genocidal war, which killed more than 72,500 Palestinians. The rising attacks come as the new United States-backed governance structures seem to have been sidelined. Chaos and the ‘yellow line’ On the ground, the Israeli military has intensified its targeting of Palestinian police officers, recently acknowledging the killing of six officers it claimed were involved in planning imminent strikes. It provided no proof that they were planning to attack. However, Palestinian analysts argue the targeted strikes are part of a broader strategy to maintain a state of war and undermine the US-brokered agreement. Ahmed al-Tanani, a political analyst in Gaza, said Israel is targeting police forces to eradicate any possibility of restoring stability and to push the enclave into internal chaos. “It wants to make it an unlivable environment, forcing residents to seek displacement, which serves the strategic goal of this war,” al-Tanani said. …