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00:00 Well, for more analysis, I'm joined here in the studio by France 24 journalist,
00:03 Owasim Nasser.
00:03 Owasim, welcome to the program.
00:05 Let's begin by talking about Israel's offensive inside Gaza.
00:08 Where are we right now?
00:09 Well, actually, we have a map.
00:10 We're going to deploy the map.
00:12 We'll see what are the areas of advancement of Israeli armed forces.
00:17 So here we see what's in red are the areas where Israeli forces succeeded
00:22 in advancing.
00:23 And we see that mostly we are talking about the seaside
00:28 of the northern part of Gaza Strip.
00:31 There are fights in Beit Lahya, fight in Beit Hanoun.
00:34 And the area which is still preventing Israel from making the junction
00:40 is the Shati Camp, which is the Palestinian refugee Shati Camp,
00:45 a very dense area.
00:47 And as you see on the map, they are all around Gaza City,
00:50 but not yet in the streets of Gaza City.
00:53 And we see the main roads going through the south,
00:56 meaning Arashid Street on the coast,
00:58 Street 10 cutting into also the northern part of Gaza,
01:04 and the areas where Israeli forces are in control.
01:07 And we have a photo where we can see which proves that the Israeli forces
01:12 are next to the Shati Camp from the south.
01:15 And on this photo, we'll see a big wheel, which is actually next to the port.
01:21 Here it is.
01:23 So this big wheel is south of the Shati Camp on the seaside of the Gaza Strip.
01:29 So here is proof with photo where Israeli forces are actually in control.
01:35 Yeah, we were talking about that theme park yesterday,
01:36 not you and I, but our correspondent in Jerusalem,
01:38 saying it's the only thing left of that theme park.
01:41 Now, when it comes to tactics,
01:43 what have we been seeing on both sides in the last 48 hours?
01:46 Well, when we look at the footage that was released by the Israeli army
01:50 and by Hamas, we can see there's a shift in tactics.
01:53 And here we see those are the images of the Israeli army.
01:56 So, of course, bombardment, as they are doing since day one.
02:00 But here we see foot soldiers on the ground,
02:04 meaning we are not in incursion mode.
02:06 We are in control mode.
02:08 And here it's an old Santerians tank made as a troop transport.
02:13 And here we see Javelin rockets on Israeli forces.
02:17 But the most important thing is they are on foot,
02:20 meaning to protect their tanks and their vehicles,
02:24 meaning also that they are not scared of being shot by Hamas militants.
02:29 Here we see the first phase of fighting in the outskirts of Gaza City,
02:34 open areas, small houses.
02:37 And we see that the Hamas crews were by two, a shooter and a loader, you see.
02:43 And here we see how they tried to prevent Israeli forces
02:49 from going into those areas.
02:51 But as you see, one more time, we are talking about open areas.
02:54 We're not talking about densely populated areas.
02:57 And we have another footage too.
02:59 Here it is also.
03:01 You see the footage of mortars.
03:03 So we are talking about 120 millimetres mortars to delay
03:08 or to prevent Israeli forces from advancing.
03:10 And one more time, we are in open areas.
03:13 We are not talking about heavily or dense populated areas
03:18 where this kind of mortars wouldn't be anyways efficient against advancing forces.
03:23 And this is the last phase of the fight.
03:25 And here we are seeing urban fighting,
03:27 as we saw in Aleppo, in Syria, as we saw in Homs, in Mosul, in Iraq.
03:32 And here is the hardest part of the fight,
03:34 either for the Israelis or for Hamas militants
03:37 or other Palestinians who are into this fight.
03:41 And you see the destruction by airstrikes or by artillery.
03:45 And in this phase of the fight, urban warfare,
03:47 destructions like this become an asset for the defender.
03:51 And they prevent actually the attacking forces from attacking very, very fast.
03:57 So this is the hardest part of the fight.
03:59 And we're going to see also on this footage,
04:01 because Israeli forces will be shot at from above and from beneath.
04:07 And here we see from high buildings with only a simple Kalashnikov,
04:11 you can prevent a convoy from advancing.
04:15 And as you see on those pictures, because as we talked earlier also,
04:19 you only see tanks advancing, bulldozers, but no on foot soldiers,
04:23 meaning those are incursion areas and not controlled areas yet.
04:29 Okay, and just lastly, I mean, do we know anything more about what Israel has planned
04:33 for the post-conflict scenario there in Gaza?
04:36 Well, actually, the Israeli prime minister was vocal about controlling Gaza,
04:40 the security in Gaza, but we don't know how it's going to unfold.
04:43 Because even the Americans, Blinken said that they do not,
04:47 they wouldn't accept a new occupation of Gaza.
04:50 But beside this political aspect of it, occupying Gaza militarily
04:54 would be very costly for the Israeli forces,
04:57 and materially and in human resources.
05:01 And I don't know if they want to go into such a thing
05:03 after being withdrawn from Gaza in 2005.
05:07 Another option was on the table, meaning international forces, you see.
05:11 But we were commemorating a few days ago,
05:14 the attack on French forces in Beirut back in 1983,
05:18 where French and American Marines forces and Italian forces
05:21 were supposed to monitor Beirut after the Israeli invasion in 1982.
05:27 And we know that the Marines lost many men, the French lost many men.
05:30 So which country today will accept to put on foot soldiers in Gaza
05:36 to monitor the security in Gaza?
05:38 So the question still is open as we speak,
05:42 because even the Palestinian Authority was kicked out of Gaza by Hamas.
05:45 So I don't know if they have the means or the political will
05:48 to go back into Gaza and to control Gaza.
05:51 So this is the most important question
05:53 that should be answered after the end of the fight.
05:56 Okay. Colonel-General Fawzi Nasser, thank you very much indeed for your analysis.