Two Palestinians were injured, and four others, including a woman, were arrested at dawn on Thursday, during the Israeli forces’ storming of the city of Tubas.

The Red Crescent Society reported that a young man was injured by shrapnel from live bullets in the back and neck, and another suffered severe bruises in his ankle as a result of the fall.

The director of the Prisoner's Club in Tubas, Kamal Bani Odeh, said that the occupation forces arrested four citizens during the storming of the city, where they arrested the young man, Walid Firas Sawafta (20 years old), after raiding his family's home.

He added that three other citizens were arrested to pressure their children to surrender themselves. They are: Faida Daraghmeh, for pressuring her son Bakr to surrender himself, Akef Fayez Al-Shraida (52 years old), for pressuring his son Youssef to surrender himself, and Mithqal Fayez Abu Dawas, 63 years old, for pressuring his son Saif. To turn himself in.

Israel's storming of the city included heavy gunfire and intense confrontations between young men and the occupation forces, and they also destroyed a roundabout on the main street in the city during the storming.

In Jenin, the Israeli occupation forces stormed the city of Jenin tonight, and confrontations took place with young men.

Local sources said that large forces of Israeli occupation army, estimated at approximately 70 military vehicles, accompanied by 4 D9 military bulldozers, stormed the city from several directions amidst the firing of gunshots, which led to the outbreak of confrontations with young men.

Ite added that a helicopter and reconnaissance aircraft accompanied Israeli forces in storming the city of Jenin, which deployed in a number of the city's neighborhoods, and deployed their snipers on the roofs of some high-rise buildings. After raiding a number of homes, special undercover units "Musta'arabiun" stormed neighborhoods of the city.

Israeli bulldozers destroyed Al-Sika Street, adjacent to Ibn Sina Hospital, and the Jordanian Field Hospital, adjacent to the Jenin camp. They also bulldozed the street adjacent to the Tawalba Mosque, and Al-Zahra Neighborhood Street.

In Nablus, two citizens were injured by live bullets, at dawn today, during the Israeli occupation forces’ storming of the town of Beit Furik, east of Nablus.

The Red Crescent Society reported that two citizens were injured by live bullets in their feet during confrontations that broke out with the occupation forces in the town of Beit Furik.

It added that the occupation forces obstructed the passage of the ambulance to Beit Furik to treat the injured, before allowing it to do so.

A number of military vehicles stormed the town, and confrontations broke out with young men who tried to confront them. They also stormed a house, searched it, and tampered with its contents.

The Directorate of Education announced the suspension of face-to-face education within the village and its conversion to electronic education.

UNRWA announced that it has facilitated the delivery of emergency medical supplies and medicines needed by the World Health Organization to the Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City.

UNRWA and the World Health Organization said in a joint statement issued by them that the medical supplies were delivered despite the great risks to which its employees and partners in the health field are exposed due to the ongoing bombing in Gaza, indicating that this is only the second time that life-saving supplies have been delivered to the hospital. Since the escalation of the aggression and the start of the comprehensive blockade on Gaza, on October 24, the World Health Organization has delivered medical supplies to the hospital amidst a state of severe insecurity.

It explained that the quantities delivered are still insufficient to respond to the enormous needs in the Gaza Strip, indicating that the medical conditions in Al-Shifa Hospital, which is considered the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip and one of the oldest Palestinian health institutions, are catastrophic.

The statement indicated that there are currently approximately two patients for every available bed, and the emergency department and wards are overcrowded, requiring doctors and medical personnel to treat the wounded and patients in the corridors, on the ground and in the open air. The number of wounded is increasing every hour, while patients suffer from enormous and unnecessary pain as medicines and painkillers run out. In addition, tens of thousands of displaced people have taken refuge in parking lots and hospital yards.

The statement stressed that doctors, nurses and other workers need more support, and the northern areas of Gaza cannot and should not be isolated or deprived of the delivery of humanitarian aid. Patients there cannot be denied the health care they are entitled to and urgently need, and aid must reach the entire Gaza Strip.

It pointed out that medical facilities are running out of supplies and fuel, and so far, fuel has not been allowed to enter the Gaza Strip, including to Al-Shifa Hospital, for more than a month.

UNRWA and the World Health Organization renewed their urgent appeal for fuel to be delivered to humanitarian agencies in the Gaza Strip. Without fuel, hospitals and other essential facilities such as water desalination plants and bakeries will not be able to function, and more people are certain to die as a result.

They called for the protection of all medical facilities, workers, patients and wounded, for the continuous flow of humanitarian supplies and fuel on a large scale, and for safe and unimpeded access to deliver supplies to health facilities wherever they are, and they are in various parts of the Gaza Strip. We also call for medical evacuation of seriously injured patients.

A young man died tonight as a result of being shot by Israeli occupation forces in the village of Tabqa, southwest of Hebron.

Local sources said that the occupation forces stormed the village of Tabqa, and violent confrontations broke out, during which the occupation soldiers fired live bullets and gas bombs at the citizens, which led to the young man Anas Nasser Muhammad Abu Atwan (30 years old) being injured by live bullets in the chest, and he was taken to the hospital, and doctors announced that His martyrdom.

In Bethlehem, the Ministry of Health announced the death of Muhammad Farid Hamdan Thawabta (51 years old) from Beit Fajjar, as a result of his wounds shot by the Israeli army during its aggression against Bethlehem yesterday.

Yesterday, Wednesday, 19 citizens were injured by live bullets, one critically and the other seriously, and 5 by shrapnel, in addition to dozens by suffocation, during the Israeli occupation forces storming the city of Bethlehem and besieging the home of the freed detainee Hamdi Imad al-Kamil in the slaughterhouse area.

On the 34th day of the war on the Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation army continues its raids on various areas of the Strip, while the resistance factions inflict heavy losses on it, as the Al-Qassam Brigades destroyed a large number of its tanks and vehicles, and killed more of its soldiers.

At dawn on Thursday, occupation warplanes bombed a house for the Al-Amriti family in the Shawa Square area in Gaza City.

Local sources said that the occupation planes bombed with several missiles a house for the Al-Mariti family in Gaza City, wounding dozens who were taken to Al-Shifa Medical Complex west of the city.

It added that civil defense and ambulance crews were able to recover the bodies of 6 dead and a number of wounded, after the occupation warplanes targeted a house for the Abu Khater family in the town of Bani Suhaila, east of the city of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip. They were transferred to Nasser Hospital in the city.

At dawn on Thursday, occupation warplanes targeted the vicinity of Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City with several raids.

Local sources said that the occupation warplanes fired several missiles at continuous intervals around the Shifa Medical Complex, which led to fragments of the missiles falling in the hospital courtyard, coinciding with the firing of flares in the sky of Gaza City, specifically the Beach Camp.

It added that the occupation aircraft also bombed the vicinity of Al-Nasr Hospital in western Gaza, killing three citizens and wounding dozens.

The Israeli artillery continues to bombard it with shells and missiles east of the city of Rafah, specifically near the eastern fence separating the Gaza Strip.

“Do you have water or bread?” Every child I met in Gaza last week asked me this question. I was the first high-ranking United Nations official to enter Gaza, since October 7, 2023. Over the course of more than 30 years of working in conflict zones, my encounters with children, women and men were in a shelter run by UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency). Palestine refugees) One of the saddest encounters during my work in the humanitarian field.

I met displaced Palestinians who took refuge in an UNRWA school in Rafah. I toured the school that had been turned into a shelter with a group of displaced people who showed me the damage caused by the bombing that killed and injured people. As I listened to their stories, I had to constantly remind myself that we were in a school – a place dedicated to learning, laughter and play. Instead, I was in unimaginable distress and appalling living conditions. I could not answer a very basic question from the frightened, hungry and thirsty children; Did I have water and food to give them?

There are more than 700,000 people now living in about 150 UNRWA buildings in the Gaza Strip, who just want a piece of bread and a sip of water. Civilians who took refuge in UNRWA shelters and believed in the power of the UN Blue Flag had to struggle with destruction and death, rather than feeling reassured in the safety of international protection.

At the time I write these lines, 99 of my colleagues at UNRWA have been killed, while nearly 50 of the agency’s buildings have been damaged, some of them directly hit. Since October 7, the death toll has reached more than 10,000 people, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, including more than 4,000 children. This is more than the number of children killed in all conflicts around the world in any year since 2019.

Outside the shelter I visited, the world became very dark for the people of Gaza; Due to the ongoing siege, there is no food, water, medicine or fuel. The markets are almost empty. The meager aid arriving by truck through Rafah falls far short of what is needed. Municipal services collapse under the weight of a month of conflict, sewage fills the streets, and people line up for hours in front of bakeries, gripped by anxiety. Scenes of chaos reflect the despair of this long wait. Soon, winter will come to Gaza, and many women, children and the elderly may die.

In isolation from the raging and debilitating conflict, an active process is underway in some circles to dehumanize an entire civilian population, including the children of Gaza, and paint them all as terrorists. This is a tactic that attempts to justify the massive damage done to them, ignoring the death of dozens of civilians, then describing it as collateral damage. Some politicians describe Gazans as “terrorists,” “human animals,” and “people who must be erased.” These are words that should be extinguished and not allowed to be used in the 21st century.

It is right that we express our outrage at the horrific massacre committed in Israel. No civilian should be taken hostage and become a bargaining chip. But a blanket accusation of all Gazans to justify violations of international humanitarian law is irresponsible and disingenuous. It strips away the international community's clear attempts to assert that all wars have limits.

Expanding the scope of collective punishment of all civilians in Gaza to include the West Bank, where Palestinian farming communities have been forced to abandon their homes and lands for no reason other than that they are Palestinian, threatens to push the region into the abyss. The war in Gaza could inflame the entire region.

As I write this article, Israeli forces are directing those who remain in the northern Gaza Strip, often the most vulnerable and unable to move for their safety, to the southern parts, while bombing and strikes continue to kill people, leaving the south unprotected. Safe as the North.

What will be the future of more than two million Palestinians trapped and detained in a small area in southern Gaza? They were even asked to move to the southwest...to areas where they were told the United Nations would give them water and food. This should not happen.

For many Palestinians and experts on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, this exodus is reminiscent of the original displacement of some 750,000 people from their towns and villages in 1948; The Nakba. This week, many Israeli politicians were not shy about calling for another Nakba, something that touched a sensitive nerve in the region.

Current measures will not achieve the peace and stability that Israelis and Palestinians want and deserve. Leveling entire neighborhoods to the ground, over the heads of their residents, is not the solution to the horrific crimes committed by Hamas. On the contrary, it will open a very dark chapter in the history of the region.

The ICC has jurisdiction and must investigate and adjudicate evidence of alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide on both sides, and hold those responsible accountable for their actions.

Until that happens, we must work to contain what is happening without delay. The humanitarian ceasefire must be activated immediately, the blockade imposed on Gaza must be ended, and continuous and meaningful humanitarian aid must be allowed to flow into the Gaza Strip without restrictions. These urgent measures are not only fair and appropriate for civilians in Gaza, but also for civilians in Israel.

The children killed in Gaza were not “terrorists,” “human animals,” or “people to be erased.” Like all children, they were full of life. They had dreams and aspirations. This massacre must stop. It's our last chance to save what's left of our humanity.

Al-sharq Alawsat

With the exception of the Palestinian Prime Minister, none of the Arab heads of state or government will come to Paris on Thursday to participate in the humanitarian conference to support civilians in Gaza called for by France, and will meet for three hours at the Elysee Palace. While Israel, Iran, and Russia are absent, the United States will be represented by Assistant Minister of Civil Security Ezra Zea, while the Cypriot President and the heads of government of Greece, Ireland, and Luxembourg will be present, in addition to the President of the European Council and the President of the European Commission.

The Elysee Palace stated, in its morning presentation of the conference, which will be chaired by President Emmanuel Macron, that the latter anticipated its holding by conducting a series of contacts that included the Israeli Prime Minister, the Egyptian President, and the Emir of Qatar, and that he would contact Benjamin Netanyahu again to inform him of the results that the conference would reach. However, it was clear during the French presidency’s presentation that there is a major paradox, as the conference will be held while the many calls around the world for humanitarian truces have, to date, clashed with categorical Israeli rejection, and no one is talking about a ceasefire. Hence, the difficulty that the conferees will face in terms of how to deliver aid.

It seemed clear that Paris wanted to keep the conference away from political aspects. In fact, the presidential source ruled out issuing a final statement or announcement on the grounds that this would plunge everyone into controversy over the use of one word instead of another. Agence France-Presse quoted another source as saying that France “does not want the conference to turn into a platform to condemn Israel.”

Paris wants to focus discussions on achieving three goals: The first is to assess the needs of the Gaza Strip based on reports by international agencies that estimated that humanitarian needs today reach $1.2 billion by the end of the current year. The second goal is to work to enhance the access of humanitarian aid to the Strip, specifically for the health, nutrition, water and energy sectors. 

The third is to “strengthen mobilization” for the benefit of civilians. Gaza by providing support to international agencies, organizations working in the sector and non-governmental organizations. The presidential source summarizes the purpose of the conference as reaching “quickly tangible results” in view of the prevailing humanitarian situation in the sector, which has been subjected for 31 days to air, ground and sea bombardments, with more than ten thousand dead and more than twice as many wounded, while destruction has reached an extent never known before. What Paris wants is for the meeting to provide an opportunity for each participating party to express what it wants to provide in this context, whether it is financial or in-kind assistance, equipment (for example, floating hospitals) or means of transporting aid (ships).

Perhaps the most important known proposal is the one presented by Cyprus to launch a humanitarian sea corridor to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip, given that accumulating aid is one thing and delivering it to those in need is another. To date, aid passes by “dropper” through the Rafah crossing, and shipments are subject to Israeli scrutiny. Hence, the general goal of the conference is to mobilize financial resources and find ways to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip, in addition to removing seriously injured people.

The Cypriot President, who is attending the meeting, will have the opportunity to present his country's project. Given the geographical proximity of Cyprus to the Gaza coast, adopting the sea corridor will allow doubling the aid sent to the Strip. However, there are a number of difficulties that must be overcome first, politically and logistically. In the first place, this proposal cannot be implemented unless Israel accepts it, which will not hesitate to impose its conditions, including monitoring what will enter and exit the Gaza Strip, similar to what happens at the Rafah crossing. 

The logistical difficulty concerns landing boats, as Gaza does not have a large, suitable port, which means the need to build a floating port. In any case, all these aspects show that the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza will not take place tomorrow or the day after. As for the wounded, Israel will undoubtedly impose a requirement to verify their identities, which will exacerbate the difficulties and require heavy administrative procedures.

In its presentation to the conference, Paris revealed President Macron’s determination to increase the value of humanitarian aid to Gaza, and the presidential source confirmed that it is working at the national and European levels in order to be able to receive sick and wounded Palestinians on the ships that are supposed to dock off the Gaza coast. 

To date, Paris has sent a hospital ship called “La Tonnerre” and is working on preparing a second piece to join the first. Italy announced its readiness to send a hospital ship. Paris believes that “it is in the interest of everyone, including Israel,” to work to increase humanitarian aid. The presidential source said that the basis is to reach “practical” solutions, and to work to make the multiple initiatives in the context of providing humanitarian support implementable and to overcome the difficulties that Israel poses for their access. 

Therefore, Paris believes that there is a need to work with all parties, including, of course, Israel, which holds the key to whether or not aid arrives.

There is another goal that may lie behind the French call for the humanitarian conference, and its title is to restore some kind of balance to Paris’s positions on the Gaza war, which until recently was characterized by a kind of bias towards Israel, which seems to be raising controversy and astonishment in diplomatic circles, according to what media reports revealed. 

After Macron said in Israel that it has the right to legitimate self-defense, and after he considered that the war on “Hamas” must be “relentless” and for the purpose of “destroying” it, he considered last week that “the war on terrorism does not justify sacrificing civilians.” As for the truces, Paris, as Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said, “wants a humanitarian truce that could lead to a ceasefire.”

A poll conducted by the University of Maryland in cooperation with Ipsos showed that American popular support for Israel rose significantly in the wake of the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, but declined and eroded significantly four weeks after this attack as a result of anger over the Israeli attacks on Gaza Strip and thousands of civilian casualties.

The poll, which was published on Wednesday evening, said that the erosion of support for Israel was noticeable among young Democrats, as they began to view President Joe Biden as “very pro-Israel” by twice the rate compared to the poll conducted last October.

A number of young Democrats said they were less likely to vote for Biden in the upcoming presidential elections because of his stance in support of Israel. The poll also showed that broad sectors of American voters' interest in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has doubled since October, and has increased significantly among circles that support the need for the United States to support the Palestinians.

In a question about the position of Americans regarding their preference for the United States to support Israel or the Palestinians, the results of previous polls indicated that those who wanted the United States to stand with the Palestinians have remained relatively stable since June, while those who wanted the United States to lean toward Israel. They increased not only among Republicans, but also among Democrats, going from 13.7% in June to 30.9% in October; It also rose among independents from 20.8% in June to 37.9% in October.

In the latest poll, the number of participants who want the United States to stand with Israel decreased from both the Republican and Democratic parties. This was accompanied by a slight increase in the number of those who wanted the United States to lean toward the Palestinians.

The poll indicated that support for Israel decreased among Democrats from 30.9% in the third week of October to 20.5% in early November, while support for the Palestinians rose from 9.2% to 12.9%.

During the same two-week period, the gap between Republicans who want the United States to lean toward Israel and those who want the United States to lean toward the Palestinians narrowed from 70.7% to 60.8%; The percentage also decreased from 32.2% to 27.7% among independents. For all participants overall, the gap decreased from 36.8% to 29.1%. At the same time, there was a rise across the board in the percentage of respondents who want the United States not to take sides, to 53.5% overall, including 65.5% of Democrats, 31.6% of Republicans, and 57.5% of Independents.

Young people are more supportive of the Palestinians

Shibli Telhami, a professor at the University of Maryland, says that young people (under 35) across partisan divides were less inclined to want the United States to side with Israel compared to October, but the change among young Democrats was particularly striking. . In the October poll, we found no change in the attitudes of young Democrats two weeks after the Hamas attacks, and those who wanted the United States to stand with them were about equal. 

In the latest opinion poll, there is a tangible change in favor of the Palestinians. The percentage of those who want the United States to stand by the Palestinians increased from 16.2% in October to 23.2% in November, while the percentage of those who want to stand by Israel increased from 14.7% to 15.9% (within the margin of error). Most young Democrats wanted the United States not to take sides, 59.8%, compared to 64.7% in October.

Biden and his position on Israel

Professor Telhami adds, “There was a noticeable increase in the number of Democrats who said that Biden is ‘very pro-Israel,’ rising from 24.4% in October to 34.4% in November, while Democrats who said that Biden is ‘very pro-Palestinian’ remained consistent in their position.” .

The change among young Democrats has been astonishing. The proportion of young Democrats who said Biden was very pro-Israel more than doubled, rising from 20.6% in October to 41.5% in November, while a smaller number (0 to 2.4%) said he was very pro-Palestinian.

The number of Democrats who said that Biden’s position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict makes them less likely to vote for him, if the presidential elections were held “today,” increased from 10.8% in October 2018 to 14.8% in November, while the percentage of those who said they would be more likely to vote for Biden decreased. From 28.4% in October to 17.6%. The change in the positions of Republicans and independents on this issue was within the margin of error.

Professor Telhami commented on the results of the poll, saying, “The two polls that we conducted since the beginning of the war in Israel and Gaza show the largest changes in positions that we have measured from one poll to another over the years, in tracking American public positions on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, and with the continuation of this war, and its attraction to a greater extent.” "If there is a great deal of national and international interest, situations may remain volatile."

Source: Al-Sharq Al awsat

Al-Safadi stated that any proactive talk promoted by some about post-Gaza scenarios “is jumping into the air,” explaining that “all of this will not be discussed until the war and killing stop.”

The Jordanian Foreign Minister, Ayman Al-Safadi, said on Wednesday that the post-war scenarios proposed for Gaza are “unrealistic and rejected,” stressing that Jordan “does not deal with them” and "rejects any talk about post-war Gaza administration through Arab or non-Arab forces."

Al-Safadi stated during his meeting on Wednesday evening, with a large number of journalists and writers in a symposium hosted by the Amman Municipality Salon, that Jordan “now stresses in this context the cessation of the war and crimes committed against the Palestinians, and any other talk that takes place after that,” stressing Jordan’s rejection of any talk about “Post-war administration of Gaza through Arab or non-Arab forces.”

Al-Safadi stressed that Jordan, in principle and in terms of the highest interests of the Palestinian people and the Kingdom as well; “He rejects any scenario that addresses the Gaza issue alone, as this will perpetuate Israel’s goal of separating Gaza from the West Bank, and take us down dangerous paths that are not in the interest of the Palestinian people and their cause.”

He said that what Jordan calls for and insists on is "dealing with the Palestinian issue in its full context. There is no fragmented solution, but rather a political solution and a comprehensive and just peace that guarantees Palestinian rights and the establishment of their independent state in all of the occupied Palestinian territory, and addresses and addresses the roots of the conflict since its beginnings decades ago."

Al-Safadi added, "The main problem and the cause of renewed violence, wars, and instability is the Israeli occupation and the failure to end it with a just political solution for the Palestinian people in accordance with the resolutions of international legitimacy."

Al-Safadi stated that any proactive talk promoted by some about post-Gaza scenarios “is jumping into the air,” explaining that “all of this will not be discussed until the war and killing stop, and the future undoubtedly holds a change in the current Israeli government, not to mention that the Palestinian Authority "You will not go to Gaza on the backs of occupation tanks."

Regarding Israel and others’ promotion of the elimination of Hamas and what comes after it, he said, “Hamas is an idea, and the idea never ends. Whoever wants a different situation must meet the needs and rights of the Palestinian people and achieve comprehensive peace. If the international community does not go in this direction and with a plan that achieves peace, a Palestinian state, and human rights.” Its people, we will return to war every 5 or 6 years, and no one will witness the stability and security that the whole world demands.”

Al-Safadi reaffirmed Jordan's position that any displacement of the Palestinian people from their land towards Jordan is tantamount to a declaration of war against Jordan, and he said: "We will confront it with all force." He explained that the displacement option proposed by Israel at the beginning of the Gaza war "failed and was not accepted not only by From Egypt, Jordan, and the Palestinian people, but from all countries of the world, including the United States.”

This came during two separate phone calls that Abbas received from the Prime Ministers of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, and the Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese, according to the Palestinian News Agency, Wafa.

Abbas added: "The (Israeli) occupation authorities' plans to separate Gaza cannot be accepted or dealt with."

He stressed that "what is happening in the Gaza Strip is genocide that must stop immediately."

The Israeli intelligence services (“Aman” and Shin Bet) warn of the escalation of the security situation in the occupied West Bank, in light of the escalation of settler terrorism and the increasing number of martyrs killed by occupation bullets and the withdrawal of permits from Palestinian workers against the backdrop of the war on Gaza.

On Wednesday, the Israeli security services warned of an imminent security escalation in the occupied West Bank, during a meeting of the Israeli “war cabinet”, held at the Central Command headquarters in the occupation army with the participation of the heads of settlement councils in the occupied West Bank, amid allegations of thwarting “a number of operations.” "which was planned against Israeli targets, in recent days.

This came according to what was reported by the Israeli media, noting that officials in the General Security Service (Shin Bet) and the Military Intelligence Division warned of an “imminent security escalation on the West Bank front,” in light of the withdrawal of permits from Palestinian workers against the backdrop of the war on Gaza, and the escalation in numbers killed, and increasing cases of settler attacks.

The Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (“Kan 11”) indicated that this is the second time that the “War Cabinet” has met outside the headquarters of the Israeli Ministry of Security in Tel Aviv, as it had met at the headquarters of the Southern Command before the start of the occupation’s ground operations in the Gaza Strip, to approve practical plans, in light of American warnings of the escalation of settler attacks in the West Bank.

During the meeting held with the participation of the heads of the settlement authorities in the West Bank, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referred to the terrorist attacks carried out by settlers in the West Bank, and claimed that “a handful of extremists who do not represent the public sitting here are causing great harm to the State of Israel,” and added, “We will take action against them in every way."

Shortly after the meeting, Netanyahu’s office circulated another statement in which it said that he had notified the heads of the settlement authorities that he had informed the US President, Joe Biden, “that the accusations against the settlements are baseless. There is a small extremist minority that does not come from the settlements. We condemn them and deal with them with the force of the law.” .

During the talks held by Biden administration officials with their counterparts in Tel Aviv, they stressed the need to “restraint” and “maintain calm” in the West Bank, considering that “escalating tensions” in the West Bank may lead to an escalation that would “exacerbate the crisis related to the war on the besieged Gaza Strip.

The two officials confirmed that during Biden's phone calls with Netanyahu in recent days, he renewed his "concern about the increase in the number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank as well as the increase in settler violence."

The two officials added that Biden informed Netanyahu that "Israel must move to calm the situation in the West Bank and prevent settler attacks against the Palestinians in order to prevent the situation on the ground from exploding, which would further aggravate the current crisis."

In turn, Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid called on Netanyahu's government to exercise "restraint" in the West Bank, warning that Tel Aviv would wage a "war on three fronts." Lapid said in statements to Israeli Channel 12, “Part of the problem is the fear of riots breaking out in Judea and Samaria (the biblical name for the West Bank).”

He explained that the reason for these fears is “terrible irresponsibility on the part of extremist settlers who are trying to set fire to the area.” Lapid added that there are Israeli parties, referring to “religious Zionism” and “Otzma Yehudit,” that “encourage their supporters to riot” in the West Bank.

He called on Netanyahu's government to "exercise restraint there (in the West Bank), otherwise we will fight a war on three fronts," in reference to the ongoing war in Gaza and the confrontations on the Lebanese border. Meanwhile, various parts of the West Bank and Jerusalem witness daily raids and incursions into villages and towns by the Israeli army, accompanied by confrontations, arrests, and the firing of live bullets.

Since the start of the war, the violence of settlers and the Israeli occupation army against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank has escalated, affecting the Palestinian presence in general, including farmers’ activities during the olive harvest season, as well as protests demanding an end to the war on the besieged Gaza Strip.

In this context, the Minister of Finance and Minister in the Israeli Ministry of Security, Bezalel Smotrich, demanded in a letter sent to Netanyahu and the Minister of Defense, Yoav Galant, that “cleared security zones (i.e. free of Palestinians) must be established around the settlements and roads, and Arabs must be prevented from entering them” in order to achieve peace.

Local sources in Syria reported that the Lebanese Hezbollah withdrew about 1,500 of its members fighting alongside the Syrian regime army.

Anatolia Agency reported on Wednesday that the party summoned its members from different regions of Syria within the last two weeks.

It indicated that the party's members withdrew from the 46th Brigade in the western countryside of Aleppo, from the city of Saraqeb and Qaratin, east of Idlib Governorate, and from the areas of Maarat al-Numan, Khan Shaykhun, Kafr Rumah, Kafranbel, and Hazarin, south of Idlib.

The elements moved first to the Qusayr area, southwest of Homs Governorate, and from there to Lebanon, according to the sources.

The sources confirmed the deployment of members of the Iranian-backed groups and the Afghan "Fatemiyoun" and "Baqir" brigades in the places from which Hezbollah members withdrew.

The party's decision came after mutual clashes between its members in southern Lebanon and the Israeli army on the southern border since last October 8.

The clashes come as a result of a war waged by Israel on the Gaza Strip since last October 7, during which residential neighborhoods were destroyed on the heads of their residents. The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip announced that the number of martyrs since the start of the war on the Strip had risen to 10,569, as massacres took place today, Wednesday. 

Among the total martyrs were 4,324 children and 2,823 women, and 26,475 Palestinians were injured as a result of the ongoing war for the 33rd day in a row.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said that about 300,000 children in Gaza are deprived of education due to the war waged by the Israeli occupation on the Strip.

The agency's commissioner general, Philippe Lazzarini, said that about 50 of the agency's buildings, including schools, were damaged due to the war.

The UN official explained: “Our schools have now become shelters, and the students are asking for a drink of water and a loaf of bread. The longer the children stay out of school, the more difficult it is to continue their lessons.”

Lazzarini reported on the “X” platform that 92 UN agency employees have been killed so far during the war.

Since the start of the Israeli aggression against our people in the Gaza Strip on the 7th of last October, 10,515  have been died in the Gaza Strip, including 4,324 children, 2,823 women, and 649 elderly people, while the number of missing people reached about 2,550 citizens, including more than 1,350 children.

On Wednesday evening, Israeli occupation forces arrested two citizens and stole gold jewelry while searching a number of citizens’ homes in the town of Tarqumiya, west of Hebron.

According to local sources, Israeli forces arrested members of the municipal council, Rakad Adly Al-Shalalfa, and Radi Abdullah Al-Marqatan, while they were inspecting the town’s water pumps in the Al-Thaghra area.

Security sources added that Israeli forces raided a number of homes in Tarqumiya, and stole gold jewelry from the home of citizen Ziad Ahmed Jaafra while searching it. They also searched the home of citizen Muhammad Abdel Fattah Al-Fatafta, and caused serious damage to its contents, including furniture and other items.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, said that from the Rafah crossing he saw the gates leading to “the ongoing nightmare in which people suffocate under constant bombardment.”

Turk said in a press conference held in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, after his visit to the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing, that people in Gaza are crying over the loss of their families, and are struggling in search of water, food, electricity, and fuel, noting that his colleagues in the United Nations Human Rights Office are among those besieged and those who lost family members "suffer sleepless nights filled with torment, anger and despair."

He added that the Rafah crossing was a lifeline for about 2.3 million people in Gaza during the past month, adding that this lifeline was unfairly weak and infuriating.

He called for a ceasefire, delivering humanitarian needs at significant levels to all parts of the Gaza Strip, and enabling the political space to achieve a permanent end to the occupation, based on the rights of Palestinians and Israelis to self-determination.

Turk said: “It is no longer enough to just say that the occupation that has been going on for 56 years must end. The international community must be part of creating a just and equitable future for Palestinians and Israelis. They are each other’s only hope for achieving peace.”

The High Commissioner for Human Rights spoke about his visit to Al-Arish Hospital in North Sinai, where he met citizen Ikram, who was eight months pregnant when she was hit by shrapnel in her stomach. She lost her fetus and had to undergo a hysterectomy. “She is still alive, but her eyes were lifeless.”

He also met the child Muhammad, 12 years old, from Jabalia, who suffers from spinal injuries and broken bones. He said, “Muhammad arrived in Rafah unaccompanied, and says he does not remember what happened, but the shock was clear on his face.”

He added: "We have fallen into the abyss. This situation cannot continue. Even in the context of a 56-year occupation, the current situation is the most dangerous in decades."

Turk indicated that during his visit he heard many concerns about double standards in dealing with this conflict, adding that the world cannot bear the cost of double standards.

He stressed the need to emphasize the global standards on the basis of which the situation must be evaluated, which are human rights law and international humanitarian law.

He pointed out that he described Gaza before October 7 as the largest open prison in the world, under 56 years of occupation and 16 years of Israeli siege.

He added, "The collective punishment imposed by Israel on Palestinian civilians also amounts to a war crime, as does the illegal forced eviction of civilians. The intense bombing has led to the killing, wounding and maiming of women and children in particular."

He pointed out that the latest death toll in the Gaza Strip reached more than 10,500 martyrs, including 4,300 children and 2,800 women, saying, "All of this has an unbearable impact on civilians."

He stressed the need to commit to neutralizing the civilian population and civilian facilities, and to adhere to international humanitarian law, stressing that attacks against medical facilities, medical personnel, the wounded and the sick are prohibited.

He stressed that "Israel's obligations as an occupying power remain in full force. This requires it to ensure that the greatest possible amount of life's necessities reaches everyone who needs them. People still need help in all parts of Gaza. There is an urgent humanitarian need to reach a population whose isolation is deepening." , including in the northern and central areas of the Strip, who are cut off from the very limited aid entering Gaza.”

“In the past few days, my colleagues have received reports of an orphanage in northern Gaza containing 300 children in need of urgent assistance,” he said. “With communications cut off, roads impassable and unsafe, we are unable to reach these orphans.”

He added: “During the past month, Gaza witnessed at least three complete communications outages, which led to the isolation of Palestinians there from their families inside the Strip and from the outside world. The power outages have dire consequences for rescue workers who are struggling to find and rescue victims of the bombing. This is in addition to "It has consequences on families trying to find out the condition of their loved ones and access emergency health care, and on the process of monitoring and documenting the situation on the ground."

He continued: "As for journalists who try to document and cover the events in Gaza, they pay the price with their lives. At least 32 Palestinian journalists were killed in the Gaza Strip last month."

On Wednesday evening, Israeli occupation forces stormed the town of Ya'bad and the villages of Jalboun and Faqou'a, south and northeast of Jenin.

According to local sources, the occupation forces stormed the town of Ya`bad, raided the Al-Baajwa and Abu Shamla neighborhoods, deployed an infantry squad and launched a combing campaign.

The sources added that Israeli forces stormed the villages of Faqoua and Jalboun, deployed infantry teams, raided several neighborhoods in the two villages, and marched their military vehicles through their streets in a provocative move, which led to the outbreak of confrontations between young men and the Israeli occupation forces in Faqoua, during which the occupation soldiers fired bullets and stun grenades, without anyone being informed about injuries.

Former Israeli Prime Minister: Netanyahu was in a state of nervous breakdown, as he sought to avoid being ousted from office for failing to protect national security after Hamas attacks.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was "psychologically destroyed by his gross failure in the field of national security."

In an interview with Politico, Olmert said that Netanyahu was in a state of "nervous breakdown, as he sought to avoid being ousted from office for failing to protect national security after Hamas attacks."

A surprise attack launched by Hamas on southern Israel on October 7 left 1,400 dead, the majority of whom were civilians. They were killed in general on the first day of the attack, and more than 240 hostages were taken, according to the Israeli authorities.

Olmert warned, saying: "The priority must be to negotiate the end-game with the international community, including returning to talks on forming a Palestinian state, rather than turning back the clock toward full military supervision of Gaza."

Olmert added, describing Netanyahu: “Throughout his life, he falsely considered himself the master of security. He is the master of nonsense.”

He continued: "Every minute Netanyahu spends as prime minister, he poses a danger to Israel. I mean that seriously. I'm sure the Americans understand that he is in bad shape."

He added, "It is not in Israel's interest to supervise Gaza's security. It is in our interest to be able to defend ourselves in a different way than we did before the October 7 attack. But to control Gaza again? No."

The White House said yesterday, Tuesday, that Hamas will not be part of the equation in Gaza, explaining that Washington is holding discussions with Israel about what Gaza will look like after the end of the ongoing conflict there.

White House National Security spokesman John Kirby said that Israel's reoccupation of Gaza would not be right.

On Monday, Netanyahu announced that Israel would assume “comprehensive security responsibility” in the Gaza Strip for an indefinite period after the war it is currently waging against Hamas.

Olmert also warned that the patience of Israel's Western allies was beginning to run out due to the failure of Netanyahu and his ministers to draw up a realistic plan to govern Gaza in the post-Hamas era.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza announced today that the death toll in the Strip due to the Israeli bombing since October 7 had risen to 10,569 Palestinians, including 4,324 children. It also confirmed that the number of infected people had risen to 26,475.

In its second month, the war between the Israeli army and the armed Palestinian factions in Gaza continues today, Wednesday, while there is no sign of a ceasefire or implementation of a temporary humanitarian truce, while the number of civilian casualties increases as a result of the Israeli bombing, and the situation in the Strip is getting worse, which has become disastrous. .

The anticipated meeting between President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping is on track for next week on the sidelines of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco, but the White house is not expecting the face-to-face to result in major changes to the relationship between the two nations, according to a person familiar with the planning.

The White House announced late last month that U.S. and China had come to an agreement in principle for Biden and Xi to speak to each other in person on the sidelines of the summit — the first engagement between the leaders in what’s been a tension-filled year between the world’s two biggest economic powers. But with Biden set to arrive in San Francisco in a week for the summit, exact timing and other logistical details have not yet been formally announced.

The U.S. believes that the two sides will be able to made some modest announcements following their meeting, but the fundamental differences in the relationship will remain unchanged, according to the person, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Jude Blanchette, chair of China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said Biden and Xi were looking “to intentionally keep that bar low.”

A coalition of 13 relief groups, including Doctors Without Borders, Amnesty International, and Oxfam, urged world leaders to press for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, which has been subjected to Israeli aggression since last October 7.

In a statement, the organizations called on “French President Emmanuel Macron and the leaders of countries... to do everything in their power for an immediate ceasefire,” on the eve of Paris hosting a humanitarian conference dedicated to the situation in the Gaza Strip.

She added that priorities must also include concrete measures to protect the entire civilian population, ensure the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and respect international humanitarian law.

In addition to Doctors Without Borders, Amnesty, and Oxfam, the list of signatories to the statement includes Action Against Hunger, the Norwegian Refugee Council, and the International Federation for Human Rights.

"We are receiving increasingly desperate pleas for protection and assistance from our humanitarian workers in the besieged Gaza Strip," Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said in a statement.

He added, "The lack of a humanitarian ceasefire, a humanitarian corridor, and an end to the stifling siege so far is unacceptable." He called for Thursday's humanitarian conference in a hurry on the sidelines of the annual Paris Peace Forum.

Its goal is to “mobilize all partners and stakeholders to respond to the needs” of the people of Gaza, according to what a Macron advisor told reporters on Wednesday, requesting anonymity.

During a meeting in Japan on Wednesday, the foreign ministers of the G7 countries called for “humanitarian truces and corridors” to protect civilians, but without calling for a ceasefire.

The Ministry of Health announced that the toll of martyrs and wounded among our people as a result of the ongoing aggression on the Gaza Strip had risen to 10,515 martyrs and more than 26,000 wounded.

Israel’s attorney general and state attorney are working with police and military to formally investigate the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, they announced Wednesday.

“Our goal is to investigate and initiate legal proceedings against those who perpetrated, planned and otherwise took part in these heinous acts -– wherever they are,” the statement said. It said Israel would punish the Hamas militants with “the utmost severity, commensurate with their crimes.”

Police are working to collect evidence from towns across the south as attorneys for the Ministry of Justice decide how best to proceed with the investigation.

A long line of thousands of Palestinians fled on foot from northern Gaza Wednesday — families, children and older adults, crying babies — carrying only what they could take in their arms or on their backs.

They were seen in Associated Press video walking down Gaza’s main north-south highway, heeding the Israeli military’s orders to evacuate during a five-hour window as its troops battled Hamas militants deep inside Gaza City. 

Some evacuees were pushing relatives in wheelchairs, with one older adult wheeled down the road in a hand truck.

Abeer Akeila left her home in Gaza city after relentless strikes forced all her neighbors to flee southward. She said life in the city has become increasingly difficult amid dwindling water and food supplies.

“There was shelling and bombardment overnight,” she said. “We didn’t have food or drinking water ... They struck the bakeries. There is no life in Gaza.”

About 15,000 people fled northern Gaza on Tuesday — triple the number that left Monday — according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Many of the people walking south are refugees or their descendants who fled or were expelled from their homes in what is now Israel in 1948.

Today, Wednesday, the authorities in Gaza, the Hamas movement, and international organizations presented figures showing the extent of the humanitarian catastrophe and destruction resulting from the continuous Israeli bombing of the Strip for more than a month.

The head of the government information office in Gaza, Salama Marouf, said that Israel is waging a starvation war on the residents of the besieged Strip, in which it does not differentiate between the residents of the north and the south.

Marouf warned - in an interview with Al Jazeera - that signs of malnutrition and dehydration had begun to spread among children in Gaza.

He pointed out that the aid trucks that have entered the Gaza Strip so far are equivalent to what was entering in one day before the war, explaining that the loads of those trucks do not respond to the real and urgent needs of the residents of the Gaza Strip.

Water and electricity

In Beirut, Hamas leader Bassem Naim said that potable water in Gaza has been lost by more than 90%.

Naim added - in a joint press conference with the movement’s representative in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan - that the residents of Gaza are often forced to resort to seawater, which causes them diseases.

He pointed out that since the beginning of the aggression, the Israeli occupation has deliberately cut off water to the Gaza Strip in a crime against humanity, saying that it is a shame for the international community to allow the occupation to use water to blackmail the residents of Gaza.

The Hamas leader also said that the residents of Gaza are suffering from a stifling crisis in providing a loaf of bread due to the occupation’s bombing of bakeries.

Naim accused the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) of colluding with Israel by neglecting its role established by international laws, calling on the global community and the United Nations not to submit to the will of the occupation.

The Hamas leader indicated that 2% of Gaza's population had become either martyrs, wounded, or missing.

For his part, Jalal Ismail, head of the Palestinian Energy Authority in Gaza, said that 70% of the electricity transmission and distribution networks in the Strip were destroyed by the ongoing Israeli war.

Ismail added that losses in the electricity sector in Gaza are estimated at more than $80 million.

Hospitals stopped

Also on the humanitarian level, Enas Abu Khalaf, head of the media office of Doctors Without Borders, said that more than 40% of hospitals in Gaza have stopped serving.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Abu Khalaf called for a ceasefire as it was the only way out of the humanitarian crisis in the Strip.

In this context, the spokesman for the Ministry of Health in Gaza, Ashraf Al-Qudra, warned of the escalation of the occupation’s threats to hospitals and the repeated request to evacuate the Rantisi Children’s Hospital, calling on the Red Cross to come inside the hospitals to protect them from the occupation.

He called for the ability to work to provide humanitarian corridors for aid and fuel to enter, to allow the exit of the wounded, and for medical teams of all specialties to enter.

Destruction of housing units

On another topic, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of expression, Irene Khan, revealed that Israel’s attacks on Gaza caused the destruction or damage of 45% of all housing units in the Strip.

Irene Khan added that this led to the internal displacement of 1.5 million people, and the death of more than 10,000 people, including more than 80 United Nations employees.

The UN official described the destruction of civilian homes and infrastructure in Gaza as an international war crime.

Irene Khan called on the world to act immediately to end the widespread attacks against civilian housing and infrastructure in Gaza, which have caused a heavy cost in lives.

For his part, the United Nations rapporteur on the right to food, Michael Fakhri, told Al Jazeera that the population in Gaza is at risk of genocide.

Americans have become more likely to describe Israel as an ally that shares U.S. interests and values since the war with Hamas began, but they’re divided over whether Israel has gone too far in its response to last month’s attack, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

The survey, which was conducted from Nov. 2 to 6, also reveals skepticism among Democrats toward Israel, which could present a challenge for President Joe Biden as he tries to balance support for the country’s defense and his party’s shifting priorities.

The result is a rather muddled picture that presents few easy options for the White House as it keeps one eye on public opinion with an election year on the horizon.

“It’s just so complicated,” said Carolyn Reyes, a 36-year-old Democrat in New York. “And I will not even pretend to understand the complicated nature of the relationship between the United States and Israel.”

During an August poll, only 32% of Americans described Israel as an ally that shares U.S. interests and values. But that figure increased to 44% in the latest survey, which was conducted after the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas that killed 1,400 Israelis.

However, only 36% said it’s extremely or very important to provide aid to Israel’s military to fight Hamas. And 40% of Americans said Israel’s military response in the Gaza Strip has gone too far. The Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip, which is run by Hamas, said 10,000 Palestinians have died from weeks of Israeli bombardment and a recent ground invasion.

Reyes recalled hearing about the death toll on the news and thinking “it seems so high, I thought that can’t be right.”

Four thousand children have died in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry there, and Reyes said “that’s the line that’s too far.”

It’s a sentiment more common among Democrats, 58% of whom view Israel’s counterattack as excessive.

Overall, 38% of Americans said Israel’s response has been about right, and just 18% said it has not gone far enough.

Complicating the situation is Americans’ interest in balancing several foreign policy goals simultaneously. About 6 in 10 believe it’s extremely important or very important for the U.S. to help recover hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, while roughly half said the same thing about preventing harm to Palestinian civilians or providing humanitarian relief in the territory.

Nearly two thirds of Americans (63%) disapprove of how Biden is handling the conflict between Israel and Hamas, while only one-third approve. That’s in line with his overall job approval: 60% of US adults disapprove of the way Biden is handling his job as president, while 38% approve.

The West Bank remains under military occupation. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 but instituted a blockade when Hamas took control, and there has been sporadic fighting for years. Americans pin blame for the current conflict on Hamas, which the U.S. government considers to be a terrorist organization. About two-thirds of Americans (66%) said Hamas has a lot of responsibility for the war, while 35% said the same about Israel.

About half of Americans (52%) say they are extremely or very concerned that the recent war between Israel and Hamas will increase prejudice against Jewish people in the United States. About 4 in 10 share the same concern about prejudice against Muslim people (43%). Majorities of Democrats are similarly concerned about prejudice against Jews (57%) and Muslims (58%). A slight majority of Republicans are worried about prejudice against Jews (54%) with fewer being concerned about Muslims (28%). Philipson said he didn’t want to vote for Donald Trump again, but would consider backing the former president in a potential contest with Biden next year.

The “Group of Seven” demands “humanitarian truces” and Blinken rejects the return of the occupation and the displacement of the Palestinians

The foreign ministers of the Group of Seven major industrialized countries called for “humanitarian truces” that would allow the introduction of humanitarian aid into Gaza, support the protection of Palestinian civilians, and the release of hostages held by “Hamas,” while US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken presented the clearest visions of President Joe Biden’s administration for what is called “today.” Next» in the Strip after the end of the war, warning the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against seeking to reoccupy Gaza, in the latest indication of increasing pressure from the United States and Western countries on Israel to stop the attack that has so far led to the death of more than ten thousand people.

About two weeks after the start of the Israeli ground invasion of Gaza in response to the Hamas attack on October 7, voices rose across the United Nations and countries around the world to allow the delivery of urgent humanitarian aid to about 2.4 million Palestinians living under the stifling siege in Gaza.

The group includes the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan. The latter currently holds the rotating presidency of this bloc, which held two-day meetings in Tokyo at the level of foreign ministers. The final statement fell short of calling for a comprehensive ceasefire, for fear that this would risk the Gaza Strip’s authority remaining under the control of “Hamas,” according to Secretary Blinken’s statements.

Truces and corridors

The unified statement of the foreign ministers stated: “We support humanitarian truces and corridors to facilitate urgently needed assistance, the movement of civilians and the release of hostages,” stressing “the importance of protecting civilians and complying with international law, especially international humanitarian law.”

As the ministers reiterated their condemnation of the Hamas attack, which the Israeli authorities announced led to the death of about 1,400 people, they said that “there is an urgent need for more humanitarian assistance to civilians” in Gaza, where the invasion, air strikes and bombings led to the death of more than ten thousand. One person, and more than 26 thousand were injured, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.

Despite the great support from the administration of President Joe Biden for what it calls “Israel’s right to defend itself” and its goal of eliminating “Hamas,” it has steadily raised its calls for a temporary halt to the fighting for humanitarian reasons in order to deliver aid to Gaza. During an entire month of the war, the United Nations was able to bring about 520 aid trucks into Gaza, noting that this number of trucks was sent daily to the besieged Strip before the start of this war.

Settler violence

The statement by the G7 ministers expressed their concern about “the escalation of extremist settler violence against Palestinians” in the West Bank, stressing that they will work together to “deprive (Hamas) of the ability to raise funds and use them to commit atrocities,” including by imposing new sanctions. 

The statement also called for a return to the “two-state solution” as “the only way to achieve a just, lasting and secure peace” in the Middle East. It urged Iran to “refrain from providing support to the Hamas movement, and from taking further measures that destabilize the Middle East, including support for the Lebanese Hezbollah and other non-governmental entities,” calling on Tehran to “use its influence with those groups to calm tensions.” Regional.

Unity of position

The statement appears to align more closely than previous G7 statements with the approach taken by Japan since the beginning of the war. While most of its G7 peers have offered full support for Israel, Japan has distinguished itself by issuing more moderate public statements calling on “all parties” to “exercise maximum restraint” in the conflict, and expressing concern about the number of casualties in both Israel and Gaza.

During the meetings in Tokyo, Blinken warned that Israel should not reoccupy Gaza, in a direct response to Netanyahu’s statements that Israel could bear responsibility for Gaza’s security “for an indefinite period as he said: “We all want to end this conflict as soon as possible, while at the same time reducing civilian suffering to a minimum.” But, as I discussed with my G7 colleagues, those demanding an immediate ceasefire have an obligation to explain how a ceasefire would work, and to address the unacceptable outcome that would likely result in Hamas remaining in power with more than 200 hostages. “With the declared ability and intention to repeat what happened on October 7 over and over again.”

Transitional period

Blinken added, “We are very clear about not reoccupying, just as we are very clear about not displacing the Palestinian population in the Israeli attack on Gaza.” He added that, on the other hand, “Hamas cannot continue to administer Gaza,” explaining that “the truth now is that there may be a need for some transitional period at the end of the conflict, but it is necessary for the Palestinian people to be central to governance in Gaza and the West Bank.” . He pointed out that Israeli leaders told him “that they do not intend to reoccupy Gaza,” without naming any of these officials.

This response from the chief American diplomat was the latest indication of potential tension between the Israeli government and its largest military supporter, the United States.

American officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to sensitive internal discussions, said that Netanyahu’s statements “raised a warning to the Biden administration, whose position is that Israel needs to avoid any reference to an open occupation of Gaza.” US officials appear to be increasingly concerned about Israel's plans for post-conflict Gaza. Blinken said that the administration “also wants to ensure other forms of protection for the residents of Gaza,” explaining that the basic elements for ending the conflict must include “no forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, neither now nor after the war,” in addition to that “the territory of Gaza should not be reduced.” .

Solidarity between black and Palestinian organizers is intertwined with historical roots. However, experts and activists believe that the events that occurred in recent years led to the crystallization of the intersections and similarities of the demonstrators...

American solidarity and popular support towards the Palestinian cause is increasing, about a month after the violent Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip, which many human rights organizations described as “genocide” against the Palestinians.

Anne Eliza Canning Skinner describes her participation in the Black Lives Matter demonstrations in 2020 as the first time she “experienced the meaning of solidarity.” Three years later, the 28-year-old young woman took to the streets of New York to demonstrate in support of the Palestinians.

The death toll from the continuous Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip since then has reached more than ten thousand people, most of them civilians, children and women, according to the latest toll of the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

Canning Skinner is one of thousands of demonstrators across the United States who took to the streets demanding a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to US funding for the Israeli army. Demonstrators in the United States are increasingly linking the Palestinian liberation movement to the black liberation movement.

In Brooklyn recently, Canning Skinner, a black woman, came out with demonstrators who raised signs reading “Black lives for Palestine” and “White silence is violence,” and the young woman asserts, “Everything is interconnected.”

There are historical roots of solidarity between black and Palestinian organizers. However, experts and activists believe that the events that occurred in recent years led to the crystallization of the similarities and intersections of the demonstrators.

“In terms of doing this kind of ideological work to convince people that Palestine is an issue they should engage with, I think Black Lives Matter was very important,” asserts Derek Ide, a historian at the University of Michigan.

He added, "There are more people in the streets, and this is certainly a result of the type of organizing that black activists have been doing alongside Palestinian groups and organizations."

Sam Klug, an African American studies historian who focuses on decolonization, explains that with the emergence of the Black Power and anti-war movements in the mid-twentieth century, “it became more common in African American activist circles to understand Palestinians as an oppressed people.”

He says that the 1967 war was an important turning point, noting that the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee - which was a major organizing force during the American civil rights movement - issued a bulletin that “took a strong pro-Palestinian position.”

He added, "She described a kind of shared state of oppression and occupation between African Americans and Palestinians and a kind of global colonial society."

Decades later, the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, sparked mass protests against racism and state violence, and the Black Lives Matter movement began to attract American attention.

In the summer of 2014, Israel launched a military campaign against Gaza for seven weeks, and historian Aydi confirms that “seeing these two things happening at the same time (..) reinforced that these are two unified struggles” for many activists.

He noted, "We saw a kind of wave of action and dialogue between the demonstrators in Ferguson as well as the Palestinians in Gaza (...) the exchange of tactics, strategies, and stories of oppression and resistance to oppression."

In 2020, the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police sparked more massive protests and strengthened efforts to combat racism in the United States.

Klug believes that “it is difficult to imagine” the current protests in the United States without the “Black Lives Matter” movement, and he said, “It is certainly not the only factor (..) but I think it is important.”

A number of demonstrators have recently pointed to the existence of links between Israeli law enforcement and American police, pointing in particular to programs that see American officers trained alongside their Israeli counterparts. Even before the current war, Israel has been waging military operations, some of which have included the use of lethal force against civilians. .

Klug noted “a clear shared visual language that people can see when Israeli security services brutalize Palestinian civilians, and which Americans have become familiar with from scenes of white police officers committing acts of violence against African-American civilians.”

These factors may help provide a partial explanation for why American opinion has grown and improved on the Palestinian issue, especially among young people in recent years, in a country whose government affirms unwavering support for Israel.

Klug asserts that the protests over the killing of George Florid and the work of Black Lives Matter that preceded them led to a shift in the conversation about the Palestinian issue for many black activists - and also more broadly "among young Americans of all races."

Klug spoke about the increasing activity on the left among anti-Zionist Jewish movements such as the “Jewish Voice for Peace” and the “If Not Now” movement, both of which have played a strong organizational role in recent weeks.

Joe Behanzen, who recently took part in a demonstration in Manhattan, confirmed that, inspired by “Black Lives Matter,” it is about what he described as “global solidarity.”

Source: arab48

Guterres comments on the number of civilian casualties resulting from the devastating Israeli raids on the Gaza Strip, and considers that “it is clear that there is an error in the method of carrying out military operations.” He says that "it is not in Israel's interest that a dire picture of tragic humanitarian needs appear on a daily basis."

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday that the number of civilians martyred in the Gaza Strip clearly shows that “there is something wrong with Israeli military operations” in Gaza.

Guterres added, in statements to Reuters, that the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) “when one looks at the number of civilians killed in military operations, it necessarily becomes clear that there is something wrong.”

He added, "It is also important to make Israel realize that it is not in its interest to display a terrible daily picture of the tragic humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people. This does not support Israel before world public opinion."

Guterres compared the number of children killed in Gaza with the number of children killed in conflicts around the world, on which the Secretary-General reports annually.

“Every year, the maximum number of children killed by any of the actors in all the conflicts we witness is in the hundreds,” he said.

He added, "We have thousands of children killed in Gaza within a few days, which means that there is a clear error in the method of carrying out military operations."

The United Nations report on children and armed conflict includes a list aimed at exposing parties to conflicts in the hope of pushing them to implement measures to protect children.

This matter has been controversial for a long time, and diplomats said that Israel has exerted pressure in recent years in an attempt to remove it from this list.

Israel pledged to eliminate Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, after its militants killed 1,400 people and detained more than 240 in an attack on October 7. Since then, Israel has continued an air and ground attack on the besieged Strip.

For 33 days, the Israeli army has been waging a war on Gaza, during which it destroyed residential neighborhoods on top of their residents, killing 10,569 Palestinians, including 4,324 children and 2,823 women, and wounding 26,475.

Also, 163 Palestinians were killed by Israeli occupation forces’ bullets in the occupied West Bank, hundreds were injured, and 2,280 were arrested in the West Bank, according to official sources.

Citizens were injured by live bullets on Wednesday evening, and others were injured as a result of settler attacks in the West Bank.

In Sebastia, a young man was injured by live bullets during the Israeli occupation forces’ storming of the town, northwest of Nablus.

The mayor of Sebastia, Muhammad Azem, said that a young man was injured by occupation bullets in the thigh, during confrontations that broke out with the Israeli occupation forces in the town after they stormed Antiquities Square.

In Salfit, two brothers were injured and bruised as a result of colonists assaulting them while picking olives on their land in the town of Burqin, west of the city.

Citizen Bashar Rafiq Abd al-Rahman reported that a group of colonists from the “Bruqin” colony attacked his two brothers, Muhammad and Hamza, with stones and sticks, while they were picking olives on their land in the northern side of the town of Burqin, and injured them with bruises, fractures, and wounds, after which they were transferred to the Martyr Yasser Arafat Hospital in Salfit.

Today, Wednesday, the Israeli occupation forces arrested three young men from the towns of Ya`bad and Jaba, south of Jenin.

According to local sources, Israeli occupation forces arrested the young man, Ali Muhammad Salem Amarneh, from the town of Ya’bad, and the two brothers, Osama and Salim Ahmed Sultana, from Jaba, after they headed to Salem camp, west of Jenin, based on the occupation forces summoning them to meet his intelligence services.

The Ministry of Education condemned the Israeli occupation forces’ attack on school students in Shuafat and Anata camps in the Jerusalem Governorate.

The Ministry confirmed in a statement issued this evening, Wednesday, that these ongoing unfair practices against children, students, and members of educational families in all regions require taking a position from human rights and legal institutions and child protection organizations. Especially in light of the escalating rate of attacks and genocide against the Gaza Strip and its children, which impedes students’ access to their schools, and deprives them of receiving their education in a safe, free and stable manner like the children of the world.

Imran Hussein, a member of the British House of Commons from the opposition Labor Party, resigned from his position as Minister of Labor and Unemployment Affairs in the shadow government in protest against the party leader’s refusal to demand a ceasefire in the Israeli war on Gaza.

Hussein will remain an elected member of the Labor Party in the House of Commons, and a few days ago he signed among 39 Labor Party delegates a parliamentary proposal to “immediately stop the escalation and fighting” in Gaza.

Labor Party Chairman Keir Starmer has so far rejected the growing calls in his party to demand a ceasefire, and his official position on the issue is to support a “humanitarian truce” that allows supplies and basic needs to enter the Gaza Strip, which is the same position adopted by the British government.

34 local councils affiliated with the Labor Party support a ceasefire, and a quarter of the party’s representatives in the House of Commons, and more than 20 ministers in the shadow government, also support the decision. They are pressuring the party’s leadership to change its position and support the ceasefire, which may cause widening divisions within the party. It jeopardizes Starmer's authority within him, according to a report by the British newspaper The Times.

Starmer has sought to win Jewish votes for the party since taking office in 2020, and followed the example of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on the conflict in the Middle East, saying that Israel has the right to defend itself against Hamas.

MP Andy McDonald, a close associate of former party leader Jeremy Corbyn, was accused of using “anti-Semitic” language for chanting at a demonstration, “Palestine will be free from the river to the sea.”

While John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor during Corbyn's leadership, defended the right of Labor MPs to use this language, considering that it expresses justice for the Palestinians.

Masses of people participated, this Wednesday evening, in a vigil and march in the center of the city of Ramallah, denouncing the continuing aggression of the Israeli occupation against our people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

The participants in the march, which was led by members of the Executive Committees of the Liberation Organization and the Central Committee of the Fatah Movement, and national and community activities in the governorate, raised Palestinian flags and banners, and banners denouncing the crimes of the occupation.

The participants chanted to denounce the crimes of the occupation, its ongoing massacres and its practice of genocide against our people, demanding an end to the continuing aggression and ethnic cleansing committed by the occupation in the Gaza Strip, and its ongoing crimes in the West Bank.

The Israeli Mini-Ministerial Council for War Affairs (War Cabinet) is expected to meet this evening, Wednesday, at the headquarters of the army’s Central Command, to discuss many developments, most notably the escalation taking place in the occupied West Bank, following recent operations, and attempts to carry out other operations.

The session also aims to develop a plan to avoid a scenario similar to the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation carried out by the Hamas movement on October 7, this time from the West Bank.

Maariv newspaper reported on Wednesday that an unnamed Israeli political source said at the beginning of the week to Israeli political correspondents: “We are not prepared for a situation in which thousands of Palestinians from Qalqiliya (in the West Bank) storm the city of Kfar Saba. There is a need for preparation in the West Bank as well.” ".

According to the political source, the head of Israeli government, Benjamin Netanyahu, asked the army to “plan for intensified operations in the event of an event similar to what happened on October 7th in the West Bank. We are talking about a scenario in which a thousand Palestinians arrive in a settlement,” indicating that “a response must be prepared.” An act in the West Bank at the same time as measures are being taken against the national crime.”

The "War Cabinet" will also discuss the continuation of the war on the Gaza Strip and the issue of a ceasefire.

According to Maariv, after US President Joe Biden confirmed that he requested a truce in his last conversation with Netanyahu, Israeli officials clarified that “the talk is not about exerting American pressure at this stage, but about a request. Our line has not changed, and the truce will not be considered unless in exchange for the release of the kidnapped.

Yesterday, Tuesday, the heads of local authorities in the settlements met with Israeli Security Minister Yoav Galant, and presented to him security warnings and serious concerns about scenarios similar to the Hamas attack in the south on October 7.