War reporter Zoran Marinović he is one of the few Croatian journalists who went to Israel to follow the conflict from the front line. He is currently in the city of Ashkelon, 14 kilometers from Gaza, and reported to RTL Direkt.
The town where Marinović is located was one of the first targets of Hamas, and a hospital was hit. Now that city is “eerily deserted”, and there are almost no cars. They walk around all day long with bulletproof vests, helmets and gas masks, a war reporter revealed, and they wear them “from likes to dislikes”.
“Today is a little quieter, there were no special bombings. At every step there are people with rifles and pistols, it is normal to see a woman in the park breastfeeding a child with an M4 (rifle type op.a) over her shoulder, a taxi driver carrying a pistol in his lapel, people who buy water softener with guns and bombs. Israel has certainly learned through history, especially the recent one, to live in a state of war. It is a part of everyday life and Israel is very functional under all this,” said Marinović.
‘Israel is not ready to enter Gaza’
Other world countries, 99 percent of them, he added, would completely disintegrate. But in Ashkelon, it seems to Marinović, life is more normal than five or six days ago. The Israeli army, he said, “smells” of a ground offensive.
“There are huge amounts of tanks, soldiers, trenches, launch pads around Gaza… Today we were two or three kilometers from Gaza, there were no bombings. The planes were in the air, but that is incomparable to those three or four days ago .The army is ready, it is preparing. I am not a geoanalyst, but my personal impression is that Israel is not ready to enter Gaza, which is very urban, densely populated. However motivated, good and trained the army is, it is not ready to have losses of 50 or 100 soldiers per day,” said the war reporter.
Photo: Screenshot/RTL Direkt
Photo: Screenshot/RTL Direkt
His subjective impression is that the ground offensive in Gaza will not be delayed at this time. And there is a lot of talk about the attack on the hospital, with each side accusing someone else.
“Gaza is otherwise closed, under wire, surrounded from all sides, from the sea and the land. And it is difficult to get that information to the end. When the hospital was hit, all the world’s media reported that an Israeli plane had hit the hospital and that 500 to 600 dead and wounded. After a few hours, information was published that Hamas launched a rocket from the parking lot, that Israel then blocked the rocket, hit the parking lot, and at the same time the hospital. In the end, it turned out that Hamas fired the rocket from the parking lot, that after 100-200 meters exploded in the air, fuel, explosives and the head fell on the hospital. Both sides try to present themselves as the biggest victim and this is an alibi to become even more brutal. It is very difficult to understand and recognize what is happening,” said the Croatian journalist.
However, he added, propaganda is an essential part of any war, and both sides try to manipulate information. These are the people, said Marinović, who should discern what is true and what is not.
‘The Russian-Ukrainian war divided the world, but this is a tectonic change’
Zoran Marinović, apart from Israel, was also in Syria, Afghanistan, Congo, Somalia… In 2018 and 2019, he visited Gaza when he filmed a report on Hamas.
“It’s tragic to say, but Gaza is one of the biggest zoos in the world. People have almost less rights than penguins and lions in Frankfurt or Berlin zoos. They live without documents, unemployment is maximum, most of them hardly work. This is what happened the last days are the result of huge frustrations. I heard from a friend who is on the verge of tears, families are displaced, everyone is trying to go down to the south and all the time under threats from Israel,” explained the war reporter.
The situation in Gaza, he added, is now intolerable, and the victims are huge. Those who are the least guilty will fare the worst, Marinović revealed.
A few days earlier, anger and rage were the main theme, said a Croatian journalist, and now bombs and bullets are doing that. Things have stabilized, but big things are at stake.
“The Russian-Ukrainian war divided the world and the earthquake was huge, but this is a tectonic change. It is not a conflict between Israel and Hamas, it also includes Hezbollah, which has not yet joined, but is ready and it is more powerful, better armed than Hamas . But those are just tricks, a few grenades up and down. But if Hezbollah were to get involved, Iran would automatically come along, and along with it there is also the USA, which stands unreservedly on the side of Israel. Egypt says that if it will open the borders for a million refugees , then it can definitely happen that the Muslim Brotherhood enters Gaza from the other side,” explained Zoran Marinović. The situation, he added, is very complicated. People are scared, and you can see fear in their eyes.
‘The country cannot be left to its own devices’
Borders are being closed in Europe to prevent terrorism, and the war reporter said that the threat exists. Someone can always have bad intentions.
“Regardless of the theory, the country cannot be left to its own devices and there must be border control. It seems to me like an echo of paranoia and fear of everything and anything. Even a few days ago, no one in Israel could believe that Hamas broke through the border, that they were coming to kibbutzes and to kill people in living rooms and rooms. This is an example that anything can happen,” concluded Zoran Marinović.
