The Ministry of Health announced, at dawn on Tuesday, that a young man was killed by Israeli occupation bullets in the town of Beitunia, west of Ramallah.

The Ministry indicated in a statement that a dead body arrived at the Palestine Medical Complex in the city of Ramallah after being shot by the Israeli occupation army in the town of Beitunia.

Security sources reported that the young man, Yassin Abdullah Al-Asmar (26 years old), from the town of Beitunia, died as a result of being hit in the chest by Israeli soldiers during confrontations that broke out in the town, while another young man (23 years old) was injured by live bullets in the foot.

At dawn today, the boy Malik Majid Abdel Fattah Daghra (17 years old) died as a result of his wounds shot by the Israeli occupation during confrontations that broke out in the village of Kafr Ain, northwest of Ramallah.

The occupation forces arrested the young man, Nassim Al-Barghouti, from his home. He is a student at Birzeit University.

The report stated that a female officer quoted senior Hamas officials as chanting slogans that the report described as “battle cries.” She emphasized: “They are training, with large forces, for a major event... This is preparation for the real thing.”

An officer with the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Israeli Army Intelligence Division deliberately reduced the team of intelligence operatives, charged with collecting intelligence information about the activities of the Hamas movement, so that the team would not work at night, nor on weekends as well, according to what was revealed by the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (Kan), in a report issued Monday.

The report indicated that the aforementioned officer had said in a “closed lecture” about two years ago that “the warning in the Gaza arena will not come from classical sources,” indicating that intelligence information about what Hamas is planning “will come either from a private source, or via cyber, and not on the basis of tactical eavesdropping.”

The broadcasting authority quoted an intelligence source, which it said was familiar with the details of this, that the presence of an intelligence team like the one mentioned in the hours preceding the attack of last October 7 does not necessarily mean that it was able to issue advance warning about the surprise attack carried out by Hamas. However, he indicated that this will be examined in the investigations that will be conducted later.

Although he did not confirm that the work of the intelligence team would have necessarily prevented a Hamas attack, the same source stressed that it “could have helped provide a real-time picture of the situation, amid the chaos of the first hours of the attack, such as the places where the elite forces (fighters) were hiding of the Hamas movement, who were present in the “Gaza envelope” settlements during the attack.

The broadcasting corporation stated, “The reduction in the number of employees and working hours indicates a failure in arranging priorities within the intelligence service.”

“Control of a kibbutz”; “We are fully prepared and awaiting instructions.”

In this context, the newspaper "Haaretz" reported on its website, on Monday, that the officer in the Military Intelligence Division, who had previously warned of a possible "mass infiltration operation" by fighters of the "Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades", the military wing of the Hamas movement, She told her leaders that Hamas members had completed a military training exercise, with the words: “We have finished killing all the residents of the kibbutz.”

According to a report by Israeli Channel 12, on July 6 of this year, the officer sent an email to her commanders, entitled: “Death in the kibbutz, at any cost.”

According to the report, the female officer mentioned in the same letter that “at the end of last May, there was a ‘crazy’ training session for two ‘elite’ companies, in the presence of a number of senior Hamas officials.”

The training, according to the same letter, was “long and exhausting, and lasted from the morning hours until eight-thirty in the evening,” and included Al-Qassam members driving four-wheel drive vehicles and motorcycles. It also included training on a scenario of shooting down Israeli aircraft and a drone.

According to the officer, the main training of Hamas members was focused on “controlling the kibbutz, which they called with an invented name,” according to the report.

The officer pointed to another target identified by Hamas members, which was a “military training base.” In this regard, the officer wrote in her warning message: “Instructions have been issued to kill the entire crew.”

Three days later, another member of the same unit was informed that additional training had been conducted for additional battalions in Hamas, where each battalion trained for a special and specific goal.

The report indicated that the officer then sent another email, which stated: “A nice little addition (to the warning she had previously sent) - during training, the following conversation took place (among Hamas members): ‘How are you doing and what is your state of readiness? “Awaiting instructions from you so that we can enter them from the gate, and we are fully prepared, awaiting instructions from you.”

A senior Israeli officer: an unrealistic scenario

Later, on July 12, for the first time, a senior intelligence officer in the region responded to this extensive email correspondence, according to the report, which noted that while the officer praised the officer for her work and agreed that “the exercise sounds crazy,” he wrote. “But the exercise scenario described, according to what (the officer) initially wrote, is completely fictional... and we need to see what is realistic.”

Even after that, the same officer insisted on the information she provided, and also presented her analysis on it, saying: “I strongly deny the existence of an imaginary scenario. It is difficult for me to imagine that the purpose of it (military training) was to practice an imaginary scenario and raise morale.” In my view, this scenario is very likely, mainly because Hamas has the ability to implement it.

One of the officer's colleagues also sent another message confirming that he shared the officer's position and analysis, and said in his message: "I confirm that we completely and categorically disagree with the assumption that this is a fictional scenario."

"Prepare for the real thing"

The officer stressed that this may be “an implementation plan, without a timetable for implementation,” and according to the report; “In other words: we will not be able to give warning in time.”

She also confirmed that what is happening is a “strategic event,” according to the information she has. As she put it, “This is a plan designed to start a war.”

The report stated that the female officer, while spying on the training, quoted senior Hamas officials chanting slogans that the report described as “battle cries.” She emphasized: “They are training, with large forces, for a major event... This is preparation for the real thing.”

For its part, the Israeli army said after the channel approached it: “These days, the Israeli army is completely focused on fighting the Hamas terrorist organization. After the war, the Israeli army will conduct an in-depth, careful and uncompromising investigation, and publish its results to the public.”

source: arab48

The fourth batch of the exchange deal included 3 female prisoners: Nafoz Hammad from Jerusalem, Yasmin Shaaban from Jenin, and Etaf Jaradat from Jenin, in addition to 30 Palestinian children from Israeli occupation prisons.

Israel released 33 Palestinian prisoners, including 3 female prisoners and 30 children and boys, in the fourth installment of the prisoner exchange agreement concluded between Israel and the Hamas movement.

30 prisoners, including children and youth, from the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem were also released from Ofer Prison, west of Ramallah.

In this context, Qatar announced the extension of the truce in the Gaza Strip for an additional two days, after the first agreement of the truce was scheduled to expire tomorrow morning, Tuesday.

It is scheduled to extend the truce for an additional two days to include the release of 60 other Palestinian prisoners, women and children, from occupation prisons, and 20 Israeli hostages will be released from the Gaza Strip.

The Hamas movement said in a brief statement: “The Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas announces that it has been agreed with the brothers in Qatar and Egypt to extend the temporary humanitarian truce for an additional two days, under the same conditions as the previous truce.”

During these meetings in the Middle East, Blinken will stress the need to continue providing humanitarian assistance to Gaza, ensure the release of all hostages and strengthen the protection of civilians in Gaza.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken will visit Israel and the West Bank again by the end of the week, and will also go to Dubai to attend the United Nations COP28 climate conference, according to what a senior US State Department official announced on Tuesday.

This will be Blinken's third visit to the Middle East since the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip and the "Al-Aqsa Flood" battle on October 7th.

The official said, requesting anonymity, that Blinken "during these meetings in the Middle East, will stress the need to continue providing humanitarian assistance to Gaza, ensure the release of all hostages and enhance the protection of civilians in Gaza."

He added that Blinken will also stress the necessity of establishing an independent Palestinian state, considering that this is the only solution in the long term. He will also address the efforts made to “contain the conflict.”

Blinken, who began a tour in Europe on Monday, will visit Tel Aviv to meet with Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and then he will head to Ramallah to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, according to the official.

No specific date has been announced, but the visit to Israel is supposed to take place on Thursday after Blinken participates on Tuesday and Wednesday in a NATO meeting in Brussels and on Wednesday in a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe hosted by the Macedonian capital, Skopje.

Blinken embarked on a whirlwind tour of the region shortly after the unprecedented attack launched by Hamas on the “Gaza envelope” settlements and Israeli towns in the south. Since then, he has repeatedly visited Israel and Jordan and also traveled to other Arab countries.

In early November, he undertook a new tour in the region, during which he visited Ramallah for the first time since the start of the recent conflict.

Blinken will visit Dubai on Friday to continue discussions aimed at avoiding any escalation of the conflict, according to the American official. A large number of officials will be present in the emirate to participate in the launch of the COP28 climate summit.

The spokesman for the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, Ashraf Al-Qudra, said that the Israeli occupation deliberately deprived the Strip’s hospitals of their medical content, and made them ineligible to perform their vital functions in saving the sick and wounded.

Al-Qudra added in statements to Al-Jazeera Net that the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip issued a distress call yesterday, Sunday, to all medical teams that were able to reach the hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip, and they joined them on Monday morning, “but we also demand more support for the hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip, especially with regard to medicines” and medical consumables and providing a suitable atmosphere for hospitals to carry out their functions in light of the ongoing aggression and repeated threats after the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the northern Gaza Strip.”

The spokesman for the Ministry of Health in Gaza indicated that the Israeli occupation “deliberately struck the hospital infrastructure and displaced the population from the north to the south, including medical personnel, killed and injured a large number of medical personnel, destroyed more than 60 ambulances, and targeted 160 health institutions” 28 hospitals went out of service, and 63 primary care centers also went out of service.

Regarding the situation of the medical sector in light of the fourth day of the truce agreement, Al-Qudra said, “We in the Gaza Strip were subjected to a direct targeting operation by the Israeli occupation, and it began to strangle the health system on the first day of the aggression by cutting off medical supplies, fuel, and electricity.”

He added that the medical reality - unfortunately - within the Gaza region and the north in particular is very difficult, and Israeli threats continue. 

Regarding the volume of medical aid that entered the Gaza Strip following the truce agreement, Dr. Ashraf Al-Qudra said, “The medical aid that entered was less than hoped for, and unfortunately it was also not directed to hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip, and this keeps the health system collapsed.”

Supporting the health system

The spokesman for the Ministry of Health in Gaza made a call for “the health system in the Strip to be supported with medicines, medical consumables, and fuel,” and for the arrival of “field hospitals with large capacities that can respond to the large number of wounded and sick cases,” and to compensate for the large number of hospitals that are no longer in service as a result of the Israeli bombing.

He also called for the necessity of “many of the wounded being taken out for treatment outside the Gaza Strip, as if they remain inside the Gaza Strip, we lose dozens of cases every day due to the lack of appropriate treatment.”

The French Dixmod helicopter carrier designated to provide medical care to the injured in the Gaza Strip arrived at the Egyptian port of Al-Arish, today, Monday, according to a shipping source told Agence France-Presse, on the fourth day of a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas, which was extended for two additional days.

While the war has destroyed the health system in Gaza, hospitals in the south of the Strip are still receiving many wounded evacuated from the north, where almost all health facilities have stopped.

The same source explained that the French ship includes two operating rooms and about 60 beds.

The Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Resistance Movement (Hamas), published a letter sent by one of the detainees to the leadership of the brigades, who accompanied her during the detention period, hours before her release in an exchange deal as part of a humanitarian truce.

The letter showed the extent of the humane treatment with which the Al-Qassam Brigades treated female prisoners and children, contrary to what the occupation government and the Israeli and Western media tried to show the world.

Here is the text of the message:

“To the generals who have accompanied me in recent weeks, it seems that we will part tomorrow, but I thank you from the bottom of my heart, for the extraordinary humanity you have shown towards my daughter Emilia.

You were like parents to her, inviting her to your room at every opportunity she wanted. She admits to feeling that you are all her friends and not just friends, but real good beloved relatives.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the many hours you were like a nanny. Thank you for being so patient with her and showering her with sweets, fruits, and whatever was available even if it wasn't available.

Children should not be in captivity, but thanks to you and to other good people we have met along the way. My daughter considered herself a queen in Gaza.

In general, she admits to feeling like the center of the world. We have not met a person on our long journey, from the low level fighters to the leaders, who did not act towards her with kindness, tenderness and love.

I will forever be in a  debt of gratitude, because my daughter did not leave here with psychological trauma forever. I will remember your kind behavior that was granted here despite the difficult situation that you were dealing with yourselves and the difficult losses that befell you here in Gaza.

I wish that in this world we could be truly good friends. I wish you all health and wellness, health and love for you and your family members. Thank you very much. Daniel and Emilia.

Hebrew media acknowledged that members of the Islamic Resistance Movement "Hamas" treated the detainees well, according to the accounts of those released, which supports the testimony of the elderly "Israeli" detainee, Lifshitz, who was released last month.

The military correspondent for the Hebrew Channel 13, Alon Ben David, said that he communicated with some of the detainees who were released, and they confirmed that Hamas fighters “gathered the members of each kibbutz (settlement) together, which gave them a greater sense of comfort.”

Ben David added, "The detainees were not subjected to violence or insult, and Hamas members tried to provide them with food, painkillers, and their regular medications as much as possible, under dangerous and harsh security conditions underground and inside the tunnels."

The Al-Qassam Brigades, the military arm of Hamas, launched Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7, in response to the Israeli occupation’s violations in the occupied Palestinian territories.

On the other hand, the Israeli occupation forces launched a war of extermination on the Gaza Strip, during which they killed about 17 thousand people, the majority of whom were children and women.

British-Palestinian surgeon Ghassan Abu Sitta said on Monday that 45% of those with burns at Al-Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip were children, adding that some of the burns were caused by white phosphorus bombs.

The doctor, who worked in the hospital for 40 days during the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, added during a press conference in the British capital, London, that between 700 and 900 children are amputees.

“By the fourth or fifth day (of the war), half the list of operations I conducted, about 10-12 cases every day... were children,” he said.

According to Abu Sitta, some of the burns reached the bones of the dead and injured, which indicates the possibility of Israel using white phosphorus bombs.

He said that the hospital was subjected to an Israeli bombardment, "which affected its outskirts or its interior," which led to the ceiling of the operating room collapsing over the heads of the doctors, adding: "Fortunately, I was not injured and was able to go out into the hospital hallway."

He added that 120 children were injured in Al-Shifa Hospital without their families, and their identities were not identified. He said, "Some of them were too young to even know their names."

Abu Sitta said that the hospital's medical staff suffered bitter terror for fear of the presence of one of their family members and children among the dead and injured.

Abu Sitta's statements come amid calls by United Nations human rights experts to conduct independent investigations into "allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity" by all parties since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez the Israeli attacks on the Palestinians, steps to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, and efforts to declare a permanent ceasefire.

This came in a phone call on Monday, according to a statement issued by the Turkish Presidency’s Communications Department.

The statement said that Erdogan and Sanchez discussed "the Israeli attacks on the Palestinians, the steps that must be taken to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza without interruption, and efforts to declare a permanent ceasefire and bring lasting peace."

In the call, Erdogan appreciated “the Spanish government’s position against the illegal Israeli attacks on the Palestinians, and its statements regarding recognition of Palestine,” according to the statement.

He explained that Turkey "is ready to assume all kinds of responsibilities, including the role of guarantor and caretaker of lasting peace in the region, and to work with Spain for peace in the region."

On November 24 of this year, a temporary humanitarian truce between Israel and the Palestinian factions entered into force at 07:00 local time (05:00 GMT) for a period of 4 days, and was extended on Monday for an additional two days, under Qatari-Egyptian-American sponsorship.

The agreement included the exchange of prisoners and the introduction of humanitarian, relief, medical and fuel aid to all areas of the Strip, which is inhabited by about 2.3 million Palestinians.

The Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Palestinian Hamas movement announced on Monday evening that they had reached an agreement with the Israeli side regarding extending the humanitarian truce in the Gaza Strip for two additional days.

Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman, Majed Al-Ansari, said on the “X” platform that the State of Qatar “announces that within the framework of the ongoing mediation (between Hamas and Israel), an agreement has been reached to extend the humanitarian truce for an additional two days in the Gaza Strip.”

In turn, Hamas announced in a brief statement on Telegram that “it was agreed with the brothers in Qatar and Egypt to extend the temporary humanitarian truce for an additional two days under the same conditions as the previous truce.”

30 years after Oslo, which provided everything to Israel and nothing to the Palestinians, October 7 came to confirm that the only solution is the establishment of the State of Palestine. Is this victory considered the most important in 75 years?

October 7, 2023 witnessed Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood,” which is the name given by the Islamic Resistance Movement “Hamas” to its comprehensive military operation against the occupation army, which has been imposing 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 Israeli army, Under 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 Israeli army, either burned or under the control of Palestinian resistance fighters, the capture of dozens of Israeli 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.

What did Hamas' victory over Israel achieve?

Although the brutal Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip is perhaps the most violent and destructive ever, it has not changed anything in the facts that have been established on the ground, most notably that the Palestinian resistance led by Hamas achieved a military victory on October 7, and this victory is the most important of all since the establishment of the Jewish state in the land of Palestine in 1948, according to most experts and analysts.

An analysis by the American magazine Foreign Policy entitled “What Was Hamas Thinking” monitored how the Al-Aqsa Flood operation on October 7 represented a planned strategic coup from the part of Hamas in light of a number of facts that were present on the ground and which Israel has been seeking to consolidate for many years.

Since the Palestinian elections, which were held about 20 years ago in which Hamas won a majority over the Palestinian Authority headed by Mahmoud Abbas, Israel has worked to contain the Hamas movement and besiege it inside the Gaza Strip until it completely ends the occupation based on the idea of armed resistance and continues the process of swallowing up the occupied territories in Jerusalem and the West Bank through policies of Settlement and displacement.

For nearly two decades, Hamas has tried to present diplomatic initiatives aimed at ending the occupation and establishing a Palestinian state on the lands of June 4, 1967 (East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip), but all the initiatives and endeavors it presented were met with arrogance and rejection by the occupation, amid complicity of entire international community led by the United States of America.

Israel built its strategy in dealing with Hamas and the rest of the resistance factions in Gaza on the basis of its experience with the Palestine Liberation Organization and the “Oslo” process, under the illusion that the “containment” policy is successful and that what Hamas wants is to continue to “rule” Gaza, even in light of it being “the largest open prison in the world", as described by the international community and human rights organizations.

In this context, the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation and the military victory that was achieved on that day, which became an established fact despite the attempts of Israel and its supporters in the Joe Biden administration and the rest of the Western capitals to downplay it and label it “terrorism,” came to turn things upside down and demolish all “illusions which surrounded the Palestinians’ desire to be liberated from the Israeli occupation and establish their independent state in exchange for some “economic gains,” as promoted by Israeli leaders, especially Netanyahu, Western leaders, and some Arab leaders as well.

It is necessary to mention here some facts related to the Al-Aqsa Flood operation:

- First: Hamas’s main goal in Operation Al-Aqsa Flood was to capture soldiers from the occupation army to force Israel to free the Palestinian prisoners, which Israel delayed for a long time, and was one of the conditions for a ceasefire in the last confrontation in 2021. Hamas has already confirmed that its fighters did not capture Israeli settlers  on October 7, and that these settlers were captured by Gazan civilians and fighters from other factions who were not aware of the flood of Al-Aqsa and crossed the gaps in the iron fence after it was penetrated by Hamas fighters.

- Second: The myth of Israeli security that was promoted by the occupation leaders over the past years has been shattered and the equation that Netanyahu has always marketed specifically to the Israelis, the world and the region has been completely demolished. It is “peace in exchange for peace”, meaning that Israel is not obligated to withdraw from the Palestinian territories in implementation of the Arab initiative “land for peace”, and it has already appeared that Netanyahu is fulfilling his illusions, as normalization with some Arab countries has already begun without any return from Tel Aviv, and the Palestinians have become forgotten. Completely from the accounts of all parties.

Third: Since the formation of the current government in Israel, which has been described in the West and even by Israel as the most extremist government in the history of the Hebrew state, plans to Judaize Jerusalem, plunder the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and expand the settlement policy in the West Bank have accelerated in an unprecedented manner. All of this without any party, neither regional nor international, moving to stop this systematic and accelerated liquidation of what remains of the Palestinians in their land, despite thousands of Western and international reports monitoring this liquidation and describing the occupation as an “apartheid regime without anyone taking action or stopping the oppressive practices

Fourth: The leadership of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas had to either submit to this ugly reality and completely abandon the dream of a Palestinian state and freedom from occupation, or continue the option of armed resistance, but with different conditions that would break the Israeli “containment” policy and impose a new equation that would unite all Palestinians under the banner of national liberation along the lines of the first and second intifadas.

Fifth: Operation Al-Aqsa Flood achieved a decisive victory that some within the ranks of the resistance itself may not have expected. The iron wall and the strongest army in the region collapsed, and Israel trembled to its core. Over the course of about 50 days of “revenge” and committing war crimes and genocide under the eyes of the entire world, Israel achieved nothing significant from a military standpoint, and was forced to negotiate with Hamas to liberate its prisoners through a deal and truce that began on Friday, November 24, for a period of 4 days. All observers, without exception, believe that even if Israel continues its barbaric aggression against civilians in Gaza, and even if it succeeds in reducing Hamas' military capabilities as it hopes, Hamas has become the most important Palestinian figure on the political and strategic level, not only military.

What did Oslo achieve for the Palestinians?

“All the Palestinians got from Oslo is Kentucky,” this is the title of a report by the American magazine Foreign Policy published on September 30, 2023, that is, one week before the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation, and it monitors the course of the peace process that was supposed to produce An independent Palestinian state on the borders of June 4, 1967. According to those agreements, which were sponsored by Washington, it was assumed that the Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital would have been born in 1999.

The report monitors how, for 30 years, Israel exploited the negotiating path “that it preferred” to achieve its goals of swallowing Palestinian lands and demonizing them on the one hand, and integrating into the Middle East region through recognition and normalization on the part of the rest of the Arab countries, without offering anything in return, neither the Palestinians nor even those who normalized with it.

In 2000, years after the signing of the first Oslo Accords and the establishment of the Palestinian Authority headed by Yasser Arafat in Ramallah in the West Bank, the second Intifada (Al-Aqsa Intifada) broke out after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque, defying everyone. Then in 2002, Israeli tanks invaded the cities of the West Bank, including Ramallah, and the goal was to eliminate the leadership of the Authority headed by Arafat.

Not only did Israel ignore the agreements signed with the Authority headed by the international community, but it revealed early on its intentions behind entering into “peace” negotiations with the Palestinians, which is to exploit those negotiations to completely eliminate any signs of armed resistance and subject the Palestinians to its conditions, which can be summarized simply under the title “You should completely forget Palestine.”

For 30 years, Israel seemed to be very close to achieving its “wishes.” Gaza, which all the occupation leaders dreamed of and wished would be “swallowed by the sea,” has become completely besieged, and the process of Judaizing Jerusalem and displacing the remaining Palestinians in it is in full swing, and changing the status quo in the mosque in preparation for its demolition is on a fast track, and swallowing up the West Bank or at least most of it through settlement. It has become the most important issue for the  government headed by Netanyahu.

On the other hand, the normalization process began with the Arab countries, and relations were established with the Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan in 2020, and preparations were being made in full swing for other Arab countries to join the free normalization train so that Joe Biden would have an important electoral card that would help him maintain a second presidential term during the elections in  November 2024.

The "two-state solution" prevails

But everything has completely changed since October 7, 2023. Palestine has become the talk of the whole world again, and all other issues have disappeared, whether the war in Ukraine, the conflict between America and China, or even climate change issues and others.

Now Palestine and the Israeli occupation have become the most important issue on the international and regional scene. Despite the Israeli propaganda about what happened that day to justify its brutal aggression against the people of Gaza, the main reason for what happened and is happening has become strongly present, even in the statements of the Western leaders most supportive of the occupation, which is the American administration headed by Joe Biden.

It is true that talk about a two-state solution by Biden in particular is sometimes coupled with talk that Hamas “cannot be part of the future,” so how realistic or even possible is achieving this goal? The response came from a report by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, which concludes that “Hamas is part of the new Palestinian spirit that Israel cannot change.” It monitors the discussions currently taking place in Palestinian and Israeli circles regarding the future, not only in Gaza but in the entire Palestinian territories, and at the heart of this conversation is Hamas and its pivotal role.

The conclusion here is that the "two-state solution" has now become the main headline in all axes of discussion, inside the region, outside it and around the world, even though the dust of aggression has not yet settled and no one can predict when or how this round of conflict of wills between the occupation and the resistance will end. There is no doubt that this particular point makes the “Al-Aqsa Flood” the most important Palestinian victory ever since the founding of Israel 75 years ago.

Before October 7, the establishment of a Palestinian state had become like a “talk of the distant past,” and was replaced by talk of normalization, Israel’s integration into the region, and many other issues, none of which include the abuse, displacement, arrests, and martyrdom to which the Palestinians are exposed on a daily basis at the hands of the most extreme governments ever.

source: Arabic Post

Reuters quoted Egyptian security sources on Monday, November 27, 2023, as saying that the Egyptian, Qatari and American mediators are close to agreeing to extend the truce in the Gaza Strip, which is scheduled to end today, amid international calls to extend it for additional days.

Egyptian sources indicated that the negotiators are working to resolve some differences regarding the duration of the extension of the truce and the list of Palestinian prisoners who will be released.

The sources stated that the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) is seeking to extend the truce for four days, while Israel wants to extend it day by day as negotiations continue regarding the Palestinian prisoners it will release.

Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he would welcome the extension of the truce if Hamas facilitated the release of 10 additional prisoners every day, as agreed upon under the original agreement brokered by Qatar, according to Reuters.

International calls to extend the truce in Gaza

Hours before the end of the temporary truce in Gaza, international calls escalated to extend it for several more days, while others called for it to be transformed into a comprehensive ceasefire and the start of a political process.

42 delegations from member states meet at the Union for the Mediterranean Forum; Member states of the European Union, the Middle East and North Africa, in the Spanish city of Barcelona, today, Monday, to discuss the Israeli war on Gaza, coinciding with the fourth and final day of the truce.

In addition, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called on Monday for extending the truce between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which entered its fourth and final day on Monday, to allow “the entry of more humanitarian aid and the release of a larger number of hostages.”

Stoltenberg told reporters: "I call for extending the truce. This will allow (the introduction of) more aid that the people of Gaza need and for the release of more hostages."

In this context, European Union foreign policy official Josep Borrell said on Monday that the four-day truce is an important first step towards resolving the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), but more is needed to find a way out of the crisis.

While calling for the need to extend the temporary humanitarian truce in the Gaza Strip, the European official warned of “unprecedented waves of extremism and violence if the war in Gaza is not stopped.”

On Monday, Iran also called for making “the truce in the war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement” permanent to ensure “a complete cessation of Israeli crimes” in the Gaza Strip.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said at a press conference in Tehran: “In the Islamic Republic of Iran, we want and hope, like many countries” that the truce “will enter into a permanent process and that the crimes of the Zionist entity will stop completely.”

On Friday, a temporary humanitarian truce for 4 days, subject to extension, entered into force between Israel and the Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip.

During the first 3 days of the truce, Hamas released 40 Israelis (women and children) and 18 foreigners, while Israel released 117 Palestinian prisoners (women and children) during the same period.

The truce agreement includes the release of 50 Israeli prisoners from Gaza, in exchange for the release of 150 Palestinians from Israeli prisons, and the entry of hundreds of trucks loaded with humanitarian, relief, medical and fuel aid to all areas of the Strip.

From October 7 to November 23, over a period of 48 days, the Israeli army launched a devastating war on Gaza that left 14,854 Palestinians dead, including 6,150 children and more than 4,000 women, in addition to more than 36,000. Wounded, including more than 75% children and women, according to the government media office in Gaza.

source: Arabic Post

Rogel Alvear

The second intifada killed the Israeli left and the two-state vision, and created a state of absolute distrust of the Palestinians within Israeli society, and a desire for revenge against them. 

The massacre carried out by Hamas on October 7, and the kidnapping of Israelis to Gaza, will bury the two-state solution as deep as nuclear garbage, where the world will never see it. It is not clear where the Biden administration derives its optimism to revive this solution after the war. This blindness stems from wishful thinking. 

In the eyes of Israeli citizens, this is politically impossible.

First, we have before us the model of the Second Intifada: the violent Palestinian uprising that cost the lives of civilians, led to the strengthening of the power of the right in society, both horizontally and vertically. Now, in the wake of October 7, the Israeli narrative being formulated is based on the following: “Hamas = Gaza = Nazism = all Palestinians.” This is the new equation. All Palestinians, including Palestinians in the West Bank, are from now on considered “monsters” who must be killed. Society and the media completely ignore the death of civilians in Gaza by air force bombing, regardless of army and gender, and this is at best. The Israeli moral standard also includes a desire to annihilate them, or allow them to be annihilated, depending on the operational need.

Also, the emphasis in Israel is that a humanitarian view of the Gazans is a demand of “the world.” Palestinian life has never been this cheap in the eyes of Israelis. Fear of the Holocaust strengthened; It "happened again." The feeling of “we are right” has been strengthened, as has the feeling of victimhood, which creates a feeling of ownership of the entire country. Feelings of superiority over the gentiles also strengthened, and no one should look down on us. They say: Thank you Biden, but don't you dare tell us what to do. Widespread anti-Semitism reinforces Israeli fear, making it closer to a feeling of existential danger. As a result, the religious and national fighting spirit is strengthened. The two-state solution is considered madness, weakness, and betrayal.

Rejection of liberal Western values is strengthened. One of the most striking manifestations in the aftermath of the massacre is the desire of many Israelis and Jews to conform to their preconceived image of Arabs. Dialectically, fueled by racism and fear, everything Arab is now treated as strength, respect and victory. In the new narrative, Post-Traumatic narrative, it is emphasized that elephants who want to survive in the forest must stop behaving like elephants, and behave as part of the forest, and according to its rules. Elephants cannot hold out. Now, the Israelis treat Arab values as “violent and brutal,” capable of victory in the name of Allah and the land. Western Israeli values are presented as naive and will lead to ruin.

Many believe that Netanyahu is responsible for the failure, but they fear Sinwar more than they fear him. The massacre created a feeling that all Palestinians wanted to "slaughter all the Jews" and, therefore, the Jews should kill them. A large section of the left is “maturing” and refuses to place the massacre in any context; “Hamas’s brutality” was born out of vacuum. All of Israel is in shock from the global left. At the same time, intellectual affiliation and emotional affiliation to the global right, Islamophobia, is strengthening.

Critical discussion of the occupation is rejected, and is outside the boundaries of the Israeli camp. Settler terrorism almost always has the support of the majority of society, even if it is silent. 

In the end, Netanyahu will not resign, which will push us to one of two choices: either the protests against him will decline, under the pretext of “we will win together”; Or a civil war will break out, after the war, which will be prolonged as much as possible. In any case, Netanyahu's presence will thwart any possibility of serious dialogue regarding the two states.

United Nations human rights experts called on Monday for independent investigations into “allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity” during the recent aggression on the Gaza Strip.

A joint statement issued by Maurice Tidball Baines, UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, and Alice Jill Edwards, Special Rapporteur on Torture, stressed the need for “prompt, transparent and independent investigations.”

“Independent investigators must be given the necessary resources, support and access required to conduct prompt, comprehensive and impartial investigations into crimes allegedly committed by all parties to the conflict,” the statement said.

According to the experts, “the duty to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity, including any act of summary or extrajudicial killing, torture or other attacks on human dignity, is a fundamental legal obligation.”

The statement urged the international community to ensure that all those responsible for the most serious violations - especially those bearing leadership responsibilities - are brought to justice expeditiously.

He stressed that "there is no statute of limitations" for war crimes and crimes against humanity, which fall under what is called universal jurisdiction.

This means that courts in any country in the world can try those responsible, regardless of their nationality and the country in which these crimes were committed.

According to the experts, “We encourage all countries to play a proactive role in identifying the main suspected perpetrators and to help facilitate prosecutions through the principle of mutual legal assistance.”

The White House: Israel agreed to extend the truce to release more detainees

Source: Annahar

The Israeli war on Gaza dominated the opening of the Union for the Mediterranean Forum held in Barcelona, Spain, where most of the speakers emphasized in their speeches the necessity of reaching a permanent ceasefire in the Strip and seriously seeking a two-state solution.

European Union foreign policy official Josep Borrell said that Israel had exceeded the limit of self-defense, and should not think about reoccupying Gaza, stressing the need to extend the humanitarian truce in the Strip and turn it into a “permanent” truce to allow work on a political solution to the conflict.

Borrell added, in his speech at the annual regional forum of the Union for the Mediterranean in its eighth edition, that the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) “is not just a group of individuals, but an idea and an ideology that cannot be killed.” He pointed out that the world will face what he described as unprecedented waves of extremism and violence if the war in Gaza is not stopped.

The European official stressed that "there will be no peace or security for Israel without a Palestinian state."

No to deporting Palestinians

For his part, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said that everyone must work to stop the war on Gaza once and for all, and that Israel "must understand that we will not accept the deportation of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip."

Al-Safadi pointed out in his speech at the forum that Tel Aviv did not work to achieve peace, did not implement the signed agreements, and undermined the two-state solution, and that the conflict did not begin on October 7, but rather is the result of the suffering of the Palestinians at the hands of Israel for decades.

In turn, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said that there is no alternative to the two-state solution to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The minister added in his speech at the forum that Israel bears responsibility for all the violence we see.

For his part, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki said that there is no other solution but to end the war and extend the ceasefire to become permanent.

For his part, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albarez said that the international community must work to achieve the establishment of a Palestinian state, which will ensure peace in the region.

In his speech before the forum, Albarez stressed that any Israeli response must be in accordance with international law and not by killing thousands of innocent civilians indiscriminately.

Union for the Mediterranean

The Union for the Mediterranean is a Euro-Mediterranean partnership established in 2008, which aims to strengthen regional integration among Euro-Mediterranean countries, and establish peace, democracy and cooperation between the various parties in the region.

The Mediterranean Union includes 43 members, namely the European Union countries and the Arab Maghreb Union countries, in addition to Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Israel, Turkey, Monaco, Albania, Bosnia, Croatia and Montenegro.

The presidency of the Union is shared between a president belonging to the European Union and another who belongs to one of the Mediterranean partner countries, as the Paris Summit in 2008 stipulated that the principle of the presidency should be shared between the North and the South.

Union members meet regularly at the level of senior officials from each member country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as the European Union Foundation and the League of Arab States.

Source: Al Jazeera + agencies

The emergence of China, India, the aggressive return of Russia, and the ambitions of Turkey, Brazil and other countries herald the end of the “Western moment,” that short period that since the collapse of the communist bloc has seen a united West led by the United States dictate its law to the rest of the world, which should serve as a wake-up call for what is often repeated that we are living in.” The collapse of the American empire.

With this introduction, Gérard Arrow began his article in the French magazine Le Point, stressing that the West had barely realized this moment because its superiority seemed natural and useful to it in a “rules-based world” and “the spread of human rights and democracy,” without realizing that its actions often contradicted its words which causes resentment and bitterness around him.

But now - as the writer sees - the world has begun to liberate itself from the guardianship of the West, which is evident in its audacity to declare the end of the West’s moment and to criticize democracy, which the West has been obliging everyone to worship publicly if they do not appear enthusiastic about it, asking: Will this inevitable collapse sweep away everyone? Americans and Europeans? Is Europe doomed to become a tourist destination or a retirement home?

But the writer seems not to be convinced that this end is near, at least with regard to the United States, which maintains its traditional advantages: the global financial center in New York, excellent universities, exceptional research centers, and a continuing entrepreneurial spirit, which provides investors with a large market, abundant and inexpensive energy, and absolute legal and financial security. Especially since efforts to overthrow the supremacy of the dollar have all failed so far.

Obama's prophecy

But this issue seems more difficult for Europe, as former US President Barack Obama predicted in 2016 when he said that the future of the world would be determined between New Delhi and Los Angeles. For Americans and Asians, Europe certainly remains a rich region, but it is gradually marginalized due to the return of Asia, which for thousands of years was the richest region in the world.

The writer pointed out that the century of the Pacific Ocean will come after the century of the Atlantic Ocean, especially since the modest growth in Europe and before it the increasing decrease in demographics heralds an aging continent that sleeps in the comfort of its social democracy and memories of its greatness, and it will be more of a tourist destination than a center for creativity and adventure.

However, before it becomes a holiday camp and a home for the elderly, Europe can experience good days on the margins of history despite Russia's hostility and the danger of the presence of a strong Turkey that wants to regain its position, and above all the presence of Africa with a young demographic structure at the gates of a rich and aging continent.

Although Europe has proven its ability to withstand many times, today it needs all its advantages to avoid becoming a victim of a history it wrote itself a long time ago, but it is divided into cantons in a world in which it needs unity, vision, and youth most.

Source: Le Point +Aljazeera

The French newspaper Le Monde said that the Palestinian people, who have moved from one tragedy to another since the Nakba in 1948, have never endured nor have their children endured such suffering in such a short time, as they suffered during a month and a half of continuous and relentless bombing.

Historian and expert on Middle East issues, Dr. Jean-Pierre Filliot, explained - in his column in the newspaper - that the Israeli army may not have achieved any decisive success with this continuous bombing and destruction in the northern Gaza Strip, but it is preparing to destroy the southern Strip with the same systematic blindness with which it destroyed its north, so that the Palestinians will pay such a price. For a conflict in which they are innocent, as we must remember, as it was sparked by the attack of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) on the seventh of last October.

A killing that surpassed all that preceded it

The writer believed that the scale of this massacre today has never occurred over the past 75 years, despite the tragedies that have marked Palestinian history since then, as the death toll in the bloodiest of them reached a thousand people during the first Israeli occupation of Gaza, and a few thousand in 1970 in “Black September” in Jordan, then a few thousand in the 1976 massacres in Lebanon, and between 800 and 3,000 dead in the 1982 massacre in the Sabra and Shatila camps, in addition to 1,200 in the suppression of the first intifada, 3,000 dead during the second intifada, and finally more than 4,000 dead at the end of the various Israeli attacks on Gaza from 2008 to 2022.

As for the number of deaths in the current war, it reached 14,854 martyrs in Gaza as of November 22, according to figures issued by the Palestinian Ministry of Health, which means that a month and a half of hostilities has claimed more than 75 full years since the Nakba, and the number of children Those killed amounted to 6,150 children, or more than 40% of the victims.

Destruction of the largest city in Palestine

Since ancient times, the Gaza Oasis has served as a trade crossroads between Egypt and the Middle East, and for a century its port was a major export center for citrus and grains. Despite the siege and repeated wars, Gaza City remained 4 times more populated than the city of Hebron, 5 times more populous than the city of Nablus, and 20 times more populated than the city of Ramallah in the West Bank, as the writer says.

Today, between 40% and 50% of the buildings in the largest Palestinian city have been destroyed or damaged, and the water and electricity distribution networks in it are no longer usable, and only one hospital is operating in it, and even the Nakba did not witness such destruction.

Three-quarters of Gaza's population have been forced to flee their homes, and half of them are crowded into United Nations shelters, threatened by epidemic risks in the absence of drinking water, and all of humanity is witnessing such a disaster.

Source: Le Monde +Aljazeera

The British newspaper The Observer published a report from inside the world of angry armed youth in the occupied West Bank. It quoted analysts and officials as saying that these young men are completely different from their predecessors.

The newspaper, published every Sunday by the Guardian Media Foundation, claimed that armed Palestinian youth in the West Bank also differ from their counterparts in the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the Gaza Strip.

The report reviewed the escalation of confrontations between Palestinian youth and the Israeli army in the West Bank. It stated that the Balata camp remained for many years a stronghold of armed activity and a target for Israeli security forces.

The newspaper pointed out that violence has escalated sharply since the attacks of last October 7, and the subsequent Israeli attack on Gaza, which led to the deaths of more than 14,000 people, according to local authorities.

It explained that popular local television networks are broadcasting "unretouched" images of destruction and death in Gaza around the clock in stores, cafes and homes throughout the West Bank.

“The impact of what is happening on this generation will not only be in Gaza, but also among Palestinians in general and among Arabs and the world,” said H. A. Hellyer, an expert on extremism issues at the Carnegie Center for International Peace.

The British newspaper conducted interviews with 10 armed young men in the cities of Nablus and Jenin in the West Bank, which it said were sufficient to identify the new wave of armed activity in the occupied Palestinian territories. All of the young men stated that their ultimate goal is to liberate Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem.

The Observer quoted Hellyer as believing that ideology did not play a major role in the decision of young people in the West Bank to take up arms.

According to Michael Millstein, a former Israeli military intelligence officer and expert on Palestinian affairs at Tel Aviv University, this generation of militants grew up in a “very complex and chaotic” situation, claiming that the youth’s exposure to what he calls incitement is a reflection of deeper problems in the Palestinian arena.

Many armed youth in the West Bank expressed their longing to achieve victory or martyrdom, but they do not approve of suicide operations as a method of resistance, according to the British newspaper.

There is another change in the view of the new generation of Palestinian youth in the West Bank from the view of previous generations regarding resistance operations. Among the variables is the resort of “dissident” factions - such as the group called “Lions’ Den” in Nablus - to the use of social media in their struggle against Israel.

According to the newspaper, several analysts talk about the current youth’s disillusionment with the generation of older Palestinian politicians, who are seen as “collaborators” with Israel, saying that this has left a vacuum that has been filled by armed groups.

In this regard, Nour Odeh, a political commentator and analyst in Ramallah, says that these young men speak a language that the old leaders do not speak, and they use sarcasm and humor, adding, “They are a generation that is tired of everyone. They are frustrated, disappointed and let down.”

The newspaper goes on to say that the streets in Nablus and Jenin were filled with thousands of people to mourn the martyrs of the clashes with the Israeli forces, and they fired a barrage of bullets into the air as an expression of their determination.

It concluded its report with a statement by a young Palestinian man named Abboud (19 years old), carrying a rifle, in which he said that they had no choice but to buy a weapon to fight the enemy.

Source: Observer+ Aljazeera

The US Central Command announced, at dawn on Monday, the launch of two ballistic missiles from areas controlled by the Houthis in Yemen towards a US naval destroyer in the Gulf of Aden.

The missile launch came while the American destroyer was assisting a tanker belonging to an Israeli-linked company in the Gulf of Aden, which was seized by gunmen on Sunday, they released it before the US Navy arrested them.

The command said in a statement on the “X” platform: “The two ballistic missiles fell in the Gulf of Aden, 10 nautical miles from the American destroyer, without causing damage or injuries to the destroyer.”

Commander of US Central Command, General Michael Eric Kurella, said, “Security of the maritime domain is essential for regional stability. We will continue to work with allies and partners to ensure the safety and security of international shipping lanes,” according to the statement.

The statement explained, "On November 26, the US Navy destroyer Mason, along with allied ships from the Anti-Piracy Task Force and associated aircraft, responded to a distress call from the merchant ship (Central Park), which was attacked by an unknown party." .

The statement indicated, "When the destroyer Mason arrived at the location of the hijacked tanker, the coalition members demanded the release of the tanker. After that, five armed individuals disembarked from it and tried to escape via their small boat, but they were chased, which led to their eventual surrender."

On Sunday evening, the Central Park ship, owned by the Israeli Ofer family, was attacked near the coast of Aden, Yemen.

According to what Hebrew newspapers reported on Sunday, the ship sailed “under the Liberian flag, and is owned by the Zodiac Marine Company, based in the United Kingdom.”

Earlier yesterday, Sunday, gunmen seized a tanker loaded with phosphoric acid in the Gulf of Aden, according to the Embrey Maritime Security Company. The company said in a statement, "The Houthis previously threatened to attack the ship if it did not divert its course towards the port of Hodeidah." It added: “There are citizens from Russia, Bulgaria, Vietnam, Georgia, India, and the Philippines on board the tanker.”

The Yemeni government accused the Houthis of being behind the attack, although the Houthi group has not admitted to hijacking the ship or launching the two missiles yet.

The company that owns the tanker, the American and British armies, and the "Embry" company said that the attackers seized the tanker "Central Park", which flies the Liberian flag and is managed by the "Zodiac Maritime" company in the Gulf of Aden.

In addition, Zodiac announced this morning that the tanker and its crew, consisting of 22 sailors from Bulgaria, Georgia, India, the Philippines, Russia, Turkey, and Vietnam, were unharmed.

It added, "We would like to thank the coalition forces that responded quickly to protect assets in the region and uphold international maritime law."

Zodiac, headquartered in London, is part of the Zodiac Group, owned by Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer.

On November 19, the Yemeni "Ansar Allah" (Houthis) group announced the "kidnapping" of an Israeli ship, which Tel Aviv later denied, confirming that the ship was owned by a British company and operated by a Japanese company, denying that there were Israelis on board.

The Houthi group has previously vowed to target ships owned or operated by Israeli companies “to support the Gaza Strip,” calling on countries to “withdraw their citizens working on the crews of these ships.”

(Anatolia, AP)

An Israeli researcher estimated on Monday that the security and strategic challenges facing Israel will increase after the war it is currently waging in the Gaza Strip. Researcher Ronen Schickler expected that the war on Gaza would lead to the deterioration of Israel's strategic and economic position, just like the first war it launched against Lebanon in 1982, which was called the "Peace for Galilee" war.

Shekler added in posts on the “X” platform that there are similarities between the current war that Israel is waging in the Gaza Strip and the first Lebanon war, which ended in major failure.

Shekler found that there is a similarity between the Israeli leadership’s pledge that the main goal of the war would be to eliminate the Hamas movement, and the announcement by Menachem Begin’s government in 1982 that the goal of the First Lebanon War was to eliminate the presence of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Lebanon, and expel its members from there.

He pointed out that while Israel was able to expel the PLO from Lebanon, it paved the way for the rise of Hezbollah, which took the initiative and fought bloody confrontations with Israel, noting that the total number of Israelis killed since 1982 reached 1,195 soldiers and settlers.

He pointed out that contrary to Israel's pledges that the first Lebanon war would result in the elimination of the sources of "terrorism," it led to its growth, warning that this is what will await Israel if it continues its current war on the Gaza Strip.

He brought to mind the fact that the heavy losses incurred by the Israeli occupation army in Lebanon led to growing rejection among the ruling circles in Tel Aviv and the Israeli public, of the idea of continuing the occupation of southern Lebanon, which ultimately led to convincing former Prime Minister Ehud Barak to issue his instructions to withdraw from the south Lebanon region in Year 2000.

Sheckler warned against the Israeli leadership implementing its threats to impose a security buffer zone along the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip, noting that this is what must be learned from the experience of the security belt area that Israel imposed south of the Litani River in Lebanon.

He stressed that the security belt that Israel threatens to impose in the Gaza Strip will not only fail to reduce the pace of operations carried out by the resistance from the Gaza Strip, but will also work to intensify them, just as the security belt in southern Lebanon failed to prevent Hezbollah from being able to enhancing its ability to target occupation soldiers.

He highlighted the fact that just as the security belt in southern Lebanon did not prevent the occupation army from being forced to launch military incursions north of the Litani, the inauguration of a security belt in the Gaza Strip will not prevent Israel from once again being forced to launch military operations deep into the Strip.

He explained that the period of calm that prevailed in the confrontation with Hezbollah after the Second Lebanon War in 2006 was exploited by the party to strengthen its military power in an unprecedented manner, which turned it into the greatest source of strategic threat to Israel.

According to Sheckler, even if Israel succeeds in eliminating the “Hamas” movement, an organization “worse than it” will rise in its place, just as the elimination of the PLO led to the rise of “Hezbollah,” which means that eliminating “Hamas” will not lead to remove the threat posed by the Palestinian resistance in Gaza. He added that Israel's attempt to impose a cooperative and "friendly" government in the Gaza Strip after the war will end in a miserable failure, just as the experience of the South Lebanese Army, which cooperated with Israel, ended, "because this government will not have legitimacy in the eyes of the Palestinian public in the Strip."

He described Israel's talk about an Arab force that could take over the Gaza Strip after the war and do the "dirty work" on its behalf as just an "unrealistic fantasy."

source: Al-Araby Aljadeed

Netanyahu devoted part of his time to managing the war on Gaza to meet with members of the Knesset to ensure that they would not join the coup against him, following deliberations in the Likud about withdrawing confidence from him and nominating Edelstein to temporarily head the government.

It seems that the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is not entirely preoccupied with managing the war on Gaza, and that he devotes part of his time to his political survival. Therefore, in recent days, he has devoted himself to holding “personal meetings” with Knesset members from the Likud Party to prevent “ A coup” he expects against him.

The goal of these meetings, according to what the Ynet website reported today, Monday, is to seek to consolidate his position within Likud and learn about the atmosphere within the party, against the backdrop of the war on Gaza and its demand to bear personal responsibility for the security failure that led to the success of the attack by Hamas fighters in  the envelope of Gaza, on October 7th.

Ynet reported that secret deliberations took place in recent days within Likud about the “day after” the war. A Likud leader was quoted as saying that the possibility of overthrowing Netanyahu is being studied, through a vote in the Knesset General Assembly on a draft law to remove confidence in him, and putting forward the name of another Knesset member from Likud to form a government without holding general elections.

One of the names being put forward in these deliberations is the head of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Committee, Yuli Edelstein, to be appointed interim prime minister until a new Likud president is elected.

Netanyahu met alone with Likud Knesset members last Friday, including Kate Sheetrit, Dan Illouz, Hanoch Milevitsky and Boaz Bismuth.

Ynet quoted an informed Likud source as saying, "Netanyahu is afraid of the rhetoric about replacing him and wants to make sure that no one joins the coup against him."

He added, "Netanyahu wants to 'feel the pulse' of Likud. He is passing on two central messages, which sound like his upcoming election campaign: I pledge to continue fighting until the end; and he is the only one who will prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state."

The same source continued that during personal meetings with members of the Knesset, “the feeling was that it should be directed towards elections immediately after the war.”

Regarding the possibility of Netanyahu stepping down from his position after the war, one of the Knesset members who met with him said, “This is not at all on his agenda. Even a D9 bulldozer will not budge him.”

The arrest operations were concentrated in the town of Bani Naim, Hebron District, and the town of Kafr Ni’ma, Ramallah District, while the rest of the arrests were distributed among the governorates of: Jenin, Nablus, and Bethlehem, according to a joint statement issued by the Prisoners’ and Ex-Prisoners’ Affairs Authority and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club.

From yesterday evening until Monday morning, Israeli occupation forces arrested at least 60 Palestinians from the West Bank, including former prisoners.

During the arrest campaigns, the occupation forces continue to carry out widespread acts of abuse, severe beatings, field investigations, and threats against detainees and their families, in addition to widespread sabotage and destruction of Palestinian homes, in addition to detaining Palestinians as hostages to pressure family members to surrender themselves.

Thus, the total number of arrests since the start of the “Al-Aqsa Flood” on October 7 last year has risen to more than 3,260, and this total includes those who were arrested from homes, through military checkpoints, those who were forced to surrender themselves under pressure.

The ongoing arrest campaigns come within the framework of the comprehensive aggression against the Palestinian people and the ongoing Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, after the seventh of last October, and have included all groups, including children, the elderly, women, and hundreds of freed prisoners who spent years in Israeli occupation prisons.

Today, Monday, Israeli occupation forces opened fire on civilian homes east of Al-Maghazi refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip.

Press sources reported that the Israeli occupation forces opened fire on citizens’ homes east of Al-Maghazi camp in the Central Governorate, in violation of the humanitarian truce on its fourth and final day, without any casualties being reported.

Yesterday, Sunday, the occupation forces violated the humanitarian truce more than once, targeting farmers while they were working on their land east of Al-Maghazi camp, which led to the death of one of them and the injury of the other.

Also yesterday, seven citizens were injured by bullets from the Israeli occupation forces in the vicinity of the Al-Quds Hospital in Tal Al-Hawa, west of Gaza City, and the Indonesian Hospital in the town of Beit Lahia, north of the Gaza Strip.

It is noteworthy that, on the first day of the humanitarian truce, the Israeli occupation forces targeted a group of citizens, while they were trying to return from the south of the Gaza Strip to the north, which led to the death of two of them, and the injury of others.

During the days of the truce, the Israeli occupation forces prevent 1.7 million people displaced to the southern Gaza Strip from returning to inspect their homes and property, most of which were bombed and destroyed in the center and north of the Strip, or even from searching for their missing family members, after threatening to target them.

The "humanitarian truce" in the Gaza Strip entered into force at 7 a.m. last Friday, after an Israeli aggression that continued since October 7th against our people in the besieged Gaza Strip, resulting in the martyrdom of more than 15,000 citizens. , including 6,150 children, more than 4,000 women, in addition to more than 36,000 wounded.

At the opening of a meeting of the "Union for the Mediterranean" forum in Barcelona, Borrell stressed that this truce, which he described as an "important first step", "must be extended" and transformed into a "permanent" truce to allow work on a political solution.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called on Monday for extending the truce between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which entered its fourth day on Monday, in order to work on a "political solution" to the conflict.

Borrell stressed at the opening of a meeting of the "Union for the Mediterranean" forum in Barcelona that this truce, which he described as an "important first step", "must be extended" and transformed into a "permanent" truce to allow work on a political solution.

He explained that Israel had exceeded the limit of self-defense, and should not think about reoccupying Gaza, saying: “We will face waves of extremism and unprecedented violence if the war in Gaza is not stopped.”

"Nothing can justify what Hamas did against civilians on October 7. But one atrocity cannot justify another atrocity," he said, referring to the Israeli army's reprisals and "the suffering of civilians in Gaza."

He added, "A political solution will enable us to break the cycle of violence once and for all," noting that "there will be no peace or security for Israel without a Palestinian state."

The European Union foreign policy official continued, "Hamas is not just a group of individuals, but rather an idea and ideology that cannot be killed."

As the truce between Israel and Hamas enters its fourth day, diplomatic efforts continue to extend it.

In this context, Hamas said in a statement at dawn on Monday that it seeks to "extend the truce after the end of the four-day period" with the aim of "increasing the number of prisoners released."

For his part, US President Joe Biden expressed his hope that the temporary truce would continue as long as the prisoners were released.

On Sunday, Hamas released 13 Israelis it had been holding since its unprecedented attack on Israel, in addition to 4 other detainees from outside the agreement, while Israel released 39 Palestinian detainees from its prisons.

Source: arab48

Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh said that the destruction revealed by the truce in the Gaza Strip indicates the extent of the crime practiced by the Israeli killing machine, and that the world must deal with Gaza as a disaster area, and that the one who caused this is the occupying state, and they must bear responsibility for that. .

The Prime Minister added in his speech at the beginning of the government session today, Monday, in Ramallah, that the scenes of destruction revealed by the war of extermination that our people were subjected to in the Gaza Strip over the past 52 days, show the extent of the atrocities that were committed motivated by a desire for revenge against thousands of children, women, and the elderly, and the extermination of Entire families, and the destruction of all elements of life, including hospitals, schools, universities, markets, bakeries, water and electricity stations, which reveals the true goals behind the aggression targeting all Palestinians.

He stressed that President Mahmoud Abbas is working to mobilize a pressing international effort to stop the aggression once and for all, and there is also an intensification of humanitarian, relief and medical support, re-providing the necessities of life in all areas of the Gaza Strip, and reconnecting water, electricity, communications and fuel services, leading to the opening of a real and serious political path. On the path to a comprehensive political solution, leading to world recognition of the State of Palestine and setting a timetable for ending the occupation.

He condemned the incursions and escalation carried out by the occupation authorities and colonizers in the West Bank governorates, including Jerusalem, including killing, incursions, colonization and mass arrests, and stressed that what is happening in the West Bank proves every day that the war is against us all and must be stopped.

In another matter, Shtayyeh pointed out that the number of martyrs in Gaza and the West Bank deprived us of the joy of receiving female and child detainees who were released, and he said: “Suddenly the world woke up to realize that there are children and women in the occupation prisons, sick people, and detainees serving life sentences.”

The Council of Ministers welcomed the statements and positions that expressed solidarity with our people and their suffering, especially what was issued by the Prime Ministers of Spain and Belgium to stop the aggression and recognize the independent Palestinian state, and expressed its aspiration that the broad state of solidarity from the peoples of the world would contribute to putting pressure on their governments to recognize the Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. .

The Council of Ministers expressed its confidence that the people and the current Dutch government are capable of responding to the racist Geert Wilders, who in his statements denied the right of the Palestinian people to their land and historic homeland, Palestine, and that the attempt to tamper with regional security and the security of the Arab countries will be confronted to thwart it.

The Council of Ministers is following up on the aggression against our people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and is discussing the security, political and other situations, including arrangements for employee salary payments by the end of this month.

The Swiss newspaper "Lotan" said that the photo of the far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders, which shows him with the Israeli flag behind him next to the Dutch flag, did not go unnoticed, describing him as a populist leader who seeks to remove Islam from the Netherlands, and for whom Israel represents the first line of defense for the West.

The newspaper added in a report written by Frederic Kohler that Wilders' identification - whose anti-European, anti-foreigner and anti-Muslim party won - with the Israeli occupation's battles against "Islamic terrorism" and the promotion of Greater Israel through settlements has become a sign of the extreme right, not only in Europe.

The newspaper pointed out that when Javier Miller won the presidential elections in Argentina, he gave his first interview to a newspaper, to announce that his first official visit abroad would be to Israel in order to move the Argentine embassy to Jerusalem, in the footsteps of former US President Donald Trump.

Nationalists support Israel

From President Viktor Orban in Hungary to the Christian Democratic Union in Switzerland, Lotan says, the strongest support for the Israeli authorities today comes from nationalist groups that are increasing almost everywhere, as the writer says, and this may be due to two reasons: fear and rejection of Muslim immigration, and ideological rapprochement with an Israeli state. Recently I have drifted towards the far right, which links nationalism and religious extremism.

The newspaper comments that what is amazing is that the mobilization against anti-Semitism after the resistance attack on the settlements surrounding the Gaza Strip on the seventh of last October broke down the barriers that prevent racist groups from adopting the fight against racism.

Not support for the Jews

The writer asked, “Is Marine Le Pen, head of the far-right party in France, going against anti-Semitism or in support of Israel?” Then he answered that her move is neither support for the Jews nor mobilization against anti-Semitism, but rather support for a state that takes revenge by imposing collective punishment on the residents of Gaza.

In Europe, as in the United States, only Jews who do not want to be associated with the policies of the State of Israel and do not find themselves on the side of the extreme right are concerned.

The report quoted the former head of Doctors Without Borders, Ronnie Brauman, as saying, “Israel is not only the place where Jews are exposed to the greatest danger in the world, but Israel also exposes the world’s Jews to danger.” In other words, it is time to distinguish between the true supporters of Israel and the false friends of the Jews.

Source: Lotan

Nader Dargham, a Lebanese journalist based in London, believes that the Israeli-Palestinian war has raised serious questions about the future of the Middle East and the way it interacts with world powers.

He pointed out in his article on the British Middle East Eye website that with the United States and a number of Western countries throwing their weight and declaring their unconditional support for Israel, some Arab countries found themselves trying to protect their interests while calming popular anger with official support for the Palestinians.

Dergham added that while all Arab countries issued statements condemning the Israeli war in Gaza, the countries that signed the Abraham Accords - the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco - with Israel seem largely interested in securing their new relations with the Hebrew state.

The writer referred to what Elham Fakhro, a fellow in the Middle East and North Africa Program at Chatham House, told Middle East Eye: “Saudi Arabia took a relatively strong position by suspending normalization talks with Israel. But the Arab countries that already have relations with Israel refused in "Most likely, these relationships will be jeopardized."

Tariq Kenny Shawa, a US policy fellow at the Palestinian Policy Network, says this relative inaction is not very surprising to the Palestinians.

"Most Palestinians are very frustrated with the level of response of Arab leaders across the region to what happened to them," he told Middle East Eye. "At the end of the day, Palestinians know that the Arab people and the Arab streets strongly support their cause, but they feel neglected by leaders who say things they don't do."

However, Dargham pointed out the relative pressure that came from Egypt and Jordan - the two oldest regimes that were normalized with Israel - as the Egyptian regime strongly opposed any plans to displace the population of Gaza to the Egyptian Sinai, but Cairo faces criticism due to its reluctance to open the Rafah crossing with Gaza more actively. .

Jordan recalled its ambassador to Tel Aviv and withdrew from the energy-for-water agreement with Israel amid local pressure.

Despite this, Egypt and Jordan pursued and arrested citizens protesting in solidarity with Gaza.

Kenny Al-Shawa commented, “Arab leaders such as Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, King Abdullah II, and Mohammed bin Salman have influence that they can use to put pressure on Israel, such as threatening to withdraw from normalization agreements or negotiations.”

He added that these countries still prefer to maintain the support they receive from Western countries, in addition to the security and economic agreements from which they benefit.

The writer concluded his article with what Kenny Shawa said: “As long as the Arab world is run by autocrats who are interested in their own self-interest and determined to maintain their power at all costs, the Palestinians should not expect them to exert serious pressure on Israel.”

Source: Alajazeera.Net

International newspapers covered the news of the truce taking effect in the Gaza Strip and what is related to it. A Financial Times report spoke of Israel’s allies’ tendency to adopt tougher positions towards the situation in the Strip, while the New York Times said that the rate of killing of civilians in Gaza is unprecedented in decades.

On Friday morning, a humanitarian truce took effect in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), which includes the exchange of 50 civilian women and children prisoners in the Strip in exchange for the release of 150 Palestinian women and children detained in Israeli prisons.

A report in the Financial Times started from the diplomatic crisis between Israel on the one hand and Spain and Belgium on the other, to talk about the tendency of Israel’s allies to adopt a tougher stance towards it because of the horrific human cost of the war, according to the newspaper’s expression.

The newspaper also saw that European Union countries are divided over the amount of pressure that should be exerted on Israel to limit the consequences of its bombing and allow aid to enter Gaza.

While the New York Times said that an analysis of data from some conflicts revealed that the rate of killing of civilians in Gaza during the Israeli military campaign is unprecedented in decades.

It pointed out that the number of children and women killed in Gaza in less than two months is more than double the number of deaths of both groups in Ukraine after two years of war, pointing out that experts are astonished by Israel's excessive use of heavy weapons in a densely populated urban center.

For its part, Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper believes that Israel will face the biggest dilemma when Hamas declares its readiness to negotiate regarding the other hostages in order to extend the ceasefire and make it permanent, which means a victory for it.

It pointed out that the truce may allow the Israeli army to restructure its forces, but at the same time it will allow Hamas to greatly harm Israel’s deterrence policy, the newspaper said.

In turn, Le Monde newspaper suggested - in its editorial - that Israel take advantage of the truce to assess the great destruction in Gaza, adding that the goal that Israel is trying to achieve does not seem close, even if the southern part is exposed to the same thing as the north.

The newspaper believed that maintaining the existing truce in Gaza is necessary so that those detained by Hamas can leave Gaza, and the Palestinians can also access humanitarian aid.

As for the Wall Street Journal, it highlighted that some of the displaced Palestinians in Gaza after the start of the truce had the opportunity to return to their homes and property to inspect them after the great destruction caused by the war.

The newspaper saw that the truce represented an opportunity for many Palestinians in Gaza to search for ways to check on their relatives who had no news from them due to the damage to the communications network while specialized teams were trying to repair what they could during the truce.

Source: Al Jazeera

A prisoner exchange agreement was agreed upon and implemented between Israel and the Hamas movement, and young Palestinian men, women and men returned to their homes, families, which had a positive impact on the Palestinian public opinion. Israel tried to procrastinate, but that had no effect, and the deal and prisoner exchange was completed, and this had a positive impact on national public opinion, in addition to, of course, the family, relatives and friends of those who were liberated and returned to their homes.
It was noticeable that there were young men among these liberated people, which increased the joy of the family and the public, because closing the doors to the future for these young men through captivity, imprisonment, and life behind bars negatively affects them, their families, and the national community in general.
Various news sources confirmed that Qatar had a major positive role in achieving this deal, just as Egypt had its positive role in this field, and our people appreciate Egypt and Qatar for these clear and positive positions. If it had not been for them, the matter might have been different and these prisoners who were liberated would not have tasted the flavor of freedom without these efforts.
Extending the truce and repairing the massive damage in the Gaza Strip
The pictures that were broadcast during the short truce in the Gaza Strip showed the extent of the massive destruction, devastation, that befell many buildings, streets, institutions, and in general the life and livelihood of the people in that small-sized and densely populated area.
We support a long-term cessation of these Israeli attacks and the war with Hamas and its institutions, and we call on all honest Arab, Islamic and international countries to provide all necessary funds and various assistance to rebuild what the occupation destroyed and create humane conditions for the lives of people in that region.

What is required is not just statements or declarations of solidarity and support, but rather the provision of effective financial support and the necessary economic aid to rebuild what was destroyed by the occupation’s missiles so that the necessary living conditions are available for the families, including children, women, the elderly and others, and so that a simple life becomes possible and its conditions are available.
Hence, we call once again for a long extension of the truce and for the provision of the necessary international aid, including money and other things, so that the Gaza Strip and its steadfast and patient people can regain their lives and future aspirations.