Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu considered that Qatar's mediation role in the exchange deal with the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) was problematic.

Channel 12 reported - based on a leaked recording of Netanyahu meeting with the families of prisoners detained in Gaza - that Qatar is more problematic than the United Nations and the Red Cross.

He added that he was disappointed that Washington was not putting more pressure on Doha, and that it had extended its presence at the military base in Qatar.

Netanyahu indicated that he did not thank Qatar publicly because it did not exert more pressure on the Hamas movement, which Doha is believed to be financing.

Haaretz newspaper reported from informed sources that Netanyahu informed the families of the prisoners that Israel is ready to make concessions for the sake of a new deal, and an Israeli channel published general principles for the deal that do not include an end to the war, which is one of Hamas’ conditions.

Israeli media confirmed that the negotiations are continuing and that Israel has not received any response from Hamas through mediators, at a time when US envoy Brett McGurk is touring the region, including Egypt and Qatar, to hold “serious” talks regarding reaching an agreement to release the prisoners held by Hamas in Gaza and a humanitarian truce, according to White House spokesman John Kirby.

Qatar - along with Egypt and the United States - played a role in reaching a truce between Hamas and Israel last November, and the two sides exchanged the release of numbers of prisoners.

Source: Israeli press

On Wednesday, the Israeli occupation army blew up the walls of the family home of Palestinian detainee Wael Shehadeh, south of the city of Nablus in the northern West Bank.

According to local sources, an army engineering unit blew up Shehadeh's house in the town of Urif.

According to other local sources, confrontations broke out between dozens of Palestinians and the Israeli army in the town, in which the latter used live and metal bullets and tear gas bombs, while protesters threw stones at the forces.

Dozens of Israeli military vehicles stormed the town of Orif early on Wednesday.

The Israeli army usually blows up and demolishes the homes of Palestinians, accusing them of carrying out "operations and killing Israelis."

Prisoner Basil Shehadeh has been detained since June 21, 2023, and is accused of assisting the perpetrators of the “Eli” settlement operation south of Nablus, which resulted in the killing of 4 settlers at that time.

The American Wall Street Journal, citing Egyptian sources: Hamas informed the mediators that it is open to discussing an agreement to release all kidnapped civilian women and children in exchange for a ceasefire for a long period. 19 Israeli women and two children are still in Hamas captivity. This is an important shift in Hamas’ position. Which was opposed to any negotiations before the ceasefire, according to the newspaper.

The American newspaper, citing the same sources, said: Despite the positivity in Hamas’ position, the agreement is still far from reach and the talks could still collapse.

The American Washington Post newspaper: A proposal is being negotiated that includes the release of all Israeli prisoners in exchange for thousands of Palestinian prisoners, including those involved in serious attacks and senior leaders of Palestinian organizations.

The process will be in several stages, the first of which will be the release of 10 women and children who were supposed to be released by Hamas in the first deal. In the second stage, about 40 prisoners will be released, including the sick, wounded, and the elderly, along with soldiers. In the remaining stage, Hamas will release the rest. Of the prisoners, including soldiers and its corpses. For every Israeli, there will be 3 Palestinian prisoners.

Reuters, citing several sources: An agreement has been reached in principle, according to which an agreement will be reached to exchange prisoners during a ceasefire period that will last for one month.

The sources said that there is difficulty in going beyond the broad outlines of the framework presented after a dispute over the continuation of the war at the end of the deal... but the negotiations have already achieved progress and reduced differences regarding the duration of what was described as the “initial ceasefire,” which Hamas initially demanded to continue for several months, but the movement It refuses to move forward until there is agreement on the future terms of the permanent ceasefire it demands as part of the deal.

Reuters quoted two Egyptian security officials as saying: There are attempts to persuade Hamas to agree to a ceasefire for a month followed by a permanent ceasefire, but the movement is demanding guarantees to implement the second phase of the deal.

A Palestinian official familiar with the negotiations said: Hamas is demanding a “comprehensive deal” in which there would also be an agreement on a permanent ceasefire before the release of the kidnapped people, while Israel is interested in interim negotiations.

A senior Hamas official told Reuters that one of the proposals put forward by Israel was to end the war by “removing” six senior Hamas officials from the Strip, which would mean exiling them from there. This proposal was categorically rejected.

He added: The list presented by Israel included the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Al-Sinwar, and the commander of the military wing, Muhammad Al-Deif.

Five sources said that Israel is not ready to discuss any scenario for ending the war that does not include dissolving Hamas.

During more than 100 days since the Al-Aqsa Flood operation on October 7, US President Joe Biden sought to help Israel win its war on Gaza and prevent the conflict from turning into a regional war with Iran and its proxies. This has become more difficult as the Iranian “axis of resistance,” Israel, and America launch more serious strikes on each other, including assassinations.

A report by the British magazine The Economist stated that Iran’s allies in Iraq and Syria have launched about 140 missile and drone attacks against American forces since the beginning of the Gaza war, and perhaps the most violent of them came on January 20, with the launch of a barrage of “multiple ballistic missiles and missiles” at the Al-Assad base west of the country. Iraq, according to US Central Command.

The magazine added that the United States launched its seventh raid in Yemen “against a different Iranian ally,” the Houthi group, which controls a large part of the country, in an attempt to stop the missiles it launches at ships passing through the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

Biden himself admits that American strikes will not stop the Houthis. However, the Washington Post reports that his administration is formulating plans for a “sustained military campaign” in Yemen despite the concerns of some officials.

The magazine continued, saying that Hezbollah in Lebanon, on the other hand, was regularly exchanging fire with Israeli forces. He expressed his support for Hamas, but did not involve himself in a war against Israel, according to the magazine, as the Biden administration helped dissuade Israel from launching a pre-emptive attack on Hezbollah immediately after the October 7 attacks, but Israel threatens to take action in Lebanon if diplomacy fails to convince Hezbollah to cease fire and move away from the border area.

The British magazine believes that America and Iran are playing a balancing role fraught with risks. Iran has helped its allies in the “Axis of Resistance” launch attacks aimed at weakening Israel, distracting America, and discrediting the Arab countries that have signed peace agreements or normalized their relations (or are seeking to do so) with Israel. For its part, America has engaged in “limited retaliatory operations,” and both have avoided a direct clash, but this balance may not hold.

The Economist hinted that Israel is waging a non-secret war against Iran and its allies, in addition to public confrontations with Hamas and Hezbollah.

Strategic patience

However, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called on Iranian forces to exercise "strategic patience", while Ali Vaez of the International Crisis Group says the Iranian regime now feels it needs to "restore deterrence" and has taken matters into its own hands.

The British magazine reported that, during the past week, Iran fired missiles at alleged “terrorist” targets in Syria and Pakistan, and at “an alleged Israeli spy base in Iraqi Kurdistan.” The attack on Pakistan led to a retaliatory missile strike against Iran, and it appears that both countries Now step back from the brink.

Fayez says, "The Iranians are still risk averse; they want to change the perception that they are on the defensive. But at the same time, there is a perception that Israel has set a trap for them, either to justify extending the war or to drag the United States into it."

According to the magazine, Biden was cautious, as he did not want to be drawn into a war in the Middle East at a time when America was already exhausted due to supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia, and was trying to prevent another war against China because of Taiwan. Moreover, Biden is seeking re-election this year.

In Iraq and Syria, US forces respond much less frequently to the attacks they are exposed to. Likewise in Yemen, Washington initially limited its response to destroying missiles and drones that threatened Israel or passing ships.

The magazine quoted Aaron David Miller, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, as saying, “The American administration knows that it has a problem that has no solution, and it can only try to manage it.”

She noted that Biden’s best hope is that Israel will soon win, or at least end its war in Gaza, thus reducing anger throughout the region, “but Israel has not succeeded in suppressing Hamas and has not recovered its hostages, and has shown little sign of its willingness to stop.” The number of Palestinian deaths has exceeded 25,000.”

The magazine concluded its report by saying that while Biden is struggling to control the scene in the Middle East, Miller says that he may be away from an “unfortunate accident or terrorist attack” that ignites a regional war. He added: "If this continues, and one of these strikes actually ends with the killing of a large number of Americans, the administration will have no choice but to strike the Iranian Revolutionary Guard."

Source: The Economist + Al Jazeera

By David Ignatius

Israel and Hamas are groping toward a resumption of negotiations to trade Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, accompanied by an extended pause in fighting, as well as a sharp increase in aid for desperate civilians in Gaza.

These deadlocked issues are the blood knot in this war. For a traumatized Israel, release of the hostages is a paramount aim. For a Palestinian population on the edge of famine and pandemic disease, a new cease-fire is an existential requirement. For Hamas leaders trapped underground, the deal offers the possibility of political survival.

There isn’t yet a breakthrough. But recent progress in framing issues is the first opening since December in an impasse that has turned Gaza into a nightmare of death and disease. If the indirect negotiations resume — with mediation from Qatar and Egypt aided by the United States — it could open a path toward a major de-escalation of the war.

The move to resume negotiations was outlined this week by knowledgeable Israeli and U.S. sources, who spoke anonymously because of the sensitivity of the issues. Like every other aspect of the Gaza conflict, the bargaining is bounded by deep mistrust and internal political divisions. But officials who were bleak about progress a week ago are more hopeful now.

The main obstacle to resuming the indirect talks is Hamas’s demand for a long-term cease-fire. Israel refuses to grant that, but its negotiators are ready to accept a pause that would last weeks and could perhaps be extended as conditions evolve. Israel is pressing Egyptian and Qatari mediators to persuade Hamas to accept the negotiating framework, so bargaining over the details of swapping hostages and prisoners can begin.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thunderously rejected Hamas’s demand for a permanent cease-fire on Sunday. “I reject outright the terms of surrender of the monsters of Hamas,” Netanyahu said. But he faces growing domestic pressure to free the estimated 136 hostages who remain in Hamas control, so he badly needs a release plan.

Negotiators envision several stages in the hostage-release process. First, Hamas would free about 10 women and children who were supposed to be released under a previous agreement that collapsed last month. In a second “humanitarian” phase, Hamas would free about 40 sick, injured and elderly hostages along with female Israeli soldiers. In the remaining group of roughly 86, Hamas would hand over male hostages, including soldiers, and finally the bodies of those who died during the Oct. 7 attack or in subsequent months of captivity.

Each departure of Israeli hostages from Gaza would be accompanied by release of Palestinian prisoners. Sources say the ratio would probably be more than three Palestinians for every Israeli. Among the hundreds of Palestinians to be freed would be some whom Israelis view as terrorists and killers, which would make this a bitter bargain.

The final swap lists wouldn’t be agreed on until shortly before release, but one Palestinian detainee who might be freed is Marwan Barghouti, who led the first and second intifadas. Barghouti is probably the most popular political leader in the West Bank and Gaza and potentially could unite Palestinians in a push toward statehood.

The renewed swap agreement would be accompanied by a lengthy cease-fire. This would allow humanitarian assistance that’s desperately needed in Gaza but blocked by continuing violence and Israeli intransigence. For example, a U.N. team that was supposed to enter northern Gaza 10 days ago to assess water, housing, food and sanitation needs has been blocked by continued skirmishing between Israeli forces and remnants of Hamas.

Such a pause in fighting could open new routes for aid, including ships unloaded at floating docks offshore. Doctors and medicines are urgently needed as infectious disease spreads in the crowded, dirty camps into which Palestinian refugees have been driven. Gazans are experiencing “unspeakable suffering,” wrote Leonard Rubenstein and J. Stephen Morrison, two prominent public health specialists, in a recent report published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

If negotiators can address the two most anguishing issues — Israel’s Oct. 7 hostages and the suffering of Palestinian civilians — that might open the way to progress on other problems that now seem irreconcilable. Netanyahu insists he won’t allow a Palestinian state with full sovereignty, seemingly blocking the outcome the United States favors and Saudi Arabia demands. But diplomacy is about bridging such gaps.

State Department officials are exploring sovereignty models that might satisfy both sides, such as the “compacts of free association” that allowed statehood for Pacific island nations such as Micronesia and Palau, with restrictions on defense and other sensitive issues. U.S. officials stress to their Israeli counterparts that the best guarantee for long-term security is a regional structure of cooperation that unites Israel, Saudi Arabia and other Arab states against Iran and its proxies — but the Arabs demand that, as part of the deal, Israel accept a Palestinian state.

Israel needs this cease-fire and prisoner swap as badly as Hamas does. The endgame of the tunnel war could go on for many months. But aboveground, Gaza is becoming a version of warlord-dominated Somalia. Israel and Hamas need to start moving toward de-escalation of this conflict now, while they still have a chance.

The European Union seeks to play a greater role in “bringing peace to the Middle East,” with the Union’s Foreign Affairs Council calling for a 10-point plan, one of the goals of which is the establishment of a Palestinian state, and holding a “preparatory conference for peace” organized with Arab, American, and international participation, which also supports achieving comprehensive normalization between Israel and the Arabs.

Among the goals of the plan, which was circulated before the meeting of foreign ministers of the EU countries, yesterday, Monday, is the establishment of “an independent Palestinian state living side by side with Israel,” as well as “full normalization” of relations between Israel and the Arab world, and building a “political alternative” to the Hamas movement. The plan acknowledges the "unrealism" of Palestinian-Israeli negotiations in the near term.

Kawa Hassan, a non-resident researcher at the Stimson Center, told Al Jazeera Net, "The plan shows a growing awareness in Brussels, even from countries that support Israel, that the current situation is unsustainable."

The expert in Middle East and North African affairs stresses “the failure of the Oslo and Abraham Accords in their objectives, especially establishing a Palestinian state and providing security for Israel,” and that “the attack of last October 7, and then the destruction of Gaza, confirmed that patchwork solutions will not help in solving the problem.” 

"A solution to the continent's problems"

However, the plan has not yet been approved and remains unofficial. Daniel Gerlach, a German expert in the Middle East, confirms that there are "many divisions within the European Union over the current situation, including the vote on the ceasefire and the Israeli military operations in Gaza."

Gerlach, who is also the editor-in-chief of Zenit magazine, added to Al Jazeera Net, "Therefore, the Union presented a very general approach to include everyone in the discussion and focus on the long-term vision, specifically the vision of the two-state solution, which is supported by all the countries of the Union."

Gerlach continues that there are details that were not mentioned, including “the necessity for all European countries to recognize the Palestinian state before starting the plan, especially since some countries still refuse to do so,” highlighting also that the plan seeks to solve the continent’s problems in relation to the conflict, and not a solution to the conflict itself.

In turn, Kawa Hassan points out that the size of the European Union (27 countries) makes any agreement take time, but the size of the impact on Europe, the size of the tragedy in Gaza, the European Parliament’s call for a sustainable ceasefire, and then the increasing popular pressure in Europe, are all things that push the union to search for “real change and a comprehensive solution.”

The spokesman confirms that the Union has come to believe that the creation of a true Palestinian state will not be achieved except through comprehensive Arab normalization with Israel, especially from Saudi Arabia.

"Dishonest broker"

The final results of the meeting confirmed that the situation in Gaza is “catastrophic” and that it constitutes a priority in the talks. The statement said, "More deaths, more destruction, and more hardships to the Palestinian people will not help defeat Hamas and its ideology, nor will it bring more security to Israel."

The statement also pointed to the need to support UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees), talked about the post-war reality, and supported a plan for a two-state solution. The ministers affirmed “the Union’s strong support for the Palestinian people and the Palestinian Authority,” as well as the continuation of sanctions against extremist settlers, and also touched on tensions on the Lebanon-Israel border and in the Red Sea.

However, there are those who doubt the possibility of the European Union playing any role, and consider it “part of the problem, not part of the solution, because of its unlimited cover for the occupying state and its double standards,” as Majed Al-Zeer, CEO of the European-Palestinian Council for Political Relations, put it to Al-Jazeera Net. 

Al-Zeer continues that the European Union recognizes “the existence of the Israeli occupation,” but nonetheless “provides legitimacy to the settlements” and has a strong partnership with Israel, pointing out that the core of the problem is “ending the occupation, dismantling the settlements, and implementing international law,” describing the presented plan as a “relations campaign.” from a union that has powerful tools to influence Israel, but does not do so for reasons including dependence on Washington's decisions.

An obstacle to the Netanyahu government

One of the biggest obstacles facing the plan is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's refusal to establish a Palestinian state, which escalated his dispute with Washington, which supports this goal. A number of European officials also criticized Netanyahu's statements, and the French Foreign Ministry described them as disturbing.

“The plan does not need to rely on Netanyahu’s government because it is a long-term plan, and it is not directed at him, but rather at Israeli public opinion, the Arab world, and the United States,” Daniel Gerlach points out, adding, “In my opinion, a number of European decision-makers want the fall of this government in order to advance the plan.” 

Gerlach continues, "The Union is trying to find support from the Palestinian population in Gaza and the West Bank, and does not focus on the Palestinian Authority. The Union believes that Hamas should not be a political actor in the future, not only for the war and the October 7 attack, but also because no Israeli government will accept dealing with it, explains the expert.

For his part, Majed Al-Zeer believes that there is a European attempt to portray the Palestinians as a “deficient people,” while “it is their will that should rule.” He continues, "When extremists are chosen in the Israeli government, such as Itamar Ben Gvir, and are given the opportunity to rule, no one interferes, while guardianship is exercised over the Palestinian people," adding that the Palestinian people under the PLO are the ones who determine the political path.

Source: Al Jazeera

The Jerusalem Post said in an analysis that the Israeli army can no longer achieve greater achievements at the strategic level in Gaza than it has already achieved.

The Israeli newspaper added that continuing in this manner would ultimately lead to the loss of the lives of hundreds of soldiers without a clear strategic goal.

According to the Jerusalem Post, seeing 21 soldiers killed in one incident (in reference to the resistance operation east of Al-Maghazi last Monday) reinforces fears that the number of army deaths will double significantly at this stage, with the army’s presence reduced and its movement declining, making it an easy target.

According to the Israeli newspaper's analysis, the killing of 21 soldiers will strengthen the position of the wing demanding a deal that returns the prisoners, even without completely eliminating the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).

Despite the large number of soldiers killed, especially the operation carried out by the Al-Qassam Brigades east of Al-Maghazi, where 21 soldiers were killed in the bombing of two buildings booby-trapped by the occupation forces and targeting a vehicle near them, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to continue the war until achieving what he called absolute victory.

The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation quoted Netanyahu - during a closed cabinet meeting - that the third phase of the Gaza war will take about 6 months.

But the Wall Street Journal confirmed - citing American officials - that intelligence estimates indicate that Hamas still possesses enough ammunition to strike Israel for several more months.

The American newspaper quoted Israeli officials as admitting that the goal of destroying Hamas during the war on Gaza “was not achieved,” despite the air and ground campaign and the massive destruction.

An analysis by the military and security affairs editor of the Israeli newspaper "Haaretz" (Amos Harel) concluded that Israel is immersed in the mud of Gaza, and this may last for many years without finding anyone to rescue it from it, while the risk of a confrontation in the West Bank is increasing.

Source: Al Jazeera + foreign press

The United Nations confirmed on Tuesday that the residents of Gaza are being subjected to destruction on a scale and speed unprecedented in history, stressing that Israel's rejection of the two-state solution is "unacceptable."

The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, said: “The entire population of Gaza is being subjected to destruction on a scale and speed unprecedented in history, and nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Strip.”

He added, "Everyone is hungry in Gaza, and more than half a million people are now inside Rafah, and there is a spread of diseases."

He stated that "the quantities of humanitarian aid entering Gaza are completely insufficient," stressing that he faces "very difficult inspections of aid and rejections of essential materials."

The Secretary-General of the United Nations said: “We need to reach the areas of northern Gaza.” He called for "rapid and sustainable humanitarian aid access to Gaza."

He stressed that “the war in Gaza is fueling unrest outside the Gaza Strip.” “The risk of the conflict expanding regionally has become a reality.”

He said, "The United Nations is facing a cumbersome aid screening process and unjustified rejection of urgently needed items," stressing that "there is a need for more crossing points into Gaza, and the entry of aid from the port of Ashdod must resume."

He stated that "dozens of aid workers have been waiting for months to obtain visas from Israel."

He stressed that "the two-state solution is the only way to address the aspirations of Palestinians and Israelis," adding that "the clear and repeated rejection of the two-state solution from the highest levels of the Israeli government is unacceptable."

The Secretary-General added, "This rejection and denial of the right of the Palestinian people to have a state would indefinitely prolong a conflict that has become a grave danger to international peace and security."

He stressed that this would "exacerbate polarization and encourage extremists everywhere."

Guterres said that "everyone must recognize the right of the Palestinian people to build their completely independent state," and pointed out that "any rejection by any party of the two-state solution must be firmly rejected," explaining that "it is the only way to achieve a lasting and just peace in Israel, Palestine and the entire region." .

Guterres said, "It is necessary to reduce the escalation in the Red Sea and Yemen, and attacks on ships must stop immediately."

He pointed out that "the violence of Israeli settlers in the West Bank is one of the concerns."

The Secretary-General of the United Nations welcomed "the agreement facilitated by Qatar and France to deliver shipments of medicines to Gaza."

Earlier Tuesday, the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, said that Israel does not have a veto against the Palestinians’ right to self-determination.

Haaretz newspaper reported from informed sources that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed the families of prisoners held by the Palestinian resistance in Gaza that “Israel is ready to make concessions for the sake of a new deal,” while an Israeli channel revealed what it said were general principles for concluding the deal, while an American envoy visits the region to investigate the issue.

The newspaper indicated that Netanyahu informed the families that Israel would not announce a halt to the war as part of a deal, as requested by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).

Haaretz reported that Netanyahu said that if he agreed to end the war, international guarantees must be signed that cannot be violated. According to the newspaper, Netanyahu denied the existence of a real proposal from Hamas, but said that there was an initiative without going into details.

In the same context, an Israeli official said that negotiations with Hamas regarding a ceasefire in Gaza in exchange for a prisoner exchange are still ongoing.

The Israeli Broadcasting Authority quoted an unnamed Israeli official as saying that the negotiations “are still ongoing, and we have not received a negative response.”

It pointed out that the Israeli official's statements came after Western reports about Hamas rejecting the Israeli offer.

White House spokesman John Kirby said that US envoy McGurk is in Cairo on Tuesday to hold "serious" discussions regarding the release of prisoners held by Hamas in Gaza and reaching a humanitarian truce.

Kirby added that the White House would certainly support a longer humanitarian truce.

Israeli principles

In the same context, on Tuesday, Israeli Channel 12 revealed the content of an Israeli offer for a prisoner exchange with Hamas and a ceasefire in Gaza.

Channel 12 said, "The mediators' answer is expected to come today or tomorrow after hearing from Hamas about whether it is possible to move forward, and if it shows flexibility in its declared demand to stop fighting and withdraw all forces from the Gaza Strip."

The channel explained what it said were the general principles set by Israel regarding the deal, including that it include the release of all detainees in 3 stages, with women, the elderly, and the wounded being released first, then non-recruited men, and finally the soldiers and corpses.

Among the principles are that Israel adhere to a rest period (ceasefire) lasting several weeks, ranging from two to three months, and that Israel work to change the deployment of its forces in the Gaza Strip and withdraw from population centers.

Israel also expressed its willingness to allow the return of residents to specific areas in the northern Gaza Strip, according to the channel.

The channel also confirmed that Tel Aviv will not commit to ending the war at any stage.

Hamas had stipulated a ceasefire in Gaza, the withdrawal of all Israeli forces from the Strip, the release of Palestinian prisoners, and a pledge not to return to war or pursue Hamas, in exchange for the release of Israeli prisoners, which Israel rejected, according to Netanyahu on Monday.

For his part, Israeli government spokesman Elon Levy said on Tuesday that Israel will not agree to an agreement with Hamas regarding a ceasefire that would allow the continued detention of prisoners in Gaza or for Hamas to remain in power, as he put it.

On October 7, Hamas launched an attack on Israeli military points and settlements around the Gaza Strip, during which about 1,200 Israelis were killed, about 5,431 were wounded, and at least 239 were captured, of whom Tel Aviv regained about 105 in an exchange and temporary truce deal with Hamas that lasted 7 days, ending in early December 2023. 

Since October 7, 2023, the Israeli army has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, which as of Tuesday morning left 25,490 dead and 63,354 injured, most of them children and women, according to the Palestinian authorities, and caused devastation. A massive and unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, according to the United Nations.

Source: Al Jazeera + agencies + Israeli press

It

A leader of the Hamas movement said that talking about any deals to exchange prisoners without a comprehensive agreement on a ceasefire is completely unacceptable, and that there is consensus on it among the various levels of Hamas, stressing that the talk is about an Israeli proposal to release detainees in exchange for a long truce that will last for two months without a decision to cease-fire is unacceptable.

He explained that to begin any negotiations, they must start from the basis of a comprehensive ceasefire in its final stage, and not to resume fighting.

On the other hand, Egyptian sources familiar with Cairo’s movements related to the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip said that the Egyptian role currently focuses more on perceptions after the end of the war, and that the Qatari mediator has become, at the present moment, more concerned with the perceptions and proposals of the prisoner exchange deal and the broad lines for cease-fire.

The sources revealed, in exclusive conversations with Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, that the discussions that took place with US administration officials and the leadership of the Hamas movement during the past few days witnessed agreement on the necessity of associating the ceasefire decision with the scene on the day following the war, indicating that there is great agreement. Between the Hamas leadership and Egyptian officials to establish clear frameworks and mechanisms for reconstruction.

The sources pointed out that Egypt considers the Gaza reconstruction file a major priority for it after the war stops, since a ceasefire without an agreement on how to rehabilitate and rebuild the Strip will be like a time bomb ready to explode at any time, considering that the mechanisms and conditions for reconstruction, following the previous rounds of war, It no longer fits the status quo.

The same sources revealed a new development related to the presence of the Hamas movement on the scene, after the end of the war, saying that in light of the conviction that has been generated throughout the current war in the impossibility of eradicating the movement from the Gaza Strip, it would not be unlikely for it to participate in any unity government that will be formed after ending the outstanding matters with the Gaza Strip. 

Source: Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed

At a time when the Israeli Ministry of Justice, the legal advisor to the government, and the Public Prosecution began taking rapid legislative measures to enact a new law related to the arrest and trial of thousands of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip who were arrested on suspicion of participating in the Hamas attack on October 7, it was reported that judicial officials Israelis held consultations with a number of prosecutors and legal institutions in European countries regarding judicial prosecutions against members of the Palestinian movement. In parallel, Israeli fears have emerged of a counter-reaction by human rights institutions that also intend to prosecute Israeli leaders on charges of committing crimes against humanity during the war on Gaza.

Legal sources in Tel Aviv said that the High Court of Justice convening in The Hague to deliberate on South Africa’s lawsuit against Israel, accusing it of committing the crime of genocide, opened a counter-channel that could confuse Israeli efforts against Hamas members. Therefore, the Israeli Ministry of Justice decided to proceed slowly in its efforts and seek advice from Western experts. In this context, Ghali Behrav Meara, the legal advisor to the Israeli government, met with a number of senior judicial advisors and prosecutors in the United States, Germany, the Czech Republic, Portugal and Estonia, countries whose citizens were killed or captured by Hamas during an attack. October 7, as well as representatives of the embassies of Japan, Australia and Denmark, to hear their opinions on the matter. They were informed of the materials of the investigation that took place with the detained Hamas members and other participants in the attack. Video clips of the killing of Israeli and foreign civilians in that attack were shown to them. The Israelis asked their guests to help hold exceptional trials for these defendants, saying, “This is not only an internal Israeli issue, but should concern all human rights supporters in the world.”

The heads of foreign prosecutors met with members of the legal team that represented Israel before the International Court of Justice in The Hague to respond to South Africa’s lawsuit in which Israel was accused of committing genocide against the Gazans. They also met with officials in the Ministries of Security and Foreign Affairs and in the Israeli police, and listened to reports about the Israeli story. of the “Al-Aqsa Flood” attack and around the “Hamas” movement, and they participated in a tour of the towns of the “Gaza envelope.”

The European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, said that Israel has a veto against the Palestinians' right to self-determination.

Borrell's statements came during a joint press conference with the Egyptian Foreign Minister, Sameh Shoukry, and the European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Affairs, Oliver Varhelyi, after the EU-Egypt Association Council was held in Brussels.

Borrell pointed out that Egypt is one of the important actors in the Middle East, and cooperation with it will continue to increase.

Borrell pointed out that an agreement had been reached between the European Union and its allies in the Middle East on a “two-state solution,” which Israel announced that it opposes.

He pointed out that the United Nations has repeatedly recognized the right of the Palestinians to self-determination, and no party can deny or oppose that.

He stressed that Israel does not have the right to veto the right of the Palestinians to self-determination.

In press statements following the meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday, Josep Borrell said that negotiations for a “two-state solution” in the Middle East will continue, whether Israel likes it or not.

He said, "If Israel does not want this solution, it will be difficult for it to find a place in the negotiations to build a solution. But this does not prevent other (actors) from doing so."

He added, "If the international community can prepare a solution together, propose it and agree on it, there will be a certain negotiating power."

Amnesty International reported today (Tuesday) that there are indicators warning of genocide in the Gaza Strip. Including the deaths of more than 25,000 people in Israeli attacks, according to the Arab World News Agency.

The organization said that among the indicators of genocide are “the deliberate deprivation of civilians in Gaza from humanitarian aid by Israel, and the adoption of racist and inhumane rhetoric against the Palestinians by some Israeli officials.”

It added on the “X” platform that among the indicators was what she described as “historic discrimination and oppression against Palestinians under the apartheid regime.”

Amnesty International stressed that there are no signs of an end to the collective human suffering, destruction and devastation in Gaza until the International Court of Justice issues a final ruling on the truth about the commission of genocide and other crimes under international law.

The organization stressed that “issuing an urgent order to implement temporary measures” is an important means of preventing further deaths, destruction and suffering of civilians and providing protection for them. It also helps warn other countries of the need not to contribute to committing crimes and grave violations.

By Michael Day

As the more powerful actor in a two-party conflict, the onus is on Israel to turn to compromise and political discourse

The deaths of 24 Israel Defence Forces (IDF) soldiers in Gaza in a single day may pale in comparison to the vast total death toll of this three-month war. But it will add disproportionate pressure on Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu to compromise in a conflict in which he has been utterly deaf to calls for restraint or reason.

Many Israelis and moderate voices in Netanyahu’s war cabinet want to prioritise the release of hostages in Gaza over a sustained bombardment that appears more effective in causing humanitarian disaster than annihilating Hamas, the group responsible for the 7 October mass killings.

Netanyahu has been resisting calls for a ceasefire. Far-right ministers in his coalition oppose a deal to gain the hostages’ release from Gaza as it would require the release of all or many incarcerated Hamas members. And Netanyahu needs the extremists’ support for the coalition to survive. He is widely blamed by the Israeli public for the catastrophic security failings that allowed Hamas to attack with impunity on 7 October.

The press has been quick to remind Netanyahu of his comments to a Likud party meeting in 2019: “Anyone who wants to foil the establishment of a Palestinian state needs to support the strengthening of Hamas and the transfer of funds to Hamas.” We know how that ended.

Netanyahu would probably be comprehensively defeated in a general election. And out of power he would be more vulnerable to the prosecutors trying to nail him on corruption charges.

On all sides, pressures are growing on Netanyahu – from the US and its allies, from the Israeli public and from within his war cabinet. These will only increase if, as expected, a formal proposal delivered by the Egyptian government for the release of the hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and a long-term cease-fire emerges.

In an attempt to pre-empt this, the Israeli government has reportedly suggested a pause in its military offensive against Hamas for up to two months, in exchange for a phased release of the remaining 100-plus hostages in Gaza.

Without an end to the fighting, the Arab states will not begin to even discuss the Strip’s reconstruction. Arab leaders, under pressure from their own public, also need signs that Israel is prepared to change course from the past two decades and start to discuss a long-term political solution to its interminable conflict with the Palestinians.

A post-war peace settlement with the Palestinians – let alone a genuine attempt to allow them their own state – is probably the last thing on Netanyahu’s mind. Despite the chaos and horror, he appears more concerned with his own political survival, which perversely is guaranteed only for as long as the current conflict continues. 

On Sunday, the UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said it was “disappointing” that Netanyahu has announced he is not in favour of a Palestinian state. But in his very next breath Shapps underlined why neither he nor anyone should be surprised or disappointed by Netanyahu’s intransigence. “In fairness, he [Netanyahu] has said that all of his political career, as far as I can tell,” Shapps told Sky News. Shapps’ comments encapsulate Western cant and complacency towards the Israel-Palestine conflict.

The US makes periodic murmurings about the need for Palestinian statehood. But its one-sided role as protector and funder of Israel has undermined this (although even Washington’s patience must have limits). Biden is now under fire from Democrats for supporting Israel’s demolition of Gaza, which has killed over 1 per cent of the population and is effectively recruiting the next generation of antisemitic militants.

Reports suggest Netanyahu told Biden that he has not entirely ruled out the creation of a Palestinian state. But Netanyahu’s office then noted that any such development would revolve around a Palestinian state without full sovereignty – and therefore not a state at all.

It was the token nature of statehood offered in Clinton-era peace plans that saw them ultimately collapse in 2000. Almost a quarter of the century on, the status quo hasn’t changed. And Israel is relying on the same defence strategy of deterrence, surveillance and ruthless retaliation. But it failed spectacularly on 7 October, as Israeli security expert Uri Bar Joseph has noted in a thorough dismantling of Israel’s strategic failure.

“What’s missing is the political component, whose role would be to reduce our enemies’ motivation to go to war against us,” he says. “The only answer to the security problems in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip is a peace agreement and the two-state solution.”

Israel needs to accept reality. As the more powerful actor in a two-party conflict, the onus is on it to turn to compromise and political discourse. But it can’t begin the long slog towards the light while the political considerations of Israel’s prime minister stand in the way.

The decades-long Israel-Palestinian conflict needs a political solution. But until Israel rids itself of Netanyahu, that conversation can’t even begin.

The Financial Times published a report prepared by James Shooter in which he questioned the importance of the call submitted by South Africa to the International Court of Justice against Israel. He said that the International Court of Justice heard legal arguments in important cases, but the case presented by South Africa was the most important because it accused Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza.

A decision on the lawsuit, whose allegations Israel denies, will not be issued until years later. However, the court, with its 17 judges, will decide, in the coming days, whether it will accept the South African demand, which includes measures meant to limit the Israeli attack against Gaza.

  Even before the judges issued their decision, a country, which the writer says is democratic and supported by the West, was accused before the highest international crimes court, which led to global attention.

For Israel and its allies, the claim is baseless and arouses discontent.

For the Palestinians and their supporters, especially in the Global South, the situation is a test of the international system, which they see as always working against them.

“Few conflicts around the world have caused shocks like this,” says Dalia Scheindlin, a pollster in Tel Aviv. And all over the world, people have positions on it,” he said, so “I imagine that any decision from the court will ignite both parties, one way or another.”

In Israel, which the writer says was subjected to a Hamas attack on October 7, South Africa’s decision to bring it to court is incomprehensible and angering, especially since the 1948 Genocide Law, against which South Africa filed its lawsuit, appeared after the Nazi crimes against the Jews. During World War II.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that a terrorist group committed the worst crime against the Jewish people since the Holocaust, and one party is defending it, and in the name of the Holocaust? “What insolent bitterness.” He described the South African lawsuit as “a cry of hypocrisy that reaches the heavens.”

But the Palestinians see the situation in a different way: they hope that the international community will put pressure on Israel and stop its devastating attack on Israel, which has so far killed more than 25,000 Palestinians and displaced more than one million of the 2.3 million people in the Gaza Strip. It is also an opportunity to hold Israel responsible for the oppression and oppression it has carried out against the Palestinians over the past 75 years. The Palestinian Ambassador to Britain, Hossam Zomlot, says: “This is the first serious international effort to end the horrific situation and demand accountability, after 75 years of denial of basic, equal rights for all people.” He said: “This is an important moment, and if the International Justice Organization adheres to its legal mandate and succeeds in its governance, it will succeed for itself and for the law-based international system.” If it fails, it will have failed itself, its mandate, and the entire international system based on law.”

In order to make a decision, the court's judges must decide whether Israel's actions are covered by the Genocide Charter and whether urgent measures are necessary to protect the rights of Palestinian citizens of Gaza, a lower threshold than that required to support the case presented by South Africa.

  If the court decided that the South African request was compatible with the provisions of the Genocide Charter, it might decide to approve all demands, from a ceasefire to preventing it from incitement to commit genocide or an act chosen by Israel. The decision will have a clear impact on the Gaza war.

  Legal analysts doubt the court’s decision is binding on Israel, as they say that Hamas is not covered by the case, and is still holding 130 hostages. The result may have been a compromise in terms of increasing humanitarian aid and opening the way for independent investigations.

Analysts say that if Israel decides to ignore the court's decision, any reprehensible decision will affect the way countries deal with Israel, such as not selling weapons to it, or preparing to impose sanctions on it.

Others believe that the decision will have an impact on other cases submitted to the Criminal Court, which deals with cases against individuals, not states. “The Genocide Charter is the Summit Charter, it is the crime of crimes,” says Sheila Bellan, an expert in international law and human rights. “So this is an explosive moment,” but there is a lot at stake, as there are many cases that have been paralyzed by the UN Security Council. States are willing to resort to the Court against other countries, and it carries opportunities and risks for the International Court of Justice, and may ultimately strengthen it and its influence, but there are also risks of dragging it into situations that expose it to accusation and politicization.

More US senators decided to sign an amendment that could impose conditions on military aid to Israel, amid growing demands for a ceasefire in Gaza, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu categorically rejected the establishment of a Palestinian state, according to what the British website Middle East Eye reported on Monday January 22, 2024.

Five Democratic members of the US Senate, Tina Smith, Raphael Warnock, Lavonza Butler, Tammy Baldwin, and Jon Ossoff, announced on Friday, January 19, that they would support an amendment presented by Senator Chris Van Hollen, requiring countries that receive US weapons to use them in a manner that... Complies with humanitarian law and US law.

With these five members, total support for the Van Hollen Amendment reaches 18 members, more than a third of the Democratic Caucus in the US Senate.

Van Hollen said, in an interview on Sunday, January 21: “Here is Prime Minister Netanyahu once again directly and publicly repelling the President of the United States.” He added: "It is time for a ceasefire. Biden must take a big and bold step. He must present the vision of a two-state solution."

A dispute has arisen between the Biden administration and Israel over the post-war plan in Gaza since the start of the Israeli aggression on the Strip, after the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation. These differences worsened after Netanyahu publicly opposed the Biden administration's call to take steps to create a Palestinian state.

But growing support for Van Hollen's bill shows how opposition to Netanyahu is causing Israel to lose allies within the Democratic Party.

The Van Hollen Amendment also requires the administration to report within 30 days if recipients of US weapons are using them in compliance with US terms of use, as well as US and international law.

Van Hollen also directed sharp criticism at Israel, due to what he says is its lack of cooperation with the administration to provide more humanitarian aid to Gaza and reduce civilian casualties.

But the amendment allows the president to issue a waiver not to pressure recipients of US weapons to cooperate in humanitarian aid if doing so is in the interest of US national security.

While the Middle East Eye website indicated that this amendment will also not apply to air defense systems, or “other systems that the President determines will be used for purely defensive purposes.”

By Lemur Malik

There is a lot of talk about voluntary migration. And about Israel's need to allow hundreds of thousands of Gazans to immigrate to other countries, and even give them and the countries ready to receive them incentives. This idea, which was previously limited to the “Jewish Power” party and appears in its political program, became so prevalent after October 7 that even representatives from the left were not afraid to present it as a realistic idea.

In an article written by Representative from the “There is a Future” Party, Ram Ben Barak, with the participation of Representative Danny Danon, he said that the countries of the world must help the people of Gaza to immigrate and settle again. He wrote, "This can be done through an international coordination system, the goal of which is to help the residents of Gaza. In order to facilitate the adaptation of Gazans, the international community will have to help them with an economic facilitation package, which will allow every Gazan family to begin the process of assimilation with ease and comfort."

They added in the article, “A smaller number could be a start, 10,000 Gazans in each country, which will greatly reduce the suffering of the Gazan community and improve the conditions of those who remain in the Strip. There are 193 countries in the world, according to voting in the United Nations, that strictly support the Palestinians, "It can be assumed that, in the majority, they will not oppose helping them. What is required is that a number of countries respond to these demands and accept the Gazans. This is not only a moral duty, but an opportunity for the countries of the world to mobilize and show their commitment to a workable solution that helps push the entire Middle East to stability."

It is true that Ben Barak later tried to clarify the difference between himself and the Knesset members from the right, indicating that he only wants to allow whoever wants to emigrate, unlike the right-wingers who are concerned about displacement. However, a review of the political program of the “Jewish Power” party reveals that its proposal is similar to the party’s proposal that is deeply rooted in the Israeli right, a proposal that was written before the elections and stems from an understanding of the future.

The idea of voluntary immigration and settling in other countries that is open to those who want a new and dignified life is not new, especially since Israel finds itself, time after time, in a state of danger from these residents. It is the most ethical solution for the residents of Israel, and also for the residents of Gaza who are concerned about a better life. And to be far from their neighbors from the Hamas movement, who were the cause of destruction, destruction and death.

The idea of immigration is not unique to Israel, and when we discover, time after time, that there is no other solution, we have to allow whoever wants to do it. Moreover, the lack of possibility of immigration is immoral. We cannot force any child to live in an “environment that sanctifies death,” and to be educated in schools that foster “anti-Semitism and hatred of Jews,” where rockets are fired “from the classrooms” into Israel.

I know that there are those who will try to distort my statements and present them as a call for displacement. This is not the case. I want to kill Israel's enemies, not displace them, and I certainly do not want to push them into voluntary emigration. Past experience indicates that displacing enemies does not help in eliminating “terrorism.” On the contrary, the enemy becomes stronger away from our eyes, and when he returns, he is stronger and more trained. I want to open the door for those who want to choose a life away from “terrorism,” who want to stay away from the bad life full of death and evil in Gaza, and who want to develop their lives in another country of their choice.

Against the backdrop of ongoing discussions regarding the “day after” the war in the Gaza Strip, the international community is concerned about the Israeli public’s opposition to the two-state solution, taking into account the bias of this public toward the right since the October 7 attack. But a new public opinion poll showed that the Israeli public could support a settlement that includes the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Meanwhile, the political echelon has assessed in recent weeks that the Israeli public is leaning towards the right in its positions, and it will be difficult for it to accept pressures for a political settlement. According to these estimates, the public is likely to see the negotiations on establishing a Palestinian state in Gaza as an achievement for Hamas. Among Netanyahu's circles, there are those who warned against calling the current war in historical consciousness the "Palestinian War of Independence."

  A foreign diplomat with intimate knowledge of international efforts to reach a viable regional solution after the war said that the public in Israel would oppose pushing forward such a solution, and added: “We have the impression that the Israeli public has lost confidence in the settlement with the Palestinians, and must be encouraged to see that there is hope.” "With such steps." In the opinion of this diplomat, the establishment of a Palestinian state can be linked to the normalization agreement between Saudi Arabia and Israel. He said: “Saudi Arabia has made clear that it will not move towards an agreement with Israel without making real progress with the Palestinians, but it did not demand the establishment of a Palestinian state first.” He explained: “The American president has a limited time to pay attention to this, and he needs a major political achievement in the Middle East in his campaign for the presidential elections. If it is possible to reach a settlement with Saudi Arabia in exchange for a serious Israeli willingness to discuss the establishment of a Palestinian state, then this will be considered an achievement.” .

However, despite estimates that the Israeli public is biased towards the right, an opinion poll of 500 people showed that this public could support the establishment of a demilitarized Palestinian state within the framework of a settlement that includes the return of all kidnapped persons and normalization with Saudi Arabia. According to the poll conducted by the “Medgham” Center for Research and Consultation, headed by Manu Geva, at the request of the “Geneva Initiative” [a movement founded on 12/1/2023 that supports a permanent Palestinian-Israeli agreement], 51.3% of the public in Israel supports an agreement supported by the United States. , returns the kidnapped people, within which a demilitarized Palestinian state is established in the West Bank and Gaza, and a normalization agreement is reached between Israel and Saudi Arabia, while 28.9% opposed the agreement, and 19.8% said that they had no opinion.

In response to the question: What situation do you prefer after 3 years in the Gaza Strip? 50.5% responded that they prefer not to have Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip, while 32% said that they prefer the presence of Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip, and 17.5% have no opinion. The question was also raised: Did their relationship with the United States change after October 7, and how? 65% responded that the relationship with the United States since October 7 is good; 38.2% saw that it has not changed, and is still good; 26.3% said that the relationship became better after October 7, and 17.1% said that it became worse.

The Director General of the Geneva Initiative, Gadi Baltiansky, considered that the results of the poll clearly prove that the Israeli public is ready to accept a demilitarized Palestinian state in exchange for regional security and the return of all the kidnapped.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the third phase of the war on Gaza will take an additional half a year.

This came according to what was reported by the Israeli Public Broadcasting Authority (“Kan 11”), today, Tuesday, which indicated that Netanyahu had said this, during the “closed part” of the government session that was held this week, in which he pointed out that the Israeli army would need To half a year, to end the third phase of the war, which “has already begun in the northern Gaza Strip.”

Netanyahu told his ministers: “As we said previously, the air part would last three weeks, and so it was, and as we said, the second part of the broad maneuver would last three months, and so it was.”

Netanyahu added: “Thus we say that the third part of consolidating control, the cleansing, will continue for half a year.”

Israeli official: Negotiations on a prisoner exchange deal “are still ongoing”

In a related context, the Israeli Broadcasting Authority reported, citing an unnamed Israeli official, that negotiations on reaching a prisoner exchange deal “are still ongoing, and we have not received a negative response,” after the Associated Press reported in a report today, That Hamas has rejected the Israeli proposal to release the detainees, in exchange for a two-month ceasefire, and “allowing” senior Hamas leaders in Gaza to leave the Strip for other countries.

Earlier today, the American Associated Press quoted a senior Israeli official as saying that Hamas insists on its refusal to release more Israeli prisoners in Gaza, until Israel ends its ongoing war on Gaza for 109 days and withdraws its forces from the Strip.

The official said that Egypt and Qatar, which are playing a mediating role with American support between the Hamas movement and the Israeli occupation authorities, are working to develop a multi-stage proposal to try to bridge the gaps between the two sides. Note that the Israeli side refuses to discuss offers that include a commitment to stop the war on Gaza, which is required by Hamas.

Netanyahu had said, in a meeting held yesterday, Monday, with a group of representatives of the families of detainees in Gaza, that Israel had presented an initiative to the mediators, the details of which were not revealed, in an attempt to release the detainees, stressing that Israel refuses to discuss proposals that include a commitment to end the war on Gaza.

A senior European Union official publicly criticized Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz for disrupting a crucial meeting aimed at addressing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza by offering "irrelevant" infrastructure, according to The Daily Beast.

Josep Borrell, the European Union's foreign affairs coordinator and one of the bloc's top officials, told reporters on Monday  that “Katz walked into the meeting with a proposal to build an artificial island off the coast of Gaza — clearly revealing his view that the high-stakes summit was neither the time nor the place to showcase  the "unrealistic infrastructure”

The senior EU official said in remarks on Monday: “We had the pleasure of watching two very interesting videos; this had little to do with what we were discussing. I think Minister (Katz) could have used his time better to worry about his country’s security and the rise of the death toll in the Middle East and the high death toll in Gaza.

According to Borrell, the presentation included two videos: one promoting the plan to create the artificial island — which is supposed to serve as a commercial center — and another initiative focusing on the railway infrastructure project connecting Gaza to the West Bank. The official said that both matters had absolutely nothing to do with the purpose of the meeting.

Katz, who took over as Israeli foreign minister earlier this month, had previously marketed the artificial island project in his previous position as transportation minister in 2017. His attempt to revive the concept appeared to have failed on Monday, according to a European diplomatic source who told Euronews that other EU ministers present at the meeting were “puzzled” by his suggestion. In turn, The Guardian newspaper quoted another source as saying: “The ministers ignored the matter and went ahead with what they were there to talk about. No one dealt with it.”

Previous reports suggested the proposal may be part of a broader plan to move Palestinians to the island, with an Israeli official saying the initiative could include housing for Gazans, according to The New York Times. A Guardian newspaper report also quoted sources who claimed that Katz suggested transferring Palestinians to the island, which raised concern. The Israeli Foreign Ministry denied the report, telling The Times of Israel that “there is no such plan.”

The summit came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's controversial statements rejecting the concept of a Palestinian state, and doubling down on his intentions to continue the war.

But that did not prevent Borrell from clarifying the European Union's position on this issue:

“All member states have told [Katz], of course, that they believe that the solution to a comprehensive and lasting peace that guarantees Israel’s security comes through the establishment of a Palestinian state,” he said, adding, of course, “We will not do that and we will not accept anything less than a ceasefire.”

Today, Tuesday, the Israeli occupation authorities renewed the decision to seize tens of dunums in the Buqai’a Plain in the northern Jordan Valley.

The official responsible for the settlement file in Tubas Governorate, Moataz Bisharat, said that the occupation authorities renewed the order to seize approximately 91 dunums of citizens’ lands in the Buqi’a Plain in the northern Jordan Valley.

He added that the lands covered by the decision are located within the basins of Khallet al-Rikab, Ras al-Darina, Ras al-Madhabhar, and Jalama Makisima.

Twenty-four Israeli soldiers were killed in Israel's worst day of losses in Gaza, the military said on Tuesday, as its forces encircled southern Gaza's main city, trapping Palestinian residents trying to flee.

Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said 21 soldiers were killed when two buildings they had mined for demolition exploded after militants fired at a nearby tank. Earlier, three soldiers were reported killed in a separate attack in southern Gaza.

"Yesterday we experienced one of our most difficult days since the war erupted," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. "In the name of our heroes, for the sake of our lives, we will not stop fighting until absolute victory."

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) had on Monday launched a major operation to seize remaining parts of Khan Younis, the main city in the south of the enclave, which is sheltering hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians.

"Over the past day, IDF troops carried out an extensive operation during which they encircled Khan Younis and deepened the operation in the area," the military said. "Ground troops engaged in close-quarters combat, directed strikes, and used intelligence to coordinate fire, resulting in the elimination of dozens of terrorists."

Israel tanks, advancing west across the crowded city towards Mediterranean, shut the last road out towards the coast on Tuesday, blocking the escape route for civilians trying to flee southwest towards the Egyptian border, residents said by phone.

"I am trying to leave for Rafah but the tanks are now very near to the coast and are firing toward the west," said Shaban, 45, an electrical engineer with four children. He said he still hoped to evacuate his family to the north.

At least 195 Palestinians were killed in the space of 24 hours, raising the documented toll to 25,490, according to Palestinian health officials, who say thousands more dead are feared lost in the rubble.

Palestinian officials said the advancing Israelis had blockaded hospitals, making it impossible to reach the dead and wounded.

At the European Hospital in Khan Younis, Ahed Masmah brought in five corpses, piled on a mattress on his donkey cart.

"I found them face-down in the street," he said. "I did a good thing and brought them in.”

Bodies were being buried in the grounds of Khan Younis's main Nasser hospital because it was unsafe to go out to the cemetery. Another hospital, Al-Khair, was stormed by Israeli troops who arrested staff, according to Palestinian officials.

Al-Amal Hospital, run by the Palestinian Red Crescent, was unreachable. The Red Crescent said a tank shell had hit its headquarters on the fourth floor, a civilian had been killed at the entrance and Israelis were firing from drones on anyone who moved nearby, making it impossible to dispatch ambulances.

Israel says Hamas fighters operate in and around hospitals, making them legitimate targets. Hospital staff and Hamas deny this.

'GRAVEYARD FOR THE OCCUPATION'

The Israeli losses announced on Tuesday were celebrated as a victory by Palestinians.

"The resistance said it is going to make Gaza a graveyard for the occupation, and this is what is happening,” said Abu Khaled, sheltering in a school in Deir al-Balah, one of the few areas yet to be stormed by Israeli forces. "The more they stay, the more we will suffer for sure - but the more they will suffer too."

Israelis spoke of the losses as a necessary sacrifice in a war against Hamas fighters who attacked Israeli towns on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and capturing some 250 hostages, more than 100 still held in Gaza.

"You know, it’s our sons, it’s our brothers, it’s terrible - but we've got to do what we've got to do so that Oct. 7 doesn’t happen again," said Blina Rhodes on the street in Jerusalem. "You have to get rid of Hamas and make Gaza safe for us. Otherwise, we have no place to live."

Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas, which is sworn to Israel's destruction and has controlled Gaza since 2007. Since Israel launched its ground assault in October, nearly all Gaza's 2.3 million people have lost their homes, most now penned into towns just north and south of Khan Younis.

Sami Abu Zuhri, head of the political office of Hamas in exile, said the Israeli losses were proof that the armed wing of Hamas was only getting stronger, and "the American and Israeli goal to get rid of Hamas or weaken it is not possible".

"We call on the American administration to stop this pointless policy and stop betting on the possibility of weakening or finishing Hamas," he said by phone from an undisclosed location.

Though the war still has overwhelming public support in Israel, discontent is emerging with Netanyahu's strategy - committed to the total annihilation of Hamas but with only vague discussion of what should follow and no talk since the end of November of a ceasefire to free hostages.

Since last week, Netanyahu has publicly vowed never to allow an independent Palestinian state, disavowing the decades-old bedrock of Middle East policy of Israel's main ally, Washington.

Relatives of hostages still held in Gaza have called for more effort to bring them home, even if that means reining in the war. Some burst into a parliamentary committee hearing on Monday.

Last week, a member of Netanyahu's war cabinet, former military chief-of-staff Gadi Eisenkot, whose own soldier son was killed in Gaza last month, said the campaign had yet to destroy Hamas and no military operation could free the hostages.

The conflict has been accompanied by unrest elsewhere in the Middle East where armed groups allied to Israel's arch-foe Iran operate, including Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen, where the Iran-aligned Houthi movement has attacked ships in the Red Sea. The United States and Britain, which have retaliated against the Houthis this month, carried out more strikes overnight.

By Elise Lambert & Valentine Pasquesoone

Since 2022, two Jewish supremacist ministers have joined Benjamin Netanyahu's government. They campaign for a state governed by religion where the Palestinians would be absent. They intend to take advantage of the war in Gaza to achieve their objectives.

What might Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories look like after the war? At the beginning of January, two far-right ministers in the Israeli government sparked controversy by advocating the return of Jewish settlers to Gaza and the "emigration" of Palestinians. “We will help rehabilitate these refugees in other countries,” assured Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. “It is a correct, just, moral and humane solution,” added the person in charge of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir.

These statements have led to numerous condemnations around the world. According to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (PDF document), "deportation or forcible transfer of population" is a crime against humanity.

Arriving in government at the end of 2022 thanks to a coalition between the right and the far right, Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich are not their first anti-Palestinian outing. For years, these Jewish supremacists have campaigned for a state governed by their reading of religious texts, where the Palestinians and their territories would not exist. They embody a current, religious Zionism, which has gradually permeated Israeli institutions and politics after being in the minority at the beginning of the 20th century.

For the creation of a “Greater Israel” without Palestinians

Basically, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir are similar. The first, a 43-year-old Minister of Finance, was trained in a small yeshiva (Talmudic school) in the settlement of Beit El, near Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank. Beit El is a stronghold of the Hardal movement, which mixes nationalism and ultraorthodox thought, specifies Le Monde. Bezalel Smotrich is "a religious Zionist ideologue much more influenced by the rabbis than Ben Gvir. According to him, the 'Greater Israel' is a Jewish land, and its establishment will favor the coming of the messiah", explains for franceinfo Yoav Peled, political scientist at the Tel Aviv University.

At a very young age, Bezalel Smotrich fought against the dismantling of Jewish colonies in the Gaza Strip and then campaigned within Regavim, an organization opposed to Palestinian construction in the West Bank and in Israel. A lawyer, he was elected deputy to the Knesset in 2015. Father of seven children, he has increased his racist outings in recent years, for example deeming it necessary to separate Jewish and Arab patients in hospitals or even defining himself as a "homophobic fascist" , reports Le Monde. Bezalel Smotrich has previously said that Hamas was "an asset" for Israel because the Islamist group was preventing any peace process with the Palestinians. In March 2023, he went so far as to deny the very existence of Palestinians during a private visit to Paris.

Itamar Ben Gvir, 47, the Minister of National Security, is also a lawyer by training. Born in the suburbs of Jerusalem into a family of secular Iraqi Jews, he developed his anti-Arab ideology during the first intifada (1987-1993), within the Kahanist movement, summarizes La Croix. This movement, named after extremist Rabbi Meir Kahane, was banned in 1994 for terrorism and racism.

Convicted several times for inciting hatred and provocative, Itamar Ben Gvir went after his appointment to the government on the Esplanade des Mosques, in East Jerusalem. A passage on the third holiest site of Islam which provoked the indignation of the international community. “Ben Gvir cares less about ideology than about Jewish power. He is not interested in the messiah, but in the possibility of allowing settlers to settle wherever they want,” underlines researcher Yoav Peled.

A resident of the colony of Kiryat Arba, stronghold of the radical and supremacist movement of "Youth of the Hills", Itamar Ben Gvir has long displayed the portrait of Baruch Goldstein in his living room. In 1994, this religious fanatic murdered 29 Muslim Palestinians who were praying at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, a holy site contested by Jews and Muslims. He has also never hidden his admiration for Ygal Amir, author of the assassination of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995.

A minority ideology until the turning point of 1967

The religious Zionism in which these ministers are part is ancient, reports Philosophie Magazine. It dates back to the end of the 19th century, when theorist Theodor Herzl called for the establishment of a Jewish national home in Israel. At this time, Zionist ideology was not necessarily linked to religion, and rather infused into socialist and labor circles. “For the religious ultraorthodox, Zionism is even blasphemy, since they only believe in the establishment of a Jewish state after the arrival of the messiah,” explains to franceinfo Stéphanie Laithier, historian of Judaism at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes.

But Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, originally from Eastern Europe, helped to change the position of certain believers by calling for intervention in society to accelerate the coming of the messiah. The first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Palestine, he created the Merkaz Harav yeshiva. This Talmudic school will convince more and more Orthodox people to adhere to Zionism.

The Six Day War of 1967 marked another turning point for religious Zionism. The lightning victory of the Jewish state against its Arab neighbors, Syria, Egypt and Jordan, is seen by Rabbi Kook and his young students as "the indisputable sign of a divine plan to make the Earth whole Israel to the people of Israel,” explains Yoav Peled in an academic article.

Therefore, occupying Palestinian territories such as the West Bank and Gaza is for these young religious Zionists “a divine command”. The Goush Emounim organization was created in their wake in the 1970s. It promotes the creation of Jewish colonies in the occupied territories and its vision gradually permeates all of religious Zionism, underlines in a recent study Alain Dieckhoff, research director at CNRS.

This current benefits from “a form of wear and tear of initial socialist Zionism”, adds Stéphanie Laithier. “Religious Zionists will present themselves as those who will regenerate the original Zionism. They highlight the fact that by settling in these territories, they are fulfilling biblical prophecy and securing Israel.” The Labor camp is more divided on the question of the occupied territories. With the Israeli failure of the Yom Kippur War in 1973, “Labor lost its grip on the territorial and security aspects of the Zionist project,” writes Yoav Peled. The left was ousted from power in 1977, replaced for the first time by Likud.

The third force in the 2022 legislative elections

In recent years, religious Zionism has gained ground at the heart of Israeli power. Former Education Minister Naftali Bennett became, in 2021, the first head of the religious Zionist government. During the legislative elections of November 2022, the current represented by the “Religious Zionism” list becomes the third force in the country, obtaining 11% of the votes and 14 seats in the Knesset.

Benjamin Netanyahu is forced to form an alliance with his members to return to power. This result was “the most significant fact of the last elections”, points out the study by Alain Dieckhoff.

Bezalel Smotrich is appointed Minister of Finance and gains significant power over the civil administration, responsible, among other things, for planning Jewish settlements in the West Bank. At the head of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir aspires to use the police "to repress more harshly the Arab citizens of Israel (...), but also the Palestinians", according to Alain Dieckhoff.

This “political environment” encourages Jewish settler projects, in the opinion of the Israeli NGO Peace Now. The year 2023 was a record year, both in terms of settlement construction and violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. Religious Zionist influence has also been seen since the terrorist attacks of October 7. “Benyamin Netanyahu fears losing his government [by losing the support of religious Zionists] if he announces ways out of the current fighting,” analyzes Yoav Peled.

This political progression reflects a more marked presence in Israeli society. The community is experiencing "very significant demographic growth", because it is often made up of families "with many children", observes Stéphanie Laithier. It represents between 10% and 30% of the Israeli population, reports the New York Times.

Its influence also reaches the army and education. According to Yoav Peled, in 2019, religious Zionists made up half of the graduates in the combat sections of the IDF officer school. At the same time, the researcher notes "an increase in Jewish religious content in the secular school curriculum", as well as "a greater emphasis on the Jewish aspect of Israel's identity".

With the Hamas attacks in Israel and the stagnation of the conflict in Gaza, can this ideology gain further ground? “There is a before and after October 7,” explains Stéphanie Laithier. A significant part of the Israeli population remains opposed to religious Zionism, but with the Hamas attacks, "there is still the idea that an installation in the occupied territories would make Israel secure." For Yoav Peled, the war even “accelerates” the influence of religious Zionism within society. “Some people don’t see any other way to deal with this situation.”

The Israeli army reacted on Friday by ensuring that its prisoners were treated “in accordance with international law”.

Detentions “in generally horrible conditions”. “Thousands” of men have been arrested by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war against Hamas, the UN said on Friday, January 19, citing ill-treatment that could amount to the torture. In response, the Israeli military reiterated that "those detained [were] treated in accordance with international law."

Some "described being beaten, humiliated, subjected to ill-treatment and what could amount to torture", all in unknown locations and for periods ranging from 30 to 55 days, according to the representative of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Ajit Sunghay. “They reported being blindfolded for long periods, some for several days in a row,” the official said. “One man said he had access to a shower only once during his 55 days of detention. There are reports of men who were later released, but only in diapers,” he added.

The Israeli army told AFP that individuals suspected of being involved in terrorist activities were being arrested and questioned. “Individuals who do not participate in terrorist activities are released,” said this source, adding that it is often necessary “for suspected terrorists to hand over their clothes so that they can be searched and to ensure that "They are not hiding explosive vests or other weapons." Clothing is returned when possible, the army further specifies.

Today, Tuesday, settlers launched attacks on citizens and their property in the West Bank.

In Hebron, settlers damaged the tires of the vehicles of teachers of the Al-Tuwanah Mixed Basic School in Masafer Yatta, south of the city, and smashed their windows.

According to local sources, “Havat Maon” settlers, dressed as Israeli soldiers, damaged the tires of the school teachers’ vehicles with sharp tools and broke their windows with stones, while they were at the entrance to the village, which was closed by stones and earth mounds from the occupation forces.

In Jericho, colonists, protected by Israeli forces, carried out excavation and bulldozing work near the Al-Malihat Arab community on the Al-Marajat Road, northwest of the city.

It is noteworthy that in light of the war waged by the Israeli occupation on the Gaza Strip, human rights groups have documented an increase in settler-related violence and the forced displacement of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza announced, on Tuesday, that the death toll from the Israeli war on the Strip had risen to 25,490 people and 63,354 injuries since October 7, 2023.

It added that on the 109th day of the war, “the Israeli occupation committed 22 massacres against families in the Gaza Strip, claiming 195 dead and 354 injuries during the past 24 hours.”

The ministry added, "There are still a number of victims under the rubble and on the roads, and ambulance and civil defense crews cannot reach them."

By Ahmad Samih Khalidi

 Attempts to excise the group and its leaders are unlikely to succeed and risk not only perpetuating the cycle of violence but spreading it wider

In late 1935, a small band of irregulars led by a Syrian-born Islamist cleric launched a guerrilla campaign against the British mandatory government that had the establishment of a Jewish “national home” in what was then predominantly Arab Palestine, as part of its purview. The campaign was swiftly suppressed by British forces, and its leader, Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, was killed as were the majority of his men.

But Qassam’s readiness to take up arms and die in the service of the Palestinian cause made a deep and lasting impression on Palestinian society, and his “martyrdom” became a symbol of sacrifice that has continued to resonate throughout the past 90 years, eventually providing both inspiration and a name to Hamas’s armed wing in the late 1980s. The fact that Qassam failed was essentially irrelevant. More important was his embodiment of the spirit of dogged and selfless resistance to foreign domination despite the imbalance of power and the unlikely prospects of success. Qassam also set the Palestinian national movement down the path of “armed struggle” that was eventually adopted by Yasser Arafat’s “mainstream” Fatah movement from the late 1950s onwards but whose role has diminished since the 1993 Oslo accord with Israel.

The past 30 years have witnessed an accelerating competition between Hamas’s claim to embody national resistance to Israeli rule, and Fatah’s collapse into discord, corruption and collusion under the banner of the Palestinian Authority’s “security cooperation” with the Israeli occupation. This race culminated in Hamas’s 7 October assault that was designed as much to shock and terrorise Israel as it was to discredit Fatah/ Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority and consolidate Hamas’s position as the primary inheritor and embodiment of the Palestinian national movement and its liberationist cause.

Israel’s post 7/10 resort to massive force, dropping an unprecedented total of about 30,000 bombs by mid-December 2023 (equivalent to two Hiroshima-sized nuclear bombs), has so far failed to eradicate the military force established by Hamas amid the torrent of bloodshed, 25,000 Palestinian dead and the 62,000 wounded, and the mass displacement of 1.9 million Palestinian civilians in Gaza (85% of the population), easily exceeding the toll of the ethnic cleansing that accompanied Israel’s establishment in 1948.

The issue of how and when the war will end remains shrouded in the fog of Israel’s opaque intentions and the US’s increasingly desperate diplomatic manoeuvrings, hoping for a clear Israeli victory over Hamas, while fearing the worst consequences of a regional conflagration as evident from the slow spread of hostilities from Bab-el-Mandeb to Irbil. US hopes of leveraging the moment into a redesigned Middle East living in peace and harmony must not only contend with the sheer contagion of the current conflict but with the political capital needed, especially in an electoral year, to shift Israel away from its current semi-consensual refusal to countenance any substantial change in the status quo of occupation, settlement and domination.

Hamas’s brutal tactics have been washed out of Palestinian consciousness by the mass erasure of civilian lives

Meanwhile, as “day after” scenarios pile up, ranging from the utopian vision of a region speeding towards peace and stability thanks to an as yet invisible “pathway to Palestinian statehood” dreamed up by US secretary of state Antony Blinken, to Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant’s fantasy of an Arab/international consortium taking over the Gaza Strip on Israel’s behalf, to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s promise that there will no Palestinian state and that the war will continue at least into 2025: in all these, one thing is missing: Hamas’s likely survival and its potentially growing influence both despite and because of the enormous damage inflicted on the movement itself and the people of the Gaza Strip.

Hamas’s brutal tactics in its 7 October assault have been washed out of Palestinian political consciousness by the subsequent indiscriminate and mass erasure of Palestinian civilian lives, and the US/west’s complicity in supporting, arming and allowing this onslaught to continue under the guise of Israel’s right to self-defence with no evident expiry date attached. Rather than crush Hamas, its most likely effect will be to remythologise the notion of resistance and sow the seed for future iterations that may be inspired by Hamas but have no necessary connection to its history, ideology or organisational structure.

With Israeli leaders openly talking of pursuing the war against Hamas and its leaders across national boundaries, another potentially dangerous turn could take the form of Hamas’s transformation from a national-religious movement focused on the conflict in the land of Israel/Palestine into a more global movement ready to take the war to arenas that Hamas has hitherto avoided.

With regard to re-establishing a viable political authority in the Gaza Strip and reconstituting a Palestinian representative body that is capable of taking and sustaining decisions whether relating to a future political horizon with Israel or any legitimate governance and reconstruction process, the real issue is how to incorporate Hamas and its associated “spirit of resistance” into a new Palestinian authority, rather than how to quash or excise it. Within or associated with such an authority, Hamas could be part of the solution; outside, it would remain both a spoiler and an opposite pole of attraction.

Netanyahu and other Israeli officials have made it clear that they will seek to impose a strict and indefinite Israeli-determined security regime over the Gaza Strip for the foreseeable future; in other words, to reinstitute what amounts to a long-term occupation. This, in turn, will not only keep the flame of Hamas alive and galvanise Hamas-inspired resistance but will ensure that Israel’s “right of self-defence” will only produce the very insecurity that Israel and its allies claim to be addressing. If the past 55 years of occupation have taught us anything, it is that this cannot be the path to a genuine and lasting peace. It took Israel and the US approximately 35 years to talk to what was then seen as the terrorist PLO, just as it took years for the ANC and IRA to be recognised as partners to a resolution. All those threatened or rightfully concerned about what may happen next, simply cannot afford the price of waiting that long.

The US administration affirmed its support for the Israeli approach to eliminating the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), reiterating its rejection of a comprehensive ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, and expressed its support for what it called “humanitarian breaks only.” "With the aim of extracting the prisoners and delivering aid to the region."

In a press conference held yesterday evening, Monday, in Washington, DC, the Strategic Communications Coordinator for the National Security Council in the White House, John Kirby, said in response to a question about the increase in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, “This is the military plan of the Israeli administration.”

He added, "The American administration supports the Israeli approach to eliminating Hamas, but also urges the need to protect Palestinian civilians." Given that Israel is fighting against Hamas, it has the right to defend itself.

For 109 days, the Israeli occupation army has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, which as of yesterday left: 25,295 killed and 63,000 injured, most of them children and women, according to the Palestinian authorities, and caused massive destruction and an unprecedented humanitarian disaster, according to the United Nations.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has said that Israeli colonists committed 444 attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since 7 October 2023.

OCHA said in its report that as 22 January 2024, it has "recorded 444 Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians, resulting in Palestinian casualties (45 incidents), damage to Palestinian-owned property (344 incidents), or both casualties and damage to property (55 incidents). This reflects a daily average of four incidents. "One-third of the settler attacks against Palestinians after 7 October 2023 have involved firearms, including shootings and threats of shootings. 

In nearly half of all recorded incidents after 7 October, Israeli forces were either accompanying or reported to be supporting the attackers.

In 2023, 1,229 incidents involving Israeli settlers in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem (with or without Israeli forces), resulted in Palestinian casualties, property damage or both. Some 913 of these incidents resulted in damage, 163 resulted in casualties and 153 resulted in both. 

This is the highest number of settler attacks against Palestinians in any given year since OCHA started recording incidents involving settlers in 2006.

A U.S.-based Palestinian rights organization prevailed when the Supreme Court refused to take up a lawsuit brought by the Jewish National Fund (JNF) and several U.S. citizens who live in Israel.

Citing the speech and expressive activities of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), including its support for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, the lawsuit argued that the group provided “material support” for terrorism.  The dismissal by the district court had been unanimously affirmed by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

This lawsuit is just one example of a long line of efforts to silence Palestinians for advocating for their freedom – in this case, by wielding the accusation of support for terrorism to discredit and dehumanize Palestinians for their advocacy, including their support for boycotts, said the Center for Constitutional Rights in a statement.

Multiple organizations with histories of seeking to silence Palestinian rights filed their briefs to have the Supreme Court of the United States endorse their suppression effort.

USCPR’s attorneys said today’s decision to let the lower court rulings stand is an important win for the movement and definitively sets the record straight. As the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals found, “[a]advocating and coordinating a boycott of Israel – ‘economically, academically [,] and diplomatically,’... – is not unlawful.”

In dismissing the suit in March 2021, the lower court said the arguments were, “to say the least, not persuasive.” Advocates say the suit is part of a broader effort to criminalize and silence the political activities of supporters of Palestinian rights, a threat that has only increased as Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza intensifies. “USCPR’s message is justice for all and an end to funding genocide. There’s no lawsuit in the world that can stop us from pushing our demands for human rights,” said Ahmad Abuznaid, Executive Director of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights. “We will remain focused on opposing Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people and pursuing justice and freedom for the Palestinian people.”

Headquartered in Jerusalem, the JNF is a quasi-state institution that acquires and administers land for the sole benefit of Jewish Israelis. The JNF’s lawsuit alleges that USCPR bears responsibility for “incendiary terror balloons and kites” sent from Gaza onto JNF land during the 2018 Great Return March.

At issue were USCPR’s fiscal sponsorship of the Boycott National Committee and expressions of support for the rights and demands of Palestinians participating in the Great Return March, when Palestinians protested to demand respect for their right to return to the villages from which Israeli settlers expelled them in 1948. These two activities, the lawsuit claimed, amount to a violation of the U.S. Antiterrorism Act, which prohibits “material support” for terrorism. “The JNF’s prolonged and egregious pursuit of a fishing expedition to silence and intimidate urgent advocacy for Palestinian rights has been definitively put to rest by the Supreme Court,” said Diala Shamas, a Senior Staff Attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights. “The JNF’s accusations were baseless, as recognized by the district court, the court of appeals, and now confirmed by the Supreme Court. Now, as the government of Israel is carrying out an unfolding genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, it is more important than ever that activists be free to speak out without fear. This is an important victory, but USCPR shouldn’t have been subjected to these smears in the first place.”

.