On Monday/Tuesday night, Israeli warplanes continued their raids and violent bombardment of citizens’ homes and many buildings in different areas of the Gaza Strip, resulting in the death and injury of dozens of citizens, including children and women.

Regarding the latest events, our correspondents said that at least five citizens, including a woman, were killed, and others were injured, after Israeli aircraft targeted, after midnight tonight, a house for the Al-Hamayda family in the Al-Shaboura camp in Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip.

Medical sources also reported that a citizen was killed and a number of injuries occurred in an Israeli bombing that targeted a residential building in the northern Gaza Strip.

Prior to that, bombing operations, with aircraft and artillery, were concentrated in the vicinity of Al-Quds Hospital in the Tal Al-Hawa area, and in Al-Shati Camp, Al-Maghazi, the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, Beit Hanoun, areas north of Beit Lahia, and other areas of the Gaza Strip, which resulted in the death and injury of a number of citizens. .

In this context, the Palestinian Red Crescent said that Israeli occupation aircraft targeted the vicinity of Al-Quds Hospital with two missiles, calling on organizations to quickly provide assistance and basic supplies to the Gaza Governorate and the northern region.

Medical sources expected that the fuel stock for the Al-Quds Hospital electricity generator would run out within the next 48 hours, while informed sources at Al-Awda Hospital confirmed that the fuel stock had begun to run out and would reach zero within 30 hours, while sources at the Indonesian Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip said that there were 24 hours remaining. The entire hospital stopped as it ran out of fuel, and some vital hospital departments had already stopped.

In a later development, Israeli aircraft targeted a mosque in the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.

Earlier on Monday, Israeli bombing and raids targeted many citizens’ homes west of Khan Yunis, in the Nuseirat camp, in Al-Qarara, Al-Shati camp, Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, Rafah, and Al-Shuja’iya.

The Ministry of Health had announced that the death toll and wounded among our people as a result of the ongoing aggression on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank had risen to 10,165 dead and about 27,000 wounded.

The Ministry stated, in its daily report on the aggression, yesterday, Monday, that 10,010 dead were killed in the Gaza Strip, and more than 25,000 were injured, and in the West Bank the number of dead rose to 155, and the wounded to about 2,250, since the seventh of last October. More than 70% of them are children, women and the elderly.

By Imtans shehadah

Security crises and war situations usually lead to the rearrangement of the political and party system in Israel. The 1967 war and its results were the beginning of the emergence of far-right parties in Israel, the strengthening of the discourse of the religious Zionist movement, and the increase of its strength and political and social presence. The 1973 war was the beginning of the end of the Labor Party in the 1977 elections, and the beginning of a change in the party system in Israel. The first and second intifadas also played important roles in partisan and political changes, and in changes in the political positions of Israeli society.

The war on Gaza...a political turning point

It is expected, according to all estimates, that the current war on Gaza will constitute a serious turning point in the political and partisan system in Israel, and push towards a change in the political positions and convictions of Israeli society. It can be said that it will be an impetus for rearranging the partisan and political scene in general in Israel, for many reasons. The most prominent of these reasons is that this war is unlike its predecessors in Israel in terms of military and security aspects, and reflects a major security failure of all security services and the government. The human losses so far are very large, especially the civilian losses on the home front, and the financial and material losses. This war fragmented the Israeli military doctrine and struck the security and political strategy that had been in place towards Gaza and the West Bank for two decades to the core.

This war is unlike its predecessors in Israel, and reflects a major security failure of all security services and the government

This war, existential in Israeli terms, came to make clear that no matter how much Israel ignores the natural rights of the Palestinian people, denies their right to self-determination, and prevents the establishment of a Palestinian state, it cannot abolish this right nor prevent the Palestinian people from struggling for that, no matter how much it uses tools for managing or reducing conflict. Thus, the Palestinian issue will return to being a main focus in the Israeli political scene after being almost completely ignored in the last two decades.

This war also came after nearly a year of internal rifts and protests in Israeli society over the government plan to restrict the judiciary, the erosion of the “Jewish democracy” equation from the perspective of liberal secular Zionist movements, and the attempt to weaken the judiciary, which demonstrated the depth and reality of the political and social rifts within Israeli society. It brought back to the forefront the rift between secular and religious trends, the rift between Jews of Western origins and Jews of Eastern origins, and class rifts. All of them came together in the government plan to restrict the judiciary, ostensibly, because it reflected a real struggle over the nature of the political, social, and economic system in Israeli society.

All of this means that there is a necessary need, from an Israeli perspective, to put forward political projects that are compatible with the re-evaluation of the military strategic situation and how to deal with the Palestinian issue, on the one hand, and to deal with the projections of the government plan to restrict the judiciary and the deep rifts within Israeli society, on the other hand. Nor can we ignore the need to deal with the economic crisis that will befall Israel after the end of the war. These factors together have defined the political rifts in Israel in recent decades.

Since 2009, the Likud Party, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Likud Camp have become a dominant camp in the political system in Israel, after decades in which the Labor Party and the Likud Party shared control of the party system in Israel. In this sense, there was no possibility of forming a government in Israel that was not headed by Likud and Netanyahu, except for a very short period between 2021 and 2022.

This reflects the dominance of right-wing security, political, economic and social values and positions in Israeli society. Rather, these values and positions turned into the lowest ceiling for any political proposal, thus paving the way for the extreme right’s control of the political and party scene in Israel. The proposals of the traditional Zionist left were almost completely absent and the parties that represented it, such as the Labor Party and the Meretz Party, disappeared. Instead, center-right parties grew, whose political projects and proposals did not differ much from those of the traditional Likud Party, but they opposed Netanyahu personally and refused to join an alliance led by him, such as the “There is a Future” party led by Yair Lapid, and the “National Camp” party led by Benny Gantz, who finally joined the war government led by Netanyahu.

The failure and prolongation of the Gaza war, and the human and material losses, will have a significant impact on the standing of Likud and Netanyahu directly.

The great failure and the current war on Gaza, and the expectations that the war will be prolonged and the human and material losses will increase, not to mention the losses in the medium and long term, including the possibility of a decline in Israel’s international standing and perhaps strengthening the economic, academic and other boycott campaigns, will all have a major impact on the standing of the Likud Party and Netanyahu directly and immediately. 

Netanyahu was accused from the first moment of being responsible for the major failure and its consequences, and that he neglected the warnings of the military establishment and focused only on the plan to restrict the judiciary and worked to save himself from the criminal courts, fragmenting Israeli society and weakening security and military capabilities. There is almost consensus among political analysts and political leaders that the end of Netanyahu's political career will come directly with the end of the war. Rather, there are those who demand that this be done immediately by withholding personal confidence from Netanyahu and forming a new government, even if that was during the war and in an exceptional and unprecedented manner in the history of Israel.

The end of Netanyahu's political career means the end of Likud's control over legislative and executive power. But it also means great harm to the far-right parties that are partners in the current government, which are accused, along with Netanyahu, of contributing to the major military failure, of being unable to manage the civil and economic aspects of the war, and of being prepared to burn the region in order to achieve their political desires. In this sense, the war on Gaza will lead to a decline in the status and strength of the right-wing and extremist parties that are partners in the existing government coalition.

Rearranging the party scene

Netanyahu's political end will open the door to competition for the leadership of the right-wing camp, and may provide an opportunity for the return of right-wing figures who left the Likud Party due to Netanyahu's presence, or to build new alliances between right-wing parties, or to establish new right-wing parties, and for the return of right-wing political figures who have retired from politics, even temporarily, to the forefront. Like former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. It will also strengthen the position of the “General Camp” party headed by Gantz, and to a lesser extent the “There is a Future” party headed by Lapid.

Netanyahu's political demise will open the door to competition to lead the right-wing camp, and may provide an opportunity for the return of right-wing figures who left the Likud Party.

The decline in the status of Likud in particular and the far-right parties in general will not lead to the emergence of new left-wing Zionist parties or the strengthening of the presentation of left-wing projects. Rather, it may lead, despite what happened and the failure of the complete right-wing government, to an expansion of the spread of right-wing values in Israeli society.

The great failure and war on Gaza will lead, as previous military failures or successes have led, to rearranging the political scene and the party system in Israel. Despite the responsibility of the right-wing government for the great failure and war, and its results, it will lead to the strengthening of the values and positions of the right in Israeli society, to the emergence of new parties carrying the projects of the traditional right, and to the shift of the parties of the center right, and Israeli society in general, to the values and positions of the traditional right.

Despite the comprehensive war waged by the Israel on the Gaza Strip and its application of the “scorched earth” policy, the Hamas movement and the Palestinian resistance factions are still steadfast and confronting the attempts of Israeli forces to advance on the ground. Through the following report, Reuters monitors the extent of Hamas’ readiness for this battle and its vision for the end of the war. 

Reuters quotes two sources close to the leadership of Hamas that the movement is preparing for a long and protracted war in the Gaza Strip, and believes that it is capable of obstructing the advance of the Israeli forces for a sufficient period of time to force its arch enemy to agree to a ceasefire.

The two sources, who refused to reveal their identities due to the sensitivity of the situation, said that Hamas has been stockpiling weapons, missiles, food, and medical supplies.

Ending the siege on Gaza

They added that the movement is confident that thousands of its fighters can survive for several months in a city of tunnels dug deep into the Palestinian Strip, and that they have the ability to keep Israeli forces busy with guerrilla warfare tactics in urban areas.

The two sources said that Hamas believes that international pressure on Israel, in the end, to end the siege with increasing civilian casualties, could impose a ceasefire and reach a negotiated settlement that would provide a tangible concession such as the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the release of Israeli prisoners.

Four Hamas officials, a regional official, and a source familiar with the White House's thinking indicated that the movement made clear to the United States and Israel, during indirect negotiations regarding the prisoners mediated by Qatar, that it wanted to impose such a prisoner release.

In the longer term, Hamas said it wants to end the 17-year-old Israeli siege of Gaza, as well as halt Israeli settlement expansion and what Palestinians see as harsh actions by Israeli security forces at Al-Aqsa Mosque.

On Thursday, United Nations experts called for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, saying that the Palestinians there face a “grave risk of genocide.” Many experts believe that there is an escalating crisis, with no clear end in sight for either side.

Marwan Muasher, who previously held the positions of Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of Jordan, and currently works at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said: “The mission of destroying Hamas will not be easy to achieve,” and added: “There will be no military solution to this conflict. We are going through difficult times, and the war will not be short."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to eliminate Hamas and rejected calls for a ceasefire. Israeli officials say they have no idea what might await them, and accuse Hamas of hiding behind civilians.

Danny Danon, the former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations and a former member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said that his country had prepared for a “long and painful war,” and added to Reuters: “We know that we will win in the end and that we will defeat Hamas. The question will be what the price will be.” “We have to be very careful and realize that maneuvering in an urban area is very complicated.”

The United States said that now is not the time for a general ceasefire, but says that a cessation of hostilities is necessary to deliver humanitarian aid.

Hamas "fully prepared"

Adeeb Ziadeh, a Palestinian expert in international affairs at Qatar University who has participated in studies on Hamas, told Reuters that the movement must have a long-term plan: “Those who carried out the October 7 attack with this level of competence and this "The level of experience, precision and strength, they must be prepared for a long-term battle. Hamas cannot engage in such an attack without being fully prepared and mobilized to face the outcome."

The source familiar with the White House's thinking, who requested anonymity to speak freely, said that Washington expects Hamas to try to lure Israeli forces into a battle in the streets of Gaza and inflict on them military losses heavy enough to weaken Israeli public support for a long-term conflict.

He added that, however, Israeli officials have assured their American counterparts that they are prepared to confront Hamas' guerrilla tactics, as well as withstand international criticism of Israeli attacks. He also said that the question is whether Israel is able to eliminate Hamas, or merely severely weaken its power, remains standing.

Sources in Hamas say that the number of its fighters is about 40,000, and they can move throughout the Strip using a vast network of fortified tunnels, hundreds of kilometers long and up to 80 meters deep, that were built over many years.

Gunmen in Gaza were seen on Thursday emerging from tunnels to shoot at tanks, then disappearing back into the tunnel network, according to residents and videos.

The Israeli occupation army says that soldiers from the Yahalom unit, a special forces unit of the Israeli combat engineering corps, are working with other units to uncover, evacuate and destroy the tunnels, in what a spokesman described as a “complex battle” in Gaza.

Hamas has fought a series of wars against Israel in the past few decades, and Ali Baraka, head of the Hamas National Relations Department who resides in Beirut, told Reuters that the movement has developed and strengthened its military capabilities over the years.

Baraka said: “Our weapons are national security. No one knows what we have. In every war, we must surprise them with something new. We are working on making the missile accurate and lethal, and we are developing the missiles we have.” He added that in the 2008 Gaza war the maximum range of Hamas rockets was 40 kilometers, but that increased to 230 kilometers in 2021.

There is no peace without the Palestinians

Osama Hamdan, a Hamas leader residing in Lebanon, told Reuters that the October 7 attack and the war on Gaza will put the Palestinian issue on the map again. He added to Reuters: “This is an opportunity for us to tell them that we can fulfill our destiny.” With our own hands, we can arrange the region’s cards as we want, and as it protects our interests.”

An Arab peace initiative, with broad international support and Arab consensus, has been on the table since 2002. The plan offers Israel peace treaties with full diplomatic relations in exchange for the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state.

Instead, Netanyahu chose for Israel to create an alliance with Sunni Arab countries. The coalition consists of Egypt and Jordan, which signed peace treaties with Israel in 1979 and 1994, in addition to the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco.

Before the Hamas attack on October 7, US-brokered talks were being held with Saudi Arabia to reach a historic diplomatic agreement that would form a united front against Iran, but this process has been suspended since then.

Muasher said that the Hamas attack destroyed any possibility of achieving stability in the Middle East without dealing with the Palestinians, and added: “It is clear today that without peace with the Palestinians there will be no peace in the region.”

Jordan said on Monday that it was leaving all options open in its response to what it described as Israel's failure to distinguish between military and civilian targets in its intense bombing and invasion of the Gaza Strip.

According to the Reuters news agency, Prime Minister Bisher Al-Khasawneh did not clarify the further steps that Jordan would take after it recalled its ambassador from Israel a few days ago in protest against the bombing launched by Israel on Gaza after the Hamas movement’s cross-border attack on it on October 7. Jordan announced last week that it would not allow the Israeli ambassador, who left Amman shortly after the Hamas attack, to return to resume his duties at the present time, and said that he is persona non grata.

Al-Khasawneh, whose country signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, told official media that all options are available to Jordan in dealing with what he described as the Israeli aggression against Gaza and its repercussions. He stated that the siege imposed by Israel on the densely populated Gaza Strip is not self-defense as it claims. He added that the Israeli attack does not distinguish between civilian and military targets and extends to safe areas and ambulances.

Israel denied intentionally bombing civilian targets in densely populated areas, and said that Hamas uses civilians as human shields, digs tunnels under hospitals, and uses ambulances to transport its fighters.

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement, “The country’s relations with Jordan are of strategic importance to both countries, and we regret the inflammatory statements issued by the Jordanian leadership.” Diplomats familiar with Jordanian politics said that the country is reviewing its economic, security and political relations with Israel, and is even considering suspending further steps in implementing the peace treaty if the bloodshed in Gaza worsens.

The war between Israel and Hamas has reawakened old fears in Jordan, which hosts a large number of Palestinian refugees, that Israel would seize the opportunity and expel Palestinians en masse from the West Bank, where attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians have increased since the Hamas attack on October 7. 

These fears have increased since the Israeli coalition government - which belongs to the religious nationalist movement and is considered the most right-wing government ever - took power last year, and some extremists adopted the principle that "Jordan is Palestine."

Officials said that King Abdullah expressed these concerns during his talks with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels, warning of widespread violence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem if Jewish settler attacks against Palestinian civilians were not curbed.

Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said that any move to transfer Palestinians to Jordan, which shares a common border with the West Bank, is a “red line” that amounts to a declaration of war. Al-Safadi said last week that Jordan would confront any attempt by Israel to expel the Palestinians in an effort to change the geography and demographics. Security sources said that the Jordanian army has already strengthened its positions along the border.

Diplomats said that Jordan's concerns were at the top of the issues discussed in talks with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken since the outbreak of the Gaza war, and they are likely to be raised in a meeting with William Burns, director of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), during his stop in Jordan soon.

The American CNN network said on Tuesday that the UN Security Council failed to adopt a draft resolution to stop the war between Israel on the one hand and the Hamas movement and Palestinian factions on the other hand in the Gaza Strip.

CNN quoted Deputy US Ambassador to the United Nations Robert Wood as saying, “There is no agreement at this stage.”

A group of ten non-permanent members of the Security Council had submitted the draft resolution, but the United States and Britain, the two permanent members of the Security Council that have veto power, rejected it.

Western powers, especially Washington and London, oppose the draft resolution including phrases calling for an immediate ceasefire, according to what the Arab World News Agency reported.

“There have been discussions about humanitarian truces and we are interested in continuing the conversation in this regard,” Wood said. “There were disagreements within the Security Council about whether this (immediate ceasefire) would be acceptable.”

Israel launches an air and ground attack on Hamas after the movement carried out a bloody armed attack in southern Israel last month, killing 1,400 and taking 240 others hostage. Health authorities in the Strip said that the Israeli bombing killed at least 10,000 people in Gaza.

The White House: “We want humanitarian truces as soon as possible and we continue to discuss this with the Israelis. Civilians should also be spared and more aid trucks should be sent to Gaza.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with US President Joe Biden on Monday evening, where they discussed the latest developments in the war in the Gaza Strip, and they also discussed the possibility of carrying out “humanitarian truces” during the war.

National Security Council spokesman at the White House, John Kirby, said, “Biden and Netanyahu discussed the possibility of carrying out humanitarian truces in the war. We believe that this is the beginning of the discussion, and other talks are scheduled to take place in the coming days.”

He pointed out that they also discussed the situation in the occupied West Bank.

Kirby explained, “The United States is tracking humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, and that is not enough,” adding that “more Americans are scheduled to leave the Gaza Strip today.”

He added, "Changing the positioning of our forces in the Middle East is a message of deterrence to anyone who tries to escalate the conflict. We want the Israelis to reduce civilian casualties and be careful."

According to what was issued by the White House, Israel was informed that “its operations against Hamas must be swift, decisive, and lethal,” adding, “We do not specify for the Israelis their targets in Gaza and we continue to urge them to be careful regarding civilians.”

In this context, the US Department of Defense (the Pentagon) estimated the number of civilians killed in Gaza in the thousands, without providing a specific number.

For its part, the US State Department said that it does not question the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the huge loss of civilian lives.

It added, "We are discussing with Israel and Egypt the issue of bringing fuel into Gaza in a way that helps civilians and not Hamas," while it considered that "Israel has every right to defend itself, and it is important to differentiate between Hamas and civilians."

Source: Arab48

While the report stated that “Egypt has proven in the past to be an effective mediator in conflicts between Israel and Hamas,” it noted that “there are many disagreements and anger between Egypt and Israel over a variety of issues.”

An Israeli press report stated that the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, had not spoken since the start of the war on Gaza, a month ago, but it indicated that a delegation from the Israeli General Security Service (Shin Bet) had visited Egypt during the war. .

This came according to what was reported by the Israeli Public Broadcasting Authority (“Kan 11”), citing unnamed foreign and Israeli sources.

According to an Israeli source, "direct contact between the heads of state would have helped in the ongoing talks today regarding the hostages."

The report pointed out that Cairo “maintains contacts with Israel through several other sources, including the head of the (Israeli General Security Service) Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, and other sources,” which it did not mention.

In the same regard, the report said that “senior Shin Bet officials visited Egypt during the war.”

While the report stated that “Egypt has proven in the past to be an effective mediator in conflicts between Israel and Hamas,” it noted that “there are many disagreements and anger between Egypt and Israel over a variety of issues.”

Among the issues are those “related to the proposal to receive Gaza refugees, and with regard to activities in Rafah (such as the entry of humanitarian aid from the crossing) and other issues.”

According to the same report, Israeli sources say, “There is an attempt to renew Egyptian activity on various issues, including talks between the Egyptian Foreign Minister and his ministerial counterparts in Israel.”

This comes as US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, failed to reach understandings with the Arab foreign ministers in Amman, the day before yesterday, Saturday, on “one agreed upon vision” regarding the management of the besieged Gaza Strip after the war that Israel has been waging for 31 days. on the Gaza Strip, while renewing Washington's attempts to pressure Cairo to agree to receive refugees from the Gaza Strip, which is met with "strict rejection from the Egyptian military establishment."

This came according to what Al-Araby Al-Jadeed newspaper reported on Monday, citing Egyptian sources familiar with Cairo’s movements regarding the Israeli aggression, following the meeting that brought together Blinken with his Egyptian, Jordanian, Saudi, Qatari and Emirati counterparts in the Jordanian capital, with the participation of the Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

The sources pointed out that Blinken “failed to reach a single agreed-upon vision, due to the discrepancy in positions between Washington and some Arab parties attending the meeting,” while an Egyptian diplomat who spoke to the newspaper explained that Blinken’s visit to Amman was primarily aimed at discussing “scenarios for managing the Gaza Strip in Following the end of the Israeli aggression.”

It explained that Blinken’s efforts were rejected by 3 parties participating in the meeting, and the Egyptian diplomat indicated that “some participants assured Blinken that it is impossible to completely eradicate the Hamas movement from Gaza, which means that the war must end first, so that thinking can begin in light of Its results, and an estimate of the magnitude of the force of the movement at that time.”

The newspaper quoted another source as saying that Cairo had received “a new proposal regarding hosting numbers of residents of the Gaza Strip,” saying that “the new proposal came beyond Egyptian fears, announced through officials in Cairo, about the possibility of those who will move from the Gaza Strip to Sinai representing a subsequent threat to Egyptian security.” If they launch attacks on the Israeli occupation from within Egyptian territory.”

The source explained, "The new proposal included transferring the numbers that could be agreed upon to the west of the Suez Canal by distributing them to the canal governorates, represented by Port Said, Suez, and Ismailia, and not to the east of the canal as was proposed to settle them in Sinai."

The source added, "All of these scenarios are met with strict rejection by the Egyptian military establishment, which refuses to respond to any of the proposals to resettle the population of the Gaza Strip or part of them in Egypt, regardless of the temptations and facilities offered by the American administration and Western parties."

The Prisoners' Affairs Authority and the Palestinian Prisoners' Club confirmed the martyrdom of prisoner Majed Ahmed Zaqul (32 years old), from Gaza, in Ofer Prison. He was one of the workers who were arrested after October 7, and the occupation had concealed the crime of his assassination during the recent period until it was announced. This was done through his media outlets, and we were not able to confirm his identity at the time.

The authority and the club pointed out that the martyr Zakul moved to the West Bank three years ago and was suffering from cancer. He went to work in the territories occupied in 1948 six months ago, as did thousands of our people. He is married with a child, and his family is in Gaza.

The authority and the club said in a joint statement that the occupation not only assassinated the detainee Zaqul, but rather concealed his death and did not announce it, except through its media two days ago, when the occupation announced the release of two workers, one in “Ofer” prison, and the other in “Antot” camp. Their identities were not revealed at the time, and until this moment we have not been able to know the identity of the second martyr announced by the occupation. The case is still under follow-up.

The authority and the club confirm that fears are mounting over their fate, especially in light of the horrific data recently reported by the workers.

With the death of the prisoner Zaqul, the number of martyrs of the prisoner movement has risen to (240) martyrs since 1967.

On Monday evening, settlers, protected by the Israeli occupation forces, attacked citizens’ homes in the villages of Al-Rakiz and Al-Mufaqara in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron.

According to local sources, the settlers of the “Afi Gal” settlement, established on citizens’ lands and property east of Yatta, attacked citizens’ homes in the villages of Al-Mufaqara and Al-Rakiz, destroyed drinking water tanks belonging to the family of the citizen Muhammad Hassan Muhammad, and destroyed a mobile home “caravan” belonging to the citizen Ahmed Okasha Makhamra. They cut water networks, destroyed solar cells, and punctured the tires of a vehicle belonging to the citizen Noaman Hamamda.

Two Palestinians were injured, Monday evening, during confrontations with the Israeli forces, in the town of Ya`bad, west of Jenin, and the Al-Arroub camp in Hebron.

According to local sources, Israeli forces stormed the town, deployed snipers on the roofs of buildings, and raided several homes, which led to the outbreak of confrontations, during which soldiers fired live bullets, stun grenades, and toxic tear gas, which led to a citizen being injured by a bullet in his foot.

According to other sources, Israeli soldiers detained the injured person, seized his cell phone, and prevented ambulance crews from reaching him.

The Israeli soldiers also destroyed the memorial to the martyrs of the town of Ya'bad.

In Hebron, citizens suffered from suffocation during confrontations that broke out between citizens and the occupation forces stationed at the entrance to the Arroub camp, during which soldiers fired live bullets, stun grenades, and toxic tear gas at citizens and their homes, causing dozens of suffocation cases.

Jordanian King Abdullah II stressed the need to stop settler attacks on Palestinian citizens in the West Bank, warning of the deterioration of the situation in the West Bank and in Holy Jerusalem.

During his meeting today, Monday in Brussels, the Secretary-General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Jens Stoltenberg, and members of the North Atlantic Council, the King of Jordan called for the necessity of working for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and protecting civilians.

He considered that today everyone is paying the price for the absence of a political solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, stressing that there must be a comprehensive vision for regional security based on a solution to the Palestinian issue, and a radical solution to the conflict on the basis of the two-state solution.

A report by the Secret Flights website, which tracks flights, showed on Monday that there has been a decline in flights to and from Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel, by an average of 80 percent since the outbreak of the war.

The website reported that an average of 100 flights per day landed at Ben Gurion Airport during the war, compared to the usual 500 flights during the pre-war period.

Most of the traffic relates to the three Israeli carriers: Al Al, Arkia, and Israel. At a time when most foreign airlines have canceled their flights due to the war on Gaza, and the sharp rise in insurance premiums for airlines.

Ambassador Mohammed Al-Emadi, Chairman of the Qatari Committee for the Reconstruction of Gaza, expressed the State of Qatar’s strong denunciation of the allegations of the Israeli occupation army spokesman that there are tunnels under the Sheikh Hamad Hospital for Artificial Limbs in Gaza without concrete evidence or an independent investigation, and considered it a blatant attempt to justify the occupation’s targeting of civilian objects, including this includes hospitals, schools, population centers, and shelters for displaced people.

Ambassador Al-Emadi confirmed, in a statement to Qatar News Agency, that Sheikh Hamad Hospital in Gaza was established transparently in accordance with the highest international standards under the supervision of the Qatari Committee for the Reconstruction of Gaza, with Israeli approval, for medical purposes and that thousands of people in Gaza benefited from it, stressing that such allegations should not be made arbitrarily. He demanded that the Israeli narrative not be taken as a present reality without an independent investigation into the allegations it constitutes, warning at the same time against using it as a pretext to target civilian facilities.

He warned Israeli authorities that targeting Sheikh Hamad Hospital in Gaza means depriving thousands of patients of its services, and will be added to the series of war crimes committed by Israel against civilians and their service facilities, especially the atrocities that recently affected a number of hospitals and ambulance convoys.

He explained that Sheikh Hamad Hospital in Gaza, which was established with funding from the Qatar Fund for Development, and with the implementation of the committee, provides therapeutic services in the departments of prosthetics, motor and verbal rehabilitation, occupational therapy, nursing, speech and swallowing, audiology, and children, considering the hospital one of the most important medical facilities. In Gaza, which provides essential services to a wide segment of civilians.

Ambassador Al-Emadi called on the international community to line up firmly to condemn the targeting of health services in Gaza, and to oblige Israel to respect international laws, warning of the danger of giving Israel a green light to indiscriminately bomb Gaza’s population and infrastructure.

Despite a massive bombing campaign and ground invasion in Gaza, a senior Pentagon official believes Israel is no closer to eliminating Hamas' leadership, the New York Times reported Saturday.

According to the report: “A senior official in the US Department of Defense, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details, said that the operations so far have not come close to destroying the ranks of Hamas’ senior and middle leadership.”

According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, at least 10,100 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli attack, including at least 4,008 children. The newspaper report said that the United States is presenting proposals to Israel to reduce civilian casualties, such as using smaller bombs, but the administration of US President Joe Biden has so far refused to use the huge amount of military and other aid to put pressure on Israel.

According to the Washington Post, the United States is not setting conditions on military aid or using any other leverage it has over Israel because it “would not be very politically popular in any administration, in part because, aides say, Biden himself has a personal connection to Israel.” .

According to several press sources in Washington, White House advisors believe that the ongoing “Israeli ground invasion” in Gaza, which appears to be stuck without the ability to achieve the declared Israeli goals up to this moment, will only lead to destabilization and escalation in the region. Regardless of US officials' view of the war, they are seeking an additional $14 billion from Congress to continue funding the offensive.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Israel on Friday and proposed a "short humanitarian truce," but the idea was rejected by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, even though the administration is working to get an additional $14.5 billion in support for Israel.

It is noteworthy that Blinken went to Amman and met with Arab leaders and foreign ministers on Saturday, who called for a true ceasefire, an idea rejected by the Biden administration. Blinken said: “From our point of view, a ceasefire now will leave Hamas in place and able to regroup and repeat what it did on November 7.”

The Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, described Gaza as a “cemetery for children,” launching a call for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas, calling for the collection of $1.2 billion to help the 2.7 million Palestinians in Gaza, and half a million Palestinians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

“The nightmare in Gaza is more than just a humanitarian crisis,” Guterres told reporters at the United Nations’ headquarters in New York. It is a crisis for humanity,” he said, adding that “the raging conflict is shaking the world and the region.”

He stressed that “no one is safe” due to the ground operations of Israeli forces and the continuous bombing that “hit civilians, hospitals, refugee camps, mosques, churches, and United Nations facilities - including shelters.”

He also reiterated his criticism of “Hamas” and other militants who “use civilians as human shields and continue to fire rockets randomly toward Israel,” reiterating his “absolute condemnation of the hateful terrorist acts committed by (Hamas) on October 7, and calling for “the launch of Immediate, unconditional and safe release of the hostages held in Gaza.”

Guterres referred to reports that “hundreds of girls and boys are killed or injured every day,” noting also that “more journalists were killed during a period of four weeks than in any other conflict in at least three decades,” in addition to “the largest number killed.” of United Nations staff from any similar period in the history of our Organization.” He stressed that the unfolding catastrophe makes the need for a humanitarian ceasefire “more urgent by the hour,” stressing that “the parties to the conflict - and even the international community - face an immediate and fundamental responsibility to stop this inhuman mass suffering, and to significantly expand the scope of humanitarian aid to Gaza.” .

The UN chief announced that the United Nations and its partners had launched a “humanitarian appeal worth $1.2 billion to help 2.7 million people, the total population of the Gaza Strip, and half a million Palestinians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”

He explained that “the Rafah crossing alone does not have the capacity to handle aid trucks of the required size,” adding that “slightly more than 400 trucks crossed into Gaza during the past two weeks, compared to 500 trucks per day before the conflict.”

"Without fuel, newborns in incubators and patients who need life support will die," he warned. It is not possible to  “pump or purify water,” reiterating the demand for a “humanitarian ceasefire now.” He called on all parties to "respect all their obligations under international humanitarian law, now."

Guterres expressed "deep concern about the escalation of violence and the expansion of the conflict," adding that "the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, has reached a boiling point."

He urged "not to forget the importance of addressing the risks of the conflict spreading to the broader region," pointing to the "spiral of escalation" that includes Lebanon and Syria in addition to Iraq and Yemen.

He also expressed "deep concern about the rise of anti-Semitism and intolerance against Muslims." He said: “We must act now to find a way out of the impasse of brutal, horrific and painful destruction,” calling for “help paving the way for peace, and a two-state solution where Israelis and Palestinians live in peace and security.”

The Israeli army said in a statement that about 30 missiles were fired from Lebanon towards northern Israel this evening (Monday), which led to a response with artillery fire.

The Israeli army reported this evening that Lebanese armed groups fired 30 missiles at northern Israel during the past hour.

The statement added that the Israeli army then bombed the missile launch sites.

The Israeli army had announced in another statement earlier that during the night of last Sunday, with the help of the intelligence agency, Israeli fighter planes killed Wael Asfa, commander of the Deir al-Balah battalion in the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), accusing him of planning many Attacks against Israel.

The United Nations forces operating in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL) called today (Monday) for a ceasefire on the Lebanese-Israeli border, warning that the escalation would spiral out of control.
UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti said in a statement today that “Yesterday, UNIFIL witnessed heavy gunfire across the Blue Line” on the Lebanese-Israeli border.

Tenenti continued, "We heard tragic reports about the killing of 4 civilians, 3 girls and a woman, in the vicinity of Aitaroun in southern Lebanon," warning that "the possibility of the escalation getting out of control is clear and must be stopped."

He added, "We urge everyone to cease fire now to prevent more people from being harmed," adding, "The death of any civilian is a tragedy, and no one wants to see more people injured or killed."

Tenenti reminded all concerned parties that attacks against civilians constitute a violation of international law and may amount to war crimes.

A Lebanese woman and three of her grandchildren were killed and their mother was injured yesterday in a missile attack launched by an Israeli drone on a car carrying them in the Ghadmata area, located between the towns of Aitaroun and Ainata in western southern Lebanon, according to Lebanese military sources.

Meanwhile, an Israeli citizen was killed on Sunday in a Lebanese Hezbollah missile attack on the border, according to official Israeli sources.

Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati announced yesterday that his government would submit an “urgent complaint” against Israel to the UN Security Council in response to “the targeting of civilians and children.”

According to the official Lebanese National News Agency, Lebanon filed a complaint today.

The agency quoted caretaker Foreign Minister Abdullah Bouhabib as saying, "It is a war crime that clearly reflects Israel's policy of deliberately targeting families, children, medics, and journalists."

Yesterday, an Israeli drone targeted with a missile two ambulances belonging to the Islamic Message Scouts, a scouting association that carries out civil defense work, in the vicinity of the town of Tair Harfa in western southern Lebanon, wounding four paramedics, according to Lebanese military sources.

On October 14, Lebanon submitted a complaint to the UN Security Council against Israel against the backdrop of "the deliberate killing of Lebanese journalist Issam Abdullah, who worked for Reuters."

Abdullah was killed on October 13 in an Israeli bombing that targeted press crews on the outskirts of the town of Alma al-Shaab in southern Lebanon, which also led to the injury of 5 journalists.

The border between Lebanon and Israel has witnessed daily bombing and shooting operations between Hezbollah and Palestinian movements on the one hand and the Israeli army on the other since the outbreak of fighting between the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and Israel in the Gaza Strip and its environs on October 7 last.

The head of the Prisoners' and Ex-Prisoners' Affairs Authority, Qaddoura Fares, called on the International Committee of the Red Cross to make all possible efforts to stop the Israeli occupation's violations against detainees.

Fares spoke during his meeting today, Monday, with a delegation from the International Committee of the Red Cross, which included: the Protection Coordinator for the International Committee of the Red Cross mission working in Palestine and the occupied territories, Camelia Maltiosi, the Director of the West Bank Offices, Arnoud Mafri, and the Director of the Central Offices, Suha Musleh, about the overall details and developments of the issue of detainees, and the fierce attacks against them, including abuse, attacks, deprivation of rights.

He called for the necessity of working to quickly reveal the numbers and data of detainees in the Gaza Strip, whom the occupying state refuses to disclose and their fate, pointing to the general dissatisfaction with the role of the committee’s mission, and that there is a feeling from institutions working in the field of detainees and their families that negligence costs them more isolation from them.

In the same context, Fares called on the Kingdom of the Netherlands to use its influence on the Israeli state, to stop the aggression against the Palestinian people, stop its attack on male and female detainees inside its prisons, and put an end to the persecution, arrest, and abuse of citizens in the West Bank, including Jerusalem.

This came during his meeting with the Dutch Ambassador to the State of Palestine, Michel Rentenaar, where he informed him of the reality of the catastrophic conditions of the detainees, as a result of the immoral and inhumane practices carried out by the Israeli prison administration and the repression units that have been present inside the departments and in front of the rooms since October 7 until this moment.

He said: “Since the beginning of the war, the detainees have been isolated inside their rooms. All of their possessions, including clothes, blankets, kitchen utensils, and electrical appliances, were taken away. They were deprived of drinking water and showers. Television channels were deleted, radios were confiscated, and newspapers were prevented from entering. They were deliberately insulted and humiliated during the counting and inspection, and the quantities of food were reduced to more than half were treated badly, with daily raids and beatings on them, which reached the point of breaking hands and legs, and executions began, as happened with the two prisoners, Daraghmeh and Hamdan,” stressing that “the most dangerous thing is the carrying of firearms by the police and soldiers of the prison administration and repression units.”

The agency said: “Protecting civilians in times of conflict is not an aspiration or an ideal. It is the responsibility of our shared humanity. Civilians must be protected wherever they are.”…

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) confirmed that “one child is killed and two children are injured every 10 minutes at an average rate in the Gaza Strip,” which has been subjected to intense attacks by Israel since October 7.

This was stated in a post on the UNRWA account on the X platform, on Monday.

The agency said: “Protecting civilians in times of conflict is not an aspiration or an ideal. It is the responsibility of our common humanity. Civilians must be protected wherever they are.”

Today, Monday, the Israeli army bombed the third floor of the Rantissi Hospital for Children, west of Gaza City. A spokesman for the Ministry of Health in Gaza said: Israel deliberately targeted the water and solar energy tanks in the Rantissi Hospital, exposing the lives of about 7,000 patients, medical staff, and displaced persons to death of thirst.

For more than a month, the Israeli army has been waging a “destructive war” on Gaza, in which 10,022 Palestinians were martyred, including 4,104 children and 2,641 women, and more than 25,000 others were injured. 153 Palestinians were killed and 2,150 were arrested in the West Bank, according to official Palestinian sources.

Twelve years ago, David Meidan, an Israeli intelligence officer, found himself standing a few meters away from Ahmed al-Jaabari, the deputy commander-in-chief of the military wing of Hamas and one of the most wanted by the Israeli occupation at the time. The meeting was in Cairo, and the occasion was direct negotiations for the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was captured by Hamas in 2006. Egyptian intelligence officers were the ones passing messages between his room and the room of the Palestinian delegation nearby.

What does the chief Israeli negotiator say about the experiences of negotiating with Hamas over prisoners?

The British magazine The Economist says that Hamas had held Shalit captive for five years when Maidan received the file to negotiate his release in April 2011. Israeli intelligence agents were stranded trying to find out the whereabouts of Shalit, or the members of the group holding him in Gaza. A previous attempt to negotiate Shalit's release with the participation of German mediators had failed.

When Maidan began his mission, he asked Egyptian intelligence which Hamas officials he should talk to, and they advised him to focus on Al-Jaabari. Maidan later realized that Al-Jaabari was the decision-maker in the matter, and then finally learned that Al-Jaabari was the one who was detaining Shalit. Within six months, the Israeli soldier was released in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners.

Meydan told the British magazine that dealing with a group that operates in extreme secrecy like Hamas requires the first thing to find the appropriate communication channel to communicate with them. “You have to find the appropriate intermediaries in order to gain Hamas’ interest.”

He left the field of work in the Israeli Foreign Intelligence Service (Mossad) in 2012, and worked in private security companies. But he volunteered to return after Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7 to help free the prisoners. American diplomats, trying to recover their citizens, communicate with him constantly. And his old colleagues in the occupation army and the Mossad ask him for advice. His most prominent task at the present time is to work as an informal advisor to the families of prisoners.

Maidan believes that Israel has a moral duty to work to recover any captured citizen. Before the current crisis, he was participating, free of charge, in an anti-Netanyahu campaign demanding the release of an Israeli citizen of Ethiopian origin who had been detained in the Gaza Strip since 2014.

Maidan believes that Israel must return the prisoners detained by Hamas on October 7 “at all costs,” and “even if Israel has to pay a heavy and painful price that includes opening its prisons and releasing all of its Palestinian prisoners (numbering 6,000).” ".

But this sharp position contradicts the position of Benjamin Netanyahu's government, as the Israeli Prime Minister did not meet the families of the prisoners until three weeks after the crisis. It was only after public pressure from the families of the prisoners and non-public urging from former security officials that the release of prisoners was declared a priority.

“You must go immediately to Jerusalem.”

Although Meidan and Netanyahu have worked together before, there is an ongoing disagreement between them. Earlier this year, Maidan participated in mobilizing protests against the so-called “judicial reform” amendments, which opponents see as weakening the judicial authority in Israel, and Maidan considers them a threat to the so-called Israeli democracy. He blames Netanyahu for his failure to prevent the disaster of October 7; Every week, he publishes posts mocking Netanyahu on social media, and says in one of them: “He is devious and deceitful, and refuses to take responsibility. People are angry with him.”

Meydan was born in Cairo in 1955, and his Egyptian-Jewish father ran a textile factory that supplied neckties to the Egyptian army. But after Gamal Abdel Nasser came to power, and hostility toward Israel and the West spread, Meydan's parents decided to move to Tel Aviv. Maidan said: "No one asked us to leave, but we were like many Jews who felt that the country was closing in on them. The conditions around us were tense and unpleasant."

He studied the Arabic language in high school, and later mastered it at Tel Aviv University. He specialized in Arabic language literature and Middle Eastern studies, and his Egyptian accent is so clear that some people think he is Egyptian when speaking Arabic.

When Meidan was a young intelligence officer in the 1980s, he was sent to Cyprus, and participated in planting agents to collect information about the Palestine Liberation Organization led by Yasser Arafat. He contributed to thwarting a Palestine Liberation Organization attack on the Tel Aviv beach in 1985. After his success in managing Mossad agents throughout the Middle East for 20 years, he was assigned a senior position in the Israeli intelligence service, and he supervised secret initiatives to win the friendship of the Arab regimes in the Gulf ( Such as deals to supply advanced technological means and Israeli spyware.

One morning in April 2011, Meidan was attending a graduation ceremony for Mossad agents, when the head of the Israeli intelligence service whispered in his ear that he should “go immediately to Jerusalem,” because Netanyahu wanted him to handle the file to free Shalit.

Difficult access to Jabari

Maidan says that the difficulties he faced in negotiating the release of one prisoner reveal some of the difficulties that are expected to hinder the release of more than 200 prisoners currently held by Hamas. Maidan narrates that he began his work in 2011 to search for an effective channel to negotiate with Hamas, and he did not benefit much from the information collected by Israeli intelligence regarding Hamas leaders, as it did not help him understand their psychological characteristics or understand the nature of the people with whom he was negotiating. On his first day on the job, an Israeli peace activist named Gershon Baskin asked to meet him. Baskin said he had a contact in Hamas who could link Maidan to the movement's military leadership.

Baskin had contacted the two former envoys who supervised the Shalit release file, but they refused to help him, and considered him a fool and a dreamer. As for Maidan, he was more receptive to this cooperation because he believes that “a good intelligence officer must be good at observing, listening, remembering, and not giving in to emotional bias.” Maidan then began exchanging messages through the intermediary provided by Baskin, until the messages through the intermediary reached Al-Jaabari, the deputy military commander of Hamas. In the beginning, the messages were just brief texts, then the scope of communication developed and expanded, until Baskin began transmitting messages using a fax machine, as he described it.

The communication via Baskin channel contributed to consolidating Hamas’s conviction that the Israelis are serious about the negotiation initiative. “Confidence increased gradually, one small step after another,” Maidan said.

Shortly thereafter, Maidan asked the Egyptians to arrange a meeting with Al-Jaabari in Cairo. Al-Jaabari was afraid that the Israelis would kill him while he was driving his car through the Sinai desert to the Egyptian border, so he asked for guarantees of his protection.

The atmosphere of the meeting was not promising at first. Al-Jaabari had spent 13 years of his life in Israeli prisons, and thus he was stubborn and strict in negotiations, and his “demands were endless,” as Maidan put it. The Egyptians sought to ease the atmosphere with small initiatives. Meanwhile, Maidan worked to instill confidence in the Egyptians that he was a person worthy of being relied upon to “adhere to the understandings and agreements that were being reached.” After several sessions, mediation efforts progressed from negotiating the initial principles of the deal to discussing the names of the prisoners who would be released in exchange for Shalit.

Maidan says that this stage was the most difficult in the negotiation process, because many of the men included by Hamas on the list had participated in operations targeting Israelis and high-ranking wanted persons. Maidan claims that he had an advantage over the Palestinian side, and that he knew what Al-Jaabari would ask before disclosing it, as he put it.

So Netanyahu acquiesced

At the time, Netanyahu was under great pressure from within Israel, as unprecedented protests over the high costs of living broke out in Israel that summer. Then the deal provided him with a way out of those pressures, and Maidan reached a deal that included the release of a thousand Palestinian prisoners (including some prisoners whose release sparked great controversy, such as Yahya Sinwar, currently head of the political bureau of Hamas in the Gaza Strip) in exchange for Shalit. Thus, Meydan traveled to Cairo in October to sign the deal.

A week later, Al-Jaabari and Egyptian intelligence officers escorted Shalit to the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt. Maidan and his team were waiting for him in an Israeli military vehicle. Shalit and Maidan were transferred in an Israeli military helicopter to an air base. Maidan was surprised when the helicopter door opened and found Netanyahu waiting for the young soldier with a press crew. This was an opportunity to take some photos that would attract popular support, and Netanyahu would not miss an opportunity like this.

In October 2012, Meidan spoke at a symposium held at Tel Aviv University about his experience working as a negotiator for the release of prisoners, and he told the students at the time that the internal political crises that Netanyahu was facing contributed to pushing him to accept Hamas’s demands, which were exorbitant. Somehow, someone in attendance recorded Maidan's statements and leaked them to the press, angering Netanyahu. Although Maidan was a candidate to take over the head of the Mossad, Netanyahu did not approve of his nomination. He realized that he no longer had the opportunity to advance in positions in the intelligence service, so he resigned and ended his career in the agency.

“The assassination of Al-Jaabari was wrong.”

A year after Shalit's release, Israel assassinated Ahmed al-Jaabari with a missile strike as he was driving his car in Gaza City. Maidan believes that this "was a wrong decision."

Currently, various parties are supervising the efforts aimed at liberating the October 7 prisoners, including the Israeli occupation army, which collects intelligence information, plans rescue operations, and exchanges information with relatives of the prisoners.

The families of the prisoners formed a committee so that they could work together to promote their demands and put pressure on the government. Most of them want the attacks on Gaza to stop in order to retrieve their children, but a few of them support the continuation of the bombing. Netanyahu appointed someone responsible for the prisoner file. Both Qatar and Egypt are participating in efforts to mediate the release of the prisoners.

Maidan said that some people who offer to help extract prisoners are “sincere and have good intentions,” but some are merely “charlatans” who exploit residents’ fears. Maidan believes that the time factor is very important if some prisoners are destined to remain alive, and therefore spending a lot of time and effort on the wrong communication channels may be costly. Maidan said that the families of the prisoners should "focus their efforts and find the appropriate mediators, whether it is Qatar, Egypt or Turkey."

Maidan had always opposed dividing the exchange deal when he negotiated the release of Shalit, but now he believes that the large number of prisoners requires doing things differently, and “if we cannot reach a comprehensive agreement, let us do it gradually, such that we release, for example, the women and children first.” "To build trust."

Despite the blood spilled in the past three weeks, Maidan believes that trust is possible and must be built between negotiators from Israel and Hamas to negotiate for the prisoners. Yuval Diskin, the former head of the Israeli internal security service Shin Bet, says that this ability to "creatively think" is what makes Maidan a successful negotiator. "He is familiar with Arab culture, and most importantly of all, he is a trustworthy man."

Maidan has suspended his public campaigns in opposition to Netanyahu, but intends to resume them once the war is over. When the Economist correspondent asked him about the most important lesson he learned from his participation in the negotiations to release Shalit, he replied: “Reach an agreement as quickly as you can, because if you delay, it may be too late.”

source: Arabic Post

Jordanian Prime Minister, Bisher Al-Khasawneh, said that any attempts to displace Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank are a red line, and Jordan will consider them a “declaration of war,” according to what Al-Khasawneh stated, Monday, November 6, 2023, during a meeting in the Jordanian House of Representatives regarding the developments. In the Gaza Strip.

The Jordanian official also added that all options are on the table for Jordan within the framework of the gradual stance in dealing with the Israeli aggression against Gaza and its repercussions. He said: “The continuation of the sinful aggression against the Gaza Strip with all its crimes constitutes a violation of international law and international humanitarian law.”

While Al-Khasawneh called for the need to stop the impunity and protection that gives Tel Aviv a license to kill Palestinian civilians, saying that international humanitarian law prohibits and criminalizes targeting and killing civilians without exception, indicating that impunity and silence regarding its violations against Palestinian civilians constitute a shameful double standard.

The Jordanian Prime Minister also added: "We are all at the heart of one man behind His Majesty the King, institutions, parties and citizens, in his honorable positions to support the Palestinian cause and stop the aggression against Gaza. A strong Jordan is the most capable of serving the Palestinian cause," according to what was reported by local media.

Earlier, Jordanian King Abdullah II warned Israel against any attempt to forcibly displace Palestinians, even internally, after Israel issued orders for Gazans to move to the southern part of the Strip, stressing the necessity of opening corridors to bring aid into the Strip.

This came during a meeting between King Abdullah II in Amman and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, according to what was reported by the Jordanian News Agency, during a visit to the latter as part of an indefinite tour that he began with Israel and included Qatar.

The Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also announced, on Wednesday, November 1, that it had summoned the Jordanian ambassador to Israel, and informed Tel Aviv that it would not return its ambassador to the Kingdom, as an expression of Jordan’s position rejecting and condemning the war waged by the Israeli occupation on the Gaza Strip.

The Jordanian newspaper Al-Ghad reported that the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriate Affairs, Ayman Al-Safadi, decided to summon the Jordanian ambassador to Israel to Jordan immediately, and said that this came “as an expression of Jordan’s position of rejection and condemnation of the raging Israeli war on Gaza, which is killing innocent people and causing an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.” “It carries dangerous possibilities for its expansion, which will threaten the security of the entire region and international security and peace.”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced, on Monday, additional aid amounting to 25 million euros for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, bringing to 100 million the total humanitarian aid allocated to it by the European Union, according to Agence France-Presse.

During a speech before European ambassadors in Brussels, von der Leyen indicated seeking to establish a sea corridor from Cyprus to transport humanitarian aid on a regular basis to the Gaza Strip.

She stressed that the flow of aid to Gaza from Egypt “is still very limited,” and that the European Union is working to establish other ways. Von der Leyen said it was necessary for Israel to seek “to avoid civilian casualties” in its operation in Gaza. She added: “It is clear that Hamas is using innocent Palestinians and hostages as human shields. It is horrific and absolutely evil.” She continued: “Our hearts bleed over the images of children being pulled out from under the rubble.”

Von der Leyen told diplomats that even as the conflict intensifies, there must be a “vision” for a two-state solution.

She stressed that the basic condition when the fighting stops is that “Gaza will not be a safe haven for terrorists,” and that “Hamas” will not remain responsible for the region. She said: “Various ideas are being discussed on how to ensure this, including the formation of an international peace force with a mandate from the United Nations.”

Israeli forces continued their intensive strikes on the Gaza Strip on Monday, which they launched nearly a month ago, in response to a Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.

The Hamas Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip announced that the death toll as a result of the ongoing Israeli bombing since October 7 had risen to exceed 10,000 dead.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed his rejection of a “temporary truce without the release of hostages” held by Hamas since its attack, and the Israeli army says they are about 240 people, including foreign citizens.

They were kidnapped during the unprecedented attack launched by Hamas on Israel, the most violent since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. More than 1,400 people were killed in this attack, most of them civilians, according to the Israeli authorities.

By Cyrille Bret

As tensions rise in the Middle East, Russia appears to be playing a two-sided game. Seeking to divert the spotlight from Ukraine, it attempts to position itself as the essential arbiter of regional peace.

Since the start of the fighting between Hamas and Israel, the Russian Federation has made full use of its very particular position in the Middle East. Its structural links with all the actors in the current crisis allow it to carry out actions and make speeches that no other European country is ready to take on.

On October 26, the special representative of the Russian presidency for the Middle East, Mikhail Bogdanov, received Hamas leaders in Moscow. At the same time, the relationship between Israel and Russia remains strong, maintained in particular through the numerous and influential immigrant community in Israel from the former USSR.

For Moscow, the series of events which began on October 7 constitutes a diversion that borders on a godsend. The war in Ukraine has taken a back seat to media and diplomatic attention, and the Kremlin presents itself as a peacemaker between Israel and Hamas. Can the “Sukkot war” allow Russia to relaunch itself on the international scene while scoring points in its geopolitical standoff with the United States, which it designates as the main culprits for the current chaos in the Middle East? -Orient?

 Exploit a strategic opportunity

For Russian strategy in Europe, this crisis constitutes an unexpected opportunity. It comes at a time when the Federation needs a break from the international mobilization against its military operation in Ukraine. The relative move to the background of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict benefits it directly and massively. If only because Washington sent Israel weapons initially intended for Ukraine…

In the fall of 2023, Ukrainian reconquest efforts are struggling to produce strategic effects. The territories recaptured since the beginning of June by the armies of kyiv are substantial, but remain incommensurate with the 20% of the national territory occupied and illegally annexed by Russia. For Moscow, the crisis in the Middle East allows us to turn the page on the Ukrainian counter-offensive even more quickly in order to make it appear as a non-event.

In addition, the crisis in the Middle East is absorbing the attention and activities of world chancelleries at a time when certain declines in support for Ukraine and Poland are occurring due to the conflict linked to the importation of Ukrainian cereals into Europe. , in the United States in a context of institutional crisis in Congress or in Central Europe such as in Slovakia, where Robert Fico's victory weakens the unity of the EU in its standoff with Russia.

Beyond the leaders, it is also the media and public opinion throughout the world which, currently, are less interested in the Ukrainian theater and the fierce fighting taking place in the Donbass, to focus on the conflict in Middle East, which offers Russia a form of respite.

How Russia will exploit this period of relative media and diplomatic respite will not be immediately apparent. The repositioning of ground troops, bilateral diplomatic campaigns, the mobilization of friends of the Kremlin in multilateral organizations, the development of a new narrative on the war in Ukraine, etc. : all this is being prepared in Moscow. But the effects will only be seen towards the end of the year, notably during President Putin's traditional press conference.

Certainly, Russia will no longer reposition itself as a regional player in Eastern Europe but as a global player, particularly in the Middle East. This is how she submitted a resolution text to the UN aimed at obtaining a ceasefire in Gaza; the rejection of this text, due to the “against” votes of the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Japan, allowed it to strengthen, in the eyes of the so-called countries of the South and, especially, of Muslim states , his posture as leader of the anti-Western camp, concerned with protecting the Gazan civilian population, while denouncing the alignment of Westerners with Israel and going so far as to present itself as a country defending international law.

Mobilize its allies in the region

For Russian Realpolitikers, this crisis also presents the opportunity to mobilize their networks of alliances in the Arab, Turkish, Persian and more broadly Muslim worlds. Even before Vladimir Putin came to power, the Russian Federation has constantly strengthened its relays in the region.

In the Arab world, from 2015, it reactivated the old alliance with the Al-Assad family to literally save the regime in Syria through a crucial military intervention. It has also strengthened its traditional ties with Egypt in the fields of arms, agri-food and energy. Russia cultivated its Algerian ally and regained a foothold in Libya with its support for Marshal Haftar. It has even engaged in cooperation with the Saudi kingdom within the framework of OPEC+.

Beyond the Arab world, it found in Iran a supplier of drones for the war in Ukraine as well as support in international forums. And the rapprochements between the Russian and Turkish presidents are real, even if they should not give rise to the illusion of a solid alliance.

The current crisis allows it to revive these structural alliances around an old issue that took second place in the Muslim world after the Abraham Accords: the Palestinian cause. The specificity of Russia's position in the region thanks to this conflict must be underlined: it is capable of mobilizing its allies across the region's internal dividing lines. And the current crisis, which is reactivating hostility to Israel in Arab, Persian and Muslim opinions in the broad sense, underlines the centrality of an actor of whom Westerners nevertheless wanted to make a pariah.

Here again, the effects of this position will not all appear immediately: it is in the medium term that Russia will try to take advantage of its current position to further challenge the weight of the United States in the region. However, it is certain that the immediate boon can be supplemented by strategic gains in the area: Russia can use the crisis to underline its centrality, to remind its allies that it speaks to everyone and can therefore claim the role of mediator.

On condition, however, that it preserves its relationship with Israel.

Preserve its relays in Israel

If Russia claims an ecumenical position in the Middle East, it is currently handicapped, in Israel, by several factors. Crowd movements in Dagestan, an autonomous republic of the Russian Federation with a Muslim majority, against passengers on a flight from Tel Aviv, were seen with great concern in the Jewish state.

After claiming the role of pioneer in the fight against violent Sunni Islamism, how could Russia claim the role of mediator when it now frequently welcomes Hamas leaders?

Several leaders in Israel fear the strengthening of the Moscow-Tehran-Hamas axis in the context of the Israeli operation in Gaza. The symbiosis between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Russian Federation is of particular concern to Israel: it can work in favor of moderation of Hezbollah, but it can also contribute to the regionalization of hostilities.

In the crisis, Russia has a lot to lose with Israel. Its relays of influence are multiple: more than a million inhabitants (out of 9 million) come from the former USSR. They constitute the largest immigrant community in Israel and have influential public figures in the political, economic, financial, media and technological fields. Is Russia condemned by its current position to squander its capital in Israel? Many observers believe that bilateral relations between Moscow and Tel Aviv are at an all-time low.

In short, the Russian position in the Middle East finds itself at a crossroads. Either it is content to treat the current crisis as a diversion: it will then take advantage of the media respite and the reduction in diplomatic pressure to further strengthen its positions in Ukraine; either it takes on the role of cementing anti-Israel actors in the Middle East: it will break even further with Westerners mobilized in favor of Israel’s security; or, finally, it chooses the narrow path of potential mediator: it will then be necessary, to be accepted as such by the Israelis, to remedy the numerous tensions in the bilateral Moscow-Tel Aviv relationship.

The Islamic Resistance Movement "Hamas" said on Monday that the Israeli occupation forces targeted the solar panel system in a building in the Shifa complex in Gaza City.

The bombing targeted the last floor of Al-Quds Hospital in Al-Shifa Medical Complex, which houses hundreds of wounded, displaced, and medical personnel.

The Director General of Hospitals in the Gaza Strip, Muhammad Zaqout, reported that there were martyrs and wounded as a result of the Israeli occupation bombing.

In the latest toll, the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip announced that the number of martyrs as a result of the Israeli aggression jumped to more than 10,000.

On Monday evening, settlers closed the Ain al-Hilweh junction in the northern Jordan Valley.

According to local sources, about twenty settlers closed the intersection and attacked citizens’ vehicles.

The junction is considered a point of settler attacks against Palestinian citizens, and it leads to several Palestinian gatherings in the northern Jordan Valley.

The Al-Qassam Brigades in Lebanon announced, on Monday evening, the bombing of the occupied city of Nahariya and northern Haifa in northern occupied Palestine with 16 missiles.

The Al-Qassam Brigades said in a military statement: The bombing comes in response to the occupation’s massacres and aggression against our people in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Army Radio said that 14 shells were fired towards the border towns with Lebanon.

Sirens sounded in Acre, Nahariya, Ras Naqoura and Shlomi.

The Al-Qassam Brigades had previously announced several times the bombing of the occupation settlements in the context of supporting Gaza and within the Battle of Al-Aqsa Flood.

The Prisoners' Club said that the Israeli occupation escalated the arrest of women and holding them hostage, after the seventh of last October, in light of the comprehensive aggression against the Palestinian people.

The Prisoner's Club stated, in a statement today, Monday, that the number of documented cases of detention of women reached more than 60, the majority of whom were later released, after being held hostage, or released on conditions, as happened specifically in Jerusalem, and within the territories of 1948, while Others continue to be arrested on charges related to incitement, in addition to issuing administrative detention orders.

It continued that the Israeli forces used a number of crimes and abusive policies against women, by brutally storming their homes, using all types of weapons, including police dogs, in addition to threatening to kill their children and using obscene words against them. They carried out widespread sabotage and destruction of their homes. Among those arrested were former female prisoners, mothers of prisoners, university students, elderly women, and children.

The Prisoners' Club added that one of the most prominent policies used against female detainees is the crime of holding them hostage, in order to pressure their husbands or children, who are targeted by the occupation, to surrender themselves. The competent institutions have also documented many of these cases in several areas in the West Bank, where this policy was concentrated in the Governorate. Hebron witnessed the highest rate of arrests.

Shlomi Eldar

The war in the Gaza Strip has not yet ended. In Israel, it is estimated that this war may last several months before Hamas is brought to its knees. This time, unlike other campaigns carried out by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip, no one is talking about the image of victory. It is unreasonable to achieve victory after “Black Saturday,” even if Yahya Sinwar was arrested and “beheaded.” Even if everyone believed to have succeeded in escaping through the Gaza tunnels, including all members of the movement’s leadership, was “beheaded.” At the military and political levels. Whoever believes this does not know the value of martyrdom among fundamentalist Islam.

After tightening the noose around Hamas' neck, because there is no other way to topple its rule, the "next day" phase will begin. In fact, from now on, before the war ends, there are dialogues between the United States and Israel regarding this day, and they are discovering that they have absolutely no idea who will replace Hamas.

Some people have a fantasy in which the Palestinian Authority forces of Mahmoud Abbas, bestowing their favor on us, will enter the Gaza Strip and restore the authority that was forcefully taken from it in June 2007, in the coup carried out by Hamas. Suddenly, the person Netanyahu describes as a “terrorist,” “supporter of terrorism,” and “encourager of terrorism” has become our dream, and he is the one who will agree to receive the keys to the Gaza Strip, which Israel closed before imposing the siege on the Strip, and then threw the keys away.

Even these days, when we still dream that Abbas is the solution to the Gaza Strip, both Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir are playing the role of heroes, without realizing the difference between the Authority and Hamas, and any prices Israel paid when it preferred Strengthening Hamas and insulting Abbas. These two men always have a solution to the Palestinian issue. After the leaders of the Israeli security system succeeded in “convincing” Finance Minister [Smotrich] that Israel’s interest lies in transferring the authority’s tax funds to it, his strategic friend, Ben Gvir, wrote on the x [Twitter] platform a tweet saying: “This evening I saw news saying The Palestinian Authority threatens us not to receive tax money if Gaza Strip funds are deducted from it... I call on the Authority to stand firm in its opinion and not accept the money.”

Ben Gvir and Smotrich, and even Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman, were not the ones who invented the weapon of stopping the transfer of tax funds to the government. The inventor of this weapon, which we discovered was a double-edged sword, is former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert...

This tax money is not an Israeli grant, but was transferred to the Authority according to an agreement signed between the Authority and Israel on April 29, 1994, in what is called the Paris Agreement, which is a branch of the Oslo II Agreement. According to this agreement, the Palestinian economy is linked to the Israeli economy. While Israel collects taxes related to all goods and raw materials that the Authority imports by air, land, or sea, including the value-added tax, Israel is then committed to transferring the money once a month to the Palestinian Ministry of Finance. More than 60% of the Palestinian Authority's budget comes from tax money. Without this money, the authority will collapse. After Hamas won the parliamentary elections in 2006, Olmert decided to punish Abbas because of the election results, as if the defeat he suffered at that time was not enough, and so, Olmert came to complete the mission...

Then Netanyahu came. The man decided, for internal political reasons, that he must demonize whoever sits in the boycott, because in this way alone he is able to gather the ranks of the Israeli right into his grip, after this right disbanded around him in the 1999 elections, when he lost to Ehud Barak by a large margin...

When Netanyahu returned to power in 2009, he adopted a dual policy. One side of it is to defame Abbas, while at the same time encouraging security coordination between Israel and the authority.

Netanyahu called Mahmoud Abbas the “source of terrorism,” and this nickname spread and succeeded in penetrating even the voters of the left and center movements. There is no one to dialogue with on the Palestinian side. This was the prevailing understanding. This understanding has been cemented in Israeli public opinion. As for the Shin Bet, they closed their mouths. Despite everything, Netanyahu is the prime minister, and they are the men of shadow and silence.

Thus, we now have a strong Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and an authority in the West Bank that is destined to collapse at any moment Israel decides to harass it, or stop transferring tax money...

And now, we have this: Abbas is weak, while Hamas is what we see now: “war criminals.” Thus, after we have weakened Abbas, we still expect him to save us from drowning in the Gazan mire.

One of the old Fatah members, his face wrinkled by wars and disappointments, told me: “Go and tile the sea, you fools.”

Three young men were killed and a fourth was injured, on Monday evening, in an assassination committed by Israeli occupation forces in Tulkarm.

According to local sources, an Israeli special force opened heavy fire on a Palestinian vehicle in Tulkarm, assassinating those inside it, before withdrawing.

The Ministry of Health confirmed the arrival of 3 dead and one critically injured person to Tulkarm Governmental Hospital.

According to media sources, the dear were identified as Izzi al-Din Awad, a commander in the Qassam Brigades, and Jihad Maharaj Shehadeh, commander of the Rapid Response Battalion in Tulkarm.

“A settlement regarding the governance of the Gaza Strip will be based on local employees and people who do not belong to Hamas, and Arab countries will pump money, and there will be security zones on the outskirts of the Gaza Strip, where Palestinians can be present in order to work in agriculture.”

The military analyst on the Ynet website, Ron Ben Yishai, discussed what he described as an Israeli plan for the aftermath of the war on Gaza. He stressed that Israel has no plan to end the war. He considered that "there is a need to end the fighting in the entire Gaza Strip first, and according to the field results, Israel will decide with the Americans and the United Nations regarding a preliminary settlement of control in the Gaza Strip.

Ben Yishai added that the Israeli plan that he reviewed in his analysis may change significantly, and that the final plan is related to the situation on the ground at the end of the war.

According to him, “a settlement regarding the governance of the Gaza Strip will be based on local employees and people who do not belong to Hamas. In fact, there are entire governing bodies in the Gaza Strip that are still receiving salaries from the Palestinian Authority, 16 years after Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip.”

He continued, "Arab countries will pump money for humanitarian stability, and in the first stage, the Israeli army and the Shin Bet will continue to have security control in the Gaza Strip."

He added that according to the plan being developed in Israel, after that there will be another stage or two “for a permanent settlement in the Gaza Strip, according to which the Palestinian Authority will have civilian control over the Gaza Strip, but the Israeli army and the Shin Bet will have freedom of intelligence action and thwarting (Palestinian operations), like Area B.” In the West Bank, the Americans propose deploying an international police force, not an American one, in the Strip.”

He added that there will be "security zones on the outskirts of the Gaza Strip, where Palestinians will be able to be present in order to work in agriculture, but they will not be able to stay there for a long time and will not be able to carry weapons or establish observation points."

He pointed out, “According to the American demand, the final stage will be political negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, perhaps within the framework and under the auspices of an international conference. According to the American administration at least, the goal is to reach a situation in which there are two states for two peoples, with a corridor linking Gaza to the West Bank. And in all "Circumstances, it is not expected that the current government will push for real negotiations that achieve the results that the Americans want."