Today, Friday, settlers desecrated a mosque in Khirbet Marah al-Baqar in the town of Dura, amid chants in Hebrew, dancing and singing. They also spread out in the village of al-Alqa, south of Hebron, near citizens’ homes.

Local sources reported that a large group of settler gangs stormed the Marah al-Baqar settlement in the town of Dura and spread out in the mountains. The settlers also climbed the minaret of a mosque in the area, amid chants in Hebrew, dancing and singing.

The sources indicated that another group of settlers spread out in the Al-Alaqah area, "between the towns of Dura and Dhahiriya," which is the only road that citizens from Dhahiriya take to reach the town of Dura and the city of Hebron, after the occupation closed all roads in that area.

It is noteworthy that settler gangs have intensified their attacks on citizens and their property under the protection of the occupation army, especially recently during the olive harvest season.

The Israeli occupation authorities released 20 prisoners from the Gaza Strip this morning, Friday.

The prisoners arrived at the European Hospital in Khan Yunis after they were released through the Kerem Shalom checkpoint.

The occupation authorities arrested most of them from hospitals in northern Gaza during the ground operation.

The General Authority of Civil Affairs, the Authority of Prisoners and Freed Prisoners Affairs, and the Palestinian Prisoners Club reported the death of two prisoners in the occupation prisons: Samih Suleiman Muhammad Aliwi (61 years old) from Nablus, and Anwar Shaaban Muhammad Aslim (44 years old) from Gaza.

The Prisoners' Authority and the Prisoners' Club said today, Friday, that the martyr Aliwi, based on the available data, was martyred on 11/6/2024, six days after he was transferred from the Ramla prison clinic to Assaf Harofeh Hospital, noting that he was detained before Ramla prison in the Negev prison, and the prison administration did not announce his martyrdom, although it is obligated to do so. As for the martyr Anwar Aslim, he ascended yesterday, 11/14/2024, during his transfer from the Negev prison to Soroka hospital, after a deterioration in his health condition.

The Authority and the Club explained in a joint statement that prisoner Aliwi has been administratively detained since October 21, 2023, and based on a visit conducted by the Prisoners Authority’s lawyer to him on August 21, 2024 in the Negev prison, he stated that he suffered from several health problems before his arrest as a result of a benign tumor in the intestines years ago. As for prisoner Anwar Aslim from Gaza, he has been detained since December 18, 2023, and he did not suffer from any health problems before his arrest, according to his family.

In the details of the visit that took place to the prisoner Aliwi last August, he told the lawyer: “He was suffering from difficult health conditions before his arrest, and he underwent several surgeries, during which part of his intestines was removed due to his infection with a benign tumor at the time, and he was supposed to undergo a new operation in December 2023, but it did not take place due to his arrest, which exacerbated his health condition.”

He also confirmed in his testimony to the lawyer: “He, like many prisoners, was subjected to acts of torture and repeated assaults, especially during his transfer to the clinic. Despite his illness and difficult health condition, they would take him out to the clinic in chains and torture him. He added that he had lost more than 40 kg of weight by the time of the visit, and was no longer able to eat the morsels of food that were given to them. He also did not receive any treatment at all since his arrest, noting that despite the intervention of specialized human rights organizations inside to pressure the prison administration to provide him with treatment, this did not happen. In the visit report, the lawyer noted that the prisoner refused to shave his head and beard until after his release.”

It is noteworthy that prisoner Aliwi is a former prisoner who spent a total of about ten years in the occupation prisons. His arrests began in 1988. He is married and has nine children. Prisoner Aslim is also married and has four children.

The Prisoners’ Affairs Authority and the Prisoners’ Club confirm that the prisoners Aliwi and Aslim were subjected to a systematic crime, as were all the martyred prisoners, through the policy of slow killing and liquidation that the prison system has been pursuing against prisoners for decades, and through a series of fixed crimes and policies, most notably the crime of torture, medical crimes, and the crime of starvation, as these crimes constituted the central reasons for the martyrdom of dozens of prisoners and detainees since the beginning of the war of extermination.

After more than 400 days of the war of extermination against our people in Gaza, the crimes against prisoners and detainees are on the rise. The time factor is the most important factor in determining the fate of prisoners. Many sick prisoners and detainees, who endured the measures and crimes of the occupation system at the beginning of the war, no longer have the ability to do so today. Their health conditions are also clearly deteriorating, and many healthy prisoners have turned into sick prisoners. This is what we see daily, whether through visits, through the courts, or through the statements of released prisoners. The crimes of the occupation against prisoners constitute one aspect of the war of extermination, and one of its forms.

The Prisoners Authority and the Prisoners Club had previously announced in a statement that the prisoners of the Negev prison are facing an escalating health disaster, due to the spread of scabies, and the infection of hundreds among them. This is an example of other central prisons where the disease has spread for several months and its spread has recently escalated significantly, as the prison administration has turned scabies into a tool of torture, abuse and killing.

The Commission and the Club pointed out that the continuation of the catastrophic conditions faced by prisoners, especially the sick and wounded, will certainly lead to the martyrdom of more prisoners in the occupation’s prisons and camps, as the relevant institutions no longer have the ability to limit the number of patients in prisons as a result of the spread of diseases among them, and the arrest of more wounded.

The Prisoners' Authority and the Prisoners' Club held the occupation fully responsible for the martyrdom of the two prisoners, Aliwi and Aslim, adding this crime to the record of the occupation's ongoing and unprecedented crimes since the beginning of the war of extermination, which constituted the bloodiest stage in the history of our steadfast people. Moreover, the number of martyred prisoners and detainees is the highest historically compared to the stages in which Palestine witnessed historic popular uprisings and uprisings.

The Commission and the Club indicated that with the martyrdom of the two prisoners, Aliwi and Aslim, the number of martyr prisoners whose identities are known since 1967 has risen to (280), in addition to dozens of martyr prisoners whose identities and the circumstances of their martyrdom are still being concealed by the occupation, and other detainees who were executed. Of the total number of martyrs of the prisoner movement, the number of dead prisoners after October 7 has risen to (43), whose identities have been announced by the relevant institutions.

The Commission and the Club renewed their demand for the international human rights system to stop the terrifying state of helplessness that surrounds its role in the face of the war crimes of genocide and the crimes committed against prisoners and detainees in the prisons of the Israeli occupation, and to end the state of exceptional immunity that the old colonial states granted to the occupying state of Israel, considering it above accountability, accountability and punishment.

Israel has escalated its arbitrary demolition policies in the city of Jerusalem, with the aim of displacing, removing and expelling the people of Jerusalem from their homes, facilities and lands to which they cling, as they represent a symbol of their existence and express their pride, especially since it is the land of their fathers and grandfathers.

More than 12,000 homes are listed on the demolition schedule in Silwan alone, and about 23,000 homes, the total that the occupation municipality plans to demolish during the next few years in the entire Jerusalem Governorate, and everything is being done under the cover of the comprehensive aggression against the homeland, which extends its chapters to include the city of Jerusalem as well, through its unjust Judaization procedures, and at the forefront of this series are the successive violations of demolishing homes and displacing Jerusalemites.

In Silwan, specifically in the Al-Bustan neighborhood, which was a source of wealth that the people of Silwan lived on in the beginning, where the historic Silwan spring was located, from which the Al-Bustan trees were watered, grew and blossomed, and gave the place its value and pride, the occupation insisted on starting a systematic policy of demolishing its homes, which threatens more than 1,500 citizens living there, as its bulldozers and military vehicles demolished seven homes in one day, the Tuesday before last, and returned on Wednesday morning to continue the demolition operations, where they uprooted the Al-Bustan tent, which was a landmark and symbol, on which the people of the neighborhood pinned their hopes and wishes, and which was a center for their steadfastness and insistence on remaining in this historical area of land, in addition to demolishing the Al-Bustan Center, which is supported by France, and which embraced hundreds of children, as it was a distinct space to unleash their skills and creativity.

The occupation municipality and its mayor exploited the state of war to increase the pace of home demolitions in Jerusalem. The demolition massacre occurred the day before last Tuesday, on the date of the US presidential elections, in order to reduce the severity of international criticism and the world’s preoccupation with these elections. Despite this, the extremist minister Itamar Ben Gvir insists that the demolitions are to regulate the lives of residents, under the pretext of demolishing illegal, unlicensed buildings. In fact, the problem is borne by the occupation municipality, which adopts a policy of discrimination between the two parts of the city, as it grants licenses to Israelis and allows them to build more homes and settlements, while depriving Jerusalemites of obtaining the necessary licenses to build homes, and imposing heavy fines and financial violations on them. At the end of years of paying huge sums of money in fees, the municipality carries out the demolitions, and often imposes self-demolitions on them.

Israel aims through these operations to displace the people of Jerusalem and empty the city of its people and residents. These are serious violations that cross all red lines and must be confronted firmly. All international institutions must move quickly to stop this criminal series that targets the lives of the people of Jerusalem and threatens them with forced displacement from their homes and their lives.

Hundreds of books have been written, and hundreds of thousands of documents and articles have been written about the immortal Yasser Arafat, the leader of Palestine, which has always been at the forefront of the Arab nation, and the leader of the Palestinian resistance since it launched a roaring revolution that revived the nation and advanced it, and played with swords and fists, as it dealt with the great and the lackeys in 1965 and after the Nakba in 1948, until his exciting, shocking and honorable death in 2004 at the hands of the evils of biblical myths, robbery, the Hellman and aggression against humanity.

Yasser Arafat - who, 20 years after his passing, still fills our ears and eyes - is found with millions of stances, looks, smiles, anger, bullets, greetings, kisses, handshakes, torn papers, and piercing eyes for the sake of Palestine. Everyone who met him or interacted with him possessed him, so each of us has a piece of him, and how can the icon not be on everyone’s chest?

You can look at the wounded pens when writing about him, in addition to the pictures, interviews, videotapes, and what you find in books of memoirs of men about the president on the one hand, and in the words of his friends and millions of his fans, even if they disagree with him.

And a number of his haters and envious people who were asking for what was impossible, so they got upset and assumed that their presence on the sidewalk of the resistance, revolution, and national struggle was the result of Yasser Arafat and not of their lack of ambition and bad nature. They are those hypocritical, mercenary, and self-serving people.

Yasser Arafat carried a weapon in one hand and an olive branch in the other, and beside him were Mahmoud Darwish, Samih al-Qasim, Abu Salma, Haroun Hashem Rashid, Khaled al-Hassan, Majed Abu Sharar, Abdul Wahab Kayali, Baha al-Bukhari, Abu Arab, Ghassan Kanafani, Hani al-Hassan, Hani Jawhariya, Sulafa Marsal, Munir Shafiq, Dr. Mahjoub Omar, Ahmed Abdel Rahman, and Nabil Amr... among the great intellectuals, artists, media figures, and thinkers of Palestine and the nation. The "old man" pledged allegiance to his contemporaries, the pioneers, such as Abu Jihad, Abu Iyad, Saad Sayel, Abu Maher Ghoneim, Farouk al-Qaddoumi, George Habash, Nayef Hawatmeh, Abu Ali Mustafa, Abdul Rahim Mallouh, Abu Abbas, and Bassam Abu Sharif... and the many who fought for the revolution until victory.

He never failed to pay attention to the obstacles in the way, so he opened side and bypass roads to the north and right, because when you are in an Arab-global quagmire in which the nation has drowned, it is necessary to take an offensive position without abandoning the lifelines, otherwise you and the cause will be swallowed up as a matter of course.

The owner of the keffiyeh (the revolutionary Arab resistance headdress) and the victory sign that was raised before him by "Churchill" who achieved victory for his country in the Second European War described as global, even though the latter does not deserve to be imitated, because he is one of the fools who presented Palestine as a "gift" to the Zionist movement, but the victory sign in the hands of Yasser Arafat continued to accompany him during periods of ups and downs.

Brother Abu Wadih Erekat writes about the beginnings of the hero who did not understand that he could breathe except through Palestine and on his tongue: “John Foster Dulles says: Unfortunately for this people, they came under the feet of elephants. The old die and the young forget. And the martyred leader and symbol Yasser Arafat responds to him in the first Cubs’ camp in Al-Baqaa in Jordan: I am speaking to the bones of “John Foster Dulles” by saying to his bones, come and see who are those who fight in defense of Palestine. These are the Cubs of Palestine. The children of Palestine do not forget.”

He wrote himself in red pen at the end of his turbulent, eventful, threatening, fluctuating, turbulent and profound life: “They want me as an outcast, or dead, or a prisoner, and I tell them: Martyr, martyr, martyr,” repeating his call to the Arab and Islamic nation in which he believed and made himself and the Palestinian resistance the vanguard of the caravan for its horses and polished swords: “We are going to Jerusalem as martyrs by the millions.”

Abu Ammar, who visited, went around, spoke and talked with all the leaders of the revolutionary world, or most of them, was born in the heart of the battle. He did not abandon his ambition for a democratic Palestine for all believers except to the whistle of missiles over the heads of the Palestinians, then over his head when he was besieged three times in Beirut, then in Tripoli, then in Ramallah.

The Palestinian tiger, or lion (which is from the sign of the lion, which is not a preferred term in comparison to the lion), remained daring, understanding the meaning of progress and retreat, and understanding the equations and all the threads between his fingers in the immunity of strength when linked to the idea of liberation, especially with a people who made patience, steadfastness, perseverance and endurance their school since the Messenger, may God bless him and grant him peace, decided, by the command of God Almighty, that here in the Levant and in Palestine lies the nation of jihad, struggle and steadfastness.

The Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, said: “A group of my nation will continue to be victorious over their enemies, and those who oppose them will not harm them except for the hardships that befall them, until the command of God comes to them. And they will be like that.” They said: “O Messenger of God, where are they?” He said: “In Jerusalem and the environs of Jerusalem.”

Abu Ammar's eyes never closed a single night to Palestine, whether on the plane that was transporting him from one country to another, or when he was carrying his gun in the face of the great conspiracy or in the face of the occupier who was disturbed by his sick "Tanakh" understanding and his belief that he was leading the world in his pure capacity, where you find no difference in the equation of ethnic, religious, or intellectual (ideological) purity between all extremist ideas, whether they were ISIS, Christian (Lord's Army), Nazi, fascist, extremist Hindu, right-wing "Tanakh-Torah", or Zionist, as they all eat from the same oppressive plate.

Yasser Arafat, when you write about him, the ink runs out, and you assume that you are sitting for a long time in front of a computer screen, or in front of tearful papers, which have been abandoned in the age of artificial intelligence and the revolution of corrupt visuals that corrupt the mind and soul.

Yasser Arafat, as you write or when you look at him smiling or angry, the big question arises in your mind: What does he mean? What does he want? And here he is ready to send dozens of messages. Do not think for a moment that he meant you.

Those who wrote against him with slander and filth outside the meaning of due criticism, are the same people who sat all his life on the side of the road of resistance and struggle led by the old man. They were nothing in his life, and they did not put a breath in the nostrils of the purebred Arabian horse! They thought that in light of modern technology and the spread of speech, most of which is worthless and the least of which is valuable, they could pass on in their books or their visual meetings on the Internet what they could not say in the face of the man who was never a saint, nor a fraudulent prophet, nor a “guide” for this regime nor for that group that claims infallibility and the true religion without the Muslim nation!

Yasser Arafat rejected with all his strength the idea of coercion and compulsion through sanctification, an idea in which the sacred competes with all others. There is absolutely no success that can be felt from any angle of your point of view when you are in front of the (sacred) as a guide or a divine party or a leader with a clean hand from whose eyes the sun is supposed to shine! Rather, he adopted the doctrine of love for Palestine and the doctrine of difficult and arduous dialogue as his school. No matter how much they disagreed with him, rebuked him, and fought him with poisoned spears, he would lean on them with the cloak of embrace that would include them all.

Yasser Arafat, no matter how much you or others write about him, explaining, clarifying, defending and protecting him, and no matter how much you say about him politically and operationally (pragmatically), he is a great father in the form of a leader. He is a weak human being with the skin of a lizard or a white Palestinian Arab tiger, and you will not find anyone like him except a few.

In the midst of the fascist aggression on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, many wondered what the "old man" would have done in the shadow of this Zionist terrorist quagmire? How would he have acted? Among them were leaders, thinkers, great writers, and prominent media figures whom we read, who did not abandon the cloak of loyalty to the man, so they mentioned him in every article or breath they took. Yes, this is how Abu Ammar was, who was martyred to create from his soul an eternal space of sharing, whose resistance, revolutionary spirit, patriotism, Arabism, Islamism, civilization, and openness would be transmitted by everyone who walked or thought about walking on this thorny, difficult, and explosive path.

He went through the ordeal and witnessed the scenes, and was even the one who made them. He was the one who refused to step aside, for Palestine was always in the middle. His thoughts were interrupted by all the regimes of tyranny and oppression in the Arab world, whose leaders were removed accompanied by thousands of curses. But when it came to Yasser Arafat, they stopped, not knowing what to say! If they did well, they did not bring anything new, and if they did badly, they were told, “Where were you!? And who are you!?”

Yasser Arafat, a man of overwhelming charisma, possessed the charm of a resistance fighter, an ascetic, a devoted worshipper, and he also possessed the boldness, courage, and equality of a man of peace. When he deviated from that path, he would present to everyone the justifications for his faith, and work on winding roads to open new paths. He did not waver for a moment from Palestine, which he sought piece by piece, until it was finally completed as one, unified, beautiful, pure, and pure entity.

There are great similarities in the depths of the personalities of both Trump and Netanyahu. The former (and future) president Trump openly expresses his hatred for non-Americans and perhaps for many Americans. Netanyahu, after revealing his principles, which are actually based on distorted Talmudic content, almost openly expresses his hatred for the “gentiles” (i.e. all non-Jews) and also for a growing number of secular Jews – the enlightened! The love of money and thus the rich is entrenched in the inner layers of these two personalities. They also share strong tendencies with supremacist and extreme nationalist content. Experience has shown that they do not value anything that is constitutional, institutional, and liberal democratic. Rather, they believe in the role of the individual (read: leader) who enjoys unchecked powers, and thus they have succeeded in marginalizing the two institutions in whose name they rose (the Republican Party in the case of Trump and the Likud Party in the case of Netanyahu). Last but not least, they are united by their belief that the “job” of the media is to make it a weapon in their hands whose mission, without batting an eyelid, is to lie and repeat lies to the point of being believed, in addition to inventing “information” that suits them while distorting real information and facts to serve their private and public purposes.

These similarities between the personalities of the American president and the Israeli prime minister played a role in establishing "strategic" relations between them, especially after the Israeli lobby, in addition to the broader Zionist lobby (based on the pro-Zionist forces, groups and organizations) sided with Trump, which resulted in the latter adopting (in his first term) a set of Israeli-Zionist goals and interests, especially since President Trump at the time was not paying from his own pocket (similar to what Lord Balfour did before him), but rather from the account of the Palestinians, Arabs and others. Thus, the past relations between them resulted in the transfer of the American embassy to Jerusalem, the closure of the American consulate in Arab Jerusalem, and the recognition of Israel's annexation of the Syrian plateau, not to mention the "legitimization" of the colonial/settlement movement, especially in the Palestinian West Bank, in addition to pushing towards what was known as the (Abraham Accords) with some Arab countries on the path to establishing an "alliance" between the Zionist state and some Sunni countries in the face of the "Iranian Shiite threat", and of course what all of this includes in terms of trying to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon and imposing various types of sanctions on it.

In the future, Netanyahu plans to repeat the process of "milking the cow" (the American Trumpian one) at the beginning of the new presidential term. In this context, and at the minimum level, Netanyahu is pushing - with an open appetite - towards enlarging "very small Israel" (according to Trump). Accordingly, Netanyahu plans to obtain Trump's approval to annex large parts of the West Bank and recognize the legitimacy of additional "settlements" there, as well as confirming Israeli control over the northern Gaza Strip and perhaps unleashing the "settlement monster" there, in addition to establishing a security buffer zone in Lebanon up to the Litani River! Perhaps the pinnacle of Netanyahu's aspirations: succeeding in convincing the next American president to launch a war to strike the Iranian regime, its institutions and foundations, especially the "nuclear facilities."

In a different scenario, a growing number of Israeli observers (and others) expect that the next US president will not respond to all of Netanyahu’s wishes. The implications of this future scenario will be the subject of next week’s article.

During his election campaign, Trump made promises to Arab and Muslim voters, sometimes verbally and sometimes in his own handwriting, to pour their votes into his jugs, in exchange for working to stop the aggression in Gaza and Lebanon. He had what it took in Michigan, the capital of the balance and the tongue of the scales; its votes tipped the scales in Trump’s favor over his rival, the candidate of necessity, Kamala, who cried from the cruelty of defeat, as she did not do for the children and women victims in Gaza and Lebanon.

From now until the last meters of the lame duck’s term, when the time for handover and takeover comes, the right wing in Israel will work on further escalation and price-fixing, and Netanyahu will not offer any consolation prize to the departing administration, despite the solid and liquid gifts it bestowed upon him, while the prize is earmarked for the owner of the deal, who chose the Jewish real estate mogul and campaign donor Steve Witkoff, to be his envoy to the region.

In the remaining oscillating period, Blinken is making a dull farewell trip to the region’s capitals, like a fool who doesn’t know what to say, raving about the truce that has been in place for a year in Gaza, without shedding a tear over the killing that is taking place there, promising a two-state solution, and leaving Smotrich to savagely expand settlements to swallow up what remains of the West Bank.

In election experiences, winners quickly break their promises, turn their faces away, and renege on their commitments to their voters as soon as they win, leaving those who made the wrong bets biting their fingers in regret, but there is no time for regret.

Functional story:

It happened during a time of joy and pleasant nights that one of the princes, under the influence of a sweet night of music, ordered that a hundred camels, a similar number of cattle, and thousands of dirhams be presented to the singer of that night. When morning broke, the singer went to receive the prince’s promise, and the prince laughed and said: The words of the night are erased by the day; you have delighted us with your honeyed singing, and we have delighted you with your honeyed words!

Stop the war of extermination now..!

Israeli warplanes launched a series of violent raids on several neighborhoods in the southern suburbs of Beirut this Friday morning.

Meanwhile, 11 Lebanese were killed in raids on towns in the Tyre district in southern Lebanon.

Last night, 12 people, most of them civil defense personnel, were killed in raids on Baalbek.

While Hezbollah continues to bomb various areas in northern Israel.

This morning, the Israeli army announced that it had intercepted two rockets fired towards Haifa.

A number of citizens were killed and injured, Friday morning, as a result of Israeli raids on various areas of the Gaza Strip.

A citizen and his daughter from the Muammar family were killed in a bombing that targeted their home in the town of Al-Nasr, northwest of the city of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, 3 citizens were killed as a result of the bombing of a residential apartment in the Deir al-Balah area in the central Gaza Strip.

A citizen was killed as a result of gunfire from Quadcopter drones in the Beit Lahia project, north of the Gaza Strip.

The town, along with Jabalia camp, was subjected to a series of airstrikes.

The Al-Zeitoun neighborhood in the south of Gaza City was also subjected to aerial and artillery bombardment.

The occupation forces blew up houses in several areas of the Gaza Strip, especially Jabalia, Saftawi and northwest Rafah.

The Israeli occupation forces arrested a number of citizens at dawn on Friday, during a campaign of raids in the West Bank.

The editor, Majd Freihat, was arrested after raiding his house in the town of Yamoun, west of Jenin, while the young man, Majd Farajat (18 years old), was arrested after raiding and searching his family’s house in the town of Yamoun.

Meanwhile, the prisoner Hadi Diab's father was arrested from his home in the Jaidi neighborhood in Qalqilya.

He also arrested a young man whose identity is unknown from Al-Ain camp in Nablus.

The occupation forces stormed several areas and raided homes without any arrests being reported.

In Hebron, the occupation forces arrested four citizens from the town of Deir Samt, namely: Yousef Jabr Yousef Al-Haroub, and the brothers Anas and Muhammad Abd Yousef Jabr Al-Haroub, and Jabr Yousef Jabr Al-Haroub, after destroying the contents of their homes and two vehicles in the town.

In the same context, the occupation forces continued to close the entrances to towns, camps and the city of Hebron with iron gates, and tightened their measures in the neighborhoods of the Old City and the military checkpoints near the Ibrahimi Mosque and abused citizens passing through the checkpoint.

The United Nations General Assembly, in its Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs Committee, adopted a resolution affirming the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination on the land of their state, and their right to independence, freedom and emancipation from the Israeli occupation without any delay, as an inalienable right, not subject to any conditions or reservations and not subject to bargaining, negotiation or the so-called "security" measures that the Israeli occupation fabricates.

The resolution affirmed what the International Court of Justice had stated in its advisory opinion regarding the illegality of the Israeli occupation and the demand to end it without any delay, as it constitutes an obstacle to the ability of the Palestinian people to exercise their right to self-determination and the independence of their state.

170 countries voted in favor of the draft resolution, including Canada, Australia, all European Union countries, and the majority of South American, Asian, and African countries, while only 6 countries voted against the resolution: Israel, the United States, Argentina, Paraguay, Micronesia, and Nauru.

About 119 UN member states sponsored the resolution before it was put to a vote by the committee, and these countries were also distributed among the various African, European, Asian and Latin American geographical blocs.

The importance of the decision is highlighted by the fact that it comes in light of the ongoing crime of genocide and ethnic cleansing committed by Israel against the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, and especially in the besieged Gaza Strip, which constitutes a massive international rejection of these crimes and a call to rely on international law when considering the Palestinian issue in all its aspects without any double standards, and without obstructing the course of international justice, which is embodied in what was decided by the International Court of Justice.

The Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, stressed the determination of the State of Palestine to move forward in strengthening international support for the rights of the Palestinian people, especially in light of the injustice they suffer at the hands of the Israeli occupation, in order to repel all Israeli attempts aimed at stripping this international legal support in international forums, until justice is achieved and Israel is held accountable for its crimes and the Palestinian people and their land are protected from war crimes and crimes against humanity, including crimes of forced displacement, starvation, annexation of lands, building settlements and terrorizing colonists.

He stressed the need to exert all possible efforts in international forums to impose an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, bring in aid and ensure its adequate and effective distribution to save the lives of innocent civilians, including families besieged in the northern Gaza Strip, which is being subjected to genocide, starvation, killing and destruction.

There is no basis for a UN special committee's accusation that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, State Department acting spokesman Vedant Patel said on Thursday.

This came in response to a decision by the “United Nations Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices” that Israel’s practices during the Gaza war “are consistent with the characteristics of genocide.”

"This is something we disagree with unequivocally," Patel said in response to reporters' questions, adding, "We believe that such formulations and such accusations are absolutely baseless."

Patel denounced a report published by Human Rights Watch on Thursday, in which it confirmed that it had collected evidence that Israeli officials were committing the "war crime" of "forced displacement," adding that "Israel's actions appear to meet the definition of 'ethnic cleansing.'"

Patel stressed that forced displacement would be a “red line” for the United States and would not meet the criteria set by Secretary of State Antony Blinken when the war began.

The spokesman considered it acceptable to "ask civilians to evacuate a certain area while they (the Israelis) are carrying out some military operations, and thus allow them to return to their homes," stressing that the United States "has not seen any kind of this forced displacement."

"I am not a lawyer, so I will not give you a legal definition," Patel said in response to a question from the Jerusalem correspondent regarding the administration's insistence that what is happening in Gaza is mass killing, despite the fact that 44,000 people have been killed so far, at least according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, while the Lancet (British) group says that more than 186,000 people may have been killed, and many times that number of wounded, most of them women and children, and millions displaced.

“What I can say and I will repeat again is that the allegations of genocide that we continue to believe are unfounded, in the context of the ongoing conflict,” Patel added, stressing, “Now, this certainly does not diminish the moral and strategic imperative and responsibility that our partners in Israel have to conduct their operations and activities with the protection of civilians in mind and to do everything possible to minimize the impact on civilians.”

“And it certainly raises questions about Hamas’s role in this, because we have found time and time again that Hamas has rejected the end of this war; it has resisted a ceasefire or a proposal for a ceasefire… and a number of hostages remain in Gaza, including American citizens,” the spokesman said. “And that’s certainly part of it, too.”

In response to the question of the Jerusalem correspondent about the definition of the US administration for what “genocide” is, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs referred to the definition on the US Department of Justice’s page for what genocide is.

The report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories, covering the period from October 7, 2023 to last July, noted “large numbers of civilian casualties and life-threatening conditions imposed on Palestinians deliberately.”

The committee, which has been investigating Israeli practices affecting rights in the Palestinian territories for decades, said Israel "used starvation as a method of warfare and to impose collective punishment on Palestinians."

"Through its blockade of Gaza, obstruction of humanitarian aid, targeted attacks and killing of civilians and aid workers, Israel is deliberately causing death, starvation and serious injury," she said.

This evening, Thursday, the Israeli occupation forces assaulted two children in the town of Sinjil, north of Ramallah.

Local sources said that the occupation forces severely beat the child Alaa Mahmoud Asfour (11 years old) in front of his house in the Al-Muzayri’a neighborhood in the town of Sinjil.

According to the sources, the child suffered bruises and was transferred to a health center in the town to receive treatment.

The sources reported that soldiers in the occupation army assaulted another child (17 years old), seized his phone, and sent a message through a group for the town’s residents containing a threat to kill “anyone who causes trouble.”

The occupation army's infantry forces stormed Sinjil and set up checkpoints inside the town, through which they abused the citizens and obstructed their movement.

Dozens of Lebanese citizens were killed and injured on Thursday evening as a result of the ongoing Israeli occupation aggression on Lebanon, amid widespread destruction of buildings, facilities and infrastructure.

The Lebanese News Agency reported that 8 civil defense paramedics and 9 civilians were killed in raids targeting the city of Baalbek, while 4 paramedics and 11 civilians were killed in raids on Nabatieh and the towns of Arabsalim and Joya in southern Lebanon.

The occupation aircraft also launched a series of raids on the southern suburbs of Beirut, targeting the areas of Shiyah and Ghobeiry. The occupation aircraft and artillery bombed the cities of Tyre and Nabatieh and the towns of Jbaa, Sareen, Zeita, Toura, Maarakeh, Hanin, Tayri, Tamnin al-Tahta, Shamstar, Boudai, Douris, Chtaura, Shebaa, Taria, al-Bayada, Rasm al-Hadath, al-Bazaliyah, al-Mansouri, Bint Jbeil, Qanarit, Shaqra, Houmin al-Fawqa, Haboush, Qana, Sayr al-Gharbiya, Bnaafoul, Meifdoun, Deir Ams and Aitat in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa.

The Lebanese Ministry of Health announced the martyrdom of 21 people as a result of the occupation raids yesterday, Wednesday, bringing the number of dead since the beginning of the Israeli aggression on Lebanon on October 8, 2023, to 3,386 martyrs, in addition to 14,417 wounded.

Lebanese media reported on Thursday that US Ambassador Lisa Johnson handed Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri a written paper containing a proposal for a ceasefire in Lebanon. No further details were immediately available.

Earlier today, the American news website Axios quoted an American official as saying that the United States had reached understandings with the Israelis regarding an agreement to stop the war, and was seeking understandings with the Lebanese side.

In turn, the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, confirmed today (Thursday) that the redeployment of the army in southern Lebanon is “absolutely central” to any permanent solution that leads to an end to the war between Hezbollah and Israel.

According to what was reported by the "Agence France-Presse", Lacroix said during a meeting with journalists near the capital Beirut, that "the redeployment of the Lebanese armed forces is an absolutely pivotal factor for any permanent solution", in light of the escalation of fighting between the party and the Hebrew state since September 23.

Lacroix made a three-day visit to Lebanon, meeting with officials including Prime Minister Najib Mikati, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a close ally of Hezbollah who is negotiating on its behalf to end the war, and Army Commander Joseph Aoun. He also visited the headquarters of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

The United States is seeking to broker a ceasefire that would end the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, but the efforts have yet to yield results. Israel launched an intensive air and ground campaign in Lebanon in late September after an exchange of cross-border fire parallel to the Gaza war.

15 people were killed and others were injured in an Israeli bombardment that targeted the Mazzeh neighborhood and the Qudsaya area in the Syrian capital, Damascus, on Thursday.

Syrian state media said 15 people were killed in an initial count of Israeli attacks on Damascus.

The official Syrian news agency (SANA) said that "according to initial information, the Israeli aggression targeted two residential buildings in the areas of Mezzeh and Qudsaya" and loud explosions were heard in the two neighborhoods.

For its part, the Israeli Army Radio said that the attack targeted assets and leadership headquarters of the Islamic Jihad movement in Damascus and was not an assassination, and came within the framework of pre-planned attacks.

Commenting on the attack, the Islamic Jihad Movement said, "We mourn the loss of a group of the movement's sons to our Palestinian people in a sinful aggression that targeted the Syrian capital, Damascus, this evening."

She added, "The enemy army claimed that it targeted the movement's headquarters and military centers, which is a mere fabrication of imaginary heroism."

Before that, Syrian media reported explosions in the city and countryside of Homs today, Thursday, launched from Lebanese airspace.

SANA news agency said that the Syrian air defenses confronted a hostile target in the southern airspace of the city of Homs in central Syria.

Yesterday, Wednesday, the agency spoke about an Israeli aggression that targeted the Qusayr area in the Homs countryside in central Syria, and said that the air defenses were "confronting hostile targets" in the skies of the western Homs countryside.

Syrian media also reported that a series of Israeli raids targeted Shinshar, Al-Daf Bridge, Al-Qusayr, and Al-Dabaa checkpoint in the Homs countryside.

Doctors Without Borders announced in a statement to Al Arabiya TV that 14,000 people in the Gaza Strip need immediate evacuation for treatment.

And urgent medical care.

She said that "8 of its employees were killed during the war inside the Gaza Strip," noting that the attacks and obstruction of access to places in need of medical and humanitarian assistance constitute a major crisis.

She added, "The biggest challenge facing us is dealing with the targeting of the health system and its workers inside the Gaza Strip."

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea told Reuters that Hezbollah must give up its weapons to end the war and spare Lebanon destruction.

He added that with the destruction of Hezbollah's infrastructure and warehouses, a large part of Lebanon is being destroyed, noting that the country is paying the price, according to his description.

He added that the pressures of the intense Israeli military campaign constitute an opportunity to put the country back on the right track, calling on Hezbollah and the state to implement local agreements and international resolutions to dissolve armed factions outside the state's control.

He also expressed his opposition to the Lebanese army forcibly disarming Hezbollah, saying, "I do not see the possibility of any civil war breaking out, and my party absolutely does not want that war to start."

British Minister of State for the Middle East and North Africa Hamish Falconer condemned the statements of the far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich regarding the annexation of the occupied West Bank.

"I condemn Minister Smotrich's statements proposing the annexation of West Bank lands," Falconer said in a post on the X platform on Thursday.

He stressed that the annexation undermines hopes for peace, leads to more instability, and described it as "illegal under international law."

The British Minister stressed the need for the Israeli government to reject the statement made by Smotrich.

On November 11, Smotrich said he had instructed the Settlement Administration and the Civil Administration to begin “professional and comprehensive groundwork to prepare the infrastructure necessary for the application of sovereignty” over the West Bank.

The Israeli army announced the killing of 192 officers since the beginning of the war, stressing that one in every four killed in the army ranks is a commander.

He also confirmed the killing of 12 battalion commanders, including 7 lieutenant colonels, and 4 brigade commanders since the beginning of the war.

The Israeli army acknowledged the killing of a platoon commander in the 51st Battalion of the Golani Brigade and the serious injury of an officer in the battles in southern Lebanon.

Young men from the village of Al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah, were able to repel an attack launched by a number of settlers, on Thursday evening, on the outskirts of the village.

Local sources reported that several settlers attacked a number of young men from Al-Mughayyir who were walking around an agricultural room in the western part of the village, which led to clashes.

The sources indicated that the settlers fled the place after their attack was repelled, without being able to burn the agricultural room.

Two children were injured on Thursday evening by Israeli occupation forces' bullets during their raid on the town of Beit Furik, east of Nablus.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said that its crews dealt with the injury of two children (15 years old), who were shot by the occupation forces in the thigh area, during clashes in Beit Furik.

The Israeli Knesset's Ministerial Committee for Legislation will discuss next Sunday a draft law that prohibits the raising of flags of "enemy countries," including the Palestinian flag, in "state-funded or supported institutions."

Under the bill, introduced by Likud MK Nissim Vaturi, “authorities could disperse any gathering in which such flags are raised, and impose a prison sentence of up to one year, in addition to a fine of no less than NIS 10,000.”

In a move that came as no surprise to many observers, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intends to prepare a plan for a ceasefire in Lebanon as a gift to President-elect Donald Trump, according to the Washington Post.

The Washington Post quoted an Israeli official as saying that there is an understanding that Israel will present a gift to Trump, and that next January there will be an understanding regarding Lebanon.

The newspaper quoted three current and former Israeli officials as saying that a close aide to Netanyahu told Trump and Jared Kushner that Israel was rushing to move forward with a ceasefire agreement in Lebanon with the aim of providing an early foreign policy win for the president-elect.

It is noteworthy that Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer, who is close to Netanyahu, met Trump at his resort, Mar-a-Lago, in the US state of Florida, before he began his official meetings in the capital, Washington.

Some American commentators considered this behavior a departure from American norms by Netanyahu's government, and that it was only concerned with trying to secure its very special relationship with the new Republican administration.

Israeli conditions

The Washington Post added that the talks with Trump focused on an Israeli proposal for a ceasefire in Lebanon that includes Western and Russian cooperation.

An Israeli military official was quoted as saying that plans were underway to intensify ground operations in Lebanon if the talks ultimately collapsed, stressing that the terms of the agreement would require Hezbollah to withdraw beyond the Litani River.

The Lebanese army will also take control of the border area for an initial period of 60 days under US and British supervision.

The Israeli proposal calls on Russia to prevent Hezbollah from rearming via Syrian land routes. Russian officials visited Israel last month to discuss the plan, and the Washington Post reported that Israeli Minister Dermer secretly visited Russia for further discussions.

In an attempt to relieve the current US administration of embarrassment, the newspaper quoted an American official as saying that Netanyahu is still engaged with President Joe Biden's administration regarding the ceasefire process in Lebanon.

She explained that work to reach a possible agreement is still being carried out by Biden's team, and that progress has been made in this regard.

Lebanese waiting

On the Lebanese side, Ali Hassan Khalil, political assistant to Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, said that his country is waiting to receive a new draft of the settlement that includes the formula for an agreement.

Khalil confirmed to Al Jazeera that Lebanon's position is clear, which is to commit to Resolution 1701 and all its provisions, including monitoring implementation.

He stressed that no Lebanese would accept that Israel would have freedom of movement in Lebanon after the agreement, which was confirmed by the caretaker Prime Minister of Lebanon, Najib Mikati, who said that the priority of a peaceful solution is to implement international resolution 1701 and oblige Israel to implement it in full.

Mikati reiterated Lebanon's rejection of any conditions that constitute a violation of the resolution, noting that his government is committed to strengthening the presence of the Lebanese army in the south in cooperation with UNIFIL forces.

Israel Hayom newspaper reported that US envoy Amos Hochstein is expected to present a ceasefire agreement to Lebanon within days.

Buffer zone

In a related context, Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz said that Israel will not cease fire and will not accept any settlement that does not achieve the goals of the war, including disarming Hezbollah and withdrawing it beyond the Litani.

"We will not allow any settlement without achieving all the goals of the war, which are disarming Hezbollah and withdrawing it beyond the Litani, and creating the basic conditions for the safe return of Israelis to the northern towns," Katz said during a tour of the Lebanese border.

Despite talk of trying to reach an agreement, Israel is seeking to establish a buffer zone in southern Lebanon, according to the newspaper "Israel Today".

At the same time, it seeks to maintain the ability to bomb Lebanon at any moment within the conditions of reaching a ceasefire agreement.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Wednesday, "Today we hear voices in Israel calling for maintaining the ability to strike at any moment, and even invade Lebanon."

The minister had held talks with Dermer and Katz last week.

After clashes with factions in Lebanon - most notably Hezbollah - that began the day after Israel launched its war of extermination on Gaza, Tel Aviv expanded the scope of the extermination to include most areas of Lebanon - including the capital Beirut - through air strikes, and it also began a ground invasion in the south.

The Israeli aggression on Lebanon resulted in a total of 3,287 martyrs and 14,222 wounded, including a large number of children and women, in addition to more than 1.2 million displaced persons.

Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper confirmed today, Thursday, that the Israeli occupation army aims, through its war on Hezbollah in Lebanon, to reach political arrangements based on UN Resolution 1701, but through continuing and escalating military pressure in the southern Lebanon region and intensive bombing of Beirut.

This came in a report by the newspaper's military analyst Ron Ben Yishai, who accompanies the occupation forces in southern Lebanon, in which he spoke about Israel's goals in its war on Lebanon, and also focused on the difficulties faced by reserve soldiers through their long service in the war on Gaza and Lebanon.

The importance of this report lies in the fact that it comes after the controversial statement made yesterday by the new Israeli Defense Minister, Yisrael Katz, in which he said that Israel will not stop the war on Lebanon until Hezbollah is disarmed.

Failure of goals softens demands

Ben Yishai says in the introduction to his report that the Israeli army is working in Lebanon to achieve three main goals: “The first goal is to increase military pressure to force Hezbollah and Lebanon to accept a security arrangement similar to UN Security Council Resolution 1701, and even more stringent.”

The political analyst pointed out that "the additional advantage of this arrangement will be the ability of the Israeli army to impose security by force in the event that the Lebanese army and UNIFIL forces fail to perform their role."

He also says that Hezbollah is trying to obstruct this goal by waging a “war of attrition” against the Israeli home front, which he sees as a way for the party to pressure the Lebanese government not to make concessions in the negotiations, especially with regard to imposing a weapons-free zone in southern Lebanon up to the Litani River, which is the second goal that the Israeli army is trying to achieve from this war.

Ben-Yishai claimed that Israel "destroyed about 80% of Hezbollah's missile arsenal," but he added that "Hezbollah still has enough weapons to send millions of Israelis into shelters on a daily basis, which is a drain on Israel's strength, and may soften its demands in the ongoing negotiations mediated by the United States through envoy Amos Hochstein, and foil Israel's efforts to achieve the third goal, which is to ensure the return of Israelis to the north."

In the context of the ongoing military operations, the Israeli analyst says that the Israeli forces "are suffering heavy human losses, especially in the intensive ground battles inside the Lebanese villages," where he revealed that "Hezbollah prepared well on the second line of villages, where it fortified its forces there after observing the army's methods, which led to the deaths and injuries of many Israeli soldiers in the recent battles."

In this context, he refers to the battle that took place inside a Lebanese village, where Hezbollah fighters ambushed Golani Brigade soldiers, killing 6 of them and wounding others. However, at the same time, he says, “The Israeli army hopes that its continued advance will reduce the number of short-range missile attacks towards northern Israel.”

According to the report, the occupation army "is making a great effort to destroy villages that are essential" to Hezbollah, by imposing a heavy price on them, as these military operations have expanded to include intensive aerial bombardment targeting areas important to the Shiite community in the southern suburbs and Beirut.

He added, "The Israeli army began moving its forces from the border villages to the second line of Lebanese villages, to send a message to the Shiite community that the war of attrition led by Hezbollah will cost them a heavy political and physical price."

Ben-Yishai points out that the army is now focusing on destroying short-range missile launchers, which he estimates will lead to a decline in the pace of attacks on northern Israel in the coming days. He also claims that the army's capabilities have improved in confronting the drones used by Hezbollah, noting that the interception rate has recently reached about 90%.

Reserve soldiers morale

In addition to the challenges on the ground, the IDF faces another challenge: maintaining the morale of reserve soldiers who bear the brunt of the ground fighting in southern Lebanon. Ben-Yishai believes that “this challenge is clearly evident due to the length of service and the psychological pressure it puts on soldiers and their families, especially with the ongoing military operations on multiple fronts.”

He noted that many of the reservists he met expressed their desire to "complete the tasks" they were assigned, but they suffer from problems related to the length of service and family pressures, especially on women who bear additional responsibilities in the absence of their husbands.

The economic situation of some of them is also deteriorating, as Battalion Commander Sharon Zeilinger said, "I used to work as a lawyer, but since I was called up for reserve duty, I no longer work in my profession."

To alleviate these pressures, the IDF is planning to launch a new plan called the “2025 Employment Chart,” in which it will attempt to achieve some stability among reserve soldiers, by setting the duration of reserve service for a fixed period each year for a specific number of days.

The report highlights that the occupation army faces a complex challenge on the Lebanese and Gaza fronts, as it continues to seek to achieve its military and political goals in Lebanon through intensive means of pressure, while facing major challenges in maintaining the morale of reserve soldiers, in light of the lack of clarity on whether Iran will take a direct hostile stance against Israel.

Ben Yishai concludes his report by emphasizing that "the biggest challenge for the Israeli army is in confronting Hezbollah, which is showing fierce resistance, while attempts continue to reach a comprehensive ceasefire that could put an end to these long military operations and achieve the security arrangement that Israel seeks from a position of strength."

So far, US President-elect Donald Trump has chosen a group to take over key ministerial portfolios and sensitive positions in a manner that satisfies the Israeli Prime Minister in an unprecedented manner, given their staunch support for Israel, their deep-rooted right-wing tendencies, their personal love for Netanyahu, and their support for settlements, in a manner that could not have been imagined before Trump’s announcements.

In the wake of his election victory last week, Trump initially signaled to isolationist “America First” supporters that they would play a key role in transforming his foreign policy — a stark warning to pro-Israel hawks who had assumed he would offer something similar in his support for Israel to what he had offered in his first term.

But with his ministerial appointments coming at a rapid pace during his first full week as president-elect, he quickly assembled a foreign policy team with a clear and detailed worldview that was inherently hostile to Iran, dismissive of any Palestinian national aspirations, and reticent to (potential) American pressure on Israel’s goals or condemnation of its conduct in the war.

Experts believe that the fact that the foreign policy appointments — including the U.S. ambassador to Israel and the envoy to the Middle East — came before many others only indicates how much of a priority the Middle East will be for Trump, despite initial assumptions that he would focus first and foremost on Ukraine, which is what the U.S. ambassador-designate to Israel, Mike Huckabee, a radical evangelical evangelist, sees as a way to do.

Experts believe that Trump’s appointments not only represent a full embrace of the pro-Israel, pro-settlement, and pro-West Bank annexation hard-right, but also encourage Netanyahu to believe that he will get the green light to pursue any strategy he deems necessary. This includes a more aggressive approach to Iran, and the most visible trend since the 1967 occupation of the occupied West Bank and Gaza (which is occupied by the Israeli occupation authorities and has been completely destroyed). So who are these appointees of the senior members of foreign policy and national security, and what do these appointees want from the Palestinians?! Let’s start where Trump began with his second appointment (after appointing Susie Rales as White House chief of staff):

1- Elise Stefanik: The president-elect has selected Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY, 40) to be the US ambassador to the United Nations, and she is more ideologically ardent in her support for Israel than Trump’s previous UN ambassador, Nikki Haley. “I am honored to nominate Committee Chairwoman Elise Stefanik to serve in my administration as the US Ambassador to the United Nations,” Trump said in a statement. “Elise is a strong and very smart fighter for America First.”

Stefanik, the fourth-ranking Republican in the House, a staunch ally of the president-elect and a major GOP fundraiser, has played a pivotal role in launching what experts say is a “crusade” to stoke anti-Semitism over the past year. Miriam Adelson, the Israeli widow of billionaire Sheldon Adelson, has been lavished with millions of dollars in awards for Stefanik’s campaigns, allowing her to infiltrate Trump’s political machine.

There are no clear substantive differences between Stefanik and Haley; Stefanik has strongly denounced the Biden-Harris administration for not adequately arming Israel, alleged that Biden has kowtowed to China—and condemned his withdrawal from Afghanistan on principle.

2- Senator Marco Rubio: Florida Senator Marco Rubio, if anyone knows anything about him, is known for his dedication to “loving Israel.” The Israeli lobby organization “AIPAC” successfully supported him with money and organization in the November 2010 elections when he was 39 years old. Since then, he has been a staunch supporter of everything Israel does, and he has used his Cuban origins, which his parents emigrated from in 1957, as an excuse to condemn the Palestinians who are supported by his home country, Cuba.

Rubio did not say a single word last year sympathizing with the suffering of the Palestinians. Rather, he took every possible opportunity as a platform to justify the Israeli war of extermination. He did not utter a single word about the necessity of ending the occupation and establishing a Palestinian state on the occupied Palestinian territories.

Rubio's selection is likely to reassure both Israel and traditional Republicans that Trump intends to maintain his strong support for Israel in his second term, amid concerns about an inner circle pushing an isolationist approach.

The Republican Jewish Coalition, the Republican Party’s most vocal pro-Israel group, welcomed Rubio’s potential nomination when it was first reported on Monday. “In these unusually dangerous times, Senator Rubio is an outspoken advocate for Israel and has consistently stood with the Jewish state,” the group said in a statement.

Rubio used the harshest terms to describe the students who have been, and continue to be, protesting Israel's war on Gaza, as did Stefanek, who said she wanted to beat up students who are protesting against Israel.

3- Pete Hegseth as Minister of Defense: The candidate for the position of Minister of Defense, Pete Hegseth, has cynically ignored the Palestinian civilian casualties while working as a host on Fox News, which is supposed to have prepared him to oversee the largest army in the history of the world. Although he is inexperienced, has no distinguished record, and is unknown, he participated in the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan (as a reserve), and developed a strong racism against Arabs and Muslims, and has often launched scathing attacks on the Palestinians in his programs on the pro-Israel Fox network, considering all citizens of Gaza as partners in the attack of October 7, 2023.

It is noteworthy that Hegseth is considered one of the most ardent supporters of the settlement movement and the annexation of the occupied West Bank. He said in 2018 during a visit to occupied Jerusalem: “There is no reason why a miracle cannot happen; the re-establishment of the Temple on the Temple Mount.”

4- Michael Waltz, US National Security Advisor: He publicly called for allowing Israel to “finish the job,” i.e., eliminate the remaining Gazans, and allowing Netanyahu to do whatever he wants “to finish the job.”

Although he is married to a Jordanian woman, Julia Nesheiwat (who worked at the Department of Homeland Security as an advisor until Trump left the White House in 2021), there is no evidence that his marital relationship has had a positive impact on his views on the Palestinian issue. Nesheiwat served in the US Army as a captain (three stars) and as a military intelligence officer during the US invasion of Iraq.

The National Security Advisor is considered one of the most important positions in the National Assembly, ahead of the Minister of Defense, and sometimes the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

5- John Ratcliffe, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA): Ratcliffe may be the most experienced appointee in the field of intelligence, as he served as Director of the National Intelligence Agency for 7 months at the end of the first term of US President Donald Trump.

He also called for giving Netanyahu a free hand "to complete the mission" and for Israel to share all the intelligence and intelligence assets that the United States possesses.

6 – Mike Huckabee, US Ambassador to Israel: By appointing right-wing settler Yehiel Leiter as Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Netanyahu sent an indisputable signal to Washington and the world that annexation will be at the forefront of his agenda going forward. All eyes were on Trump’s ambassadorship to Israel to see if he would choose an annexationist like David Friedman, and that’s exactly what happened. By choosing Huckabee, an evangelical Christian with a longstanding connection to the settlement movement and a deeper history of advocating for annexation than Friedman, Trump made the expected policy crystal clear.

Huckabee's appointment also serves as a straightforward and narrow interpretation of what it means to be pro-Israel, considering that this was the motivating factor behind his appointment.

Given that extensive polling shows that American Jews view defending democracy as the most important issue in the 2024 election, and that a majority of American Jews are critical of the Israeli right, Trump’s appointment of Huckabee gives further credence to Netanyahu and Ron Dermer’s belief that Israel’s base of support lies in the evangelical community and the Israel lobby AIPAC, not American Jews.

Trump’s appointments, if anything, suggest that Trump remains determined to prioritize Israel’s regional integration and expand the normalization agreements known as the “Abraham Accords,” given the outright rejection by key Trump appointees of a Palestinian state—a key demand of countries like Saudi Arabia—as well as open suggestions from figures like Huckabee that Saudi Arabia or Egypt should offer their own territory for a future Palestinian state.

The observer will quickly discover that every Trump appointment so far related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has a prior relationship with Netanyahu. Even the new US envoy to the Middle East, Steven Witkoff, who has no diplomatic experience at all and is a real estate mogul, attended Netanyahu’s July 24 speech to a joint session of Congress and used the interview he gave afterwards to retract any criticism of the Israeli prime minister.

Ben & Jerry's said in a lawsuit that parent company Unilever has blocked its attempts to express support for Palestinian refugees, threatening to dissolve its board and sue its members over the issue.

According to Reuters, the lawsuit filed by the company on Wednesday is the latest sign of a long-running tension between Ben & Jerry's and consumer products company Unilever.

A dispute broke out between them in 2021 after Ben & Jerry's said it would stop selling its products in the occupied West Bank because they conflicted with its values, a move that prompted some investors to dump shares in Unilever.

The ice cream maker then sued Unilever for selling its Israeli business to its licensee there, allowing it to continue marketing in the West Bank and Israel. That suit was settled in 2022.

In its new lawsuit, Ben & Jerry's says Unilever violated the terms of that settlement, which has remained confidential.

The lawsuit revealed that the settlement agreement stipulates that Unilever is required to “respect and appreciate the primary responsibility of Ben & Jerry’s independent board of directors with respect to Ben & Jerry’s social mission.”

“Ben & Jerry’s has tried on four occasions to speak out in support of peace and human rights… Unilever has silenced all of these efforts,” the lawsuit added.

Ben & Jerry's said in the lawsuit that it tried to call for a ceasefire, support students protesting on U.S. campuses over the killing of civilians in Gaza, and call for an end to U.S. military aid to Israel, but Unilever blocked it.

The lawsuit says the independent board spoke out separately about some of these matters, but the company was silenced.

Ben & Jerry's said Peter ter Kolff, president of Unilever's ice cream division, said he was concerned about "a continuing perception of anti-Semitism" regarding the ice cream maker expressing its views on Gaza refugees, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit also says that under the settlement agreement, Unilever is required to make payments totaling $5 million to Ben & Jerry's so that the brand can make donations to human rights groups of its choosing.

Ben & Jerry's chose the left-leaning Jewish Voice for Peace, the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and other organizations.

The lawsuit said Unilever objected to the choices in August, saying Jewish Voice for Peace was "strongly critical of the Israeli government."

Ben & Jerry's has positioned itself as a community-conscious company since it was founded by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield in a renovated gas station in 1978. It maintained that mission after being acquired by Unilever in 2000.

In March, Unilever said it would separate its ice cream business, which includes Ben & Jerry's, from the rest of the group by the end of 2025 to simplify its portfolio.

The German government has denied reports that German soldiers participating in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) are cooperating with Israel.

"Media outlets close to Hezbollah in Lebanon are spreading a narrative that Germany and the German-led UN naval task force have intervened in the fighting in Lebanon on behalf of Israel. The German government categorically denies these accusations," the German Defense Ministry said in a statement seen by the German Press Agency.

Germany currently has about 100 troops in the UNIFIL force, about 40 of them at the peacekeeping mission’s headquarters in Naqoura, in the middle of the fighting. About 60 German soldiers are on board the German warship Ludwigshafen am Rhein, which also commands the naval component of the UN force.

The ship's crew repelled an explosives-laden drone last October, declaring self-defense. The drone exploded upon hitting the water.

In early November, Israeli special forces reportedly using speedboats arrested a man in the Lebanese coastal town of Batroun.

UNIFIL later said it was not involved in any kidnapping or “other violations of Lebanese sovereignty,” describing “misleading information and false rumors in this context as irresponsible and endangering peacekeeping forces.”

The German mission has since become the focus of media outlets close to Hezbollah. Media reports have accused Germany and its naval task force ships of monitoring and tolerating the Israelis, according to the German Press Agency.

"The Lebanese Coastal Radar Authority, funded by Germany, is run by Lebanese soldiers. The Lebanese army determines and controls what happens to the information obtained from the radar stations and who receives it. The naval task force has no direct contact with the Israeli army. No information about the situation is passed on," the German Defense Ministry said in a statement.

The ministry noted that the principle of neutrality applies to parties to conflict in UN missions, adding: "We adhere to this strictly. The mission of the Maritime Task Force is defined by the UN mandate. This constitutes the binding framework for our participation," stressing that the work of the force "is transparent at all times, as well as towards other countries contributing to UNIFIL forces."

The Ministry of Health in Gaza reported today, Thursday, that the death toll from the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip has risen to 43,736 dead and 103,370 injuries since October 7, 2023.

The ministry confirmed in a brief statement that the occupation committed 3 massacres against families in the Gaza Strip, resulting in 24 dead and 112 injuries arriving at hospitals during the past 24 hours.

She pointed out that there are still a number of victims under the rubble and on the roads, and ambulance and civil defense crews cannot reach them.

Today, Thursday, settlers prevented citizens from picking olives in Khirbet Salama, southwest of Hebron.

Local sources reported that a group of "Nagahot" settlers prevented citizens from the Awda family in Khirbet Salama from picking olives, seized the olive picking machine, and stole the fruits.

It is worth noting that the settlers have intensified their attacks on farmers, olive pickers and their property, especially in areas close to the settlements.