The World Health Organization said on Tuesday that Gaza faces an “imminent public health catastrophe,” amid overcrowding, mass displacement, and damage to the water and sanitation infrastructure as a result of the ongoing Israeli aggression.

This comes as the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip confirmed that the countdown to the cessation of the main generators in both Al-Shifa and Indonesian Hospitals tomorrow, Wednesday, has begun, renewing its appeal to the Egyptian authorities to open the Rafah crossing in order to bring in aid and remove the wounded.

The Ministry also announced - through its spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra - that the occupation army targeted the Turkish Friendship Hospital this morning.

The Ministry of Health appealed to citizens to go to Gaza Strip hospitals to donate blood “urgently,” especially in light of the rise in the death toll and wounded from the Israeli bombing to 8,525 martyrs, including 3,542 children and 2,187 women.

Infant mortality

World Health Organization spokesman Christian Lindmeier warned of the risk of civilian deaths as an indirect result of Israeli bombing.

“An imminent public health catastrophe looms with mass displacement, overcrowding and damage to infrastructure,” he told reporters.

Asked whether people were dying from complications other than those caused by the bombing, Lindmeier said, "They do die."

The spokesman for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), James Elder, also warned of the risk of infant deaths due to drought rising with only 5% of the water supply available. He said, "Deaths of children, especially infants, due to drought pose an increasing threat," adding that children They get sick from drinking salt water.

He continued, that about 940 children are missing in Gaza, and some of them are believed to be under the rubble. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said - in a statement earlier today, Tuesday - that the water supply to southern Gaza stopped “for unknown reasons” yesterday, calling for permission to By bringing fuel into Gaza to operate the water desalination plant. Since the beginning of its aggression against Gaza on the seventh of this month, Israel has imposed a siege on the Strip and refuses to allow fuel supplies to enter on the grounds that the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) may use it for military purposes.

Source: Al Jazeera + agencies

Cargo planes transported large quantities of weapons and ammunition to Israel, and others transported many forces to countries in the Middle East, including rapid intervention forces for the possible evacuation of Western citizens in the event that Hezbollah joins the war, and American forces near Iran.

The United States, Britain, and other Western countries deployed offensive, defensive, and logistical forces in the eastern Mediterranean, in anticipation of the expansion of the war on Gaza, the accession of Hezbollah, and an escalation of a regional war, and to provide aid to Israel in the event that it is exposed to widespread missile attacks, and the evacuation of thousands of Western citizens, according to what public sources said.

The United States transported weapons and ammunition to Israel using 20 large cargo planes and about 50 chartered civilian cargo planes, Israeli and foreign, from military bases in the United States and Europe and from other logistical centers. These planes transported artillery shells and interceptor missiles to air defense systems, according to the US Army. The Israeli Ministry of Security reported that advanced ammunition and other military equipment were transported by planes that landed at Ben Gurion and Ramon airports near Eilat and at the Nebatim air force base. It is likely that the United States is transferring weapons and ammunition to its emergency warehouses in Israel and other countries in the region.

As of Tuesday morning, more than 25 giant American cargo planes have landed at the “Muwafaq Salti” base of the Jordanian Air Force in southern Amman, where many American forces are present, according to public sources. Squadrons of American F-15E combat aircraft, which are usually deployed in Britain, were deployed there, as well as a special one transferred from the Aglin base in Florida. Nine German cargo planes also landed at the Jordanian base in the last two weeks.

In anticipation of the expansion of the Gaza war: a large American and Western military deployment in the region

Cargo planes transported large quantities of weapons and ammunition to Israel, and others transported many forces to countries in the Middle East, including rapid intervention forces for the possible evacuation of Western citizens if Hezbollah joins the war, and American forces near Iran.

The United States, Britain, and other Western countries deployed offensive, defensive, and logistical forces in the eastern Mediterranean, in anticipation of the expansion of the war on Gaza, the accession of Hezbollah, and an escalation of a regional war, and to provide aid to Israel in the event that it is exposed to widespread missile attacks, and the evacuation of thousands of Western citizens, according to what public sources said.

The United States transported weapons and ammunition to Israel using 20 large cargo planes and about 50 chartered civilian cargo planes, Israeli and foreign, from military bases in the United States and Europe and from other logistical centers. These planes transported artillery shells and interceptor missiles to air defense systems, according to the US Army. The Israeli Ministry of Security reported that advanced ammunition and other military equipment were transported by planes that landed at Ben Gurion and Ramon airports near Eilat and at the Nebatim air force base. It is likely that the United States is transferring weapons and ammunition to its emergency warehouses in Israel and other countries in the region.

As of Tuesday morning, more than 25 giant American cargo planes have landed at the “Muwafaq Salti” base of the Jordanian Air Force in southern Amman, where many American forces are present, according to public sources. Squadrons of American F-15E combat aircraft, which are usually deployed in Britain, were deployed there, as well as a special one transferred from the Aglin base in Florida. Nine German cargo planes also landed at the Jordanian base in the last two weeks.

A larger deployment of Western forces and weapons appears to be underway in Cyprus. More than 40 American cargo planes, 20 British cargo planes, and 7 giant cargo helicopters landed at the British Akrotiri base in Cyprus. Military equipment, ammunition and troops were transferred to it.

Four Dutch cargo planes transported to Cyprus about two hundred marines and rapid intervention forces, in preparation for the possibility of emergency evacuation of Dutch citizens from countries in the region, in the event of a widespread war erupting if Hezbollah enters the war.

Germany sent four cargo planes and special forces for rapid intervention, and Canada sent several cargo planes in preparation for the possible evacuation of its citizens. Other countries also sent such planes to Cyprus, but their number was smaller, according to the same sources.

In recent days, special flights arrived in Lebanon transporting members of the American, Canadian, British, German, Spanish, Dutch and Italian air forces, and some of them landed at a base for the Lebanese Army Special Forces near Tripoli. It seems that the goal is to prepare for the possibility of a large evacuation of the citizens of these countries from Lebanon in the event that the war in Gaza expands and includes Hezbollah.

In the past two weeks, the United States has deployed large forces near Iran, including squadrons of F-16 and A-10 fighter aircraft in the Arabian Gulf, and they have been joined in recent days by about 20 refueling aircraft in the air that were brought from the United States.

According to the same sources, dozens of American cargo planes landed in Iraq, Qatar and Bahrain as well. The US Department of Defense announced that it had installed a THAAD battery to intercept ballistic missiles and Patriot batteries, without revealing its location yet.

This force was added to the American aircraft carrier "Ford" anchored west of Cyprus, carrying 80 combat aircraft, electronic combat and espionage systems, and five missile-carrying ships, including two ships that headed to the Red Sea, one of which intercepted missiles launched by the Houthis from Yemen towards Israel.

The aircraft carrier "Eisenhower" entered the Mediterranean with three missile-carrying ships last Saturday, and is heading to the eastern Mediterranean. It is not clear whether it will later head to the Arabian Sea region.

Two other ships, the USS Carter Hall and the USS Mesa Verde, which are two floating ports serving the US Marine Corps, will be used as advanced naval bases for Western forces in the region. The first ship was seen the day before yesterday in southern Sinai in the Red Sea, and the second west of Cyprus. . There are approximately two thousand marines on these two ships, in order to carry out rapid intervention missions to evacuate citizens and ground attacks in the event that the scope of the war expands.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza said that the occupation army committed a new “horrific massacre” today after it bombed a residential neighborhood adjacent to the Indonesian Hospital in Jabalia, north of Gaza, leaving dozens martyred and wounded.

The Ministry indicated that there were 100 martyrs, according to a preliminary toll, stressing that the number may be the largest and may be close to the number of victims of the Baptist Hospital massacre, because the area that was bombed was “densely populated.”

In an interview with Al Jazeera, the Ministry's spokesman described the situation in the hospital as "extremely catastrophic."

The director of the Indonesian hospital also said that the victims suffered burns and deformities that show that the occupation used “internationally prohibited weapons” in the bombing, noting that the hospital will stop working completely tomorrow evening due to a lack of fuel.

For his part, the spokesman for the Civil Defense in Gaza said that what Jabalia witnessed was not the first massacre committed by the occupation against civilians in the Strip, noting that there were a number of citizens on the ground who were martyred and wounded.

He stressed that the Civil Defense is trying, with our simple and limited capabilities, to retrieve the wounded and save them.

 The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research stated in a release that, since October 7 2023, the number of martyrs from the higher education sector in the West Bank and Gaza Strip  reached (439) martyrs;  (427) of whom were students and (12) were employees, and 85% of whom were in the Gaza Strip. It also pointed out that because of the Israeli occupation's constant massacres and attacks, as well as the fact that a significant number of martyrs are still under the rubble in the Gaza Strip, the true number is probably much higher.  The Ministry indicated that 11 higher education buildings were completely or partially damaged, including nine buildings in the Gaza Strip and two in the West Bank.

Complete Disruption of the Educational Process“ 

The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research” pointed out that the entire educational process was disrupted in (19) higher education institutions in the Gaza Strip, which led to more than (88,000) male and female students being deprived of receiving their education since the start of the aggression on the Strip.   

In addition, face-to-face education was disrupted in all (34) higher education institution, which include more than (138,800) male and female students, given the difficulty and danger of movement of students and employees due to the occupation’s barriers and its ongoing attacks.

The Ministry stated that there are hundreds of detainees and prisoners in the West Bank and thousands of wounded in the Gaza Strip from the higher education sector, whose numbers cannot be monitored or counted until now due to field conditions. It also stated that because of the ongoing aggression against the Gaza Strip as well as the attacks in the West Bank and Jerusalem, the data and figures in this release are subject to frequent changes and updates.

A Hezbollah statement said on Tuesday that its fighters targeted an Israeli force with missiles near a military site in southern Lebanon.

The statement carried by the Arab World News Agency indicated that “after careful monitoring by members of the Islamic Resistance of the Israeli occupation forces on the border, an ambush was discovered for an Israeli force positioned on Al-Khazzan Hill in the vicinity of the Al-Asi site.”

The party's statement added that the "Hussein Mansour Group" targeted it with guided missiles, which led to direct hits and all of its members being killed or wounded.

Earlier today, the Lebanese National News Agency said that Israeli bombing renewed on border areas in the south, and that phosphorus shells fell on the outskirts of the towns of Ramiya and Aita al-Shaab.

Today, Tuesday, the Israeli occupation forces arrested three citizens from various areas in occupied Jerusalem.

According to local sources, the occupation forces arrested Muhammad Alian, from the town of Jabal Mukaber, southeast of Jerusalem, Nasser Al-Hadmi from the Al-Sawana neighborhood in Jerusalem, and Uday Al-Mutawar from the town of Al-Ram, north of it, after they raided and searched their homes.

The occupation forces also stormed the town of Al-Tur, east of occupied Jerusalem, and raided the house of the martyr Adam Abu Al-Hawa, which led to the outbreak of confrontations, during which the occupation soldiers fired poisonous tear gas bombs at the young men.

The occupation forces stormed the town of Anata, northeast of occupied Jerusalem, and fired heavy tear gas bombs at the citizens.

A Saudi source said that an emergency Arab summit to address the Palestinian issue and the events in Gaza will be held in Riyadh on November 11.

The source, who preferred to remain anonymous, stated that the emergency Arab summit will be held in the presence of Arab leaders, which will be held on the same day as the previously scheduled Arab-African summit in Riyadh, which discusses political and economic issues that concern the interests of the member states of the Arab League and the African Union. .

The Saudi source stressed that the main issue of the Arab emergency summit is Palestine and the current events in Gaza, indicating that the summit will issue a statement in this regard. He apologized for not giving more details, but he stated that preparations and preparations are underway at a high pace to arrange the summit.

Today (Tuesday), the Palestinian President's advisor for religious affairs, Mahmoud Al-Habbash, confirmed that there is Arab approval to hold the emergency summit called for by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on November 11, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Al-Habbash told the Arab World News Agency that the summit has a primary goal, which is a ceasefire and an end to the killing of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Al-Habbash added: “The priority now is to stop the aggression, and we are ready to do everything to stop the war on the Gaza Strip.” He pointed out that the Palestinian leadership appreciates any effort that seeks to stop the war on Gaza.

The General Secretariat of the League of Arab States announced yesterday (Monday) that it had received an official request from the State of Palestine and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to hold an extraordinary session of the Council of the League of Arab States in Riyadh on November 11.

The Arab League Council, at the level of Arab foreign ministers, held a meeting at the headquarters of the General Secretariat in Cairo on October 11 of this year.

Meanwhile, Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman, who is currently visiting Washington, stressed the necessity of a ceasefire in Gaza, protecting civilians, stopping forced displacement, allowing humanitarian aid to enter without obstacles, and working to restore the path of peace, ensuring that the Palestinian people obtain... Its legitimate rights, and the establishment of its independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital, to ensure the achievement of just and comprehensive peace.

Meanwhile, Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), described what is currently happening in the Gaza Strip of continuous Israeli bombing for 3 weeks as a “forced displacement” of the population.

Today, Tuesday, the governorates of the West Bank witnessed marches and vigils denouncing the ongoing Israeli occupation crimes against our people since the seventh of this month, and in support of detainees in Israeli occupation prisons.

Since October 7, more than 8,000 martyrs have died, while the number of casualties has exceeded 20,000, and the percentage of children, women, and the elderly among the martyrs’ toll has reached 73%. While the death toll in the West Bank rose to 124 martyrs, and about 2,050 injuries.

Hebron

Dozens of citizens participated in a stand in support of the detainees, denouncing the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip since the seventh of this month.

In the protest called for by the Ministry of Women's Affairs, the participants gathered in front of the UNRWA headquarters in the center of Hebron, and raised banners bearing expressions denouncing the crimes committed by the Israeli occupation against our people, especially children and women.

Director of the Women and Children’s Department in the Hebron Governor’s Office, Iman Abu Rayyan, said, “We demand an end to this Israeli aggression to protect our citizens and the sons of our Palestinian people, and to release all male and female prisoners.”

Jenin

Citizens and representatives from the annual sector in official, security, civil institutions, and local bodies participated in a protest organized in the center of the city of Jenin, denouncing the aggression on the Gaza Strip, and in support of the detainees in the occupation prisons.

Union President Wafa Zakarneh said, “What is happening is genocide against our people in the Gaza Strip, and continuing crimes in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, and is a disgrace to the world.”

She denounced the international silence and the need for the international community to stand up to its responsibilities.

In a related context, central student marches were launched in Jenin schools and its camp, organized by the Jenin Education Directorate, denouncing the crimes of the occupation against our people in Gaza and the West Bank.

Salfit

A crowd of Salfit Governorate employees and the Palestinian Ministry of Women’s Affairs participated in a mass stand in support of Gaza, in front of the Salfit Governorate House.

The participants raised banners denouncing the Israeli aggression against our people in the Gaza Strip, calling on the international community to immediately assume its responsibilities towards the needs of the Strip, especially humanitarian aid and fuel, protecting civilians, hospitals and places to shelter the displaced, and holding the occupation accountable for its crimes against our people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and for the crimes of the colonists who receive protection from them. Occupation soldiers to kill our people in the West Bank and seize the land in order to expand their colonial plans.

The Governor of Salfit, Abdullah Kamil, said that what is happening in the Gaza Strip is a crime of the era in every sense of the word, in light of international failure and silence, with the aim of forcibly displacing our people.

Qalqilya

Directors of official and popular institutions, feminist cadres, representatives of the women’s sector, representatives of the security services, unions, and associations participated in the protest organized by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, in front of the headquarters of Qalqilya Governorate.

Qalqilya Governorate Director of Activities Hossam Abu Hamda said that the occupation army, with its barbarism, its persistence in killing and destruction, and its perpetration of crimes, denies all international and humanitarian legislation, and acts with a doctrine based on the logic of gangs, and its persistence in killing, under the cover of some countries that claim democracy and care for human rights.

He stressed that despite these crimes, we are steadfast and continuing to achieve our dream of freedom and independence and establishing our independent state, with Holy Jerusalem as its capital. He also saluted the steadfast and patient Palestinian women, especially in the Gaza Strip.

For her part, Director of the Governor's Office, Sawsan Ghashash, said, "The situation is catastrophic in the Gaza Strip. There is no electricity, no water, no fuel, no health care, and no education, amid international failure."

She stressed the importance of paying attention to the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, and taking action to end this war.

The General Union of Palestinian Women said today, Tuesday, that more than 700,000 women and girls have been displaced as a result of the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, and have taken refuge in UNRWA schools, streets and tents in difficult health and humanitarian conditions.

This came during a statement issued by the Union in a press conference held in the city of Al-Bireh, on the occasion of the 23rd anniversary of Resolution 1325, issued by the United Nations, which calls for women’s participation and representation in political processes and conflict resolution, protecting women and girls from gender-based violence, and promoting women’s rights. Under national laws.

The Union added that the number of daily births in the streets, shelter homes, and tents reached about 120 births, out of 50,000 women, and these people give birth in an inappropriate environment that lacks the main requirements for a safe birth, in addition to the impact of the loss of water, cleaning materials, and medications on the emergence of bacterial diseases and infections, in addition to It is impossible to perform caesarean sections due to hospitals being overcrowded with wounded people and running out of anesthetics.

The Union indicated in its statement that the martyrdom of men led to an increase in the percentage of women heading their families due to 1,000 women joining the category of widows, which may increase at any moment, which exacerbated the crisis of women’s poverty in light of the cessation of life, the lack of job opportunities and the closure of crossings.

The statement continued: The power outage had a major impact on hospitals, as it led to the destruction of the health system, leaving a catastrophic impact on women with chronic diseases, especially elderly women with kidney and cancer patients, and other diseases that require daily treatment, and a reminder of the stifling siege on the sector that has doubled. With the war, patients were prevented from leaving for hospitals in the West Bank and Jerusalem for treatment, due to the closure of the crossings.

He pointed out that an uncounted percentage of women and girls were forced to take birth control pills to stop their menstrual cycle, due to conditions of displacement, constant movement, and instability, in addition to the loss of health supplies, water, and hygiene materials, which will create negative health effects in the future.

The Union stressed that the spread of tension and frustration due to the inability of women, especially mothers, to carry out the innate and natural responsibilities and duties of motherhood, doubles the rate of psychological violence, and burdens them with despair and frustration.

The Union called for an immediate and comprehensive ceasefire, lifting the siege on Gaza, and giving our Palestinian people the right to self-determination and the application of international legitimacy. It also called on the international community to open safe passages and ensure the flow of needs and basic supplies without restrictions or domination by the occupation, especially water. Electricity, fuel, food, medicine, medical and health materials, and hygiene materials.

He stressed the necessity of working to rehabilitate hospitals that were out of service, so that they become effective and able to carry out their work towards the wounded, as well as returning them to perform births, especially caesarean sections, and secure premature newborns.

He called for the need to deliver relief and humanitarian materials, enable ambulance teams and medical teams from the West Bank and Jerusalem to reach the Gaza Strip, and enable the wounded, injured, and those with chronic diseases to reach hospitals in the West Bank, including Jerusalem.

The Union called on women in the Arab countries and the world to continue demonstrating in the streets against the war on our people in the Gaza Strip, in all possible political and media forms, and to convey the voice of Palestine to various forums, to make change and contribute to restoring our people’s right to self-determination.

For her part, Intisar Al-Wazir, President of the General Union of Palestinian Women, said that women and children are the first to pay the price for the occupation’s crimes and aggression against our people, stressing that the will of our people constitutes the compass of their steadfastness and struggle against the occupation and its racism.

The Union called on all factions to close ranks and strengthen national unity to thwart the Israeli plans through which they seek to undermine the unity of our people, liquidate our causes, and displace our people.

The Minister affirmed that the Union will continue to raise its voice, demanding that we stand by the legitimate rights of our people, their right to self-determination, and the establishment of their independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.

The Ministry of Health announced the start of the countdown to the cessation of the main generators in the Al-Shifa Al-Taffy Complex and the Indonesian Hospital, and revealed that the number of martyrs in Gaza had risen to 8,525 martyrs, including 3,542 children and 2,187 women.

This came in a statement read by the official spokesman for the Ministry of Health, Ashraf Al-Qudra, who said that the Israeli occupation forces are still targeting the health system in Gaza, as this morning they directly targeted the Friendship Hospital, which led to the destruction of parts of it and caused a state of panic that affected cancer patients and medical staff. He called on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to take urgent action.

Al-Qudra also announced in the statement the start of the countdown to the cessation of the main generator in Al-Shifa Medical Complex and the cessation of the main generator in the Indonesian Hospital, which constitutes a cornerstone of the health system in the sector, as more than 400,000 citizens depend on it, as the generators will stop working tomorrow, Wednesday.

Al-Qudra called for urgent emergency interventions to save the health system with medicines, medical materials and fuel, calling on the “brothers in Egypt” to speed up the opening of the Rafah land crossing as usual, ensure the arrival of medical aid and fuel to Gaza’s hospitals, and ensure the exit of hundreds of wounded and sick people to specialized hospitals outside the Strip, as well as allowing Bringing medical delegations to hospitals in the Gaza Strip to rescue the wounded of the aggression.”

The Ministry of Health announced the start of the countdown to the shutdown of the main generators in the Al-Shifa Al-Taffy Complex and the Indonesian Hospital tomorrow, Wednesday. It also requested the ability of “all parties” to work immediately to limit the aggravation of the humanitarian and health disaster among hundreds of thousands of displaced people, as a result of the spread of epidemics and infectious diseases, including chickenpox, which is spreading. quickly among the displaced.

The official spokesman for the Ministry of Health renewed the Ministry’s calls for all students, graduates and retirees from medical and nursing specialties to join the hospitals of the Gaza Strip immediately and support exhausted staff. He appealed to all citizens to rush to the hospitals and donate blood urgently. He also called on the International Committee of the Red Cross to intervene urgently and provide blood units. To the sector's hospitals.

Al-Qudra concluded his press statement by urging citizens to go to health centers or call special numbers to register their relatives of martyrs whose names did not appear in the ministry’s lists, or of those who are still under the rubble.

The Houthi group announced on Tuesday that it had launched marches towards Israel in response to the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip that has been ongoing for more than three weeks.

In response to a question about launching marches towards the city of Eilat in southern Israel, the head of the Houthi government, Abdulaziz bin Habtour, told Agence France-Presse that “these marches belong to the Republic of Yemen, with its capital, Sanaa,” which has been controlled by the Iran-backed Houthis since 2014.

Israel Radio said on Tuesday that army forces shot down a march near the city of Eilat on the Red Sea.

Sirens sounded in the city of Eilat on the Red Sea on Tuesday morning, and the Israeli army said that the alert related to a possible violation by an enemy aircraft.

Later, the Israeli army intercepted a second march coming from the Red Sea near Ramon Airport in Eilat.

This is not the first time that marches have approached this region. A few days ago, a drone crashed in the city of Taba, and the Egyptian military spokesman said it came from the southern Red Sea.

A World Health Organization official said on Tuesday that Gaza faces an “imminent public health catastrophe” amid overcrowding, mass displacement, and damage to water and sanitation infrastructure, according to Reuters.

At the same press conference, a spokesman for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned of the risk of infant mortality due to drought rising with only five percent of regular water supplies available.

UNICEF also reported reports of 940 children missing in Gaza.

For his part, UN Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths said today that he “feels helpless” after speaking by phone with families in Gaza. “What they have suffered since October 7 is absolutely devastating,” Griffiths added.

"When an eight-year-old tells you she doesn't want to die, it's hard not to feel helpless," he continued.

The death toll rises

8,525 people were killed in the Gaza Strip as a result of the continuous Israeli bombing since October 7, according to what the Hamas Ministry of Health announced today.

The spokesman for the Ministry of Health in Gaza, Ashraf Al-Qudra, said in a statement, “The number of martyrs in Gaza has risen to 8,525, including 3,542 children and 2,187 women.”

Al-Qudra added in a press conference that parts of the Turkish Friendship Hospital were destroyed as a result of direct Israeli targeting this morning.

He continued, "We announce the start of the countdown to the cessation of the main electrical generators at Al-Shifa Medical Complex and the Indonesian Hospital at the end of Wednesday."

He pointed out that 57 health institutions were targeted and 15 hospitals and 32 health centers were taken out of service as a result of the targeting and the failure to bring in fuel.

The official spokesman for the US State Department, Matthew Miller, on Monday condemned settler violence in the occupied West Bank, calling for them to be held accountable.

Miller, who was responding to a Jerusalem correspondent's question about the escalation of settler violence and those who own firearms and do not hesitate to use them, said, "We are following this matter, and what President (Joe Biden) said last week."

In response to the Jerusalem correspondent’s follow-up regarding any steps the United States could take, Miller said: “Let me just say that we consistently and unequivocally condemn all acts of terrorism, violence, and targeting of civilians, including recent attacks by extremist Israeli settlers in the West Bank.” .

“Israel must take the necessary measures to protect Palestinians from such attacks, and hold accountable any settlers who carry out attacks, as well as any members of the Israel Defense Forces who stand by or fail to intervene when these attacks occur,” Miller added. “I would just like to say that we have made it clear - confidentially to the government.” "Israel has stated publicly that these attacks are unacceptable, must stop, and those responsible must be held accountable."

It is noteworthy that, coinciding with the escalation of Israeli attacks on the besieged Gaza Strip following the attack by Hamas fighters on October 7, the violence of Israeli settlers towards Palestinians in the occupied West Bank escalated, according to multiple reports.

The actions of extremist settlers in the occupied Palestinian territories spark protests inside and outside Israel.

The Washington Post newspaper said in a report on Monday that human rights organizations had warned that settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank had reached “record levels” since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.

The groups indicated, according to the newspaper, that the extremist settlement movement is now seeking to further consolidate its presence throughout the occupied Palestinian territories.

The newspaper quoted the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem, saying that at least seven Palestinians have been killed by Israeli settlers since the start of the war in Gaza, while Israeli forces killed more than 100 Palestinians in the West Bank during the same time period, according to the United Nations, and about 500 were expelled. Palestinians from their homes.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health said that more than 110 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 7, most of them during raids launched by Israeli forces or attacks carried out by settlers.

The newspaper stated, "The victims of settler violence are mostly civilians, as Palestinian families, haunted by memories of displacement, fear to relive the tragedy of displacement and forced dispossession of their property."

The far-right Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, promised to deliver 10,000 free weapons to settlers in the West Bank, while he eased the conditions for weapons licenses so that 400,000 people could obtain them.

Ben Gvir posted a video clip on the Internet in which he appears handing over M-16 or M-4 automatic rifles. But Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant said on Monday, “Only government security forces should use force in the occupied West Bank,” according to Reuters.

The Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem said that settlers use methods of intimidation and violence that have proven effective over time to force Palestinians to leave their homes. In recent weeks, the attacks have become more intense and frequent, according to the newspaper.

The newspaper quoted B'Tselem spokesman Dror Sadot as saying, "The scale and severity of the attacks has expanded at the present time because with the international community looking at Gaza, many settlers feel as if they can act with impunity."

According to the newspaper, armed settlers began roaming the small Bedouin community of Wadi al-Siq almost every day after October 7, threatening Palestinians with a massacre if they refused to leave, according to a resident of the area.

On October 12, two hundred Bedouins in Khirbet Wadi al-Siq, east of the city of Ramallah, left their lands and took refuge in the nearby village of Taybeh, after the Israeli army gave them one hour to leave, according to Agence France-Presse.

The Bedouin shepherds left their homes and left on foot with the livestock after dozens of settlers, accompanied by Israeli police and soldiers, arrived in the village.

Representatives of Khirbet say that the army did not respond to several requests to postpone the evacuation.

About 500,000 Israelis reside in the occupied West Bank in illegal settlements under international law.

About eight incidents of violence against Palestinians are recorded daily, including intimidation, theft and assault, according to the British newspaper “Daily Mail” and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the West Bank, 7,607 people have been displaced since the start of the war in Gaza on October 7, more than half of whom are children.

About 1,100 people were forced to leave their lands during the past year and a half.

The settlers enjoy strong support from the extreme right-wing government coalition led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Israeli occupation army, which is deployed in large numbers in the occupied West Bank, “does not intervene to prevent settler violence,” according to human rights organizations.

By Maher Al-Sharif

The United States of America has never been directly involved in a war fought by Israel in the past, as it is doing these days in the war that Israel is waging against the Gaza Strip. In the October 1973 war, for example, the United States of America was content with establishing an air bridge to supply Israel with weapons when the latter was facing, in the first phase of that war, difficult situations facing the Egyptian and Syrian armies. In 1991, the United States of America sent Patriot batteries to defend Israel against attacks by Iraqi Scud missiles, as a rare exception.

Questioning the feasibility of a defense alliance with the United States

Since the time of David Ben-Gurion, Israel has adopted a military doctrine, one of the foundations of which was the commitment to rely on its own capabilities to defend itself. Based on this doctrine, Israel has always refrained from establishing military alliances or treaties, even with its closest ally, the United States of America. Years ago, during the era of former US President Donald Trump, the idea of establishing a defense alliance between Israel and the United States was proposed. Then this idea emerged again when talking about establishing a defensive alliance between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United States as one of three conditions put forward by the Saudi leadership to normalize its relations with Israel. But this alliance did not see the light of day due to the opposition that emerged against it.

It is true that the ruling circles in Israel remain convinced that one of the main elements of Israel’s strength is the alliance with the United States of America, and that questioning this alliance may threaten “the essence of Israel’s existence” as an independent and sovereign state in the violent world in which we live,” he wrote. Analyst Yoram Dori, on July 16, 2023 in the Maariv newspaper, estimated that “the confrontation with the United States is not only foolish, but also constitutes an existential threat to Israel”; However, despite this conviction, these circles remained, in general, cautious about mortgaging Israeli foreign and defense policies to American policies through establishing a military alliance between the two countries.

On June 12, 2023, Israeli analyst Omer Dostri published in the newspaper “Makor Rishon” an article entitled: “It is forbidden to rely on the Americans: Israel must prepare to attack Iran alone,” in which he assumed that the administration of President Joe Biden “will refrain from Taking certain steps against Iran, and will try to thwart every Israeli attack against Iran, so that it can be assumed that Biden wants to reach the period of the US presidential elections in November 2024, and he has a political achievement in the field of foreign relations, in the form of an agreement with Iran.” He concludes, based on this assumption, that Israel “must prepare itself for the possibility of acting alone regarding everything related to dealing with the Iranian nuclear weapon; and more than that, it must be ready in the event that the Biden administration refuses to grant legitimacy to an Israeli strike, and also prevents American assistance.” 

In the strategic military field (providing weapons and refusing to sell weapons intended for attack), in the operational military field (intelligence cooperation), in the political field (persuading countries in the region to cooperate with Israel), and in the diplomatic field (lack of using a veto in the United Nations Security Council, and the absence of... Support before the international community)”. 

On the first of this October, that is, a few days before the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation, analyst Yitzhak Klein, from Channel 7 Arotz Sheva, published an article entitled: “It must be said: No to an Israeli-American defense alliance.” He noted In it, he noted that “in the framework of the tripartite negotiations between Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the United States, where one of the Saudi demands is a defensive alliance with the United States, the idea of building a defensive alliance between Israel and the United States was also put forward,” calling for the rejection of this idea, since “an alliance between Israel and the United States will harm the security of the two countries, and in particular the security of Israel, because it will mean that the latter will not have “open resources to do whatever it deems appropriate to defend its security, but rather the United States will ensure its defense from bad consequences,” and Israel will not be able to do so. “Any action that the United States believes is unnecessary and excessive.” On the other hand, such an alliance could “push the United States to question Israel’s demands to obtain advanced weapons (at the expense of the American taxpayer),” on the premise that Israel will not need this advanced weapon as long as the United States is Which "guarantees its security". 

The same analyst concluded by saying that the existence of common interests between these two countries does not necessarily mean that “all the interests of the two countries are the same,” stressing that the most important guarantee for Israel’s security is “the independence of decision-making on what it must do to defend itself and act based on that.” And that Israel “must remember the year 1975, because in that year, the United States abandoned its ally, South Vietnam, and accepted its fall into the hands of enemies. Also in the same year, Prime Minister Golda Meir warned her people against relying on American promises, which is A valid warning today as well.”

The United States is strengthening its military presence in the region

Since the eighth of this month, the United States of America has sent to Israel reinforcements for the “Iron Dome” anti-missile force, a ship full of ammunition, and a number of its military advisors. It has also increased the numbers of its soldiers stationed in its bases spread across a number of countries in the region, and sent its latest anti-missile defense systems and mobilized two aircraft carriers and several destroyers and battleships from its naval fleet towards the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. 

It even went as far as President Joe Biden and his Secretary of State Anthony Blinken personally participating, during their visits to Israel, in the meetings of the “Israeli Mini-Ministerial Council for War Affairs.” While the US President asked Congress to approve funding worth $14 billion for Israel’s war fund, his Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, announced on the 21st of this month that “these measures will strengthen regional deterrence efforts, increase the protection of American forces in the region, and help defend Israel.” On the 19th of this month, an American destroyer in the Red Sea shot down three missiles and a number of drones launched by the Houthis from Yemen, which were likely directed at targets in Israel. 

On the 26th of this month, American aircraft responded to a bombing of American military bases in Iraq and Syria by attacking “two facilities stationed in eastern Syria used by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and its affiliated groups,” according to a statement issued by the Pentagon, in which it was stated that these attacks came after “ A warning sent by US President Joe Biden to the Iranian leadership that “any attack targeting US forces that threatens to provoke an expansion of the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas would prompt an immediate military response” by US forces.

“Israel and the United States go to war together for the first time.”

This is what was stated in the title of an article written by analyst Ron Ben Yeshan, on the 23rd of this month in the newspaper “Yedioth Ahronoth”, in which he estimated that Israel and its security system “must take the American position into consideration when planning action, whether the matter is related to the steps taken to free the kidnapped people, or Regarding other steps that would affect their fates,” this is because the Americans are “in the midst of a regional battle, in which they are protecting both their forces and Israel from attacks by organizations orbiting Iran,” referring to “the need for the Americans to get involved to this extent in the ongoing war.” “To the dangerous erosion of Israel’s deterrence capacity vis-à-vis the countries of the region, in the wake of the ongoing internal political crisis, and in the wake of the success of the attack carried out by “Hamas” in the towns of the “Gaza envelope.” At the Israeli request, the Israeli government and security system are obligated to listen to American requests and advice and to respond to Washington’s demands, while it grits its teeth and knows clearly that without this operational partnership and logistical assistance, it will face difficulties in withstanding a multi-front war, especially If Iran and Hezbollah decide to escalate matters to the point where they reach an all-out war”. 

Analyst Eitan Gilboa was more clear when he stated, in an article published on the 17th of this month by the Maariv newspaper, that the United States is currently acting “as if it had signed a defense agreement with Israel,” considering that “this way of working has both advantages and disadvantages,” and that the president’s primary strategic goal is Joe Biden “is to deter Iran and Hezbollah from opening a second front in the north on their part, but also on Israel’s part,” because he “does not want a regional war added to the one taking place in Ukraine; therefore, he warns, and sent two aircraft carriers, one in Off the Lebanese coast and the other to the Persian Gulf, in addition to 2,000 paratroopers,” he also sent, in order to “improve Israel’s ability to continue militarily,” an airlift “full of advanced weapons and equipment,” concluding that the war against “Hamas” and jihad “represents well the defensive alliance.” between the United States and Israel, and if these two organizations are dismantled without a second front in the north, this will strengthen this alliance, without being formal.”

In fact, the prevailing feeling in Israel is that the nature of American-Israeli relations has witnessed a change as a result of the current war, which was expressed by analyst Joab Brommer, in an article published on the 27th of this month in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, when he pointed out that support the American history of Israel was based in the past “on the assumption that Israel does not need support, meaning that it is sufficient for the United States to provide Israel with the means of combat, and as for the latter, it will achieve victory with its own capabilities,” and this is what made Israel “unlike Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.” “And the NATO countries have never needed a nuclear umbrella, or the presence of American forces to defend their lands.” But Israel is now living - as he continued - in a vicious circle: “If it is viewed, for the first time in its life, as needing... For the United States to rescue it, or at least to provide it with assistance to protect itself from Hezbollah, its strategic effectiveness will be undermined, in the eyes of many Americans. 

On the other hand, it is not certain that Israel will be able to emerge victorious from the multi-front confrontation, without this. Military intervention”.

Will American involvement in this war benefit Beijing and Moscow?

The fear of Israel's inability to wage a multi-front war, and fear for its future, are what prompted President Joe Biden - who sometimes defines himself as a "convinced Zionist" - to employ all this American military power to defend Israel and engage in a war in the East. The Middle East, noting that his country's vital strategic interests require "keeping the decades-long conflicts in the Near and Middle East frozen" and "concentrating all its diplomatic and military resources in its conflict with its main opponent, China," which it sees as the "main threat" to its global hegemony. 

Although some analysts estimate that “it is difficult to predict the long-term consequences of the conflict in the Middle East,” which “depend above all on Israel’s potential success in its desire to eliminate Hamas,” there are those who believe that Israel’s war on the Strip Gaza could “affect the global balance of power and drain American resources,” and “shake the global order to Moscow and Beijing’s advantage,” so that Washington’s current focus on the Middle East “is a boon for China, which is preparing for a potential confrontation with the United States over Taiwan,” as well as For Russia, which hopes to “relieve pressure on it” and reduce “Western support for Ukraine”.

Source: Institute of Palestinian Studies

A security source and another government source told Reuters, Tuesday, October 31, 2023, that two armed drones targeted the Ain al-Asad air base in Iraq, which hosts American forces, as part of a series of attacks that have become frequent against the base after the outbreak of war between Israel and the resistance factions in Gaza strip.

The agency confirmed, citing its sources, that the attack did not result in casualties or damage, while the "Islamic Resistance in Iraq" announced on Tuesday that it had achieved its targets directly, it said.

This attack comes a day after security sources confirmed to Reuters that four Katyusha rockets were launched on Monday, October 30, 2023, at Ain al-Asad air base.

Iraqi armed groups allied with Iran had threatened to target American interests with missiles and drones if Washington intervened to support Israel in its war against resistance factions in Gaza.

Until last year, bases housing American forces were subjected to many missile and drone attacks, and since the summer of 2022 these attacks have stopped, while Iraq has witnessed relative stability. No party claimed responsibility for these attacks at the time, but the United States attributed them to Iraqi factions loyal to Iran.

Fears of the expansion of the scope of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are growing, prompting the United States to send additional military equipment to the Middle East, at a time when Israel continues to crush the Gaza Strip and target other areas.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin had said that Washington would send more military equipment to the Middle East; In support of Israel and to strengthen the United States’ defensive posture in the region, after “the recent escalation by Iran and its proxy forces throughout the Middle East.”

For 25 days, the Israeli occupation army has launched intensive raids on residential neighborhoods in Gaza, killing more than 8,306 people, including 3,457 children, and wounding about 21,048, according to official data.

While Hamas killed more than 1,538 Israelis and wounded 5,431, according to official Hebrew sources, during the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation, which it carried out on October 7, 2023.

By Jonathan Saul

Israeli forces are moving slowly in their ground offensive in Gaza in part to keep open the possibility of drawing Hamas militants to negotiate the release of more than 200 hostages, military specialists consulted by Reuters said. The relative caution with which Israeli troops have taken and secured slices of territory in the first days of sustained ground incursions in Gaza stands in contrast to the past three weeks of unrelenting air strikes on the Mediterranean enclave, as well as to Israel's previous land offensives there.

Not going directly into Gaza's most built up areas with the full force of Israel's ground troops is simultaneously aimed at wearing Hamas' leadership down with a long campaign, while leaving space for a possible deal over those held as hostages, according to the assessment of three Israeli security sources. For a graphic and map of the ground assault click here. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week that recovering the hostages was an "integral" part of the military's goal in Gaza. Hamas, an armed Islamist group that governs Gaza, has so far released four civilians among the 239 believed to be held, many in a deep network of tunnels.

By moving slowly, the army also hoped to secure Israeli forces' flanks and bait Hamas fighters to come out of the tunnels or denser urban areas and engage Israeli forces in open areas where they could be more easily killed, said a former senior commander who declined to be named.

An Israeli military spokesperson declined to comment on details of the offensive, citing sensitivity with the issue."It's inch by inch, meter by meter, trying to avoid casualties and trying to kill as much as possible Hamas terrorists," Amos Yadlin, former chief of Israel's defense intelligence, told reporters. 

Israel's heavy response was prompted after Hamas fighters burst into Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, in the deadliest day of the nation's 75-year history. Israel says 239 people were taken as hostages into Gaza, where they are believed to be held in Hamas' extensive tunnel network.

In the three weeks since the Hamas attack, Israeli air strikes have pulverized large swathes of Gaza, killing more than 8,000 people including more than 3,000 children, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, and cutting off supplies of food, medicine and fuel.

Hamas leaders have said that a ceasefire is required in order to release civilian hostages, who Israel says include people with passports from 25 different countries. In 2011, Hamas negotiated the release of over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israel in return for one Israeli soldier. 

Growing international distress at the conditions in Gaza led major powers last week to call on Israel to allow "humanitarian pauses" to get aid in and hostages out. Saying any lull in fighting would benefit Hamas, Israel rejected the calls, in the first public split between Israel and its allies since Oct. 7.On Saturday, Benny Gantz, a former defense minister who is now in Netanyahu's war cabinet, said "in this war there is no diplomatic ticking clock". 

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the war would be long and Israel was striking Hamas "above and underground – from the air, land and sea". Netanyahu on Saturday stopped short of calling the ground incursion a full scale invasion. After amassing hundreds of thousands of soldiers, including reservists, on its border with Gaza, Israel made the first sustained ground incursions of the offensive on Friday. 

The government has given the Israeli military two objectives - to dismantle Hamas, including its infrastructure and operational capabilities, and to bring home the hostages, chief spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said. Backed by helicopters and drones, tanks and armored personnel carriers have pushed into the semi-rural area to the north of Gaza City, the enclave's main urban center. 

Forces have also entered south of the city, threatening Salah Al Deen Road, the main transport artery that runs the length of the 40-km long strip, local residents and the Hamas-affiliated Shehab news agency said on Monday. The tanks met resistance on the road, according to fighters and residents. The Israeli military said it would not detail the positions of their forces. Abu Ahmad, a senior spokesperson for Islamic Jihad, a smaller militant movement allied to Hamas, said Israeli forces had failed to make any sustained breakthrough, apart from pushing into open areas. 

Hagari said more infantry and armored forces backed by artillery and combat engineers had been sent in and were manoeuvring on the ground and engaging Hamas fighters. He declined to confirm any troop locations. "The offensive activity will continue with determination and intensify according to the phases of the war and its goals," he told a regular briefing on Monday. 

Hamas' deep network of Gaza tunnels has been described by security sources as an underground city that includes rocket launching sites, command centers and attack paths targeting Israel forces. Omri Attar, a reserve major in a special operations brigade, said ground troops were also trained to locate air vents and escape hatches leading to tunnel openings and to place explosives inside to seal them off. He said other special units within the Combat Engineering Corps, which in the past have used robots and dogs, would deal with any fighting inside the tunnels. 

"It is a very complicated situation, and I'm not talking about the number of dead or number of kidnapped, namely the infrastructure of the lower city, of the tunnels, is a very delicate situation," he said.

On Oct 29, Israeli forces operating adjacent to the Erez crossing "identified a number of terrorists exiting the shaft of a tunnel in the Gaza Strip". "Following the identification, the soldiers confronted the terrorists, killing and injuring them," the Israeli military said. The approach so far is different from previous offensives on Gaza, a mostly urban strip of land home to 2.3 million people subjected to Israeli assaults in 2008, 2014 and in 2021 against Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which have sworn Israel's destruction.

In 2008, Israeli military forces entered built-up areas with massive strength, prompting Hamas to pull back and engage periodically. Israeli military forces are aware of the dangers with heavily built up areas in Gaza and the dangers of sending in broad forces.

Underscoring the risks, in 2008, Israel lost nine soldiers during its incursion. In 2014, the number killed soared to 66.Since Oct. 7, 315 Israeli soldiers have been killed, most of them in the initial Hamas attacks, according to the latest data released by the Israeli military.

Ben Milch, who was a commander in 2014 with the Combat Engineering Corps and tasked with destroying tunnels, said their mission was not to go more than two kilometers into the network at the time. "Where we only had to take out tens of tunnels, today's challenge is going to be hundreds of tunnels and kilometers upon kilometers, and a real underground fortress that Hamas has built," he told Reuters. 

Clearing tunnels was also beset with other difficulties including hostages held as well as making decisions on whether to shut off ventilation shafts. "In my opinion, that's why the IDF (Israeli military) is taking a methodical, slower approach to make sure that they're covering all their bases and making sure that they eliminate the tunnels as they go, so they're not going to be ambushed from behind, from the side and so on," Milch said. 

"We don't want to lose soldiers, so we're going to go slow, and we're going to make sure that we minimize casualties as best as possible."

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought to convince European leaders to put pressure on Egypt into accepting refugees from Gaza, according to people briefed on the discussions. The idea, which he put forward in meetings with European officials last week, was floated by countries including the Czech Republic and Austria in private discussions that led up to a summit of EU leaders on Thursday and Friday, those people told the Financial Times. 

However, key European countries, notably France, Germany and the UK, have dismissed the proposal as unrealistic, pointing to Egyptian officials’ consistent resistance to the idea of accepting refugees from Gaza, even on a temporary basis. Cairo has vociferously expressed its concerns that Israel would seek to use the crisis to force its problems with the Palestinians on to Egypt. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said this month that his country rejected “any attempt to liquidate the Palestinian issue by military means or through the forced displacement of Palestinians from their land, which would come at the expense of the countries of the region”. 

Egypt’s potential role was discussed in the EU summit, people briefed on the leaders’ discussions told the FT. But leaders ultimately agreed that Egypt should play a role in providing broad humanitarian assistance to Gaza, but not be pressured to accept refugees. “Netanyahu pushed quite hard that the solution was for Egyptians to take Gazans at least during the conflict,” said a western diplomat. “But we didn’t take it very seriously because the Egyptian position is and has always been very clear and they just won’t do it.” 

A second western diplomat said they believed the pressure of a continued Israeli assault on Gaza could yet lead to a shift in stance. “That’s the only thing that can be done . . . so now the time is to put increased pressure on the Egyptians to agree,” they said. More than 1mn Gazans have been displaced inside the territory since Israel began bombarding the coastal enclave three weeks ago in response to a devastating assault by Hamas militants on October 7, which killed more than 1,400 people, according to Israeli officials, in the deadliest ever attack on Israeli soil. Israeli counterstrikes on Gaza have killed more than 8,000 people, according to Palestinian officials, and aid groups have warned that humanitarian conditions in the strip, where Israel has also severely restricted supplies of electricity, water, fuel and food, are catastrophic. 

A joint declaration agreed by EU leaders released after last week’s summit called for “continued, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access and aid to reach those in need through all necessary measures including humanitarian corridors and pauses for humanitarian needs”.  “The European Union will work closely with partners in the region to protect civilians, provide assistance and facilitate access to food, water, medical care, fuel and shelter, ensuring that such assistance is not abused by terrorist organizations,” EU leaders said in the declaration. 

Israel-Hamas war Read more Latest news Analysis The tactics behind Israel’s ground offensive Surgery without anesthetic: a Gaza hospital on the brink Explainer Israel’s war cabinet: the men planning next move against Hamas The Israel-Hamas conflict in maps two other people familiar with the situation said that, separately, talks were also ongoing about bringing injured people from Gaza to Egypt, but that there was no certainty that a deal would be reached. 

The Rafah crossing into Egypt’s Sinai region is the only entry and exit point from Gaza not controlled by Israel and currently the only route for aid to enter the territory. “The Turks have offered to establish a field hospital if necessary. We’re not planning to move field hospitals to [north Sinai] but offering to provide technical support to strengthen a referral pathway from Gaza to Egypt,” one of the people said. “The Egyptians established a triage facility at Rafah, and we’re still in discussions about that.” Egypt has taken in injured Palestinians for treatment during previous conflicts in Gaza and the authorities have been ensuring that hospitals in north Sinai have the necessary resources if wounded Gazans are allowed in. 

The US state department said Washington supported safe passage for civilians wishing to leave Gaza, but did not support “any forced relocation of Palestinians outside of the Gaza Strip”.

At dawn on Tuesday, the Israeli army launched air strikes against Hezbollah facilities and sites in southern Lebanon, with military skirmishes continuing between the two sides for three weeks due to the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli occupation army claimed in a statement published on the “X” platform that “Air Force fighter planes recently attacked the infrastructure of the Hezbollah organization on Lebanese territory.”

According to the occupation army’s statement, “Among the infrastructure that was attacked, weapons, sites and places used by the organization were destroyed,” it claimed.

The border area in southern Lebanon has witnessed mutual bombardment between the Israeli army on the one hand and Hezbollah and Palestinian factions on the other hand, since the start of Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood” on October 7.

Hezbollah missiles on Israeli sites

From the town of Ibl al-Saqi in southern Lebanon, Al-Arabi’s correspondent, Muhammad al-Haji, said that sources of fire from “Hezbollah” were launched from Lebanon towards the occupied territories, and Israel responded by bombing its sites.

Al-Hajji reports that during yesterday's hours, Hezbollah bombed several Israeli sites, including Jal al-Alam, with guided missiles, which resulted in the destruction of its espionage and technical equipment.

In addition, the Israeli site of Ras Naqoura and the Pranit barracks were the target of Hezbollah missiles that destroyed a number of observation towers and thermal cameras, in addition to targeting the Metulla settlement, which is very close to the border with Lebanon, according to our correspondent.

On the other hand, the Israeli occupation responded by launching missiles at Aita al-Shaab, and launching incendiary missiles at an area near Al-Adisa, specifically at the olive groves, so that Israel has been intending for days to target the olive crops and intimidate the workers there, according to Al-Hajji.

The areas between Naqoura and Labouneh were the target of more than 50 Israeli shells, in addition to the occupation bombing a number of other Lebanese areas, including Aita al-Shaab and Shebaa Farms.

Political developments

Politically, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati confirmed yesterday, Monday, that he is working with the Arab brothers to “spar Lebanon from entering a major and comprehensive war.”

Lebanese and Palestinian parties are scheduled to organize a massive demonstration today, Tuesday, in front of the French embassy in Beirut in response to the French position that identifies with Israel.

The Arab Television Network correspondent added: “This week will also witness a visit by the US Secretary of State, and we are all waiting for what political messages she may have in store for Lebanese officials.”

As for the awaited event this week, it is the expected speech by Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah on Friday, as this will be his first speech since the start of the resistance operation in Palestine.

BY Avraham Shama 

Regardless of how the Gaza war unfolds, Israel has already lost, Hamas has won and the U.S. has emerged as the only sane global leader capable of moderating the flammable situation. There is a glimmer of hope that cease-fire, and possibly peace talks, between Israel and the Palestinians could emerge from the devastation.

The surprise Hamas attack on Oct. 7 killed more than 1,300 Israelis, wounded 3,000 and abducted more than 222 people. Relative to the size of the population, the number of Israelis killed amounts to about 40,000 Americans.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of Israelis have left their homes in the north and the south, moving to the relatively secure center of the country. Many go to sleep in their safe rooms or public shelters, or wake up in the middle of the night to watch the latest news. Schools are out, employees work part time or not at all, and the economy is limping. 

But Israelis have suffered another kind of loss — deep, profound and long-lasting. This one injured their psyche, their sense of collective self and well-being. You can hear it in their voices, note it in their choice of tentative words and see it on their faces — the feeling of “we have been had.”

Before the Hamas attack, Israelis exuded confidence and bravado. They believed that a surprise war, like the 1973 Yom Kippur War, could not happen again, and that, if it did, their army would nip it in the bud. Then came the Hamas attack, almost exactly 50 years later, sending the nation into a deep trauma, the way Japan’s surprise attack on U.S. warships in Pearl Harbor instantly changed the American mindset.

On the other side, Hamas has won the war despite the loss of more than 8,000 Palestinians — some unknown combination of fighters and ordinary Gazans. Hamas — a terrorist organization of about 20,000 members — was able to invade a country of more than 9 million people with a powerful army, kill indiscriminately, create chaos, shatter the Israeli psyche and bring the Palestinian fight for statehood to the global fore.

But the war between Israelis and Palestinians has been going on-and-off ever since Israel’s 1948 War of Independence, when most Palestinians living in what had become Israel fled to the Gaza Strip and to the West Bank. Since then, new generations have emerged and a national Palestinian identity has evolved. Palestinians want a state of their own, the way the desire of the Jewish population before 1948 turned into the independent state of Israel.

Now the Israeli government, and especially Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, seems determined to avenge the blood of their fellow citizens seemingly without having a clear idea what it wants to achieve beyond that. But obliterating Gaza with indiscriminate killing is no way for the prime minister to redeem himself from his abject failure to perform his most important job: to keep Israel safe.

Fortunately, the U.S. and several Western European states are having a moderating effect on Israel. President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and many others have engaged in around-the-clock shuttle diplomacy to temper Israel’s plan for a massive ground war in Gaza, while still assisting it militarily. 

Biden has emerged from this crisis as the world’s sage statesman who can moderate Netanyahu’s need for disproportional response; help to open the Rafah Border Crossing with Egypt to allow some food, water, and medical supplies flow to Gazans; and who sent carrier ships to the east Mediterranean to signal to other countries not to intervene. Such actions left Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping to lick their diplomatic wounds of defeat as they watched their roles on the world stage diminish. 

Hamas’s unimaginable atrocities have brought the Palestinian struggle for statehood to the world stage. Perhaps this time, Israelis and Palestinians — having both already suffered devastating losses — with the help of global leaders, can finally realize and accept that a peaceful solution is better than killing each other and setting the world on fire. While this is a very complicated route, the alternative may have become unacceptable. 

The League of Arab States submitted its written response to the Registry of the International Court of Justice in the Hague in accordance with the timings set by the Court, in the case it is examining regarding Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, and the legal consequences arising from its continued issuance of its advisory opinion thereon.

The Palestine and Occupied Arab Territories Sector of the Arab League said in its statement, today, Tuesday, that the General Secretariat submitted its written submission last July in accordance with the procedures followed in this regard, which it prepared with the knowledge of legal experts at the highest level and with direct follow-up from Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit. .

The statement added that the evidence and reasons included what the Palestinian people, their land, and their capabilities are being exposed to as a result of the ongoing Israeli occupation, the implementation of the apartheid regime, and other ongoing violations and crimes against the Palestinian people.

The Palestine Sector confirmed that this step comes within the framework of the League of Arab States’ continued support for the Palestinian position and in implementation of the decisions of the League Council at its various levels in supporting efforts and endeavors to bring justice to the Palestinian people as a result of the current and historical injustice that has targeted them and to hold accountable those responsible for the crimes committed against them through international justice mechanisms.

It is noteworthy that the court decided to hold hearings in the case starting on February 19, 2024

Today, Tuesday, Israeli occupation forces arrested five Jerusalemite citizens, including two teenagers.

The Prisoners' Affairs Authority in Jerusalem reported that the occupation forces arrested the two children, Amir Salaymeh and Nimr Shweiki, from Shuafat Camp, northeast of Jerusalem, and Dawoud Abdullah Sharaf from the Ras al-Amud neighborhood in Silwan, south of Al-Aqsa Mosque, and Yaqoub Abu Assab, and Mahmoud Jasser Abu al-Hawa.

By Thomas L. Friedman

I am watching the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza today and thinking about one of the world leaders I’ve most admired: Manmohan Singh. He was India’s prime minister in late November 2008 when 10 Pakistani jihadist militants from the Lashkar-e-Taiba group, widely believed to be linked to Pakistan’s military intelligence, infiltrated India and killed more than 160 people in Mumbai, including 61 at two luxury hotels. What was Singh’s military response to India’s Sept. 11?

He did nothing.

Singh never retaliated militarily against the nation of Pakistan or Lashkar camps in Pakistan. It was a remarkable act of restraint. What was the logic? In his book “Choices: Inside the Making of India’s Foreign Policy,” India’s foreign minister at the time, Shivshankar Menon, explained, making these key points:

“I myself pressed at that time for immediate visible retaliation” against the jihadist bases or against Pakistani military intelligence, “which was clearly complicit,” Menon wrote. “To have done so would have been emotionally satisfying and gone some way toward erasing the shame of the incompetence that India’s police and security agencies displayed.”

He continued, “But on sober reflection and in hindsight, I now believe that the decision not to retaliate militarily and to concentrate on diplomatic, covert and other means was the right one for that time and place.”

Chief among the reasons, Menon said, was that any military response would have quickly obscured just how outrageous and terrible the raid on Indian civilians and tourists was; “the fact of a terrorist attack from Pakistan on India with official involvement on the Pakistan side” would have been lost. Once India retaliated, the world would immediately have had what Menon called a “ho-hum reaction.” Just another Pakistani-Indian dust-up — nothing unusual here.

Moreover, Menon wrote, “an Indian attack on Pakistan would have united Pakistan behind the Pakistan Army, which was in increasing domestic disrepute,” and “an attack on Pakistan would also have weakened the civilian government in Pakistan, which had just been elected to power and which sought a much better relationship with India than the Pakistan Army was willing to consider.” He continued, “A war scare, and maybe even a war itself, was exactly what the Pakistan Army wanted to buttress its internal position.”

In addition, he wrote, “a war, even a successful war, would have imposed costs and set back the progress of the Indian economy just when the world economy in November 2008 was in an unprecedented financial crisis.”

In conclusion, said Menon, “by not attacking Pakistan, India was free to pursue all legal and covert means to achieve its goals of bringing the perpetrators to justice, uniting the international community to force consequences on Pakistan for its behavior and to strengthen the likelihood that such an attack would not take place again.”

I understand that Israel is not India — a country of 1.4 billion people, covering a massive territory. The loss of more than 160 people in Mumbai, some of them tourists, was not felt in every home and hamlet, as were Hamas’s killing of roughly 1,400 Israelis, the maiming of countless others and the kidnapping of more than 200 people. Pakistan also has nuclear weapons to deter retaliation.

Nevertheless, it is instructive to reflect on the contrast between India’s response to the Mumbai terrorist attack and Israel’s response to the Hamas slaughter.

After the initial horror at the sheer barbarism of the Hamas onslaught on Israeli children, older adults and a dance party, what happened? The narrative quickly shifted to the brutality of the Israeli counterattack on Gazan civilians, among whom Hamas has embedded itself. The massive Israeli counterstrike overshadowed Hamas’s terrorism and instead made the organization a hero to some. It has also forced Israel’s new Arab allies in the Abraham Accords to distance themselves from the Jewish state.

Meanwhile, with some 360,000 reservists called up, Israel’s economy will almost certainly be depressed if Israel’s ouster of Hamas from Gaza takes months, as predicted. The economy is already expected to shrink more than 10 percent on an annualized basis for the last three months of the year. This after being ranked by The Economist as the fourth-best-performing economy among O.E.C.D. countries in 2022.

On a personal level, I am appalled by the reaction of those students and progressives who sided with Hamas against Israel — in some cases, even before Israel retaliated — as if the Jewish people were not entitled to either self-determination or self-defense in any part of their ancestral homeland. This backlash also fails to take into account that Israel, for all its faults, is a multicultural society where almost half of graduating doctors today are Arabs or Druze. Or that Hamas is a militant, Islamist organization that does not tolerate dissent or L.G.B.T.Q. individuals and has been dedicated to wiping the Jewish state off the face of the earth.

So I have sympathy for the terrible choices that Israel’s government faced after the worst slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust. But it was precisely because I closely followed Singh’s unique reaction to the Mumbai terrorist attack that I immediately advocated a much more targeted, fully thought-through response by Israel. It should have called this Operation Save Our Hostages and focused on capturing and killing the kidnappers of children and grandparents. Every parent could understand that.

Instead, Benjamin Netanyahu’s government immediately raced into a plan to, as Defense Minister Yoav Gallant put it, “wipe out” Hamas “from the face of the earth.” And in three weeks Israel has inflicted easily more than triple the number of civilian casualties and caused far more destruction in Gaza than Israel suffered, while committing itself to taking military control of Gaza — an operation, on a relative population basis, that is roughly equivalent to the United States deciding almost overnight to occupy half of Mexico. The Israeli plan, according to Netanyahu, will be a “long and difficult” battle to “destroy the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas and bring the hostages home.”

As I said, Israel is not India, and there is no way that it could be expected to turn the other cheek — not in that neighborhood. But what is Netanyahu’s plan? The Israeli officials I speak with tell me they know two things for sure: Hamas will never again govern Gaza, and Israel will not govern a post-Hamas Gaza. They suggest that they will set up an arrangement similarly seen in parts of the West Bank today, with Palestinians in Gaza administering day-to-day life and Israeli military and Shin Bet security teams providing the muscle behind the scenes.

This is a half-baked plan. Who are these Palestinians who will be enlisted to govern Gaza on Israel’s behalf? What happens the morning after a Palestinian working for Israel in Gaza is found murdered in an alley with a note pinned to his chest: “Traitor,’’ signed “the Hamas underground.”

Moreover, who is going to pay for Israel’s control of, health care for and education of Gaza’s 2.2 million people? Please raise your hand if you think the European Union, the Gulf Arab states or the substantial progressive caucus in the Democratic Party in the U.S. House of Representatives will fund an indefinite Israeli oversight of Gaza — while Netanyahu and his band of Jewish supremacists are pledged to annex the West Bank without equal rights for the Palestinians there. The cost of occupying Gaza could overstretch the Israeli military and economy for years to come.

On top of it all, how is Israel going to manage such a complex operation when there is — for good reason — scant trust in Netanyahu? Just on Saturday he pointed to the heads of Israeli military intelligence and Shin Bet as responsible for missing the Hamas surprise attack while excusing himself of any blame. A day later, an outraged Israeli public forced the prime minister to retract his wartime recriminations against his colleagues. But the damage was done.

Netanyahu does not have a team of rivals supporting him. He has a team of people being asked to make excruciating long-term choices while knowing their prime minister is a person of such low character that he will blame them for everything that goes wrong and hog all credit for anything that goes right.

In sum, dear reader, I understand why Israel believes it needs to destroy Hamas and thereby deter others in the neighborhood from ever contemplating such a thing. But the view from Washington is that Israel’s leadership does not have a viable plan to win or a leader who can navigate the stresses and complexity of this crisis. Israel needs to know that the tolerance of its American ally for massive civilian casualties in Gaza in an open-ended military operation is not unlimited. In fact, we may soon be approaching the limit.

Israel should keep the door open for a humanitarian cease-fire and prisoner exchange that will also allow Israel to pause and reflect on exactly where it is going with its rushed Gaza military operation — and the price it could pay over the long haul.

That is why I raise the Indian example. Because targeted use of force with limited, achievable goals may serve Israel’s long-term security and prosperity more than an open-ended war to eradicate Hamas. I hope Israel is stress-testing the costs and benefits of both approaches.

A pause could also allow the people of Gaza to take stock of what Hamas’s attack on Israel — and Israel’s totally predictable response — has done to their lives, families, homes and businesses. What exactly did Hamas think it would accomplish with this war for the people of Gaza, thousands of whom were traveling to work in Israel every day or exporting agricultural products and other goods across the Gaza-Israel border just a few weeks ago? Hamas has gotten way too much understanding and not enough hard questions.

I want to see Hamas’s leaders come out from their tunnels under hospitals and look their people, and the world’s media, in the eye and tell everyone why they thought it was such a great idea to mutilate and kidnap Israeli children and grandmothers and trigger this terrible blowback on the children and grandmothers of their Gaza neighbors — not to mention their own.

I have always believed that you can reduce the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since the early 1900s to one line: conflict, timeout, conflict, timeout, conflict, timeout, conflict, timeout, conflict and timeout. The most important difference between the parties is what they each did during the timeouts.

Israel built an impressive society and economy, even if flawed, and Hamas took nearly all of its resources and built attack tunnels.

Please, Israel, don’t get lost in those tunnels.

Patients in Gaza are facing another war on top of the Israeli war, as the young woman Afnan Haboub, a resident of the Daraj neighborhood in Gaza City, is forced to face death twice a week when her mother, Samira, is transferred to the dialysis department in Al-Shifa Hospital, on a round-trip under non-stop bombardment, and the number of Her suffering in the hospital, which is busy beyond its capacity to treat and rescue the wounded.

After public transportation offices stopped, and ambulances were no longer able to meet the needs of ordinary patients, Haboob drives one of her relatives’ car to the hospital, and explains how she and her mother spend the way reciting the Shahada, while the level of anxiety rises with every raid, explosion, and sound.

The suffering of Haboob, along with thousands of other patients in Gaza, worsened, after many medical services in general stopped, in hospitals, dispensaries and clinics, with the unprecedented preoccupation with treating the wounded from the Israeli bombing, a situation that prompted the Ministry of Health in Gaza to allow every staff member who holds a medical or nursing degree, By working and providing assistance even without having practiced the profession.

Until recently, the Ministry of Health in Gaza, with the support of Arab and international institutions, often provided vehicles to transport kidney patients to hospitals for dialysis, twice a week for each patient, but all of that has stopped now, forcing the patients’ families to look for other difficult alternatives. With the almost complete absence of public transportation.

Haboob told Asharq Al-Awsat: “We must go early and return before dark. It is a complex suffering, an arduous journey through a minefield. We say goodbye to the family every time as if we will never return. But we can't help it, because it's also not possible for us not to go. “Our mere arrival to Al-Shifa Hospital feels like a new life was written for us, and our return home is the beginning of another new life.”

But the suffering of kidney patients does not stop at reaching the hospital, as everyone here is busy transporting and treating the wounded, a situation that complicates access to a nurse and makes time extremely long. Haboub said: “We do not find them and we find it difficult to find them, and if we find them we are ashamed of them and the wounded.” Gaza's hospitals are suffering from occupancy exceeding 150 percent of their capacity, and a severe shortage of medical staff exhausted by the Israeli war.

Clinics turn into shelters

Pill is one of the thousands of patients who need treatment, and if she finds it with all these difficulties, the others do not find it.

In the first days of the war, displaced person Mervat Al-Hajj, a resident of Jabalia camp in the northern Gaza Strip, was receiving her diabetes and blood pressure medications from UNRWA teams who were arriving at the homes of the elderly with the aim of providing treatment to them, but later the clinics were closed and some of them were turned into shelters housing the displaced. She started searching for medicines everywhere, any open pharmacy, any pharmacist, any doctor, any neighbor.

After Al-Hajj (57 years old) was forced to flee from Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip to Nuseirat in the center of the Strip, she was forced to buy some alternative medicines, but the medicine is not always available, and its price is also not always available. Al-Hajj told Asharq Al-Awsat: “UNRWA does not always have medicines. Diabetes and blood pressure are always there (high readings), sometimes I take the medicine one day, and another day I don’t.”

While UNRWA says that its crews are suffering from difficult conditions and cannot provide all the needs of refugees in the Gaza Strip, especially those displaced to shelter schools, the Hamas government’s government media office accuses the UN organization of shirking its various responsibilities and closing the medical clinics it supervises. .

Painkillers instead of a doctor

Asharq Al-Awsat monitored many patients who resort to painkillers in cases that require a visit to the doctor, but in Gaza this has become a kind of luxury. Citizens said that amidst all this death, they no longer care about their ordinary diseases, such as infections, fever, influenza, and asthma, and they will not venture to go to crowded hospitals. But dialysis patients, cancer patients, and other seriously ill patients cannot wait.

The Ministry of Health announced that the Turkish Friendship Hospital, the only hospital for cancer patients in the Gaza Strip, was damaged after it was targeted by the Israeli army. Dr. Sobhi Skaik, General Director of the hospital, said on Facebook, “A state of panic struck cancer patients and medical staff as a result of the demolition of the only Turkish Friendship Hospital for cancer patients in the Gaza Strip and the infliction of severe damage to it, as a result of its surroundings being repeatedly targeted.”

He added: “The occupation not only increased the suffering and pain of cancer and deprived them of medicines and travel for treatment abroad, but it now endangered their lives by targeting the hospital’s surroundings.”

Before that, Israel bombed the Baptist Hospital in Gaza, leaving 500 dead. It also bombed the vicinity of other hospitals, demanding a complete evacuation.

Health Minister Mai Kayla said that hospitals cannot be evacuated, as they are full of sick and injured people, in addition to thousands of displaced people who found a safe haven in the hospital courtyards. In addition to treating thousands of wounded people, kidney diseases, and cancers, there are departments that cannot close their doors. Such as maternity and pediatric departments and intensive care rooms.

Necessary services

The Public Relations Department of the Ministry of Health in Gaza said that since the start of the war, hundreds of cases have been dealt with, some of which were incurable. Ashraf Al-Qudra, spokesman for the Ministry of Health, confirmed to Asharq Al-Awsat that the hospitals that are still able to operate are providing necessary and urgent services to patients despite dealing with thousands of wounded people daily, and despite the acute and severe shortage in the availability of medical supplies.

He added: “There are hundreds of patients at risk of death, including dialysis patients, newborn children, and those in care departments. We cannot stop and we cannot evacuate the hospitals.” The Gaza Strip's hospitals began monitoring epidemic cases in primary care centers, due to the lack of water and healthy food and the destruction of the health and medical infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.

by Evan Dyer

Israelis don't agree on much, especially lately, but polling shows they mostly agree that Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu is to blame for leaving Israel unprepared for Hamas's onslaught on October 7.

The accusations aimed at Netanyahu go beyond merely failing to foresee or prevent the Hamas attack of October 7, however. Many accuse him of deliberately empowering the group for decades as part of a strategy to sabotage a two-state solution based on the principle of land for peace.

"There's been a lot of criticism of Netanyahu in Israel for instating a policy for many years of strengthening Hamas and keeping Gaza on the brink while weakening the Palestinian Authority," said Mairav Zonszein of the International Crisis Group. "And we've seen that happening very clearly on the ground."

"(Hamas and Netanyahu) are mutually reinforcing, in the sense that they provide each other with a way to continue to use force and rejectionism as opposed to making sacrifices and compromises in order to reach some kind of resolution," Zonszein told CBC News from Tel Aviv.

'Keep Hamas alive and kicking'

This symbiotic relationship between Netanyahu and Hamas has been remarked on for years, by both friends and enemies, hawks and doves.

Yuval Diskin, former head of Israel's Shin Bet security service, told the daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth in 2013 that "if we look at it over the years, one of the main people contributing to Hamas's strengthening has been Bibi Netanyahu, since his first term as prime minister."

In August 2019, former prime minister Ehud Barak told Israeli Army Radio that Netanyahu's "strategy is to keep Hamas alive and kicking … even at the price of abandoning the citizens [of the south] … in order to weaken the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah."

The logic underlying this strategy, Barak said, is that "it's easier with Hamas to explain to Israelis that there is no one to sit with and no one to talk to."

Netanyahu's critics say that Hamas — with its bloodthirsty rhetoric, open antisemitism and stated intention never to share the land — played into the hands of a prime minister who also wanted to be able to tell western governments that Israel has "no partner" for peace.

Supporting Hamas rule in Gaza, those critics say, allowed Netanyahu to confine the Palestinian Authority to the West Bank and weaken it, dividing the Palestinians into two mutually antagonistic blocs.

Hamas puts its finger on the scales 

Netanyahu first came to power in the 1996 election that followed the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by an Israeli extremist opposed to the Oslo Accords.

Early polls showed Rabin's successor Shimon Peres comfortably ahead.

Determined to sabotage Oslo, Hamas embarked on a ruthless suicide bombing campaign that helped Netanyahu pull ahead of Peres and win the election on May 29, 1996.

Today, some of the same extremists who called for Rabin's death hold power in Netanyahu's government.

Just two weeks before Rabin's assassination, a young settler extremist posed for the cameras with a Cadillac hood ornament he said he had stolen from Rabin's car. "Just like we got to this emblem," he said, "we could get to Rabin."

Today, that young man, Itamar Ben Gvir, is 45 years old and has eight Israeli criminal convictions — including convictions for supporting a terrorist organization and incitement to racism. Once he was rejected by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for his extremist views. Now, Israel's police must answer to him as Benjamin Netanyahu's minister of national security.

Many analysts believe one of the main goals of the Hamas attack on Israel was to derail the normalization talks underway between Israel and Saudi Arabia, which would have left the Palestinians on the sidelines.

In a remarkable speech last week in Houston, Saudi Prince Turki bin Faisal unleashed on Hamas for its atrocities and obstructionism. But he also had words for Israel.

"I condemn Hamas for further undermining the Palestinian Authority, as Israel has been doing," said the former Saudi intelligence chief and ambassador to the U.S. "I condemn Hamas for sabotaging the attempt of Saudi Arabia to reach a peaceful resolution to the plight of the Palestinian people.

"I condemn Israel for funneling Qatari money to Hamas."

Prince Turki was referring to money that the Qatar royal family has been sending to Gaza for years, to the tune of about a billion U.S. dollars.

'Hamas is an asset'

Netanyahu's hawkish defense minister Avigdor Liberman was the first to report in 2020 that Bibi had dispatched Mossad chief Yossi Cohen and the IDF's officer in charge of Gaza, Herzi Halevi, to Doha to "beg" the Qataris to continue to send money to Hamas.

"Both Egypt and Qatar are angry with Hamas and planned to cut ties with them. Suddenly Netanyahu appears as the defender of Hamas," the right-wing leader complained.

A year later, Netanyahu was further embarrassed when photos of suitcases full of cash going to Hamas became public. Liberman finally resigned in protest over Netanyahu's Hamas policy which, he said, marked "the first time Israel is funding terrorism against itself."

Netanyahu's education minister Naftali Bennett also denounced the payments, and also quit.

The Palestinian Authority's Ahmed Majdalani accused the Qatari envoy of carrying money to Hamas "like a gangster."

"The PLO did not agree to the deal facilitating the money to Hamas that way," he said.

After both Bennett and Liberman fell out with Netanyahu, he was defeated by a new government that stopped the cash deliveries to Hamas. 

But that government lasted just 18 months. Then Netanyahu returned to power with new, more extreme partners who backed the policy of fostering Hamas to prevent a negotiated peace settlement.

Netanyahu's current finance minister, West Bank settler Belazel Smotrich, explained the approach to Israel's Knesset channel in 2015: "Hamas is an asset, and (Palestinian Authority leader) Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) is a burden."

Paying Hamas to weaken Oslo

On March 12, 2019, Netanyahu defended the Hamas payments to his Likud Party caucus on the grounds that they weakened the pro-Oslo Palestinian Authority, according to the Jerusalem Post:

"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended Israel's regular allowing of Qatari funds to be transferred into Gaza, saying it is part of a broader strategy to keep Hamas and the Palestinian Authority separate, a source in Monday's Likud faction meeting said," the Post reported.

"The prime minister also said that 'whoever is against a Palestinian state should be for' transferring the funds to Gaza, because maintaining a separation between the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza helps prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state."

Netanyahu insisted that neither the money nor the construction material given to Hamas would be diverted to military purposes. But today, the IDF finds itself showing how Hamas has done exactly that — by diverting and converting civilian funds and materials to warlike purposes.

The military tried to warn him at the time, former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot told the Ma'ariv newspaper. He said Netanyahu acted "in total opposition to the national assessment of the National Security Council, which determined that there was a need to disconnect from the Palestinians and establish two states."

"We Gaza border residents are paying the price for the lack of policy and the arrogance in facing terror," said Labor Party Knesset member Haim Jelin in 2019.

Those words would prove to be terribly prescient four years later.

Catch-22 for two-state solution

Mustafa Barghouti, a physician and member of the PLO Central Council, was a key figure in talks between Hamas and Fatah that sought to unify the Palestinians in a single bloc that could negotiate a two-state peace.

"Each time we moved toward unity, Netanyahu would launch a campaign claiming that (Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud) Abbas is cooperating with terrorists," Barghouti told CBC News from Ramallah in the West Bank.

"But each time Netanyahu was asked, 'Why don't you negotiate with Abbas,' he would say, 'I can't negotiate with a Palestinian Authority that doesn't represent all Palestinians.' And so he would use Hamas and this division to justify his absolute objection to any negotiated peace agreement."

Barghouti said the current war has ended U.S. and Israeli hopes of Israel normalizing relations with neighboring countries without first resolving the Palestinian issue.

"One of the main results of what has happened is to show that normalization between Israel and some Arab countries does not solve the problem," he said. "It re-established the Palestinian issue as the central issue in this whole knot."

"Most of the world thought that it could sideline this issue," said Zonszein. "Certainly the U.S. thought that. But now it's clear that it is the key to stability in the region as a whole."

Biden: U.S. wants two states

On Wednesday, U.S. President Joe Biden warned Israel to stop attacks by Israeli settlers — a key part of Netanyahu's coalition — on Palestinian civilians. Attacks have spiked this year.

"They're attacking Palestinians in places that they're entitled to be, and it has to stop," Biden said. "They have to be held accountable."

Biden also spoke about what the U.S. wants to see after the war.

"When this crisis is over, there has to be a vision of what comes next," he said. "And in our view, it has to be a two-state solution."

Neither Hamas nor Netanyahu share that vision.

As Netanyahu has pointed out, Hamas does not recognize Israel's right to exist and lays claim to all of the land "from the river to the sea."

And just twelve days before the Hamas massacres in southern Israel, Netanyahu addressed the UN General Assembly, holding a map of what he called "The New Middle East" that showed all of the West Bank and Gaza, as well as East Jerusalem and the Syrian Golan Heights, as parts of an enlarged Israel, with no Palestinian state in sight.

Damage likely to be lasting

There is a widespread feeling in Israel that Netanyahu's career is finally ending. A trial on serious corruption charges looms in his future.

"He's finished. It's over," said Barghouti. "The problem is that the alternatives are no different from him when it comes to any Palestinian issue. They differ with him on other matters, but when it comes to Palestinians, I don't see any peace camp in Israel."

Hamas and Netanyahu may both prove harder to eliminate than their enemies hope. But even if they leave the scene, the damage to the two-state solution is not easily undone and the current war likely will make things worse, said Zonszein.

"I'm concerned that the fear and the trauma and shock of what happened is only going to make Israelis more scared of Palestinians, and Palestinians more scared of Israelis," she said. "And you see a lot of Israelis who are arming themselves now with personal firearms because they don't trust that the army and police will be there for them."

Nor will Gazans be easily reconciled to the restoration of a corrupt Palestinian Authority, especially one seen to be riding back to power on an Israeli tank.

"It's already lost most of its legitimacy and credibility on the street in the West Bank," said Zonszein. "There haven't been elections in 16 years and they don't have the ability to govern even the West Bank, so why would anyone think they have the ability to govern Gaza?"

Barghouti agreed the current Palestinian Authority and its leadership are at a dead end.

"No Palestinian leader will ever have legitimacy without free, democratic elections, and that is true whether he governs Gaza or not," he said.

"But in my opinion, Israel is not interested in a Palestinian government of Gaza."

Nazeer Magali

The Prime Minister and army commanders warned in 2016 of a war being prepared by Hamas.

After the publication of the document prepared by Avigdor Lieberman, when he was Defense Minister in 2016, in which he clearly warned of the danger of an attack that might be launched by the Hamas movement, just as happened on October 7, 3 weeks ago, the demands for the resignation or dismissal of the Prime Minister expanded. , Benjamin Netanyahu.

Lieberman said that this document should be “the last exhausting blow to the prime minister, who is reeling with weakened forces.” But Netanyahu does not give up so easily, and is also seeking to overcome this crisis. Officials, experts, and the press are heading to his party (Likud) to recruit 5 representatives who agree to overthrow him.

Lieberman had chosen the appropriate timing (Monday) for his part, and said: “We failed to overthrow him when a corruption indictment was brought against him in 2020, and we failed during the past ten months after he came up with a coup plan against the ruling system and the judiciary, and we failed even when it swept ( Hamas) Israel, occupied 22 villages and 11 military barracks, and it is inconceivable that we will also fail this time.”

A demonstration raising the slogan of Israeli democracy in Tel Aviv last June (Reuters)

The man (i.e. Netanyahu) proves that “what worries him is not the hundreds of thousands of soldiers who have been conscripted into the reserve, nor the prisoners held by (Hamas), nor the millions of Israelis and Jews who are worried about their relatives and loved ones. Rather, he is busy exonerating himself from the charge of failing to confront the (Hamas) attack.” “And how will he be able to keep the fire away from his face and direct it to others, and not care about directing arrows towards the heads of the army and intelligence, while they are fighting in Gaza,” according to Lieberman, who considers this an unforgivable crime? Therefore, he revealed the document related to Hamas’ war plans.

According to the document, which was classified as “top secret,” Lieberman, when he was defense minister in Netanyahu’s government, addressed him with an 11-page detailed memorandum explaining in detail that “Hamas” had become an ambitious military force planning an attack whose goal was “to eliminate Israel until 2022.” And liberate all the lands of Palestine.”

The document, published by Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper on Monday, states that “Hamas intends to transfer the upcoming confrontation to Israeli territory, by pumping large and well-trained forces, such as elite forces, into Israeli territory, and occupying an Israeli town, and perhaps several towns.” “In addition to targeting them physically, this will lead to a severe targeting of the awareness and morale of the citizens of Israel.”

Eliminate Israel

The document stated that “Hamas has set for itself an explicit goal, which is to eliminate Israel until 2022.” During a series of deliberations within the framework of the movement’s (Executive Committee) meetings that were held in Qatar on September 25-27, 2016, it explained that it needed a “calm-down period” in order to complete building its strength and readiness.”

According to the document dating back to 2016, “Hamas is interested in making the next war against Israel multi-front, by building other fronts in addition to the Gaza Strip - Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Sinai - and even against Jewish targets around the world.” She added that “Hamas is seeking to expand the ranks of its fighters to 40,000 activists by 2020, and strengthening its strength will be in the ground combat system,” and that “in the wake of its growing economic distress, the movement has requested assistance from Iran in the amount of 50-60 million dollars.”

Lieberman’s document stated, “The defensive obstacle that the Israeli army is building along the border with Gaza, and with all its means and capabilities, is an important element in the current security strategy vis-à-vis Gaza, but it cannot constitute a strategy in and of itself. Contemporary history and past precedents – the Maginot Line, the Mannerheim Line and the Bar Lev Line – have proven that walls and fortifications do not prevent war and are no guarantee of tranquility and security.” The document continued: “If Israel waits until it achieves intelligence control and erects a security wall, all of this superiority will be completely reduced in exchange for the increase in the strength of (Hamas) during this period.”

A demonstration raising the slogan of Israeli democracy in Tel Aviv last June (Reuters)

The document concluded that “not taking an Israeli initiative until mid-2017 would be a serious mistake that would lead Israel into a difficult strategic situation, and that would lead to an unplanned deterioration, and while in a scenario like this Israel would not be able to assassinate the leadership of the arm.” militarily for (Hamas), or worse - for (Hamas) to open a confrontation at a time convenient for it.” “I believe that the consequences of such an operation by (Hamas) would be far-reaching, and in certain respects the consequences would be more severe than the results of the Yom Kippur War (October 1973),” Lieberman wrote in the memo.

Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper said, “It is quite clear that Lieberman predicted the Hamas attack on October 7, and based this on accurate information, he developed a scenario that was proven to be amazingly correct,” but “Netanyahu failed and did not take the warning seriously, and instead He began to run a policy that granted Hamas all the necessary time and money worth hundreds of millions of dollars to implement its plan.”

Netanyahu during a visit to the Israeli army on the Gaza Strip border this month (his account on the X platform)

The newspaper added, “None of the officials who saw this document treated it seriously, including the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Chief of Staff of the Israeli Army at the time, Gadi Eisenkot, but it placed the primary responsibility on Netanyahu in his capacity as Prime Minister, which in Israel is considered the Supreme Commander.” For the army, it is above and more important than the Chief of Staff.”

The Hebrew newspaper pointed out that “Lieberman resigned from his position as Minister of Defense at the end of 2018, and justified this by Israel’s agreement to a ceasefire with Hamas, and to bring financial aid from Qatar to the Gaza Strip in the amount of $15 million per month.”

The document put Netanyahu in the dock as someone who bears first responsibility before everyone else and more than anyone else for the Hamas attack. She commented: “In a normal state, Netanyahu would have appeared in public and announced his resignation. But Israel is not that country, and Netanyahu is not that responsible leader; Firstly, he remained silent and neither he nor his office commented on Lieberman’s document. Therefore, the newspaper launched a call for him to resign or be fired. Is this possible?

Chances of dismissing Netanyahu

The Israeli Prime Minister currently enjoys a majority of 64 seats in the Knesset out of a total of 120. The only way to get rid of him, if he does not become independent himself, is for 5 representatives from the coalition to decide to drop him in a no-confidence motion. The greatest scope for such development is for those from the Likud Party, as the “Religious Zionism” bloc led by Bezalil Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir will not take such a step, nor will other religious parties such as the Haredim.

In Likud, there are 32 deputies, most of whom are loyal to Netanyahu personally, but there are more than 5 deputies among them who oppose Netanyahu’s policy, and are under pressure from some public and political circles to take such a step, but they are still hesitating. They know that Netanyahu is ready to massacre them, especially since if elections are held soon, the right will lose power, will receive a devastating blow, and will be considered traitors.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a Knesset session last March (AP)

But political circles are trying to convince them of a road map that opens up hope for saving Likud, and they say: “You dismiss Netanyahu and hand over power to one of your leaders by choice, and this will be an opportunity to get rid of Netanyahu’s burden without losing power. Such as an interim leader being elected, who runs the war and then announces an investigation committee into the failures, and after 6 months, 9 months, or a year, elections are held and you are in a better position.”

The proposal is that the Minister of Energy, Israel Katz, or the Minister of Economy, Nir Barkat, assume the presidency of the government instead of Netanyahu, but Katz does not accept Barkat and Barkat does not accept Katz, so they propose that Yoav Galant, the Minister of Defense, assume the presidency of the government now, and be his deputy and minister. For defense, Benny Gantz, in order to preserve unity, and Lieberman will join the coalition and become Minister of National Security or even Defense, and Yair Lapid will be Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The important thing is that revealing the document opens the door more to pressure for Netanyahu’s resignation or dismissal, as he is today in the worst position in his political history, and is seen as a weak and flabby prime minister who considers his chair a sacred icon more important than anything. However, the problem is that no one from his camp yet dares to challenge this, and war does not help in waging a political battle like this, and the hope among his opponents is that many circles on the right have begun to put forward the idea of getting rid of him and consider it a good start.

Source: Agencies

Yesterday (Monday), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strongly rejected the ceasefire with Hamas in a speech he delivered to journalists, according to the German News Agency.

Netanyahu said: “Just as the United States did not agree to a ceasefire after the bombing of Pearl Harbor or after the terrorist attack on 9/11, Israel will not agree to a cessation of hostilities with (Hamas) after the horrific attacks on October 7.”

Netanyahu explained, “Calls for a ceasefire are calls for Israel to surrender to Hamas, surrender to terrorism, and surrender to barbarism. That won't happen... The Bible says there is a time for peace and a time for war. “This is the time of war, the war for a common future.”

Netanyahu called on all civilized countries to stand with Israel in demanding the immediate and unconditional release of the hostages and to draw a dividing line between the forces of civilization and the forces of barbarism. He added, "It is time for everyone to decide where they stand."

Today, Tuesday, Israeli occupation bulldozers uprooted 12 olive trees and continued to bulldoze hundreds of acres of agricultural land in the village of Farkha, southwest of Salfit.

According to local sources, the occupation bulldozers uprooted 12 olive trees owned by Suleiman Rizkallah from the village of Farkha, while they continued to bulldoze hundreds of dunums of village land.

The head of the Farkha Village Council, Mustafa Hammad, explained that Israeli bulldozers from the “Al-Ras” colonial outpost are continuing the bulldozing work for the third day in a row to implement a colonial plan and build a new road in the “Al-Batin” area to connect it to the “Al-Matwi” area northwest of the village, with the aim of facilitating the colonists’ access to these areas. From the colonies surrounding the area.

He pointed out that the construction of the road aims to seize and control hundreds of dunams for the benefit of establishing colonial projects, calling on the competent local, international and legal institutions to protect the region and support their efforts to preserve it from seizure.

Hammad stated that the area of the area being bulldozed and seized by the occupation is approximately 1,400 dunams, and there is a water spring in it, covering 25-30% of the village’s water needs. A number of Bedouin families live in the area, and the colonists are constantly pursuing them in an attempt to remove them from the place.

Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman called for the necessity of a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, during his meeting on Tuesday with US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan at the White House.

According to the Saudi News Agency (SPA), the Saudi minister also stressed “the necessity of protecting civilians, stopping forced displacement, and allowing humanitarian aid to enter without obstacles.”

He also stressed the need to "work to restore the path of peace, to ensure that the Palestinian people obtain their legitimate rights, and to establish their independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital, to ensure the achievement of a just and comprehensive peace."

On the 18th of this month, the Saudi city of Jeddah hosted an emergency meeting of foreign ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, to discuss the war on Gaza launched by the Israeli occupation army in response to the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation on the 7th of this October.

For 25 days, the occupation army has launched intensive raids on residential neighborhoods in the Gaza Strip, killing more than 8,306 people - including 3,457 children - and wounding about 21,048 Palestinians, according to official data.

In the West Bank, 122 Palestinians have been killed since October 7, and the Israeli army is launching a massive arrest campaign that has affected about two thousand Palestinians, according to official Palestinian sources.

Two Palestinian citizens, including teenager, were killed today, Tuesday, by bullets from the Israeli occupation forces, in the occupied West Bank.

The Ministry of Health announced the death of ta teenager, Muhammad Abdel Qader Kharaz (14 years old), as a result of critical injuries sustained by live bullets from the occupation forces in the village of Zawata, Nablus district.

Medical sources reported that the child, Al-Kharaz, died as a result of being hit by live bullets in the pelvic area.

Later, the Ministry of Health announced: The elderly man, Rawhi Rashid Sawafta (70 years old), was killed after being hit by occupation bullets in the face during the storming of Tubas.

Local sources reported that special forces in the occupation army, undercover "Musta'arabin,” stormed the city, followed by military reinforcements from the Tayaseer military checkpoint, which led to the outbreak of confrontations, which led to one death and 7 injuries.

With the death of the two Palestinians, the death toll in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem since October 7th rises to 123 dead.

The head of the Shin Bet secretly visited Qatar and the UAE as part of Doha’s mediation efforts in the file of prisoners held by resistance factions in the Gaza Strip. The visit confirms that Israel is seeking to exhaust the diplomatic track in parallel with the occupation's ground operations in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli Public Broadcasting Authority (“Kan 11”) said on Monday that the private Israeli plane that had landed in Qatar yesterday, last Sunday, was carrying the head of the Mossad, David Barnea, who also secretly visited the UAE, as part of the ongoing talks. As part of mediation efforts in an attempt to reach an agreement to release the prisoners.

"Kan 11" reported that the head of the Mossad made a "secret visit to Qatar over the weekend as part of efforts and communications to release the hostages." Reports had revealed, last night, that a private plane, which had previously been used for flights of senior Israeli officials, had returned to Israel. Coming from Qatar.

Kan 11 pointed out the central role played by Qatar in the issue of Israeli prisoners held by the resistance factions in the Gaza Strip, and the channel considered that the Mossad chief’s secret visit to Doha confirms the continuation of negotiations on the prisoners’ file, in parallel with the occupation’s ground operations in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli Walla website, citing two informed sources, reported that Barnea “discussed with senior officials in Doha the file of negotiations to release those kidnapped by Hamas in Gaza.” The website reported that Washington is also making efforts to meet the Qatari authorities regarding the prisoners’ file, “given that many Some of them hold American citizenship.”

Two high-ranking Israeli officials said that the Israeli "war cabinet" took a decision last Thursday to begin ground operations in the Gaza Strip in light of the failure to achieve any breakthrough in the ongoing Qatari mediation talks regarding the file of prisoners held by the resistance factions in Gaza.

The report stated that the Israeli decision came in the wake of the Hamas movement’s rejection of Israel’s request to hand over, through the Qatari mediator, a list of the names of the prisoners held by the movement. According to Israeli officials, “Hamas informed the Qataris that it is still in the process of knowing the whereabouts of all the kidnapped people, verifying their identities, and collecting their names.” ".

The report said, “Hamas’ response created a feeling in Israel that Hamas was pursuing a tactic to delay the ground incursion of the occupation forces into the Gaza Strip.” Walla explained that the Mossad chief’s visit to Qatar came after the start of the ground operation, and came to renew communications with the Qatari mediator.

The website quoted informed sources as saying that the talks held by Barnea witnessed progress but did not achieve a real breakthrough.

In a press conference held this evening with the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Minister of Strategic Affairs, Ron Dermer, refused to answer whether his government was ready to exchange Israeli prisoners for Palestinian prisoners in the occupation prisons.

He said: “I will not go into issues related to the negotiations to return the hostages, but I will say that our assessment is that the escalation of the military operation over the past two days contributes to achieving both goals, which are eliminating Hamas and its military machine and achieving our goal in Gaza, and also advancing the chances of an agreement on the hostages, and I cannot say more.” So".

Regarding the possibility of a prisoner exchange agreement, Dermer said: “These decisions are not taken by the Military Ministerial Council (the War Cabinet). They are taken in the Ministerial Council for Security and Political Affairs (the Expanded Cabinet) and then presented to the full Israeli government, which must vote on any decision.”

Qatari-American discussions

Earlier today, the Qatari Foreign Minister, Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman bin Jassim, discussed with his American counterpart, Anthony Blinken, developments in the Gaza Strip and “mediation to release prisoners.” This came in a phone call received by the Qatari Foreign Minister from Blinken, according to what was reported by the Qatar News Agency, QNA.

During the call, they "reviewed the seriousness of the escalation of confrontations in the Gaza Strip, and the necessity of an immediate ceasefire." The two sides also discussed "the latest developments in the mediation to release prisoners." During the call, Qatar's Foreign Minister stressed "the necessity of opening the Rafah crossing permanently to ensure the flow of relief convoys and humanitarian aid to the Palestinian brothers trapped under the bombing."

This comes in light of the Israeli allegations about the “liberation” of an Israeli female soldier who was being held by the resistance factions in the Gaza Strip, during the ground operations carried out by the occupation army in the besieged Strip, last night, hours after the “Al-Qassam Brigades” broadcast a video that includes 3 Israeli female prisoners in which they hold Netanyahu responsible for their captivity, and demand that he free all Israeli prisoners in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

There are more than 239 Israelis who were captured by the resistance factions in the Gaza Strip, during the attack carried out by the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas movement, on Israeli military sites and towns in the vicinity of the Gaza Strip, on October 7, including high-ranking military personnel, and the Hamas movement is seeking to replace them with Palestinian prisoners in occupation prisons, including children and women.

In a related context, the US State Department claimed today that Hamas made a number of demands before allowing people to leave Gaza, while Washington is working to ensure safe passage for Americans who want to leave, and to secure the release of prisoners held by resistance factions in Gaza.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller claimed, “Hamas has put forward a number of demands before it allows people to leave Gaza... Just as we believe they should release all the hostages they are holding, we believe they should... allow all American citizens to leave.” and other citizens.”