After a long year of conflicts, tensions, and deep internal rifts, the Israelis put their sharp differences aside, and all decided to line up behind the government of Benjamin Netanyahu and support its decision to launch a war of extermination and displacement against the Palestinian people. 

This happened even without any reservation by the opposition forces regarding the decisions of Netanyahu and his army to use an arsenal of killing, lethality and destruction to take revenge on the Palestinians, and to violate all the laws of war and international law, including committing described war crimes, such as the crime of preventing access to water, food, electricity, fuel, communications and medical supplies. 

About the people who have been under siege for more than fifteen years, and the crime of mass displacement, whether due to the terrible bombing, or because of the occupation army’s calls for the population to leave the north of the Gaza Strip and head to the south of the Gaza Valley and to demand that the citizens of the Gaza Strip in general go to Egypt, in addition to the crime of targeting civilians by bombing residential buildings. And the towers and demolished them on the heads of their residents without any distinction between fighters and civilians.

There is no surprise in the position of the Israeli forces, which culminated in Benny Gantz and his party joining the emergency government and the war council. Indeed, the other forces that did not join the government did not hesitate to express their support for the war and retaliatory efforts. 

It also postponed its calculations with Netanyahu until after the war, even though there is a consensus in the street and among the political forces to hold the Prime Minister and his partners fully responsible for the blow that Israel received on October 7, thus dragging the reputation of its army into the mud and dissipating the aura that surrounds this army Described as invincible. It also dealt a severe blow to the reputation of the Israeli military industries, which in the past decade have turned into a source of political, diplomatic and economic power for Israel and have become, through their integration with modern technology industries, the locomotive that drives economic growth. 

In the past year alone, Israel sold weapons, military equipment and spyware for more than Sixteen billion dollars, the share of the Arab countries participating in the Abrahamic Accords alone was about three billion dollars.

The blow that Israel received in the Al-Aqsa flood affected its regional status, prestige, and image before itself and before the world, but it does not affect its existence, while the war of extermination, destruction, and displacement that Israel is waging against the Gaza Strip heralds a new catastrophe no less disastrous and painful than the great catastrophe that befell our people in the year 1948. 

Talking about a new Nakba is not an invention by Palestinian analysts, nor is it merely constructive talk. Rather, it is a continuous threat issued by Israeli leaders, officials and analysts in response to every Palestinian act of struggle, and they had previously launched it during the Great Intifada, the Al-Aqsa Intifada, during the Battle of Saif al-Quds, and up to the events. witnessed in the West Bank over the past two years.

For all of this, it is better for our people, their forces, their factions, their civil organizations, and all their political and social components to put aside all their differences (including the excessive discussion about the justifications for Operation Al-Aqsa Flood) and agree on ways to confront the imminent dangers, the danger of genocide and displacement in the Gaza Strip, and the danger can easily spread to the West Bank. Especially after settler leaders announced that their militias would be in charge of controlling law and order in the West Bank under the pretext of the army being busy in Gaza.

We saw the immediate translation of this trend through declaring the West Bank a military zone, and closing most areas, including governorates, cities, and villages, with iron gates, military barriers, and cement blocks, and then in the series of attacks launched by settlers on some villages and external roads, including the bloody attack on the village of Qasra, and the assassination of the martyr Randa Ajaj from Deir Jarir.

The highest priority now is to protect our people in Gaza from the dangers of the war of extermination and displacement, which is a brutal war in which America and the colonial West in general side with Israel. Not only do they take political sides, but they also take part in the operations rooms, sending air bridges and aircraft carriers to supply Israel with death bombs and ammunition.

In this battle, our people need every Palestinian, Arab and humanitarian voice to support and defend them, unified political positions, and advocacy activities everywhere. Our people's forces and our friends around the world can deliver clear messages that our people in Gaza are not alone, and that the aggressors and their supporters will pay the price.

The priority associated with protecting Gaza and our people there is to unify the political and field position in the West Bank, and if it is difficult to resolve the differences and discrepancies that have divided us over the past years, it is easy to agree on a temporary and field work program to protect villages and towns threatened by settler militias, organize advocacy activities for Gaza, and deliver a clear message to the occupiers and to the entire world that we are one people, and we will never accept attempts to monopolize Gaza or any of the struggling political forces.

When the Israeli propaganda and lying machine shamelessly intends to fabricate all these slanders to demonize our factions and criminalize our entire people, this does not come in the context of a verbal debate and presentation of positions, but rather to justify the brutal attack that does not take into account any international controls or laws, and makes it permissible to commit war crimes without any reason or motive. 

A deterrent, total approval and practical alignment by the American administration, which over the past year had avoided meeting with Netanyahu and the pillars of his government after describing it as the most right-wing government in Israel’s history, but it was open to him to the extent of participating in his decisions after the Al-Aqsa flood, because of the blow that Israel received. On the 7th of October, it is a blow to its influence, its regional status, and its functional roles, as well as a blow to the heads of the Western colonial alliance.

We are not alone in the field of confrontation and defense of the values of justice, truth, and freedom, but mobilizing the forces supporting our people and their cause requires, first and foremost, a unified and effective Palestinian performance that is based on the heroism of our people in the field and invests in the justice of our cause and its standing in the conscience of the peoples and the liberation movements.

A coalition of Arab Americans, progressive American Jews, and civil liberties advocates in Atlanta recently mobilized to block the Georgia legislature from passing a bill that would change the definition of anti-Semitism to include legitimate criticism of Israel.

Similar bills have been passed in other states, as part of a national strategy by a few pro-Israel groups and right-wing think tanks.

Supported by successful legislation or executive orders in more than 30 states to punish entities or individuals who support boycotts or sanctions of Israel, these groups are expanding their campaign to silence criticism of Israel by pressuring state governments to adopt a controversial definition of anti-Semitism, saying, Efforts to demonize Israel or judge it as having “double standards” are anti-Semitic.

Although the Georgia bill failed, it will return next year. The bills and efforts to conflate legitimate criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism are just one part of a broader campaign to stamp out growing pro-Palestinian sentiment in the United States. By penalizing pro-Palestinian speech on campuses and defeating politicians who criticize Israeli behavior, this campaign attempts to re-silence pro-Palestinian voices and critics of Israel, which have been prevalent for decades. During the 1970s and 1980s, members of Congress who dared to stand up for Palestinian rights were defeated. Professors lost their positions, speakers were cancelled, and groups and individuals were discredited.

As public opinion shifted during the intifada and the eventual inclusion of the PLO in the peace process, the power of this intimidation lost momentum and an open debate began. The (mostly recent) ups and downs of the peace process have led to renewed debate on Israeli/Palestinian issues. But the increasing behavior of the Israeli government's policies and increased scrutiny of its policies led to a radical shift in American public opinion. Today, majorities in both parties support linking US aid to Israel to the level of commitment to human rights.

By a large margin, the Democrats are now more understanding of the Palestinians' problems. Candidates who defended Palestinian human rights and criticized Israel ran for Congress and won. Outspoken students — including Arab Americans, Black and Asian Americans, and progressive Jewish youth — are engaging in pro-Palestinian actions on college campuses. This shift created a crisis for the extremist pro-Israel groups, which settled on a two-track attack.

First, the new pro-Israel political action committees (AIPAC) shifted from raising money for candidates who support Israel to raising money to defeat pro-Palestinian candidates. Their ads never focus on supporting Israel — an issue that won't win them — and instead focus on personal attacks against the candidates they oppose. Recently, AIPAC and its allies announced their intention to spend tens of millions in 2024 to defeat congressional candidates deemed insufficiently supportive of Israel.

The second path is the legislative path. As Lara Friedman recently noted: “Essentially, the pro-Israel community is seen as saying that it cannot win the debate on the merits of the issue, but instead should try to silence the other side.” They have launched smear campaigns against individuals and groups perceived to be critical of Israeli policies – including progressive Jewish groups – calling them anti-Semites.

This harms Arab American empowerment and civic participation. This effort stifles debate on an important foreign policy concern, crushes freedom of expression, and silences support for the Palestinians. By conflating anti-Semitism with criticism of Israel, attention is diverted from true anti-Semitism, which is holding, expressing, or acting on intolerant attitudes toward Jews, as individuals or a group, and attributing inherent characteristics of them, as Jews, to the Jewish people. This, like all forms of hatred, must be completely combated and prevented.

Because the people targeted in this pro-Israel campaign are mostly progressive critics of Israeli policies, a free pass has been given to right-wing pro-Israel anti-Semites. Criticizing Israel for seizing land, demolishing homes, or denying refugees the right to return is acceptable. Silencing critics of these behaviors is in itself intolerance. Pro-Israel groups often accuse Israel's critics of "unfairly targeting Israel out of criticism."

*President of the Arab American Institute - Washington

Air strikes and bombing are still continuing on the Gaza Strip, and every passing minute brings with it new victims and new destruction. At the same time, rockets are still being launched from the Gaza Strip towards Israeli towns and cities, reaching everywhere from north to south, causing new victims and new destruction, even though the injuries and destruction expected in Israel are almost insignificant when compared to the amount of killing and human casualties that Israel inflicts on the population of the crowded Gaza Strip. So populated that shells sow death and destruction wherever they fall, even if they are not directed against a specific target.

The declared Israeli goal of the counterattack launched by Israeli forces is to uproot the Hamas movement from the Gaza Strip and put an end to the threat it poses to Israel, according to its leaders, which is embodied in successive rounds every few years during which Hamas bombs Israel with missiles and Israel responds by sometimes invading the Gaza Strip or bombing it. At other times, the fighting stops waiting for the next round, which makes the Israeli government face increasing pressure from its public opinion demanding an end to these rounds and the provision of security to its southern settlements adjacent to the border with the Gaza Strip.

There is no doubt that the current round differs from previous rounds, and it appears that it will be the last of them because, in addition to internal political considerations and partisan bidding in Israel, other elements were available to the Israelis that give the impression that the current war government that was formed after Saturday’s attack will move forward more than any previous government. 

These elements are represented by the current government’s ability to turn international public opinion against Hamas because it succeeded in portraying Hamas as ISIS and presenting the results of the attack on Saturday 10/7 as a new Holocaust against the Jews, as well as the United States joining the battle, for American internal political reasons and international considerations affected by the nuclear file. 

Iran and the Russian war in Ukraine, not as a superpower trying to maintain international security and stability through United Nations institutions, most notably the UN Security Council, but as a direct party to the conflict by moving aircraft carriers and putting commando units on standby to enter the war, in addition to mobilizing an international coalition. Supporting its move, and by dealing with Israel as the Ukraine of the Middle East, providing it with weapons, equipment, and political and economic support!

This mobilization placed the region on the brink of a volcano that could erupt more violently if Israel carried out a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, which may have begun while this article was going to press.

The question remains: Will Israel succeed in uprooting Hamas and putting an end to the threat facing its southern regions, or will it fail and that the attack it is carrying out will deepen the conflict, complicate the problem, and enter the region into a closed bloody circle from which there is no escape?
If Israel enters the Gaza Strip, it will not go on a picnic, and its forces’ path will be paved with death, blood, and fire in every inch of it, which will make matters more miserable because its forces will also sow death and destruction in everything they reach.

When will Israel and America understand that the problem does not lie with Hamas, but rather lies in the self-evident fact that the Palestinian people have a right, and that the crime that was committed against them by trying to uproot them from their homeland in 1948 and is still continuing to uproot them from what remains of that homeland will not pass, and that the Palestinian people will not perish? They will not surrender and will continue to fight until they obtain their established national rights, taking into account that they has expressed on more than one occasion  agreement to deal with the fait accompli facts.

And coexistence side by side with Israel in an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, and in the spirit of the Arab Peace Initiative, which was adopted by the Arab countries in Beirut in 2002 and adopted by Islamic countries at a later time, which gives Israel the opportunity to normalize relations with all Arab and Islamic countries in exchange for ending the occupation and providing the opportunity for the establishment of a Palestinian state with its capital. Arab Jerusalem and a just solution to the refugee problem.

Today we are living in difficult days, not only for the Palestinians but also for the Israelis. No matter how much the Israelis are able to practice killing and destruction against the Palestinians, they will not enjoy security and stability unless this is achieved for the Palestinians.

Today, what is required of America and the international community is to comply with truth, justice, and the logic of history, which confirms that a people who stood on their feet and demanded their right to freedom and independence cannot be oppressed.

Today, we are required to stop this bloody madness and get out of this cycle through a political initiative based on the Palestine Liberation Organization assuming responsibility for managing the Gaza Strip and strengthening this role Palestinianly with the participation of all national and Islamic factions, Arab and international, through a transitional phase that places the West Bank and the Gaza Strip under international protection that guarantees the transition. The peaceful transition from the stage of violence to the stage of security and stability, and addressing all the phenomena that generate violence and destabilize security and stability in the region, the summit of which is the Israeli settlement and occupation.

There is no doubt that the entrance to that stage must be through an immediate ceasefire and the immediate release of Israeli civilian hostages in exchange for the simultaneous release of Palestinian female prisoners and Palestinian children, ensuring the safety of the prisoners on both sides, entering into intense and serious negotiations to exchange prisoners, closing this file, and entering into a covenant. A new era of coexistence, and dedication to healing the wounds of the past and building a new era of peace and prosperity for the benefit of the two peoples, because war is not the solution, peoples are invincible, and truth and justice are what prevail in the end.

This may seem like a dream that does not relate to reality, but all great works begin with a dream that finds someone working to turn it into reality.
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The ink of the pen has melted and the voice has “sharpened” and the Palestinian people are demanding the implementation of international resolutions related to the Palestinian issue, but unfortunately the major state that falsely claims to be the leader of democracy, human rights, and against racial discrimination, is becoming clear every day that it is against democracy when it comes to the Palestinian people.

It is true to say that the large number of Palestinian factions and their failure to agree on a single decision weakens our cause, but the Palestinian people have one word, meaning to seize independence and freedom like the rest of the peoples of the world.

We have been suffering for seventy-five years under the last uprooted and racist colonialism in the world. Neither America nor Europe is fair to us.

The crying joke is when the colonialist, the representative of the rogue state in the Security Council, speaks and claims with pictures that the Palestinian fighter, the owner of the land, is treated by his Ashkenazi enemy, who took away his homeland, Palestine, where his fathers and grandfathers lived for more than five thousand years, and he forgets what the colonizer did of burning Palestinian children while they were sleeping in their homes.

Every day, the occupation army executes our children and youth, and the Western world, led by America, does nothing to deter this army, which is ready to be armed by our enemy, America.

What's worse is that the Zionist Blinken says that Saudi Arabia would have agreed with the racist and occupying state if it were not for Hamas.

We are a peaceful people. The Liberation Organization ceded 78% of historic Palestine, and America and the occupier agreed, but unfortunately nothing happened. On the contrary, the colonizer increased the theft of lands, the demolition of homes, and the expulsion of residents and their children.

He was not satisfied with this, but we see daily his attacks on our sanctities, especially the storming of the colonists in the thousands, led by him and their ministers, on the first two qiblahs and the third of the Holy Mosque.

The Al-Aqsa flood was the result of the settlers’ practices, with the occupation army protecting it through daily raids on Al-Aqsa and holding Talmudic prayers in its courtyards, while the world did not move.

America and the Western world must do justice to the Palestinian Arab people and implement all international resolutions, the first of which is returning all refugees to their lands and homes, because there is no peace, security or stability in the region without the Palestinian people restoring their full inalienable national rights.

The racist, extremist, and murderous occupier, with the help of America, is impossible to defeat the owner of the land, who is fighting to regain his land and the land of his ancestors, and this is the fundamental difference between the one who fights to regain his land and the one who fights to occupy someone else’s land.

Now, not tomorrow, Mr. Ahmed Aboul Gheit (i.e., the Arab League) must provide all the Gaza Strip’s needs, including electricity, medical supplies, and food, because our people there are defending the honor of all Arabs and Muslims. Because proud Gaza is considered a disaster-stricken and besieged land.

The "Al-Aqsa Flood" operation is on behalf of the Arab and Islamic nation.

It is time to take away our national rights. History will not have mercy on anyone who neglects this duty. Praise be to God, there are no traitors in the issue of Palestine, and God is the One who seeks help.

*Member of the National Council

Today, Sunday, settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque, under heavy protection from the Israeli occupation police.

According to local sources, dozens of settlers stormed Al-Aqsa from the direction of the Mughariba Gate, and carried out provocative rounds in its courtyards.

Settlers carry out provocative daily raids on the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, except on Fridays and Saturdays, in an attempt to control it and impose temporal and spatial division.

In a related context, the occupation forces tightened their military measures at all doors of Al-Aqsa Mosque and prevented citizens from entering it. They returned many of them and prevented them from performing prayers in the vicinity of Al-Aqsa Mosque as well, in conjunction with allowing settlers to storm Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Israel is unlikely to emerge victorious in the war in Gaza, and Hamas is equally unlikely to surpass the psychological victory it achieved on October 7. The US may manage to navigate a way out of the crisis without becoming directly involved, perhaps through a new plan to address the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that involves Arab and European participation, and implicit understandings with Iran.

People (mainly in the US and Europe) who are uncritically supportive of Israel will not understand those (mainly in the Arab and Islamic worlds, but also in the West) who contextualize Hamas's shock attack within the history of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and siege of the Gaza Strip. Both sides denounce each other without trying to understand or listen to the opposing viewpoint. But it is important also to note the astonishment felt by everyone about what Hamas has done by carrying out such a complex and daring operation. Indeed, most of the world did not anticipate such a failure in Israel's intelligence capabilities and performance.

The Israeli response, led by the devastating bombardment of Gaza and the forced displacement of civilians, has eroded some of the initial sympathy felt in the West. Now, the world is divided between those who support Israel's bid to crush Hamas at any cost and those warning against the folly of this and the political and military costs, not just the exorbitant human cost.

Any resolution will ultimately depend on Iran's final decision regarding Hamas's call to Tehran and its allies to activate all "resistance fronts", starting with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. But at the time of writing, Iran has moved cautiously in the diplomatic arena to avoid slipping off the tightrope. Six days on from Hamas's operation, it remained off the battlefield and advised Hezbollah to exercise prudence.

Iran's priority is its nuclear program. Tehran may not want to jump into the fire with Israel when it is reported to be six months away from getting that program to a level where it can deliver a bomb. It will also have read the message sent by the US in the form of the deployment of the USS Gerald Ford aircraft carrier to the region: that Washington would be prepared to resort to force, potentially targeting nuclear facilities, if Tehran miscalculated. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has openly denied involvement in Hamas's operations, indicating American deterrence is still working.

Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden’s administration has, it seems, also worked to address the other side of this challenge by trying to convince Israel to scale back its plans for a ground invasion of Gaza, work with Egypt to secure a safe passage for civilians from Gaza, pressure Hamas through Qatar's leverage and engage with Arab and European leaders to formulate an alternative peace plan. The latter would likely start with freezing this crisis in its tracks and moving towards new negotiations under US sponsorship.

Washington’s anxiety over getting dragged into participating in a military conflict because of decisions made by Israel or Iran is evident. Then there is the unavoidable humanitarian catastrophe resulting from an Israeli ground invasion of the Gaza Strip. Indeed, the US has a heavy burden on its shoulders. It may succeed in leveraging its military, political, and diplomatic weight in Israel, a country it has committed itself time and again to defending.

Washington’s anxiety over getting dragged into a military conflict because of decisions made by Israel or Iran is evident

The Biden administration, moreover, was working for a qualitative shift in Arab-Israeli relations. But what it missed and is paying the price for today is that this qualitative shift is impossible if it ignores the Palestinians and their rights. Hamas's achievement is that it has awakened everyone involved and managed to undermine the assumption that the Palestinian issue had been settled among Arab governments, in the Arab and Muslim streets and on the international stage.

A forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza would be in line with a broader policy held by the most extremist camp in Israel of advocating for the expulsion of all Palestinians – even those in the West Bank and Israel proper. This camp believes Palestinians, even those with Israeli citizenship, pose a permanent demographic challenge. From this perspective, the epic proportions of Hamas's attack may ultimately serve extremist Israeli goals more than Palestinian aspirations, by providing the pretext needed for forced displacement.

That displacement would also put Egypt in a predicament. Cairo will be aware that some in Israel advocate for the resettlement of Gazan refugees in Sinai. Yet closing the border to Palestinian civilians to thwart the Israeli strategy is not an easy option, as its humanitarian cost is high and would unfold under the world's watchful eyes. Egypt is caught between a rock and a hard place, and President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, like Mr Biden, has a presidential election to worry about.

If the Biden administration wishes to seize the diplomatic and political initiatives, it must have the courage to compel its ally, Israel, to adopt a new approach towards the Palestinians.

And the Palestinians themselves, particularly the Palestinian Authority (PA), are now under more scrutiny than ever. If the PA continues in its stagnation and obsolete methods, it will miss a historic opportunity inadvertently provided by Hamas. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas must rejuvenate himself and surround himself with younger advisers instead of dwelling on the past and the methods of rejection and boycotting negotiations with Israel. This is an opportunity for him to tell the youth of Hamas, not just the youth of his own party Fatah, that now is the opportune time to engage together in a new peace process with Israel, with Arab participation and perhaps later with Iranian blessing.

The Israelis, for their part, must find a way to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and open an opportunity for a realistic and honest review of the miseries brought about by religious and political extremism on them and others. It is time for the Israeli people to hold themselves and their leaders accountable and to seize this bitter moment to create a pathway to justice for the Palestinians, freeing themselves from the siege mentality and living in peace with their neighbors – if they change their ways.

Source: Annahar Al Arabi

By Raghida Dergham is the founder and executive chairwoman of the Beirut Institute

Three Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades fighters were killed in Lebanon during the implementation of the “Northern Occupied Palestine” operation yesterday, Saturday, according to a statement by the brigades.

The Al-Qassam Brigades revealed, in a statement, that a group of its fighters were able to blow up the border fence and target a control point and then reach an area near the “Margaliot” settlement and clash with the occupation army and inflict losses on its ranks.

The Al-Qassam Brigades added, in its statement, that during the clash, “enemy aircraft targeted our mujahideen so that they would rise as martyrs to their Lord, coming without retreating.”

It was reported that the martyrs were Ahmed Osama Othman from Ain al-Hilweh camp, Yahya Nayef Abdel Razek from Ain al-Hilweh camp, and Suhaib Omar Kayed from Wadi al-Zeina.

This is the first time during Israel's wars on Gaza that the Palestinian resistance carried out operations from outside the border, as several factions from southern Lebanon bombed northern Israel, and several fighters infiltrated and clashed with the occupation forces.

The Al-Qassam Brigades had previously announced the launch of a concentrated missile salvo from southern Lebanon towards Western Galilee, and the border area in southern Lebanon has witnessed an exchange of bombardments since last Sunday, following the start of the Al-Aqsa Flood Battle.

Fellow journalist Giselle Khoury, wife of the martyr Samir Kassir, died at dawn today at the American University Hospital - Beirut after a struggle with cancer.

After the assassination of her husband, journalist and historian Samir Kassir, on June 2, 2005, the late woman launched a foundation bearing his name on February 1, 2006, transforming it into one of the most prominent regional institutions specialized in monitoring violations against media and cultural freedoms in the Arab Levant, and supporting independent media voices. In Lebanon and the countries of the Middle East and North Africa.

She took the issue of press freedom to global forums, urging the European Union to launch the Samir Kassir Prize for Press Freedom in 2006. She was elected as a member of the Board of Directors of the World Forum for Media Development between 2016 and 2020, and a member of the jury of the Guillermo Cano Prize for Press Freedom awarded by UNESCO. She received the French Order of Arts and Letters, rank of officer, in 2012, and the French Legion of Honor, rank of Knight, in 2019.

Khoury’s professional career began in 1986 at the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation, and she hosted the most prominent Arab and international political and cultural figures on her program “The Dialogue of a Lifetime” between 1992 and 2001, before joining the MBC group in 2002 and contributing to the launch of the “Al Arabiya” channel. She presented the “Bel Arabi” program between 2003 and 2013.

The deceased moved to the BBC Arabic channel in 2013, where she interviewed senior leaders and thinkers about pivotal moments in contemporary history within the “Al-Mashhad” program, and then to the “Sky News Arabia” channel, in 2020, with the “With Giselle” program, which It represented a turning point in the form, rhythm, and diversity of talk shows. She wrote and produced documentaries about prominent Arab political figures, and founded the “Rawi” documentary production company alongside journalist and ambassador Sahar Baasiri.

On Sunday morning, the Israeli occupation forces launched a campaign of arrests among citizens in various areas of the West Bank.

In Nablus, the occupation forces arrested: Mazen Al-Danbek, Sami Al-Asi, Nasrallah Yaliblah, Jaafar Rayhan, Moamen Rayhan, and Baraa Rayhan from the village of Tal, and Nasouh Shtayyeh and his son Muhammad from the village of Salem, east of the city.

Meanwhile, from Jenin, Ahmed Dhia Al-Ahmad, from the town of Rummana, Ali Samih Abu Bakr, and Tariq Muhammad Qabaha, from the town of Ya’bad, were arrested after the occupation forces raided and searched their homes.

In Hebron, the occupation forces arrested: the freed prisoner Yousef Abu Hashem (26 years old), Ali Izz al-Din al-Humaidan Abu Maria (21 years old), Bahaa Muhammad Khalil Zaqeq (28 years old), and Amir Qasim Khalil Akhalil (16 years old).

The occupation forces also caused material damage to citizens' homes and property during the search operations.

The two brothers, Mahmoud and Malek Iyad Thawabta, and Ahmed Saleh Thawabta, from the town of Beit Fajjar in Bethlehem, were arrested after their homes were raided and searched.

The occupation forces also arrested journalist Sabri Jibreen and Hisham Khalil Al-Amour from the town of Tuqu’, southeast of Bethlehem, and Mahmoud Nasri Salah and Ahmed Hassan Salah from the town of Al-Khader.

As Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood” - which was launched by the Palestinian resistance and led to the killing of 1,300 Israelis - enters its ninth day, the violent Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip continues, leaving more than 2,384 martyrs and more than 10,150 injured, most of whom are women and children.

UN official warns that Palestinians are being subjected to "mass ethnic cleansing"

The United Nations rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, warned that Palestinians are exposed to a “grave risk of mass ethnic cleansing.”

The independent UN rapporteur said, in a statement, “There is a grave danger that what we are witnessing may be a repetition of the 1948 catastrophe and the 1967 setback, but on a larger scale. The international community must do everything to prevent this from happening again.”

You all may think I am crazy writing this, but believe me there will be a day after tomorrow. This horrible war will come to an end. We will all be traumatized by what we have gone through. We will see all around us the devastation, destruction, wounded people mentally and physically and a lot of death. We will bury our dead and we will not forget what has been done and who did it.  

That will remain with us for many years to come. These days and weeks and maybe months will reshape our narratives and Israelis and Palestinians will never agree about what happened to us.  For Israelis the attack on October 7 was the most severe military invasion and terrorist attack in 75 years. For Palestinians that day and the days to follow have become the harsh and acute continuation of the Nakba. These are very dark days and all of us are impacted by what is happening.

I am hoping for what I call “a Belfast moment”.  Perhaps it is an incorrect term and if so I apologize to the people of Northern Ireland. I am referring to the time when we, the civilians, not our governments, look around us and see all the death and destruction and say: No More. ENOUGH. We have to invest our time, energy, resources, faith and devotion not in killing each other anymore, but in building a new reality. We have to recognize that even after this horrific war, Israelis and Palestinians will remain here on this land between the River and the Sea and no one here has more right to be here than anyone else.  We have to look each other in the eyes and say we must all have the same right to the same rights. Then we can begin to rebuild a new reality.

Israel is very likely to re-occupy Gaza. At the time of this writing, it seems unavoidable. I don’t know will be the fate of the Israeli hostages. I have spent countless hours trying to advance an agreement on the release of the women, children, elderly and sick hostages in exchange for the 43 women and 190 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. I have pushed for a humanitarian ceasefire to implement the deal and to enable food and medical supplies to enter Gaza.  Once the Israeli ground operation begins, it will probably be too late. At that point the only hope for the hostages will be rescue operations which some will succeed and others will not. The number of civilian casualties in Gaza will skyrocket and the destruction will be beyond imagination.

On the day that Israel completes it occupation of Gaza it must announce that Israel will leave Gaza within x months – 8 months, 12 months, whatever – but Israel is not staying. The Gush Katif settlers are not going back to Gaza.  There will be no Israeli settlers in Gaza.  Israel must then also announce its plans which have to include working with the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank to end the conflict and to rebuild a peaceful Gaza. It has to be done with the Gaza business community and peace seeking civil society.  

This work will not be done by the Israeli government because on the day after the war, Netanyahu and his government, and people from previous governments are going to face their day of reckoning. The people who brought us to this situation must be forced to pay the price for their colossal failure. 

The military people who devised the policies that led us to the brink have to go home also and pay the price for their part of the failure. The Palestinian leadership will also have to face their day of reckoning and take responsibility for their failures in dividing the Palestinian people and creating an extreme fanatical leadership that set the Palestinian cause back 75 years.

The process of rebuilding and reconstruction and creating a new reality will have to be done by the people with new leadership on both sides. Not the same people we have seen for years, but new people with a new vision. This task of rebuilding our lives will have to include our neighbors – Egypt, Jordan, the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, hopefully Saudi Arabia and others. It will have to be supported financially by the international community. But it is we, Israelis and Palestinians, citizens, civil society, people who dreams and hopes, and a new vision who have to lead the process.

That is why is it essential that the current Military Cabinet in Israel have the first elements of a plan which begins with: we are not staying in Gaza.  We will leave Gaza by the following date. Let me remind you, when Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 the Lebanese villagers in the south threw rice and candies at the Israeli soldiers who liberated them. Three months later they were placing roadside bombs to kill them. No one agrees to be occupied. No one in Gaza or the West Bank or East Jerusalem will ever agree to be occupied – not yesterday, not now, and not tomorrow. Israel may reoccupy Gaza, but if it stays in Gaza more Israeli blood will be the price paid, as well as Palestinian blood of resistance.

We must set a new course. I am thinking about this all of time. I have begun talking to some serious strategic thinking Israelis and Palestinians about creating a working group on this now. Only people who think strategically are capable of even imagining such a working group while we are still at war. But we all know how wars begin, and we never know how they will end.  We must be prepared for an exit strategy which is substantially more than just having the army exit Gaza. We have to be prepared with the plans for the day after tomorrow when we will all be engaged in building a new and hopefully peaceful reality.

Dr Gershon Baskin ran a secret back channel between Israel and Hamas in 2011, and is now director of operations for ICO – International Communities Organization

Global Review title: "Interview with Daniel Pipes about the Hamas Attack: "The Delusion That Enrichment Can Tame Palestinians Goes Back to the Very Origins of Zionism and Persists Despite Never Succeeding"

Global Review: Was the Hamas attack foreseeable?

Daniel Pipes: Given its history and ideology, that Hamas would again attack Israel was foreseeable. But the size and nature of the attack came as a complete surprise. It resembled 9/11 in the sense that both times, jihadis executed a previously unimaginable idea. By the way, it has caused the South Korean government to reconsider its border arrangement with North Korea.

GR: Was the attack related to preventing Israeli normalization with Saudi Arabia, to the Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich duo, to heightened violence on the West Bank, to demands from Tehran, to the date (50 years and 1 day), or something else?

DP: Perhaps any and all of these; we do not know the reason for the timing. It could simply have been that preparations were in place.

GR: Was Israel caught by surprise due to an intelligence failure or to a ruling coalition being so obsessed with other matters – notably judicial reform and a deal with Saudi Arabia – that it ignored warnings from the intelligence services?

DP: All reports concur that a massive intelligence failure occurred.

GR: Did the Israeli security establishment focus too much on Iran and Hezbollah, seeing these as the main threats, and forgot about Hamas?

DP: No, I believe the real problem was misunderstanding the nature of Hamas. The security establishment believed it could be managed through economics. The delusion that enrichment can tame Palestinians goes back to the very origins of Zionism and persists despite never succeeding.

GR: Did Israelis, with their high-tech defense systems, F-35s, and nuclear weapons, have a false sense of security that made them unprepared for asymmetric war?

DP: Yes, and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has turned into a truly defensive force vis-à-vis the Palestinians, as Lazar Berman has eloquently explained.

GR: What does Israel Victory mean in the present context?

DP: That's easy. It means extirpating Hamas, removing it entirely from Gaza.

GR: Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Gazans to get out of Gaza. But where should they go?

DP: That's tough. After that warning, an IDF spokesperson showed maps and instructed residents where to evacuate. I cannot tell if the proposed refuges really provide shelter or not. I suspect not. Israeli forces need to make minimizing civilian casualties a priority.

GR: Do you think a ground offensive in Gaza by the IDF will be protracted, especially given Hamas' years of preparation, including a sophisticated tunnel system?

DP: It depends how meticulous the IDF is. If it goes house to house, as in Jenin in 2002, the operation will be slower and costlier in lives than if it blasts its way through. That in turn depends in good part on the level of anger in Israel.

GR: What sort of leverage do the Israeli hostages give Hamas?

DP: My inclination is to predict "not much." Precious as each life is, the body politic is not in a mood to be deterred by further deaths, either of hostages or of soldiers.

GR: Will Hezbollah join in?

DP: That is a big uncertainty. I suspect feverish debates are taking place among Hezbollah leaders and with Tehran to decide this question. If I had to bet, I'd say no, because the rage in Israel will deter Hezbollah.

GR: What is your prediction on how the massacre will affect Israeli politics: the emergency government, putting aside judicial reform, the end of Netanyahu's political career?.

DP: The emergency government formed on Oct. 11 and almost nobody noticed. But it represents a major political development with many implications beyond Gaza; in particular, the ruling coalition no longer depends on its hard-liners. Judicial reform looks defunct. Netanyahu used up his ninth life on Oct. 7; in power for nearly all of the past fifteen years, he cannot escape blame for the catastrophe. I believe his political career will wind down.

GR: How does this affect the Abraham Accords, a possible Saudi-Israel deal, and the India-Middle East Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC)?

DP: Israel's ferocious reaction shakes the Abraham Accords but I expect they will not break. A Saudi deal will be delayed but not halted. IMEC represents no more than a wish at this time.

GR: What are the non-Western responses (Russia, China, Muslim-majority countries, etc.) to the massacre?

DP: A survey by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy on Oct. 11 finds that "Around the globe, representatives of approximately a hundred countries have reacted to the war in varying ways. At least forty-four nations have publicly expressed their unequivocal condemnation of Hamas and explicitly decried its tactics as terrorism." This amounts to unusually strong support for Israel.

GR: Might the Hamas war affect the U.S. pivot to Asia?

DP: It temporarily returns attention to the Middle East but I expect long-term trends away from the region will continue.

GR: What concrete steps should Western governments take in response to the Hamas attack?

DP: Where do I begin? For starters: Urge Israel to destroy Hamas. Stop all aid to the Palestinian Authority. Sanction Türkiye and Qatar for their help to Hamas.

GR: What steps should Germany, specifically, take?

DP: The same steps as other democracies but more so, given Germany's unique and unchanging debt to the Jewish people.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said part of the motivation for Hamas’ latest attack on Israel may have been disrupting a potential normalizing of Israel-Saudi Arabia ties and said Washington will announce new assistance for Israel on Sunday.

Hamas fighters rampaged through Israeli towns as the country suffered its bloodiest day in decades on Saturday and battered Palestinians with air strikes in Gaza on Sunday, with hundreds reportedly killed on both sides. The spiraling violence threatens a major new Middle East war.

The attack by Hamas launched at dawn on Saturday represented the biggest and deadliest incursion into Israel since Egypt and Syria launched a sudden assault in an effort to reclaim lost territory in the Yom Kippur war 50 years ago.

“It wouldn’t be a surprise that part of the motivation may have been to disrupt efforts to bring Saudi Arabia and Israel together, along with other countries that may be interested in normalizing relations with Israel,” Blinken told CNN in an interview on Sunday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last month he believed his country was on the cusp of peace with Saudi Arabia, predicting it could reshape the Middle East. Saudi Arabia, the home of Islam’s two holiest shrines, has long insisted on the Palestinians’ right to statehood as a condition of recognizing Israel – something that many members of Netanyahu’s nationalist religious coalition have long resisted.

The United States said on Sunday that Saudi-Israel normalization efforts should continue despite the latest attack.

“We think it would be in both countries’ interests to continue to pursue this possibility,” U.S. Deputy National Security adviser Jon Finer told Fox News Sunday.

FIGHTING CONTINUES IN GAZA

Blinken added the United States has also taken note of reports of several Americans killed and kidnapped in Israel and Washington is looking to verify the details and figures.

“We have reports that several Americans were killed. We’re working overtime to verify that,” Blinken said.

The secretary of state said details of new U.S. assistance for Israel will be made public later, as he labeled the attack on Israel as a “terrorist attack by a terrorist organization.”

“We are looking at specific additional requests that the Israelis have made. I think you’re likely to hear more about that later today,” Blinken told CNN.

Blinken added there was relative calm on Sunday in most of Israel but intense fighting in Gaza, an Israeli-blockaded Palestinian enclave which has witnessed weeks of protests by youth groups due to long-time grievances related to the Israeli military occupation, the Palestinian national cause and prolonged economic strife.

He added that there was not yet any evidence seen by the United States of Iran being behind the latest attack in Israel but he noted the long-standing ties between Iran and Hamas, which governs Gaza.

Support for Prime Minister Benjamín Netanyahu has nosedived since the Hamas attack in Southern Israel of Saturday, and his ruling coalition would be driven from power if elections were held today, a poll published in the Ma’ariv daily Friday has found.

Only 29 percent of respondents thought Netanyahu should be prime minister, as opposed to 48 percent who preferred National Unity Party leader Benny Gantz. Some 23 percent replied “don’t know: in response to the question.”

And only 21 percent thought Netanyahu should be prime minister the day after the war, as opposed to 66 percent who chose the option of “someone else.”

If elections were held now, the center-right National Unity Party led by Gantz would receive 41 seats, the highest number won by any Israeli political party since 1992. The party currently holds only 12 seats in the current Knesset.

Netanyahu’s nationalist Likud party plummets to 19 seats, down from the 32 it currently has.

The poll also showed that parties making up the current 64-seat coalition would only win a combined total of 42 seats, way short of the 61 needed to form a majority coalition.

On Thursday the National Unity Party formally joined the coalition in an emergency government to fight the war with Hamas. Gantz, a former IDF Chief of Staff, will join Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Netanyahu in a small war cabinet, along with two observers, one from the Likud and one from the National Unity Party.

Anger at the current Israeli government, for its perceived failure in not preparing for the war has been growing as the details of Saturday’s assault by Hamas become clear. Environment Minister Idit Silman was forced to leave a hospital by angry, shouting Israelis, while at another hospital, Economy Minister Nir Barkat – seen as a future challenger for the Likud leadership – was subjected to an angry outburst.

It was Barkat too who, attending the funeral of one of the victims of Saturday’s slaughter, was forced to listen as the deceased’s brother railed at the government.

Senior Likud legislator David Bitan spotted sitting in a restaurant was harangued at by a passerby.

In a widely-circulated video clip this week, a resident of Southern Israel unleashed a furious tirade on the pro-Netanyahu Channel 14, shouting that the government and Knesset needed to go, while the anchor sat there uncomfortably, trying vainly to interrupt.

The Ma’ariv poll questioned 600 people on October 11-12, and had a margin of error of 4 percent.

Source: algemeiner.com

New aid flights arrived on Saturday in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula where relief materials are being held until an agreement is reached for delivery into the nearby Gaza Strip, a Red Crescent official and an aid volunteer said.

Egypt says its side of the Rafah crossing that connects Sinai with the Gaza Strip remains open, though traffic has been halted for several days due to Israeli bombardments on the Palestinian side of the border.

Two Egyptian security sources said the planned evacuation of some people in Gaza holding foreign passports had been held up because of the lack of any deal being negotiated with Israel and the United States to send aid into the enclave.

A senior U.S. State Department spokesman said the United States had informed its citizens that they might move closer to the crossing, after talks with Egypt, Israel and Qatar aimed at opening it.

Washington has been in contact with Palestinian-Americans inside Gaza, some of whom expressed a wish to leave via Rafah, but it was unclear if Palestinian Islamist group Hamas would allow access to the crossing, a senior State Department official said earlier.

Egypt has been reinforcing security on its side of the border, including moving concrete barriers, but reports that troops were sealing off the crossing were incorrect, a third Egyptian security source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Rafah crossing is the main exit point for the Gaza Strip’s 2.3 million residents that is not controlled by Israel. Israel and Egypt have upheld a blockade on the enclave, controlling the movement of goods and people since Hamas took control in 2007.

Israel’s military spokesperson said on Saturday that the border remains closed and any crossing into Egypt needed to be coordinated with Israel.

Two aid flights, including one from Turkey, have landed at Sinai’s Al Arish airport, about 28 miles from the Gaza border, bringing the total number of planes that have arrived this week carrying humanitarian relief for Gaza to at least five, the Red Cross official and the aid volunteer said.

The World Health Organization said a plane carrying trauma medicines and health supplies had landed.

“Every hour these supplies remain on the Egyptian side of the border, more girls and boys, women and men, especially those vulnerable or disabled, will die,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.

There is alarm in Egypt over the prospect that residents in Gaza could be displaced by Israel’s siege and bombardment of the territory, launched in retaliation for the devastating incursion by Hamas terrorists.

Like other Arab states, it has said that Palestinians should stay on their lands as the war escalates, and that it is working to secure delivery of aid into the Gaza Strip.

During a visit to Cairo on Saturday, Turkey‘s foreign minister said he supported Egypt’s position.

Germany is among the countries working to get aid into Gaza and evacuate its nationals, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said during a separate visit to the Egyptian capital.

This Saturday evening, settlers attacked Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron.

According to local sources, the settlers, protected by the occupation soldiers, attacked the homes of citizens in Asfi al-Tahta, Maghayir al-Ubaid, and al-Tuba, and threw stones at them. Among the targeted homes was the home of Muhammad and Hassan Abu Ali.

Sources stated that the settlers vandalized water tanks, destroyed all the contents of homes and caves, and stole batteries and solar panels.

Al-Jabour added that settler attacks have recently recorded a noticeable increase against citizens and their property, and are now taking place almost daily, in full view of the occupation forces that provide protection for them.

The occupation forces also closed the road leading to the village of Al-Mufaqara in Yatta Musafer and other roads linking the villages and Kharib Al-Musafer to the bypass line.

The Israeli army announced for the first time, on Saturday, that the bodies of some hostages held by Al-Qassam Brigades fighters during operations inside Gaza this week had been found.

Army spokesman Colonel Peter Lerner told reporters: “We located the bodies of some of the Israelis who were kidnapped within an area in the Gaza Strip and found them.”

The sudden Hamas attack included seizing an unknown number of hostages and bringing them into the Gaza Strip, which is currently being subjected to heavy air strikes from Israel. For their part, the families of the Israeli hostages issued an appeal aiming to reach an agreement “by midnight” to urgently deliver medicines to their relatives who have been detained since Seven days, as they desperately need it to survive.

Ronen Tzur, head of the Forum for Families of Hostages and Missing Persons in Tel Aviv, said: “We demand that an agreement be reached by midnight to transfer medicines to the hostages.”

He added, "We expect to get answers from the International Committee of the Red Cross tonight."

The Israeli army announced during the past few days that it was working to rescue Israelis detained by Hamas and Islamic Jihad since the attack on Saturday. The government press office explained that Hamas kidnapped at least 100 people. Hamas and Islamic Jihad confirmed that they captured "many soldiers."

By Kareem Qurt

These days, you hear some voices saying that the size of the losses incurred by the occupation in Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood,” and the scenes of “humiliation” of prisoners of the enemy army, are the reasons that pushed the Israeli occupation to this brutality, of destruction and killing, that it inflicts on the Gaza Strip. However, the current Zionist crime would have been the same, even if the number of Israeli deaths had been much lower.

We must remember here that the scenario of the resistance taking control of the settlements was always dreamed of by the Lebanese Hezbollah, and the occupation took this scenario seriously and conducted maneuvers in preparation for it. The perception was that Hezbollah, relying on its “Al-Radwan” force, would launch a surprise attack in the Galilee, seize several settlements from several axes, and then its resistance members would barricade themselves there, keeping the settlers hostage until they neutralized the Israeli air force. The occupation also had visions for dealing with this plan, the most important of which was evacuating the Galilee settlers as quickly as possible in order to deprive Hezbollah of its strong point.

What is noticeable in this scenario is that the occupation would have done to Lebanon what it is doing to Gaza now if Hezbollah had implemented the scenario of controlling a number of settlements in the Galilee. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant stated, during the Crushing Strike maneuver last June, “If Hezbollah attacks Israel, it will return Lebanon to the Stone Age”. As is clear, the matter is not related to the number of deaths of the occupation, but rather to the essence of the occupation’s security doctrine, one of its manifestations was the “suburb approach,” which is a permanent behavior of the occupation, expressed by Gadi Eisenkot when he was the commander of the northern front in the occupation army, and it was called the “suburb approach.” In reference to the southern suburb of Beirut, where this approach was implemented during the July 2006 war, which is based on the use of disproportionate force to cause severe destruction and damage to any area from which Israel is attacked.

It must be pointed out that everyone who lives under Zionist settler colonialism realizes that the suburb approach is a routine daily behavior of the occupation, which it practices against individual civilians, not just against resistance movements. For example, a boy could throw a stone at an armored military vehicle without causing it any harm, and the occupation soldiers inside it may not hear the sound of the stone falling because it is armored from the inside, but the occupation soldiers’ response may simply be to shoot and kill this boy. directly. In another case, the occupation soldiers may arrest this boy for several months or years, and after he leaves prison, he will find that punishments are chasing him, and he will find himself prohibited from traveling, and deprived of obtaining all kinds of entry permits into the occupied interior. The matter does not stop with him, as the penalties may affect his family as well. The occupation deprives his family and relatives of permits and their sources of livelihood. In another example, when a resistor carries out an operation against the occupation soldiers and settlers, which may not result in any casualties among the ranks of the occupation, the occupation soldiers, after they kill the resistor, steal his body, and the military governor issues a decision to demolish his house, and his family and perhaps relatives are prevented from obtaining On permits, especially work permits.

These are just examples of what happens daily on the ground, and everyone who lives under colonialism must have a story about excessive colonial violence of which he was once a victim, whether it was physical, symbolic, or psychological. Therefore, we must remain aware that the excessive violence of the occupation is not related to the size of the act of resistance, but rather to the response to the essence of the act, no matter how simple.

Lifting the cover from the Palestinian people

Following the shock it received, the occupation began to promote a narrative that it was facing ISIS, and this narrative reached the point where the Minister of the Occupation Army, Yoav Galant, described the Palestinians as human animals. However, the occupation, in its rhetoric throughout its history, did not have a better description of the Palestinians and their resistance. Even when the PLO decided to turn to the peace option, neither Israel, nor America behind it, recognized that the Palestinian people are a struggling people who were practicing armed struggle to restore their national rights, but rather considered that they were dealing with With a group of “repentant terrorists,” according to the wording of the speech.

Whoever follows the Hebrew media, especially social media, and observes the discourse prevailing therein, will find that most of these media only describe Palestinians as “makhbilim,” that is, “saboteurs” or “terrorists,” even when the Palestinian is killed by mistake at the hands of the occupation forces. Or when he is defending himself against settler attacks. This description includes children, women, the elderly, and the sick. Every Palestinian killed by the occupation army and its settlers is necessarily a “terrorist,” according to Israeli discourse.

Since the emergence of ISIS, Israel has begun to compare the Palestinians to it. Following the attacks carried out by the organization in France in 2015, the Israeli ambassador to France participated in a condolence vigil with the French, and told them that he stands in solidarity with them because he understands what they are facing, because Israel is facing the same thing. In this context, he spoke about the “Jerusalem Gift” (knives) that was taking place in the occupied territories and likened it to the actions of “ISIS” that France is facing. This discourse was widespread among the occupation in those days, and it still continues, albeit in other forms that completely strip the Palestinian people of the legitimate struggle character.

What this means is that the occupation’s descriptions of the Palestinian people at the present time are not linked to the number of those killed in the “Al-Aqsa Flood” battle, but rather it is a permanent position from which it has never retreated, to the point that it has increased at the present time, and is receiving widespread resonance and American support.

Why does Israel liken the Palestinians to ISIS?

It can be said that the intensity of the Israeli description, at the present time, of the Palestinians as “ISIS” and “human animals” is merely a justification and pretext for what Israel intends to implement against the Palestinians, not only in the Gaza Strip but also in all of Palestine, specifically in the West Bank, as it is accompanied by Brutal killing and destruction in the Gaza Strip, killings and torture of citizens in the West Bank and Jerusalem, and it seems that the interior will soon follow. Itamar Ben Gvir, the Israeli Minister of National Security, announced that he directed his ministry to purchase more than 10,000 weapons to distribute to settlers,and added that he actually began distributing 4,000 pieces to settler militias in the settlements on the borders of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and in the interior ( mixed cities). Later, he announced that he had given orders to the police commissioner to prepare for the "Wall Keeper 2" scenario that he believed was around the corner.

In addition, it seems that Israel now sees that there is an opportunity looming before it to exploit the current situation to resolve the conflict, whether in Gaza, the West Bank, or the interior. This is because it is promoting propaganda to the West, specifically to the United States, that what happened to it on October 7 is... Like the American September 11th, and in another story, I likened it to the Pearl Harbor incident. These comparisons are neither innocent nor spontaneous. After these two events, the United States carried out very significant actions in the world, including after “Pearl Harbor” it entered World War II against the Axis powers, and eventually used nuclear weapons against Japan, and also after September 11, it occupied Afghanistan and Iraq. It sought to change regimes in other countries.

In this context, Netanyahu’s statement that Israel “will change the Middle East” in its declared war against the Palestinian people comes as an indication that Israel seeks to end the Palestinian issue once and for all in light of the green light that US President Joe Biden gave Netanyahu to be decisive. In his war on the Palestinian people.[6] Biden also used the pretext of the so-called "atrocities" committed by the resistance to justify his support and support and give the green light to Israel to do what it wants.

The "Al-Aqsa Flood" operation destroyed a large part of the occupation's image before itself, the region, and the world. The image that the occupation built for itself as the superior state militarily, security, technologically and intelligence, and the state with an invincible army, which defeated several Arab countries and destroyed their armies in six days, has been destroyed, which may change many things. The Arabs may no longer be enthusiastic about normalization with Israel, especially since normalization with it is often linked to efforts to confront Iran. 

How can the Arabs be convinced that a defeated Israel is capable of confronting Iran? On the other hand, this humiliating defeat will encourage other countries and parties to confront Israel, because they realize the extent of its fragility and the falsity of the image built around it. Therefore, Israel is now committing crimes in the Gaza Strip, and it seems that it will continue its crimes in order to prove to the world and the Arabs that it is the Israel it was in 1967.

In conclusion

The wheel of history does not move backwards, and if glass is broken, it cannot be repaired. Today, Israel faces a challenge that it has not faced in its history, even in the 1973 war. The whole world saw the defeat, weakness, and weakness that befell it, as factions were able to resist, and we are not talking here about armies. Within a geographic sector of no more than 360 square kilometers that has been besieged from all sides for more than 17 years, it must outperform its army, intelligence, technology, and military and security industries, and inflict a terrible, humiliating defeat in a few hours. Therefore, the current Israeli crime will not help in restoring its image, nor will it enable it to achieve any political goals, even with absolute American support. As for us, we should not care much about the discourse of Zionist colonialism and those loyal to this discourse. Frantz Fanon summed up this story when he explained that “colonialism is neither a thinking machine nor a discourse that can be dismantled, but rather it is reckless violence that can only be subjected to stronger violence.”

Source: Institute of Palestinian Studies

A senior Israeli official acknowledged, on Saturday, that there had been "mistakes" in the intelligence services' assessments ahead of an unprecedented attack launched by Hamas on Israel on October 7.

He added, "We really believed that Hamas had learned its lesson" from the last war with Israel in 2021.

On October 7, Hamas launched Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood,” during which its fighters penetrated Israeli areas from the sea via boats, from land by penetrating parts of the barbed wire border fence, and from the air via automated gliders, coinciding with the firing of thousands of rockets toward Israel. They entered military sites and residential communities, killed people and captured others.

More than 1,300 people have been killed in Israel since the start of the attack, including 258 soldiers, according to the army’s latest toll. The number of wounded has reached 3,526, and the number of hostages taken by Hamas has reached about 120.

Hanegbi rejected any negotiations that would lead to a prisoner exchange agreement with Hamas.

“There is no way to negotiate with an enemy we have sworn to eliminate,” he said.

The death toll in the Gaza Strip as a result of the Israeli bombing rose to 2,215, including 724 children and 458 women, in addition to the wounding of 8,714 citizens with various injuries, including 2,450 children and 1,536 women, according to the latest toll announced by the Hamas Ministry of Health on Saturday morning.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced today, Saturday, “a tripling of European Union aid to the people of Gaza, to 75 million euros,” while the Strip has been subjected to continuous Israeli aggression since last Saturday.

The head of the Commission said: After holding talks with the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, “The Commission will immediately increase the humanitarian aid package for Gaza by an amount of 50 million euros. This will raise the total to more than 75 million euros.”

She added in a statement, "We will continue our close cooperation with the United Nations and its agencies to ensure that this aid reaches those in need in the Gaza Strip."

She continued, "We are working hard to ensure that civilians in Gaza receive support in this context."

In turn, European Crisis Management Commissioner Janez Lenarcic stressed that "it is necessary to ensure safe and unrestricted access to humanitarian aid."

This week, Israel canceled all work permits for thousands of Gazan workers who were legally residing in Israel, while hundreds of them were arrested and thrown into a camp near Ramallah.

Hundreds of Gaza workers took refuge in West Bank cities after the outbreak of war in the Gaza Strip.

Haaretz newspaper says that some of them were arrested when they tried to move to the West Bank after the outbreak of the war. Hundreds of them are now in Anatot camp, near Anata camp in the West Bank. Some of them were arrested when they tried to move to the West Bank illegally when the war broke out

The newspaper adds, but it is not clear whether there is a legal reason for their arrest. An Israeli security source told Haaretz that they will be held in detention until they are returned to the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli army says: “It is not possible at the present time to return them to Gaza. The issue of their continued possession of permits and the transfer of others to another place is being studied by the political level.”

Amnesty International said that the order issued by the Israeli occupation army to the people in the northern Gaza Strip and Gaza City to move to the south of the Strip cannot be considered an effective warning, and may amount to forced displacement of the civilian population, which is a violation of international humanitarian law.

The organization added in a press statement today, Saturday, that regardless of the time frame for implementing this order, Israel cannot treat northern Gaza as a firing zone based on the issuance of this order, and its forces must commit to taking all possible precautions to reduce the harm to civilians wherever they are in Gaza.

“With this order, Israeli forces begin the mass forcible displacement of more than 1.1 million people from Gaza City and the entire northern part of the Gaza Strip,” said Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard. “This has generated panic among the population, leaving thousands of internally displaced Palestinians to live on the streets.” "They do not know where to flee or where they can find safety amid Israel's relentless bombing campaign and merciless collective punishment measures. This order must be rescinded immediately."

Since the start of the escalation, more than 532,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been internally displaced, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, some of whom have been displaced twice.

OCHA added: “Israel’s allies and donor countries must urgently call for respect for international humanitarian law and the protection of civilians. The international community must also refrain from further legitimizing the illegal blockade imposed by Israel for 16 years, and immediately stop the transfer of weapons that "It can be used to commit unlawful attacks."

Roads in northern Gaza have been severely damaged by Israeli air strikes, public transportation is unavailable, and fuel is scarce due to the tightening of the ongoing blockade.

One humanitarian worker in Gaza told Amnesty International: “They (the Israeli army) should tell me how we can evacuate the hospitals that are full of ICU patients and all the wounded in the recent attacks. This is nonsense, it is impossible.”

Due to the destruction of roads and the scarcity of fuel, rescue teams are unable to reach the areas of northern Gaza to recover hundreds of bodies that are still trapped under the rubble due to the recent Israeli raids.

Callamard stressed that the international community cannot stand idly by while the occupation forces illegally displace more than a million Palestinians from their homes, and called for an immediate halt to Israel's forced displacement of civilians in Gaza.

Amnesty International called on Israel to adhere to the principles of international law and refrain from collective punishment, revenge and displacement.

This afternoon, the Ministry of Health announced that the death toll as a result of the occupation’s continued aggression against our people in Gaza and the West Bank had risen to 2,269 martyrs and 9,814 injured.

The Ministry of Health indicated that the death toll in the Gaza Strip rose to 2,215 martyrs and 8,714 injured, and in the West Bank, 54 martyrs and more than 1,100 injured.

The Israeli army said on Saturday that its forces are preparing to implement a wide range of offensive operations plans, with growing expectations of an imminent attack on the Gaza Strip, a week after Hamas militants launched an attack on Israel.

The Israeli army statement said that its forces were deployed throughout the country, increasing operational preparations for the next phases of the war, “with a focus on large ground operations.”

The Israeli army said: “We are ready to begin the second phase of the operation, expand it, and begin the ground attack.”

The Al-Qassam Brigades, the military arm of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas, published a video message addressed to the Israeli ground forces.

The video showed previous training for Qassam members emerging from a tunnel, attacking Israeli tanks, and taking a number of soldiers prisoner.

The World Health Organization confirmed that there was an extermination of entire families and the destruction of infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, while the Government Information Office in Gaza on Saturday criticized the departure of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) to the south of the Strip.

The organization's regional director, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in an interview with Al Jazeera, appealed to the international community to open the crossings with Gaza immediately to bring in aid, saying that there is coordination with the Egyptian authorities to open the Rafah crossing.

Ghebreyesus pointed out that the evacuation of seriously ill patients from Gaza hospitals is tantamount to a death certificate after Israel asked some hospitals in the Strip to evacuate.

The World Health Organization confirmed that 13 health facilities had been attacked in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the bombing, and indicated that the stock of medical supplies had ended.

In a related context, the Government Information Office in Gaza considered that UNRWA had abandoned its duty towards the displaced after the Israeli warning yesterday, Friday, to deport the people of northern Gaza within 24 hours.

The United Nations announced yesterday that UNRWA will move its operations headquarters and foreign employees to the southern Gaza Strip, to continue its relief operations and support for refugees, after it warned of the devastating humanitarian consequences of the Israeli ultimatum and demanded its cancellation.

UNRWA had called on Israel to protect civilians in its facilities in the northern Gaza Strip, amid the continued Israeli aggression against Gaza and the prevention of the entry of water, food and humanitarian aid since October 7, following the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation launched by the Palestinian resistance.

UNRWA advisor in Gaza, Adnan Abu Hasna, told Al Jazeera that huge crowds of citizens are sleeping in the streets because there are no places to shelter them, adding that their headquarters are no longer able to accommodate the numbers of displaced people.

UN Human Rights Rapporteur Francesca Albanese warned that the great danger we are witnessing in Gaza after the Israeli warning may be a repetition of the 1948 catastrophe and the 1967 catastrophe, but on a larger scale.

United Nations High Commissioner Filippo Grandi also called on Israel to respect international law and allow the organization to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, especially since hospitals in the Strip are unable to accommodate more injured people.

Doctors Without Borders called on Israel to stop the indiscriminate bloodshed in the Gaza Strip, withdraw the evacuation warning, and protect health facilities and civilians. Israel bombed a convoy of displaced people yesterday, Friday, which led to the death of 70 Palestinians and the injury of more than 150 others.

The head of the Political Bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), Ismail Haniyeh, said on Saturday that the resistance began writing history with the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation, which marked “the beginning of the disappearance of the occupation from our land and our sanctity,” and stressed that Israel’s “aggression” against the Gaza Strip amounts to “war crimes.” .

In a televised speech broadcast today, Saturday, Haniyeh said, “The enemy and his cowardly army could not confront our brave men, so he resorted to committing massacres. He believes that his massacres will erase the shame of humiliation and defeat after Hamas’ strategic strike, and we will resume the strategy of liberation and return despite what the enemy is doing with the support of the United States.” .

Regarding Israel’s calls to displace the residents of Gaza to Sinai, Haniyeh said that the people of Gaza are rooted in their land, clinging to their homeland, and will not leave their land or emigrate. He added, “I tell the enemy that the strategic strike inflicted on you indicates that our liberation and return are within reach, as there is no emigration from the West Bank.” Nor from Gaza, and I say no immigration from Gaza to Egypt, and I salute our brothers in Egypt and tell them that it is our decision to remain in our land, and your decision is our decision.”

Regarding the accusation of resistance members of targeting civilians and children, he said, “Hamas does not target civilians, adults or children, and its rifle cannot tremble in the face of the misleading Israeli media narrative.”

The head of Hamas's political bureau addressed, "A word of thanks to these masses who stood in Arab and international capitals and affirmed their support for Gaza, and I call on them to continue. I say to our masses in the protest marches supporting us in all cities, do not stop. We will continue our struggle until we have a state, our prisoners and our sanctities are liberated, and our displaced people return to their homes."

"war crimes"

Earlier, Haniyeh confirmed that Israel's "aggression" against the Gaza Strip amounts to "war crimes," in a letter he sent to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

In a statement, Haniyeh said that he stressed that “the barbaric aggression and horrific violations committed by the occupation army against our Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, all of which amount to war crimes in accordance with the Fourth Geneva Conventions.”

He called for pressure on the Israeli occupation authorities "to immediately stop these crimes and respect the obligations of international humanitarian law."

A young Palestinian was injured, Saturday evening, after the Israeli occupation forces fired bullets at him, near the Huwwara military checkpoint, south of Nablus.

According to local sources, the occupation soldiers shot a young man while he was near the Huwwara military checkpoint, wounding him in the foot, noting that the occupation forces are still detaining the injured young man and refusing to hand him over to ambulance crews.

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Croatian President Zoran Milanović said he doesn’t sympathize with Israel because of its reprisal actions in Gaza after last weekend’s Hamas attacks, and criticized displays of the Israeli flag in his country.

In comments to media on Thursday, Milanović hit out at Israel over its retaliatory strikes in Gaza, which have so far killed more than 1,500 people according to Gaza’s health ministry, and called the Croatian foreign ministry’s decision to display the Israeli flag outside its building in solidarity with the country “an idiotic move.”

“With all my sympathy for Israel, which unfortunately they lost within 15 minutes … there is no place for other flags in Croatia, except in strictly regulated situations,” Milanović said. “I condemned [Hamas’] murders, I even expressed disgust and abhorrence, but the right to defense does not include the right to revenge and the killing of civilians,” he added.

Israel’s strikes on Gaza came in response to Hamas militants conducting a wave of attacks, breaching the country’s border, killing more than 1,200 people and taking around 150 hostages back to Gaza.

Milanović also said he would lower the EU and NATO flags in his presidential office below the Croatian one, saying they are “not the same” and so should not be hung on the same level.

Elected president in 2020, Milanović was previously prime minister of Croatia between 2011 and 2016.

Milanović has made controversial remarks in the past, from comparing the Ukrainian patriotic chant “Slava Ukraini” to a Nazi salute, to threatening to withdraw Croatian troops from NATO forces stationed in Eastern Europe.

Today, Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Israeli infantry soldiers in the vicinity of Gaza, and this appeared during a video clip broadcast on official Israeli channels in which he asked them: “Are you ready for the next stage?”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the counterattacks on Gaza following the attack launched by Hamas on Israel are only the beginning.

In a speech to the nation last Friday evening, Netanyahu said: “We will destroy Hamas and we will win, but it will take time.”

Hundreds of Israelis demonstrated on Saturday in Tel Aviv to demand the dismissal of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The participants in the demonstration chanted slogans calling for Netanyahu’s dismissal, and criticized his government’s management of the current situation, pointing out that the extreme right-wing government has worked over the past months to make amendments to the judiciary to undermine democracy in Israel, instead of providing security for the Israelis, as they said.

Medical sources announced, this evening, Saturday, that the child Muhammad Rifaat Muhammad Adwan (16 years old), from Faraun, south of Tulkarm, died as a result of his critical injury during confrontations west of the town, last week.

The child Adwan was injured last Tuesday by a gunshot to the back, during clashes that broke out in the vicinity of the separation and apartheid wall west of Pharaoh. After several operations were performed on him at the Martyr Thabet Thabet Governmental Hospital in Tulkarm, he was transferred to the Istishari Hospital in Ramallah, which announced the death of the child. His martyrdom, this evening.