Israeli news channels focused in their daily discussions on the warnings of former and current Israeli officials about the approach adopted by Israel in its war on the Gaza Strip, and about the dangers of restricting the entry of Muslim worshipers from the occupied West Bank to the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque during the month of Ramadan.

The former head of the National Security Council, Giora Eilanda, described the Israeli approach in dealing with the Gaza Strip as “dangerous,” and said that this approach said 4 months ago that “we will fight only militarily and close the way to any kind of political initiative to end the war, and we will fight until absolute victory.” “It is not clear what it is.”

“In my opinion, this path is dangerous,” Isela added in an interview with Channel 12, stressing that the whole world wants the war in Gaza to end.

Regarding the link between Lebanon and Gaza from an Israeli point of view, the former head of the Israeli National Security Council said that the Secretary-General of the Lebanese Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, “will not agree to a ceasefire, and he will also not agree to any political settlement on the border between Israel and Lebanon as long as the war continues.” In Gaza it continues.”

The former Israeli official said, "If the war in Gaza continues for many months - as Israeli officials say - there is a very high possibility that we will reach a comprehensive war with Lebanon, and I do not think that this is an Israeli interest in 2024."

Restricting entry to Al-Aqsa

Discussions on Israeli channels also focused on developments in the scene at Al-Aqsa Mosque, as Channel 13 reported that several discussions were held by the Israeli security services during the past days regarding the possibility of restricting Muslims’ access to Al-Aqsa Mosque to include residents of the West Bank.

The channel's correspondent for political affairs, Moria Asraf-Wolberg, confirmed that the Israeli Internal Security Agency (Shin Bet) conveyed, within the framework of those discussions, "a severe warning to the political level, stating that if this matter happens and the entry of Arabs inside the country is also restricted, this may lead to a dangerous flare-up of the situation, and it may become explosive." "The Jerusalemites are more dangerous than what will happen in the West Bank."

Kan 11's police affairs correspondent reported that the Israeli police proposes to deploy a permanent police force in Al-Aqsa Mosque Square.

On another topic, Israeli Channel 12 touched on the efforts of the Israeli Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, to arrest the leader of the Palestinian National Authority, Jibril Rajoub, on the pretext that he did not condemn in his statements what happened last October 7.

According to the same channel, “Ben Gvir issued instructions to the police to consider whether it was possible to initiate a criminal procedure against Rajoub on charges of incitement to terrorism.” It said that the military prosecution called for a return to the Shin Bet and considered the arrest of Rajoub a very dangerous matter, but Ben Gvir said, “No one has immunity from accountability for incitement, even if it is Jibril Rajoub who should be arrested.”

Source: Al Jazeera

The famous British screenwriter Paul Lafferty expressed his solidarity with Gaza, which has been subjected to a devastating Israeli war, since October 7, 2023.

At the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards ceremony, on Sunday evening, Lafferty, while taking souvenir photos, raised a banner reading: “Gaza... Stop the massacre.”

On Sunday, the capital, London, witnessed the distribution of the BAFTA Awards, in which the film “Oppenheimer,” which revolves around the manufacture of the atomic bomb during World War II, won the largest number of awards, including “Best Film,” “Best Director,” and 5 other awards.

Since last October 7, Israel has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, which has left tens of thousands of victims, most of them children and women, according to Palestinian and UN data, which led to Israel being tried before the “International Justice” on charges of “genocide crimes” for the first time since its founding.

The death toll from the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip has risen to 29,092 killed and 69,028 injured since October 7th.

According to the Ministry of Health, the Israeli army committed 9 massacres against families in the Gaza Strip, claiming 107 killed and 145 injured during the past 24 hours.

The Ministry indicated that a number of victims are still under rubble and on the roads, and Israel prevents ambulance and civil defense crews from reaching them.

On Monday, United Nations experts expressed their concern about documented allegations of grave human rights violations that Palestinian women and girls continue to be subjected to in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

The experts explained that the information and reports they received indicate that there are Palestinian women and girls who have been subjected to arbitrary execution in Gaza, often alongside family members, including their children.

They said, "We were shocked by reports of the deliberate targeting and 'extrajudicial' killing of Palestinian women and children in places where they had taken refuge or while trying to flee. According to what was reported, some of them were carrying pieces of white cloth when they were killed by the Israeli army and its forces."

The experts also expressed their deep concern about the arbitrary detention of hundreds of Palestinian women and girls, including human rights defenders, journalists and humanitarian workers, in Gaza and the West Bank since October 7.

“Many of them were reportedly subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment, as they were deprived of food, medicine, and menstrual pads, and were subjected to severe beatings.

The report stated that on at least one occasion, Palestinian women detained in Gaza were held in a cage in the rain, cold, and without food.

The experts added, “We are particularly distressed by reports that detained Palestinian women and girls were also subjected to multiple forms of sexual assault, such as being stripped naked and searched by male Israeli army officers.” At least two female Palestinian detainees were reported to have been raped, while it was reported that others were threatened with rape and sexual assault.

It was also reported that the Israeli army took photos of female detainees in humiliating conditions and published them on the Internet.

The experts expressed concern about reports that an unknown number of Palestinian women and children, including girls, had disappeared after meeting the Israeli army in Gaza, saying: “There are alarming reports of at least one infant who was forcibly transferred to Israel by the Israeli army.” In addition to children who have been separated from their parents, and their whereabouts remain unknown.”

They added, “We remind the Israeli government of its obligations to uphold the rights to life, safety, health and dignity of Palestinian women and girls, and to ensure that no one is subjected to violence, torture, ill-treatment or degrading treatment, including sexual violence.”

The experts also called for an independent, impartial, prompt, comprehensive and effective investigation into these allegations, and for Israel’s cooperation in these investigations.

“Taken together, these allegations may constitute flagrant/serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, amounting to serious crimes under international criminal law, and can be prosecuted under the Rome Statute,” the experts said.

They added, “Those responsible for these apparent crimes must be held accountable, and the victims and their families are entitled to full redress and justice.”

The experts are: Special Rapporteur on the issue of violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences, Reem Al-Salem, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Francesca Albani, Dorothy Estrada Tank (Chair), Claudia Flores, Ivana Krstić, Haina Lo, and Laura Nirenkende. Working Group on Discrimination against Women and Girls.

At dawn on Monday, settlers smashed the windows of 10 vehicles and damaged their tires, during a raid on vehicles in the town of Huwwara, south of Nablus.

According to local sources, ten settlers riding in two vehicles in the center of the town of Huwwara smashed the windows of the ten vehicles and damaged their tires with stones and sticks, then fled.

Israel has threatened to invade Gaza’s Rafah by the start of Ramadan if Hamas does not return the remaining hostages by then, despite international pressure to protect Palestinian civilians sheltering in the southern city.

With prospects for truce talks dimmed, the United States and other governments, as well as the United Nations, have issued increasingly urgent appeals to Israel to call off its planned offensive on Rafah.

For the latest updates on the Israel-Palestine conflict, visit our dedicated page.

The Israeli government says the city on the Egypt border is the last remaining stronghold in Gaza of the Palestinian militant group Hamas. But it is also where three-quarters of the displaced Palestinian population has fled, taking shelter in sprawling tent encampments without access to adequate food, water or medicine. “The world must know, and Hamas leaders must know -- if by Ramadan our hostages are not home, the fighting will continue everywhere, including the Rafah area,” Benny Gantz, a retired military chief of staff, told a conference of American Jewish leaders in Jerusalem on Sunday. “Hamas has a choice. They can surrender, release the hostages and the civilians of Gaza can celebrate the feast of Ramadan,” added Gantz, a member of the three-person war cabinet.

Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, is expected to begin around March 10.Gantz said the offensive will be carried out in coordination with American and Egyptian partners to “minimize the civilian casualties as much as possible.”

But where Palestinians can go after four months of war have flattened vast swathes of the Strip remains unclear. “There’s no safe place. Even the hospital is not safe,” Ahmad Mohammed Aburizq told AFP from the morgue of a Rafah hospital where mourners gathered around a loved one wrapped in a white body bag." That’s my cousin -- he was killed in Al-Mawasi, in the ‘safe area’. And my mother was killed the day before.” 

‘Total victory’

For weeks, international mediators have sought to broker a truce-for-hostages deal that would pause fighting for six weeks. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has played down the possibility of an impending breakthrough, calling Hamas’s demands “delusional.” Even if a deal is struck, he insists the campaign to eliminate Hamas from Gaza will not be completed until clearing Rafah. “Deal or no deal, we have to finish the job to get total victory,” he said at the Jerusalem conference on Sunday.

With international pressure piling on Israel, the UN’s top court will open a week of hearings from Monday examining the legal consequences of the country’s 57-year occupation of Palestinian territories.

The hearings, requested by the UN General Assembly, are separate from South Africa’s high-profile case alleging Israel is committing genocide in its current Gaza offensive. 

At the UN’s Security Council, the United States signaled it would veto the latest UN draft resolution seeking an immediate ceasefire should it come to a vote this week.

Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the resolution would jeopardize the ongoing truce talks, as well as the broader aim of “an enduring resolution of hostilities.” 

Western governments have increasingly pushed for unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state to be part of that wider peace process, but Israel’s government on Sunday unanimously adopted a declaration rejecting such recognition. “After the terrible massacre of October 7, there can be no greater reward for terrorism than that and it will prevent any future peace settlement,” Netanyahu said.

Hamas has meanwhile threatened to suspend its involvement in any ceasefire negotiations unless relief supplies reach Gaza’s north, where aid agencies have warned of looming famine.

‘Crying from hunger’

On Sunday morning, dozens of Israelis blocked Gaza-bound aid trucks from entering through the Nitzana crossing with Egypt, AFP reporters and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said. 

Gazans say they are going so hungry they are grinding animal feed into flour. “My children are starving, they wake up crying from hunger. Where do I get food for them?” a northern Gazan woman told AFP.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said nearly three in four people are drinking contaminated water. “The speed of deterioration in Gaza is unprecedented,” it said.

After a week-long siege, the largest hospital still functional in Gaza is no longer operational, according to the World Health Organization.

At least 20 of the 200 patients still at the Al-Nasser Hospital urgently require relocation to other facilities, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, adding that his organization “was not permitted to enter” the site. Seven patients, including a child, have died there since Friday due to power cuts, and “70 medical staff including intensive care doctors” have been arrested, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Israeli military spokesman Richard Hecht said diesel and oxygen supplies had been delivered on Saturday and a temporary generator was running. Israeli troops in Khan Younis were still operating around the hospital on Sunday after the military said it had “located additional weapons.” Israel has concentrated its military operations in Khan Younis, just a few kilometers from Rafah and the hometown of Hamas’s Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar, who is accused of orchestrating the October 7 attack.

The Hamas assault that launched the war killed about 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli figures.

Militants also took about 250 hostages, 130 of whom remain in Gaza, including 30 presumed dead, according to Israel.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed at least 28,985 people, mostly women and children, according to the territory’s health ministry. 

Source: Alarabya

The political analyst for Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, Nahum Barnea, said on Monday that Israel has, in the meantime, frozen the plan to occupy Rafah, because such a military operation is conditional on the transfer of about 1.3 million displaced people in the city to its north, and this requires long and complex diplomatic and logistical efforts, according to a report by the political analyst in Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, Nahum Barnea, on Monday.

He added that the Israeli political leadership is convinced that most of the hostages in the Gaza Strip are alive and that their health condition is relatively good, but “the worrying problem is their emotional and psychological state, after nearly 140 days in captivity, and in a constant state of panic. Any other day exacerbates this problem.”

According to Barnea, reports about negotiations versus Hamas regarding a prisoner exchange deal are “lies through which the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu misleads the public.” On the eve of the last round of negotiations in Cairo, Netanyahu retracted previous instructions he had given to the Israeli negotiating team, without explaining the reason for this reversal.

It is likely that Netanyahu believed that “a tactical tightening would soften Hamas’ positions or vice versa, and he was terrified by the progress of the negotiations and worked strategically to thwart them. If this was his intention, he succeeded. There are no negotiations currently. And the attempt of CIA chief William Burns, "Bringing the negotiations out of hibernation failed."

Barnea considered that the American, Qatari and Egyptian mediators were presenting proposals and wasting a lot of energy in the negotiations, but Hamas “did not respond, did not panic, and did not surrender. Also, the Israeli political level did not respond to the mediators. Netanyahu talks a lot about emotions, morals, and security, but he acts according to internal political considerations.”

He added that the Israeli military operation in Khan Yunis "revealed" that a large number of hostages were held close to the Hamas leadership, and that their conditions were relatively good.

"The advance of the Israeli army prompted the Hamas leadership to move to other locations, and they took the kidnapped persons with them to less safe places, in the Rafah area. The risks of being injured in an exchange of fire increased, as did the risks to their health and food."

Barnea reported, “The White House has crystallized a solution to this impasse. Instead of a small deal, exchanging kidnapped people for prisoners, it turned to a giant deal: freeing kidnapped people and prisoners, rebuilding the enclave, smoothly deporting Hamas, integrating Israel into an alliance with the Sunni Arab countries, and an American-Saudi defense contract, an achievement for Biden in exchange for the progressive wing of his party, as well as the resumption of negotiations on establishing a Palestinian state. There is no small deal without the big deal, and there is no big deal without the small deal. The Palestinian state is still far away, but it is possible to try.”

He continued that with a solution like this, the Americans turned Netanyahu into “the enemy of liberating the kidnapped. From his point of view, any progress in the negotiations poses an immediate threat to the continuation of his rule. He agreed to send the Israeli crew to Cairo in order to maintain an appearance only in exchange for the families and the American administration. The Israeli crew was neutralized with everything related to negotiations."

Barnea pointed out, "The center of events is moving from Cairo to Washington. Netanyahu and his envoy, Ron Dermer, will try to deal with Biden as they dealt with Obama. This will be a wonderful drama, but it will not bring any kidnapped person back home."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in the process of studying approval of the American proposal. It is the recognition of a Palestinian state in exchange for a historic turning point regarding Saudi Arabia.

According to an informed political source, the plan stipulates that the Americans unilaterally recognize the Palestinian state, while Israel expresses its opposition to this matter, and declares that the permanent agreement that will include a Palestinian state is only discussed in direct negotiations, and accepting the American step aims to achieve a historic political breach regarding Saudi Arabia.

Last Thursday, the Washington Post reported that the Biden administration intends to officially recognize the Palestinian state within a few weeks. This step received sharp criticism from a large number of ministers in the government, under the pretext that it exposes Israel to danger, especially after the October 7 attack. October 1st.

But the Prime Minister responded late, and moderately, to the step that Washington intends to take. On Saturday evening, Netanyahu told reporters: “Israel absolutely rejects international dictates regarding the permanent settlement with the Palestinians, which must only take place through direct negotiations between the two parties, and without preconditions.” He added: "Israel will continue to refuse to unilaterally recognize the Palestinian state, as such recognition, after the 'massacre' of October 7, offers a reward to 'terrorism' that we have never seen before, and will prevent any future solution to peace."

A political source explains that the delay in Netanyahu’s response, and the short form he chose, are the result of the understanding with the American administration, within which Netanyahu expresses his opposition to unilateral recognition of the Palestinian state, and his agreement to hold negotiations on a future solution without preconditions.

With this formula, Netanyahu hopes that the Americans will be able to convince Saudi Arabia that Israel has come a long way in the Palestinian issue. In return, Riyadh would be prepared for historic recognition of Israel.

It should be noted that Netanyahu has not taken a final decision in this direction, and he is seriously examining it with Minister Drmer, through whom the talks with the Americans are taking place.

What must be mentioned is that Israel has opposed for decades the trend of Western countries towards unilaterally recognizing the Palestinian state. In Jerusalem's estimation, such recognition is permissible, and reduces the Palestinians' desire to conduct negotiations with Israel, because the international community extracts concessions from it unilaterally.

A political source stated that if the American move comes into effect, it will constitute a severe political blow, and in his estimation, many Western countries will follow Washington’s example and recognize the Palestinian state. However, there is great importance to the formula of recognition if it specifies what the territory of this state is, its capital, and who will control the security field there, in addition to other aspects.

Maryam and Abdullah are newlyweds who were not given time by the Israeli occupation. Only three days after their wedding, they were killed in the bombing of a family rest house in the “Khirbet Al-Adas” area in the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip.

They were not alone, as others were martyred with them, and the rescue teams found only 7 people, including one dead and one wounded, while the fate of the rest of the displaced remained unknown due to the intensity of the bombing.

Despite mounting regional and international warnings of possible catastrophic repercussions, the Israeli occupation army is preparing to invade Rafah, the southernmost part of the Gaza Strip on the border with Egypt, where there are at least 1.4 million Palestinians, including 1.3 million displaced persons whom Israel pushed from the north and center of the Gaza Strip to its south, claiming that it is an area Safe.

The Israeli war on the Gaza Strip has entered its 136th day, with the number of dead since the beginning of the war rising to about 29,000 Palestinians.

Source: Al Jazeera

The French newspaper Le Monde said that the African Union withdrew the status of observer member that Israel enjoyed within the organization, and thus Tel Aviv was permanently banned from the institution after a decade of diplomatic efforts and two years of adopting that status, but the newspaper confirmed that Israel nevertheless remains influential in the continent.

The newspaper explained - in a report written by Noy Hoshet Boudin, its correspondent in Addis Ababa - that the unofficial expulsion of the Israeli delegation from the African Union General Assembly with the start of the presidents’ discussions in February of last year left its impact on the relationship between Tel Aviv and the continent, thanks to the efforts of South Africa and Algeria, which were behind the marginalization of the Israeli representatives, although they did not lead to resolving the issue of Israel.

A year after this diplomatic incident, the war on the Gaza Strip put an end to this debate, and “the file related to Israel’s accreditation remains closed,” says a senior African Union official.

The organization suspended Tel Aviv's observer status, and Ebba Kalondo, spokesman for the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, said, "Israel is not invited to attend the summit."

On the other hand, the African Union rolled out the red carpet for Palestinian Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh, who received long applause from the heads of states of the continent, most of which are committed to the Palestinian cause. He said in front of a number of African leaders that “the Palestinians are defending their homeland, just as you in Africa defended your lands against colonialism.”

The Africans condemned the Israeli attack, and the Chairman of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, considered it the “most blatant” violation of international humanitarian law, and accused Israel of wanting to “exterminate” the people of Gaza. Afterwards, the President of the Comoros, Razali Ousmani, thanked South Africa for submitting a complaint to the International Court of Justice to denounce "the genocide that Israel is committing before our eyes."

The judges of the International Court of Justice had ruled in favor of Pretoria, which at the end of December 2023 submitted a request accusing Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza. Liesl Le Vaudran, a researcher at the International Crisis Group, said, “This is one of the greatest achievements in African diplomacy.” ".

Despite all this, South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor expressed her concern “about the presence of Israeli representatives at the headquarters of the African Union in recent days,” after the Israeli ambassador to Ethiopia was seen inside the building, as Sharon Barley, Deputy Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, expelled from the African Union in 2023, held secret meetings in the Ethiopian capital, according to several diplomatic sources.

Despite Israel's official ban from the African Union, the division over it has not been completely resolved - according to Le Monde - citing the vote of 7 African countries against the resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian truce in Gaza, at the United Nations, on October 27 last year.

Source: Le Monde

Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Jolie said on Sunday that the planned Israeli attack on the city of Rafah, in the far south of the Gaza Strip, "is unacceptable because the Palestinians have nowhere to go."

“We believe in Israel’s right to exist, and we also have a foreign policy that revolves around human security, and the protection of civilians is at the heart of everything we do,” Jolie said during a panel discussion at the German Research Center on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.

“We need an Israeli government that is ready to talk about a two-state solution,” she stressed.

She explained that the Israeli attack on the city of Rafah "is unacceptable because the Palestinians have nowhere to go."

Meanwhile, Jolie said that “Arab countries must normalize diplomatic relations with Israel, which will include a security agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia.”

The Canadian Foreign Minister concluded her speech by saying: “Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cannot continue waging his war.”

Israel is currently announcing its intention to invade Rafah in the southern region, which is crowded with displaced people, after it forcefully removed the residents of the north and directed them to the south, claiming that it is a “safe area.”

Israel, which killed tens of thousands of Palestinians in its devastating war on the Gaza Strip, forced most of the Palestinians in the northern and central Gaza Strip to flee to the Palestinian city of Rafah, bordering Egypt, amid estimates that it contains about one million and 400 thousand civilians, in light of international warnings of its invasion.

Since October 7, 2023, Israel has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, leaving tens of thousands of civilian victims, most of them children and women, in addition to an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe and massive destruction of infrastructure, which led to Tel Aviv being brought before the International Court of Justice on charges of “genocide.” ".

Israel estimates that intense military operations in the Gaza Strip will continue for another six to eight weeks, as it prepares to hold a ground exercise in Rafah near the border with Egypt.

This is what four sources familiar with the strategy told Reuters. According to two Israeli sources and two sources from the region, Israeli army commanders believe that they can inflict significant damage on Hamas’ capabilities during this period and pave the way for the next phase of less intense fighting.

An Israeli official said, "There is no chance that the Netanyahu government will respond to international pressure and cancel the operation in Rafah, the last stronghold under Hamas control."

According to the report, the Israeli army is preparing to enter Rafah, but has not yet explained how it will move more than a million people from the city to allow the ground maneuver to continue. An Israeli security official and an international relief agency said that residents may undergo examination before being sent from Rafah to the north, and another Israeli source said that Israel may build a “floating dock” to allow international aid and ships used as hospitals to dock near the Strip.

At the same time, an Israeli official said that residents would not be allowed to return en masse to the northern Gaza Strip. According to regional officials, transferring a large number of residents to the northern Gaza Strip is a dangerous step, given the lack of electricity or water in the area, and there are many unexploded explosive devices.

Israeli air and artillery bombardment continues on the towns and regions of southern Lebanon, with the continued exchange of bombing between Hezbollah and Israel since October 8, 2023.

The Lebanese Agency reported this morning that the villages of the western and central sectors experienced a cautious and tense night, during which flare bombs were fired and reconnaissance aircraft flew as far as the outskirts of the city of Tyre.

The Israeli forces fired heavy machine guns at the area adjacent to the town of Ramiya at dawn today. While the residents of the border villages adjacent to the Blue Line are suffering as Israel deliberately targets civilians and infrastructure as reported by the Lebanese Agency.

The follow-up committee warned the Arab masses and political activities inside the 1948 territories of the war government’s intention to accept the requests of the settler minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, to impose restrictions on the entry of Muslims from inside the Palestinians and Palestinians from Jerusalem to Al-Aqsa Mosque during the month of Ramadan, after imposing severe restrictions on the Palestinians of the West Bank. Of course, the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip were banned, in light of the ongoing war of extermination against them.

The Supreme Follow-up said, “The holy month of Ramadan is a month of worship and piety, but the racist mentality that dominates the Israeli government has made it a month of provocations, threats, oppression, and deprivation of freedom of worship for the owners of the homeland, the holy sites, the first two qiblahs, and the third of the two holy mosques.”

It stressed that these conditions requested by Ben Gvir, and approved by his Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to what is published in the media, are a declaration of all-out war against us, and are a prelude to emptying the Holy Mosque in order for the settlers to control Al-Aqsa Mosque in preparation for its demolition, according to what he seeks. Settlers and extremists in general over the years.

It concluded the follow-up by stressing that Al-Aqsa Mosque, in its entirety, is a sacred place for Muslims alone, and no one else has the right to enter it and manage its affairs, and we will not give up the freedom of entry to Al-Aqsa Mosque, in this holy month, and every day and hour.

Today, Monday, dozens of Israeli settlers stormed the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, amid heavy protection from Israeli police.

The settlers made provocative tours inside the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque, and performed Talmudic rituals.

Groups of settlers storm Al-Aqsa on a daily basis except Friday and Saturday.

The International Court of Justice in The Hague begins, until Monday, holding public hearings on the legal consequences arising from Israel’s policies and practices in the Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.

Today witnesses the opening of the hearings in The Hague and the statement of the State of Palestine.

The sessions come in the context of the United Nations General Assembly’s request to obtain a fatwa from the court on the effects of the Israeli occupation that has continued for more than 57 years, and will continue for six days between 19 and 26 February.

During the sessions, the court is scheduled to hear briefings from 52 countries - an unprecedented number in the history of the court - in addition to the African Union, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and the League of Arab States.

The General Assembly had submitted a request for an advisory opinion from the court in a resolution it adopted in late December 2022 on the legal consequences “arising from Israel’s continued violation of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, and from its long-term occupation, settlement and annexation of the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including measures aimed at changing the demographic composition,and  character and status of the City of Al-Quds Al-Sharif, and its adoption of discriminatory legislation and measures in this regard.”

The procedures presented before the International Court of Justice differ from the case filed by South Africa against Israel regarding its non-compliance with the Convention on the Prevention of Genocide in the Occupied Palestinian Territory during its war on the Gaza Strip, which led to the death of more than 28,000 Palestinians and the displacement of the majority of the population of Gaza.

Although advisory opinions issued by the International Court of Justice are non-binding, they can carry significant moral and legal authority and can eventually become part of the norms of international law, legally binding on states.

The General Assembly had requested a legal advisory opinion on Israeli actions in the occupied territories in December 2003 regarding the construction of the apartheid wall in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. A few months later, in July 2004, the court found that construction of the wall contravened international law and must stop, and that the parts that had been built must be dismantled.

These proceedings provide the Court with the opportunity to provide - two decades after its last advisory opinion - a more comprehensive assessment of the practices of the Israeli occupation, and to advise on the application of international humanitarian law, human rights law, and international criminal law.

Israel was among 57 countries and international organizations that submitted written statements to the court by the deadline it set of July 25, 2023, and decided not to participate in the oral hearings.

It is noteworthy that the International Court of Justice is the main judicial body of the United Nations, and consists of 15 judges who are elected for a nine-year term by the General Assembly and the UN Security Council.

At dawn and Monday morning, the Israeli forces launched a massive arrest campaign in various areas of the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem.

In Hebron, the occupation forces arrested: Sajid Al-Laqta, Subhi Abu Zeina, the two brothers Qutaiba and Murad Al-Qawasmeh, the two brothers Muslim and Mohsen Ayoub Al-Qawasmeh, and Raslan Sayuri, after raiding and searching their homes.

It also raided the home of citizen Mansour Siouri and handed over a report to his son Samer for review by its intelligence.

The occupation forces stormed several areas in the town of Dura, south of Hebron, and arrested: Mohsen Younis Al-Masalma, Ahmed Muhammad Odeh Atbeish, Moaz Khaled Al-Faqih, and Muhammad Nasr Al-Rajoub, after raiding and searching their homes.

In Ramallah, the occupation forces arrested Alaa Nimer Sattouf, Muhammad Mbassem Al-Rimawi, and his son Yahya, after raiding their homes in the town of Beit Rima.

In occupied Jerusalem, the young men Muhammad Mazen Abu Sneina, and the two brothers Mahmoud and Arafat Iyad Taha, were arrested after raiding their families’ homes in the town of Silwan.

In Qalqilya, the occupation forces arrested the young man Mahmoud Shteiwi after storming the town of Kafr Qaddum.

While the young man, Issam Abu Adas, was arrested in the city of Nablus.

In Bethlehem, the occupation forces arrested the young man, Nour al-Din al-Harimi, after raiding his family’s home in the Abu Najim area.

On the 136th day of the Israeli war on Gaza, Israel continues to threaten to expand the fighting to include Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, while the number of killed since the beginning of the war has risen to about 29 thousand Palestinians.

Sirens sounded in several locations around the Gaza Strip on Monday morning.

The Israeli Home Front explained that sirens sounded in the settlements of Nirim, Third Eye, and Nir Oz in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli army announced the closure of 4 main road axes in the Upper Galilee and the areas adjacent to the border with Lebanon.

The private Hebrew Channel 13 reported that elite Hamas fighters detained in Israeli prisons "suffer severe and difficult procedures and are crowded into very small cells amid hunger, cold and hardship."

This came in a television report broadcast by the channel about the Palestinian prisoners, whom the channel said were “elite” members of the “Al-Qassam” Brigades affiliated with the Hamas movement, who were arrested during the attacks of October 7, 2023.

The channel says, "Prisoners of the Hamas elite suffer from very difficult conditions, as they are always shivering from the cold, and are forced to bend their heads while sitting on the ground. The cell rooms are very small, and the beds are unmade and without covers."

On a daily basis, the jailers play loud songs in Hebrew, including the song “The People of Israel Are Alive,” inside the small cells where prisoners of the Hamas elite are crowded, according to the report.

The report shows the presence of police dogs accompanying the jailers every time they inspect these prisoners.

According to the television report, “More than 5 prisoners are confined in one very small cell, and the food provided to them is very little.”

The truest truth that expresses the position of the current American administration regarding the war on Gaza is that no matter how ferocious and extreme the Israeli war crimes are, none of them will prompt US President Joe to think about stopping the war on Gaza, or even cutting off the supply of American weapons to Israel and the financial support flowing to aid Israel. Israel is waging a war of annihilation, and this appears clear in its position on the upcoming Rafah attack.

This is what was concluded by a report by the American website The Intercept, which accused Biden of carrying out a propaganda stunt to deceive his voters, especially Arabs and Muslims, who are angry about his support for Israel, by broadcasting statements and leaks indicating that he is in disagreement with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding the upcoming Rafah attack, while he is helping him. In its implementation.

On Tuesday, February 13, the US Senate approved sending more military aid (worth $14 billion) to Israel so that it can continue occupying Gaza and bombing the Palestinians there. Biden remains determined to reject global demands to call for an immediate halt to the Israeli military attack on the starving people of Gaza, most of whom lack any means of self-protection.

Biden supplies Israel with more lethal weapons while showing frustration with Netanyahu

However, Biden not only categorically rejected suggestions threatening to stop military sales to Israel, but his administration is currently preparing to send a new shipment of lethal ammunition to Tel Aviv, which it declares its insistence on carrying out the anticipated Rafah attack.

But since conservative estimates indicate that the death toll in Gaza is close to 30,000 people, including more than 13,000 children, White House propaganda officials have begun to worry about the impact on Biden’s chances of winning the US elections in 2024. Therefore, they are making efforts to It strives to promote a general image of the American administration’s sympathy with the people of Gaza, and to market allegations that Biden is fed up with what his friend Benjamin Netanyahu is doing. The campaign has mobilized to bring a measure of coherence to Biden's public discourse to mitigate the effects of his constant disastrous statements, most recently his claim that he had recently met with presidents who had been dead for decades.

Although the International Court of Justice formally accepted consideration of the lawsuit filed by South Africa accusing Israel of possible genocide in Gaza, and although it ordered a set of urgent measures to restrain Israel from committing acts that constitute the crimes of genocide, Tel Aviv did not hesitate to Intensifying its military operations, besieging hospitals, bombing civilian sites, and even preparing for a large-scale ground invasion in Rafah. This is despite the fact that the city harbors more than 1.4 million Palestinians who are trapped in an area not exceeding 65 square kilometers, after Israel ordered them to move there if they wanted safety.

Israel claims to be working on an “evacuation” plan for the area and to evacuate the displaced people trapped in Rafah. The word "evacuation" is in fact nothing but a description of further forced displacement of Palestinians under the threat of death, and it is a terrible thing for efforts now to focus on further terrorizing people instead of making efforts to save them.

The Biden administration has publicly claimed that it will not support an Israeli ground attack on Rafah, yet a transcript of Biden’s recent call with Netanyahu makes clear that the administration qualified this reluctance with a public condition that: “A military operation should not proceed without a credible and implementable plan that guarantees safety and support for civilians.” In Rafah.”

Israel proposes to establish tent cities for the displaced of Rafah, some of which are in Egypt

The American newspaper The Wall Street Journal reported that “Israel proposes to establish sprawling tent cities in Gaza, and that this comes as part of an evacuation plan funded by the United States and its partners in the Persian Gulf before the expected Rafah attack.”

The newspaper, quoting Egyptian officials, said that Egypt will establish 15 camp sites in southwest Gaza, each containing 25,000 tents and a field hospital.

Satellite images revealed that similar facilities are being established, but Egypt was reserved in answering questions about its position on this issue.

These developments indicate that the White House is aware that Israel is likely intent on launching a large-scale ground campaign against Rafah. This invasion may lead to a severe diplomatic crisis between Israel and Egypt, at a time when the White House hopes that Egypt will have an important participation in mediating a prisoner exchange deal and a 6-week truce.

Biden portrays himself as cautious about Israel's behavior, including the upcoming Rafah attack

Over the past four months, the White House issued similar statements expressing its grave concerns about the impending Israeli operations, including the successive Israeli attacks on hospitals in Gaza, but it quickly declared its support for Israel when it carried out them. The Biden administration has reportedly informed Israel that it supports strikes on specific targets in Rafah, and does not want a large-scale ground campaign.

Given the opportunism that pervades Washington’s policies, some of them claim that the Biden administration is seizing the opportunity of the deteriorating situation in Rafah, and if Netanyahu continues to violate the declared position of the White House, the American administration intends to exploit this to escalate its propaganda campaign and market its claims about its “almost exhausted patience” with Netanyahu's actions, and then use this to promote the fictitious story crafted by the US President's election campaign team, and say that Biden did his utmost to support Israel's right to self-defense, but that he will stop matters at a certain point if Netanyahu exaggerates in exploiting this support.

But evidence indicates that he will support it

However, recent evidence suggests that Biden will support the expected Rafah attack and the Israeli ground campaign on the densely populated city, provided that this is accompanied by some statements of concern and disappointment regarding the military methods followed by Israel, and then claiming that he was able to convince Israel to protect civilians. .

The White House took turns claiming some of this credit for itself, and claiming that it had succeeded in convincing Israel to be less criminal in its operations, and it continued these claims despite the Israeli army’s continued killing of almost countless numbers of Palestinian civilians, according to the American website’s description.

Biden and Netanyahu use similar evasion when dealing with the issue of the Palestinian state and the two-state solution. The American administration is dealing with the matter because it realizes that this issue is the focus of any agreement to normalize relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, and moving towards this goal allows the White House to claim that it has achieved a triumphant political victory, even if nothing remains of Gaza but ruins.

Therefore, US administration officials have become increasingly interested in talking about the road map linking the establishment of a Palestinian state to ending the war, but Netanyahu strongly rejects any such idea. “Israel will not hesitate to reject any unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state,” Netanyahu said in a statement issued after a phone call with Biden on February 15.

Biden is fighting safe battles with Netanyahu

In fact, the Biden administration’s focus on the issue of “recognition of a Palestinian state,” as well as his criticism of the establishment of illegal Israeli settlements, are nothing but safe battles that Biden is waging against the politically weak Netanyahu. Because he realizes that it will not bring him significant consequences, while he does not make any effort to prevent the upcoming Rafah attack.

It has been clear for months that part of Biden's plan in dealing with the genocidal war in Gaza during the American election campaign is to place the lion's share of the blame on Netanyahu's political ship, and hope that this ship sinks at the appropriate time, so that he can use the matter to serve his electoral interests.

But in reality, he saved Israel from an ammunition crisis, and without him, the war would not have continued

American intelligence estimates issued a few days ago indicate that the current Israeli weapons stockpiles do not allow it to continue its war on Gaza for more than 19 weeks, which means that it cannot continue the war at that time unless Washington sends more ammunition.

Accordingly, Biden’s refusal to use his influence derived from being Israel’s primary source of weapons is clear evidence that the vulgar statements circulated by American officials and transmitted by media “leaks” regarding Biden’s growing frustration with Netanyahu are nothing but an electoral ploy, according to the American website.

Whatever “turn” Biden eventually takes to evade the political repercussions of the Gaza war, he will never be able to compensate for the countless opportunities that the past months of war witnessed in which he was presented with Israeli crimes that were worth exploiting to threaten to end military support and stop military sales. Weapons.

In fact, Biden and his companions consciously and deliberately made a decision to continue sending ammunition and weapons to Israel, despite the continuing massacres in full view of the world.

Biden is trying to deceive his voters by scaring them away from Trump

The reason that made the war on Gaza, including the expected Rafah attack, an internal electoral problem for Biden is the protest activity, especially from Americans of Palestinian origin.

The American website says: “It seems that the White House believes that it can save its share of the Arab American vote, and hopes that fears of another term for Donald Trump will motivate them to favor Biden in the elections, and overlook his terrible participation in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”

But whatever happens in the November elections, we must never forget that it was Biden, and not the Americans who oppose the Israeli war and American support for it, who strengthened Trump’s chances of winning the upcoming elections, and that this guilt lies only with Biden and the democratic party establishment. 

A report published by the American Time magazine confirmed that the full support provided by President Joe Biden to Israel, despite its ongoing massacres in Gaza, may cause great harm to his electoral path.

The report added that indications are that Biden has lost significant support among Arab-American voters, progressive voters, as well as young people because of his handling of the war on Gaza and his full support for Israel.

The report explained that observers believe that continued American support for Israel, despite what it has been committing for months in the besieged Gaza Strip, may cost Biden support in the swing states that usually decide the electoral outcome.

He continued that the perception that the United States is not using all the tools at its disposal will have dire consequences not only for the Gaza Strip (the death toll alone is close to 30,000), but also for the foreign interests of the United States.

Fixed support

The report confirmed that Biden did a lot in favor of Israel, and he seemed firm in his position despite the warnings of those close to him, noting that Israel did not respond to this by responding to American requests regarding the course of the war on Gaza.

He also stated that despite the United States' influence over Israel, the Biden administration has so far proven that it is "unable or unwilling" to exercise that influence, a fact that has not gone unnoticed either at home or abroad.

Time added that pressure has increased on Washington to impose conditions on its ally Israel in exchange for providing aid, but so far this does not appear to have been achieved.

He said that the public statements of American officials about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, as well as the increase in civilian deaths, were not met with a change in Israel's strategy, which is moving forward with its plan to storm Rafah, despite the White House's warning about this.

Biden is trying to reduce the pressure exerted on him as the elections approach. He has issued an executive order aimed at punishing settler violence, and drafted a memorandum demanding that allies who receive American aid present a reliable and credible plan that guarantees their commitment to international law.

Time quoted Jonah Plank, a former foreign policy advisor to Biden during his time in the Senate, as saying that the tools to exert pressure on Israel exist, but the question is, will they be used? Adding that, with the elections approaching, it seems that the sand is moving inside the United States faster than the president’s initiatives.

Source: Time+Aljazeera

Dozens of citizens were killed and injured, this Sunday evening, as a result of the Israeli continuous bombing of the Gaza Strip for the 135th day.

Medical sources reported that more than 70 citizens were killed, and others were injured, most of them children and women, in bombing carried out by Israeli aircraft and artillery on Al-Nuseirat, Al-Zawaida, and Deir Al-Balah.

They added that the bodies of 16 citizens arrived at hospitals following the continued Israeli bombing of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, while 5 dead bodies, most of them children, were recovered as a result of Israeli bombing on areas in the northern Gaza Strip.

Israeli bombing also targeted the neighborhoods of Al-Shuja'iya, Al-Zaytoun, Tal Al-Hawa, and Sheikh Ajlin in Gaza City, while drones and reconnaissance planes flew at low altitudes over various areas of Rafah.

Medical sources in Gaza reported that the Israeli army committed 13 massacres during the past 24 hours.

In an infinite toll, the number of killed rose to 28,985, the majority of whom were women and children, and the wounded to 68,883, since the start of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip on the seventh of last October.

A young Palestinian was killed by Israeli forces this Sunday evening, near the Beit Furik checkpoint, east of Nablus.

Local sources reported that the Israeli forces opened fire on the young man, Anas Dwikat, from Nablus, near the Beit Furik checkpoint, seriously wounding him. It was later announced that he died as a result of his wounds.

The same sources indicated that the Israeli forces detained the body of dead Dweikat, noting that he was from the town of Rujib.

Before the death of the young man Dweikat, the Israeli forces closed the Beit Furik checkpoint, east of Nablus, in both directions.

The European Union's High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, said on Sunday that Israel cannot defeat Hamas by fighting.

In a speech during his participation in a symposium held on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in Germany, Borrell stressed the necessity of presenting a future plan for the Palestinian people based on the two-state solution.

Borrell said, "The West Bank is the real obstacle to the two-state solution, knowing that it is boiling over due to the increasing level of violence against the Palestinians since last October 7."

Food, water, sanitation and other basic needs are in unprecedented shortage for more than a million Palestinians who have fled the Gaza Strip to the southern city of Rafah of the territory, a UN special rapporteur told Anadolu.

"More than a million people are concentrated in Rafah, after fleeing other parts of Gaza. They are in dire need of basic necessities basics of life, whether food, water or sanitation, and the threat of disease exceeds anything we have seen in the conflicts of recent decades around the world, however severe they may have been. been these conflicts,” explained Balakrishnan Rajagopal, UN special rapporteur on the right to housing. “There has never been a situation where a population was not even allowed to flee.”Mr. Rajagopal stressed that even Israel does not know where these people are supposed to go, recalling numerous statements from Israeli sources indicating "a desire to expel them entirely from Gaza." Pointing to serious allegations that senior Israeli officials and other leaders plan to eliminate the Palestinian population from Gaza, Mr. Rajagopal stressed that these allegations, considered by some as "ramblings of random people in Israel", cannot be ignored. "Unfortunately, everything we thought impossible becomes increasingly possible. We must judge Israel's actions not by what they say, but by what is actually happening. 

What is happening is that people have been displaced to several times and they were concentrated in Rafah. 

They are being bombed now." Noting that UN rapporteurs have written numerous reports on the "genocidal" dimension of Israeli attacks in Gaza, Mr. Rajagopal noted that they had mentioned a "serious risk of genocide" in their initial report. 

He added that they had issued another report which included the possibility of genocidal acts taking place, stating: "Since then, we have confirmed this fact. What is happening in Gaza constitutes genocide." Commenting on the affair of genocide brought against Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Mr. Rajagopal said the interim decision of the highest court of the United Nations was that South Africa, which had filed the complaint, was "largely right" in his request. "The actions taken by Israel to create the conditions in which Gaza becomes uninhabitable for the population living there constitute, in my opinion, acts of genocide, without question. 

Comparing the situation in Gaza to the Bosnian war of the 1990s, Mr. Rajagopal pointed out that the ICJ had also ruled that the massacre of Muslim Bosniaks by Serbian forces in Srebrenica had also constituted genocide. "During the Bosnian War, in the former Yugoslavia, and in this conflict, approximately 8 000 to 9,000 people were killed. If this is genocide, I find it hard to believe that what is happening in Gaza is not genocide." 

Israeli attacks have killed more than 28,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, mostly women and children. Focusing on the issue of Gaza, the special rapporteur said, represents a "complete failure" by the international community. 

The collective action mechanism is completely frozen and the international community 'did nothing."The Security Council or the United Nations General Assembly adopted very weak resolutions which were not implemented. 

Even formally, the International Court of Justice's ruling, while morally and symbolically important, did not order anything concrete that led to specific actions or inactions on the part of Israel. "Crucially, institutionally, I think the world has failed. 

It has failed Gaza. And once again, Israel has shown that it is protected by what I call institutionalized impunity. Israel seems to be protected regardless the transgression. Highlighting that many buildings were destroyed in Gaza following the attacks, Rajagopal said assessments based on satellite data and field reports show that more than 70 percent of homes in Gaza were destroyed or severely damaged, and rendered unusable. 

He added that data from areas such as Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip indicate that 82 to 84 percent of these areas may have been completely wiped out."

"We are talking about a very large level of destruction, the kind that we have not seen in other conflicts, such as in Mariupol, which was the city most seriously destroyed by Russian bombing in Ukraine , or by the conflicts in Syria."Mr. Rajagopal stressed that homes in Gaza were not only destroyed by bombings or heavy artillery attacks, but also by Israeli forces who moved into bombed areas and destroyed homes and public buildings. He stressed that the reconstruction of Gaza will be extremely difficult and will require years of sustained effort, drawing parallels with the reconstruction of other countries destroyed in conflicts. "I wonder how long it will take to clear the rubble in Gaza. The reconstruction of Rotterdam took almost twenty years. By the way, it was under ideal conditions, that is, we were ready to invest a lot, a lot of resources and time to rebuild the city.

"The second thing is more important: we must ensure that the conditions for lasting peace in the region are met before reconstruction can really take place. Otherwise, it is not possible to expect the reconstruction to progress significantly,” he concluded.

Association France Palestine Solidarité

Sources familiar with the Egyptian and regional movements to reach an agreement to stop the war on Gaza and a prisoner exchange deal said, “It seems that the internal political differences in the Israeli government have moved to the regional circles working to reach an agreement.”

An Egyptian source said, in an interview with Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, that “a high-ranking Israeli security figure affiliated with the camp of the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, made contacts with Egyptian officials, following the faltering of the recent negotiations that Cairo received, due to Netanyahu preventing security delegations from going to Cairo to continue negotiating the controversial points regarding the Paris Framework Agreement and Hamas’ response to it.”

The source revealed that "the Israeli security official was keen to stress that progress in any negotiating path to stop the war on Gaza is mainly linked to the position of the Prime Minister, and not to the positions of other parties in the war government or the security services."

The source said, "The communications came after Egyptian officials concerned with the mediation file communicated with the minister in the war government, Benny Gantz, during the past few days, as part of Cairo's efforts to advance efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement."

Cairo contacted Hezbollah to calm the scene and prevent it from sliding into a widespread confrontation

He added, "It appears that the contacts made by Egypt and other regional parties with Gantz angered Netanyahu, who sensed that there were attempts to push Gantz to the forefront, in the face of Netanyahu's insistence on adopting an approach that leads to expanding the circle of conflict and confrontation in the region."

The source continued, "As part of Cairo's efforts at the present time, communication has been made with the Lebanese Hezbollah, in the wake of the recent escalation on the northern front, in order to calm the scene and prevent it from sliding into a wide confrontation." He revealed that Cairo "assured Hezbollah officials of continuing pressure on the Israeli side to prevent the invasion of Rafah, as well as to prevent the expansion of the confrontation on the Lebanese front."

The Egyptian source explained that “the day after the quadrilateral Cairo meeting (last Tuesday), which included the head of the Egyptian intelligence service, Major General Abbas Kamel, the Qatari prime minister and foreign minister, Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani, the heads of the Mossad, David Barnea, the Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, and the director of the CIA, William Burns witnessed a call between Abbas Kamel and Burns, in order for Washington to play a role in moving Netanyahu’s position and putting pressure on him in parallel with the role played by the mediators with Hamas in order to quickly reach an agreement.”

The source pointed out that "the current situation is not related to the conditions presented, as much as it is related to Netanyahu's position on the idea of negotiating in general, and reaching an agreement at the present time."

Netanyahu wants to continue the war in Gaza

He stressed that "Netanyahu is unwilling to reach an agreement, even if Hamas announces its withdrawal from its conditions, because he wants to end the Gaza scene with a massacre and more blood, to present an image of absolute victory in the minds of the Israeli street, in a way that makes it forget its political and security failure."

The source added: “What encourages Netanyahu to go ahead with his vision and escape forward is that none of the Western powers and even Washington have shown real intentions to restrain Tel Aviv, other than the fact that there are parties in the occupation army that support Netanyahu’s approach to circumvent the military failure and defeat that befell them on July 7.” Last October.

Hamas is committed to a positive approach

For his part, a Hamas leader said that the movement "remains committed to a positive approach to the mediators' proposals and efforts for a ceasefire." He stressed, at the same time, that “it is possible to respond to some of the proposals put forward in the negotiations, but there are clear constants that can never be undone, and we stressed them before the mediators went to the Paris meeting, which are a comprehensive ceasefire, Israel’s complete withdrawal from Gaza, and reconstruction."

He explained that "what is being leaked in the Hebrew media, regarding taking a step toward negotiations to reach a prisoner exchange agreement and then taking a step back, has the main goal of escaping international and internal pressures, and not portraying the Israeli government as obstructing the agreement."

The leader revealed that “the resistance is currently being subjected to regional and Arab pressures, in order to make concessions and back off some of the conditions it adheres to,” noting at the same time that “these pressures come despite those parties’ conviction of the justice of the proposals put forward by the resistance.” The importance of the cards held by the resistance, particularly the prisoners, as well as its ability to withstand and confront despite the long period of aggression.”

Yesterday, Saturday, the head of the Hamas political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, said that the movement “responded in a positive spirit with the mediators in order to stop the aggression against our people, end the siege, and allow the flow of aid and reconstruction, but Israel continues to maneuver and procrastinate.”

He stressed, in a statement, that the resistance "will not accept anything less than a complete cessation of aggression, the withdrawal of the Israeli army outside the Gaza Strip, the lifting of the siege, the return of the displaced, especially to the northern Gaza Strip, an end to the starvation policy, and a commitment to reconstruction."

In this context, the Palestinian politician, academic, and former member of the Knesset, Jamal Zahalka, said in an interview with Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, “The ball is now in the Israeli court, and there are severe differences in the war council between Netanyahu and Gantz. The former practically does not want the deal, but he also does not want to show that he does not want it, so he makes statements to the families of detainees in the Gaza Strip that he is making efforts, and that he is ready for a deal, if this deal does not tie the hands of the occupation in military operations.”

He pointed out that “Gantz and Minister in the War Council, Gadi Eisenkot, want there to be a deal, because of the pressure of the families, and the security establishment is also interested in a deal, because the Israeli army is exhausted and wants to rest a little and prepare itself to invade Rafah, and it is actually preparing for this direction, because "There is no indication that Israel will not overrun Rafah."

He explained, “There is an opinion within the security establishment that the issue should be postponed until after Ramadan (starting in the second week of next March) because it is a very charged period, especially in the city of Jerusalem and also in other places, and this will have repercussions and open new fronts as well as concern.” "For the Israeli forces. This is why I see that the Israeli military establishment and the security establishment want there to be no fighting during this period, and this is why they are talking about a 35-day truce, which is less than what they committed to in Paris."

Zahalka continued: “Israeli interactions may result in approval - in the end - of the first phase of this deal, but Israel will not, under any circumstances, accept a commitment to a permanent ceasefire.”

In his turn, Samer Mukhaimer, professor of political science at Al-Azhar University in Gaza, told Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed, “Egyptian and Qatari efforts are still continuing, because there is no other alternative.” He added, "The continuation of these efforts comes in order to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in Rafah, if Israel launches a ground invasion of the region," noting that "they are also continuing with American blessing, as Washington is pushing for a temporary ceasefire, leading to the release of the hostages, but this does not mean that the efforts will be crowned with success.”

Dozens of citizens were killed and injured today, Sunday, as the Israeli warplanes targeted citizens’ homes in Deir al-Balah and al-Zawaida in the central Gaza Strip, and Khan Yunis in the south.

Local sources said that sraeli warplanes bombed the home of the Al-Baraka family in the Al-Brook area in the city of Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, leading to the death of 8 citizens, including 3 children.

5 citizens were killed and others were injured after the sraeli forces targeted a group of citizens near the Kuwait Roundabout, south of Gaza City.

Medical sources reported that 17 bodies were recovered from under the rubble of the Hamad family home, which was bombed by sraeli aircraft at dawn today in the town of Al-Zawaida.

In the northern Gaza Strip, a number of citizens were injured after the Israel targeted the Al-Dhabous family home near the Beit Lahia cemetery.

To the south, the Israeli warplanes launched raids west of the city of Khan Yunis, and two citizens were killed and others injured, after targeting the vicinity of a school housing displaced people in the town of Al-Qarara, northeast of Khan Yunis.

Medical sources pointed out that an eighth patient was killed in Nasser Medical Complex as a result of the electrical generator stopping and the oxygen being stopped.

In an infinite toll, the number of killed rose to 28,985, the majority of whom were women and children, and the wounded to 68,883, since the start of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip on the 7th of last October.

The private Channel 14, which is close to supporters of the Israeli right, said on Saturday evening that the crossroad “794” begins from the area of the “Nahal Oz” settlement in the Gaza Strip, and extends westward into the Gaza Strip almost to the Mediterranean Sea, and it cuts the Gaza Strip’s ties.

It reported that dozens of machines, trucks, and engineering equipment, belonging to the Army Engineering Corps, are currently building stone factories and crushing them to build this road.

The commander of the “601” Battalion, affiliated with the Combat Engineering Corps, Lieutenant Colonel Shimon Orkabi, told the channel: “We are now within the scope of the Netzarim Road (a former Israeli settlement in the Gaza Strip), which creates a barrier between the north of the Strip and the central and southern regions to protect the area and penetrate into areas where there is It contains the enemy, preventing movement between north and south and controlling it precisely.”

Israeli forces are destroying all the homes to the right and left of the new road, as shown in a video broadcast by the channel, whose correspondent said that this road indicates that the army is undoubtedly preparing to remain in Gaza for a long time.

Despite mounting regional and international warnings of potentially catastrophic repercussions, the Israeli army is preparing to invade Rafah, the southernmost part of the Gaza Strip on the border with Egypt, where there are at least 1.4 million Palestinians, including 1.3 million displaced persons whom Israel pushed from the north and center of the Gaza Strip to its south, claiming that “ Safe area.”

Since October 7, the Israeli army has been waging a devastating war on Gaza that, as of Sunday, left “28,985 dead and 68,883 injured, most of them children and women,” in addition to thousands missing under the rubble, according to the Palestinian authorities.

For the first time since its establishment in 1948, Israel is being tried before the International Court of Justice, the highest judicial body in the United Nations on charges of committing “genocide” crimes against the Palestinians.

European Union foreign policy chief Joseph Borrell said, “The West Bank is witnessing a boiling point and we may be on the verge of an even bigger explosion.”

Borrell stressed on Sunday that the situation in the West Bank occupied by Israel constitutes a major obstacle to reaching a sustainable solution that establishes peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

The number of settlers in the West Bank is about 750,000 settlers residing in more than 365 settlements and settlement outposts.

Borrell said at the Munich Security Conference that the European Union must "support the Arab initiative" which stipulates the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The statements of the European Union's foreign policy official come in the wake of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's rejection of a plan for international recognition of a Palestinian state following reports about such an initiative reported by the Washington Post, which includes, according to the newspaper, a specific timetable for the establishment of a Palestinian state.

The final statement of the African Summit called on Israel to “comply with the decisions of the International Court of Justice to prevent genocide in Gaza.”

The statement, on Sunday, condemned the collective punishment against civilians in Gaza and attempts to forcefully transfer them to the Sinai Peninsula, calling on Israel to respond to international calls for a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and lift the unjust siege imposed on it.

It condemned the brutal war and the use of excessive force by the Israeli occupation army against 2.2 million defenseless civilians in the Gaza Strip, calling for an independent international investigation into Israel’s use of internationally banned weapons, and its targeting of hospitals and media institutions.

It also condemned the support provided by some countries for the Israeli occupation and unleashing it to continue its military operations, and demanded the lifting of the unjust siege imposed on the Gaza Strip.

Yesterday, Saturday, the work of the 37th ordinary session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union began in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, under the theme of the African Union for the year 2024, “African education suitable for the twenty-first century: building flexible educational systems to increase access to comprehensive and lifelong learning of a quality appropriate to Africa.” 

The summit was attended by leaders of member states of the African Union and representatives of a number of international organizations.

In his speech at the opening of the African Summit, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, affirmed support for South Africa’s position, and demanded the implementation of the decisions of the International Court of Justice, considering its decision a victory for all countries supporting the Palestinian cause.

It said that Gaza is being completely annihilated and its people are deprived of all their rights, calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

He stressed Africa's solidarity with the Palestinian people, stressing the need for the Palestinian people to enjoy full freedom and their independent, sovereign state.

The head of the Egyptian Information Service, Diaa Rashwan, announced today, Sunday, that Cairo has submitted a memorandum to the International Court of Justice regarding Israel’s practices in Palestine, and will plead before the court next Wednesday, February 21.

This came in a statement issued by Rashwan before the court, headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands, began holding hearings regarding an advisory opinion requested by the United Nations General Assembly regarding the legal consequences arising from Israel’s policies and practices in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Rashwan said, "Egypt will participate in the advisory opinion requested by the United Nations General Assembly from the International Court of Justice (in January 2023), regarding Israeli policies and practices in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967."

He stated that "Egypt submitted a memorandum to the court, and will present an oral argument before it on February 21."

Rashwan explained that the memorandum includes “affirming the illegitimacy of the Israeli occupation, which lasted more than 75 years, in violation of the principles of international humanitarian law, as well as the policies of annexing lands, demolishing homes, and expelling, deporting, and displacing Palestinians, in violation of the peremptory rules of general international law, including the right to self-determination for the Palestinian people and the prohibition of seizing territories through the use of armed force.

The memorandum also includes “the rejection of policies of persecution, racial discrimination, and other Israeli practices, which blatantly violate the principles of international humanitarian law and international human rights law,” according to Rashwan.

He stated that the memorandum and the upcoming Egyptian pleading call on the court to confirm “Israel’s responsibility for all those internationally unlawful acts, which necessitate Israel’s immediate withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian territories, including the city of Jerusalem.”

They also demand, according to Rashwan, “the Palestinian people to be compensated for the damages they suffered as a result of these internationally illegal policies and practices, in addition to demanding that all countries of the world and the international community not recognize any legal effect of Israeli measures and stop providing support to Israel.”

The court will hold its sessions between the 19th and 26th of this month, and is scheduled to hear briefings from 52 countries, in addition to the African Union, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and the League of Arab States.

In a similar advisory opinion, the International Court of Justice ruled in 2004 that the construction of the separation wall in the occupied West Bank was illegal, and demanded that Israel remove it from all Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem and its suburbs, with compensation for those affected. But Tel Aviv did not implement what the court requested.

Since October 7, the Israeli army has been waging a devastating war on Gaza that has left, to date, 28,985 killed and 68,883 injured, most of them children and women, in addition to thousands missing under the rubble, according to the Palestinian authorities.

On January 26, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to take measures to prevent genocide against Palestinians and improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, but it did not order a ceasefire.

The court continues to consider this lawsuit filed by South Africa, accusing Tel Aviv of committing genocide. This is the first time, since its establishment in 1948, that Israel has been subjected to a trial before this court, which is the highest judicial body in the United Nations.