The specter of a new "nakba" haunts the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as the most violent round of fighting in years continues with Israel, which is preparing to launch a ground attack aimed at destroying the capabilities of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and the Palestinian factions.

In the cities of Gaza and Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip, two camps containing hundreds of tents were inaugurated to shelter thousands of displaced Palestinians as a result of the outbreak of fighting between Hamas and Israel after an unprecedented attack launched by gunmen from the Islamic Resistance Movement on October 7 on towns in southern Israel, resulting in the deaths of 1,400. person.

Employees wearing a blue jacket at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Refugees (UNRWA) arrange and organize work in the two camps for displaced people.

A week ago, the Israeli army warned more than a million people, or half the population of the Gaza Strip, to leave the Gaza and northern Gaza governorates within 24 hours.

The two camps were established in light of the failure of thousands of Palestinians to flee to the center and south of the Gaza Strip, in addition to accommodating the large numbers of displaced people crowded in Khan Yunis.

UNRWA did not issue any comment regarding the two camps.

However, an employee of the international agency, who requested that his identity not be revealed because he was not authorized to make a statement to the media, told Xinhua News Agency, “Dozens of families who refuse to leave Gaza and the northern Gaza Strip have taken refuge in the place with their entire family to stay here in the Gaza camp.”

He added that UNRWA "had to bring them tents and is now working to care for them."

This step came one day after an appeal by the Hamas movement's media office in which it demanded that the international agency resume its activities in the northern Gaza Strip, including Gaza City.

Palestinian Faryal Abdel Hadi, who was housed in one of the tents with her family of seven, told Xinhua, “The Israeli aircraft destroyed our house in Beit Lahia, killed our relatives and neighbors, and destroyed everything...”

Abdul Hadi added, "There is no electricity, no water, and no food. We have turned into displaced people, sleeping on the ground and covering the sky without any of the necessities of life."

In a repetition of what their ancestors suffered decades ago, the displaced sleep inside tents, rooms and spacious courtyards at night, and in the morning they spread their clothes and blankets on top and sit under the sun’s rays.

This atmosphere brings to mind echoes of the "Nakba", which is the name given by the Palestinians to the expulsion and displacement of about 957 thousand Palestinians, or 66 percent of the total Palestinians who were residing in historic Palestine from the lands that Israel controlled during the 1948 war.

After seven and a half decades, more than a million Palestinians were displaced in the Gaza Strip, including 600,000 displaced people in the Gaza and northern Gaza Strip regions, according to the United Nations.

Half of those who fled are now living in school tents and facilities run by UNRWA, while others are staying in hospital courtyards, near mosques, or with their relatives or friends in the southern Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian Muhammad Abu Rizq, who lives in the Rafah camp in a house crowded with dozens of displaced people, and inside which there is no foothold for a new displaced person, told Xinhua, “They (want) to kill us, destroy our homes, and starve us, but we will not respond to them,” referring to Israel.

Abu Rizq (47 years old) added, “My family was displaced from Beit Daras (32 kilometers from Gaza) and they told them that they would return for a few days, but no one returned...”

Abu Rizq's father was displaced when he was a child to the Gaza Strip, which has become the most densely populated place in the world.

A week has passed since the Israeli army asked all Palestinian civilians to leave the northern part of the Gaza Strip, including Gaza City, and head to the south of the Gaza Strip, but tens of thousands of Palestinians and the administrations of major hospitals affiliated with Hamas in Gaza and the northern Gaza Strip refuse to obey.

The Israeli bombing led to the killing of about 4,000 Palestinians, amid a record escalation in the number of victims around the clock.

The United Nations estimated that Israel's raids destroyed 30% of the housing units in the Gaza Strip, including wiping out entire residential squares.

There is a growing feeling among Palestinians that the unprecedented Israeli attacks aim to force the population of the Gaza Strip, which is home to 2.3 million people, to head south to Sinai.

In response, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Jordanian King Abdullah II warned during their meeting yesterday in Cairo of the extreme danger that calls for the displacement of Palestinians pose to regional security.

Egypt has a land border with the Gaza Strip that extends about 13 kilometers.

For many Palestinians, the current atmosphere is similar to that which prevailed in previous times of immigration, whether in terms of the psychological or ideological aspect, or even in terms of spirit and resistance, and everyone has fears about the future and unknown fate.

Displaced people said during open discussions in shelter centers and while queuing in long lines to obtain water and bread, "America and Europe are the cause of our tragedy and crises... but we will not be displaced again no matter what they do."

A man who identified himself as Abu Suleiman Mahani, who is from the Shujaiya neighborhood in eastern Gaza and lives in a shelter center in central Khan Yunis, accused the American president, Britain, and the Europeans of standing behind Israel in its large-scale attack on the Strip.

Mahani's son, a lawyer, said, "People now feel lost and alienated under the weight of the continuous Israeli bombing, the lack of bread and drinking water, and the power outages."

He added, "The idea of leaving or being expelled from the land hurts the conscience of everyone here..."

The first humanitarian aid convoy began entering the Gaza Strip today (Saturday) through the Rafah land border crossing with Egypt.

An Egyptian security source told Xinhua News Agency that 20 trucks carrying humanitarian aid began this morning to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing.

The source did not clarify whether other trucks would later enter the sector or not.

Live footage broadcast by Arab satellite channels showed the entry of aid trucks from the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing into the Gaza Strip, in preparation for its distribution under the supervision of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

Meanwhile, trucks from inside Gaza, accompanied by United Nations vehicles, moved towards the Palestinian side of the border crossing to receive humanitarian aid.

The head of the government media office in Gaza, Salama Marouf, said in a statement today that the aid convoy is loaded with medicines, medical supplies, and a limited amount of food.

Marouf continued, "We are waiting for UNRWA, as the recipient of aid, to fulfill its duty in directing these needs to those who deserve them."

He warned that "this limited convoy will not be able to change the humanitarian catastrophe that the Gaza Strip is experiencing, and it is important to establish a safe corridor that works around the clock to provide the humanitarian and service needs that are completely missing."

Marouf stressed the necessity of permanently opening the Rafah crossing and bringing in all necessary needs for the service and humanitarian sectors urgently, in light of the near exhaustion of fuel, the depletion of the stock of medicines and medical consumables and its reaching the lowest level, the scarcity of food supplies, and the lack of electricity.

Yesterday, Egyptian security forces removed cement barriers that they had placed about 10 days ago in front of the Rafah crossing gate and carried out grading operations on the crossing’s squares after they were exposed to Israeli raids in the first days of the Israeli aggression.

The current aid convoy is the first to Gaza since the start of the ongoing round of fighting between the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and Israel since October 7th.

Speaking in front of the Rafah crossing yesterday, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for a humanitarian ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip “as quickly and widely as possible.”

Last night and early Saturday morning, the Israeli occupation forces launched a massive arrest campaign in the West Bank, targeting at least 110 citizens, including leaders and former prisoners who spent years in Israeli occupation prisons.

The arrests were concentrated in the towns of Aroura/Ramallah, Deir Samet/Hebron, while the rest of the arrests were distributed among the towns and governorates of Bethlehem, Nablus, and Jericho.

This came in light of the comprehensive aggression and mass revenge operations against our people, and the continuation of systematic arrests since the seventh of this October.

The Prisoners’ Commission and the Prisoners’ Club explained that the arrest campaigns in the West Bank are the highest in years, as the number of arrests since the start of the Al-Aqsa Flood battle has reached more than 1,070 arrests, concentrated in the governorates of Hebron, Jerusalem, and Ramallah, in addition to The detainees are workers and detainees from Gaza, whose exact numbers and identities are not yet known.

It is noteworthy that since the beginning of this year, the number of arrests has reached more than (6,500) cases, in addition to detained workers and Gaza detainees whose identities and enemies have not yet been accurately known to Palestinian authorities and institutions.

The people in the Gaza Strip are living in very difficult conditions due to the unjust siege and the Israeli attacks that do not stop, destroying water, electricity, and means of delivering food, and bombing institutions, buildings, and all necessities of life. They continue to mobilize the largest number of reserve soldiers, and more than 4,200 martyrs and 14,000 wounded have joined us in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and the battle is still continuing. 14 citizens were martyred and dozens were injured during confrontations in the West Bank, and the settlers continued to attack citizens and their property throughout the West Bank, from Jenin in the north to Hebron. South.

They talk a lot about storming the Gaza Strip and eliminating the Hamas movement, and they forget that Hamas is part of the entire Palestinian people and represents a realistic logic that fights the occupation and seeks to establish a state after liberation. It came as a result of the occupation and is not a passing force, nor is it just people.
Israel has opened itself another battle in the north, where Palestinian and Lebanese forces are standing there and seeking to defeat the occupation forces, which forced Israel to evacuate about 27 towns from its north for fear of the development and expansion of the fighting, and thus it is located between two fronts in the far north and the far south.
What is strange about this logic is that the United States and Britain claim that Israel, in its attacks and threats to the Gaza Strip, is defending itself, while these two countries forget that Israel has occupied the West Bank and Jerusalem since 1967, is establishing settlements, confiscating the land, and working to displace as many citizens as possible, and that the people of Gaza and the people of the West Bank are one people, one destiny, and one future. The occupation has also turned dozens, if not hundreds, of homes in Gaza into piles of devastation and destruction, and after all of this, senior officials in the United States and Britain come to tell us and the world that Israel is only defending itself, despite the cries of Palestinian refugees and despite the killing of children and the lives of thousands of citizens in all of this. The painful conditions in the open air, in tents, homelessness, and the lack of water and food.

We repeat that if Gallant was saying to his army, “You will see Gaza soon,” and he of course meant that they would occupy Gaza, then we are telling them that they will not see Gaza soon, but rather they will see in Gaza a lot of resistance, steadfastness, and making sacrifices in defense of the homeland and the future... and this future is certainly ours and our people’s, no matter what. The unjust powers were arrogant and haughty, and the coming days are the best evidence.

The American President rushed to save his failed friend, Netanyahu, in one of the darkest pages of history, when the losers stand in solidarity together, under the umbrella of a basket of lies and deceptions that printed their narratives, which began with the fact that the resistance beheaded children and raped women. The size and immensity of the lie became clear hours after this was revealed by a newspaper. "The Washington Post" quoted from the White House, then with successive revelations.
For the first time in the history of "Israel", which grew up on the corpses of Palestinians who were expelled from Palestine, an American president has rushed in person to declare his full support for Tel Aviv and for the Jews, as he said, and activated financial, military and propaganda support packages in the millions, which you cannot count.

Biden's rush to save his friend was linked to the massacre at Baptist Hospital in the Gaza Strip, despite the US President's surprise and declaration of anger at what happened! He took a step forward by announcing the formation of a committee to investigate the hideous massacre. However, while the plane had not yet landed at Lod Airport, his “Zionist” crew was preparing for him the method of his announcement in order to agree with the ridiculous Israeli narrative that had been prepared in a hurry that the “other party” was the one who bombed itself. A failed missile, causing hundreds of casualties.
The American President, who is faltering in his position as he is walking, is living the darkest period of his life, as he moves from a major defeat to a semi-defeat and then a quarter of an illusionary victory, while he dealt with foreign files with Afghanistan, then Syria, and then Ukraine (Western Israel versus Russia). The result would be greater than the dragon, and therefore “Israel”, the mighty newborn of the imperialist colonial mind (mainly Britain and America), was something that could not be abandoned at all, even if America lost all its wars, and even all those who wished to be its allies and the newborn’s allies in the region called the Middle East.
The goal or idea of destroying “Hamas” as a Palestinian faction has become stable among the losers and the two governments, especially the invocation of Zionist “propaganda,” the dictionary of Nazism, 9/11, and “ISIS,” which leads to the continuous movement to form a regional or global alliance to overthrow this new Nazism or “ISIS”!

What is happening is a follow-up to Sharon’s approach in his tireless pursuit of the Palestinian revolution and Yasser Arafat, who exhausted both the American and the Israeli in Palestine, Beirut and all arenas, just as he exhausted the Arab crooks until he died a martyr after sparking a mighty uprising that still resonates in the chest of every Palestinian everywhere.
Perhaps due to his astonishment and surprise at what happened on 10/7, the American President did not notice that the world no longer stopped at the limits of what his thin lips said, but rather that it had preceded him by years and was forming away from the idea of American arrogance and hegemony, while the Pacific Ocean and the China Sea constituted a chronic complex for him that he would not be able to Degrading from it except in the coming certain defeat.
The new Palestinian organization, which Netanyahu, Biden, the German Chancellor, and the British Prime Minister are now fighting as if they were the “Allies” in the Second European (so-called World) War, is being exaggerated globally to become as big or powerful as the state of Nazi Germany - at that time - in adopting Goebbels’ theory of the organization’s ugliness. And to do so, and to demonize the entire ideology of the Palestinian revolution and the Palestinians, and perhaps most of the Muslims behind them, when “ISIS” is called upon to be a representative of Muslims in the world in the Western mind and not for “Hamas.”
Essentially, what Netanyahu and Biden learned from the war on Iraq is that lying and deception are a deadly weapon, and that gathering allies in this way is effective. But the truth is that the world is changing, and people no longer accept the unilateral Western colonial narrative. They are now exploring, researching, thinking, and seeing well, and putting aside what the losers say. It demands revolution, which it will happen.
The two losers and their choir are trying to kill two birds (or more) with one stone, and stones are not a characteristic of the “allies” whose main characteristic is the killing of millions with bombs and nuclear weapons, as occurred in the massacres and massacres in the First and Second World Wars, and in all the wars that America waged against our Arab and Islamic nation, especially in Iraq. And Syria...and the rope on the jars.
Biden and Netanyahu will undoubtedly fall, as the time of reckoning for them is near, and four or five other seniors will fall with them. The world is changing, and failure and defeat are the ally of the oppressors who do not look beyond their noses. Countries change in a natural cycle, organizations fall and end, and leaders die, but issues and peoples do not die.
President Biden rushed to announce that the newborn, who is over the age of seventy, will continue to be showered with compassion and care even if America’s reputation itself is destroyed. Therefore, the Baptist Hospital massacre from which he easily decomposed, and before that in Sabra and Shatila and dozens of massacres, and perhaps after them, will have no value on the path to the imagined victory, and the newborn will remain. He is showered with kisses and hugs, as is the case with the formula that the American and the Englishman wrote together in the Balfour Declaration, and with this work he assumes that he will achieve what he could not achieve throughout his past years or his predecessors, but losers never win, because victory is patience for an hour and the Palestinians do not forget.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that Israel is provoking countries in the region instead of undoing the mistakes in Gaza.

Erdogan added, through his account on the “X” platform, that “the region must be saved from the (madness) supported by Western countries and the media,” according to Reuters. He continued: “It is certain that killing children, women and civilians in Gaza, and bombing hospitals, schools, mosques and churches will not contribute to ensuring security.”

The Turkish President stressed that “the Israeli administration, at the instigation of non-regional parties, is behaving like an organization instead of retracting from its mistake and acting with a state mentality.” He called on all countries and international institutions to “sincerely support all initiatives aimed at securing a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza as soon as possible.”

Erdogan said: “I repeat my call on the Israeli leadership not to expand the scope of its attacks on civilians, and to immediately stop its operations that amount to genocide.” He added that Ankara is working to end the fighting between Israelis and Palestinians before it reaches the “point of no return.”

A news report today (Saturday) reported that a base housing American forces in Iraq was attacked by two drones. The Iraqi Al-Sumaria TV reported that the attack targeted the Harir base in Erbil, the capital of the Iraqi Kurdistan region, but said that “it has not yet been confirmed whether there were human casualties.”

On Wednesday, the US Army thwarted an attack with two drones that attempted to target the Ain al-Asad air base in Anbar, Iraq, amid escalating tensions between Israel and Hamas, which prompted Washington to raise its alert level in anticipation of any attacks that might be supported or directed by Iran.

A joint American-European statement said today (Saturday) that Israel has the right to defend itself in accordance with international and humanitarian law, adding that the European Union and the United States are concerned about the deteriorating humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip.

The statement, published by the White House, said that the European Union and Washington will work with partners in the region “to emphasize the importance of protecting civilians and facilitating access to food, water, medical care, and shelter” for those who need it.

The statement warned against escalation of matters in the Middle East, and indicated that the European and American point of view agree that the two-state solution “remains the correct path towards permanent peace.”

A senior Iranian military official warned the United States of its heavy support for Israel in attacks against Gaza, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Friday.

Chief of the General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Mohammad Bagheri made this warning during a phone call with Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler on Thursday, in which the two sides discussed recent regional developments, especially the situation in Gaza.

Baqeri said that Washington's extensive support for Israel, including the provision of heavy weapons and ammunition, "amounts to the US government's participation in Israeli attacks against the people of Gaza and will further complicate the situation in the coastal enclave."

He called for serious measures to stop the brutal Israeli attacks against civilians in Gaza and to send humanitarian aid, including food and medicine, to the Strip.

Baqeri called on the Turkish government to use all its tools to prevent "Israeli crimes" and support the people of Gaza.

For his part, Guler spoke about the efforts made by his government to reduce tension in Gaza and stop the ongoing conflict, stressing that Turkey will continue these endeavors.

The ongoing conflict between Israel and Gaza, which has entered its fourteenth day, has led to the deaths of more than 5,000 people on both sides.

The International Federation of Journalists announced yesterday evening, Friday, that the death toll since Israel began its aggression against the Gaza Strip on October 7 had risen to 16 journalists.

The union said in a statement on its official website, "16 journalists were killed, several others were injured, and others went missing during the ongoing military confrontations between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip."

According to the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate’s inventory, the names of the journalists who lost their lives are: “Muhammad Ali, Khalil Abu Athrah, Samih Al-Nadi, Issam Bahar, Muhammad Balousha, Abdul Hadi Habib, Hossam Mubarak, Ahmed Shihab, Muhammad Fayez Youssef Abu Matar, Saeed Al-Taweel, Muhammad Subh, Hisham Al-Nawajah, Asaad Shamlikh, Muhammad Al-Salhi, and Ibrahim Lafi.” And Muhammad Jarghoun.”

The union noted that contact with journalists Nidal Al-Wahidi from Al-Najah TV and photographer Haitham Abdel-Wahed from Ain Media Agency had been cut off. The next day, the family of journalist Al-Wahidi informed the media that their son was detained by the Israeli army.

The Israeli army announced that a reserve forces officer was killed during an exchange of fire yesterday, Friday, with Hezbollah fighters on the border with Lebanon.

Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper said that the army allowed the news of the killing of the officer, called Omar Bello, to be published on Saturday morning, and added that 3 other soldiers were injured during the clash, two of whom were moderately injured, and the third was slightly injured.

The Lebanese News Agency reported that Hezbollah targeted an Israeli infantry force near the Burnett Barracks, announcing that it had confirmed casualties, including one dead and one wounded.

At dawn on Saturday, the Israeli occupation forces blew up the family home of prisoner Maher Shalon in the Aqabat Jabr camp, south of Jericho.

Local sources said that the occupation forces blew up the two-story house of the prisoner Shalon's family, which also led to damage to a number of surrounding homes.

The occupation forces arrested Shalon on the first of last March, and returned and raided his house on the sixth of the same month and took its measurements in preparation for its demolition.

A child was killed, at dawn on Saturday, by Israeli occupation forces’ bullets in the city of Jericho.

The Ministry of Health said that the child, Muhammad Suleiman Nawajaa (17 years old), died as a result of being hit by several bullets during the confrontations between young men and the occupation forces that took place on Al-Quds Street, south of Jericho.

The occupation forces stormed the Aqabat Jabr and Ain al-Sultan camps in the city of Ayha, and blew up the house of detainee Maher Shalon in the Aqabat Jabr camp.

On the 15th day of its war on Gaza, the Israeli occupation army continued to bomb residential areas, resulting in more deaths. The ongoing Israeli aggression on Gaza for two weeks has left 4,137 people dead and more than 13,000 wounded, most of them women and children.

The head of the government media office in Gaza, Salama Marouf, announced on Friday evening that 5,500 residential buildings, which included 14,200 housing units, had been completely demolished as a result of the bombing launched by Israel on the Strip since October 7.

Salama said during a press conference: “The Israeli aggression led to the complete demolition of 5,500 residential buildings, which included 14,200 residential units, while about 133,370 residential units were partially damaged, including 10,127 residential units that were uninhabitable, in addition to 62 government headquarters and dozens of public and service facilities.” According to Quds Press newspaper.

The statement by the Government Information Office in Gaza explained that Israel "continues to target educational institutions, as 160 schools were subjected to various damages, including 19 schools that were out of service."

It pointed out that "one of the most prominent scenes of aggression over the past twenty-four hours was the destruction of the towers of Madinat al-Zahra and the bombing of the Greek Orthodox Church."

On Friday evening, the Israeli occupation forces arrested a child from the town of Arraba, at a time when confrontations broke out with the occupation at the Anza roundabout, south of Jenin.

Local sources said that the occupation forces arrested the child, Muhammad Ziyad Fawzi Al-Fahal, from the town of Arraba, adding that confrontations broke out between young men and the occupation forces near the roundabout of the village of Anza, south of Jenin.

UNRWA: “Israel” informed us of the necessity of evacuating 5 schools in the Gaza Strip, which means that our facilities are no longer safe.

By 

Raed Jabr

Relations between Moscow and Tel Aviv were not at their best on the night of October 7, the eve of the situation erupting again between Israel and the Palestinians, and sliding towards the brink of a “major regional war” whose repercussions threaten the region and the world, according to Russian warnings.

Although the positions of the two parties currently reflect a divergence that is considered the widest in the history of relations that began in the early 1990s, what is certain is that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict does not constitute the main reason for this deterioration, but rather a new episode added to the elements of tension that have accumulated severely in recent years. Especially after the outbreak of war in Ukraine.

Serious transformation

In previous years, the Kremlin boasted close ties with Israel. President Vladimir Putin repeated several times the statement that a fifth of Israel's citizens are of Russian and former Soviet origins, which constitutes an important asset to the relations between the two parties. Most notably, Russian and Israeli officials have boasted more than once that official talks between the two parties are conducted in the Russian language, especially in previous stages when Israeli politicians such as Avigdor Lieberman (of Moldavian origin) held prominent government positions.

At that time, Russia did not care much about the fact that some of these people were extremists who called for a “final solution” to the Palestinian issue and supported the worst racist policies towards the Palestinians.

But the serious shift in relations began in 2014, after the ignition of the confrontation with the West, against the backdrop of the decision to annex the Crimean Peninsula, and the outbreak of hostilities in eastern Ukraine, which put Russia before broad Western sanctions packages. The second episode of transformation was completed the very next year, in the wake of direct Russian military intervention in Syria.

These two developments resulted in the inauguration of a new, complex and very thorny phase in Russia-Israel relations. On the one hand, Russian circles continued to bet on Israel, the “Russian-speaking friend,” to play an important role in alleviating Western pressures and establishing Jewish influence in the West to reduce sanctions. But on the other hand, Russia has become a “neighbor” of Israel after consolidating the Russian presence in the Mediterranean and deploying Russian military bases on the territory of Syria. This matter carries a number of complications related primarily to the close relationship between Moscow and Tehran, and to the fact that Russia now has direct interests in the Middle East region that cannot be ignored in any political or military move.

Understandings in Syria

In those circumstances, the close relations between Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu helped to arrange understandings that guarantee the interests of both parties, the most prominent title of which was that Tel Aviv does not obstruct Russia’s movements in the region, in exchange for Moscow turning a blind eye to Israel’s steps directed at protecting its interests and security requirements.

This equation quickly produced an understanding related to coordinating the military movements of the two parties. Among its most prominent features is that Russia ensures that the situation in the Golan region does not slide into a path that harms Israeli security. Many remember how Moscow once conducted patrols along the separation line in the Golan, and pledged to ensure Israel's security as one of its main priorities in Syria. In return, Tel Aviv provided guarantees to Moscow not to target military bases and facilities in which Russian forces or trainers are located, or linked to the decision-making, control and management centers of the Syrian government that are operated with Russian assistance, while it reserved the right to direct strikes on airports and facilities used by Iran, or Hezbollah, to transport weapons and equipment to Lebanon. This understanding lived for years during which Moscow turned a blind eye to Israeli strikes inside Syria.

Certainly, these understandings witnessed ebbs and flows, and the situation almost slid more than once towards their implosion, but the speed and accuracy of communications at the highest levels helped every time to overcome urgent crises.

Ukraine war

But the two sides were facing a new turning point in relations after the outbreak of war in Ukraine. The situation coincided with major internal fluctuations in Israel that led to Yair Lapid becoming prime minister. The Russian war in Ukraine caused the largest and most violent shock in the history of relations, especially with the Israeli side’s tendency to direct unprecedented criticism at Moscow. It was accompanied by practical action to support Ukraine by supplying it with some limited arms shipments and extensive humanitarian aid, as well as through the transfer of hundreds of trainers and unit men. Private individuals who, according to some reports, helped Kiev confront attacks by Russian or Iranian-made drones and other military technologies.

There is no doubt that relations before the outbreak of the war were facing challenges, including the difference in Russian and Israeli visions about the Iranian position in Syria, and about scenarios for a final solution to the crisis in this country.

But the differences between Moscow and Tel Aviv came to light in an unprecedented way with the outbreak of war in Ukraine.

At that stage, it seemed that the delicate balance that Moscow had established for years in relations between Tel Aviv, on the one hand, and Tehran, on the other, had suffered a major crack.

In contrast to the “hostile” statements issued by Lapid, for example, towards Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who is usually described as professional and cautious in choosing diplomatic expressions, detonated a bomb when he did not feel embarrassed during an interview with an Italian newspaper in criticizing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. And the reference to his Jewish origin, and then Tel Aviv responded to him angrily and considered his statement disgraceful and unforgivable.

The “support” visit made by the Israeli Foreign Minister, Eli Cohen, to Kiev at the beginning of the year was one of the most intense points of tension between the Hebrew state and Moscow, noting that it was the first visit of its kind by an Israeli official at this level to Ukraine since the start of the war.

For its part, Moscow took a serious step toward showing its anger through the decision to close the Russian office of the Jewish Agency “Sakhnot” against the backdrop of accusing it of violating immigration laws, misleading Russians, and adopting illegal mechanisms to transfer qualified people to Israel.

It is true that this crisis subsided with Netanyahu's return to the Prime Minister's Office and his pledge to repair relations with Moscow, but the repercussions of the Ukrainian war were too great for quick settlements to be reached.

The relationship with Tehran

Strengthening the Russian-Iranian alliance has represented the most significant challenge to the attempt to mend relations. Russian experts say that Israel has expanded its activities within the framework of providing Kiev with intelligence information to combat Iranian drones. It began studying providing Kiev with advanced missile systems to confront air attacks. In this context, it seemed that Israel was seeking to examine the repercussions of the “Russian-Iranian alliance” on the one hand, and to work, on the other hand, to expand its activity to examine the capabilities of Iranian aircraft provided to Russia, and other military systems, a large part of which may also be present with “ Hezbollah” in Lebanon.

Russian “punitive” measures against Israel did not succeed in confronting the new situation, including in terms of giving the Syrians free rein to use Russian air defense systems against Israeli attacks, closing Syrian airspace to Israeli warplanes, and activating Damascus’s anti-aircraft missile systems.

All of these measures did not reduce the scale and intensity of the Israeli attacks in Syria, as they took on a dimension that violated all previous understandings, including targeting airports and military infrastructure of the Syrian government.

Against this background, the situation around Gaza exploded, adding a new element of tension that exacerbates the crisis and widens the gap in an unprecedented way between Moscow and Tel Aviv.

It is true that Moscow avoided condemning Israel's actions, and sought primarily to confirm that its close ties with all parties could contribute to playing the role of an acceptable mediator to reduce the severity of the conflict, but Tel Aviv did not forgive the Kremlin for its insistence on confirming and affirming its rejection of the final solution proposed by Israel for the Palestinian issue. Commitment to the two-state solution, and that “no settlement is possible without the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital,” according to Putin’s assertions.

Russian benefits

Experts say the main reason behind Moscow's position is that it currently benefits from distracting attention from the war in Ukraine.

Based on this, the whole world is focused on Israel and the Gaza Strip, which means that Russia now has freedom of action to a large extent, says expert Nikolai Kozanov. He cites, as an example, the fact that Russia was able to abandon the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty relatively quietly - the Duma adopted a law on this matter this week.

Experts also point out that events on the Ukrainian fronts have faded from the front pages of the world, and a debate has begun in the West about how to distribute aid to Israel and Ukraine - all of which is beneficial for Russia.

In addition, Russia had the opportunity to speak with the international community and undermine attempts to isolate it.

It is true that it is difficult to imagine Israel accepting Russian mediation in the ongoing war, but this does not prevent Moscow from accumulating benefits due to the current situation. This explains its movement in the Security Council, and its continuous affirmations about its vision for resolving the conflict in a way that is also consistent with the Russian and Chinese consensus on seeing the features of the new international order

But the focus of some experts on the idea of “Russian benefits” from the worsening conflict does not alone reflect the level of slide that relations between Moscow and Tel Aviv have reached. Here two main factors enter into the debate. The first is the Russian-Iranian relationship, which has reached levels of coordination and alliance, causing Israeli analysts to talk about confronting “an axis that includes Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, and many other countries.” Here, it is important to point out that Moscow has moved from ignoring the accusations directed at Iran that it is behind the current escalation, to directly defending Tehran and affirming its refusal to “place the blame” on the Iranians who, as Minister Sergei Lavrov said, “adopt a very balanced position and seek with the countries of the region to... Reducing tension and preventing a slide towards a major regional confrontation.”

The second element relates to the crystallization of a new Russian vision for alliances against the backdrop of the worsening conflict with the West, which means that Moscow has gradually begun to lose interest in establishing difficult balances such as those it has established since the arrival of its military forces in Syria.

Warning of regional war

In general, experts point out that Russian warnings about the danger of a “regional war” are in fact a direct expression of shared positions with Iran, which also does not wish to engage in a broad and comprehensive confrontation, but may be forced to do so if Israel moves towards undermining its regional centers of influence.

This explains, in part, the degree of anger in Israel toward Russia, even though the latter has not officially announced support for Hamas’ positions.

Israeli experts provide some indications that the “cautious” Russian position actually hides current anti-Israel policies, including the fact that Putin is one of the very few world leaders who did not call Netanyahu to condole the Israeli deaths on October 7. It took Putin eight days after that to contact the Israeli Prime Minister as part of a series of contacts he made with regional leaders to confront the possibility of expanding the conflict.

This showed, according to experts, that any actions taken by Russia in the Middle East can no longer be viewed in isolation from the war in Ukraine and Russia's military relations with Iran.

An Israeli expert says that “in Israel in general, expectations are now very modest, and in a direct translation from Hebrew I say that we do not need help - the main thing is that they (the Russians) cause as little harm as possible. “I believe that today is the most accurate position of public opinion and politicians towards what is happening, and Russia’s position on what is happening.”

Burning bridges

This extremely cautious talk towards Moscow was reflected in another way by the ruling Likud Party in Israel, which until recently was Russia's most important friend. One of the party's most prominent leaders, Amir Whitman, declared that Russia "has become an enemy" and pledged to punish it after the end of the battle with Hamas. “Russia will pay the bills,” he said. Believe me (..) Russia supports the enemies of Israel, supports the Nazis who want to commit genocide against the Israeli people.

Whitman added that after the current battle, Israel will not hesitate to “send its forces to Ukraine to punish Russia.”

Some conspiracy theorists in Russia found in the recent destruction of the Orthodox Church in Gaza a message directed at Moscow as “the protector of the Orthodox world.”

It was noteworthy that the targeting of the Church of Saint Porphyry of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which resulted in the killing of eight people, required the strong intervention of the Russian Church, after it had maintained complete neutrality towards the war. The church said in a statement: “The Russian Orthodox Church sympathizes with the brave priests and parishioners of the Orthodox community in the Gaza Strip, sympathizes with the victims and prays that the Lord will strengthen the people of Palestine in the face of the current ordeal.”

In its statement, the Russian Church supported the message of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which described the Israeli air strikes on humanitarian institutions in the Gaza Strip as a “war crime that cannot be ignored.”

This constituted a new indication that the Gaza war may result in burning the last bridges between Moscow and Tel Aviv.

BY

YASEEN AL-SHEIKH

In Thursday night, President Joe Biden delivered a nationally televised address making the case for an unprecedented military aid package for Israel, as well as Ukraine. Biden is requesting a whopping $74 billion to send to Israel and Ukraine, even amid scenes of mass death, humanitarian crisis, and relentless violence in the besieged Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank.

So where does the US public stand on the crisis in Palestine and Israel? Contrary to the impression one might get listening to the leadership of the Democratic and Republican Parties, there appears to be a breakdown in consensus. 

According to a CBS/YouGov poll released yesterday, over 55 percent of Americans disapprove of Biden’s handling of the conflict thus far (though 62 percent of Democrats say Biden is showing the right amount of support for Israel).

Most notably, roughly 53 percent of Democrats believe the United States should not send additional weapons and supplies to Israeli. If the numbers are accurate — and looking into the weeds of the polling data seems to bolster the takeaway — we appear to be witnessing a significant shift in public opinion.

What can we glean from these results? Two things.

One, the age divide. The CBS poll and a Quinnipiac survey released on October 17 both lay bare the substantial generational split on the issue. In each survey, those under fifty years old are more likely to be critical of the president’s approach and of unconditional support for Israel. Even in the Quinnipiac poll, which frames the question in a way that would depress support for the sentiment, 51 percent of voters aged eighteen to thirty-four say they oppose the United States “sending weapons and military equipment to Israel in response to the Hamas terrorist attack.”

Additionally, the CBS poll finds that 70 percent of Democrats and 57 percent of voters overall, including a perhaps surprising 41 percent of Republicans, believe the United States should directly ferry humanitarian aid into Gaza. All of this lines up with polling from earlier this year and previous years that indicate an uptick in support for Palestinians, particularly from younger Americans.

Two, the malleability of public opinion on this issue is stronger than one might have initially anticipated after the horrific October 7 attacks in Israel. Americans still sympathize deeply with Israel, but there are also worries that the bombardment of Gaza will expand into a regional war. Also, the presence of a larger, louder, and more aggressive pro-Palestinian bloc on the left flank of Congress, in tandem with the brutal stories coming out of the siege of Gaza, seems to have dragged down public support for a full-throated endorsement of Israel’s behavior.

Prominent figures like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cori Bush, and Jamaal Bowman have called for a cease-fire. The sole Palestinian American in Congress, Rashida Tlaib, has said that she has one goal in calling for a cease-fire: “save lives.” A new Data for Progress poll finds that “66% of likely voters agree that the U.S. should call for a ceasefire and de-escalation of violence in Gaza to prevent civilian deaths.”

Progressive and socialist groups have also been active. IfNotNow, an organization made up of Jewish anti-occupation and racial justice activists, staged a sit-in at the United States Capitol this week. The Democratic Socialists of America have made a remarkable 103,000 calls to members of Congress in the last five days, seeking  to press key officeholders to demand a cease-fire. Already, the progressive congressman from Texas Greg Casar has signed onto the cease-fire resolution sponsored by Cori Bush.

In other flash points of public discontent, a senior State Department official has resigned from his position, and the Huffington Post is reporting “extremely low morale” at Foggy Bottom. Yesterday, a letter signed by over four hundred Jewish and Muslim staffers on Capitol Hill was released calling for cease-fire. It is clear that, like in May 2021, there is a much stronger and more organized pushback against a uniformly pro-Israel position than in previous decades.

The US left has an opportunity to press on the generational divide in public opinion and use it to advance the struggle for Palestinian liberation and democracy for all those who live between the Mediterranean and the Jordan. The public is not immovable and neither are those in power. This struggle for democracy and equality will require Palestinians, Jews, and people of all backgrounds to insist that the United States end its military aid and call for an immediate cease-fire and for unmitigated humanitarian aid to Gaza and the rest of the land.

Perhaps in the solidarities formed in this moment, we may at last build the movement needed to bring justice and peace to Israel and Palestine. As the historian Rashid Khalidi writes in the conclusion to his The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: “Overcoming the resistance of those who benefit from the status quo, in order to ensure equal rights for all in this small country between the Jordan River and the sea — this is a test of the political ingenuity of all concerned.”

Source: Jacobin

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said that it had received a threat from the Israeli occupation authorities to bomb the Society’s Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza.

The association indicated in a statement issued on Friday evening that the occupation called on the association to immediately evacuate the hospital, noting that it includes more than 400 patients and about 12,000 displaced civilians who took refuge in the hospital as a safe place, in addition to medical staff.

The association called on the world to take immediate and urgent action to prevent a new massacre like the one that occurred at Al-Ahly Al-Arabi Hospital (Al-Ma’amdani), which resulted in the martyrdom and injury of hundreds of our people.

An article in the American magazine Foreign Affairs asked about the reasons that require Washington to work to curb the “military campaign” that Israel is currently waging in the Gaza Strip, and to preserve the path leading to peace.

Although the author of the article - American diplomat Richard Haass - shows understanding of Israel's desire to completely eliminate the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), striving to achieve this goal does not mean that it is the ideal or desirable method. He goes on to say that Israel's clear strategy is flawed in terms of both ends and means.

He describes Hamas as a network, movement, and ideology as much as it is an organization, explaining that its leadership can be killed, but the entity or something similar will remain in place, and that there is evidence that Israel is preparing for a large-scale ground invasion, which puts Washington in a difficult position, according to Haass, honorary president of the Council. Foreign relations in Washington.

Revenge

He says that the administration of US President Joe Biden is right to support what he calls Israel's right to revenge, but it must still try to formulate what the "revenge" process will look like.

In his opinion, the United States cannot force Israel to abandon a major ground invasion or reduce it shortly after launching it, but American policymakers can and should try.

The United States' case for formulating an Israeli response to the crisis and its repercussions depends not only on the quality of the advice - "even if it is harsh" - but on what friends owe to each other.

The American diplomat confirms that the United States has interests in the Middle East and beyond, which will not be served by any Israeli invasion and occupation of Gaza, nor long-term Israeli policies that do not give hope to the Palestinians who renounce violence, he said.

It is true that such goals will not lead to easy talks and policies, but the alternative - a broader war and the continuation of the unsustainable status quo indefinitely - will be "much more difficult and more dangerous."

Risks of ground attack

Haass warns that trying to eliminate Hamas would require a massive attack in a densely populated urban environment, which would be costly for Israel in that it would lead to civilian casualties, which would generate support for Hamas among Palestinians.

Then, the use of overwhelming force against Gaza will in turn spark international protests, disrupt normalization with Arab governments, and halt Israel’s existing relations with its Arab neighbors or perhaps lead to their cancellation, according to the author of the article’s belief.

Even if Israel manages to crush Hamas, what will happen next? asks the American diplomat, who confirms that there is no alternative authority available to replace it, adding that the Palestinian National Authority lacks legitimacy, capacity, and standing in Gaza.

There is no Arab government prepared to intervene and bear responsibility on behalf of the Gaza Strip, according to the assessment of the honorary president of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Ground invasion alternative

There is - in Haass's view - another option, which is to avoid the invasion and occupation of Gaza, and replace it with strikes targeting Hamas leaders and fighters, which would undermine Hamas' military capabilities.

Israel - and the opinion is still up to the author - must rebuild its military capabilities along its borders with the Gaza Strip so that it can restore its deterrent power and reduce the possibility of launching “terrorist” attacks in the future.

Perhaps a large, prolonged military operation could lead to the outbreak of a broader regional war, sparked by either a decision by Lebanese Hezbollah to fire missiles at Israel, or a spontaneous outbreak of “violence” in the West Bank.

Both the United States and Israel should want to avoid any outcome that would put Tel Aviv under pressure to reach a ceasefire, according to the Foreign Affairs article.

If the dust of war settles, sustained American diplomacy will be needed to “resuscitate” the two-state solution, Haass explains.

Source: Foreign Policy

Amnesty International confirmed that there is conclusive evidence of war crimes committed by the Israeli occupation forces in their aggression against the Gaza Strip, which caused the destruction of entire families.

In a report issued today, Friday, the organization documented the illegal occupation attacks, especially indiscriminate ones, which caused huge losses among Palestinian civilians, calling for an investigation to be opened as war crimes.

Amnesty International indicated that it met with survivors and eyewitnesses, analyzed satellite images and verified photos and videos; To investigate aerial bombardments launched by occupation warplanes between October 7 and 12, which caused horrific destruction and in some cases wiped out entire families.

The organization noted that it investigated five attacks that targeted residential buildings, a refugee camp, a family home, and a public market, and the results confirmed that they involved violations of international humanitarian law, including failure to take possible precautions to avoid civilians, or by launching indiscriminate attacks that failed to distinguish between civilians and military targets. Or by carrying out attacks that may have been directed against civilian targets.

The results showed that the Israeli occupation forces showed a shocking disregard for civilian lives, and bombed residential buildings on a large scale and destroyed basic infrastructure.

Amnesty International called on the international community to take immediate action to prevent Gaza from turning into a giant cemetery, and called on "Israel's allies" to impose a comprehensive arms embargo on it, given that it has committed serious violations under international law.

The organization also stressed the need for the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to accelerate its ongoing investigations into evidence of war crimes and other crimes under international law, by all parties, and stressed that without achieving justice and dismantling the Israeli apartheid regime against the Palestinians, there will be no An end to the horrific civilian suffering the world is witnessing.

On Friday evening, two Palestinian boys were killed after being wounded by Israeli army bullets earlier today, near the cities of Nablus (north) and Ramallah (centre), bringing the death toll in the West Bank to 83 since October 7.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced in a statement, a copy of which was received by Anatolia, “The death of Suhaib Iyad Muhammad Al-Sous (15 years old) as a result of critical wounds sustained by live occupation bullets in the chest, this morning in the town of Beitunia (west of Ramallah).”

In a separate statement, the Ministry announced, "The boy Uday Fawaz Mansour (17 years old) died as a result of critical wounds sustained by live occupation bullets in the town of Huwwara (south of Nablus)."

According to Ministry of Health data, the death toll of Palestinians in the West Bank has risen to 83 since October 7, in addition to 1,400 wounded.

For its part, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society announced in a statement, that its crews "dealt on Friday with dozens of casualties in confrontations with the Israeli army in various governorates of the West Bank, including 24 with live bullets."

The West Bank is witnessing a wave of tension and field confrontations between Palestinians and the Israeli army, coinciding with the deterioration of the situation in the Gaza Strip.

The Al-Qassam Brigades spokesman announced the release of two American detainees for humanitarian reasons, in response to Qatari efforts.

The Al-Qassam Brigades spokesman added, "We released the two American detainees to prove to the American people and the world that the allegations made by Biden and his administration are false allegations."

The Israeli army intensified its bombing of the industrial sector and facilities in the Gaza Strip, and continued to destroy the remaining infrastructure, which has witnessed 6 military operations in the past 15 years.

Video clips over the past four days showed an increase in targeting of factories, which have been halted since the beginning of the aggression on Gaza due to the lack of energy and water, and to a lesser extent, communications networks.

For the 11th day, the Israeli army continues to target the Gaza Strip with intense air strikes that destroyed entire neighborhoods that included industrial and commercial facilities and left thousands dead and wounded among Palestinian civilians.

At dawn on October 7, the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas and other Palestinian factions in Gaza launched Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood,” which the Israeli army responded by launching its aggression against the Gaza Strip.

Destruction of the economy

The Minister of National Economy in the Palestinian government, Khaled Asili, said that 50,000 industrial and commercial facilities are spread in the Gaza Strip, according to 2022 statistics.

Al-Osaily mentioned in an interview with Anadolu that these facilities have become a target, in addition to humans and trees, for Israeli missiles, and that these facilities range in size from factories to commercial stores in the markets.

He added, "The complete destruction of economic life is being practiced by Israel today. We are talking about unprecedented losses in the history of military operations in the Gaza Strip."

The teams of the Ministry of Economy and relevant institutions are unable to trace the effects of the 11 days of the Israeli war, due to the difficulty of movement between the cities of the Gaza Strip, which are witnessing severe bombardment.

Of the total number of facilities in Gaza, there are approximately 3,000 factories, of which 2,000 were operating until the eve of the start of the aggression, and the rest have been suspended for years.

Even the factories that were operating, their production capacity did not exceed 30% of their full capacity, due to the lack of raw materials, electrical power and export restrictions.

Since October 7, all factories have closed their doors, while neither the Palestinian Ministry of Economy nor the Businessmen Association have any statistics on the extent of the destruction, due to the inability of the crews to move.

Destruction of infrastructure

Al-Osaili said, "There are no longer streets, no sewage networks, and above all, Israel has eliminated the corroded electricity networks. (They) have run out of gas and fuel, while the workers are straining to provide shelter for their families."

In Gaza, factories were operating in the clothing and textile sectors, food industries, wood and furniture manufacturing, some metal industries, and the manufacture of some types of fertilizers.

According to data from the Palestinian Businessmen Association in Gaza, these 2,000 factories provided about 25,000 direct jobs and about 35,000 indirect jobs.

Until the end of the second quarter of 2023, the unemployment rate in Gaza was 46.4%, meaning 245,000 unemployed individuals, according to data from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.

Destruction of the communications sector

The communications sector - which is one of the pillars of industry in Gaza - was also a target of the Israeli bombing, as a document issued last Thursday by the Palestinian Telecommunications Group Company - which operates landline telephones and the Internet in addition to cell phones - shows numbers affected by the bombing.

According to the preliminary results of the Palestinian Telecommunications Group, 35% of the terminals of the fixed telephone network and home Internet were disrupted, affecting more than 50% of subscribers, a percentage that increased in the following five days.

The bombing caused complete destruction in some areas and partial destruction in other areas within the Strip, including poles, cables, and fiber-optic lines that connect Gaza internally.

The damage did not stop at this level, but exceeded it, causing interruptions on the main fiber-optic paths that connect the Gaza Strip to the West Bank and the outside world.

40% of cellular phone subscribers in the Gaza Strip were affected after half of the cellular network towers and sites were down, amid efforts by crews to supply the towers with the remaining fuel.

US President Joe Biden requested huge security allocations worth $105 billion on Friday, including $61 billion in military aid to Ukraine and $14 billion to Israel, but it will likely clash immediately with the state of chaos that Congress is witnessing.

“The world is watching and the American people rightly expect their leaders to come together to meet these priorities,” White House Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Yang said in a letter to Congress.

By Zvi Bar'el  

A prominent analyst in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, said that the Israeli campaign is doomed to failure. He wrote in an article on Friday: “Comparisons between Hamas and ISIS cannot hide the profound differences in the nature of their fighting.”

He added: "An unwritten alliance united Islamic countries and the West in their war against ISIS. From Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Iran to France, Britain, and of course the United States, ISIS posed an existential threat to the regimes of the Middle East and the internal security of Western countries."

He continued: "Many Islamic legal rulings issued by Sunni and Shiite religious authorities define ISIS not only as a terrorist organization, but also as an organization that violates Islamic law - and is an anti-Islam organization."

On the other hand, Bar'el pointed out that "Hamas enjoys a completely different situation."

He said: “Russia, China, Qatar, South Africa, Turkey, and, of course, Lebanon, Syria, and Iran, constitute only a partial list of countries that fought ISIS or at least condemned it, but they do not see Hamas as a terrorist organization, and some of them even host Hamas officials on their lands.” Some have normal or even close relationships with it.”

He added: "Hamas, despite its religious ideology, is viewed by the Arab public as an integral part of the Palestinian national struggle, and ISIS can only dream of such a situation."

He continued: "It is very easy to declare that Iran is the sole source of funding for Hamas, and thus link the movement to the international axis of evil, while ignoring the aid it receives from countries and organizations around the world."

Bar'el considered, "Anyone who seeks to demolish the organization's infrastructure and destroy Hamas just as ISIS was destroyed is taking the easy path by leveling homes in Gaza, cutting off electricity to two million people, and imposing a tight siege that does not allow the entry of basic goods such as medicines and food." .

"But in the end, this concept will also fail," Bar'el added. "We'll get to that in a moment."

The former Israeli ambassador to Egypt, Yitzhak Levanon, said in an exclusive statement to Anadolu that the current war in Gaza has stopped the conclusion of normalization agreements between Israel and Arab countries.

Levanon, who held a number of diplomatic positions around the world, said: “I do not think that at the present time we are talking about any normalization, and we have to wait for the end of the war to see what is happening.”

He added: "At the present time, I do not think that anyone is talking about progress in the normalization process because there is a war, and there is a possibility that this war will continue, especially since we see what Hezbollah is doing in the north and we also see what Iran is doing."

Levanon stated that Israel is monitoring the demonstrations in Arab countries and takes people's positions into account, but he ruled out that they would lead to an Israeli decision to withdraw from the war.

He said: “We see the demonstrations taking place in the Arab countries, but I believe this will not affect Israel’s decision to defend itself,” as he put it.

He added: "We are not satisfied with what is happening and we do not want it, but the reality is that Hamas did what it did, which forced Israel to respond," he claimed.

He continued: "If your question is whether these demonstrations will lead Israel to retreat, my answer is no, even if we take what is happening (the demonstrations) into consideration."

Levanon denied that there was anyone in Israel talking about a state for the Palestinians of Gaza in Sinai, and said: “No one in Israel officially is talking about this matter, because this is not Israel’s policy.”

Levanon added: “We have a peace agreement with Egypt, and Sinai is part of Egyptian territory,” he said.

As part of its ongoing war on Gaza since October 7, the Israeli forces have called on the residents of the northern Gaza Strip to evacuate it and head to the south, in preparation for expanding its military campaign that aims to “eliminate Hamas,” according to what its officials say.

However, these demands were met with widespread international condemnation, and were described as forced displacement, “ethnic cleansing,” and the “second catastrophe” of the Palestinian people, and were accompanied by fears that their goal was to force the people of Gaza to move and resettle in the Sinai Peninsula.

Source: Anadolu

The Israeli Ministry of Health announced on Friday that the number of Israelis wounded had risen to 4,834 since the start of the war on Gaza on October 7.

The ministry said in a statement, a copy of which was sent to Anadolu: “The number of injured people who were transported to hospitals as of Friday reached 4,834, including 12 in critical condition, 280 in serious condition, 771 in moderate condition, and the rest in minor condition.”

The Ministry stated that the number of injured people still in hospitals reached 301 on Friday, including 48 in serious condition, 173 in moderate condition, and 80 in minor condition.

Israeli media, including the official Israeli Broadcasting Authority, announced that at least 1,300 Israelis had been killed since the beginning of the war.

For the fourteenth day, the Israeli army continues to target the Gaza Strip with intense air strikes that destroyed entire neighborhoods and killed and wounded thousands of Palestinian civilians.

At dawn on October 7, the Hamas movement and other Palestinian factions in Gaza launched Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood,” in response to “the continuing attacks by Israeli forces and settlers against the Palestinian people, their property, and their sanctities, especially Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem.”

On the other hand, the Israeli army launched Operation Iron Swords and continues to launch intensive raids on many areas in the Gaza Strip, which is inhabited by more than two million Palestinians who suffer from deteriorating living conditions as a result of an ongoing Israeli siege since 2006.

Source: Anadolu

In the latest statistics of the Palestinian Ministry of Health, it said that more than 4,137 dead and more than 13,000 wounded are victims of the occupation’s aggression in Gaza, since it began on October 7.

More than 4,000 people were killed, and more than 13,000 others were injured, most of them children and women, as a result of the Israeli occupation’s aggression against Gaza, in light of the continued intense occupation raids on various areas in the besieged Gaza Strip, which mainly targeted populated areas.

In the latest tally of the Palestinian Ministry of Health, it said that more than 4,137 martyrs and more than 13,000 wounded are victims of the occupation’s aggression in Gaza, since it began on October 7.

The Palestinian Ministry of Interior in the Gaza Strip said, via a statement on Telegram, that “occupation aircraft simultaneously targeted 6 homes, with their residents on their heads, in Khan Yunis Governorate, south of the Gaza Strip.” The statement indicated that "9 people were killed and more than 60 others were injured," all of whom were transferred to Nasser Medical Hospital.

Israeli warplanes targeted several inhabited homes in Khan Yunis, killing 21 people and wounding 79 people, most of whom were women and children. They were taken to Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis. The sources indicated that 8 of the martyrs were from one family.

The occupation forces also bombed Gaza City, and the bombing focused on the Al-Zaytoun and Al-Shuja'iya neighborhoods, causing the demolition of several homes, and the bombing continued on several areas in the Gaza Strip.

According to the poll, 65% support a broad invasion of Gaza and 51% support a broad military operation against Hezbollah, and 80% demand that Netanyahu bear responsibility for the political and security failures, while his popularity and the popularity of his coalition decline significantly.

65% of citizens in Israel supported launching a large-scale ground military operation in the Gaza Strip, while 21% opposed it, and 14% said that they had no opinion about that, according to a poll published by the newspaper “Maariv” today, Friday, and showed that there was no difference in positions between Likud party voters and Yesh Atid party voters.

Also, 51% called for a broad military operation against Hezbollah in Lebanon under the pretext of responding to the firing of missiles towards northern Israel, and 30% supported launching a local military operation against Hezbollah.

A large majority, 80%, believed that the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, should bear responsibility for the security and political failures that led to the Hamas movement’s success in launching a large, sudden attack in southern Israel on October 7th.

69% of Likud voters said that Netanyahu should announce that he bears responsibility for these failures. This comes after ministers, security and military officials announced that they bear responsibility for this failure, while Netanyahu has so far refrained from doing so.

The decline in Netanyahu's popularity continued this week, and it was found that 28% prefer that Netanyahu assume the position of prime minister, while 49% said that they prefer that the head of the "National Camp" bloc, Benny Gantz, assume this position.

The poll also showed that the popularity of the current coalition parties is still declining, and that if elections were held for the Knesset now, the coalition parties would have won 43 seats, even though they are represented today by 64 seats. Opposition parties will obtain 77 seats in new elections, or 68 seats without the Arab parties.

65% said they were optimistic about Israel's future, while 25% said they were pessimistic about its future. The percentage of optimists decreases and the percentage of pessimists increases among secular Jews.

Source: Arab 48