TEHRAN- The former head of U.S. Central Command, General Frank McKenzie, who was in charge of U.S. forces in West Asia for three years under the administrations of Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden says "Israel" has achieved little since it began its war on Gaza on 7 October.

The remarks are the latest by officials in the United States that have placed a strong shadow of doubt and concern in the West over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's real intentions in the besieged Gaza Strip. 

Within the occupied Palestinian territories, Israelis are pouring their anger on the streets of Tel Aviv and elsewhere against Netanyahu, demanding an immediate exchange of prisoners and an end to the war. 

Speaking to the American network CBS, the former CENTCOM chief was asked to judge the level of success of the Israeli military campaign to date, given the U.S. intelligence estimates the Israeli military has killed about 20 to 30% of Hamas members since October. 

"It's very limited so far. You know, I think they set themselves a goal of removing the political echelon, and the military leadership echelon of Hamas, when they went in. They have not been successful to date at doing either," McKenzie told the broadcaster. 

If the Israeli regime has not been successful at removing the political and military echelon of Hamas, according to the former U.S. military chief in West Asia, what has Tel Aviv been doing in the Gaza Strip? 

According to the United Nations, around 100,000 people in Gaza have been killed, injured, or gone missing, with the number growing every day. 

Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of UNRWA, the United Nations Palestinian aid agency, said, "More than 80% of the population has been displaced, most several times." 

"And the war goes on unabated though there will be no winner, only suffering, misery and grievance," he added. 

WAR ON CHILDREN 

The Israeli military has waged a horrific military campaign against children, the most vulnerable in society. The regime's ground and air forces have killed more than 11,500 children in the coastal enclave. Thousands more are missing, presumably buried under the rubble, according to Save the Children. 

The Israeli war on Gaza has led to an estimated 17,000 Palestinian children left unaccompanied or have been separated from their families, according to UNICEF. 

The UN's children agency says an alarmingly more than one million children in the Gaza Strip also require mental health support and are displaying emotional outbursts and panic. 

"They present symptoms like extremely high levels of persistent anxiety, loss of appetite. They can't sleep, they have emotional outbursts or they panic every time they hear a bombing," said Jonathan Crickx, the UNICEF chief of communication for the Occupied Palestinian Territories.  

"Before this war, UNICEF was considering already that 500,000 children were in need of mental health and psychosocial support in Gaza," Crickx added. "Today, we estimate that almost all children are in need of that support - and that’s more than one million children." 

Many images have emerged over the news wires of displaced Palestinian children in Rafah collecting water at a tent camp. 

Yet fears are growing that the Israeli regime is set to mount an all-out bombing campaign and ground invasion in Rafah where more than half of Gaza's 2.3 million civilians are estimated to have fled to seek shelter from the regime's bombardment. 

Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip killed more around 130 people overnight, according to Gaza's health ministry, including strikes on two residential towers in Rafah, the southernmost area of the besieged territory next to the border with Egypt. 

Another 143 Palestinians have sustained injuries by the indiscriminate Israeli airstrikes.

International humanitarian organizations have expressed grave concern at the prospect of the war being expanded to Rafah, where fears are growing over the Israeli military committing even more massacres against Palestinian children.