Washington, December 23 (RHC)-- The Israeli killing machine has continued its assault on the besieged Gaza Strip, with regime forces boasting about how they have struck 300 targets in a span of 24 hours, which included a series of hospitals and homes.  Tel Aviv said it had detained men while searching for resistance fighters and expelling others taking refuge.

In a recently released video the Israeli Minister for military affairs, Yoav Gallant, is shown in a “Hamas tunnel” claiming that capturing it was a military achievement.

The resistance movement of Hamas explained that the tunnel had been constructed solely for the purpose of carrying out Operation Al-Aqsa Flood telling Israeli occupation forces that they had done too little and were too late.

"You arrived late, the mission had already been completed," the video said in Arabic, Hebrew, and English. Even Israeli media are reflecting Israel's failure in this case.  If the generals are counting tunnels it suggests things are not going well, the video said.

Israel's military pains have been compounded by how its own forces have killed four of their own regime forces.  Three were killed near Gaza City by invading Israeli troops.  One was killed three days later.
Angry Israelis poured out into the streets in protests, venting their anger at Netanyahu, and calling on him to initiate negotiations to get the captives released.

More than 100 Israelis are still being held by Palestinian resistance groups in Gaza.

Not only is Israel nowhere near eradicating the resistance movement, Hamas, but also it has lost over 120 soldiers on the ground, so far by its own admission, while many battle tanks and other military equipment have also been destroyed.   The Israeli regime has even killed a few of the captives that it was meant to save.

This is why global public opinion on Israel has reached a point of no return, due to the civilian casualties, which have exceeded 20,000.

The U.S. Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, has visited the West Asia region recently.  While in Israel, he met with Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Israeli Minister of Military Affairs, Yoav Gallant.  Austin reiterated the ironclad US support for Israel.

This is Israel's operation and I'm not here to dictate timelines or terms. Our support to Israel's right to defend itself is ironclad, as you've heard me say a number of times, and that's not going to change.

While the majority world opinion is in support of the Palestinian people and the ceasefire in Gaza, the United States has been repeatedly blocking the UN resolutions calling for a halt in Israeli aggression.

At the same time, he expressed concern over the high number of civilian casualties and believes that Israel needs to transition from high-intensity operation to lower-intensity surgical operations, something which the US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan has also said.

This fight against Hamas, a deeply entrenched terrorist group in Gaza, is going to take time and it's going to happen in phases.