The European Union said on Monday that Israeli settlement plans in East Jerusalem threaten to permanently change the character of many holy sites and undermine the existing religious balance in the city.

This came in a joint statement by the European Union representative in the Palestinian territories, Alexander Stutzmann, with the heads of missions of the European Union countries in Jerusalem and Ramallah, which Anadolu reviewed.

The heads of European Union missions in Jerusalem and Ramallah, in East Jerusalem, met on Monday with representatives of many Christian churches located on the Mount of Olives in the city.

The statement said: “A number of projects planned in and around the Old City of Jerusalem threaten to permanently change the character of many holy sites and undermine the existing religious balance.”

He added: "These projects include expanding the National Park on the Mount of Olives, and a plan to build a cable car in the heart of historic Jerusalem."

He warned that “pursuing the implementation of these plans could have a harmful impact on the holy places, pilgrimage routes, and the ability of Jerusalem communities to survive, and would also constitute a serious threat to the special status of Jerusalem, as well as the peaceful coexistence between all three monotheistic religions in Jerusalem".

The joint statement noted: “The European Union calls for the preservation of the status quo, including Christian holy sites, where the special status and character of Jerusalem and its Old City, and the sanctity of its holy places must be preserved.”

The Israeli authorities recently announced a plan to expand what they call the “National Park” on the Mount of Olives, confiscating church lands in the area.

It also announced a few days ago its decision to evacuate 30 families from their homes in the Bab al-Maghariba area near the Old City, and to confiscate the land on which the homes were built, with an area of 8.7 dunams, for the purpose of establishing a station for the cable car.

The light air train starts from West Jerusalem, reaches the Mount of Olives, and from there to the Mughrabi Gate area near the Buraq Wall, which the Jews call the Western Wall or the Wailing Wall adjacent to Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The light rail poles are erected on Palestinian lands, some of which belong to the church.

Israel rejected Palestinian objections to the expansion of the National Park and the cable car.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967.

The Palestinians insist that East Jerusalem is the capital of the future Palestinian state, while Israel says that Jerusalem, both its eastern and western parts, is its capital.

This coincides with a devastating war waged by the Israeli army on Gaza since last October 7, which as of Sunday evening left 17,997 killed and 49,229 wounded, most of them children and women, massive destruction of infrastructure and an “unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe,” according to the statement. Official Palestinian and UN sources

The Israeli occupation bombing targeted the family home of journalist Anas Al-Sharif in Jabalia, northern Gaza Strip, leading to the death of his father.

Al-Sharif, the journalist working for Al-Jazeera, said in a press statement that the occupation forces targeted the house where his father lived in Jabalia camp and he was murdered immediately, pointing out that he would not be able to reach his home or bury his father due to the continuous Israeli bombing, saying, “We were forced to bury him in one of the Squares.

Al-Sharif added that the occupation does not want the picture to appear, stressing, “I will continue to cover the crimes of the occupation against the Palestinians despite the siege.”

Jordanian King Abdullah II reiterated, on Monday, that there will be no solution to the Palestinian issue at the expense of the Kingdom.

The Royal Court quoted the Jordanian monarch as saying during a meeting with the heads of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a number of retired security services directors: “Jordan is confident in itself, and is strong with the awareness of its people and the strength of its army and security services.”

He also stressed the importance of intensifying and unifying Arab efforts to pressure a ceasefire in Gaza, and to push for a political horizon to resolve the Palestinian issue.

In the same context, Prime Minister Bisher Al-Khasawneh said in a special session within the “Doha Forum” to talk about the repercussions of the Israeli war on Gaza that the position of Jordan and Egypt is clear in rejecting displacement, or creating any conditions that impose displacement on Palestinians outside Gaza and the West Bank, and this is “a red line for both countries.” 

Al-Khasawneh continued, saying: “The peace treaty prohibits forced displacement, otherwise this would be a clear violation of the treaty.”

Amnesty International revealed on Monday that its new investigations confirmed that American munitions killed 43 Palestinian civilians in two Israeli air strikes that targeted homes in the Gaza Strip.

The international organization said in a series of blog posts published on its account on the “X” platform: “We demand an investigation into two Israeli raids that targeted civilians in Gaza as “war crimes.”

The organization explained that "the first Israeli raid, last October 10, targeted the Al-Najjar family's home in the city of Deir Al-Balah, killing 24 people."

The second raid, last October 22, targeted the home of the Abu Muailiq family in the same city, killing 19 people, according to the organization.

Both homes are located south of Wadi Gaza, within the area to which the Israeli army ordered residents of northern Gaza to move last October 13 and considered it “safe areas.”

It added: "The United States must immediately stop transferring weapons to Israel that are likely to be used to commit violations of international law."

The "Media Part" website said that the young Japanese poet Shindo Matsushita, who has become a well-known figure in the marches in support of the Gaza Strip, is on a hunger strike to demand a complete ceasefire and an end to the massacre in Gaza, and he talks about the history of the Palestinians in the Rising Sun Archipelago.

The site noted - in a report by Johan Florey - that "many Japanese see in the bombing of the Gaza Strip a history repeating itself, like the history of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that we lived through in our bodies. I want to dream of a world in which war no longer exists," according to Shindo.

The website said that Shindo (27 years old)'s commitment to combating colonialism goes back to a family history of discrimination, because he was born into the Burakumin community, which represented the "outcasts" in Japan, who worked in the leather trade, slaughterhouses, and funeral administration, and were without land.

Even today, despite the abolition of this system a long time ago - as the author says - the heirs of these communities still suffer from discrimination related to work and marriage because of their roots. Shindo says, “I think that since my childhood, I have been thinking about these questions related to belonging to a landless community.” ".

Shindo's taste in arts and literature led him to Palestinian culture, and he was drawn to stories of life during wartime as well as stories of the Nakba, which tells the story of peoples who were discriminated against and expelled from their lands.

His curiosity also led him to Auschwitz and then to Hebron in the occupied West Bank, which marked a milestone in his life, where he discovered “checkpoints” but also “warm hospitality,” and met people who pushed him to return to Hebron and Jenin last summer.

Shindo: My body is getting weaker but I want to keep going, I want this genocide to stop

When the first Israeli bombing of Gaza began, Shindo was overcome with despair, as he said, “I can no longer live, and this part of the world that is dear to me is suffering greatly,” so he began his first hunger strike, and ended it when he collapsed near the Israeli embassy in Tokyo, before deciding to begin. In a second strike just over two weeks ago.

He adds, "My body is weakening, but I want to continue. I want this genocide to stop," noting that he is "ashamed of his government." "There are similarities between Israel and Japan, in their tyrannical positions, such that public opinion and people's feelings do not matter."

Little by little - as the site says - citizens began to join the ranks of the demonstrations, and took their places alongside activists like Shindo and his friends, some of whom are Palestinians originally from Gaza and have resided in Japan for several years.

The writer concluded by talking about Oki Kanu, singer of the Oki Dub Aino band, about Gaza, when he said, “We can only sympathize with the Palestinians,” and added, “Just as they were expelled from their lands, subjected to discrimination, and turned to poverty and violence, the Ainu people lived the same story.”

Source: Mediapart

The occupation army continues its aggression against the Gaza Strip for the third month without seeming able to achieve any of its goals, while voices are rising in Israel demanding the removal of Benjamin Netanyahu “now,” so what are they saying?

“Netanyahu must be destroyed politically, otherwise Israel will collapse.” Under this headline, Haaretz newspaper published an analysis that monitors the reasons for this escalating coup against the man who has served the longest in the position of prime minister since the establishment of the occupying state in Palestine 75 years ago.

The most extremist government in the history of Israel, headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, had announced since Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood” on October 7 that eliminating the Islamic Resistance Movement “Hamas” in Gaza was the main goal of its aggression against the Gaza Strip, and its army invaded sector by land to achieve this goal.

Netanyahu...the seven sins!

Haaretz's analysis is based on the fact that Netanyahu has not yet submitted his resignation, "which is considered a blatant disregard for the simplest rules of accountability and responsibility." The prime minister is primarily responsible for the instability that Israel, and indeed the entire region, is witnessing and the continuation of the cycle of senseless violence.

“Yes, we realize as Israelis that accountability and bearing responsibility are terms that have not been included in Netanyahu’s dictionary throughout his political career, and therefore there are no surprises in his position on the events of October 7. But now it is necessary to apply that Greek phrase with which he concludes his political speeches.” “Carthage must be destroyed,” he personally said, meaning Netanyahu must be destroyed politically so that Israel does not collapse, according to Haaretz.

The newspaper enumerated 7 reasons for this demand, which has become remarkably escalating, especially since Israel broke the prisoner exchange truce 10 days ago and resumed its barbaric aggression against the Gaza Strip. 

These reasons were as follows:

First, Iran: Netanyahu presented himself to the Israelis and to the world as the only one capable of confronting Iran. He opposed the nuclear agreement that Tehran signed with the administration of former US President Barack Obama in 2015, promising everyone his ability to reach a “better agreement,” and he convinced former President Donald Trump to withdraw from the agreement unilaterally in 2018, the result was that Iran today has much greater nuclear capabilities than it had before and is on the cusp of possessing a nuclear bomb.

Second: The invasion of Iraq: Netanyahu, who was not a member of the Israeli government at the time, was one of the most prominent advocates of the invasion of Iraq, and he appeared before the US House of Representatives in 2002, explaining to the representatives the inevitability of “getting rid of Saddam Hussein” and how that would have a positive impact on the Middle East. It will contribute to stability and the spread of democracy. What was the result? ISIS, as Haaretz says, is shorthand for the chaos and destruction resulting from the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Third: Dealing with the Palestinians: Throughout his political career, Netanyahu bragged that he deliberately ignored any serious talk about establishing a Palestinian state and that he was the only one capable of integrating Israel into the Middle East through the principle of “peace for peace” without offering anything to the Palestinians. Since he formed the current government last December, he has committed himself to officially annexing large parts of the occupied West Bank to Israel. What was the result? The events of October 7, i.e. the Al-Aqsa Flood operation.

“Al-Aqsa Flood” is the name given by the Islamic Resistance Movement “Hamas” to its comprehensive military operation against the occupation army, which has imposed a stifling siege on the Gaza Strip for 17 years. At exactly six o'clock in the morning local time in Palestine that day, Hamas launched a Palestinian invasion of the cover settlements adjacent to the besieged Gaza Strip, where fighters from the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades stormed the towns adjacent to the Strip, after they penetrated the iron wall and crushed the Gaza Division of the occupation army, there was air cover from thousands of rockets fired from Gaza towards Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and the cities of the south.

Amid the state of panic and shock that gripped the Israelis, the spread of video clips and pictures of tanks and armored vehicles belonging to the occupation army, either burned or under the control of Palestinian resistance fighters, the capture of dozens of occupation army soldiers and settlers, and complete Palestinian control over settlements, the occupying state declared that it was “in a state of war.” For the first time since the October War of 1973, it is an acknowledgment that the Palestinian resistance attack is a military attack.

Fourth: Saudi Arabia: In the beginning, Netanyahu’s mind produced a flawed theory of forming an Israeli-Sunni axis to confront Shiite Iran, so what happened? Saudi Arabia and Iran signed an agreement to normalize relations with Chinese mediation. Then Netanyahu returned to his favorite theory, which is that the Palestinians are not the focus of the conflict in the region, contrary to what the entire world and not just the region sees, under the illusion that he can sign a normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia while completely ignoring and marginalizing the Palestinians. So what was the result?

The Al-Aqsa flood did not occur in a vacuum, and it is a fact that is not in dispute and is acknowledged by even the Western media that is completely loyal to Israel and adopts its narrative. However, Netanyahu and his government, which the Palestinians describe as fascist and seeking to exterminate them en masse, wanted from the first moment to cover up their abject security and military failure in doing so. Today, by raising the ceiling of their goals in the aggression against Gaza in a way that observers described as “fictional,” and two months after this aggression, that description began to be confirmed on the ground. Neither the prisoners were liberated, nor the resistance raised the white flag.

Relations with America

Fifth: Relations between Israel and America: Relations between America and Israel are strategic, and Washington provides Tel Aviv with annual military aid worth $3.8 billion (a total of more than $150 billion so far), and America also provides Israel with a political umbrella to protect it in international forums.

However, Netanyahu, who never stops interfering in America's internal political affairs, has succeeded in turning Israel into a "wedge" (dividing factor) between Republicans and Democrats, in stark contrast to decades of partnership between the two allies. Netanyahu did this deliberately by joining the Republican camp, especially the evangelical electoral base there, at the expense of the Democrats, which led to repeated clashes and hostility with Democratic presidents Bill Clinton, Obama, and Biden.

When Netanyahu insisted on “reforming the judiciary,” the gap between Israel and America increased, as this reform was considered to be the demolition of one of the most important pillars of democracy and the separation between the two allies with regard to “common values.” Netanyahu also angered Biden even more by rapprochement between the Prime Minister of Israel and leaders such as the Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, both of whom Biden considers “dictators.” What was the result? More than half of Democrats also criticize Israel and Biden, due to the latter's absolute support and blatant bias towards Tel Aviv since October 7.

Sixth: Russia: Netanyahu established what he described as a “different alliance” with Putin, and this appeared clearly in Netanyahu’s election banners in 2019, and the Israeli Prime Minister bragged about that special relationship with Russia and its leader, but the Russian position on the war on Gaza came as further evidence of Netanyahu's lies and narratives that mislead Israelis all the time. Moscow accuses Tel Aviv of committing war crimes in Gaza and demands, through the UN Security Council, an end to the war. Not only that, but Russia has become a strategic ally of Iran in the Middle East.

Seventh: China: A few months before the outbreak of the war on Gaza, Netanyahu claimed that he had received an invitation to visit Beijing, and this was followed by statements by a senior official in Netanyahu’s office explaining how “this invitation is a message to Biden that Israel has other options,” as a response to Biden avoiding an invitation to Netanyahu to the White House, what was the result? Neither Netanyahu visited China nor did Beijing support Israel in the war on Gaza.

Israel's war on Gaza...to save Netanyahu

Based on this scene centered primarily on Netanyahu and his attempts to cling to the position at all costs, another analysis by Haaretz newspaper described the aggression on Gaza as “Operation to Rescue Private Netanyahu,” in use of the title of a famous American movie, “Saving Private Ryan,” which tells a true story during the World War. The second was for a mission to search for and rescue an American conscript named Ryan, who had conscript brothers who were all killed.

Since the Al-Aqsa flood, Netanyahu has focused all his energy and his media machine on two axes: The first relates to his not bearing any responsibility for the defeat that befell Israel on October 7, and blaming it entirely on the leadership of the occupation army and security services. Netanyahu had already posted a tweet on his account on the X platform (formerly Twitter) to this effect, before he later deleted it and apologized for it.

The second axis is related to portraying himself as a leader waging a “holy war” not only in defense of the Israelis, but also of the entire Western civilization in the face of “fascism,” in reference to the Palestinian resistance factions, especially the Hamas movement, which the Haaretz report described as “manipulation of minds” on a national level.”

Netanyahu raises the slogans: “We will continue the war until the end,” “We will not stop,” “We will eliminate Hamas,” and “We will free the prisoners.” These slogans have no benefit other than achieving one goal, which is the continuation of the current situation, “to save Netanyahu’s political future and his personal freedom.” The moment the war on Gaza stops, the moment of difficult reckoning will begin.

But the continuation of the war on Gaza represents an imminent danger to Israel itself and its cohesion on the one hand, and to its image, which has already been tarnished on the world stage due to war crimes committed by the occupation army in Gaza and settlers in the West Bank and Jerusalem, and all of these crimes are now under the watchful eye of the entire world. The longer it went on, the darker the picture became. 

From this standpoint, Netanyahu's continuation at the top of the political scene has become the greatest danger to Israel itself.

Source: Arabic Post

Yesterday, Sunday, North Korea condemned the United States' use of its veto power against the UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency reported that Kim Sun Kyung, North Korea's deputy foreign minister for international organizations affairs, described the United States as a "stumbling block" to international peace and stability, and accused Washington of abusing its veto power.

“I cannot help but regret the fact that the unanimous desire of the international community to achieve peace and stability in the Middle East has been mercilessly crushed once again,” Kim said in a statement.

On Friday, the United States used its veto during an emergency session to vote in the UN Security Council on the draft resolution presented by the UAE, in which about 100 countries participated.

The UN Security Council was unable to adopt the draft resolution, due to the United States’ use of its veto power, and 13 of the Council’s 15 members supported the draft, with the United Kingdom abstaining from voting.

The draft resolution called for an immediate ceasefire on humanitarian grounds, and reiterated its call on all parties to comply with their obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law, especially with regard to the protection of civilians.

He also called for the immediate and unconditional release of all “hostages” and the guarantee of humanitarian access.

Since last October 7, the Israeli occupation army has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, separating the north of the Strip from the center and south, and leaving, as of Saturday evening, 17,700 killed and 48,780 injured, most of them children and women, and massive destruction of infrastructure. And an “unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe,” according to official Palestinian and UN sources.

The plane of the UN Security Council delegation arrived at Al-Arish International Airport in preparation for a visit to the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, to find out the mechanism for entering aid into Gaza.

Twelve delegates to the United Nations Security Council are scheduled to visit the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip on Monday, a few days after the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, warned that thousands of people in the besieged Palestinian Strip are “starving.”

The UAE arranged the visit to Rafah, where humanitarian aid and limited fuel supplies crossed into Gaza, while the 15-member Security Council negotiates a draft resolution drafted by the UAE demanding “to allow the use of all land, sea and air routes leading to and around Gaza” to deliver aid.

The draft resolution also includes the establishment of a mechanism to monitor aid run by the United Nations in the Gaza Strip. It was not immediately clear when the draft resolution could be put to a vote.

He stressed that the Hamas attack is not a justification for Israel to impose collective punishment on the Palestinian people, and called for international monitoring on the ground in Gaza, adding: “We have told Israel for many years that the single most dangerous factor in the Middle East is the failure to resolve the status of a Palestinian state.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the Hamas movement’s attack on Israeli towns in the south and the “Gaza Envelope” area, on October 7, did not happen in a vacuum, stressing that Moscow communicates exclusively with the movement’s political wing and that “these contacts made it possible to Reaching an agreement to release detainees, to which Israel responded positively.

He stressed that the Hamas attack is not a justification for Israel to impose collective punishment on the Palestinian people, and called for international monitoring on the ground in Gaza, adding: “We have told Israel for many years that the single most dangerous factor in the Middle East is the failure to resolve the status of the Palestinian state.”

The Russian Foreign Minister's statements were made in an online speech within the activities of the Doha Forum 2023. Lavrov said, "We have relations with the political wing of the Hamas movement. We have made contact with its representatives in Doha to negotiate the fate of the hostages among our citizens, in addition to citizens from a number of countries neighboring Russia and other countries." We were able to reach an agreement, and the reaction of the Israeli side was positive.”

Lavrov stressed in his speech that Russia will continue to exert political pressure to achieve a humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. He also stressed that decisions related to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and how to address it require some kind of oversight on the ground.

Lavrov called for the implementation of the United Nations Security Council resolutions regarding the establishment of a Palestinian state on the basis of the principles approved by the United Nations.

These statements by the Russian Foreign Minister came as the Kremlin Press Office announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin assured the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, of Russia's readiness to contribute to reducing the escalation in Gaza.

The statement quoted Putin as telling Netanyahu, "The Russian side is ready to provide all possible assistance in order to alleviate the suffering of civilians and calm the conflict."

For his part, Netanyahu expressed his "dissatisfaction" with Moscow's vote in favor of a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in the war in the Gaza Strip, according to what his office announced in a statement on Sunday.

Netanyahu said in a statement that he spoke to Putin on Sunday and “expressed his dissatisfaction with the positions expressed by Russian representatives against Israel in the United Nations and other forums.”

At least 25 citizens were killed, Monday afternoon, in a bombing carried out by Israeli occupation aircraft on citizens’ homes in the city of Deir al-Balah and the Maghazi camp in the central Gaza Strip.

Local sources said that 15 civilians were killed and dozens were injured as a result of the heavy raids on the center of the Gaza Strip, the last of which was the targeting of a house in the Maghazi refugee camp, while 10 martyrs were killed when a house was targeted on Al-Bi'ah Street in Deir Al-Balah in the center of the Gaza Strip.

Two martyrs also died after being targeted by a drone in Jabalia al-Nazla, north of the Gaza Strip.

The sources explained that Al-Maghazi camp in the middle of the Gaza Strip was subjected to violent bombardment by the occupation aircraft, as dozens of martyrs and wounded were transferred to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah.

In this context, rescue crews and citizens were able to recover 23 bodies from under the rubble of homes for the “Khala” family after they were destroyed in a bombing carried out by the occupation aircraft in Jabalia al-Nazla last night.

The Director of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, Dr. Azmi Bishara, now, in an interview on “Arab TV”, regarding the war on Gaza “between American support and the steadfastness of the resistance.”

Dr.. Azmi Bishara, during the interview

He said that “Israel wants to turn the Gaza Strip into a place unfit for life,” explaining that “the behavior of the resistance clearly indicates that it has prepared for a ground invasion scenario.” 

He stated that “the structure of the UN Security Council cannot continue in its current state.” He also stressed that "the Palestine issue is a revealing issue and the war on Gaza revealed the Council's shortcomings." He stressed that "the Arab peoples taking to the streets is necessary, because it will confirm that the aggression against Gaza represents a real threat to the stability of the region."

Bishara pointed out that the resistance’s behavior and Israel’s surprise at it suggest that the Palestinian factions were well prepared for the occupation’s intention to invade Gaza, as evidenced by the number of wounded and dead that Israel recognizes among the ranks of its army, recalling that the official announcement speaks of two thousand wounded, while the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper revealed that they are five thousand. 

Bishara preferred to use the term “thwarting the aggression” to describe what is currently happening, rather than the term “victory,” and asked in this context: If Israel is surprised by Hamas’ offensive capabilities, why does it claim to know its defensive capabilities? He pointed out that just as Israel was confused in responding to the operation of last October 7, it was not prepared in the ground attack as well, because it failed to crystallize what the general goal of the ground invasion meant, i.e. “eliminating Hamas.”

He noted that Israel's settler-colonial logic in its treatment of the Palestinians with superiority, ignorance and contempt leads to adverse results for its owner because this mentality prevents the occupation from understanding its enemy and knowing its capabilities and thus being surprised by its operations, and this is what is happening today in the face of the resistance.

Regarding his expectations for the outcome of the war, Bishara considered that, “We must know exactly the extent of what was inflicted on the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian people, while we do not know the outcome of matters, and it may end in a war of attrition for months or more.”

Regarding the arrest of civilians in northern Gaza a few days ago and photographing them semi-naked, Bishara believed that the aim of this was mainly to punish the steadfastness of these people in their areas in the northern Gaza Strip. He asserted that the pictures of these young men “do not diminish their dignity before us, but rather diminish the dignity of the Israeli soldiers.” In a related context, Bishara pointed out that saying that the Palestinian people “love death” is insulting to the Palestinians, so the theory that we should underestimate the images of the Palestinian people’s tragedy and focus only on the images of confrontations and resistance is not correct.

The Arab peoples taking to the streets is what is missing from the scene

Regarding the Arab peoples not taking to the streets to the required degree, Bishara said, “As long as the possibility of the major Arab regimes moving is excluded, the Arab peoples going out to the streets is what is missing from the scene, and would contribute to stopping the war, because then America might feel... Indeed, what Israel is doing constitutes a threat to stability in the region and in the major Arab countries.”

In general, the Arab position, in Bishara’s opinion, is a “spectator position” and a fear that we are in the process of giving Israel the opportunity until the end of this year to completely destroy Gaza and make it unviable, and then to position itself inside the Strip and begin carrying out special operations and assassinations.

Bishara considered that “the criterion for supporting the Palestinian people today is not showing off on social media, but rather going out into the street.” Regarding the tour of the delegation emerging from the joint Arab-Islamic summit in a number of world capitals, Bishara noted that “there is no common will to do more than what the group of Arab and Islamic countries is doing,” as the tour is “good public relations,” but it is nothing more than that. .

According to the director of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, some Arab countries that were eager for Israel to eliminate Hamas have now begun to feel that Israel has become a danger in an uncalculated adventure that may lead to instability. According to the Director General of the Arab Center, the October 7 operation spoiled a major American project based on confronting China and building an Israeli-Arab axis that maintains stability in the Middle East.

Intercepting Israeli ships and threatening ships heading to them

Bishara stated that the Houthis’ interception and threat to the movement of Israeli ships or those heading to Israel in the Bab al-Mandab Strait and the Red Sea has begun to actually have an economic impact on Israel, “and that is through a rational discourse” that draws an equation that the siege of Gaza is met with a naval siege of Israel. He said, "It cannot be denied that the steps taken by the Houthis have an impact."

He said that if the Arab countries had implemented the decision to break the siege on Gaza, there would not have been room for non-Arabs such as Iran to be a support for Hamas, which would prefer to be supported by Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia, for example.

Bishara reiterated his opinion that Arab countries are not required to declare war on Israel, but rather to take steps that will benefit them in political influence, in the “next day” negotiations, and in regional power equations in general. He placed the current Arab behavior within the framework of “harmful to the national security of each individual Arab state.”

The American veto and the moral loss

Regarding the American veto in the UN Security Council to reject the draft resolution calling for a ceasefire, Bishara recalled that the session was held based on the activation by the Secretary-General of the United Nations of Article 99 of the Charter of the International System. He noticed that António Guterres was late in his move, but he took it in the end.

Source: arab48

The UN General Assembly is scheduled to hold an emergency special session on Gaza tomorrow (Tuesday), according to Monica Graeli, spokesperson for the Assembly's president.

“The President of the UN General Assembly, Denis Francis, has just informed member states that he will convene the 45th plenary session of the tenth emergency special session of the General Assembly on Tuesday, December 12,” the spokeswoman said on Sunday.

Egypt and Mauritania officially requested the meeting to be held, as they referred in their letter to the President of the United Nations General Assembly to General Assembly Resolution No. 377, “United for Peace.”

The letter highlighted the necessity of holding this meeting after the United States vetoed a draft Security Council resolution on a ceasefire in Gaza.

The United for Peace resolution gives the Assembly the authority to deal with issues related to international peace and security when the Security Council fails to reach a unanimous decision among the five permanent members with veto power.

Last night and at dawn on Monday, the Israeli occupation forces arrested 28 citizens from the West Bank governorates, including two women and a child.

F

In statements to the "State of the Union" program on CNN, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken urged Israel to make more efforts to protect Palestinian civilians in its war on Gaza.

In his statements, which came two days after the United States used its veto against a draft resolution in the UN Security Council calling for an immediate ceasefire on humanitarian grounds, Blinken said that Israel must attach “importance” to protecting civilians in Gaza and ensuring that humanitarian aid reaches those in need. .

Blinken added, "The important thing is to ensure that military operations are developed in a way that ensures the protection of civilians," believing that "Israel has the intention (to reduce the number of civilian casualties), but the results do not show that on their own."

Among the steps that Blinken said the United States "does not see enough of" are "times, places and ways of deconfliction" that would allow humanitarian operations to deliver aid and help keep civilians out of harm's way.

Israeli forces made their way to the center of the city of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, on Sunday after fierce fighting during the night, while American-made warplanes bombed areas west of the city with American missiles.

Israel pledged to eliminate Hamas after the movement's militants launched attacks on Israeli towns on October 7, killing 1,200 people and detaining 240 others, according to Israeli authorities.

Health authorities in the Gaza Strip said that about 18,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war since then, while 49,500 have been injured. Thousands more are missing, believed to have died, and are found under rubble.

The United States blocked an effort at the United Nations on Friday to impose a ceasefire, an option that American and Israeli officials believe would only benefit Hamas.

It is noteworthy that the US Department of Defense (the Pentagon) said on Saturday that the administration of President Joe Biden used emergency authority to allow the sale of about 14,000 tank shells to Israel without reviewing Congress.

Yesterday (Sunday) China called for a truce and a response to the health crisis unfolding in Gaza, stressing that the “two-state solution” is the main way out of this crisis.

In his statements during the special session organized by the Executive Board of the World Health Organization on the health situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, Chen Xiu, head of the Chinese mission to the United Nations in Geneva, stressed the need to achieve a ceasefire and put an end to the violence there.

He stated that China, which is deeply concerned about the renewed violence in the Gaza Strip, calls on the parties concerned in the Strip to exercise restraint and provide opportunities to bring peace and grant the population peace and stability.

Chen explained that China calls on the international community, especially influential countries regarding the Palestinian-Israeli issue, to play a responsible role in promoting a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire and protecting the rights of civilians to live and health.

He said that resolving the health crisis is extremely important, calling on all parties to spare no effort in ensuring the safety of medical personnel and health facilities, urging support from the World Health Organization and other humanitarian agencies in providing the much-needed medicines and medical equipment in Gaza, and in treating... The injured and their transport.

Chen also called for the need to support Palestine in re-establishing its medical infrastructure and developing its public health.

He stressed that the two-state solution is the main way out of the current crisis, and Israeli-Palestinian peace talks should be resumed immediately, and the two-state solution must be achieved in a tangible and complete manner, pointing to the need to give the Palestinian people their rights to establish their state, live in it, and return to it as soon as possible.

Chen pointed out that China has provided cash assistance, through various channels, to Palestine and UN agencies since the beginning of this round of conflict, and has provided food and medical aid to the Gaza Strip, pledging that China will continue to provide emergency humanitarian aid in accordance with the needs of the Palestinian people.

11 citizens were killed and dozens injured, at dawn on Monday, after the occupation warplanes bombed homes in Rafah and Nuseirat in the Gaza Strip.

In Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, 6 citizens, most of them children, were killed and a number of others were injured with various injuries, after the Israeli occupation aircraft bombed a residential apartment belonging to the Subh family in the Tal Al-Sultan neighborhood of the city.

Also, 5 citizens, including 3 children, were killed in an Israeli bombing on a house in the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, and a number of injuries arrived at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital after the occupation bombed a house in the Al-Bassa area in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.

Israeli occupation artillery bombed various areas in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip.

The occupation aircraft also carried out a series of violent raids targeting areas east of Gaza City, in Al-Maghazi camp, in Al-Shuja’iya and Jabalia camp in the Gaza Strip.

The comprehensive strike spread throughout the country’s governorates, today, Monday, denouncing the ongoing Israeli aggression against our people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, for the 66th day in a row, and demanding an end to the heinous massacres and bombing of safe citizens’ homes, hospitals, and shelter centers.

The strike called for by the national and Islamic forces in the northern governorates, in conjunction with a global movement, to call for a comprehensive strike around the world, to demand an end to the aggression against the Gaza Strip, and in solidarity with our people, paralyzed all aspects of life, and universities, banks, banks, and shops were closed, amid calls Popular masses to continue confrontation activities with the occupation.

The strike included public transportation in the northern governorates, and the streets were empty of vehicles and pedestrians, and factories and laboratories were closed.

Activists on social media platforms had launched calls for a comprehensive strike around the world, in solidarity with the people of the Gaza Strip in the face of the war of extermination carried out by the Israeli occupation forces.

They believed that the comprehensive strike around the world aims to urge governments in their countries to take serious action to stop the Israeli massacres and genocide crimes that have been continuing for more than two months.

A large number of activists and influencers interacted with the hashtag “Strike for Gaza” or strikeforgaza, which swept social media sites, to participate in the strike to denounce the massacres against our Palestinian people, and to demand an immediate ceasefire.

According to the details of the calls circulating on social media sites, participation in the global strike includes refraining from going to work centers, schools, and universities, or opening shops in commercial centers, not using vehicles, not shopping, or using bank cards to pay for their purchases.

Since the seventh of last October, the Israeli occupation army has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, leaving about 18,000 killed and about 47,000 wounded, most of them children and women, in addition to thousands still under the rubble believed to have been martyred, and massive destruction of infrastructure. And an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.

The Executive Board of the World Health Organization on Sunday adopted a resolution urging the immediate and unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.

At the request of 17 Member States, the Executive Council held an extraordinary session at WHO headquarters in Geneva to discuss the health conditions in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in his opening speech that “the impact of the conflict on health is catastrophic” and that “the health system in Gaza is on its knees and collapsing.”

According to the World Health Organization, only 14 out of 36 hospitals are partially functioning, two of which are in the northern Gaza Valley and 12 in its south.

While the head of the World Health Organization condemned the attacks launched by Hamas on Israel and expressed his regret for the deaths of more than 1,200 people, he said that reports indicate that more than 17,000 people died in Gaza, including 7,000 children.

He confirmed that more than 46,000 cases of infection had been reported, while 1.9 million people were displaced from their homes, meaning “almost the entire population of the Gaza Strip.”

According to international law, health care facilities are designated for protection during conflicts. However, Tedros said that since October 7, the World Health Organization has verified more than 449 attacks on healthcare facilities in Gaza and the West Bank, and 60 attacks on healthcare facilities in Israel.

Tedros stressed that the ceasefire is crucial to protecting and enhancing the health of the people of Gaza.

Le Figaro newspaper said that Israel must choose between maintaining military control over all of Mandatory Palestine while continuing to live in intermittent chaos, and giving up 22% of it to create a demilitarized Palestinian state and win peace on its borders, according to newspaper columnist Renaud Girard. .

Renaud Girard explained that he found a consensus in Israel, which he visited a few days ago, on the idea of destroying the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) until the end due to the shock that Israeli society suffered in the wake of the magnitude of the losses it suffered in the Al-Aqsa Flood operation on October 7 last year. About 1,250 Israelis were killed in it, 8 times more than those killed in the 2006 Lebanon War, but also because of what he described as the brutality of crimes committed by Hamas against peaceful civilians, according to his claim.

The future of war

Reno believed, in his article in this right-wing newspaper, that Hamas in its revolutionary war is sufficient for it not to lose completely, but the Israeli government today does not intend to provide “the slightest gift” to the movement, so he wondered with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, will this cause Israel to create new enemies?

Lloyd Austin says that Israel, by continuing its indiscriminate bombing of a densely populated area such as the southern Gaza Strip, will turn a tactical victory into a strategic defeat, and therefore it must realize that the escalation of criticism against it in its faithful ally America means that the time has come to prevent the Israeli right from doing anything. To remove the fanatical settlers who are ready to kill in the West Bank, it is also time for the Israeli army to stop destroying the infrastructure necessary for normal life in Gaza.

The writer concluded that the moment of truth is approaching for Israel, and in this regard he urged the resumption of the 2008 Olmert-Abbas negotiations from where they left off, when Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas made a mistake by not accepting the “generous” offer made by then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

The offer - according to the writer - is for Israel to annex 3 settlement blocs representing 80% of the area of the occupied Palestinian territories, and to establish a Palestinian state on 94% of the West Bank, provided that it takes the remaining 6% from the Negev Desert and the sovereign corridor linking Gaza to the West Bank, and it will be... Its capital is in the Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem, with the holy sites placed under international administration.

Renaud Girard concluded that the regional powers must convince the Palestinians of the impossibility of the return of refugees to Israel, which wants to remain a Jewish state, stressing that America has the necessary means to support this solution politically, and that the oil countries have the necessary funding for it, and “if the Palestinians do not take advantage of this extended hand And the opportunity to build their state, and they continued their dream of throwing the Jews into the sea, they would deserve their disastrous fate,” in the words of the writer.

Source: Le Figaro

Regardless of the official Israeli statements from military and political leaders in which they claim that the Hamas movement is showing signs of failure in the face of the fierce Israeli attack, and that the movement’s senior leadership is losing its control over the field commands, their estimates indicate that they need many months, and there are those who say more than One year until the goals of the war are achieved, which are “to annihilate Hamas, return the prisoners, and implement measures that make the Gaza Strip a safe zone from which there is no room for launching missiles that threaten the residents of the south.”

However, the Israeli public, along with the media and experts, are not convinced that the army has sufficient resources to remain in the Gaza Strip for a full year or more. They say that it is entering the third month of the war and has not achieved tangible achievements that actually indicate that Hamas is close to collapse. It destroyed all the buildings in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, and occupied almost the entire area, but Hamas members still surprise the Israeli army with specific operations that destroy vehicles and kill soldiers. They even fire shells and some rockets from this area in particular. The army itself talks about the “fierce battles” it is waging with the enemy.

Although most Hebrew media outlets still withhold from the public any statement or tape recording from Hamas, few Israelis believe the accounts of the army spokesman, Daniel Hagari, about what is happening in the Gaza Strip. And he knows it. Although opinion polls indicate that he enjoys the trust of 86 percent of the public, he does not enjoy the trust of 50 percent of journalists, and they express this in newspapers and say it in other media outlets.

The feeling is that Israel has gone back 50 years in terms of imposing military control. Although this media has been practicing severe self-censorship since the beginning of the war, and refraining from publishing Hamas’ statements and recorded tapes, there is a feeling that the censorship and army commanders want those who receive the news to be exactly like the shining lights.

Spokesman Hagari took steps to restore confidence, organizing tours for journalists individually in Gaza. Every journalist was allowed to talk to whomever he wanted. Hagari responded to their request to give a more accurate picture of the results of the battles. And not just saying that his forces are approaching Sinwar, and that Hamas is approaching collapse. They held negotiations with him in recent days about the number of dead and injured.

He insisted that the number of deaths in the Gaza battles alone was 100 (in addition to 320 on October 7), but they informed him that they had information from hospitals that the number of wounded was many times greater than what he published, and they ultimately agreed that the number reached 5,000 wounded. After he had agreed with what was published by the newspaper “Haaretz”, last Tuesday, that the number was 1000, and the number was shocking at the time.

It is known that the army began to liberate large groups of reserve soldiers that it had recruited at the beginning of the war (360 thousand soldiers, 130 thousand of whom were directed towards the northern border and the rest near Gaza), and the total number of those who entered and exited to and from Gaza reached about 100 thousand soldiers during the war. There are certainly 5,000 wounded. It is clear that the wounds are varied and severe. There are injuries to the kidneys, spleen, liver, and of course to the head. There are a large number of eye injuries. Hospitals establish secret departments, and the percentage of permanently disabled people is at least 15 percent, and these are the injured who have lost limbs from their bodies.

Accordingly, even if there were very painful strikes on Hamas and its fighters, and even if there was a defeat in some Hamas positions, the fierce fighting shows that the Israeli claims about the imminent collapse of Hamas are part of psychological warfare and a propaganda campaign, and not necessarily reflects reality.

Talking about the need for an additional year means that the Israeli army is faltering, as it is a large army with huge resources, it has the latest weapons and high-tech technologies, and it has all the support it needs and more from the American army, which is organizing an air campaign of 200 huge cargo planes loaded with ammunition and equipment. However, it is advancing very slowly in front of the forces of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and others.

And the tapes that the army displays, which sometimes show young men forced to take off their shirts and sit on the ground naked for the purpose of humiliating them, or the tape in which they brag about the killing of 3 Hamas members in a foot operation in one of Jabalia’s alleys, or the demolition of a memorial in Palestine Square and the raising of the Israeli flag in it. These are disproportionate images that may be appropriate for an army that achieved a victory over a division of the Chinese or Russian army, and not an army that is considered one of the strongest armies in the world and is fighting an armed organization such as “Hamas” with 30,000 armed men.

According to the military correspondent for the right-wing newspaper “Israel Hayom”, Alon Ben David, who returned from a tour in the heart of Gaza hosted by the army, “On the military side, the Israeli army has recorded quite a few achievements for itself, but the pictures raise a vigilant debate among experts, as to whether these are signs of Signs of failure among Hamas.

The situation in the south of the Gaza Strip is different. Although the army operates with a large brigade force in Khan Yunis, it has not yet succeeded in defeating the four Hamas brigades operating in the city. The estimate is that this will require 3 weeks, and perhaps more, while the main emphasis was on trying to harm senior Hamas officials, led by Yahya Sinwar and his brother Muhammad.

The situation in the south of the Gaza Strip is different. Although the army operates with a large brigade force in Khan Yunis, it has not yet succeeded in defeating the four Hamas brigades operating in the city. The estimate is that this will require 3 weeks, and perhaps more, while the main emphasis was on trying to harm senior Hamas officials, led by Yahya Sinwar and his brother Muhammad, who, according to all indications, are working on this front.

If the occupation of Khan Yunis requires 3 weeks, then Rafah, which is many times larger in area and population density, and Deir al-Balah and the rest of the areas that the Israeli forces did not enter, require months, but the political leaders confirm that they do not have that much time, from a political standpoint.

Although, on Friday, the United States used its veto in the Security Council on a draft resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, there is clear concern in Israel that, with the exception of it, the rest of the 13 countries voted in favor of the draft resolution (and Britain abstained). According to various reports from Washington, the US administration intends to allow Israel to continue fighting until the end of the calendar year, that is, 3 weeks from today, before demanding it to redeploy.

All this, without a solution to the issue of the kidnapped Israelis held by Hamas, liberating any of whom does not seem to be an easy goal, and the special operation that took place at dawn on Friday to free soldier Saher Baruch failed and ended with his killing. This is noteworthy that the army confirms that similar efforts will continue in the future as well, despite the complicated circumstances of their success.

Based on all of this, the military operations in the Gaza Strip are a problem not only for Hamas, but for the Israeli army as well.

Source: Alsharq Alawsat

Israeli politicians and commentators warned on Sunday that the war waged by the occupation army on the Gaza Strip is heading towards failure, pointing to the lack of political solutions, and considering that the goals seem far-fetched.

Former MP Roman Brofman said, "The management of the war is doomed to failure, because there is no political solution and serious negotiations to exchange prisoners on the horizon."

Berfman wrote on his account on X Platform "What enhances the chances of failure of the war on Gaza is the fact that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is running it based on assumptions that have “already been shattered” and because of the tyranny of his personal calculations."

For his part, Nahum Barnea, chief commentator in Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, said, “Israel is required to lower its expectations from the war on Gaza, which seems far from over and is not achieving its goals.”

In a report published by the newspaper in its Sunday issue, Barnea mocked Israeli journalists who are trying to raise the morale of the internal public by describing Hamas fighters as “cowards,” saying: “I wish they were cowards. If they were cowards, they would have come out of the tunnels en masse, raising their hands” with white flags.

He pointed out that the war on Gaza is affected by the ongoing conflict between Netanyahu and Security Minister Yoav Galant, noting that both of them are keen “for the public to know that only they are running the war. The result is that they appear frequently, more than everyone who held their positions in all previous wars.” They often engage in statements that require more explanations and more press conferences.”

"Lies"

As for writer Nir Kipnis, he warned Israeli public opinion against starting from the assumption that “the army can achieve victory in the war on Gaza.”

In an article published by Maariv newspaper on Sunday, Kipnis added that “the army is unable to win,” describing bets on its ability to achieve that as “lies.”

According to Kipnis, “What is frustrating is the fact that the war seems far from over even two months after it was launched,” at the same time accusing the occupation army spokesman, Daniel Hagari, of “lying” through his statements that talk about “achievements” in the war.

He pointed out that "the battles and military confrontations that the army fought in the past two decades demonstrated that it is incapable of achieving victory, in addition to its inability to accumulate deterrence in the face of enemies," as he put it.

Capabilities that Hamas does not possess

He pointed out that among the lies peddled by the occupation army is its talk about Hamas “losing” control over the Gaza Strip, that Gazans are revolting against it, and that the movement’s leader in the Strip, Yahya Sinwar, “is under pressure, which will make him hasten to release the hostages.”

Kipnis asserted that the occupation army is failing to confront an organization that “does not have an air force, tanks, ships, Western precision weapons, or an Iron Dome to protect its citizens.”

He added: "Two months have passed and the Israeli army has not crushed Gaza, even though it has not been subject to international restrictions and is not hindered by internal opposition."

Source: Sama News

A CBS poll showed that 61% of Americans disapprove of President Joe Biden's policy toward the war in Gaza.

The poll also showed that the percentage of those who believe that Biden shows too much support for “Israel” rose to 38%.

Many of the respondents indicated that the US President's approach towards "Israel" resulted in increasing disagreements within his party.

Yesterday, the American newspaper "The Wall Street Journal" published an opinion poll, saying that the White House should be concerned about it.

According to the opinion poll published by the American newspaper, it was found that only 23% of Americans support Biden’s policies since he entered the White House in January 2021, while 53% believe that his policies have harmed them.

A few days ago, a poll conducted by Reuters showed that Biden's popularity was close to its lowest levels during his presidency this month.

Biden is also currently facing internal opposition because of his position on the war in Gaza, as the American website “Axios” mentioned that American Muslims in several states started a campaign called “AbandonBiden,” which is a reflection of their anger regarding his handling of the Gaza file and his support for “Israel.”

Opposition increased within the White House, as the American network “NBC” reported that a group of trainees in the White House joined the growing list of administration officials, who are exerting internal pressure on Biden to call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, and they sent him a message late in the month. Last Tuesday, it accused him of “ignoring the appeals of the American people.”

Source: Sama News

The British magazine “The Economist” published a report entitled “Benjamin Netanyahu is at the mercy of his hard-line coalition partners... and has little say in major decisions in the war.” It stated that Netanyahu has returned to facing the issue of being tried on charges of bribery and fraud, after the courts returned to work on December 4, after a two-month hiatus due to the war in Gaza.

Netanyahu's lawyers are now demanding that the hearings be postponed, saying that he does not have time to prepare, due to the war.

But is Netanyahu really leading the war? The magazine asks, which quotes Israeli officials as saying that military decisions are mainly made by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, along with two other former generals, Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, leaders of the centrist National Unity Party, both of whom joined the government shortly after the Hamas attack on the settlements surrounding the Gaza Strip on October 7, to work in a new war government.

This group, which includes five members, makes all major decisions related to the war, but Netanyahu is largely isolated within it.

Gallant, a member of the prime minister's Likud party, has not liked his leader much since Netanyahu unsuccessfully tried to fire him last March.

According to the report, Netanyahu is also concerned about Gantz, who is far ahead of him in the opinion polls, with three-quarters of Israelis recently saying they want Netanyahu to resign, either immediately or once the war ends.

The report stated that the three former generals in the war government are much closer to Netanyahu than the current generals in the Israeli occupation army, on whom the Prime Minister tried to place full blame for the October 7 disaster.

The report reveals that among the decisions over which Netanyahu had little influence was the timing of the recent ground attack in Gaza.

The other decision was to accept a week-long truce with Hamas in exchange for the release of 110 hostages, most of them women and children, according to senior Israeli officials.

Trapped within a hardline coalition

The report confirmed that Netanyahu is trapped within a hardline coalition.

Before the war, the main centrist parties refused to join a government led by a prime minister on trial for corruption.

So, a year ago, Netanyahu returned to power after 18 months in opposition by putting himself at the mercy of far-right parties to form a majority, and they now hold his political fate in their hands.

As a result, Netanyahu has little power over the budget, which is controlled by the religious parties in his coalition, where they have allocated billions of shekels to West Bank settlements and Jewish religious schools.

Netanyahu also cannot block other right-wing policies, such as the wholesale issuance of arms licenses by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who leads the far-right Jewish Power party.

According to the report, Netanyahu's political paralysis means that he cannot plan what to do in Gaza when the fighting stops.

The extremist wing of his coalition wants to keep the Israeli army in the region permanently.

But Israel's main ally, America, wants Israel to withdraw completely to allow the revitalized Palestinian Authority to take control.

But under pressure from his far-right ministers, Netanyahu was forced to veto cooperation with the Palestinian Authority, for which his finance minister deprives him of funds.

Political weakness

The report pointed out that Netanyahu revealed his political weakness by his inability to restrain junior ministers who make inflammatory and destructive statements.

These include the highly titled Minister of Intelligence (although she has no authority over the Israeli intelligence services), who called for the resettlement of Gazans to Egypt, and the Minister of Heritage, who considered dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza.

Within the ruling Likud Party, there are rebellions afoot.

Gallant and Nir Barkat, the independent-minded business minister, are among those believed to be considering the challenges facing leadership.

But Netanyahu still controls his party and will be difficult to remove, the report said.

No confidence and parliamentary majority

The report notes that there are two ways to replace the prime minister. The first is through a “constructive no-confidence” procedure, where a majority of the members of the Knesset (the Israeli parliament) vote to choose a new prime minister from among its members.

There may soon be a parliamentary majority against Netanyahu, but the divided Knesset is unlikely to agree to an alternative.

The most acceptable outcome, once the scale of the war in Gaza is reduced, is a quick Knesset solution.

In this case, Israel's sixth elections in less than six years would be held by mid-2024.

However, in general, the report concludes by saying that “the main issue at stake will be Netanyahu’s political survival.”

Source: Sama News

The optimistic Israeli scenario means that Israel's victory in the war will lead to the re-occupation of Gaza and the unification of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which it worked for years to separate, under its control, and to return the Palestinian issue, which it almost succeeded in eliminating, to the forefront of the world.

“Gaza: Place and Imagination in the Israeli Space” is the title of a book published on the eve of the attack of last October 7, and it included a collection of articles by Israeli writers, covering various topics, converging on the basis of an attempt to understand and comprehend Gaza as an “Israeli place.”

Noam Sheizaf, who presented the book in the Haaretz newspaper supplement, in light of the political developments and the current war on Gaza, believes that the book wanted its readers to think about Gaza as a matter that concerns and concerns the Israelis, but this hidden and critical goal was translated at that time in a “violent and painful” form. Very,” referring to October 7 and the war on Gaza.

“Gaza is an artificial strip formed by the 1948 war and is not a natural geographical area.” It also constitutes the heart of the Palestinian issue, as described by the poet and right-wing man, Elhai Solomon, who writes in his article included in the book, that the majority of the population of the Strip are refugees from the 1948 areas, some of whom are from Jaffa. From the villages and cities of the Western Negev, they live in neighborhoods bearing the names of the villages and cities from which they were displaced, and their presence in Gaza turned into a symbol of the Palestinian cause, and the refugees from Gaza were the ones who created the guerrilla operations in the fifties, and it was from Jabalia that the first Intifada began, which represented the Palestinian climax and from it emerged Yasser Arqat's family and the founders of Hamas.

In this context, literary researcher Uri Cohen says that Israeli culture saw in Gaza its opposite, an open and successful society in the face of a hostile and failed ghetto, a small closed sector and hostile neighbors. Hence the expression “Go to Gaza” which is said to everyone who does not like “us.” The desire that Ben-Gurion was the first to express was that Gaza and the entire Palestinian issue would disappear into the sea.

But Gaza refused to disappear. After it separated from Israel in 1948, the latter returned and occupied it in 1956 and left under pressure from the great powers after a few months. It then reoccupied it in 1967 and imposed a siege on it for two years. However, it retreated and encouraged its residents to work in Israel and then gradually returned to the policy of closure since In 1991, it evacuated its forces from its cities in 1994, then evacuated the settlements in 2005, and now it is returning, as Shezaff says, to write the next chapter, by occupying them again.

In light of the current displacement attempts, the writer recalls the transfer plans that followed the occupation of 1967, which are mentioned in the article of historian Omri Shefer Rafif, included in the book, pointing out that Israel hoped to succeed in reducing the number of Palestinians in Gaza and annexing it to Israel, and encouraged the migration of Gazans to the east by not improving living conditions in the Gaza Strip, and economic grants were granted to those wishing to immigrate to the West Bank and from there to Jordan.

However, Jordan quickly discovered the plan and prevented the immigration of Palestinians to its lands. Then came the agreement with Paraguay to absorb 50,000 Palestinians, under which Israel pledged to provide financial grants to the immigrants and to the Paraguayan government, but it also failed.

Regarding the ongoing displacement in Gaza today, the writer says that the Palestinian issue is being reborn today in Gaza and in front of the eyes of the whole world, as the number of refugees from northern Gaza exceeds the number of all the refugees of 1948, and the majority of them do not have homes to return to, noting that the world may provide them with humanitarian aid. But no one will take on the responsibility of policing or managing their political issues, and the separation of Gaza from the West Bank has ended, as Israel is uniting them again under its control.

We must realize that this is perhaps the optimistic Israeli scenario, and yet it means that Israel’s victory in the war will lead to the reoccupation of Gaza and the unification of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which it worked for years to separate, under its control and the return of the Palestinian issue, which it almost succeeded in eliminating to the forefront of the world.

As for what is happening in the field, it seems less optimistic for Israel and its army, which is still searching in vain for an image of victory in vain, and even the image of civilian men who were stripped and tied to market such an image, claiming that they were Hamas fighters, was turned against it after it was confirmed that they were civilians. Their pictures reminded the world of Nazi practices against the Jews.

While the military analyst for the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, Ron Ben Yishai, is searching for a breaking point in the besieged Khan Yunis, in the form of killing or arresting Sinwar and Deif, between the necessity of not harming the kidnapped and preventing a humanitarian catastrophe, his colleague, Amir Oren, believes that Netanyahu who has set a high ceiling for his war goals will fail just as he failed on October 7, and he says that until Christmas comes, the dead end to which Netanyahu has taken the State of Israel and who his partners will become clear.

Source: Arab48

The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip announced that the Israeli occupation committed 21 massacres during the past hours and bombed Kamal Adwan Hospital, which led to the death of two patients.

The Ministry stated that the bodies of 297 dead arrived at Gaza Strip hospitals during the past hours, and a large number of victims are still under the rubble.

In a related context, Ashraf Al-Qudra, spokesman for the ministry in the Gaza Strip, said that about 18,000 Palestinians were dead and 49,500 citizens were injured as a result of the Israeli aggression on the Strip since the seventh of last October.

The spokesman also stated - in an interview with Al Jazeera - that the toll includes 297 dead and more than 550 wounded during the past 24 hours.

Al-Qudra revealed that the occupation targeted an ambulance while it was working to evacuate the wounded, which led to the injury of two paramedics and damage to the ambulance, bringing the number of targeted cars to 57 cars.

He stressed that the Israeli "criminality" and genocide of the population of the besieged Gaza Strip is beyond description and beyond the limits of reason, to end the Palestinian presence with American and European support, which is contrary to humanity.

Al-Qudra confirmed that the occupation forces are still besieging Kamal Adwan and Al-Awda hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip.

The government media office in Gaza revealed that the occupation arrested dozens of people in Beit Lahia, most of them doctors, engineers, and journalists.

The office warned international organizations of the spread of famine in the Gaza Strip, holding international organizations and the occupation responsible for the loss of food and water security in the Strip.

Targeting medical personnel

The health spokesman stated that the occupation snipers besieging Al Awda Hospital killed two health personnel, and killed and wounded many pregnant women when they arrived at the hospital to give birth.

He explained that hospitals in southern Gaza have lost their capacity and are helpless in the face of the huge numbers of wounded, stressing that dozens of wounded are losing their lives.

Al-Qudra pointed out that the Israeli army arrested 3 paramedics and seized 3 ambulances, warning against the occupation using ambulances in its military operations in the Gaza Strip.

He added that the occupation is still detaining 36 health personnel, led by Dr. Muhammad Abu Salamiya, Director General of Al-Shifa Medical Complex, in inhumane conditions.

Al-Qudra pointed out that the occupation deliberately targeted 132 health institutions and put 22 hospitals and 46 health centers out of service, and 295 health personnel were killed.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formed a “secret team” to discuss the so-called Israeli approach on the “day after” the war on the Gaza Strip. It includes politicians, diplomats and security agencies, to develop visions on the issue of control of the Gaza Strip and the reconstruction of the Strip, and aspects related to the confrontation front with the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in the "northern sector".

According to the Israeli Channel 13, the secret team formed by Netanyahu is led by the Israeli National Security Advisor, Tzachi Hanegbi, and the Minister of Strategic Affairs, Ron Dermer, in addition to soldiers and members of the Mossad and the General Security Service (Shin Bet), in light of American pressure on Israel to set a vision for day after war.

The report indicated that “Israel’s ambassador to Washington, Mike Herzog, regularly participates in the deliberations of the special team via a secure line,” explaining that the team has already met four times in the past few weeks, and pointed out “expectations that a session will be held for expanded discussions on this matter during the current week".

The channel quoted a senior Israeli official (which it did not name), saying, “Israel informed the American administration of the formation of this special team. For the Biden administration, it is important for Tel Aviv to present a plan for the next day,” indicating that the visions that the special team will develop will be presented to the Cabinet for Political and Security Affairs.

With the continuation of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, which has been going on for 65 days, diplomats in Washington, the United Nations, the Middle East and other regions began to evaluate the “what next” options if the Israeli occupation was able to overthrow the Hamas movement that runs the Strip, while Washington began the first days of the war urging Tel Aviv to thinking about the day after the war on Gaza.

Among the scenarios being presented are options such as deploying multinational forces after the end of the war, forming a temporary administration led by a “renewed Palestinian authority,” as Washington puts it, granting a temporary role to fill the vacuum in security and administration to neighboring Arab countries, and temporary United Nations supervision of the sector.

While the sources confirm that this operation is still in the "idea stage", the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, confirmed that he will insist on security control by the Israeli army over the Gaza Strip after the war, according to the West Bank model, meaning that the occupation army will have operational freedom to implement Air and ground attacks in the Gaza Strip.

Mark Regev, an advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on Sunday defended the Israeli army stripping the clothes of displaced people in Gaza and photographing them, saying, “Here is the Middle East, and it is very hot.”

On Thursday, the Hebrew Broadcasting Authority published pictures and a video clip of dozens of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, saying that “the Israeli army arrested them during an operation in the northern Gaza Strip,” noting that “they were taken naked in cold weather to Israeli detention centers.”

The Palestinians appear in the pictures and video clip sitting on a street in their underwear, surrounded by a number of Israeli soldiers, while trying to cover their chests with their hands (from the cold).

In an interview with the British "Sky News", the channel's anchor inquired from the Israeli Prime Minister's advisor about the spread of pictures of dozens of Palestinians tied up and stripped of their clothes in Gaza, which sparked angry reactions on social media.

“First of all, remember that we are here in the Middle East, and the weather is very hot,” Regev said. “It may not be nice to be asked to take off your shirt, especially on sunny days, but it is not the end of the world.”

After the program presenter pointed out that the Israeli forces released some Palestinian detainees “after showing that they were not affiliated with the Hamas movement,” he stressed that the Israeli army does not have the right to strip people of their clothes, and asked Netanyahu’s advisor whether they had violated the Geneva Convention in this context.

Regev answered that “the photos are not official material,” and that it is necessary to look into the way the video spread, “which means that Israel cannot be held responsible in this regard.”

However, the program presenter objected to the advisor’s answer and told him: “If it turns out that the Israeli army captured those scenes, it has nothing to do with the issue or the heat in the Middle East.”

Regev, who was cornered by the presenter who repeated his questions about Israel's violation of the Geneva Convention, said he was "not familiar with international law at this level."

On Friday, the Hamas movement denounced the Israeli army’s arrest of displaced civilians in Gaza, stripping them of their clothes, and photographing them, stressing that this was “the work of mercenaries and terrorist militias devoid of all values, customs and laws.”

Since October 7, the Israeli army has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip that, as of Saturday evening, has left 18.000 people dead, 48,780 wounded, most of them children and women, massive infrastructure destruction, and an “unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe,” according to official Palestinian and UN sources.

The American Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that the leader of the Hamas movement in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, told Egyptian negotiators during talks related to the prisoner exchange that the war would not end quickly.

This information came in the context of a lengthy report prepared by the newspaper about Yahya Sinwar, who studied “the Israeli psyche, and bet his life on what he learned about Israel” in this war.

The newspaper reported that Sinwar stopped contacts regarding the exchange of prisoners with Israel several times in order to put pressure on the Hebrew state, in order to force it into a truce that Hamas employed to regroup its ranks, according to Egyptian mediators.

When the Israeli detainees were released, it was done in batches over several days and not all at once, which created an atmosphere of anxiety in Israeli society.

Al-Sinwar informed the Egyptian mediators that the war will not end soon, as previous rounds of confrontation in the Gaza Strip have ended. He said that the fighting may continue for weeks, which indicates that he wants to put pressure on Israel as much as he can regarding the remaining Israeli detainees held by the movement.

After the end of the humanitarian truce and the resumption of fighting, Hamas hardened its position and said that it would not release more of its detainees unless the Israeli war on Gaza ended.

It stated that these are military personnel, while Israel says that among them are civilians.

Israel also thinks the same

Israel agrees with Sinwar that the fighting will not end soon.

Israeli estimates reported by the Kan public broadcaster stated that the fighting in the Gaza Strip would extend for an additional two months.

But there will be no ceasefire after that, but rather “positioning operations” and the Israeli forces will remain inside the Strip.

This matter conflicts with a deadline given by US President Joe Biden to Israel to end the war by next January, according to media reports, but a White House official denied setting a specific date for Israel.

Source: Sky News Arabia

The Prisoners' and Ex-Prisoners' Affairs Authority and the Palestinian Prisoners' Club revealed that 142 detainees, women and girls from the Gaza Strip, are being held in Israeli occupation prisons, including infant girls and elderly women, who were arrested during the ground aggression on the Gaza Strip.

According to available data, according to a joint statement by the Commission and the Prisoners’ Club, this Sunday evening, female detainees are being held in several prisons, including “Damon” and “Hasharon” prisons.

Prisoners' institutions had previously issued a statement in which they said that the Israeli occupation was carrying out horrific and heinous crimes against Gaza detainees, in addition to its refusal to reveal their fate, in terms of their numbers, places of detention, and their health condition.

In light of the shocking and horrific images and testimonies from citizens who were recently arrested from Gaza, the level of fears for their fate is increasing day after day, and prisoner institutions do not rule out the occupation carrying out field executions against detainees from Gaza.

It is noteworthy that the occupation prison administration announced at the end of November the presence of 260 detainees from Gaza, whom it classified as illegal combatants.

The fascist minister in the occupation government, Itamar Ben Gvir, as part of the systematic torture and abuse operations, submitted a request to the prison administration official to transfer detainees from Gaza to the cell section (Rakfit) located under the Nitzan Ramla prison, which is considered one of the worst and oldest prisons.

Today, Sunday, settlers seized dozens of dunams of land south of Bethlehem.

The director of the Office of the Wall and Settlement Resistance Authority in the Bethlehem Governorate, Hassan Brejiyeh, reported that a large group of settlers seized dozens of dunams and planted them with seeds in the “Khallet an-Nahla” area near Abu Injaim, adjacent to the university housing, and located near the “Efrat” settlement, which is located on citizens’ lands. They belong to citizens from different areas in the Bethlehem Governorate.

It is noteworthy that three days ago, the settlers seized 12 dunums in the same location, near the village of Wadi Rahal, and planted them with forest trees. Before that, they seized 300 dunums and planted them as well.