For the second month in a row, the government disbursed the salaries of public employees at a rate of 50% of the salary, with a minimum of 2,000 shekels, in light of the financial blockade imposed by the Israeli occupation government on our people, in parallel with the war of annihilation it is waging in the Gaza Strip, and its continuing aggression against the West Bank, including Jerusalem. Occupied.

Israel, the occupying power, is withholding Palestinian tax revenues, “clearance funds,” illegally and in violation of the signed agreements, especially the Paris Economic Protocol, which has exacerbated the Palestinian budget deficit.

Clearing is the tax revenues that Israel collects on goods imported into the Palestinian territories through the ports that it fully controls, and constitutes about 65% of total public revenues.

Although the nominal value of clearing revenues increased from approximately 1.7 billion US dollars in 2013 to 3.2 billion dollars in 2023, the occupation government used these revenues as a political tool to impose a financial blockade on the government and the Palestinian people. As a result, the Palestinian government faces a dangerous financial situation that has increased. This is exacerbated by the decline in comprehensive economic activities, including foreign trade, and the sharp decline in financial support provided by Arab or international donors to the government budget in recent years.

Economic researcher Moayed Afaneh told WAFA that the Paris Economic Protocol, signed in 1994, defined the economic relationship between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and one of its most prominent provisions is that Israel collects customs and various taxes on goods imported into the Palestinian territories, since Israel controls the crossings and borders, and therefore it controls all Palestinian exports and imports that must pass through it.

Afaneh added: “The economic protocol stipulates that 3% of tax funds be deducted for the benefit of Israel (as an administrative commission) and that these revenues are delivered to the Palestinian Authority on the basis of a monthly clearing. This agreement, when signed, was temporary for five years, but in practice it is still in effect until today.” .

Afaneh explained, “Over the past years, Israel has used clearing revenues as a sword hanging over the necks of the Palestinians, and a means of pirating Palestinian funds. It has worked several times to detain and not transfer those funds, and has worked, and is still working, to detain and deduct from those funds under different names.” .

Afaneh stressed that disbursing 50% of the salaries of public employees, in addition to the accumulation of more arrears on the government, would reflect negatively on the overall economic process in Palestine and on the economic cycle as a whole.

According to official data, clearing revenues have decreased by more than 70% over the past few months, and as of April 30, 2024, the occupation government continues to illegally withhold about 6 billion shekels (about 1.67 billion US dollars) of Palestinian funds, including deductions. The Israeli government of border crossing fees (a cumulative amount estimated at approximately 250 million US dollars due) for increasing fees since 2008 and not sharing the Palestinian government’s share in violation of the signed agreements, and the share allocated to Gaza from the general budget (Gaza’s share) since October 2023.

The occupation government annually deducts more than one billion shekels (about $270 million) from clearing revenues under the pretext of covering electricity and water bills, especially in the Gaza Strip, noting that there is no strong auditing mechanism to verify the validity and accuracy of these utility bills. Contrary to the signed agreements, other unspecified funds are being deducted, which the occupation government refuses to disclose.

It also continues to deduct amounts from clearance revenues estimated at approximately 500 million shekels (about 136.6 million US dollars) per month, equivalent to social welfare allocations for detainees and families of martyrs, the Gaza share, electricity and water bills, and others, which has doubled the financial burden on the government budget.

Since October 2023, the Gaza share deductions have been transferred to a trust fund in Norway, a mechanism established through an Israeli-Norwegian arrangement, with funds in the fund totaling US$480 million as of April 30, 2024.

In response to the lawsuit filed against it in the International Court of Justice for violating the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and the International Criminal Court’s announcement that it is seeking to issue arrest warrants against the Prime Minister of the occupation government, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his army minister, Yoav Galant, on charges of committing war crimes, in addition to the confession of a number of countries. In the European Union in the State of Palestine, the occupation government took aggressive decisions against the government and the Palestinian people last May, including not transferring the clearance, causing its revenues to fall to zero, which further aggravated the already fragile financial situation.

Despite the deteriorating financial situation, the Palestinian government continued its commitment to its employees in the Gaza Strip, especially those working in the health and education sectors, in addition to social allocations to poor families through the cash transfer program in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which is supervised by the Ministry of Social Development.

Under the current circumstances, the government has minimal financing options, either through increasing donor funding (especially direct budget support) or accumulating more arrears to the private sector, public sector employees, and the Palestinian Retirement Authority Fund.
Ministry of Finance data indicate that foreign aid decreased significantly from about $1.4 billion in 2013 to $358 million by the end of 2023. The government’s budget has so far received only a small amount of Arab or international financial support. Some budget support is expected to arrive by the end of the second quarter of 2024.

By the end of 2024, the government's fiscal deficit is expected to reach US$2 billion if current conditions continue. The economic contraction expected in 2024 will also lead to a significant deterioration in living conditions and significant declines in per capita income, especially in Gaza.

As a result of the financial crisis, the Palestinian government has accumulated local arrears, with partial salaries paid to public employees since November 2021 (about 80-85%).

Since October 2023, the crisis has intensified and the ability to pay partial salaries has been severely disrupted. As of May 2024, total arrears owed to public sector employees amounted to US$1.18 billion.

The government was also unable to pay the dues of suppliers of goods and services from the private sector, including private hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, medical supplies, and others. As of May 2024, private sector arrears had reached US$1.43 billion.

Afaneh noted that the drivers of the economic process in Palestine are linked to the salaries of public sector employees and semi-salaries, in addition to workers in the 1948 lands, the majority of whom have been out of work since October, which leads to a further contraction in the economic cycle, and thus a further crisis for the authority. Palestinian nationalism.

He explained that the general budget revenues come either through clearing or through local revenues, while external support, despite its scarcity, comes in pre-determined paths, especially for health and education, and therefore the Ministry of Finance cannot invest these funds for the issue of salaries or according to our national priorities, indicating that piracy Clearance funds in full, for the second month in a row, in addition to previous deductions, aim to undermine the Palestinian Authority.

He stated that with the piracy of the clearing funds, only local revenues remain, which is equivalent to about 32% of full revenues in a normal situation, but the economic downturn, the unemployment of workers in the territories in 1948, and the complete destruction of the Gaza Strip led to a contraction in local revenues to reach 20% at best. This prompted the government to borrow again to pay part of the salaries, which increases its obligations towards the local banking sector if we mention that the first installment of the government’s combined loan from the banks will be next July.

The government continues its efforts with international bodies to pressure Israel to release detained Palestinian funds and stop illegal deductions from clearance revenues, including the recent deductions of Gaza’s share of the budget, in addition to developing practical plans to help achieve financial stability by the end of 2024.

The government hopes that international pressure will succeed in releasing approximately $240 million in outstanding border crossing fees that Israel is illegally withholding, in addition to the amount accumulated in the Norwegian Trust Fund amounting to approximately $480 million.

Releasing funds illegally withheld by Israel would play an important role in addressing the financial crisis, by giving the Palestinian government the ability to partially meet its immediate budget needs and pay some of the arrears and accumulated debt.

The current Palestinian government assumed its responsibilities with a public debt exceeding $11 billion. This includes foreign debts owed to offshore banking institutions, domestic arrears owed to public sector employees, private sector suppliers and service providers, the Palestinian Retirement Authority, and official debts owed to the local banking sector.

Afana stressed that if international pressure results in the release of the withheld clearing funds, this will help the government very significantly, noting that the funds withheld from 2019 until now are 6 billion shekels according to the Minister of Finance, which is not a small number, and that releasing them helps in Continuity of cash flows to the Palestinian National Authority, noting that the average clearance funds before October 7 reached one billion shekels per month.

Afana explained that even with the release of the clearance funds, the financial crisis remains in the structural structure, as the general budget suffers from a chronic deficit between revenues and expenditures, which is not a spur of the moment as it clearly appeared 10 years ago, due to a significant decline in external support and an increase in expenditures.

He pointed out that salary and quasi-salary entitlements alone are about one billion shekels, in addition to the operating expenses of government institutions, which are approximately 300 million shekels. “Even if our funds are restored, we will still suffer from a crisis, but at least it is a crisis that can be dealt with.”

The government took a set of measures to reduce spending, including: stopping the purchase of new vehicles, implementing measures to limit the use of government vehicles outside working hours, suspending public procurement requests except for urgent necessities, and other measures.

Afaneh pointed out that “if the current circumstances continue, the government’s task of paying a percentage of its obligations next month will be very difficult, as local revenues will be 20-30% at most,” noting that the decrease in spending by citizens due to the decrease in income leads to a decrease in spending. Local revenue.

He stressed that if there is no political breakthrough in the scene related to clearing, or an influx of Arab or international relief support, the task will be very difficult, if not impossible, for the Ministry of Finance, and that technical solutions will be useless.

It is noteworthy that in 2023, the annual Palestinian GDP growth rate is estimated at about 3.2%. However, due to Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza, the growth forecast for 2023 has been revised to -5.5% (which indicates a massive decline in economic activity in the West Bank and a complete collapse in the Gaza Strip). According to the latest World Bank report, the Palestinian economy is expected to contract further in 2024 (between -6.5% and 9.6%), in light of the blurry scene and uncertainty regarding the prospects for 2024.

In 2023, the per capita GDP in Palestine (West Bank and Gaza Strip) was estimated at approximately $3,360. However, Gaza's per capita GDP is estimated at about one-fifth the level of the West Bank, at $1,084 (the lowest per capita income ever recorded in real terms).

It is estimated that about 500,000 citizens have become unemployed since the beginning of the genocide committed by Israel in Gaza. The Palestinian economy lost more than 200,000 jobs in Gaza, while about 150,000 workers in the West Bank lost their jobs within the 48 territories. An additional 144,000 workers lost their jobs due to reduced production and restrictions on workers' access to workplaces.

According to ILO data, the daily income loss due to job losses is estimated at US$21.7 million per day (the figure rises to US$25.5 million per day when taking into account the decline in the income of public and private sector employees).

According to the most recent household survey issued by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics in 2023 (pre-October 2023), the national poverty rate in Palestine was estimated at 32.8% (11.7% in the West Bank, and 63.7% in Gaza). As Gazans slide into extreme poverty, poverty rates in the West Bank will also increase due to declining economic activity and increased unemployment.

30 dead and dozens of injuries in 3 massacres and violent raids in various regions 
Blowing up residential buildings, intense artillery shelling on Al-Shaboura, and raids on Al-Zaytoun and Al-Nuseirat 
The bodies of a number of wounded people were recovered from under the rubble of their homes, most of them children 
 “Quad Capture” pursues citizens in homes, streets, and in displacement tents 
 The occupation forces admit that 11 soldiers were injured during fierce battles in Rafah 


Thousands of patients and wounded are at risk of death in the hospitals of the Gaza Strip, after the distress call launched by the Ministry of Health in Gaza, warning that the last remaining generating station in the Strip would run out of fuel, after the occupation destroyed 20 oxygen generating stations.

On the ground, the occupation army blew up residential buildings in the center of the city of Rafah, which were subjected to raids and intense artillery shelling since the dawn hours, while Israeli aircraft launched raids on Al-Shaboura, the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, Gaza City, Al-Nuseirat, and the Al-Mawasi area. This comes at a time when the toll of the continuing Israeli aggression on Gaza rose on that day. From 251 to 37 thousand and 232 dead and 85 thousand and 37 injuries, after the occupation forces committed 3 massacres against families that led to the death of 30 citizens and the injury of 105 others during the past 24 hours, while the occupation army announced that 11 soldiers were injured during the past 24 hours, according to the toll. Officially, 650 Israeli soldiers and officers have been killed since October 7, 2023, including 298 since the start of the ground attack on Gaza, and the total number of casualties reached 3,822, including 1,938 since the start of the ground attack.

The occupation forces continued their aggression against the Gaza Strip for the 251st day, leaving dozens killed and wounded.

Local sources reported hearing explosions and heavy gunfire from occupation tanks in the western area of the city of Rafah, coinciding with Apache warplanes and occupation boats firing at the same area, which led to the blowing up of entire residential buildings.
It added that medical teams recovered the bodies of 3 killed and a number of wounded, most of them children, as a result of targeting a house for the Al-Louh family in the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip.

The Israeli occupation artillery fired shells at citizens' homes northwest of the Nuseirat camp and the Al-Mughraqa area in the central Gaza Strip.

Quadcopter military drones also opened fire on citizens' homes in the Al-Shuja'iya and Al-Zaytoun neighborhoods in Gaza City.
The occupation vehicles stationed in the "Netzarim" axis bombed with rocket shells the neighborhoods of Al-Zaytoun, Al-Sabra, Tal Al-Hawa, and Sheikh Ajlin in Gaza City, coinciding with the shooting.

The occupation army vehicles continued their incursion into the southeastern outskirts of the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood in Gaza City, coinciding with missile and artillery shelling in the area.

At least four citizens were martyred, and dozens were injured, yesterday, in continuous bombing by the occupation forces on the cities of Gaza and Rafah.
Local sources reported that a citizen was killed and others were injured in a bombing by an occupation drone on a group of citizens on Kishko Street in Gaza City.

She added that the occupation aircraft bombed the Al-Shuja'iya neighborhood, east of Gaza City, resulting in the death of a citizen and the injury of 4 others.
Two citizens were killed and others were injured as a result of an occupation bombing near Canada Well in the Tal Al-Sultan neighborhood, west of the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip.

A citizen was martyred and two others were injured yesterday in an occupation bombing near the Gaza port, west of the city.

For its part, the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas movement, announced that its fighters engaged in fierce clashes with Israeli army forces penetrating east of the Zaytoun neighborhood in Gaza City, and said that it targeted those forces with mortar shells.

The Al-Qassam Brigades also announced that they targeted an Israeli army headquarters in the Netzarim axis with a 114 mm missile.

In turn, the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement, announced that it had targeted Israeli soldiers with a ground bomb east of the Zaytoun neighborhood.

In eastern Gaza City, the Al-Quds Brigades said they bombed the transmission towers at the Nahal Oz site with mortar shells. The brigades also announced that they bombed, with 107 missiles, a command and control center belonging to the Israeli army on the supply line to the Netzarim axis, south of Gaza City.

In the Rafah battles in the south of the Gaza Strip, the Al-Qassam Brigades announced that they had targeted two Merkava 4 tanks with two “Yassin 105” shells in the Shaboura camp.

In turn, the Al-Quds Brigades announced that they had bombarded with mortar a gathering of Israeli army vehicles and soldiers penetrating west of the Shaboura camp.
Humanely, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said that more than 300,000 tons of waste are accumulating in all areas of the Gaza Strip, posing catastrophic health and environmental risks to the residents of the Strip.

The agency said that waste is accumulating in or near densely populated areas in all areas of the Strip, warning that this poses catastrophic environmental and health risks. She pointed out that in light of the current conditions in Gaza, children dig through tons of waste every day. She stressed that the unhindered entry of humanitarian aid and a ceasefire now are essential to restoring humanitarian living conditions for the residents of the Strip.

The World Health Organization has also warned that Gazans face catastrophic hunger and famine-like conditions.

Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, denied that there was any evidence that those in need in the Gaza Strip were receiving enough food.

The Palestinian Red Crescent also announced the resumption of work and reception of the wounded and sick at the association’s medical point in the Jabalia camp in the northeastern Gaza Strip. This comes after the restoration and rehabilitation of the place despite the great destruction inflicted on it by the Israeli occupation soldiers.

On Thursday evening, the Israeli occupation forces released at least 30 prisoners from Ofer and Negev prisons, the majority of whom were administrative detainees.

The Prisoner's Club said, in a press statement, "Among those released is the prisoner Saed Abu Shanab from Tulkarm, after he spent 21 years in Israeli occupation prisons."

Three prisoners were also released from Jericho after spending six and a half years: Nashat Saad Shalalfa, Ishtian Jamal Shalalfa, and Mahdi Kamal Shalalfa.

The former Speaker of the Legislative Council, Aziz Dweik, the former Minister of Jerusalem, Khaled Abu Arafa, the journalist Thaer Al-Fakhouri, and other detainees who spent varying periods of time, were also released, knowing that the majority of them were former prisoners who spent years in the occupation’s prisons, and the occupation continued to target them through the policy of administrative detention.

The Prisoners' Club confirmed that the bodies to which the prisoners were released reflect some of the harsh and humiliating conditions of detention, including acts of torture, abuse and starvation, in addition to medical crimes that have escalated in an unprecedented manner since the start of the war of extermination against the Palestinian people in Gaza, pointing out that the majority Those released suffer from health problems, and some of them suffer from chronic health problems.

The Prisoner's Club pointed out that all the current policies and crimes carried out by the occupation against prisoners and detainees are fixed crimes, and the occupation has used them over many decades, but the only variable is the level and intensity of crimes.

According to the club, despite the limited release of dozens of detainees, the occupation continues its systematic and unprecedented arrest campaigns since the beginning of the war of genocide, which affected about 9,200 citizens in the West Bank, noting that the occupation recently escalated the re-arrest of dozens after... They were released within a short period of time, and most of them were transferred to administrative detention.

The New York Times quoted an informed official as saying that CIA Director William Burns met in Doha with Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani and Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel.

The source said that the meeting focused on finding ways to bring the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and Israel closer together in order to reach a ceasefire agreement in Gaza and release the detainees.

He added that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's statements made Hamas wonder whether Israel wanted a permanent cessation of fighting.

For her part, Al Jazeera's correspondent reported that the "State Camp" party led by Benny Gantz submitted a proposal to withdraw confidence from the government, and the proposal will be discussed next week.

The "State Camp" party says that the proposal to withhold confidence from the government comes against the backdrop of the absence of a strategic plan to restore security to the residents of the northern border towns with Lebanon.

Party leader Benny Gantz told the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation that Netanyahu prevented an exchange deal due to political motives.

Biden endorsement

In a parallel context, the draft final statement of the Seventh Summit confirmed its support for the American proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of detainees.

White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said that a large number of the changes proposed by Hamas are in line with US President Joe Biden's speech regarding the ceasefire agreement, pointing out that some of Hamas's observations are not in line with what was stated in the speech.

Regarding Israel's position, Sullivan said that it agreed to everything President Biden said, and is committed to it, and no Israeli official has issued the opposite, as he put it.

Sullivan added that Washington will work with Qatar and Egypt to bridge the gaps, and they will in turn work with Hamas, stressing that there is no timetable for the end of the negotiations, which he described as complex.

Sullivan indicated that work is being done diligently to reach an agreement in line with what was stated in Biden’s speech and the Security Council resolution, considering this possible.

"Perpetual peace"

In turn, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that the currently proposed proposal to stop the war in Gaza is the fastest and most effective way to reach a permanent ceasefire.

Blinken added, in an interview with Al Jazeera, that the deal proposal opens the door to many possibilities regarding the goal that the United States seeks to achieve, which is a lasting and real peace in the region and the establishment of a Palestinian state.

For its part, Hamas said that it expressed a positive position on Biden's speech, while it only heard from Netanyahu the continuation of the war of extermination.

The movement added, in a statement, that it agreed to the proposal it received from the mediators on May 5, while Netanyahu responded by attacking Rafah.

The movement called on the US Secretary of State and the Biden administration to put pressure on the occupation government that insists on completing the mission of killing and extermination.

Hamas added that Blinken is talking about Israel's approval of the latest proposal, while the movement has not heard this approval from any Israeli official.

The movement said that the Netanyahu government continued to reject any permanent ceasefire, in contradiction to the Security Council resolution and the Biden initiative.

Regarding the Security Council resolution, which the movement welcomed, Hamas said that the world had not heard any Israeli welcome or approval of it.

The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation said that the court approved the decision of Benjamin Netanyahu's government to extend the closure of the Al Jazeera network office and ban its work for an additional 45 days.

A few days ago, the Israeli Council of Ministers approved the decision of the Minister of Communications to extend the closure of Al Jazeera’s office and ban its work in Israel for 45 days.

Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karei said at the time, “I am convinced that the orders to close the island will be extended in the future as well.”

Last month, the Israeli government unanimously decided to close Al Jazeera's offices.

The decision states: “Based on the law to prevent a foreign broadcasting organization from harming state security, permission was given to the Minister of Communications to issue, for a period of 45 days, a decision to stop broadcasting Al Jazeera in Arabic and English.”

The decision also stipulated the closure of Al Jazeera’s offices located on the borders of Israel, the seizure of devices used by Al Jazeera to broadcast content, and the restriction of access to the channel’s website.

Al Jazeera Network described the Israeli government's decision as a step that is deeply misleading and slanderous, and condemned "the Israeli criminal act that infringes on human rights to access information."

Today, Thursday, the Israeli occupation authorities released the Chairman of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Aziz Dweik, who had been detained for 8 months, while activists circulated pictures of him revealing the deterioration of his health condition as a result of his prison conditions.

Anadolu Agency quoted eyewitnesses as saying that the Israeli authorities released Al-Dweik at Al-Dhaheriya military checkpoint in the city of Hebron, south of the West Bank, while Palestinian platforms published pictures of Al-Dweik to compare his health condition before and after arrest.

Al-Dweik (75 years old) was arrested on October 17, as part of administrative detention, which comes under an Israeli military order under the pretext of the existence of what the occupation calls a “security threat” without an indictment, and extends to 6 months, which can be extended.

In mid-December, the Palestinian Prisoners' Club said that Dweik was going through very difficult health conditions in the Negev prison in southern Israel, noting that since his arrest, Dweik had not been receiving appropriate medical treatment, and his family was demanding that they be allowed to visit him to check on his health condition.

The Prisoner Club indicated that Dweik also suffers from anemia and hemoglobin deficiency due to diabetes, explaining that he had previously undergone two catheterization operations and fragmentation of kidney stones.

The occupation forces previously arrested Dweik several times, including in June 2014, and released him on June 9, 2015.

Al-Dweik, who is from the city of Hebron, assumed the presidency of the Legislative Council since the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) won the majority of the council’s seats in the parliamentary elections in 2006, but Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced that the Constitutional Court in Ramallah decided to dissolve the council in late 2018.

On Thursday, former Minister of the Israeli War Council, Benny Gantz, accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of obstructing the conclusion of a prisoner exchange deal with the Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip based on his “private political calculations.”

Last Sunday, Gantz, the leader of the State Camp party (12 out of 120 representatives in the Knesset), announced his resignation from the emergency government as a minister in the War Council, claiming that Netanyahu is obstructing the achievement of victory in Israel’s war on Gaza.

Gantz said, in an interview with the (official) Hebrew Broadcasting Corporation, that Netanyahu "is obstructing the conclusion of a prisoner exchange deal with the Palestinian factions based on his own political calculations, and not within the framework of seeing the interests of the State of Israel."

He added that Netanyahu "took several decisions during the last period for private and political considerations," without clarifying what these decisions were.

He continued: "I tried for several months to influence decisions within the War Council in the interest of the State of Israel, but that did not succeed."

The opposition in Israel says that Netanyahu is seeking to prolong the war on Gaza, because he knows that his “political future” will end with the cessation of this war, which has failed to achieve its goals. The matter could even lead to him being tried for “corruption cases” with which he has previously been accused.

In the same interview, Gantz said that he preferred to end the escalation with the Lebanese Hezbollah in northern Israel through “diplomatic means.”

But he added that Israel "will have no choice but to go to war" if diplomatic methods do not succeed in ending the escalation.

Last Sunday, Gantz and the other minister in his party, Gadi Eisenkot, announced their resignation from the emergency government, claiming that Netanyahu is preventing Tel Aviv from progressing towards “real victory” on the Gaza and northern fronts. Both called for setting an agreed upon date for early parliamentary elections.

Gantz and Eisenkot joined Netanyahu's government following the outbreak of war, and it became called the emergency government, after which a mini-war council was formed.

The withdrawal of Gantz and Eisenkot does not mean the dismantling of the government, as when they joined it, Netanyahu was already supported by 64 deputies, which allows his government to continue in power as long as it enjoys the confidence of at least 61 deputies.

An opinion poll conducted by the private Israeli Channel 12, the results of which were published last Monday, indicates that if parliamentary elections are held at the present time, the “state camp” will be the largest party with 22 seats, then the “Likud” party led by Netanyahu with 19 seats, while the opposition will obtain the necessary majority. To form a government.

The Israeli government's war council will meet in its new form on Thursday evening, after the resignation of former ministers Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, according to official Hebrew media.

The official Israeli Broadcasting Corporation said that the war council will meet tonight in its new form after the resignation of Gantz and Eisenkot last Sunday.

After the resignation of Gantz and Eisenkot, the War Council now includes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Galant as two main members, and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and Minister without Portfolio Aryeh Deri as observers.

On Monday, Hebrew media reported that Netanyahu is considering dissolving the war council following the resignation of Ministers Gantz and Eisenkot.

On Sunday evening, Gantz and Eisenkot, partners in the National Unity Party (12 MPs out of 120 in the Knesset), accused Netanyahu of pursuing “policies that serve his own political interests,” with a call for early elections “as soon as possible.”

They also accused him of failing to achieve the declared goals of the ongoing war on the Gaza Strip, since October 7, especially the elimination of Hamas and the return of prisoners from the Strip.

The resignation of Gantz and Eisenkot does not represent a major threat to Netanyahu's government, as their party was not part of his ruling coalition, which maintains a parliamentary majority of 64 deputies, that is, three more than the minimum.

But the resignation will leave the war council, which was formed last October 11, without representation from any party other than the “Likud” (right) led by Netanyahu.

The Israeli government has three decision-making bodies: the War Council, the Mini-Ministerial Council for Political and Security Affairs (the Cabinet), and the expanded government.

Netanyahu is committed to continuing in his position, and has rejected mounting calls for months to hold early elections, claiming that they would “paralyze the state” and freeze prisoner exchange negotiations for a period that may reach 8 months.

Three young men were killed by Israeli occupation forces fire, today, Thursday, in the town of Qabatiya, south of Jenin.

The occupation forces had stormed the town of Qabatiya earlier today, surrounded a house in the “Kahlisha” area, and bombed it with shells, before a military bulldozer began demolishing it, amid clashes erupting in the place, during which the occupation forces fired heavy live ammunition.

The occupation forces tortured the body of one of the dead and removed him from the besieged house using a bulldozer, according to a video clip.

Jenin Governor Kamal Abu Al-Rub said that the Israeli side informed us of the death of two citizens in the town of Qabatiya, and their bodies were seized.

The Red Crescent also reported that its crews in Jenin transferred a dead man from the town of Qabatiya to the hospital.

A young man was also injured by shrapnel from live bullets in the back during the clashes that broke out in Qabatiya, according to what the Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported.

Since the start of the comprehensive Israeli aggression against our people on October 7, 2023, 544 citizens have been killed in the West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem, including 133 children, and more than 5,200 others have been injured.

The Israeli newspaper Maariv reported that the Americans have become convinced that the final decision regarding the fate of the prisoner release agreement lies with the leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar.

Maariv quoted American intelligence sources as saying that Yahya Sinwar believes that he is able to withstand Israel, and is confident that he is in a good position to negotiate from a position where he has the upper hand.

The same sources continued - according to Maariv - that Hamas's goal is to survive, and this in itself would be a victory for it, and a senior member of the American administration believes that this explicitly means that Sinwar is certain that he will win.

For the American mediators seeking to reach a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel, Sinwar’s belief that he is winning is not a helpful factor in the negotiations.

According to what Secretary of State Anthony Blinken told the families of American prisoners detained in Gaza, “the fate of the latest proposal depends on Sinwar.”

While the United States is putting pressure on those who have influence over Hamas to push it to accept the agreement, Blinken made it clear that the United States believes that Sinwar is the final decision-maker, according to Maariv.

The newspaper quoted Blinken as saying, “I do not think that anyone other than the Hamas leadership in Gaza is making the decisions.”

11 Israeli soldiers were injured in the Gaza Strip during the past 24 hours.

This was revealed by data published Thursday on the website of the Israeli army, which faces local accusations of concealing a much larger toll of its dead and wounded.

According to these data, the number of soldiers infected since the beginning of the war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, has reached 3,822, up from 3,811 yesterday, Wednesday.

Thus, 11 soldiers were injured during the past 24 hours.

Of the total, 1,938 soldiers have been injured since the beginning of the ground incursion into Gaza on October 27.

The army indicated that 26 soldiers in “serious condition” are still receiving treatment, in addition to 186 soldiers in “moderate condition,” and 29 in “minor condition.”

According to the same data, 650 soldiers have been killed since the beginning of the war, including 298 since the start of the ground incursion.

The Hebrew newspaper Maariv said on Thursday that the occupied north is literally burning, with Hezbollah launching dozens of missiles towards the occupation.

The newspaper added: "We are going through a very difficult day with an unprecedented Hezbollah attack and the north is literally burning."

Hezbollah launched 150 missiles and marches towards the north of the occupied territories, within 40 minutes, according to the “Roya” correspondent, causing massive fires to ignite in the north of the occupied Palestinian territories.

The occupation announced the suspension of classes in Safed, while more than 15 major fires were being dealt with after the last bombing.

Hebrew media said that a combined attack lasted half an hour, during which Hezbollah fired about 150 missiles, drones, and anti-armor missiles.

A senior Hezbollah official confirmed that the attack carried out today is the largest and most comprehensive since last October 8, and that the combined attack aims to deter Tel Aviv and respond to the assassination of military commander Talib Abdullah.

He said that the leadership of the northern region in the Golan, known as David's Base, the headquarters of the "Israeli" intelligence in the northern region responsible for assassinations in Lebanon, and the headquarters of the Seventh Regular Armored Brigade in the occupied Golan were attacked.

Earlier, a video clip published by an Israeli occupation forces soldier on the “X” website, before he later deleted it, showed the Israeli occupation army throwing fire shells from a primitive machine resembling a “catapult” towards Lebanese territory to ignite fires there.

For more than 6 months, the Israeli army has been launching “projectiles” that release incendiary materials on the Lebanese side, with the aim of burning the bushes and forests near the border strip in southern Lebanon.

The Hebrew Channel 12 said that Hezbollah members set up fortifications in those woods and planted explosive devices to prevent the advance of Israeli army forces if they entered Lebanon.

The channel added that the decision to use the catapult was born at the field level, due to the difficulty of activating the air force for missions of this type and of course due to the economic cost.

Today, Thursday, the Council of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) adopted a resolution unanimously and by consensus among member states, entitled “The situation in Gaza with regard to food security and related issues within the scope of the organization’s mandate.”

This came during the special session to discuss the situation and developments in the Gaza Strip, at the 175th session of the Council of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, held in the Italian capital, Rome, during the period between 10-14 June of this month.

The Ambassador of the State of Palestine to Italy, and the Permanent Representative of the State of Palestine to the United Nations organizations based in Rome, Abeer Odeh, welcomed the FAO’s adoption of the resolution on the necessity of addressing the catastrophic conditions in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and their impact on food security and related issues. The relationship is within the organization’s mandate, stressing that this decision comes in light of the continuation of the war of genocide against our people, which has targeted all basic life arteries, and stressing the necessity of joint and serious work to implement what is included in the decision as it is a basic right of our people.

The resolution included a call for the Council to continue evaluating the current situation in the Gaza Strip and its impact on the right to food and to continue providing technical assistance and agricultural inputs to the Gaza Strip. It stressed the necessity of joint action to address the health and food deterioration and its impact on food security in the Gaza Strip.

The resolution also stressed the need to continue preparations and support to ensure early recovery, reconstruction and rehabilitation in the Gaza Strip, and to support a coordinated role for senior humanitarian relief for the Gaza Strip by the United Nations when a ceasefire is achieved.

He also stressed the necessity of monitoring the situation in the Gaza Strip by the Food and Agriculture Organization and submitting periodic reports in this regard to member states.

The Council also expressed its great concern about the catastrophic situation in the Gaza Strip, and its significant consequences for civilians, especially women and children, and noted the seriousness of the estimates of the United Nations Satellite Center, which indicate that at least about 81 square kilometers of agricultural land have been destroyed. He stressed that the continuation of the war will increase the destruction of lands and agricultural facilities, exposing the entire population of the Gaza Strip, i.e. 2.2 million people, to food insecurity.

He also stressed that the restrictions imposed on the entry of humanitarian aid and the limited distribution of it deepen the risk of famine if the entry of aid continues in this way. Pointing to the urgent need to deliver the basic necessities of life - including but not limited to food, water and medicine - quickly and safely, he encouraged the establishment of humanitarian corridors for this purpose. He stressed the need to prevent the deportation of citizens from their homes.

Moreover, the decision included reference and concern about the increasing violence of the colonists against defenseless citizens, the seizure of agricultural lands, the harm to farms and vital stocks, the limitation of access to agricultural lands in the West Bank, and its impact on food security.

The proposal announced by US President Joe Biden on May 31 is largely shrouded in ambiguity, and he said at the time that it was an Israeli proposal, which it did not adopt in the form of a UN Security Council resolution on Monday, June 10, after 14 members of the Council voted in favor of the resolution, while Russia abstained from voting, despite a major American marketing campaign around the world that made it gain global support.

While the Hamas movement welcomed the Security Council's resolution and considered it positive and a basis for negotiation, it responded to it officially, offering some amendments. The Israeli position remains ambiguous, as the official Israeli comments did not show any signs of adopting the proposal, apart from the insistence of Israeli officials on going to war until... To achieve its goals of eliminating Palestinian resistance factions fighting Israel in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also publicly objected to aspects of the plan, raising questions about Israel's commitment to what the United States says is an Israeli proposal.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is on his eighth visit to the region since October 7, told reporters in Qatar on Wednesday that negotiations would continue, but he also said that Hamas had requested “numerous” changes, adding that “some changes are implementable; some are not.”

Blinken declined to provide further details, but recent statements by Israeli officials as well as from the Hamas movement indicate that the two sides still disagree on many of the same issues that the mediators have been trying to overcome for months.

The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas insists that it will not release the remaining hostages unless there is a permanent ceasefire and a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the entire Gaza Strip.

It is noteworthy that President Joe Biden's proposal, according to his speech from the White House on May 31, included the two points demanded by Hamas. .

Netanyahu insists that Israel remains committed to destroying the military capabilities and political control of Hamas in Gaza, and ensuring that it is never again able to carry out an attack similar to the October 7 attack, which Biden said in his proposal had been achieved.

Experts believe that the withdrawal of the Israeli occupation forces from Gaza, where Hamas's field command and a large portion of its forces and cadres remain intact, would almost certainly enable the movement to maintain political control over the Strip.

A number of experts say this is partly because Israel has not yet put forward a plan to govern Gaza after the war, and has rejected a US proposal that has broad regional support because it would require significant progress toward creating a Palestinian state.

It is noteworthy that Hamas spokesman Jihad Taha told Lebanese media on Wednesday that the “amendments” requested by the movement aim to ensure a permanent ceasefire and complete Israeli withdrawal.

Hamas also seeks the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, including political and military leaders. But it is unclear whether the parties have agreed on a list of names of people to be released, or whether they will be released in Gaza or the occupied West Bank or sent into exile.

The ceasefire plan calls for an initial six-week phase in which Hamas would release some hostages — including women, the elderly and the wounded — in exchange for an Israeli withdrawal from populated areas. Palestinian civilians will be able to return to their homes and humanitarian aid will be intensified.

But after that, things become more difficult, according to experts. The two sides are supposed to use this six-week period to negotiate an agreement on the second phase, which Biden said would include the release of all remaining living hostages, including male soldiers, and Israel’s complete withdrawal from Gaza. The temporary ceasefire will then become permanent, but only if the two sides agree on the details.

Hamas also appears to be concerned that Israel will resume the war once its most vulnerable hostages are returned. Even if that does not happen, Israel could make demands at that stage of the negotiations that were not part of the initial deal and are unacceptable to Hamas – and then resume the war when Hamas rejects them.

It is noteworthy that Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, said that Israel will demand in these negotiations the removal of Hamas from power. Erdan said on CNN on Monday: “We cannot agree to Hamas continuing to control Gaza, because Gaza will continue to pose a threat to Israel.”

Israel also appears concerned about the plan's provision that stipulates extending the initial ceasefire as long as negotiations for the second phase continue. Erdan said this would allow Hamas to “continue endless and meaningless negotiations.”

There are also other issues that may lead to the collapse of ceasefire efforts, starting with the complete lack of trust between Israel and Hamas, which have fought five wars since 2008, while Israel has imposed an absolute blockade on the Gaza Strip since 2005.

According to the Associated Press, “There is intense and contradictory pressure on Netanyahu, which may explain his conflicting signals regarding the proposal, and thousands of Israelis, including the families of the hostages, have been protesting in recent months to demand that the government return the prisoners to their homeland, even at the expense of an unbalanced deal.” With Hamas, but the far-right partners in Netanyahu's increasingly narrow coalition rejected the US-backed plan and threatened to bring down his government if he ended the war without destroying Hamas.

According to the statements of their officials (such as Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Minister Smotrich), the Israeli right wants to reoccupy Gaza, encourage “voluntary migration” of Palestinians from the Strip and rebuild Jewish settlements there. Netanyahu's ultra-nationalist allies have greater influence over him than at any time since the start of the war after Benny Gantz, a centrist political opposition figure, resigned last Sunday from Israel's war cabinet.

The United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry submitted a detailed report on the attack by Hamas fighters on Israel on October 7, and the war launched by Israel on Gaza since that time.

The report concludes that “both sides committed war crimes,” but concludes that there is no evidence to support the claim that Hamas engaged in mass rapes during its rampage in southern Israel. The International Commission of Inquiry found evidence of Israel's deliberate killing of civilians and the involvement of Israeli forces in acts of sexual torture.

The report's analysis of the events of October 7 concluded that Hamas deliberately targeted twenty civilian targets, leading to the deaths of hundreds. The International Commission of Inquiry found evidence that members of Hamas committed sexual assaults on Israelis, as the bodies of some women were found naked.

However, the report debunks the widespread claim repeated by senior Israeli and American officials that, on many occasions, Hamas engaged in mass rape during its offensive. The report says: “The committee reviewed testimonies obtained by journalists and Israeli police regarding rape, but was unable to independently verify these allegations.” “In addition, the Commission found that certain specific allegations were false, inaccurate, or inconsistent with other evidence or data and excluded them from its evaluation.”

While the assertion that Hamas was involved in the October 7 mass rapes has been widely discussed in the US media, Palestinian accusations that Israeli forces have systematically engaged in horrific acts of sexual violence have gone largely unreported.

The international commission of inquiry found evidence to support Palestinian allegations that Israel engaged in systematic torture and sexual humiliation. “Based on verified testimonies, videos and photographs, the commission found that sexual violence was committed throughout the [Israeli forced] evictions.” The report continues, “Palestinians were forced to watch members of their family and community strip naked in public and walk completely or partially naked while being subjected to sexual harassment.”

The International Commission of Inquiry stated that the occupation forces practiced sexual torture on males. “Soldiers repeatedly photographed and filmed males while they were subjected to forced nudity, stripping, sexual torture, and inhuman or cruel treatment,” the report concluded.

The International Commission of Inquiry concluded that Israeli forces were authorized or permitted to participate in the sexual assault. “The Commission concludes that forced stripping, nudity and other types of abuse by members of the Israeli military were either ordered or condoned.” She adds: "These actions were aimed at humiliating and degrading the victims and the Palestinian community as a whole by perpetuating gender stereotypes that create a feeling of shame, subordination, weakness and inferiority."

In addition, the Commission found evidence that Israeli forces were given the authority to target civilians. The report’s authors conclude that “given information indicating relatively low numbers of Hamas fighters compared to the broader civilian population, and given Israel’s repeated assertion that militants are ‘integrated’ into the civilian population,” the statements indicate that the Israeli government “grant[ed] Israeli Security] issued a comprehensive permit to target civilian sites on a large and indiscriminate scale in the Gaza Strip.”

The investigating committee recommends an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, something the White House has resisted for the past eight months. Last month, President Joe Biden unveiled a ceasefire proposal that he claimed originated in Tel Aviv. However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continued to reject the idea of a permanent end to the conflict.

The United States has significant influence over Israel and could make future aid to Tel Aviv conditional on Netanyahu ending the attack. However, Biden refused to place any meaningful restrictions on arms shipments to Tel Aviv.

The Gaza Ministry of Health reported today, Thursday, that the Israeli occupation committed 3 massacres against families in the Gaza Strip, including 30 deaths and 105 injuries to hospitals during the past 24 hours.

The Ministry indicated that the toll of the Israeli aggression rose to 37,232 deadand 85,037 injuries since the seventh of last October.

In developments: An occupation drone bombed a gathering of citizens on Al-Rashid Street near the Gaza port, which led to the death of a citizen and the injury of others.

Explosions and heavy gunfire were heard from occupation tanks in the western area of the city of Rafah, coinciding with Apache warplanes and occupation boats firing at the same area, which led to the blowing up of entire residential buildings.

Medical teams recovered the bodies of 3 dead and a number of wounded, most of them children, as a result of targeting a house for the Al-Louh family in the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip.

The Israeli occupation artillery fired shells at citizens' homes northwest of the Nuseirat camp and the Al-Mughraqa area in the central Gaza Strip.

Quadcopter military drones fired on citizens' homes in the Al-Shuja'iya and Al-Zaytoun neighborhoods in Gaza City.

Israeli occupation vehicles stationed in the "Netzarim" axis fired rockets on the neighborhoods of Al-Zaytoun, Al-Sabra, Tal Al-Hawa, and Sheikh Ejlin in Gaza City, coinciding with the shooting.

The occupation army's vehicles continue their incursion into the southeastern outskirts of the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood in Gaza City, coinciding with missile and artillery shelling in the area.

The far-right Israeli Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, ordered the deduction of 35 million US dollars from the Palestinian Authority’s tax funds (clearance), and transferring them to Israeli families who claim that members of them were killed in attacks carried out by Palestinians.

The newspaper "Israel Today" reported that Smotrich instructed the deduction of 130 million shekels (35 million US dollars) from Palestinian tax funds (clearance), and transferring it to 28 Israeli families who claim that members of them were killed in attacks carried out by Palestinians.

Smotrich said, "The Palestinian Authority encourages terrorism and pays money to the families of terrorists, prisoners, and freed Palestinian prisoners," stressing that Israel has deducted the same amounts paid by the Palestinian Authority from its funds, and will transfer them to the families of "victims of terrorism."

The newspaper added that through this decision, Smotrich allows the retroactive application of dozens of legal provisions that have remained inactive for many years, some of them for 20 years.

She indicated that some amounts amount to millions and will be transferred to each family in the coming days.

The newspaper considered that Smotrich's decision was motivated by the Palestinian Authority's refusal to pay compensation to the families (whose members were allegedly killed) even though the courts in Israel ordered it to do so.

It quoted the Israeli Ministry of Finance as saying that Smotrich's decision opens a "green path" to confiscate the Palestinian Authority's funds, which may lead to a wave of new lawsuits against it.

This decision is the latest in a series of decisions taken by Smotrich in the past months, which plunged the Palestinian Authority into a stifling financial crisis.

The Palestinian Authority did not immediately comment on the decision, but it usually describes Israeli measures as “piracy.”

Warnings of collapse

On May 23, the World Bank warned that the public financial situation of the Palestinian Authority had deteriorated sharply in the past three months, which greatly increases the risk of a collapse in public finances.

Clearance funds are the taxes paid by Palestinians on goods imported from Israel or through Israeli border crossings, with a monthly average of $220 million.

The Palestinian government mainly uses clearing funds to pay the salaries of public employees, and they constitute 65% of the total financial revenues of the Palestinian Authority.

The Israeli Ministry of Agriculture funds random settlement outposts set up as farms in the occupied West Bank.

Although all settlement in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are not legal under international law, Israel describes only the random settlement outposts as illegal, because they were not established according to a government decision, but with government encouragement and support.

The newspaper "Haaretz" reported today, Thursday, that the settlement outposts, which were funded by the Ministry of Agriculture, were established by settlers who carried out terrorist attacks against the Palestinians, including Neria Ben Bazi, to whom the Ministry transferred an amount of 12 thousand shekels, after the Israeli army issued a deportation order against him from the West Bank, in Last January, the United States imposed sanctions on him in March.

The newspaper added that the Ministry of Agriculture, headed by Minister Avi Dichter from the Likud Party, decided to allocate funding for two random settlement outposts established by settlers Zvi Bar-Yosef and Moshe Sharvit, who were also subjected to US sanctions in March, following their participation in terrorist attacks against the Palestinians.

In 2022, the Ministry of Agriculture approved funding for Bar Youssef in the amount of 52 thousand shekels, and 6 thousand shekels for Sharfit, last year. Britain imposed sanctions on these two terrorists last February.

It appears from the data of the “Peace Now” movement that during the past six years, the Ministry of Agriculture transferred an amount of 1.66 million shekels to random settlement outposts in the West Bank, in addition to decisions to transfer about 1.5 million shekels that have not yet been paid.

The Ministry of Agriculture claims that it funds these settlement outposts in order to encourage livestock grazing. These terrorist settlers are paid 1,000 shekels for each cow, in a herd of no less than 50 cows. The Ministry funds 55 shekels for one lamb or goat in a herd of at least 100 lambs or goats.

In addition to funding these settlement outposts, the occupying state granted an area of more than 8,500 dunams to six random settlement outposts “for the purpose of grazing livestock and agriculture,” noting that these settlement outposts are illegal under Israeli law.

The Ministry of Agriculture also supports settlement associations that provide volunteers to work in settlement outposts. These associations are Hashomer Yosh, Kedma, and the Preparatory Military College in the Beit Yatir settlement in the south of Mount Hebron.

Sources in the “Slan Now” movement say, “Settler violence is not a mistake, but rather an advantage. The dozens of agricultural settlement outposts that lead to the theft of hundreds of thousands of dunams owned by Palestinians in the West Bank are not a marginal phenomenon practiced by (the terrorist organization) the Hilltop Youth, but rather Part of a planned and financed system supported by official government agencies.”

Ben Bazi and a group of settlers seized the lands of the Palestinian village of Wadi Al-Sik, harassed its residents and displaced them from their lands, last October. In the same month, these settlers, supported by Israeli soldiers, attacked landowners in this area and attacked Israeli peace activists.

Last July, settlers in the settlement outpost established by Bar Youssef carried out terrorist attacks against Palestinians in the villages of Jibiyeh and Kober. The occupation authorities conducted one investigation with Bar Youssef, then closed the file against him.

Settlers, led by Sharfit, attacked the village of Ain Shibli in the Jordan Valley, in October, and the residents of the Palestinian village had fled their homes due to settlers’ terrorism against them in the wake of the current war on Gaza.

Today, Thursday, Israeli occupation forces demolished a house in the Badia area of Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron.

According to local sources, these forces stormed the “Umm Qissa” area in the Bedouin desert, and demolished with bulldozers a house belonging to the citizen Nayef Ali Al-Atimin, with an area of 160 square meters and housing a large number of individuals.

These forces also seized a number of citizens' vehicles.

While the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip, the southern flank of the homeland, continues amid massacres committed daily against innocent civilians for no fault of their own, except that they are victims of the genocidal war waged by Israel, it seems that attention is gradually turning to the northern front as well, whose level of temperature and tension has risen to the highest degree. After Israel assassinated the commander of the Nasr unit, Talib Sami Abdullah, who was the most senior commander to be assassinated since the beginning of the war, the targeting operation came during a meeting of Hezbollah leaders.

Hours ago yesterday morning, Hezbollah began a major escalation campaign to respond to this operation and others, and it included bombing the entity’s settlements with missiles and launching drones, which led to the outbreak of a number of fires, and in most of the settlers’ schools, classes were not held regularly.

The settlements in the north are almost empty of their settlers, who have fled to every place in the occupied entity, except the north, in the largest flight campaign since 1967, which prompted the settlers to exert campaigns of pressure on the government, to provide protection and security and return them to their homes, to no avail.

Yesterday, with the increasing level of pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which began since the outbreak of the aggression against Gaza, he held a meeting that Israeli sources described as assessing the situation of the northern front and Hamas’ response to the American proposals paper. It seems that Netanyahu is unable, until this moment, to make a decision to launch a war. On southern Lebanon and Gaza at the same time, which is a matter that worries Netanyahu, who was subjected to sharp criticism yesterday from extremist minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who said that Netanyahu excluded him from the security consultation in order to continue hiding behind Eizenkot and Gantz, despite the fall of hundreds of rockets.

Israel is under great pressure and in a very difficult situation, and despite its leaders’ constant statements that the situation is fine, the results on the ground are completely opposite. It realizes that its skirmishes with Hezbollah may impose on it a very violent confrontation in the north, which has made it seek help from the United States to save it from the situation. A major dilemma that has brought a larger number of settlers into the line of fire, which may expand at any moment depending on the decision that Hezbollah will take, especially with regard to today’s response, which the party threatens to be harsh and violent.

Israel is the first and last responsible for igniting the fuse of the southern Lebanon front, which may develop into a more powerful battle, in connection with what is happening in the southern aggression that Israel is waging relentlessly against the Palestinians.

Hundreds of Israelis demonstrated in Tel Aviv and closed the street opposite the Ministry of Defense headquarters, demanding that the government conclude an immediate prisoner exchange deal.

Meanwhile, the Association of Families of Israeli Prisoners Detained in Gaza said that Hamas’ response is an integral part of the negotiation process, and this is another step to passing the deal.

The demonstrators raised banners holding Benjamin Netanyahu's government responsible for the fate of the detained prisoners.

The city of Raanana (north of Tel Aviv) also witnessed a similar demonstration to pressure decision-makers to send the security negotiating team to fill the gaps in the negotiation process.

The Prisoners' Families Association expressed its support for US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken's position on the possibility of bridging the gaps between Israel and Hamas regarding the deal proposal.

In this context, Israeli Channel 12 said, quoting one of the officials, that there is still a chance for an agreement regarding the detainees, indicating that the matter depends largely on the American side, as he said.

The fastest way

Earlier, the US Secretary of State confirmed that the current deal proposal represents the fastest and most effective way to reach a sustainable ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

Blinken explained - in an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera - that President Joe Biden presented the features of his proposal 12 days ago, and it received support from the United Nations, the League of Arab States, and all countries in the region, including Israel and the Palestinian Authority, but the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) was late in submitting its response, “which "It came last night through mediators, and it was not with the approval expressed by the other parties."

The American minister said that Hamas is seeking to amend some of the provisions “that it had previously accepted,” indicating that some of them are applicable, and others are not, and this is what the mediators are currently considering, with everyone awaiting Hamas’ decision.

Blinken refrained from going into the details of the proposal, but he stressed that it is very similar to the proposal that Hamas agreed to on May 6, and he sees no reason why it should not accept it now.

However, he said that the most important provisions of the proposal are an immediate ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from residential areas in Gaza, and an increase in humanitarian aid to the Strip.

Some provisions also stipulate the return of Palestinians in Gaza to their homes, and the commitment of both parties to negotiate within the first six weeks to reach a permanent ceasefire, considering that this is the fastest and most effective path to achieving a sustainable calm between the two sides.

The US Secretary of State added that everything changed during the 12 days it took for Hamas to respond, as the suffering of the Palestinians increased day after day, stressing the necessity of a ceasefire now.

Regarding his talks with the Israeli Prime Minister, he said that it was reaffirmed that Israel accepts the proposal at the negotiating table.

Blinken stressed that his country, Qatar and Egypt's support for the proposal represents the best guarantee to reassure both parties, in addition to the support of the entire international community for this agreement in a rare precedent that reflects the world's insistence on ending the war.

Hamas responded

For its part, the Hamas movement said that it showed the positivity required to reach a comprehensive and satisfactory agreement based on the just demands of the Palestinian people, directing sharp criticism at the Biden administration and his foreign minister.

Hamas confirmed in a statement that while the US Secretary of State continues to talk about Israel’s approval of President Biden’s proposal, no Israeli official has been heard talking about this approval.

It pointed out that the world did not hear any welcome or approval from Israel to the Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire.

Hamas pointed out that Blinken’s positions, which “try to exonerate the occupation, are a continuation of the American policy of complicity in the brutal war of extermination,” and called on the American minister and the Biden administration to put pressure on the occupation government, “which is determined to complete the mission of killing and extermination.”

A young man was shot by Israeli occupation forces, at dawn on Thursday, and others were arrested in various areas in the West Bank.

In Nablus, the occupation forces arrested the young man, Maymana Abdel Hamid Dawabsha, after they raided his house and searched him in the town of Duma.

In Jenin, the occupation forces stormed the Jabriyat neighborhood, leading to clashes, during which a young man was shot and ambulance crews were prevented from reaching him.

The occupation forces attacked medical teams and ambulances, and carried out extensive bulldozing of infrastructure and citizens’ property on Nazareth and Haifa Streets, and in the vicinity of the Agency School in the camp, and the Jabriyat and Al-Zahra neighborhoods, and the Al-Jalbouni roundabout, and Wadi Burqin, which led to a power outage in several neighborhoods. It destroyed the monument of martyrs, and raided the Turkish mosque in Jabriyat.

The occupation forces bombed a motorcycle in the Jabriyat neighborhood, detained the two young men, Amir Ataba and Ayman Azoufa, in Jabal Abu Dhayr, and arrested the citizen, Ibtisam Saleh Turkman, to pressure her son, Mustafa Turkman, to surrender himself to the occupation.

The occupation forces also stormed the town of Ya'bad, and arrested the young man, Saddam Abu Armila.

In Salfit, the occupation forces arrested the young man, Osama Kamal Zahran, 22 years old, in front of the Haret Al-Nafoukh Mosque in the town of Kafr Al-Dik.

-The number of infections exceeds the capacity of hospitals to absorb them and provide appropriate treatment for them.

-We receive daily large numbers of wounded people with critical injuries who need to receive treatment abroad

Hospitals are suffering from a severe shortage of medicines and medical supplies, and the medicines that are running out cannot be replaced

The threat of running out of fuel and oxygen threatens the lives of respiratory patients and the death of 32 children due to malnutrition

The director of field hospitals in the Gaza Strip, Dr. Marwan Al-Hams, warned that death threatens the lives of thousands of patients and wounded, as the number of infections exceeds the hospitals’ ability to absorb them and provide appropriate treatment for them.

Al-Hams said in an interview with Al-Quds.com, “We receive daily large numbers of wounded people with critical injuries and in need of treatment abroad, while hospitals suffer from a severe shortage of medicines and medical supplies, and the medicines that run out cannot be replaced, while the exhaustion of fuel and oxygen threatens to run out.” The lives of respiratory patients, noting the death of 32 children due to malnutrition.”

During the past 24 hours, the occupation army committed 3 massacres in Gaza, resulting in 38 dead and 100 injuries, bringing the death toll to 37,202 and the wounded to 84,932 since October 7, 2023. This comes at a time when Israeli aircraft continued to launch raids on the Al-Shuja’iya neighborhood and the Al-Nasr neighborhood. , Gaza City and Rafah. Israeli army vehicles made a limited incursion into the east of the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, coinciding with clashes with the resistance, heavy fire from military vehicles, and artillery shelling targeting Al-Bureij Camp and the north of Al-Nuseirat Camp, while the Ministry of Health in Gaza warned that hospitals and health centers and the only station in the Gaza Governorate that supplies Health facilities and chronic patients with oxygen, due to the occupation’s control over the crossings and the failure to bring in diesel fuel to operate the generator feeding the oxygen station and the refrigerators for storing medicines, while the World Health Organization documented 32 deaths in Gaza as a result of malnutrition, including 28 cases of children under the age of five.

In detail, the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip has entered its 250th day, leaving dozens of dead and wounded, and widespread destruction in citizens’ homes, economic facilities, and infrastructure.

Israeli raids targeting various areas of the Gaza Strip yesterday resulted in the death of about 25 citizens, and this coincided with clashes in the Shaboura camp following incursions by the occupation army into the area.

Local sources said that 5 citizens were martyred and others were injured in an Israeli bombing on the town of Al-Mughraqa in the central Gaza Strip.

The Red Crescent announced the death of 6 citizens when the occupation aircraft bombed a house for the Azzam family near Al-Abrar Mosque in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City.

Israeli artillery bombed large areas in the center and west of Rafah: Al-Shaboura Camp, the Al-Balad area, the vicinity of Zoroub Roundabout, and Tal Zoroub, resulting in the death and injury of a number of citizens, including children and women.

Yesterday at dawn, 7 citizens were killed and a number were wounded in an Israeli missile strike that targeted a house for the Al-Fayoumi family in the Al-Shujaiya neighborhood, east of Gaza City. They arrived at Al-Baptist Hospital in the city.

A child was killed and a number of citizens were injured in an Israeli bombing that targeted a house in the Al-Nasr neighborhood, north of the city of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. It reached Nasser Hospital in the neighboring city of Khan Yunis.

Air strikes from an Israeli warplane targeted the center of Gaza City, while artillery shelling targeted the vicinity of the new camp, north of Nuseirat, southeast of the Maghazi camp in the central Gaza Strip, and the eastern areas of the city of Khan Yunis, south of the Strip.

The occupation army's artillery also bombed the surroundings of Khirbet Al-Adas, Al-Shaboura Camp, Yabna Camp, and the Tal Al-Sultan neighborhood in the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip.

Eyewitnesses reported that the occupation forces blew up a residential square in the Shaboura camp in the center of Rafah. They added that the occupation forces re-entered the camp, amid artillery shelling and air strikes.

They pointed out that there were clashes between the resistance and the occupation forces penetrating the camp and other areas south of the Gaza Strip.
The Al-Quds Brigades - the military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement - said that it targeted gatherings of occupation forces penetrating the Shaboura camp with 60-caliber mortar shells.

The Israeli army said that the forces of the 162nd Division continue to fight in Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip.

On the other hand, the Ministry of Health in Gaza warned of the cessation of hospitals, health centers and the only station in Gaza Governorate that supplies health facilities and chronic patients with oxygen, due to the occupation’s control over the crossings and the failure to bring in diesel to operate the generator feeding the oxygen station and the refrigerators for storing medicines.

The Ministry of Health said that the lives of dozens of sick and wounded people are at risk of inevitable death, in addition to the exposure of medicines in refrigerators to damage, and it appealed to all concerned, international and humanitarian institutions to quickly intervene to bring in fuel, electric generators and spare parts needed for maintenance.

For its part, Doctors Without Borders confirmed that more than 800 martyrs and about 2,400 wounded were recorded as a result of intensive bombing and ground attacks by Israeli forces in Gaza since the beginning of this June.

- International institutions must break their silence, express their positions, and take practical steps to hold the perpetrators accountable

- Murder, rape, forced injections with unknown substances, and hellish methods of torturing detainees

- Shooting detainees after their release and forcing them to run hundreds of meters under a hail of bullets

- The use of dogs, electric shocks, beatings and insults in Ashkelon prison

- Samir Morgan: I was 4 minutes late in the bathroom and was electrocuted
Omar Al-Aklouk, one of the detainees, died after being subjected to severe torture

A mute detainee was beaten and tortured because he did not answer the investigators’ questions

New testimonies from prisoners released from Israeli prisons and detention centers confirm the continued systematic commission of crimes of violent torture and inhuman treatment against thousands of Palestinian civilians who have been arrested as part of the crime of genocide in the Gaza Strip since last October 7.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Observatory, which revealed the testimonies in a statement on Wednesday, called on international justice institutions and the international community to break the cycle of silence, express strict positions and take serious steps regarding the unfolding brutal torture based on discrimination, collective revenge and dehumanization to which Palestinian civilians are subjected. , which amounted to murder, rape, and other forms of sexual violence, and forced injections with unknown substances, leaving scars and distinct marks on their bodies, stressing the need to oblige Israel to end all its crimes against Palestinian prisoners and detainees, including the crimes of torture, inhuman treatment, and enforced disappearance that it practices against Palestinians. Thousands of them.

Release to northern Gaza
The Euro-Med Monitor noted that it followed the occupation’s release of dozens of detainees on Tuesday, June 11, from the Zikim area in the northern Gaza Strip. During the moment of their release, the occupation army opened fire on them and forced them to walk and jog hundreds of meters until they could reach populated areas. They arrived in a deplorable state as a result of fatigue, which worsened the health condition they were already suffering from as a result of their exposure to torture and violence throughout the period of detention. 33 of them arrived at “Kamal Adwan” Hospital in Beit Lahia, north of the Gaza Strip, to receive treatment.

Unidentified injections and electric shocks
In his testimony to the Euro-Med team, the freed prisoner, Samir Abdullah Jamal Murjan (23 years old), confirmed that he was subjected to severe beatings, electric shocks, insults, and an attempt to inject him with unknown substances. He said: “The Israeli army arrested me on March 11, 2024, from the Nabulsi checkpoint, southwest of Gaza, while I was trying to flee.” To the south, they transferred me to a detention center opposite Rafah for two months, then I was transferred to Ashkelon prison, and I spent two months there in Mardwan. I and the other prisoners lived through difficult days.

He added: Every day we were brutally tortured, including beatings and insults, in addition to using dogs to attack and intimidate us, and using electricity to torture us. In Ashkelon Prison, the situation was worse. I was in a solitary cell and spent 12 days without food. During the interrogation, they used electric shocks to obtain confessions and asked us about Hamas and the tunnels. When I said I did not know because I am a civilian and had no knowledge of other matters, I would be beaten. The interrogation was accompanied by attacks and brutal torture, and we were subjected to interrogation every 10 days.

He confirmed that he witnessed in prison the suffering of others whose health condition deteriorated and worsened, and they even contracted diseases there without medical attention, in addition to the army giving some prisoners unknown injections.

He said: I refused to be injected with it, and because of that, I was beaten and tortured with electricity. Torture continued throughout the detention period. Yesterday, because I was late in the bathroom, one of the officers came and electrocuted me, and the effects of that are still present in my body. Even the bathroom is calculated at a specific time, so if you are late for more than 4 minutes, you will be exposed to electricity. I was surprised when they told me that I would be released, and I could not sleep from joy. Then they took us and dropped us off at Zikim and opened fire around us.”

Martyrdom of a prisoner
In another testimony by Amr Abdel Fattah Al-Aklouk to the Euro-Med field team, a resident of the Gaza Strip, who was receiving treatment in Jerusalem and was arrested by the occupation army three times since the outbreak of the attack on the Gaza Strip, most recently on June 5, he confirmed the martyrdom of another detainee under torture by the Israeli occupation forces. He reported: “About 5 days ago, I encountered a detainee named “Muhammad Al-Kahlot,” a resident of Al-Faluga, north of Gaza. He told me to contact his family if I got out and tell them that he was fine. He was in the room opposite us, and I was talking to him from the grill and I did not know that I was going out. The next day of our conversation, he died as a result of being tortured, and the army put his body in a plastic death bag and took him to a place I don’t know where.

He confirmed that during my detention, there was a group of detainees from the Gaza Strip, and they classified them as security prisoners who were being oppressed throughout the day and beaten brutally and randomly, affecting all parts of the body until their blood flowed. Muhammad was killed under the torture to which he was subjected at different times throughout the day.

Non-human blessings
In another testimony, the elderly man, S.A. (65 years old), narrated to the Euro-Med team details of his arrest from his home in Jabalia camp, his exposure to torture, enforced disappearance, and detention in inhuman barracks, and the torture he witnessed of a mute young man.

He said: “The Israeli army entered Jabalia Camp last May. We chose to stay in the house located in the Al-Qasaib neighborhood, behind the Jabalia Camp Agency clinic. The vehicles advanced to the area where we live, and the army entered the house we were in. They took us all out, and took me and two others.” Of my brothers’ children, after the rest were deported to the western regions. This was on May 21, 2024, when they took us to an unknown destination. From the first moment we were blindfolded and did not know where to go or what was happening around us.

He added: During the period of our detention, which lasted approximately 20 days, it felt like 20 years. Every day had a story of torture, beatings, and humiliation. When bedtime came, the knocking on doors began and the sounds of loudspeakers played disturbing music.

Food is scarce, and a person can barely get a loaf of bread and a little cheese. Going to the bathroom is difficult, and the treatment is humiliating. They did not take into consideration that I was 65 years old, and I was not the oldest person there. There was someone over 70 years old. We were in a place that looked like a “barracks.” No one knew where we were. There were many people arriving at this place that looked like a detention center, and the occupation army was working to deport many of them to places that no one knew.

He continued: There was a person among us who did not speak (mute). They continued to beat and torture him for several days. They wanted him to answer their questions even though he did not speak. Handcuffs on our hands From the first moment of arrest, even when we ate and went to the bathroom, our hands were shackled. They informed us on Monday evening, June 10, 2024, that they would release us, and one of the jailers threatened me: “Do not complain anything to the press, otherwise we will come to you again.”

Torture approach
According to Euro-Med, the testimonies of released Palestinian detainees confirm that the Israeli forces are continuing with the approach of severe torture and retaliation against Palestinian detainees despite their awareness that they are civilians.

The Euro-Med Monitor believes that the continuation of this torture is a natural result of the isolation of the Palestinian people from Israel, along with the silence of the international community, including the relevant bodies in the United Nations.

Euro-Med highlighted what was indicated in the report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry concerned with the occupied Palestinian territory, including occupied Jerusalem, and Israel, regarding the crimes of torture, inhuman treatment, and sexual violence that Palestinians from the Gaza Strip in general, and Palestinian detainees in particular, are exposed to. Being forced to strip in public, including while blinded, tied to a chair while kneeling or with their hands tied behind their backs, interrogated and/or subjected to physical and psychological abuse while naked, and forced to perform humiliating acts while naked, such as dancing without clothes while being photographed.

Murder and rape
He stated that the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, ignored the serious crimes committed by the Israeli security and military forces against Palestinian prisoners and detainees in the Palestinian territories in general, including crimes of unlawful confinement, premeditated murder, torture, rape, inhuman treatment, enforced disappearance, and intentionally causing severe suffering through Deprivation of necessary medical care, and denial of a fair trial, especially with the presence of many reliable international reports supported by evidence issued by human rights and media institutions that confirm, based on the investigations they conducted, that torture and violence were committed against them on a widespread and systematic basis, including murders. And torture, as there were Israeli reports of the killing of 36 detainees from the Gaza Strip within 8 months, in addition to hundreds of horrifying testimonies provided by those released. Dozens of complaints were also received about sexual violence, including nudity, verbal and sensual harassment, while international and press reports covered at least 7 cases of rape against Palestinian women and men detained inside Israeli prisons and detention centers.

Claims
Euro-Med renewed its call to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to continue investigating all crimes committed by Israel against Palestinian prisoners and detainees, expand the scope of investigation into individual criminal responsibility for these crimes to include all those responsible for them, and expedite the issuance of arrest warrants against all of them.

Euro-Med also called on the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the issue of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment to carry out the true role assigned to her in accordance with her mandate and to adhere to the rules of integrity and independence of her work, including carrying out immediate investigations and conducting country visits to find out the facts about what is being done to him. Male and female detainees are subject to grave violations and serious crimes, and submit reports about them, instead of leaving matters to the discretion of the Israeli authorities, in order to pave the way for the work of investigation and fact-finding committees and international courts in examining, investigating, and conducting trials regarding crimes committed by the Israeli army against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Euro-Med called on the international community to put pressure on the Israeli authorities to release all Palestinian detainees who were arbitrarily arrested, and if they are brought to trial, to guarantee all fair trial procedures, and to return the remains of Palestinian prisoners and detainees who were killed in Israeli prisons and detention centers.

Euro-Med also renewed its demand to pressure Israel to immediately stop committing the crime of enforced disappearance against Palestinian prisoners and detainees from the Gaza Strip, immediately reveal all secret detention camps, disclose the names of all Palestinians it detains from the Gaza Strip, their fate and places of detention, and to bear its full responsibilities towards Their lives and safety.

The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will conduct an assessment of the security situation later on Wednesday evening, to discuss developments on the northern front with Lebanon, and the Hamas movement’s response to the proposed prisoner exchange deal.

The official authority quoted Netanyahu's office as saying, "The Prime Minister will this evening conduct an assessment of the security situation in light of developments in the north," and what he claimed was "Hamas' negative response to the deal to release the kidnapped (prisoners)."

According to the organization's political correspondent, Gilly Cohen, Netanyahu, during the assessment of the security situation, will discuss with the leaders of the military and security services the escalation on the northern front in the wake of the launching of rocket salvoes from Lebanon, which is the "largest" on a daily basis since the start of the war.

Earlier on Wednesday evening, Israeli Army Radio said that Hezbollah had launched 215 missiles and drones towards the north of the country since this morning, in response to the assassination of its prominent leader, Talib Sami Abdullah, in an air strike on the town of Joya, south of Lebanon, on Tuesday evening.

Before today, March 12 witnessed the largest number of missiles launched from Lebanon towards Israel in one day, which amounted to 100 missiles at that time, in response to targeting Lebanese areas, most notably the city of Baalbek (east).

Today, Hezbollah missiles caused the outbreak of many fires in northern Israel, some of which posed a “threat to strategic facilities,” according to the private Hebrew newspaper Haaretz.

The broadcaster added that Netanyahu will also discuss, during the assessment of the security situation, what it claimed was the Hamas movement's "negative response" to the Israeli proposal for a prisoner exchange deal, which was recently revealed by US President Joe Biden.

On Tuesday evening, the broadcasting organization quoted an unnamed Israeli official as saying that Hamas “rejected” the broad outlines of the current proposal regarding reaching a truce in the Gaza Strip and a prisoner exchange deal.

But US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in press statements on Wednesday that the amendments made by the Hamas movement to the proposed agreement with Israel regarding a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip are “minor and expected,” without mentioning what these amendments are.

When the movement delivered its response to Qatar on Tuesday, a delegation from Hamas and Islamic Jihad expressed its “readiness to deal positively to reach an agreement that ends this war against our people, based on a sense of national responsibility.”

According to a statement by the two movements, “The response gives priority to the interest of our Palestinian people, and the necessity of completely stopping the ongoing aggression against Gaza, and withdrawing from the entire Gaza Strip.”

The proposal announced by Biden includes three phases of a ceasefire, and ultimately stipulates a permanent cessation of hostilities and the release of Israeli detainees in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

Dozens of citizens suffocated after the Israeli occupation forces stormed, on Wednesday evening, the town of Beita, south of Nablus.

According to local sources, the occupation forces stormed the town of Beita amid intense firing of live bullets, stun grenades and poisonous gas towards citizens and their homes, which led to the outbreak of confrontations and the suffocation of dozens of citizens.

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday that the administration of US President Joe Biden remains committed to removing Hamas from power in Gaza, a goal he said Washington aims to achieve through a ceasefire agreement and a new political arrangement in Gaza.

In response to a question at the global forum of the American Jewish Committee, one of the most important and largest Israeli lobbies in Washington, DC, whether the administration is still seeking to completely remove Hamas from power, Sullivan answered in the affirmative. Sullivan continued: “President Joe Biden explicitly said that the way forward is Gaza, where Hamas is no longer in power,” according to what the Jewish Telegraph newspaper published.

The organizations had protested that the administration's views on this matter seemed confused and somewhat hazy after Biden announced that Israel had already largely achieved its goals by weakening Hamas' ability to launch another attack similar to the attack that occurred on October 7, Without fully addressing the future of Hamas in Gaza.

Sullivan said that by working through the three phases of Biden's ceasefire agreement, "we could end up with an interim security institution and an interim governance institution that could lead to a Gaza that is no longer a platform for terrorism."

It is noteworthy that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that Israel will not agree to a permanent ceasefire before “destroying Hamas’ military and governance capabilities... and ensuring that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel.”

Sullivan also noted that a ceasefire agreement in Gaza could lead to "calm in Lebanon" and a "diplomatic arrangement" that would allow tens of thousands of Israelis evacuated from their homes in the northern part of the country to return home.

According to Sullivan, the US National Security Advisor also said that Arab countries could be prepared to play an “important role in stabilizing and rebuilding” Gaza and “start on the path” to normalization with Israel.

“That work could begin in the days after that deal,” Sullivan said.

But Sullivan did not speculate on the chances of Israeli-Saudi normalization before the November 5 elections - which many in Washington described as a decisive window - but he said that the administration “will go down this path as quickly as possible” on a bipartisan basis, according to the newspaper.

In response to the administration's increasing criticism of and disengagement with Israel, Sullivan insisted that "anyone who thinks he is going to drive a wedge between the president and Israel on the fundamental issue of Israel's security is mistaken," insisting that the differences were over "tactical" and "operational" issues that the United States believes It is in Israel's interest.

He stressed that the administration had not taken any action in the UN Security Council that would “contrary to our policy” or that would “create any challenges for Israel to continue doing what it felt it needed to do to defeat Hamas.”

Sullivan said that the administration will not "back down...one inch" from its position in support of Israel's efforts to combat Hamas, rescue hostages, and kill terrorist leaders, "but we will also speak out when we have concerns," noting that "Israel" and Israeli leaders have no problem speaking out. "We speak out about the United States when they have concerns about things we do."

In response to a question about Israeli doubts about the two-state solution in the wake of October 7, Sullivan said that the United States is working to address those concerns, but he also described the American push for the two-state solution as preceding the October 7 attack and coming within “the vision of normalization and integration for this region.” .

He stressed that regional integration would be a major opportunity to confront the primary regional threat posed by Iran, but it depended on "Israel's ability to work on a negotiated basis... over time towards the establishment of a Palestinian state."

Sullivan said, "The Palestinian state cannot be recognized or imposed unilaterally, and must include conditions to ensure Israel's security," according to the newspaper.

He also stressed that the administration is “ready to take a full range of measures,” including military action, “to respond to Iranian aggression in every theater.”

Sullivan's appearance before the American Jewish Committee got off to a dramatic start, as anti-Israel protesters stormed the stage and attempted to take over the stage.

The University of Minnesota has temporarily suspended the appointment of a professor who wrote that "Israel's military operation against Hamas in Gaza after October 7 is a systematic case of genocide" from heading the university's Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies (CHGS), Jewish Insider has learned. .

The suspension, which the university has not yet publicly announced, came Monday evening (June 10) after two members of the center's advisory board resigned in protest on Friday.

“The attack on Gaza can also be understood in other terms: as a case of genocide,” Raz Segal, an Israeli associate professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Stockton University in New Jersey, wrote in Jewish Currents, a liberal American Jewish magazine, on October 13, 2023. A collective unfolding before our eyes.” He added, "I say this as a genocide researcher who has spent many years writing about Israeli mass violence against Palestinians."

According to a University of Minnesota spokesperson, the director selection process has been suspended to allow the opportunity to determine next steps.

The spokesperson told Jewish Insider: “Members of the university community have come forward to express their interest in offering their views on the appointment of director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Given the role of such an official, it is important that these voices be heard.”

Segal, who was selected as the center's new director by Anne Waltner, interim dean of the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota, also co-wrote an article for Al Jazeera in January in which he described Israel as a "settler colonial state." Last month, Segal pointed to the legitimacy of anti-Israel demonstrations and camps that have swept across universities across the country, and denounced them as anti-Semitic, saying that allegations of anti-Semitism by these demonstrations were “baseless,” which prompted multiple Israeli lobbies to target him.

In 2022, Segal wrote about “the reality of Israeli apartheid,” saying: “Just as the Israeli apartheid regime denies the Palestinians’ past, it also seeks to deny their future by abusing Palestinian children.”

Segal's selection — which also includes a faculty position in the history department — prompted University of Minnesota professors Karen Painter and Bruno Choate, known to be staunch supporters of Israel, to resign from the center's advisory board.

Jewish Insider, a website devoted to issues affecting the American Jewish community, says, “In a letter to Waltner, Brigadier General Rachel Croson and Interim President Jeff Ettinger (a copy of which was obtained by Jewish Insider), Choate wrote: My understanding is that the center’s primary mission is Educating locally and internationally about the specific history of the Holocaust and genocide in order to raise awareness and prevent further dehumanization and violence Professor Segal, through his justification of Hamas atrocities five days after they occurred (through outlandish claims that Israel is committing genocide), does not. "It can fulfill the center's mission."

Choate, a professor of French and Jewish studies who previously served as the center's interim director, continued in his letter, "[Segal] has failed to acknowledge the genocidal intentions of Hamas. He does not understand that a movement like Hamas is inherently fascist and represents precisely what the CHGS stands against." ...While I have nothing to say about Professor Segal's appointment as a Fellow in the Department of History, my experience as interim and collaborating director of the Center for many years, combined with my experience as a Holocaust and anti-Semitism scholar, gives me some experience to firmly classify him as unsuitable for this position.”

The website credits Mark Rothenberg, vice president and general counsel of Hillel International, the Zionist student and academic affairs organization, (who was general counsel and faculty member at the University of Minnesota for 20 years before coming to Hillel), saying that Segal's announced appointment "led to "Severe deterioration in the academic integrity of the department."

He continued: "It is very sad to see the Department of Holocaust and Genocide Studies led by an anti-Israel preacher instead of a leading researcher on the history of the elimination of European Jews."

Rothenberg claimed that the announced appointment could "cause long-term damage" to the relationship between the University of Minnesota and the Jewish community in Minnesota. “The Jewish community there has benefited greatly from and enhanced the quality of the university over many decades,” he said, but, “I fear the relationship is under severe strain at the moment.”

Multiple Israeli lobby organizations use blackmail and bullying tactics to “neutralize” anyone who criticizes Israel and its actions against Palestinians, especially Jewish voices.

Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that the organization documented “32 deaths in Gaza as a result of malnutrition, including 28 cases of children under the age of five.”

Ghebreyesus added in an online press conference broadcast on the organization’s “X” account, “Since October 7, we have documented 480 attacks on health facilities in the West Bank, resulting in 16 deaths and 95 injuries.”

He continued: “Peace is the best medicine” for treating the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Ghebreyesus welcomed the UN Security Council resolution calling for a "full and immediate" ceasefire in Gaza.

Ghebreyesus urged all parties to "take steps to immediately implement the ceasefire decision in Gaza and put a permanent end to the suffering of millions of people."

Medical sources announced today, Wednesday, that the death toll in the Gaza Strip has risen to 37,202, since the start of the Israeli occupation aggression on the seventh of last October.

The same sources added that the number of infections rose to 84,932, the majority of whom were children and women.

The sources indicated that the occupation committed 3 massacres that led to the death of 38 citizens and the injury of 100 others during the past 24 hours.