Medical sources announced today, Sunday, the death of 4 citizens due to starvation in Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, bringing the number of victims of malnutrition to 34 citizens.

The sources said: 4 citizens, including two children, died today, as a result of malnutrition, dehydration, and lack of medical supplies, at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip.

It pointed out that the number of deaths due to the famine had risen to 34, including 31 children.

The Gaza Strip has been subjected to continuous Israeli aggression, since October 7, and has been subjected to extremely difficult humanitarian conditions, amounting to famine, in light of the severe scarcity of food, water, medicine and fuel supplies.

As a result of the war, citizens, especially the Gaza and North governorates, are on the verge of famine, in light of a severe scarcity of food, water, medicine and fuel supplies, with the displacement of about two million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, which has been besieged by Israel for 18 years.

The Israeli army continues to prevent and obstruct the arrival of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, especially to the northern regions, while the aid that reaches the south of the Strip does not suffice the needs of citizens, especially with the displacement of more than 1.3 million citizens from northern Gaza to its south, specifically to Rafah.

The Israeli forces not only prevent the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, but also deliberately target citizens waiting for aid, resulting in the death and injury of hundreds.

There are no surprises in Gaza. Every horrifying act of Israel’s genocide has been telegraphed in advance. It has been for decades. The dispossession of Palestinians of their land is the beating heart of Israel’s settler colonial project. This dispossession has had dramatic historical moments — 1948 and 1967 — when huge parts of historic Palestine were seized and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were ethnically cleansed. Dispossession has also occurred in increments — the slow-motion theft of land and steady ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

The incursion on Oct. 7 into Israel by Hamas and other resistance groups, which left 1,154 Israelis, tourists and migrant workers dead and saw about 240 people taken hostage, gave Israel the pretext for what it has long craved — the total erasure of Palestinians. 

Israel has razed 77 percent of healthcare facilities in Gaza, 68 percent of telecommunication infrastructure, nearly all municipal and governmental buildings, commercial, industrial and agricultural centers, almost half of all roads, over 60 percent of Gaza’s 439,000 homes, 68 percent of residential buildings — the bombing of the Al-Taj tower in Gaza City on Oct. 25, killed 101 people, including 44 children and 37 women, and injured hundreds — and obliterated refugee camps. The attack on the Jabalia refugee camp on Oct. 25 killed at least 126 civilians, including 69 children, and injured 280. Israel has damaged or destroyed Gaza’s universities, all of which are now closed, and 60 percent of other educational facilities, including 13 libraries. It has also destroyed at least 195 heritage sites, including 208 mosques, churches, and Gaza’s Central Archives that held 150 years of historical records and documents.

Israel’s warplanes, missiles, drones, tanks, artillery shells and naval guns daily pulverize Gaza — which is only 20 miles long and five miles wide —  in a scorched earth campaign unlike anything seen since the war in Vietnam. It has dropped 25,000 tons of explosives — equivalent to two nuclear bombs — on Gaza, many targets selected by Artificial Intelligence. It drops unguided munitions (“dumb bombs”) and 2000-pound “bunker buster” bombs on refugee camps and densely packed urban centers as well as the so-called “safe zones” — 42 percent of Palestinians killed have been in these “safe zones” where they were instructed by Israel to flee. Over 1.7 million Palestinians have been displaced from their homes, forced to find refuge in overcrowded UNRWA shelters, hospital corridors and courtyards, schools, tents or the open air in south Gaza, often living next to fetid pools of raw sewage.

Israel has killed at least 32,705 Palestinians in Gaza, including 13,000 children and 9,000 women. This means Israel is slaughtering as many as 187 people a day including 75 children. It has killed 136 journalists, many, if not most of them deliberately targeted. It has killed 340 doctors, nurses and other health workers — four percent of Gaza’s healthcare personnel. These numbers do not begin to reflect the actual death toll since only those dead registered in morgues and hospitals, most of which no longer function, are counted. The death toll, when those who are missing are counted, is well over 40,000. 

Doctors are forced to amputate limbs without anesthetic. Those with severe medical conditions — cancer, diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease — have died from lack of treatment or will die soon. Over a hundred women give birth every day, with little to no medical care. Miscarriages are up by 300 percent. Over 90 percent of the Palestinians in Gaza suffer from severe food insecurity with people eating animal feed and grass. Children are dying of starvation. Palestinian writers, academics, scientists and their family members have been tracked and assassinated. Over 75,000 Palestinians have been wounded, many of whom will be crippled for life.

“Seventy percent of recorded deaths have consistently been women and children,” writes Francesca Albanese, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, in her report issued on March 25. “Israel failed to prove that the remaining 30 percent, i.e. adult males, were active Hamas combatants — a necessary condition for them to be lawfully targeted. By early-December, Israel’s security advisors claimed the killing of ‘7,000 terrorists’ in a stage of the campaign when less than 5,000 adult males in total had been identified among the casualties, thus implying that all adult males killed were ‘terrorists.’”

Israel plays linguistic tricks to deny anyone in Gaza the status of civilians and any building - including mosques, hospitals and schools - protected status. Palestinians are all branded as responsible for the attack on Oct. 7 or written off as human shields for Hamas. All structures are considered legitimate targets by Israel because they are allegedly Hamas command centers or said to harbor Hamas fighters.

These accusations, Albanese writes, are a “pretext” used to justify “the killing of civilians under a cloak of purported legality, whose all-enveloping pervasiveness admits only of genocidal intent.”

In scale we have not seen assault on the Palestinians of this magnitude, but all these measures – the killing of civlians, dispossession of land, arbitrary detention, torture, disappearances, closures imposed on Palestinians towns and villages, house demolitions, revoking residence permits, deportation, destruction of the infrastructure that maintains civil society, military occupation, dehumanizing language, theft of natural resources, especially aquifers — have long defined Israel’s campaign to eradicate Palestinians. 

The occupation and genocide would not be possible without the U.S. which gives Israel $3.8 billion in annual military assistance and is now sending another $2.5 billion in bombs, including 1,800 MK84 2,000-pound bombs, 500 MK82 500-pound bombs and fighter jets to Israel. This, too, is our genocide.

The genocide in Gaza is the culmination of a process. It is not an act. The genocide is the predictable denouement of Israel’s settler colonial project. It is coded within the DNA of the Israeli apartheid state. It is where Israel had to end up. 

Zionist leaders are open about their goals.

Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, after Oct. 7, announced that Gaza would receive “no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel.” Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Israel Katz said: “Humanitarian aid to Gaza? No electrical switch will be turned on, no water hydrant will be opened.” Avi Dichter, the Minister of Agriculture, referred to Israel’s military assault as “the Gaza Nakba,” referencing the Nakba, or “catastrophe”, which between 1947 and 1949, drove 750,000 Palestinians from their land and saw thousands massacred by Zionist militias. Likud member of the Israeli Knesset Revital Gottlieb posted on her social media account: “Bring down buildings!! Bomb without distinction!!…Flatten Gaza. Without mercy! This time, there is no room for mercy!” Not to be outdone, Minister of Heritage Amichai Eliyahu supported using nuclear weapons on Gaza as “one of the possibilities.”

The message from the Israeli leadership is unequivocal. Annihilate the Palestinians the same way we annihilated Native Americans, the Australians annihilated the First Nations peoples, the Germans annihilated the Herero in Namibia, the Turks annihilated Armenians and the Nazis annihilated the Jews. 

The specifics are different. The process is the same.

We cannot plead ignorance. We know what happened to the Palestinians. We know what is happening to the Palestinians. We know what will happen to the Palestinians.

But it is easier to pretend. Pretend Israel will allow in humanitarian aid. Pretend there will be a ceasefire. Pretend Palestinians will return to their destroyed homes in Gaza. Pretend Gaza will be rebuilt. Pretend the Palestinian Authority will administer Gaza. Pretend there will be a two-state solution. Pretend there is no genocide.

The genocide, which the U.S. is funding and sustaining with weapons shipments, says something not only about Israel, but about us, about Western civilization, about who we are as a people, where we came from and what defines us. It says that all our vaunted morality and respect for human rights is a lie. It says that people of color, especially when they are poor and vulnerable, do not count. It says their hopes, dreams, dignity and aspirations for freedom are worthless. It says we will ensure global domination through racialized violence. 

This lie — that Western civilization is predicated on “values” such as respect for human rights and the rule of law — is one the Palestinians, and all those in the Global South, as well as Native Americans and Black and Brown Americans have known for centuries. But, with the Gaza genocide live streamed, this lie is impossible to sustain. 

We do not halt Israel’s genocide because we are Israel, infected with white supremacy and intoxicated by our domination of the globe’s wealth and the power to obliterate others with our industrial weapons. Remember The New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman telling Charlie Rose on the eve of the war in Iraq that American soldiers should go house to house from Basra to Baghdad and say to Iraqis “suck on this?” That is the real credo of the U.S. empire.

The world outside of the industrialized fortresses in the Global North is acutely aware that the fate of the Palestinians is their fate. As climate change imperils survival, as resources become scarce, as migration becomes an imperative for millions, as agricultural yields decline, as costal areas are flooded, as droughts and wild fires proliferate, as states fail, as armed resistance movements rise to battle their oppressors along with their proxies, genocide will not be an anomaly. It will be the norm. The earth’s vulnerable and poor, those Frantz Fanon called “the wretched of the earth,” will be the next Palestinians.  

Writer Simon Tisdale, a specialist in foreign affairs at the British Observer newspaper, says in an article in the newspaper that Israel, which is isolated externally and torn internally, must face the future it fears, which is the establishment of a Palestinian state.

The writer began his article by saying that the feeling of things falling apart is deep, and the negative repercussions are present everywhere in the world. He cited many examples of this, such as routinely flouting the UN Charter and UN Security Council resolutions, especially on Gaza, ignoring war crimes in Ukraine, Myanmar and Sudan, sending killers abroad to eliminate political opponents, and undeclared cyber warfare that knows no borders.

Disintegration is stronger in the Middle East

But he said the disintegration is particularly strong in the Middle East, especially following the Al-Aqsa flood attack, as is the impunity and the International Court of Justice orders to prevent famine in Gaza, which receive only lip service.

Tisdale continued to paint a picture of the disintegration that the Middle East is witnessing, saying that the relationship between the United States and Israel, which is the regional cornerstone, has reached the breaking point. Commentators were quoted as saying that the dispute between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden is irreparable.

Netanyahu may escalate the war in the region

He added that the internal crisis in Israel, too, constitutes an existential threat to it, at a time when Netanyahu and his allies, “anti-democratic extremists and far-right settler groups,” are turning into rebels, expecting Netanyahu to escalate the war in the region, if those who accuse him of wanting to exploit the war for his personal interests, are right.

Tisdale concluded by saying that as a divided, traumatized, ill-led and ostracized Israel tears itself apart, along with its historical, ideological and democratic credentials, re-establishing a credible negotiating process with the explicit and internationally agreed goal of two states coexisting side by side may be the way to go. The best and only way to save Israel from itself. It may also be the best hope for saving the community of nations from further descent into chaos, and for restoring the building of global confidence.

Source: Guardian

Data published by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Observatory in a report it issued entitled “Killing the Hungry and Bombing Aid: A Deliberate Israeli Approach to Perpetuate Famine in Gaza” showed that the Israeli army killed 563 Palestinians and injured 1,523 others during its military operations in which it directly targeted those waiting for aid, distribution centers, and workers. They are responsible for organizing, protecting and distributing aid in the Gaza Strip.

Between January 11 and March 23, the report documented the killing of 256 Palestinians in the Kuwait Roundabout area, south-east of Gaza City, 230 on Al-Rashid Street, south-west of the city, and 21 in the targeting of aid distribution centres.

It also documented the killing of 12 aid distribution workers, two of whom were from UNRWA, while 41 members of the police and the People’s Protection Committees responsible for ensuring the distribution of aid were killed.

The report concluded that the measures implemented by Israel and the collective punishments it imposes on the Gaza Strip directly and clearly aim to starve the entire population, not only as a method of war, as a war crime in itself, but to expose them to the risk of actual destruction.

It pointed out that these actions constitute an essential part of the crime of genocide committed against all residents of the Gaza Strip, since the seventh of last October.

It explained that the use of starvation as a weapon resulted from an official political decision from the first day of the war, as expressed by the Israeli Minister of Security, and was implemented in several integrated stages, which included tightening the siege, closing the crossings, preventing the entry of commercial goods, destroying all components of local production and local food sources, and establishing the need for... Residents of the Gaza Strip for humanitarian aid, becoming the primary source of food for the residents of the Gaza Strip.

At the same time, this humanitarian aid became an illegal military target for the Israeli army, and it targeted it in all ways and wherever it was found. Israel has continuously and severely obstructed the entry of aid into the Gaza Strip, subjected it to arbitrary and lengthy inspection standards and procedures, targeted it while it was on trucks and in storage and distribution centers, and targeted those waiting for it and those responsible for securing and distributing it.

Israel does all of this to deprive the Palestinians of obtaining it, even to the extent sufficient to satisfy their hunger or ward off the risk of death because of it, and to perpetuate a state of chaos and internal fighting due to its absence of mechanisms to control and secure the distribution of this aid, by killing or wounding, or by refusing to cooperate with international institutions working in this field. Or by trying to liquidate UNRWA, which is the main international agency currently responsible for the process of introducing and distributing humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip.

The Euro-Med Monitor stated that when Israel allowed the entry of aid, it restricted its entry in quantity, type, and places of arrival, and then bombed food stores, malls, and shops, all the way to bombing targeting aid and those working on it and protecting it.

Euro-Med stressed that Israel is using starvation, preventing aid, and killing the hungry as part of a clear plan to complete the crime of forced displacement against the Palestinians, especially in the northern Gaza Strip, where it is still preventing humanitarian aid trucks from arriving there, and only allowing limited numbers to arrive, which has led to An outbreak of hunger in northern Gaza, with almost complete depletion of all foodstuffs from the markets, and pockets of famine beginning to form and spread rapidly, which resulted in an increase in the number of deaths due to hunger, malnutrition, dehydration, and associated diseases, especially among children and infants.

The report highlighted that Israel worked systematically during its war to target all necessities of life in the Gaza Strip, including bombing mills, bakeries, food stores, shops and markets, destroying crops and agricultural lands, killing livestock, and targeting boats and fishing equipment, water tanks and their extensions, to deprive all residents of the country. The sector, which numbers 2.3 million people, half of whom are children, has access to the food resources and potable water that keep them alive, and the ability to produce food at the local level, which was already limited, amid intense attacks, raids, and bombing through the air, land and sea. During which the Israeli army dropped thousands of tons of explosives, at a time when any relief supplies stopped through the crossings that were closed for weeks before they were partially reopened under harsh Israeli conditions on October 21, 2023, after pressure from the international community.

The report came in seven axes, the first of which dealt with the numbers of victims of crimes targeting humanitarian aid, based on documentation by the Euro-Mediterranean field team. The second axis reviewed the most prominent crimes of targeting starving civilians waiting for humanitarian aid. The third touched on crimes of targeting humanitarian aid distribution centers, while the fourth shed light on crimes of Targeting humanitarian aid convoys, the fifth dealt with targeting aid distribution workers, and the crimes targeting those responsible for securing and protecting aid as mentioned in the sixth, and finally, the seventh axis dealt with Israel’s attempts to evade responsibility for the massacres, and concluded by presenting the most prominent findings and recommendations.

In a conversation with his Israeli counterpart, Herzi Halevy, the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Charles Brown, reviewed the American proposal regarding the Israeli military operation in the Rafah area, south of the Gaza Strip, according to what was revealed by the Israeli Public Broadcasting Authority (“Kan 11”).

The report stated that the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff held a phone call with Halevy while the Israeli Defense Minister, Yoav Galant, was in Washington. During which he reviewed the American demands from the Israeli government in preparation for launching a large-scale military attack on the Rafah area, which is home to about 1.5 million displaced Palestinians.

While the United Nations warns that any attack on Rafah will lead to massive loss of life and further exacerbate the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation reported that the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff reviewed, during his conversation with Halevy, an American proposal for the form of the military operation. In Rafah.

The American proposal includes:

• Isolating and cordoning off the Rafah area by the Israeli army.
• Technological means (surveillance cameras and sensors) to tightly close the Egyptian borders.
• Directed and focused incursions and raids on specific targets based on intelligence information.
• Establishing a joint operations room with the United States to coordinate operations in the southern Gaza Strip.

According to "Kan 11", despite the talks that Gallant held with officials in the administration of US President Joe Biden about the expected invasion of the Rafah area, the US army wanted to hold talks at a high professional level with the leaders of the Israeli army about the military plans to invade Rafah.

Last Monday, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken warned Israeli Security Minister Gallant, during a meeting in Washington, of the dangers of invading Rafah, reiterating the United States’ rejection of such a large-scale military operation.

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement that Blinken "reiterated the United States' support for ensuring the defeat of Hamas, including in Rafah, but reiterated his opposition to a large-scale ground operation in Rafah."

He added that the American minister "stressed the existence of solutions other than a large-scale ground invasion, which are solutions that would better guarantee Israel's security and protect Palestinian civilians."

It is noteworthy that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled a visit that was scheduled for a high-level delegation to the American capital, to discuss “American alternatives to the military operation in Rafah.”

A leak published by the British Observer newspaper showed that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's government received advice from its lawyers that Israel violated the law in its war on the Gaza Strip.

The newspaper explained that the leak includes comments made by Alicia Cairns, chair of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, at a fundraising event for the Conservative Party on March 13.

Cairns said: “The Foreign Office received formal legal advice that Israel had violated international humanitarian law, but the government did not announce this, nor did it stop arms exports. It imposed some very small sanctions on Israeli settlers.”

She explained that she and Foreign Secretary David Cameron "strongly believe in Israel's right to defend itself, but the right to self-defense has limits in the law, and the matter is not without limits," considering that Israel's actions put its security and the security of Britain at risk in the long term.

Yesterday, Saturday, Cairns confirmed those statements, and said, “I remain convinced that the government has completed its assessment of whether Israel shows a commitment to international humanitarian law, and that it has concluded that it does not show that commitment.”

This assessment will put the Foreign Secretary and Prime Minister under intense pressure, because any such legal advice would mean that Britain must stop all arms sales to Israel with immediate effect.

Legal experts said failure to do so would risk putting Britain in breach of international law and be seen as aiding and abetting war crimes.

Counselor Charles Falconer explained that the legal assessment that “Israel” had violated international law would also prevent Britain from sharing intelligence with “Israel.” He said, “Governments committed to the rule of law cannot ignore the mounting evidence of violations, which would make those "Governments are in violation if they continue to help."

The government media office in the Gaza Strip said that the Israeli occupation forces killed more than 400 Palestinians and destroyed and burned 1,050 homes in the vicinity of the Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City, as they continued to storm and besiege the complex for the 14th day in a row.

The office stated in a statement that the Israeli army arrested and tortured hundreds of patients, displaced persons, and medical staff inside and around the Shifa Medical Complex, and committed crimes of destroying, burning, and targeting homes over the course of 13 days of storming the complex.

The statement added that the occupation forces are still detaining 107 patients trapped inside the Al-Shifa Complex in inhumane conditions without water, food, medicine, or electricity, and that among these trapped patients are 30 invalids and about 60 medical staff working in the complex.

He pointed out that the Israeli forces prevent all attempts to evacuate these patients through international institutions, which puts their lives at risk and in imminent danger.

The office held the American administration, the international community, some European countries, and Israel fully responsible for participating and engaging in the crime of genocide and ethnic cleansing carried out by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip.

The office called on international organizations and Arab and Islamic countries to move out of the box of silence and condemnation and into the box of taking practical positions, real measures, and field action to stop the genocidal war, stop storming hospitals, and stop the destruction of the health sector.

Today, Sunday, the Israeli forces arrested a number of citizens and injured others during their storming of various areas in the West Bank.

According to local sources, these forces arrested the young man, Hamza Mahmoud Zaoul (23 years old), after raiding and searching his family’s home in the village of Husan.

Meanwhile, dozens of citizens suffocated as a result of the Israeli forces firing stun grenades and tear gas at citizens’ homes in the village of Marah Rabah, south of Beit Lah.

The Israeli forces also arrested in Al-Auja, the young man Muhammad Mahmoud Al-Saadi from the eastern neighborhood in Jenin, on charges of carrying out a shooting attack in the Jordan Valley last week.

Meanwhile, the young man, Muhammad Tahseen Abu Obaid, from the town of Al-Yamoun, was arrested after raiding his family’s home, searching it, and tampering with its contents.

The Israeli forces arrested human rights activist Areej Al-Jaabari, from the Al-Ras area in the Old City, while she was documenting the occupation forces’ attacks on citizens.

They also arrested Raed Hisham Al-Mutawwar from the town of Sa'ir, east of Hebron, searched his house and tampered with its contents.

13 citizens were killed today, Sunday, as a result of Israeli aircraft and artillery bombing various areas in the city of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, and an elderly person in Gaza City, on the 177th day of the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Strip.

Medical sources reported that 11 citizens were killed and dozens injured in an Israeli bombing on a group of citizens in Bani Suhaila, east of Khan Yunis.

The sources added that a woman and her child were killed in an Israeli artillery shelling that targeted the home of the Majeeda family in Al-Mawasi, west of Khan Yunis.

Local sources said that violent explosions rocked areas west of the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.

The Israeli aircraft bombed a residential tower in the city of Al-Assira, northwest of Al-Nuseirat, in the middle of the Gaza Strip.

An elderly citizen died from his injuries after the Israeli army bombed his house near Wadi Gaza in the central Gaza Strip.

The Israeli artillery targeted homes west of Gaza City, and the forces also fired smoke bombs in the vicinity of the Kuwait Roundabout, south of the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, east of Gaza.

Negotiations aimed at reaching an exchange deal and a truce between Israel and the Hamas movement in Gaza will resume in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, in the latest attempt to reach an agreement by Egypt and Qatar, which are playing a mediating role in this regard, as they continue their joint efforts to achieve progress in the negotiations between the two sides.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave the green light to hold new talks with the aim of reaching a truce in the besieged Gaza Strip, which is subject to continuous bombardment, while its residents face the threat of “imminent famine,” according to the United Nations.

The Hebrew Broadcasting Corporation reported today, Saturday, that the Israeli authorities agreed to release the editors of the Gilad Shalit deal in exchange for Hamas releasing the bodies of two captive soldiers who were arrested in 2014.

According to what the Broadcasting Corporation reported, the proposal includes the release of prisoners who were re-arrested after their release as part of the Shalit deal.

The Hebrew Broadcasting Authority reported that Tel Aviv agreed to release the prisoners as part of the Gilad Shalit deal and re-arrest them in exchange for the release of the bodies of soldiers Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul.

On the other hand, Hebrew sources said, according to the broadcaster, that the proposal was sent to Hamas, but it has not yet responded, and that the proposal is expected to be put on the table again as part of the negotiations that will resume in Cairo in the coming days.

A number of Palestinians were killed and injured today, Saturday, in a new Israeli attack targeting those waiting for aid southeast of Gaza City.

According to press sources, the number of killed reached 17, while dozens were wounded in the bombing that took place at the Kuwait roundabout.

This is not the first time that Israeli forces have committed crimes in the same area.

Marc Lamont Hill talks to scholar John Mearsheimer about US foreign policy and its support for Israel and Ukraine. Israel’s war on Gaza has killed more than 32,000 and caused a widespread humanitarian disaster. As Israel continues its attacks on Gaza and the civilian death toll keeps rising, the US is facing a growing backlash for its military and financial support to Israel. 

This week the US abstained from a UN Security Council ceasefire resolution vote, allowing the measure to pass. But the US said the abstention did not signal a change in policy or support towards its ally. On another front, Russia’s war on Ukraine continues unabated, with casualties mounting. While the US has pledged billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine, the legislation has stalled in Congress. 

How are the current conflicts and diplomatic tensions affecting Washington’s global standing? And could this signal the end of US unipolarity? This week on an UpFront special, Marc Lamont Hill speaks to renowned political scientist John Mearsheimer about how US foreign policy could affect the outcomes of these wars.

Transcript

By Dan Kurtzer

To those looking from the outside, the political differences between the United States and Israel appear to be confusing, even contradictory: the Biden administration has expressed unprecedented support for Israel - constant arms supplies, continuing political support - even amid growing opposition to this support within the Democratic party, and in Arab-American universities and communities. At the same time, there is an escalation in the Israeli response to American demands to reduce the scale of the attack on Gaza and allow the entry of humanitarian aid. In a problematic statement, it was said that “we are not a banana republic”; After the United States refrained from using its veto, Israel refused to send its delegation to Washington to hold dialogues regarding Rafah, even though Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assured Biden that he would send the delegation.

The explanation for the decision to prevent sending the delegation was not logical: Netanyahu considered the United States’ decision a “retreat” from the positions of the previous administration. First, it is unacceptable, and also shameful, for a foreign leader to describe American policy in this way. The United States formulates its policies itself, after taking into account the opinions of friends and allies. Its continued support for Israel in the United Nations Security Council is enough to prompt the prime minister to stop and review his calculations, before directing such criticism regarding the American abstention.

Second, the Security Council resolution included enough conditions that the United States had guaranteed and presented itself last week (and Russia and China vetoed it), in order to convince the administration to allow the resolution to pass. In particular, the resolution demands a ceasefire during the month of Ramadan - which means it is limited - and demands the liberation of the hostages without any conditions. Therefore, it is very difficult to explain the severity of the Israeli response. There is no logic in postponing the Israeli delegation's travel to Washington.

Despite this, the administration made clear decisively its opposition to a large-scale Israeli attack on Rafah, without a plan that addresses the security of the one million Palestinians “accumulated” there. The administration also made clear that it does not oppose, in principle, an offensive step against Hamas in Rafah, provided that this plan takes civilians into account. This was the explanation for the request to send a delegation. So, why does Netanyahu not want to dialogue with the Americans at this crucial moment?

Also, launching a full Israeli attack on Rafah, without consulting Washington, is contrary to logic. First, the timing is very problematic. The administration is examining whether Israel adheres to the National Security Memorandum (Memorandum-20), which forces countries that use American weapons to use them only in accordance with international law, and that it will not oppose the United States distributing humanitarian aid. If Israel does not take these steps, the president will consider additional steps, such as freezing future arms shipments. After Vice President Camilla Harris warned of possible attacks on Rafah, it is best for Israel not to try to test the limits of US patience in this regard, and at this time. Second, although Israel claims to have achieved certain achievements in the war against Hamas, the price – tens of thousands of dead Palestinian civilians and a humanitarian crisis in Gaza – is too high.

Also, these achievements were damaged with the return of Hamas fighters to the northern Gaza Strip, through tunnels, and the inability to prevent them and their leaders from doing so. Launching a major attack on Rafah would indeed capture more Hamas fighters, but the question is: at what cost and for what purpose, if the central leadership of Hamas is still alive and effective?

It's time for Israel to start listening as much as it speaks. A careful examination of the administration’s demands would convince the United States that it is a partner in the goals of causing severe harm to Hamas, so that it cannot return and take control of Gaza again, threaten Israel again, achieve the release of the hostages without condition, or with conditions that Israel accepts, and guarantee Humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians without any delay, and to restore security to Gaza and the surrounding towns that were destroyed during the Hamas attack on October 7, in a way that allows the population to return to their homes and rebuild, and to renew diplomatic talks and seriously address the basic issues in this conflict, which includes Israeli occupation for 57 years, and ongoing Palestinian “terrorism”.

A historical reminder: Dean Rusk, US Secretary of State in the administrations of John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, once said that the most important tool in diplomacy is the ability and willingness to listen. This is good advice for the current government of Israel.

By Alon Ben David

Last week's events in the north were a reminder to us all that the most serious security challenge from Hamas still lies ahead. Half a year has passed since the start of the war, and the remarkable achievements that were at its beginning are being depleted. The political and military leadership are still working as if they have all the time in the world. In fact, things are not like that. You should start by looking north. During this week, the Prime Minister was busy searching for a formula for a law that would guarantee the continued evasion of tens of thousands of Haredim from military service. In the little time he had left, he preoccupied us all with an unnecessary crisis with the last ally we had left.

Salvation in the north will not come from Netanyahu. In his view, the residents of the north can remain in temporary housing, until the time comes for them to enter shelters. The main thing is that the war in Gaza will continue forever. He understood before anyone else that the world would not allow him to occupy Rafah, and therefore, he turned it into the trophy without which “absolute victory” would not be achieved. The artificial crisis created this week with the United States due to the resolution in the United Nations was the worst, and it revealed that Netanyahu is the last person truly concerned with the occupation of Rafah. He only wants to catch up with the "absolute victory" that will never come. Israel rightly wanted a resolution linking the ceasefire to the release of the hostages, but expecting the United States to use a veto against a resolution calling for both is unrealistic.

A leader who really wanted to make a decision against Hamas could have exploited the Security Council resolution: adopting it and declaring a two-week ceasefire, until the end of Ramadan, as a space of time to return the hostages. At the same time, he would have announced that if the UN resolution was not implemented, and the hostages were not recovered by the end of Ramadan, Israel would be free to continue the military operation as it wished. However, Netanyahu is completely unaware. His desperate desire to hold on to the chair distorts his vision. He cancels the delegation's departure to Washington, retreats, and at the same time, denies that he has retreated, then sends it again. He is running the war, but not the war taking place in Gaza.

Shifting forces to the north

Since the start of the battle, Netanyahu has not been the one running it. The army presents plans to him, and he approves them, as was the case throughout the 17 years of his tenure as prime minister. Now, the problem is that the Army General Staff seems to have lost touch with the multi-front picture of war in which we find ourselves.

For 4 months, the army has been immersed in the Khan Yunis tunnels, and is pursuing Hamas leaders. Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip are a double challenge, and they were occupied during half this time. Every day, the army spokesman publishes a new video of a clash with “saboteurs,” but in reality, the army hardly advances in the south of the Gaza Strip. He is waiting for orders to occupy the center and Rafah camps, but these orders will not arrive. Six months after the outbreak of war, the army must present a realistic plan on how to end it.

I believed, and still believe, that subjugating the six Hamas battalions in Rafah and the center camps was necessary to achieve the goal of annihilating the movement’s military power. However, our unnecessary stagnation in Khan Yunis changed the reasons. As it now appears, Israel will not have the legitimacy to occupy Rafah. In these current, less-than-ideal circumstances, the army's goal is to prepare a plan that will lead to achieving goals that are still achievable: occupying the central camps and achieving operational control over 90% of the territory of the Strip. The community in Gaza will be pushed to Rafah and the Al-Mawasi area, and the army will open three corridors dividing the Strip: the corridor now in the Gaza Valley, the Kissufim corridor, north of Khan Yunis, and another corridor south of the city.

Rafah will remain the last area affiliated with Hamas, and about a million and a half displaced people will be over the heads of Hamas leaders. The international community will provide them with food as it wants, and offer alternatives to Hamas rule in Rafah, but the displaced will not return to their homes until the hostages return. At this time, the army can operate freely in all remaining areas of the Strip with a successful operation, as happened in Al-Shifa Hospital. This must be based on storming forces, not on forces remaining on the territory of the Strip, and allows us to transfer additional forces to the northern border.

If at this stage we do not reach an exchange deal in Gaza, this means that we are going to a battle in the north. This battle will need the best forces in the army, as well as a staff that respects its powers at the hands of field officers, and has nothing to do with the failure that occurred on October 7. The exchange of fire we have been conducting with Hezbollah for almost half a year has led to tactical achievements, but the strategic achievement is reserved for Hezbollah: driving the residents of the north away from their homes. The army inflicts damage on sites and activists, killing approximately 350 of them, but in Hezbollah's eyes, this is a price borne in exchange for the achievement.

That must be changed.

Last week, a resident of the North asked me whether they would return to their homes in September 2025. The military must provide us with one answer: yes. At the end of the 1980s, when Israel was still stuck in the security zone in southern Lebanon, the commander of the northern region at the time, Yossi Bild, gave orders to engrave the following address on all military sites: Objective - Protect the towns of the north. It's time to dig it again.

The Israeli newspaper The Marker said on Thursday that Palestinian banks will be isolated from the Israeli banking system, and from the entire world, starting next Monday, if the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, does not hold a meeting of the mini-ministerial council for political and security affairs (cabinet) from In order to take a decision to circumvent Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who decided to stop dealings between Israeli and Palestinian banks.

It is noteworthy that Discount Bank and Hapoalim Bank are the ones that implement the relationship between Palestinian banks and the Israeli banking system, as well as financial transactions between Palestinian banks and countries of the world, because the shekel is the currency circulating in the Palestinian economic system.

  Since 2009, the two Israeli banks have been demanding the cessation of relations with Palestinian banks, claiming that “Palestinian banks refuse to comply with regulations preventing money laundering and terrorist financing, which exposes the two Israeli banks to great risks because they guarantee Palestinian banks,” according to The Marker newspaper today, Thursday.

The Israeli government demanded that the two banks continue these transactions with Palestinian banks, and therefore took three steps. The first is the establishment of an Israeli government company that will be responsible for relations with Palestinian banks, but it has not begun work yet.

The second step is related to the two banks canceling two pledges: immunity from criminal lawsuits in Israel, and compensation for civil lawsuits filed against them. In the wake of the war on Gaza, the two banks demanded an increase in the amount of this compensation.

The Accountant General Department of the Israeli Ministry of Finance grants this compensation to the two Israeli banks, but its validity expires on March 31, that is, next Sunday. According to the newspaper, the Israeli government has not yet begun negotiations with the two banks regarding their demand for increased compensation, which means that transactions between them and the Palestinian banks will end on Sunday.

The newspaper explained that the failure to extend the validity of the compensation was due to Smotrich’s decision to punish the US administration, which imposed sanctions on settlers who participated in terrorist attacks on Palestinians, and to punish the two Israeli banks, “Discount” and “Hapoalim”, because of their implementation of the US sanctions.

After the US administration described these settlers as terrorists, all banks in the world that adhere to laws preventing money laundering and terrorist financing must stop the settlers’ financial activities. The two Israeli banks closed the settlers' accounts.

Stopping transactions between Israeli and Palestinian banks has serious consequences, including that any Israeli company that has commercial relations with the Palestinian Authority will not be able to deposit Palestinian checks or receive financial payments from Palestinian banks.

Likewise, Palestinian workers, who should receive their salaries through financial transfers to Palestinian banks and not in cash, will not receive their salaries through transfers but only in cash.

The newspaper added that the Palestinian Authority itself will be isolated from the global financial system and the Israeli economy, "which will lead to its collapse."

The newspaper added that the consequences of this for Israel would be “catastrophic,” because “it conflicts with the Israeli interest,” and this would lead to “an international boycott of Israeli banks, claiming that they are cooperating with the government in causing the collapse of Palestinian banks, and Israeli banks may find themselves subject to an international blockade.” “If this happens, the Israeli economy will collapse.”

According to the newspaper, on the other hand, there will be legitimacy for the Palestinian Authority to issue an independent currency and demand that the world recognize it. "This will be the first step towards world recognition of an independent Palestinian state."

The newspaper pointed out that the two Israeli banks are obligated to warn the Palestinian banks a month before severing relations with them, “but due to the enormous risks of filing lawsuits against them, it is estimated that the two Israeli banks would prefer to violate this clause with the Palestinian banks and sever relations immediately, since the beginning of the next week.” 

The survey also highlights a consistent decline in the Likud Party’s popularity, led by Netanyahu, similar to previous polls conducted after October 7.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s popularity continues to decline, according to a recent opinion poll published by the Israeli newspaper Maariv on Friday. 

According to the poll, 45 percent of Israelis prefer Benny Gantz, leader of the National Unity Party and current member of the War Cabinet, as prime minister, while only 38% percent think Netanyahu is still suitable for his position.

The survey also highlights a consistent decline in the Likud Party’s popularity, led by Netanyahu, similar to previous polls conducted after October 7.

 According to the survey, the National Unity party would secure 33 seats in the 120-seat Knesset if elections were held today, up from its current 12 seats.

In contrast, the poll indicated that the Likud party would only secure 19 seats, down from its current 32 in the parliament.

The opposition New Hope party led by Gideon Sa’ar, which withdrew from the National Unity party, would obtain four seats, the poll said.

The Religious Zionist Party headed by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich would not be able to pass the electoral threshold, according to the results.

The opinion poll showed the group supporting Netanyahu would win 46 seats, while the group against him would win 64 seats.

The alliance between Arab parties rejecting both blocs would secure 10 seats.

To form a government in Israel, at least 61 votes are required in the Knesset. This suggests that if elections were held today, Netanyahu would not be able to form a government.

Gaza Genocide

Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7. 

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 32,623 Palestinians have been killed, and 75,092 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.

Moreover, at least 7,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip. 

Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.

 The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.

Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire.’ 

(Anadolu, PC)

By John Hudson

Despite a widening rift with the Israeli government, the Biden administration continues to authorize the transfer of 2,000-pound bombs and other weapons

The Biden administration in recent days quietly authorized the transfer of billions of dollars in bombs and fighter jets to Israel despite Washington’s concerns about an anticipated military offensive in southern Gaza that could threaten the lives of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians.

The new arms packages include more than 1,800 MK84 2,000-pound bombs and 500 MK82 500-pound bombs, according to Pentagon and State Department officials familiar with the matter. The 2,000-pound bombs have been linked to previous mass-casualty events throughout Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. These officials, like some others, spoke to The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity because recent authorizations have not been disclosed publicly.

The development underscores that while rifts have emerged between the United States and Israel over the war’s conduct, the Biden administration views weapons transfers as off-limits when considering how to influence the actions of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“We have continued to support Israel’s right to defend itself,” said a White House official. “Conditioning aid has not been our policy.”

Tensions are rising between the United States and Israel over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans to invade Rafah. The Israeli military said Wednesday that it was continuing its raid on al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, where people said they were trapped in dire conditions.

Some Democrats, including allies of President Biden, say the U.S. government has a responsibility to withhold weapons in the absence of an Israeli commitment to limit civilian casualties during a planned operation in Rafah, a final Hamas stronghold, and ease restrictions on humanitarian aid into the enclave, which is on the brink of famine.

 “The Biden administration needs to use their leverage effectively and, in my view, they should receive these basic commitments before greenlighting more bombs for Gaza,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said in an interview. “We need to back up what we say with what we do.”

The Israeli government declined to comment on the authorizations.

Four Hamas battalions remain in Rafah, say U.S. and Israeli officials. More than 1.2 million Palestinians have sought shelter there after being forced from their homes during Israel’s extensive bombing campaign over the past five months. Biden suggested that a scorched-earth invasion of the city along Gaza’s border with Egypt would cross a “red line” for him.

Biden requested that Netanyahu send a team of security officials to Washington this week to listen to U.S. proposals for limiting the bloodshed. Netanyahu canceled the visit after the United States refused to veto a United Nations Security Council resolution that called for a temporary cease-fire in Gaza and the release of hostages, but which did not condemn Hamas.

Israeli officials have not allayed U.S. concerns about the impending operation in Rafah, but they agreed to reschedule the meeting in Washington, the White House said.

The increasingly public spat has not dissuaded Biden from rushing weapons and military equipment into the conflict. Last week, the State Department authorized the transfer of 25 F-35A fighter jets and engines worth roughly $2.5 billion, U.S. officials said. The case was approved by Congress in 2008, so the department was not required to provide a new notification to lawmakers.

The MK84 and MK82 bombs authorized this week for transfer also were approved by Congress years ago but had not yet been fulfilled.

Washington’s marginalization on the world stage over its support for Israel has rankled some Democrats in Congress, some of whom have called for more transparency in arms transfers and raised questions about whether the authorization of older unfilled cases is an effort to avoid new notifications to Congress, which could face scrutiny.

When asked about the transfers, a State Department official said that “fulfilling an authorization from one notification to Congress can result in dozens of individual Foreign Military Sales cases across the decades-long life-cycle of the congressional notification.”

“As a matter of practicality, major procurements, like Israel’s F-35 program for example, are often broken out into several cases over many years,” the official added.

The 2,000-pound bombs, capable of leveling city blocks and leaving craters in the earth 40 feet across and larger, are almost never used anymore by Western militaries in densely populated locations due to the risk of civilian casualties.

Israel has used them extensively in Gaza, according to several reports, most notably in the bombing of Gaza’s Jabalya refugee camp Oct. 31. U.N. officials decried the strike, which killed more than 100 people, as a “disproportionate attack that could amount to war crimes.” Israel defended the bombing, saying it resulted in the death of a Hamas leader.

Israeli officials deny that their military campaign has been indiscriminate and say civilian casualties are the fault of Hamas for embedding its fighters among the population in Gaza.

Biden’s decision to continue the flow of weapons to Israel has been strongly supported by powerful pro-Israel interest groups in Washington, including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which is spending tens of millions of dollars this election cycle to unseat Democrats it views as insufficiently pro-Israel.

AIPAC, alongside congressional Republicans and several Democrats, oppose any conditions on U.S. military assistance to Israel. “The U.S. can protect civilians, on both sides of the conflict, by continuing to ensure Israel receives as much U.S. assistance as is needed, as expeditiously as possible, to keep its stockpiles full of lifesaving munitions,” Reps. August Pfluger (R-Tex.) and Don Davis (D-N.C.), and Michael Makovsky, president of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, wrote in a recent column. “Doing so is also morally right and in the U.S. interest.”

Biden’s recurring approvals of weapons transfers are an “abrogation of moral responsibility, and an assault on the rule of law as we know it, at both the domestic and international levels,” said Josh Paul, a former State Department official involved in arms transfers who resigned in protest of Biden’s Gaza policy.

“This is a policymaking process that is fundamentally broken, and which makes everyone from policymaking officials to defense manufacturers to the U.S. taxpayer complicit in Israel’s war crimes,” he said.

The Post’s reporting on the new weapons authorizations follows a visit to Washington by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant this week in which he requested that the Biden administration expedite a range of weaponry.

Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters Thursday that Israeli officials have been asking for weapons they consider important “in pretty much every meeting” he has been in with them.

Israel has “not received everything they’ve asked for,” Brown said. The United States has withheld some, he said, either due to capacity limits or because U.S. officials were not willing at the time. Brown did not identify the weapons.

Hours later, the Pentagon clarified Brown’s remarks, highlighting the issue’s sensitivity. Navy Capt. Jereal Dorsey, a spokesman for the general, said there has been no change in policy and that the United States assesses its stockpiles as it provides aid to partners. “The United States continues to provide security assistance to our ally Israel as they defend themselves from Hamas,” Dorsey said.

Advocates of the policy inside the administration say behind-the-scenes discussions with the Israelis have succeeded in delaying the country’s Rafah operation, which they now don’t expect to happen until May. But at least part of that delay is due to Israel’s military operations in Khan Younis taking longer than anticipated.

More than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, since the war began in response to the Oct. 7 cross-border attack in which Hamas militants killed 1,200 people in Israel and took at least 250 hostage.

Any increase in fighting in Rafah, a key transit point for humanitarian aid, risks exacerbating conditions across the enclave that the United Nations and aid groups say is suffering from chronic shortages of food, water and medicine. A massive influx of aid trucks is required to remedy the situation, but U.S. officials say Israel has imposed onerous restrictions on deliveries, which are deeply unpopular inside Netanyahu’s far-right coalition government.

The Biden administration does not see that its words and actions are in conflict with respect to weapons transfers, Van Hollen said.

“They do not see the contradiction between sending more bombs to the Netanyahu government even as it is ignoring their demands with respect to Rafah and getting more humanitarian assistance to starving people,” he said. “If this is a partnership it needs to be a two-way street.

Satellite photos show that the Israeli army is accelerating work to create a kilometer-wide “buffer zone” in the Gaza Strip along the border and a corridor cutting off the Gaza Strip. in two.

The Israeli army has given a boost to its post-war projects in the Gaza Strip, as proven by satellite images. These operations provide for the creation of a “buffer zone” approximately 1 km wide along the border, which will be completely closed to Palestinians. The IDF is also preparing the establishment of a “corridor” cutting the Gaza Strip in two. So many projects which have sparked considerable criticism abroad, particularly from the United States.

Bulldozers and other machines from military engineering units have already come into action. Hundreds of residential buildings and greenhouses were destroyed, some during fighting and others to make way in what must become a no-man's land. This project is supposed to strengthen border security by moving rocket and mortar shell sites away from Israeli territory, while making it more difficult for Hamas commando infiltrations like those perpetrated during the October 7 massacres in southern Israel.

In total, the operation will result in the seizure of 16% of the surface area of the Gaza Strip.

“Obstacle Zone”

To complete the system that will be put in place after the war, the IDF is preparing to dig a corridor cutting the Gaza Strip in the middle. The project should enable control of the passage of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from the north of the enclave who had fled the fighting to take refuge in the south in tents and who would like to return home. The structure must also allow rapid access for military forces. Ditches began to be dug.

According to military commentators, the army does not intend to set up permanent posts there and could intervene by firing in the event of infiltration from positions located in Israel.

Satellite photos made public by the private company Planet Labs and published by Haaretz, an Israeli daily, illustrate the extent of the work in progress. The Israeli army, for its part, cultivates vagueness. “Our forces are in the process of organizing an obstacle zone as part of a strategic defense in accordance with government decisions,” the army spokesperson simply declared. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister, was also not more precise last month in presenting his post-war plans.

He spoke of the creation of a “buffer zone in the sector bordering Israeli territory whose existence will be maintained as long as the security imperative requires it”. The head of government also warned that the Jewish state will reserve total military control in the Gaza Strip.

War crime

This scenario was denounced on the international scene. Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, denounced the destruction of homes in the future buffer zone as well as the expulsion of residents from this sector. “I remind you that transfers of civilian populations can constitute a war crime,” he warned recently.

He is not alone in his criticism. The United States has made clear its opposition to any attempt by Israel to reoccupy part of the Gaza Strip that the Jewish state had completely evacuated in 2005. “We do not want a reduction in the territory of Gaza, in any form whatsoever,” said John Kirky, spokesperson for the American National Security Council, in January. This message was also relayed several times by Antony Blinken, the American Secretary of State during his multiple tours in the region.

Foreign Policy magazine said that former US President George H. W. Bush angered Israeli leaders in 1991 by imposing conditions on aid and putting American interests first, and although the risks have risen significantly now, the administration of President Joe Biden has not yet shown any signs of moral clarity. Himself.

The magazine indicated - in an article written by Alia Al-Ibrahimi - that the United States took a very unusual step by abstaining from voting for the UN Security Council resolution that called for a ceasefire in Gaza after 6 months of continuous Israeli war, but its ambassador immediately, and controversially, showed With great concern for the resolution to be considered “non-binding,” other American officials also did their best to “downplay” the importance of the vote.

Thus - the writer says - the strange imbalance in the relationship between the United States and Israel has become a focus in recent weeks. The Biden administration has slowed its criticism of Israel, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains defiant, continuing to restrict the arrival of aid carrying water, food and medicine to 70% of the Gaza Strip population facing a catastrophic man-made famine.

Alternative solutions

Although he is at the head of the world's major military power, on which Israel depends for weapons, money, and diplomatic cover, US President Joe Biden and his Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, resorted to alternative solutions, such as airdropping aid and building a floating dock off the shores of Gaza.

Instead of taking lackluster measures - as the author believes - the Biden administration can benefit from the enormous American influence and follow the example of his predecessor, former Republican President George H.W. Bush, who, along with his Secretary of State, James Baker, explained to the Israelis in 1991 that they must stop using American funds to build Israeli settlements on land. Palestinian territories if they want to receive an aid package worth $10 billion in the form of loan guarantees.

A major confrontation ensued between the White House and the Israeli government, which included presidential veto threats and angry pressure in Congress from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), but Bush Sr. and Baker were firm in conditioning aid to Israel with respect for international law, and Bush said at the time Father: “I will not give up an inch.”

Although the starting points in the two issues are different, as Israel was not at war at the time, political courage in Washington is more necessary in times of war, especially with accusations against Israel of committing war crimes and perhaps genocide, and therefore Washington must muster a similar resolve today. According to the writer.

Strict insistence

The magazine reviewed the details of the crisis between President George H.W. Bush and Israel, which was sparked by the policy of then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir to expand settlements, and despite the fact that Israel and its supporters were struck by a state of madness, one of the Israeli government ministers even described the American president as “anti-Semitic” and a “liar.” George H.W. Bush prevailed in the end.

During the Gulf War in the period 1990-1991, the Bush administration was able to place Israel - in Bush's words - "very carefully outside the coalition", to keep the Arab members in it, which reveals the limits of Israel's strategic value in a strategic region, according to the author.

The writer pointed out that the Bush administration's strict determination to restore his country's position as the largest partner in the American-Israeli relationship differs markedly from the lenient stance of the Biden administration, which barely deviated from explicit support to moderate rebuke after the killing of 32,000 Palestinians, many of them women and children.

However, there are notable historical similarities, with the late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's occupation of Kuwait in 1991 as the backdrop, and today there is Russia's war on Ukraine, and the same perception in the Global South of an intolerable double standard on behalf of Israel.

Just as the new world order the United States was building was at stake then, now it was about the West's revitalized commitment to defending democracy and the rule of law.

Source: Foreign Policy+ AlJazeera

The American magazine "Atlantic" published a long article by Israeli writer Anshel Pfeffer, in which he says that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the worst prime minister Israel has ever had in its history.

Pfeffer, who writes frequently in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, added that most Israelis already realize that Netanyahu is the worst among the 14 prime ministers Israel has known in 76 years, but in the future Jews may remember him as the leader who inflicted the greatest amount of harm on the Jewish people during the 21 centuries. past.

Pfeffer - who published a book about Netanyahu in 2018 entitled “Bibi: The Turbulent Life and Periods of Benjamin Netanyahu” - explained that Netanyahu’s quest for power diverted Israel from confronting its most pressing priorities: the Iranian threat, the conflict with the Palestinians, and the desire to nurture a western society and economy in the most contentious corner of the Middle East, the internal contradictions between democracy and religion, and the clash between tribal terrorism and the hopes of advanced technology.

He pointed out that Netanyahu's obsession with his fate as Israel's protector had caused serious damage to it.

I wish he had retired

The writer said that if Netanyahu had accepted defeat in June 2021, and made way for a coalition of his opponents, he could have retired at the age of 71 with a decent claim to be one of Israel's most successful prime ministers.

Netanyahu has already surpassed, the writer says, the time spent by the founder of Israel, David Ben-Gurion, to become in 2019 the longest-serving Israeli prime minister, and his second term (from 2009 to 2021) coincided with what may be the best 12 years Israel has ever known in terms of security. And economic.

The writer pointed out that 12 years of Netanyahu’s leadership made Israel safer and more prosperous, with deep trade and defense relations around the world, but this was not enough to win another term, as the majority of Israelis were fed up with him, and he was accused of bribery and fraud in his dealings with billionaires and press barons. .

At that point, Netanyahu could have sealed his legacy, as the plea deal offered by the prosecutor would have ended the corruption trial by convicting him on reduced charges without prison time.

He would have to leave politics, perhaps forever. He had already left an indelible mark on Israel over four decades of public life, including 15 years as prime minister and 22 years as leader of the Likud Party, but he could not bear the thought of giving up power.

Pfeffer highlighted the “Al-Aqsa Flood” attack carried out by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) as Netanyahu’s biggest failure, saying that the disasters of that day, his failures, and the shocks he caused will haunt Israel for many generations, adding that even if we leave aside the war he has waged against Gaza since that day, its end is uncertain. As yet known, October 7th means that Netanyahu will always be remembered as Israel's worst leader ever.

Ben-Gurion, Eshkol, and Begin

The writer explained that there is no widely accepted classification of the 13 men and women who led Israel, but most lists put David Ben-Gurion at the top. He was not just the George Washington of Israel, but his administration created many institutions and policies that define Israel's identity to this day.

Other candidates include Levi Eshkol - says the writer - for his "smart and wise leadership in the tense weeks that preceded the Six-Day War, and Menachem Begin, for reaching the country's first peace agreement with Egypt."

These three men, he said, had mixed records and, of course, critics: Ben-Gurion had authoritarian tendencies and was consumed with partisan infighting during his final years in office. After the Six-Day War, Eshkol failed to present a coherent plan for what Israel should do with the new territories it occupied and the Palestinians who have remained under its rule ever since.

During Begin's second term, Israel entered a disastrous war in Lebanon and his government nearly destroyed the economy, but in the minds of most Israelis, the positive legacy left by these three outweighs the negatives.

"Worse than Golda Meir"

Until now, most Israelis considered Golda Meir the first candidate for the title of worst prime minister, as the intelligence failure that led to the October 6 war occurred under her administration. Before the war, it rejected Egyptian peace overtures, and when war was clearly imminent, its administration refrained from launching preemptive attacks that could have saved the lives of hundreds of soldiers.

Other "worst" candidates include Ehud Olmert, for waging the Second Lebanon War and becoming the first former prime minister of Israel to go to prison on corruption charges, and Yitzhak Shamir, for refusing to reach an agreement with Jordanian King Hussein that many believe could have been an important step toward a solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and Ehud Barak, for his abject failure to fulfill his exorbitant promises to bring peace with both the Palestinians and Syria.

But Benjamin Netanyahu is now exponentially ahead of them. He has brought right-wing extremists into the mainstream of the government and made himself and the country indebted to them. His rampant corruption and terrible security decisions have brought an existential threat to Israel, which he pledged to lead and protect, and above all, his selfishness is unparalleled. .

Bringing the extreme right into state administration

The writer explained that Netanyahu is distinguished by being the only Israeli prime minister who made an alliance of convenience with "the most irresponsible extremists in Israel and made them an integral part of his party and the administration of the state."

He pointed out that Netanyahu placed these "extremists" in positions of power, undermined confidence in the rule of law, and sacrificed principles for the sake of power, adding that it was no wonder then that tensions over the role played by the Israeli judiciary last summer became out of control.

The debate over judicial amendments pitted two visions of Israel against each other. On the one hand, there was the liberal and secular Israel that relied on the Supreme Court to defend its democratic values, and on the other hand, there was the religious and conservative Israel that feared that unelected judges would impose ideas inconsistent with their Jewish values.

The Al-Aqsa flood came...

Netanyahu's 16th year in office, 2023, was the third bloodiest year in Israel's history, preceded only by 1948 and 1973, the first year of Israel's establishment and the year of the October War, respectively. The first 9 months of 2023 have already witnessed a rise in deadly violence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as well as Palestinian attacks within Israel's borders. Then came the Al-Aqsa flood.

In order to regain his position and remain in it, Netanyahu sacrificed his power and distributed it to the "most extreme" politicians. Since his re-election in 2022, Netanyahu has no longer been the center of power, but has become a vacuum, a black hole that has swallowed all political energy in Israel. His weakness has given the "far right" and religious fundamentalists extraordinary control over Israel's affairs, while other segments of the population have been left to pursue the never-ending quest to end his rule.

Source: Atlantic

Today, Saturday, Palestinian factions considered that any international or Arab force entering the Gaza Strip is unacceptable and unacceptable, and constitutes an occupying force.

This came in a statement by the Follow-up Committee of the National and Islamic Forces, which includes most of the Palestinian factions. The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) published the statement on its digital platforms, on the occasion of the 48th anniversary of Palestinian Land Day.

The factions said, "The occupation leaders' talk about forming an international or Arab force for the Gaza Strip is an illusion and a mirage, and that any force entering the Gaza Strip is rejected and unacceptable. It is an occupying force, and we will deal with it according to this description."

They added, "We appreciate the position of the Arab countries that refused to participate and cooperate with the occupation leaders' proposal regarding the formation of the force."

The factions stressed that managing the Palestinian reality is “an internal Palestinian national matter that we will not allow anyone to interfere in, and that all attempts to create alternative administrations that circumvent the will of the Palestinian people will die before they are born and will not be successful.”

Israeli leaks

Yesterday, Friday, Israeli media reported that Defense Minister Yoav Galant informed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of progress in talks with the United States regarding a proposal to deploy a multinational force in the Gaza Strip.

The private Hebrew Channel 12 reported that Gallant held talks with American officials, during his visit to Washington a few days ago, regarding the formation of a multinational force and its introduction into Gaza to be responsible for the security of the region, the entry of humanitarian aid, and the organization of its distribution.

The channel claimed that these talks resulted in progress that it did not clarify, pointing out that the elements of this force would be from 3 Arab countries, without naming them.

It added that it is not yet certain whether this force will include American soldiers.

In a related context, the factions reaffirmed the unified national position that there is no agreement or exchange deal with the occupation except with a comprehensive cessation of aggression, the return of the displaced, complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, sheltering the demolished homes, reconstruction, breaking the siege, opening the crossings, and bringing in aid.

Indirect negotiations are continuing in Doha between Israel and Hamas, mediated by Qatar, Egypt, and the United States, with the aim of reaching a prisoner exchange deal and a truce between the two parties, after a first humanitarian truce that lasted a week until the beginning of last December, and resulted in the exchange of dozens of prisoners and the entry of limited aid into the Strip.

Tel Aviv holds at least 9,100 Palestinians in its prisons, while it is estimated that there are about 134 Israeli prisoners in Gaza, while Hamas announced that 70 of them were killed in Israeli raids during its ongoing aggression against the Gaza Strip.

Since October 7, the Israeli army has been waging a devastating war on Gaza that has left tens of thousands martyred and wounded, most of them children and women, according to Palestinian sources, which necessitated Tel Aviv’s trial before the International Court of Justice on the grounds of committing genocide.

Source: Al Jazeera + Anatolia

The families of detainees in Gaza confirmed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is an obstacle to reaching an agreement to release detainees in Gaza, as the Israeli war enters its 176th consecutive day.

They stressed that Netanyahu's behavior is a crime, and if we do not do everything to remove him, we will not see our children, as they put it.

They also confirmed, in their statement on Saturday, that they would demand the ouster of Netanyahu, while they blamed it for not reaching an agreement on the exchange deal.

Meanwhile, thousands demonstrated in front of the Ministry of War of the occupation government in Tel Aviv and demanded the overthrow of the Netanyahu government.

Meanwhile, Hebrew Channel 12 said that a delegation from the entity will leave for Cairo tomorrow to discuss the exchange deal.

The toll of the aggression rose to 32,705 killed, in addition to 75,190 people being injured since the seventh of last October, according to the daily toll issued by the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip.

Last week, the Senate in Buenos Aires decided to stop the process of moving the Argentine embassy to Jerusalem, after opposition from lawmakers from the country's leftist parties.

The decision came less than two months after Argentine President Javier Miley visited Israel and announced his intention to move his country’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, according to the Israeli news site iNews 24.

A temporary settlement was reached in Argentina, according to which legislators from left-wing parties would agree to support the nomination of Rabbi Axel Fakhnisch as the new Argentine ambassador to Israel, who is considered close to President Miley, and in return it was decided to at least temporarily freeze the transfer of the embassy to Jerusalem.

It is noteworthy that during his visit to Israel last February, Miley pledged to Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz to move the embassy to Jerusalem. Since his election, Miley expressed “broad support for Israel and its right to defend itself in the war in Gaza, calling for the immediate release of the kidnapped persons without any conditions.”

One of the main reasons for opponents of moving the embassy in Argentine politics is the existence of a law stating that Argentina will not establish any embassy or political institutions in “occupied and disputed territories.” This law stems from Buenos Aires’ long claim to the British-controlled Malawi (Falkland) Islands.

For its part, Hamas said that the decision places Argentina as a partner to the occupier in its violations against the Palestinian people and their national rights to their land and sanctities.

Until now, the vast majority of countries have refrained from moving their embassies to Jerusalem, with the exception of the United States, Kosovo, Guatemala, Honduras, and Papua New Guinea.

In recent years, the Palestinian Authority and Arab and Islamic countries have repeatedly called on countries to refrain from moving their embassies to Jerusalem.

(dpa)

The Foreign Ministers of Egypt, Jordan, and France called for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. They also called for the full implementation of Security Council Resolutions 2721, 2720, and 2728, including facilitating the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

In a joint statement following the talks session held in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, today, Saturday, to discuss the Palestinian issue and the situation in Gaza, they warned of the horrific repercussions of the humanitarian situation, famine and the collapse of the health system in the Gaza Strip, and affirmed their rejection of any attempts at displacement and forced displacement of the Palestinian people, which are considered unlawful under international law.

They called for the implementation of the temporary measures approved by the International Court of Justice on January 26 and March 28, and called for the rapid, safe, unhindered and intensive implementation of humanitarian aid directly to the civilian population in need inside and throughout the Gaza Strip. They called for Israel removes all obstacles, allows and facilitates the use of all land crossings and increases its capabilities with the aim of increasing the flow of humanitarian aid in accordance with the relevant Security Council resolutions.

They commended the indispensable efforts of the United Nations and its agencies, including UNRWA, which plays a crucial role in providing life-saving humanitarian assistance to the civilian population in the Gaza Strip, and reaffirmed the importance of respecting and protecting all humanitarian workers and ensuring their access and freedom. It transports them to and throughout Gaza, including the northern part of it.

The ministers also opposed any military attack on Rafah, which is home to 1.5 million displaced Palestinians, as any attack on Rafah would lead to massive loss of life and further aggravate the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.

They called for maintaining the status quo of the holy sites in Jerusalem without change, including the role of the Jordanian Jerusalem Endowments Department under Hashemite guardianship, and expressed deep concern about the increasing pressures against the Christian and Muslim communities in Jerusalem.

They stressed the inevitability of implementing the two-state solution on the basis of relevant United Nations resolutions, including the establishment of an independent, sovereign, contiguous and viable Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders, with the aim of Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security.

They stressed the need for the Security Council to address the situation on the ground, in addition to the political aspect of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which France is committed to, as a permanent member of the Council. They condemned all violations and abuses of international law and international humanitarian law.

They stressed the importance of Egypt's role in efforts aimed at alleviating the suffering of the civilian population in Gaza, as well as in negotiations related to issues of ceasefire, prisoners and detainees.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri said, “We emphasized the importance of achieving an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, affirmed the refusal to displace the Palestinian people from their lands, and discussed the danger of carrying out any military operation in the city of Rafah, which is crowded with civilians.”

In turn, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Al-Safadi said: “We are still facing Israeli rejection that leads to more suffering, and there is consensus on basic issues related to the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the entry of aid,” noting that “Israel has used starvation as a weapon against the Palestinian people, and must be held accountable for its actions.” What it is doing in the Gaza Strip, and the international community must take action to stop its violations.”

Al-Safadi stressed the necessity of stopping the supply of weapons to Israel, and the necessity of imposing sanctions on the Israeli government if it continues to defy the will of the international community, explaining that the French position has evolved significantly in calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

For his part, French Foreign Minister Stephane Ségornet said, “We came to Cairo to work together to reach a ceasefire and find a political solution in Gaza,” adding that there are joint European-Arab efforts to get out of the crisis in Gaza.

The French Minister stressed that we are against any military action in the city of Rafah, and the time has come to lay the foundations for a lasting peace in the Middle East that enjoys international consensus, noting that we are consulting on a French draft resolution for the Security Council on the political track in the Middle East, stressing that “our goal is to achieve peace in The Middle East and we can achieve consensus on our initiative as a permanent member of the Security Council.”

An Israeli delegation will head to Cairo tomorrow, Sunday, to resume indirect negotiations with the Hamas movement, while a march roamed the streets of Tel Aviv demanding the fall of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and blaming him for the failure to recover prisoners held by the Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Channel 12 reported that a delegation including representatives of Mossad, intelligence, and Shin Bet will leave for Cairo tomorrow, Sunday, to discuss the exchange deal with Hamas.

For its part, the Egyptian Cairo News Channel quoted a security source as saying that truce talks between Hamas and Israel will resume tomorrow, Sunday, in Cairo.

In the same context, a protest march took place in the streets of Tel Aviv on Saturday evening demanding early elections.

Thousands of Israelis demonstrated in front of the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv, demanding the overthrow of Netanyahu's government.

Families of Israeli prisoners held by the resistance in Gaza since October 7 are participating in the protests.

The families of the Israeli prisoners issued a statement in which they said, "Netanyahu is the main obstacle to seeing our children."

The statement added, "Netanyahu's behavior is a crime, and if we do not do everything to remove him, we will not see our children. From now on, we will demand the ouster of Netanyahu, and we will protest to overthrow him."

Earlier, Israeli Channel 12 reported that the police were sending warning messages to the leaders of the protests demanding the ouster of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The past weeks have witnessed Israeli demonstrations demanding Netanyahu's departure from power and early elections to be held.

The protesters hold Netanyahu responsible for failing to confront the Al-Aqsa Flood operation launched by the Palestinian resistance against Israel on October 7th.

Israeli segments believe that Netanyahu is obstructing reaching a prisoner exchange deal with Hamas and aims to prolong the war for fear of accountability and the collapse of his political future.

In a related context, an opinion poll published by Channel 13 reported that 51% of Israelis support holding elections this year, and 38% oppose that.

The poll also revealed that 61% of Israelis are pessimistic about achieving the goal of eliminating Hamas, while 24% of them believe that the war will end with the elimination of the movement.

Medical sources reported that there are 107 patients trapped in Al-Shifa Medical Complex, who were gathered in the Human Resources Development Building in inhumane conditions without water, electricity, and medicine, two weeks after the Israeli forces stormed the complex.

It added that among the 107 patients present in Al-Shifa, 30 are disabled, in addition to the presence of 60 medical staff. The Israeli forces have prevented all attempts to evacuate these patients through international institutions, and the lives of these patients are in grave danger.

Israeli Interior Minister Moshe Arbel called for canceling the ban on entry of Palestinian workers from the West Bank, warning of rising residential real estate prices and reliance on illegal labor.

He said in a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, reported by Haaretz newspaper, that the ban on entry of Palestinian workers led to a significant delay in the delivery of new apartments.

In his letter, he warned that this ban caused great economic harm to real estate buyers and contractors alike. At the same time, he warned of fears of the collapse of companies in the Israeli construction sector.

It is noteworthy that before the Al-Aqsa flood operation on October 7, Israel relied on approximately 200,000 Palestinian workers who entered it daily from the West Bank to work.

Palestinian workers represented the largest percentage of the total number of workers in the construction sector in Israel.

On Saturday, Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, urged Israel to speed up approval for the evacuation of patients from the Gaza Strip and the treatment of critical cases.

This came in a post on the Ghebreyesus account on the “X” platform about the health situation in the Gaza Strip.

The UN official warned that "thousands of patients are deprived of health care, with only 10 hospitals operating on a limited basis across the Strip."

Ghebreyesus said: “There is an urgent need to evacuate about 9,000 patients out of Gaza to receive life-saving health services, including treatment for cancer, injuries resulting from bombing, dialysis and other chronic conditions.”

He pointed out that "so far, more than 3,400 patients have been transferred abroad through the Rafah crossing, including 2,198 wounded, but many must be evacuated."

The Director-General of World Health concluded by saying, “We urge Israel to accelerate approvals for evacuations, so that critically ill patients in Gaza can receive treatment,” stressing: “Every moment is important.”

The United Nations Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, expressed her astonishment at the words used by the US State Department spokesman against her and considered them irresponsible, stressing that Washington is an integral part of what is happening in Gaza.

Albanese said - in statements to US National Radio in response to the statements of the US State Department spokesman who accused her of having a history of anti-Semitic statements - that expecting Israel to act in accordance with international law is not anti-Semitic or shameful, considering that her criticism of Israel was due to its policy.

The UN rapporteur indicated that the failure in multilateralism and in providing international protection systems is due to the opposing position of the United States.

Albanese stressed that the United States is an integral part of what is happening in the Gaza Strip, and questioned the credibility of what the US State Department says about Israel adhering to international humanitarian law, despite the violations it is committing, such as starvation.

US State Department spokesman Matt Miller said that the United States had “opposed for a long period of time the mandate of this special rapporteur,” and accused Albanese of having a “history of anti-Semitic comments.”

Threats

A few days ago, Albanese said that she had been subjected to attacks and received numerous threats since she began her mission to prepare a report on Israeli crimes in the Gaza Strip.

Albanese confirmed - during a press conference regarding her report submitted to the Human Rights Council on the devastating Israeli war on the Gaza Strip - that after 5 months of analyzing the massacres carried out by Israel in Gaza, the reports confirm the presence of elements indicating that Israel is committing the crime of genocide in Gaza. Pointing to 3 actions specifically: killing Palestinians, displacing them, and imposing living conditions that lead to partial or complete physical destruction against them.

She stressed that Israel is using banned weapons against the Palestinians in Gaza and is starving them, "and this is a set of war crimes that have never occurred before in the occupied Palestinian territories."

The UN rapporteur called on the world to confront Israel's brutality and force it to abide by international law, and stressed that Israel has manipulated international humanitarian law to justify the violations it is committing in Gaza. She stressed the need to make efforts to stop the ongoing genocide in Palestine.

The Prisoners' and Ex-Prisoners' Affairs Authority and the Palestinian Prisoners' Club reported that Israel doubled the number of prisoners in the prisons after the seventh of last October, so that it rose to more than 9,000 Palestinians.

The Prisoners' Commission indicated, in a statement, that the tally does not include all detainees from Gaza, against whom Israel continues to carry out the crime of enforced disappearance.

Israel continues to launch arrest campaigns after the seventh of last October in the West Bank, where the number of arrests in the West Bank reached more than 7,870, including those who were arrested and kept in detention by Israel, and those who were later released.

The statement confirmed that the arrest operations have increased in the Israeli crimes against prisoners, detainees and their families, and the occupation forces at their various levels and the prison administration have adopted systematic and horrific crimes of torture, abuse and assaults in their various forms, in addition to the policy of starvation and double isolation that they imposed on the prisoners, according to the statement.

The statement referred to what the Israeli media revealed about data indicating the death of other detainees from Gaza in the Sde Teman camp in Beersheba. It also recently revealed the martyrdom of 27 detainees from Gaza.

The statement stressed that Israel refuses to reveal any information regarding the fate of Gaza detainees. Israel also admitted to the execution of one of the Gaza detainees, along with other information indicating the execution of others.