Good morning everybody. It is Sunday and we are bringing you a latest update on the situation between Israel and Gaza. Will start first with just the macro level and zoom out. Unfortunately, almost two thousand, three hundred Palestinians so far have been killed in the hostilities between the two and it appears right now that a complete humanitarian disaster is unfolding. Currently. There has been a warning that we brought previously. Israel gave a twenty four hour notice of evacuation for one
point one million people. In the midst of all of that evacuation, there have been nightmarish scenes as nearly a million people try to flee to the south. One instance in particular kind of highlighting both the difficulty of reporting and also the difficulty for the civilians on the ground. Nearly seventy were killed in a convoy. It's unclear what
the actual cause of death. There's a lot of debate between the two, but it does highlight, you know, that their debts themselves, just how difficult it is right now as that situation is unfolding. All of this comes as the news breaking from Israel. They are warning of a final preparation that has been completed for the assault into Gaza. Some actual indications crystal about what those military operations may
look like. It looks like it will be an occupation of northern Gaza and a destruction both of Hamas leadership, militants, going after tunnels, weapon stockpiles and more. The problem, of course, is that Hamas is deeply embedded within the Gaza population.
Many of the people who are quote unquote left behind are elderly, infirm, wounded in hospitals for example, as well as children, and so all of this humanitarian nightmare is the backdrop as we also see a geopolitical crisis unfolding in terms of how major nation states are also responding.
Right, So, just to emphasize where we are in terms of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, you'll recall that Gaza has long been under a blockade. Israel has up anti with the complete siege, denying any access to food, fuel, water, electricity. There are now reports that the entire enclave, densely packed with more than two million people, is almost completely running out of water. So you have a dire situation on
that front. You have fresh evacuation orders, which groups like the UN have said are going to cause a humanitarian calamity. The main hospital is in the evacuation zone, that hospital or system already facing collapse because of the lack of electricity, already running on generators, already overwhelmed in terms of trying to deal with the wounded. They are saying this morning they are not going to evacuate. They're unable to evacuate.
It's just completely unfeasible. So that gives you a sense of just how dire things are there on the ground. In addition to the now thousands, including quite a lot of children in this very young enclave, who have been killed. In addition, as Zager mentioned, you know, as as bad as that all sounds, where at the point of risking a much wider war, the US announcing they're sending an additional carrier group into the region. That is a massive
amassing of military firepower very nearby. But perhaps even more noteworthy, you now have Iran indicating that they do not particularly want to get involved, but that they will have to get involved, they say if the Israeli operation in Gaza continues. This is according to a report in Axios. Let me just read you a little bit of that so I
can get the specifics absolutely correct. Iran sent a message to Israel on Saturday stressing it does not want fur their escalation in the Hamas Israel war, but that it will have to intervene if that Israeli operation in Gaza continues. According to two diplomatic sources with knowledge of the situation so behind the scenes, they say, the Iranian Foreign Minister met with a UN envoy to the Middle East on
Saturday in Beirut. That is where the UN envoy er the Iranians to help prevent a spillover of the conflict in Gaza and Israel to the wider region, but the Iranian Foreign minister replied Iran does not want the conflict to turn into a regional war, wants to try to help with the release of civilians who are being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza, but stressed that Iran has
its red lines. He said if the Israeli military operation continues, and especially if Israel follows through on its promise of a ground offensive in Gaza, which again appears to be imminent, Iran will have to respond. In addition, the Iranian Foreign Minister said he met Hesbela leader Nasralla in Lebanon, and that all scenarios were considered, says Iran cannot remain a spectator ads if scope of war expands, the US will suffer heavy losses as well. That last part per Al Jazeera.
And I don't think I have to emphasize to anyone what an incredibly dire scenario that would be if we have a broader war throughout the Middle East region bringing in Iran.
Yeah, I think we're on the precipice of a major war Crystal. Unfortunately, I don't see a situation out of it already. The President, you know, has been sending some messages about Palestinian civilians. There was a tweet earlier this morning. But the truth is is that the actual diplomatic major effort in order to open the actual Gaza Egyptian border has already failed and does not appear to be open already.
They tried to negotiate where five hundred American citizens who are inside of Gaza would be able to cross into Egypt. Egypt actually blocked the crossing and said no, we'll only do that if we allowed AID through. And then Israel actually did not agree to allowing the AID into into Gaza because they said they want to screen weapons, but this just highlights, for example, the nightmare situation which is unfolding.
These people don't have anywhere else to go, and one of them, you know, we're going to talk I think a lot about and break some of this down, but I think we do need to emphasize how dangerous the situation is right now. Two carrier strike groups is an unprecedented amount of firepower in the region. Don't forget, you know, we haven't seen that type of posturing in the Middle
East really since the days of the Iraq War. Just to give people an idea, and we are talking here about Hezbola and Israel, which already as of this morning, Crystal, we're exchanging fire both inside of Lebanon and across the border. Confirmed incidents, including multiple Israeli strikes include on the Lebanese soil, which you know, every step closer to not only a two front war, leads to an expansion both inside of Israel and will not leave the United States untouched. I
cannot emphasize us enough. There is no way that this stay is contained to the situation without involving us, specifically because of the Biden administration and really the bipartisan support, but very easily could lead us into a wider conflict.
Yeah, and so far Biden, Tony Blinken, as you mentioned, I mean, almost all of Congress, with very few exceptions, has said, you know, Israel has a right to defend herself. Think hardly anyone would disagree with that, but you know, backing them unequivocally with really very few words and certainly no actions intended to curb the civilian damage that's being
inflicted on innocent gossins at this point. So it was striking to hear at least a different tone from President Biden this morning, which I think speaks to his concerns about the risk of a broader conflagration, where he says in a tweet, we must not lose sight of the fact that the overwhelming majority of Palestinians had nothing to do with Hamas's appalling attacks and are suffering as a
result of them. I mean, I take that as an indication they also are very concerned about this thing spiraling out of control into a broader war that you know, becomes basically uncontrollable at that point.
Yeah, as I said, we just wanted to give everybody a quick update I know everybody's anxious just to recap humanitarian disaster unfolding. There is no current route out of Gaza for any of these people to go. In terms of the overall offensive, we don't know when it's going to happen. They said twenty four hours. It wasn't twenty
four hours. There are previous actually incidents Crystal where Israel intentionally will misdirect as to when it is going in in order to clear out Hamas tunnels and other military operation centers inside of Gaza, in order to throw them off their feet. We won't know until we know. We are all on standby here over at breaking points. And then the major, major thing that we all have to be and paying attention to is the possibility of a much wider conflict if Hezbola gets involved in this war.
We are talking about tens of thousands of Israelis who will be killed, not to mention the broader escalation that could occur on behalf of the United States, and who knows whether what agreements have been made as to US involvement, whether we would get involved into a broader war with Lebanon, and then how Iran itself will respond, You know, they've talked. Now they've made a pretty declarative statement. Are they going to follow through on or not? Those are all the big questions.
Yeah, that's right. So, as Zager mentioned, of course, we're going to continue to monitor today. We'll also, of course have complete coverage for you tomorrow on the main Breaking Points show. Thanks so much, guys for trusting us to cover this story the best of our ability. We take that responsibility very seriously, and we will see you guys very soon.
That's right, we'll see you tomorrow.