Biden's visit to Israel may affect start of ground operation in Gaza - political analyst

This opinion was expressed by Israeli political scientist and public figure Michael Pellivert on the Espreso TV channel.

"The most important thing to pay attention to after the recent events is the visit of President Biden, which will take place tomorrow, and the US financial assistance to Israel. By the way, there are rumors that this may be the only financial aid package that will include Ukraine. Despite the fact that Israel continues to bomb the Gaza Strip, unfortunately, there are still civilians in the northern part of the Strip, not all of whom have left for the south. I think that the combination of these reasons leads to the fact that we have not yet seen the start of a ground operation. But it will start, and it is likely to happen after Biden's visit," the political analyst stressed.

According to him, the international community and its influence on Egypt play a key role in the development of events.

"A lot depends on Egypt. The goodwill of the Egyptian president is needed for civilians in Gaza to go to relatively safe areas. Of course, if the international community had set itself the goal of resolving the humanitarian aspects, they could have built a small "tent city" in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula a long time ago. That's why the diplomacy that Blinken, the US Secretary of State, is engaged in is precisely related to this, to convince Egypt to take an active part in trying to resolve the humanitarian situation," Pellivert added.

It is very difficult to predict what will happen in just a few minutes, the situation is tense, the Israeli political scientist said.

"Right at this moment, quite dramatic events are taking place on our northern border. Hezbollah shelled one of the towns, and there may be casualties. The army called on residents of northern Israel to stay in bomb shelters," the public figure added.

As a reminder, the Israeli army is finalizing preparations for a ground operation in Gaza. The start of the operation has been delayed due to the extension of the evacuation period granted to the civilian population of the Strip.

On the morning of Sunday, 15 October 2023, Hezbollah, a pro-Iranian Shiite group from Lebanon, launched a rocket attack on the IDF Al-Raheb base on the Israeli-Lebanese border.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that US President Joe Biden would visit Israel and Jordan on Wednesday, 18 October.