The USS Carney, a Navy destroyer in the Red Sea, encountered multiple missiles launched by Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen on Thursday and fired its own missiles in response, officials said.

It’s unclear from where the Houthi militia's missiles were fired but they were headed in a northerly direction, an official said.

The USS Carney intercepted three cruise missiles and about eight drones, Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said later at a press briefing.

The preliminary U.S. assessment is that the USS Carney was not the target of any of the Houthi missiles or drones.

Information about the engagements was still being processed, Ryder said. "We cannot say for certain what these missiles and drones were targeting but they were launched from Yemen heading north along the Red Sea potentially to targets in Israel.

No sailors aboard the ship were harmed, the official said.

The incident occurred during the early evening hours Thursday local time.

The missiles fired by the Houthis were engaged by SM2 missiles carried aboard the USS Carney, an official said.

Abu Ubaida, the military spokesman for the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), threatened the Israeli occupation with a “long battle” and said that they were ready for it, calling on the Arab peoples to “mobilize and march” to the borders of Palestine.

Hamas's military spokesman confirmed - in a recorded speech - that "the resistance is fine and is still controlling the events of the field" and that it "knows where and when to mount and strike, and when and how to strike."

He added, "We are prepared for a long battle with this occupier, as sacred and great as our goal in this battle is," which is to defend Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque, respond to its desecration, and make the occupation pay the price for its crimes.

Abu Ubaida stressed that “the bill of reckoning with this enemy will be harsh and painful, and he will pay the price for his crimes against Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Palestinian people,” vowing that the resistance will not tolerate these crimes.

In his recorded speech, he criticized American support for Israel, describing it as “shameless and base.” He said that this support would not help the occupation, and that “no force in the world will be able to eliminate the Palestinian resistance, prevent it from defending the holy sites, or take away the hopes of the Palestinian people to gain their freedom.” .

Abu Ubaida considered that the "stupid" American support for the occupation ignites the fire of anger in the Arab and Islamic nation to reject the American and Israeli occupation, stressing that "the enemy today is at its worst in 75 years, and it is an opportunity for the nation."

He called on the masses of the nation everywhere to "mobilize and march to the borders of Palestine, unite and do everything in their power to bring down the faltering Zionist project, despite the massacres it commits and the support it receives from the forces of injustice and aggression."

Abu Ubaida also addressed the masses of the nation and the free people of the world, and called on them to “mobilize and rally” in front of the Israeli and American embassies, expel their ambassadors, and close their embassies in all Arab and Islamic countries, stressing that it is “the least duty to win for Jerusalem and to declare rejection of the genocidal massacres against the people of Gaza” and to restore respect for Arabs and Muslims.

The head of the Hamas movement abroad, Khaled Meshal, said on Thursday that the attack on Israel was a calculated adventure, in reference to the Al-Qassam Brigades - the military wing of the Hamas movement - a surprise attack on Israel, adding: “We know very well the consequences of our operation on October 7.”

He confirmed, in an exclusive interview with Al-Arabiya channel, that the details of prisoner numbers are available only with the Al-Qassam Brigades, stressing by saying: “We have enough prisoners of Israeli soldiers to negotiate over our detainees... and we have informed some countries of our readiness to hand over civilian prisoners,” noting by saying: “We are concerned.” "Only Israeli military prisoners, and we will exchange our Israeli prisoners for all our prisoners held by Israel."

Khaled Meshaal said that the Netanyahu government has set an agenda to Judaize Al-Aqsa, stressing by saying: “Israel is killing us, whether we resist or not.”

Khaled Meshaal added, “The calculations of our operation against Israel were within a narrow framework,” noting that “to achieve the element of surprise in our operation, not everyone knew about it,” stressing that “it is not possible to reach foreign prisoners under Israeli bombing.”

He stressed by saying, "Hamas and the Palestinian factions do not target civilians, but Israel targets civilians randomly."

He pointed out that "the Arab position towards the current situation is good and we ask for more," stressing by saying: "We do not call people to wars," noting that "Hezbollah and Iran provided us with weapons and support and we ask for more."

Meshaal called on the Arabs to protect Gaza, stressing that "there are no voices in Gaza criticizing the resistance... We want an Arab-Islamic position that pressures the West to stop the war."

He pointed out that "Israel says that it will eliminate Hamas... and it will not succeed," stressing by saying: "The battle with Israel is difficult... The Taliban defeated America and we will defeat Israel." He added, "The countries that put us on terrorist lists are communicating with us through a third party."

Regarding the entry of aid into the Gaza Strip, Meshaal said that Hamas does not accept that aid be limited to the people of the southern Gaza Strip.

Regarding the Israeli calls demanding the departure of the people of Gaza to Egypt, Meshaal said: “We refuse to leave Gaza. The displacement of the people of Gaza, if it occurs, will harm Egypt and Jordan.”

The head of the Hamas movement abroad said, "Our operation in Israel is offensive as part of a long defensive war."

The Hebrew channel "Kan" said on Thursday evening that Israel evacuated its embassies in the Middle East, including the embassies in Bahrain, Jordan, Morocco, Egypt, and Turkey.

On Wednesday, Israel asked its citizens to leave Turkey as soon as possible after angry demonstrations in front of the Israeli embassy in Ankara following the bombing of Baptist Hospital. It also evacuated the employees of its embassies in Morocco and Egypt.

Read more Arab and international reactions to the Al-Maamdani Hospital massacre

The Israeli Consulate in Ankara raised the security alert for Israelis in Turkey to the highest level.

The Israeli National Security Council justified the departure request by “increasing threats against Israelis abroad,” warning Israelis against traveling to Turkey.

The Israeli embassies in Jordan, Turkey, France, the United States, and Lebanon were subjected to an angry popular march in protest against the crime of the Israeli bombing of the “Al-Maamdani” Hospital in Gaza.

On Thursday evening, the Israeli occupation forces arrested 14 Palestinian citizens from the village of Umm Safa, northwest of Ramallah.

According to local sources, the occupation forces raided the village, fired live bullets at vehicles and citizens’ homes, raided commercial stores and arrested everyone inside them. They also arrested citizens after they removed them from their vehicles.

The sources indicated that among the detainees were known: the elderly Muhammad Musleh and his son Adam, Saleh Ma’rouf Tanatra, Dhia Ma’rouf Tanatra, Muhammad Yaqoub Tanatra, Majd Yaqoub Tanatra, Hamada Walid Tanatra, Muhammad Walid Tanatra, Ihab Sayel Tanatra, Muhammad Sayel Tanatra, and Aws Sayel. Tanatra, and Izz al-Din Muhammad Maarouf Tanatra.

Sources pointed out that the occupation army continues to close the two entrances to the village with dirt barriers, and that citizens are forced to take long detours to reach their workplaces.

Tens of thousands demonstrated in several Algerian cities, including the capital, Algiers, today, Thursday, in solidarity with the Palestinian people and denouncing the ongoing Israeli aggression against them.

The capital's demonstration started from May 1st Square towards Martyrs' Square, a distance of about five kilometers, and the demonstrators chanted "Palestine the martyrs" and "The people of Algeria are with you, Palestine."

The demonstrators also raised banners in Arabic and English that read, “No to the killing of children, women, and civilians. Where are human rights?” They also carried Palestinian flags alongside Algerian flags.

Parties, unions, civil organizations, and the Algerian Workers' Union called for Thursday's demonstrations "in order to support Palestine," and Algerian official television channels broadcast them live.

Palestinian flags were hung alongside Algerian flags throughout the capital and on the balconies of buildings overlooking the demonstration route.

Similar demonstrations took place in the cities of Oran, Constantine, Ouargla, Tindouf, Batna and others.

It is noteworthy that the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Community Abroad asked all its embassies and diplomatic missions abroad to cancel all preparations related to the celebrations of the glorious first anniversary of November, by order of the President of the Algerian Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, in solidarity with Palestine.

Sports competitions and tournaments were also cancelled, especially the football tournament, in solidarity with the Palestinian people, according to what the Algerian Football Federation announced.

by Jonathan Spyer

No sane American president takes office hoping for war. Woodrow Wilson, a 56-year-old Princeton academic, said it would be 'the irony of fate' if his presidency came to be dominated by foreign affairs. He spoke in 1913. Joe Biden came to office in 2021 promising to end the 'forever wars' of Iraq and Afghanistan. But as he boarded Air Force One on Tuesday, another irony of fate was in evidence: the American-enforced world order is crumbling, and the results are now becoming clear.

Iran, far from being neutered by US sanctions, was able to start a war using its Hamas proxies and their Hezbollah allies to attack Israel. At a stroke, the Arab-Israeli rapprochement America had wanted to nurture has been put on ice. Biden had hoped this week to meet his Egyptian, Saudi and Jordanian counterparts along with Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president. But the summit was called off when a hospital in Gaza was shelled (which Israel and a number of external open source intelligent analysts have blamed on a stray Palestinian rocket, and which Biden said was 'done by the other team' during his press conference on Wednesday). Containing this conflict might prove very hard indeed.

At the same time, Xi Jinping was keen to show off the other axis of allies at a gathering in Beijing to celebrate ten years of its Belt and Road initiative. Among the honored guests were Vladimir Putin and Hungary's Viktor Orban. The Russian media has been quick to contrast Xi and Putin's multipolar vision of the world with the Biden administration's floundering in the Middle East. China's foreign minister Wang Yi said Israel has already gone too far in its response to the Hamas attack and that Beijing and Moscow are working to 'immediately energize the two-state solution as a fundamental solution'.

As Joe Biden boarded Air Force One on Tuesday, another irony of fate was in evidence: the American-enforced world order is crumbling, and the results are now becoming clear.

As demonstrations engulf the Middle East after the hospital attack, America's moment appears to be over already. Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas's political leader, called on all Muslims worldwide to stage protests against Israel. Such protests have duly been happening, from Arab countries to the state parliament in Melbourne. Tear gas has been fired outside the US embassy in Lebanon to ward off demonstrators. We can expect this mass protest trend to continue.

There are many beneficiaries from the splitting of American attention – Russia, for one, will be emboldened in its campaign in Ukraine. But Iran is a country that has just seen history move its way. Even before the hospital bombing, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the foreign minister, warned of 'pre-emptive action' if Israel continues with plans for a ground invasion in Gaza. Skirmishes with Hezbollah on the Lebanese border have heated up all week, leaving many dead on both sides. (Through third-party intermediaries, the US has warned Hezbollah and Iran privately not to get involved in a fully-fledged war with Israel, according to the American news outlet Axios, which reports that the US is considering using military force if Hezbollah escalates its attacks.)

'Our numerous intelligence reports show that the US is formulating the Zionist regime's current policy,' Ayatollah Khamenei announced on Tuesday. 'The US must be held responsible for this situation.' In the new geopolitical reality, Iran is a major force. Tehran has pursued policies largely in line with Russia's interests, whether in Syria, the Caucasus, central Asia, or Afghanistan, but especially when it comes to Israel.

Indeed, the carnage of 7 October was itself part of this long-standing policy. Tehran, empowered by America's Middle East withdrawal, has spent years surrounding Israel with client Islamist paramilitary groups. The aim is Israel's eventual collapse, a key part of Tehran's drive for regional domination as a global power.

Israel failed to discern Hamas's terrible plans because its intelligence resources have been so focused on Iran's nuclear program. But the Iranians are seeking a nuclear capacity primarily as an insurance policy beneath which they can continue the aggressive regional strategy that has been developed over the past three decades and which is now coming to fruition.

Tehran, empowered by America's Middle East withdrawal, has spent years surrounding Israel with client Islamist paramilitary groups. The aim is Israel's eventual collapse.

Two components were needed to produce Hamas's attack on Israel. The first was the ground presence of a powerful Islamist movement, with a degree of public legitimacy and the ability to recruit and command a sufficient number of committed young men. Hamas fits this bill. The second was the kind of weaponry, resources and organization that only a powerful state can provide. Hamas counts a number of regional powers as friends, such as Qatar and Turkey. But only Iran offers military assistance. And only Iran could provide the know-how, tactical skills and hardware that made 7 October possible.

Hamas – the local representative of Muslim Brotherhood-style Sunni political Islam – is by far the most dynamic and coordinated Palestinian political movement. In this, it reflects a region-wide trend that has gone below the radar amid the excitement of the Abraham Accords, and the (postponed) hopes of an Israel-Saudi rapprochement.

In virtually every Middle Eastern country, Islamist movements of both Sunni and Shia varieties have unparalleled strength on the ground. In Lebanon, for example, the Shia Islamist movement Hezbollah is the de facto ruler. 

In Syria, the 'secular' regime of Bashar al-Assad remains only because of Russian and Iranian assistance: the popular uprising against from 2011-19 was Sunni Islamist in nature. In Iraq, the main Sunni force produced from below in recent years was Islamic State – and pro-Iranian Shia Islamist parties have formed the government since 2021.

There is an unpleasant pattern here. The world has grown weary of the Middle East and its endless wars. But political Islam continues to command the streets across the Arab world, at least outside the Gulf. And it is Iran that provides such groups with the required potency and capacity to operate.

There's an obvious basis to the relationship between Iran and its franchise organizations: namely that the Tehran regime itself is the most successful expression of political Islam and represents the marriage of this outlook with state power. But there's a more practical component too. With states in the Middle East fragmenting since the Arab Spring, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has established and located powerful Islamist forces, turning them into its instruments. These methods, adjusted to local conditions, have brought Tehran partial or complete power in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Gaza.

Whether Iran ordered 7 October is an irrelevant debate. It is Iran which provides the funding that makes such operations feasible, to the tune of $100 million per year.

Whether Iran ordered 7 October is an irrelevant debate. It is Iran which provides the funding that makes such operations feasible, to the tune of $100 million per year. It is Iran that supplies the M-302 and Fajr missiles which give Hamas long-range missile capacity from Gaza. And it was almost certainly Iran that provided the physical space for Hamas's men to discreetly learn the tactical skills needed for the assault – the use of paragliders, drones and so on. (The instruction likely took place in Iranian-dominated Lebanon.) Hamas provides the manpower, fervor and commitment from below, but the capacities on display are the result of the Iranian connection.

This formula – local Islamist fervor plus state capacity – has been successful for Iran across the Middle East. It forms the essential component in a bid to expand regional influence westwards to the Mediterranean and southwards to the Gulf.

For Iran and the Islamists, the area west of the Jordan is Islamic waqf (endowment) land, temporarily lost to infidels and requiring reconquest. But as Shias and non-Arabs, the Iranians also believe that investment in the fight against Israel will serve to cancel out their foreignness in the mainly Sunni Arab world.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard and its proxies are advancing a 'death by a thousand cuts' strategy against Israel. This derives from a view of the Jewish state they inherited from their Arab and Palestinian nationalist predecessors. As formulated in a May 2000 speech by the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, it purports to see Israel as weaker than a 'spider's web', despite its technological prowess. Its proponents believe that by striking at civilians, they will over time weaken Israel's resolve, reduce its population, and isolate it diplomatically and economically. Eventually they will wound Israel enough, the thinking runs, to inflict a killer blow.

The escalating conflict with Hezbollah reflects the nature of the challenge facing Israel in this new multipolar climate; one theory is that the ground invasion of Gaza was delayed over concerns that Hezbollah would immediately launch an assault on the northern border. After meeting Hamas's political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Doha on Monday, the Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, said that the 'pre-emptive action' by the 'resistance front' (Iran's preferred name for its alliance) should be expected soon. Israeli news website Ynet reported that the IDF conducted exercise drills ahead of a potential ground attack on Hezbollah's elite Radwan unit.

Recent events should serve as a belated alarm call to Israel and its allies about the new multipolar world – and about the nature, dimensions and existential seriousness of the Iranian and Islamist project.

Biden's decision to dispatch two aircraft-carrier groups to the Mediterranean is a tacit acknowledgement of the regional nature of the conflict. But is it too late? America's unipolar moment appears to be over, and there is less of an appetite in Washington – and among American voters – for intervention than there was two decades ago.

The warships might have been intended to deter Tehran from committing further assets to the fighting. But with the protests that have followed the hospital attack, it's increasingly unclear whether the rage throughout the Muslim world can be restrained.

Regardless of what transpires, recent events should serve as a belated alarm call to Israel and its allies about the new multipolar world – and about the nature, dimensions and existential seriousness of the Iranian and Islamist project that forms this new geopolitical landscape in the Middle East and beyond.

Source: Middle East Forum

Former Director of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), General David Petraeus, said that the possible Israeli ground attack on the Gaza Strip would last for years and would include "horrific fighting."

Petraeus confirmed - in an interview with the American newspaper Politico - that if Israel were to make a ground incursion into the Strip, it would face a more difficult situation than the one faced by the American forces in Somalia, and would be met with “suicide” attacks, explosive devices, bombs, and ambushes.

The general, who was also the former commander of the American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, cited the incident of the downing of three American Black Hawk helicopters in Mogadishu in 1993, which caused bloody fighting while the American forces were struggling to rescue the survivors of the crash, to confirm that the Israeli army will face “a similar reality.” If there is a clash on the ground in Gaza.

Petraeus said his personal experience running armies engaged in "brutal counterinsurgency campaigns" should serve as a warning to the IDF if it goes ahead with a ground incursion.

He added, "It is difficult for me to imagine a situation more difficult than this particular one, and I was one of those who led forces in a number of major operations in urban areas."

He added, "You cannot win counterinsurgency operations in a year or two. Such operations usually take a decade or more, as we saw in Iraq, and as we saw in Afghanistan."

The former military commander also stressed that Israel needs a plan to restore basic services, rebuild Gaza, and establish governance there, as soon as its battle against the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) is considered resolved.

By Daria Saburova

As Israel’s assault on Palestine continues, apparent similarities with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine grow. Israel’s “complete siege” of the Gaza Strip – cutting off water, electricity and food to more than two million inhabitants – echoes Russia’s intentional destruction of our energy infrastructure last winter. This, among other things, earned Russia the label of a “terrorist state” among Ukrainians.

From the moment an evacuation order for northern Gaza’s 1.1 million inhabitants was announced, Ukrainians must have known it would expose the most vulnerable – the elderly and sick – to certain death. We know that when people have no viable alternatives, they often prefer to stay.

The images of widespread devastation that reach us from Gaza, which suggest the Israeli army’s disregard for international humanitarian law, also resemble those from Mariupol or Bakhmut last year. Israel – like Russia in Ukraine – has been accused of bombing residential areas, evacuation corridors and the only exit point from the city, Rafah.

Of course, Hamas’s brutal attacks on civilians in Israeli kibbutzim also appear similar to Russia’s massacres in Bucha in March 2022. It is only right that these were condemned by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyi and the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry. But their messages of support for victims and their families were accompanied by problematic assertions, including Zelenskyi’s truly catastrophic conclusion that Israel has the unconditional right to defend itself.

Since then, Ukrainian officials have avoided talking directly about Israel’s ‘Operation Iron Swords’, despite the death toll in Gaza having exceeded 3,500 in the 11 days since its launch, according to the Palestinian authorities.

But Ukraine’s carte blanche to any response that Israel deems necessary makes little sense given historical or recent Ukrainian-Israeli relations, which have been marked by tensions over occupation and respect for international law. Given the security problems Ukraine faces, its foreign policy remains faithful to the promotion of two causes: respect for territorial integrity and nuclear disarmament.

Diplomatic tensions

Unlike the US and its European allies, Ukraine has systematically supported UN resolutions condemning the illegal occupation of Palestinian lands, not without concern for consistency over its own territorial claim on occupied Crimea.

In 2014, Israel did not vote on a UN resolution that denounced Russia’s annexation of Crimea and reaffirmed the territorial integrity of Ukraine. Two years later, Ukraine passed a resolution condemning Israeli settlements in Jerusalem – prompting Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu to cancel a visit to Israel by a Ukrainian representative, then prime minister Volodymyr Groysman.

These tensions have become heightened over the past year – including when Kyiv supported two UN resolutions in November 2022. The first was for the nuclear disarmament of the Middle East, directed against Israel’s nuclear program, and the second for the opening of an international investigation into Israel’s “prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation of the Palestinian territory”, reaffirming Palestinians’ right to self-determination.

Then, in July 2023, the Israeli Ambassador to Ukraine, Michael Brodsky, condemned Ukraine’s support for 90% of the UN's “anti-Israel” resolutions, which he described as an “abnormal situation, especially given the fact that Ukraine quite often turns to Israel for various requests”. These requests have also been the subject of tension between the two countries, with Israel having sent humanitarian aid to Ukraine but refusing to send weapons, including defensive weapons, saying that Israel, unlike NATO member states, can only rely on itself.

Israel has also been cautious in its stance on Russian aggression against Ukraine, seeking to maintain cordial diplomatic relations with Russia in light of its own military interests in Syria. It did not join many Western countries in imposing sanctions on Russia and abstained from voting on a UN resolution in favor of Russia's reparations for its destruction in Ukraine. Since the full-scale invasion, Israel has welcomed 30,000 Ukrainians – including 15,000 Ukrainian Jews as part of a repatriation program – far fewer than have been taken in by other countries.

Explaining the silence

Most Ukrainian politicians and diplomats likely consider the history between Israel and Palestine too complex to distinguish between aggressor and victim. But this does not explain their silence on Israel’s violations of international law in recent days, which are not dissimilar to actions they have denounced previously. Their silence likely has three sources.

First, Ukraine has sought to distance itself as clearly as possible from Hamas – labelled “the new Nazis” by Netanyahu – and its ruthless methods, which have been used to arbitrarily target Israeli civilians. This is not least because Russia’s justification for the invasion of Ukraine – the alleged need to “denazify” the country – has been effective in the Global South and in certain fringes of Western civil society. Yet in the dominant discourse set by Western governments it is impossible to distinguish between the actions of Hamas and the more general struggle of Palestinians for freedom and justice, which consists of multiple and varied forces. Ironically, diplomats have warned that the lack of support for Palestine will almost certainly result in diminishing support for Ukraine in the Global South.

Prevailing Western discourse is often seen to conflate anti-Semitism and criticism of Israel – another reason why the Ukrainian government is particularly careful with its official statements in the international arena. This is in part because Ukraine is one of the countries most marked by the Holocaust, with nearly 1.5 million Jews killed between 1941 and 1945, but also because Ukrainian nationalist movements, which sheltered people directly responsible for these massacres, have been whitewashed and heroized inside Ukraine.

And finally, Ukraine’s position may simply be geopolitical pragmatism. Ukraine’s Association Agreement with the European Union provides a clause on “convergence on foreign policy and security issues” that requires Ukraine to align itself with positions expressed by European officials. And its dependence on Western humanitarian and especially military aid predisposes its leaders to line up behind its allies, particularly the US, at the risk of being deprived of this support. The fact that Hamas maintains privileged links with Russia only reinforces this loyalty.

A recent statement from the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, published on 17 October, reflects the ambiguity and the competing principles of Ukraine’s foreign policy. It reaffirms support for Israel’s “efforts to counter terrorist acts”, but it also “advocates the settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict with the help of political and diplomatic means”.

The following day, after the strike on the Al-Ahli Hospital that killed hundreds of Palestinians, which both Israel and Hamas deny responsibility for, Ukrainian officials released their first statement on the humanitarian situation in Gaza. The statement stresses that both parties should “abide by the rules of warfare and respect the norms of international humanitarian law” but fails to call for an immediate ceasefire.

The need to speak out

While Ukraine’s official position is dictated by pragmatic diplomatic considerations, Ukrainian civil society is not obliged to echo its government’s silence on Israel’s punitive operation against Gaza.

Israel’s injustices in Palestine, as well as Russia’s in Ukraine, go far beyond mere failure to respect the laws of war. Ukrainians rightly repeat that Russia’s war against the Ukrainian people did not begin on 24 February 2022. It has occupied part of Ukraine since the annexation of Crimea in 2014, and the colonization by the Russian Empire of the peoples who inhabit Ukrainian territories dates back to the 17th century.

This history, which continued during the Soviet era, involves episodes of a genocidal nature. These include the Holodomor, a great artificial famine that killed several million Ukrainians in 1932 and 1933, and massive displacements of populations such as the 238,000 Crimean Tatars deported from Crimea to other Soviet republics under Stalin’s orders in 1944. Almost half of the Tatars died of starvation and disease during the following years.

Similarly, Israel’s war against the Palestinian people did not begin on 7 October 2023. It began with the Nakba of 1948, when more than 700,000 Palestinians were expelled from their lands. In 1967, at the end of the Six Day War, Israel occupied the rest of the Palestinian territories, causing a new Palestinian exodus and the installation of new Israeli colonies.

Palestinians often say that the Nakba is a perpetual process, since the dispossessions and colonial crimes have never ended. They have been fragmented and experience different situations depending on whether they live in the West Bank, Israel, Gaza or are refugees. But all are affected by the apartheid regime. Gazan Palestinians particularly suffer from the blockade imposed by Israel since 2006 with the collaboration of Egypt, making the Gaza Strip the world's largest open-air prison.

The evil that has killed both Israeli and Palestinian civilians in recent days is rooted in the continued occupation and colonization by Israel of the Palestinian territories. In this sense, the oppression of the Ukrainian and Palestinian peoples has similarities: it is about the occupation of our lands by states with nuclear weapons and overwhelming military force, which mock the resolutions of the UN and international law, putting their causes above any diplomatic dialogue.

As Ukrainians, as supporters of the Ukrainian cause, we have a special responsibility to understand and raise our voices in the face of what is happening. We must point out the inconsistencies of Western governments that support our anti-imperialist struggle while backing Israel’s colonial violence. The tragedy we are currently experiencing must sharpen our sensitivity to similar human experiences.

Following Russia’s invasion, we discovered how little the international community knew about the history of Ukraine. But what do we know about the history of Palestine? In a world where polarization is increasing, where colonial wars of staggering scale and violence are resurgent, only solidarity between oppressed peoples and curiosity about our respective struggles, beyond geopolitical divisions, can show us the way to just and lasting peace.

Source: Open Democracy

Today (Thursday), the first tent camp for Palestinians displaced by the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Strip since October 7 was established in Gaza City.

The tent camp was set up under the auspices of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) at the industrial training station in central Gaza City.

Staff wearing UN agency uniforms arrange and organize work in the camp.

UNRWA officials refused to talk to the media about these developments.

An UNRWA employee, who declined to give his name, told Xinhua News Agency that dozens of families who refuse to leave the city have taken refuge in the place with all their members, indicating that the place does not contain the necessities of life and they are sleeping on the ground. The agency had to bring tents for them, and we are now taking care of them.

A number of displaced people said that they are living on scarce aid provided by UNRWA, without any health facilities, and amidst piles of garbage in the camp.

They said, "They left their homes with nothing after they were destroyed by Israeli raids. We refuse to leave Gaza to the south of the Strip, and we will not leave."

More than a million Palestinians were displaced in the Gaza Strip, including 600,000 displaced people in the Gaza and northern Gaza Strip regions after they were warned by the Israeli army to evacuate their residential areas a few days ago, according to a statement issued by UNRWA a few days ago.

According to the Ministry of Public Works and Housing in Gaza, the Israeli attacks completely destroyed at least 4,821 residential buildings, including 12,845,000 housing units, while about 121,000 housing units were partially damaged, including 9,000 housing units that were uninhabitable.

On the other hand, the government media office run by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in Gaza announced in a statement the killing of the commander of the National Security Forces at the Ministry of Interior in the Strip, Major General Jihad Abd Muheisen.

The media office stated that Muhaisen (53 years old) and a number of his family members died in a direct bombardment by Israeli aircraft on his house in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City.
3,785 Palestinians were killed and 12,493 others were injured as a result of Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, since the Hamas movement launched an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, killing 1,300 people.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced the martyrdom of 13 Palestinians as a result of the Israeli occupation’s aggression against the Nour Shams camp in Tulkarm, where a drone targeted Palestinians in the camp, while an Israeli soldier from the Musta’ribin unit was killed and others were injured in the clashes.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health stated that the death toll in the camp since dawn today reached 13, which raises the death toll in the West Bank since October 7 to 81.

Witnesses said that Israeli army forces stormed the camp at dawn today, and that violent clashes took place between a number of gunmen and Israeli forces, who used a large bulldozer and caused destruction to the camp’s infrastructure, and that the Israeli military operation is still continuing.

Israeli Army Radio revealed that a drone targeted Palestinian militants in the Nour Shams camp in Tulkarm.

For its part, the Tulkarm Battalion of the Al-Quds Brigades reported that it had detonated explosive devices in bulldozers and occupation vehicles on the Al-Manshiya axis and caused direct casualties.

It added, "We carried out an ambush against an occupation foot force and were able to shoot down its members, killing and wounding them."

The Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), in Tulkarm, also said that its fighters were engaged in violent clashes with the occupation forces in the Nour Shams camp.

Israeli police media reported that 10 of its members were injured, one of them in serious condition, in an explosive device explosion, and the Israeli army also announced that 10 border guard members were injured during the clashes.

Later, Israeli Army Radio announced the killing of an Israeli soldier from the (Musta'ribin) undercover unit during clashes in the Nour Shams camp in Tulkarm.

In the same context, the occupation forces surrounded a house, bombed it with a missile, and prevented ambulance crews from reaching it.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant told infantry soldiers gathered on the Gaza Strip border on Thursday that they would soon see the Palestinian enclave “from the inside,” indicating that a ground invasion may be imminent.

According to the Reuters news agency, Gallant added, according to the statement: “You see Gaza now from afar, and soon you will see it from the inside.” The order will be issued.”

The Israeli Defense Minister warned Hezbollah of the repercussions of entering into a war with his country, calling on it to look at Gaza City first.

“We focus first and foremost on defeating Hamas,” Gallant said. I have been leading soldiers into battles for 45 years, and I am responsible for security, and I have been responsible for that over the past two weeks - even in difficult times, and I am responsible for leading Israel to victory.”

Gallant indicated that the army is preparing for a long-term clash with Israel's enemies, adding, "We are not talking about a short military campaign - but rather a long campaign."

Galant touched on the Hezbollah threat on the border with Lebanon, saying, “Hezbollah is trying to challenge the State of Israel and the Israeli Defense Forces, and deploy forces in strong defensive formations. We are ready, and if Hezbollah wants war, it must first take a look at pictures of Gaza City.”

Israel killed 10 Palestinians in violent confrontations in Nour Shams camp in Tulkarm, bringing to about 16 the number of people it killed during the past 12 hours in the West Bank.

Nour Shams camp witnessed very violent confrontations between Palestinian militants and the Israeli army, which used drones to attack Palestinian fighters, and was exposed to explosive devices that left wounded among its ranks.

Israel turned the camp into a war zone, after cutting it into parts, and opened fire on Palestinians throughout the day, to the point where residents dragged the bodies of young men and children to the camp mosque to await the arrival of ambulances.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced, late on Thursday, “The arrival of a sixth martyr shot by the Israeli occupation to Tulkarm Governmental Hospital, as a result of the aggression against Nour Shams camp, which raises the death toll in the camp to 7 martyrs, while we received an indication of the presence of other martyrs whose ambulances could not.” Take them to the hospital.” Palestinian sources confirmed that there were at least 4 bodies in the mosque.

On Thursday morning, Israel stormed the camp, imposed a siege on it, and entered into confrontations during which it targeted armed men with drones, and broadcast pictures of the bombing in one of the camp’s streets.

Palestinian factions announced that their fighters were engaged in clashes in the Nour Shams camp, causing casualties among the ranks of the Israeli army.

The Israeli police said in a statement that during an operational operation in the refugee camp in Nur al-Shams, border guard soldiers were injured. The army and police confirmed that their operation, which lasted for more than 10 hours, aimed to thwart the infrastructure of the fighters in the sunlight. 

The operation witnessed an exchange of fire and the throwing of explosive devices, one of which injured 10 soldiers, one of whom was in serious condition.

This brings the number of those killed by Israel to 16 in the West Bank, including 4 children, within 12 hours, which brings the number of those killed in the West Bank since the start of the “Al-Aqsa Flood” on October 7 of this year to 78.

At a time when the battles were raging on the Gaza front, and tension was rising on the border with Lebanon, Israel launched the “Awareness Front” via virtual space, launching what is known as the “Israel Electronic Army” a battle across various social media networks, to fight what the occupation called “the narrative.” "Palestinian" and promoting his story with the aim of influencing world public opinion.

According to the newspaper "Yedioth Ahronoth", the "Awareness Front" is no less important than the battlefields, and described it as the "battle over awareness" for its role in penetrating the virtual space and conveying its echo to the whole world.

Analysts and journalists admitted that in light of the war on Gaza, Israel and civil initiatives for Jews in Israel and around the world - behind the scenes - are waging a war on the narrative, on propaganda and shaping awareness through hundreds of members of the electronic army.

Yedioth Ahronoth: The awareness front is no less important than the battlefields (Al Jazeera)

Yedioth Ahronoth: The awareness front is no less important than the battlefields (Al Jazeera)

Mobilization and recruitment

According to analysts, Israel has been prepared for years by mobilizing and recruiting hundreds of cadres who were trained in Israeli centers and universities, and they fought many hypothetical maneuvers and hidden wars to spread the Israeli narrative, even through fabrication and falsification of content and implications.

Reichmann University, at the Center for National Security Research - Herzliya, specializes in qualifying these cadres through study courses in the subjects of international media, content production, electronic media, law and governance, political science, and sociology.

Hundreds of students participate in these courses annually, who are provided with the mechanisms to join the Israeli Electronic Army or any Israeli security and military institution, and in various government ministries, including the diplomatic corps and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Herzliya Center also provides training courses for hundreds of employees from various Israeli government ministries and officers and workers in security, military and intelligence institutions, including the Mossad and Shin Bet.

forgery

The training courses aim to provide those concerned with the skills that will help them address local and international public opinion, promote the Israeli narrative, or confront the Palestinian, Arab, or any anti-Israel narrative. It also aims to enable them to specialize in falsifying facts and creating new narratives that have no connection to reality.

In the first week of the war on Gaza, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ diplomatic staff conducted briefings for 250 foreign correspondents and more than 640 interviews with international media in various languages to distort and combat the Palestinian narrative.

About a thousand posts and tweets were also published in English, Spanish, Arabic, Persian, and Russian, which received more than 320 million views, through the activity of the digital department of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. More than 80 official statements were issued condemning Hamas and supporting Israel from various countries, according to the Israeli newspaper "Globes".

Israeli Foreign Ministry teams conducted more than 640 interviews with international media in various languages to distort the Palestinian narrative.

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs conducted more than 640 media interviews in various languages to distort the Palestinian narrative (Getty)

Virtual battle

Israeli citizens and Jewish volunteers around the world are active in creating dozens of groups and projects to help with international outreach, one of which is known as the “Civil Propaganda Headquarters,” which was established by former journalist Eliav Patito, which recruits volunteers to distribute content.

Commenting on the “Awareness Front,” journalist Navo Tribelsi, technology and Internet affairs correspondent for the “Globes” newspaper, said, “This is the second war of independence, and this is how the battle for world public opinion is conducted.”

He added that Israel has been waging a war for several days on several fronts, the most important of which is the battle to influence global public opinion, as it is considered an essential arena for broadcasting messages, content, and content in line with the Israeli narrative.

Tribelsi stressed the importance of controlling and controlling the “Awareness Front” because “awareness and understanding of the difficult situation that Israel has been experiencing since Black Saturday has a clear impact in providing cover and international legitimacy for Israeli military operations, in addition to being important for exerting pressure on various parties in the world and ensuring their alignment with Israel builds its narrative on war.”

He believes that public opinion today is influenced by "the serious work undertaken by various state institutions, frameworks and civil authorities," noting that the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs is active in transmitting information and content and recruiting all its diplomatic staff around the world to interact within the arenas of the "Awareness Front."

fill

According to the Globes newspaper, Eliav Patito has so far managed to recruit more than 400 active volunteers to translate, visually edit, and plan the content, with hundreds of other volunteers to publish the content on social media networks.

According to messages sent within the “Civil Propaganda Headquarters” communication groups, the content produced by the headquarters reaches millions of people around the world.

One of the contents that Patito distributed in cooperation with the Civil Propaganda Headquarters at the beginning of the war on the Gaza front, and which helped set the tone in favor of the Israeli narrative, was a video that the newspaper described as “successful,” which was produced in the advertising office in Uman Bar Rivnai.

The newspaper adds that everyone in the civilian propaganda headquarters felt the need to mobilize in favor of the propaganda information war that Israel is waging, as the video recorded millions of views thanks to its participation by famous and familiar scientific figures, such as the singer Madonna.

In Ruvini Friedan's office, they collected information materials for stories and correspondence of what they described as the "hell" that the residents of the "Gaza envelope" experienced during the "Al-Aqsa Flood" battle, which were translated into many languages by dozens of volunteer translators.

In addition, the "Israelite" Association focuses on providing tools and knowledge to young Jews, so that they can help and positively influence the "image of Israel" globally and regionally by establishing a virtual emergency room that is active around the clock.

marketing

The association holds webinars in which it provides guidance, practical tools, and sources of information that can be relied upon when providing information to users of digital media and social networks.

According to Professor Moran Yerahai, head of the Department of Digital Awareness and Influence at the College of Communications and head of the Public Diplomacy Program at Reichmann University, “In previous combat rounds, it was difficult for Israel to present itself as a natural victim, because we are the strong side.”

In the war on images, Yerhai says, “Whoever has the strongest and most famous story has the upper hand. In the current situation, it was easy for the world to sympathize with the events and armed operations to which children, youth, the elderly, and women were exposed in the Gaza Strip, as well as the armed operations that targeted Music festival too.

Yerahai considered that the narrative of empathy has a very strong resonance, “Even the comparisons made with ISIS or the September 11 attacks are something that the public can understand. In this war, our ability to present the victims at the most shocking level makes people understand the political and security context of the conflict.” .

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called for a ceasefire in Gaza, while Egypt affirmed its refusal to displace the population of the Strip to neighboring countries, against the backdrop of the ongoing Israeli occupation bombing.

Guterres stressed - during a press conference in Cairo with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry - that Gaza needs aid on a large scale and on a sustainable basis, noting that a ceasefire is essential for the delivery of humanitarian aid.

Guterres called for the protection of civilians and the provision of humanitarian relief to the Gaza Strip, stressing that the attack on hospitals and schools violates international law.

On Tuesday evening, the Israeli occupation bombed Al-Baptisti Hospital, killing about 500 civilians, in addition to hundreds of wounded, while its sides are still groaning from the effects of the Israeli raid, as a number of families of the wounded and martyrs visit it in search of the remaining traces of their families.

Hundreds of families had taken refuge in the hospital after some of their homes were bombed, and others believed that it was safer than their homes, but the Israeli bombing caught up with them, and they were surprised by a missile in the crowded hospital yard.

Guterres pointed out that a solution cannot be reached without creating a free Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel.

He called on the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) to "release the hostages" it took on October 7, and also called on Israel to allow aid to arrive without restrictions.

For his part, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said that there is no alternative but for the parties to return to the negotiating table to activate the two-state solution.

Shukri stressed that liquidating the Palestinian issue by displacing the population of Gaza to neighboring countries is out of the question and that there is no alternative but for the parties to return to the negotiating table and establish a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital.

On the 13th day of its war on Gaza, the Israeli army continues to bomb residential areas, resulting in the death of 3,785 Palestinians and the wounding of more than 12,000, the majority of whom are children and women.

Today, Thursday, the Israeli occupation forces closed the main northern entrance to the city of Salfit with an iron gate.

According to local sources, the occupation army moved the iron gate that it had recently installed at the entrance to the side of the city and closed it, so that the colonists passing through the “Al-Ras” outpost, northwest of the city, could enter and exit more freely, while it continues to restrict citizens throughout the governorate, through... Iron gates and dirt barriers that he places at the entrances to towns and villages.

Three Palestinians and five left-wing Israeli activists detained, tied up, beaten and sexually humiliated by Israeli forces, according to Haaretz report

Palestinians and left-wing Israeli activists in the West Bank village of Wadi al-Siq were physically assaulted, sexually humiliated and tortured by Israeli soldiers and settlers, according to a new report in Haaretz. 

Three Palestinians and three activists spoke to the Israeli newspaper about their arrest on 12 October by the Israeli army’s Desert Frontier unit, which has recruited members from the far-right Hilltop Youth settler group.

The Palestinians, who were part of the evacuation of the village after repeated settler attacks, said they were held for hours by between 20 and 25 armed settlers and soldiers, who arrived in two vans and detained them. 

The three Palestinians were stripped of their clothes and photographed naked and in their underwear. Israeli forces urinated on two of the captives and put out burning cigarettes on them, according to the report.

A photograph of the three Palestinians in their underwear, blindfolded, tied up and with bruises on their bodies was published on Facebook before being deleted. 

One of the men, 46-year-old Mohammed Matar, known as Abu Hassan, told Haaretz that what they had experienced was like the torture and prisoner abuse perpetrated by US forces at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison.

The Palestinians were released in the evening by officials from the Civil Administration, Israel’s governing body in the occupied West Bank. They were taken to hospital in Ramallah, seriously wounded and having had most of their property – including a car and cash – stolen from them. 

An Israeli army spokesman told Haaretz that it had opened an investigation into the incident and that one commander had been dismissed as a result.

On the same day, a group of left-wing Israeli activists who arrived on the scene, and who had a child with them, was attacked and held for several hours. 

The soldiers and settlers threatened to kill them and went on to beat some of the activists. The activists, who were released after three hours in captivity, said that at one point a young settler in civilian clothes was put in charge of guarding them. 

Settler violence

Abu Hassan and Mohammed Khaled, 27, both employees of the Palestinian Authority (PA) who had spent seven weeks in Wadi al-Siq helping its residents, told Haaretz reporter Hagar Shezaf they had already got in their car to leave the village when the settlers and soldiers arrived “in military uniforms, all armed and most of them masked”.

When the settlers caught Abu Hassan and Khaled, they chained them to the floor and started beating them with weapons, pinning their heads to the floor and stepping on them, according to the two men, who then had their hands tied with ropes.

Some knives were produced, which the settlers and soldiers said belonged to the Palestinians, but which they insist were planted in their baggage. 

'They had an iron pipe and knives with which they also beat us. They beat me everywhere, on my hands, chest and head. Everywhere.'- Mohammed Khaled, detained Palestinian

At one point during their period of detention, the Palestinian captives told Haaretz that personnel they were told were from the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, arrived and interrogated and abused them. Shin Bet denied the charges.

The three Palestinians who were detained and tortured said it was hard to tell who was a settler and who was a soldier. 

After their initial detention, the captives said they were led to an empty building, where their eyes were covered and their hands bound with steel wire. 

“They laid us on our stomachs and one of them brought a knife and tore our clothes,” Abu Hassan told Haaretz. “We stayed only in our underwear.”

“They continued to beat us,” Khaled said. “They had an iron pipe and knives with which they also beat us. They beat me everywhere, on my hands, chest and head. Everywhere. They put out cigarettes on us, they tried to pull out my nails.”

Abu Hassan said his face was pushed into the dirt and excrement that covered the floor of the empty building. They were interrogated and asked repeatedly where they intended to “carry out the stabbing attack” with the knives they purportedly had. They also said they were asked personal questions about their families.

“The violence continued all the time,” Abu Hassan told Haaretz. “They poured water on us, they urinated on us.

 After that someone holding a stick tried to stick it in my behind. I resisted with all my might until he simply gave up.”

According to the two Palestinian men, after about six hours they were taken out of the excrement-covered building, barefoot and in their underwear. They were unaware of the presence of a third Palestinian, Majed, who was tied up with a rope and had his phone taken and later spent two nights in hospital.

The three Palestinians were released in the evening.

'All Arabs are shit'

At the same time, according to the report, five left-wing Israeli activists were held for hours by the settlers.

“When they saw us, they started chasing us,” one of the activists told Haaretz. “Some of them were in uniform, or half in uniform and half in civilian clothes, but the vehicles were civilian.”

Abu Hassan told Haaretz he thought he was targeted for such severe abuse because he is known among the settlers as an activist who helps the shepherd communities in the area.

“They wanted to convey two messages: one, that the Jews went crazy after the Gaza Strip, and two, that we, the Arabs, dare not mess with them,“ he said. 

“I told them that I was against Hamas and against Palestinian Islamic Jihad, but it didn't interest them. They said that all Arabs are shit and that we should be sent to Jordan. What happened has nothing to do with law, order, or the conduct of a reformed country. It's simply an integrated gang.”

The events take place against the backdrop of rising violence and tension in the West Bank because of the ongoing Israel-Palestine war.

Israeli forces have imposed a strict lockdown across the West Bank, closing cities, placing barriers and cement blocks at the entrances to villages and towns, and shooting at protesters.

They have killed dozens and detained at least 870 Palestinian civilians since the war broke out on 7 October, following a surprise Hamas-led attack on Israel. In the same time, settler attacks have surged by 40 percent.

At least 72 people have been killed in the occupied West Bank since the war broke out, while at least 3,785 people have died in Gaza and 1,400 in Israel.

Last Tuesday, two days before the attack on the Palestinians and left-wing activists, Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, announced that his ministry was purchasing 10,000 rifles to arm civilian security teams, including in West Bank settlements.

Source: Middle East Eye

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Jordanian King Abdullah II affirmed their rejection of the forced displacement of Palestinians to Egypt or Jordan, warning of the danger of these calls to regional security.

During the Egyptian-Jordanian summit held in Cairo today, Thursday, the two leaders stressed the need for continued access of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing in a sustainable manner.

The two leaders reviewed the tireless efforts made by Egypt and Jordan to push for calm and reduce escalation, and affirmed the firm position of the two countries that achieving real and sustainable stability in the region is based on the Palestinian people obtaining their legitimate rights in their independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital, in accordance with the relevant international legitimacy resolutions, and in accordance with It provides peace, security and prosperity to all the peoples of the region.

On Thursday, Lebanese Hezbollah and the Israeli army exchanged missile and artillery shelling, in a new wave of tension in parallel with the war that the occupation has been waging in the Gaza Strip for 13 days.

Al Jazeera's correspondent said that an Israeli artillery shelling targeted the vicinity of the towns of Aita al-Shaab and Beit Lev in the central sector of southern Lebanon.

The Israeli army said that it carried out an artillery attack on a site inside Lebanon, from which two rockets were fired towards the Al-Manara military site west of Kiryat Shmona.

For his part, the Israeli army spokesman explained that the bombing targeted a reconnaissance site towards the sea, from which an anti-tank missile was launched yesterday, Wednesday, towards Ras Naqoura. He added that the raids were launched in response to shooting operations towards Israel over the past 24 hours, he said.

Israel continues to strengthen its forces on its northern border with Lebanon. In recent hours, more heavy military equipment was brought to the border, including tanks and armored vehicles.

The Israeli military spokesman called on residents of the areas adjacent to the border with Lebanon, as well as in the southern areas close to Gaza, to fully adhere to the emergency instructions issued by the army’s home front.

On the other hand, Hezbollah's Al-Manar channel reported that on Thursday, it fired a number of Kornet missiles towards the Al-Manara colony, opposite the towns of Mays Al-Jabal and around the two borders in southern Lebanon.

Al Jazeera's correspondent confirmed that a number of Israeli sites were bombed with missiles in the western sector of southern Lebanon. Hezbollah was quoted as saying that the Jal al-Alam site in the central sector of southern Lebanon was bombed with guided missiles.

Al Jazeera's correspondent said that sirens sounded a short while ago in the towns of Shomrah and Evin Menachem near the Lebanese border, and in Shlomi, Al-Bassa and Hanita in the Western Galilee.

Hezbollah's military media had broadcast pictures that it said were of the operation carried out by the party on Wednesday afternoon against the Israeli Al-Malikiyah position in the eastern sector of the border.

The pictures showed Hezbollah members targeting the Al-Malikiyah site and its technical equipment with guided missiles, directly hitting them.

Over the past few days, the two sides exchanged intermittent rounds of bombardment, causing deaths on both sides of the dividing Blue Line.

Leaving Lebanon

On the other hand, the embassies of the United States of America and Britain urged their citizens - on Thursday - to leave Lebanon “as long as commercial options are available,” in two new warnings in light of the tension witnessed on the southern border with Israel.

The US Embassy said in a new warning sent to its citizens in Lebanon, “The State Department urges American citizens in Lebanon to make plans to leave as soon as possible while commercial options are still available.”

She recommended that those wishing to stay "prepare plans in preparation for emergency situations."

On Wednesday, Washington raised the level of travel warning from the third level to the fourth level, which is the highest, and advised all Americans not to travel to Lebanon. It also allowed the departure of non-essential employees and their families from its embassy in Beirut.

In the same context, the British Embassy in Beirut updated travel advice for Lebanon. She said - in a statement on Thursday - “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Development now advises against traveling to Lebanon and encourages British citizens who intend to leave to do so now, as long as commercial options are available.”

She urged her citizens to “remain vigilant,” avoid “any gatherings, marches, or processions and follow the instructions of local authorities,” reiterating the warning that “the situation is unpredictable and could deteriorate without warning.”

The Israeli Ministry of Defense said on Thursday that it had received a cargo plane from the United States carrying the first shipment of armored vehicles.

The ministry added, via the “X” platform, that these vehicles are being transferred to the Israeli army to replace vehicles damaged during the war on the Gaza Strip, according to the Arab World News Agency.

The Israeli Ministry of Defense had previously announced the arrival of more than one shipment of aid, military equipment, and ammunition to Israel.

Although the expected ground attack on the Gaza Strip had not begun, Palestinian factions published video clips on Saturday, October 7, of their destruction of a number of Israeli vehicles on the borders of the Strip with anti-armor shells and bombs from drones, in addition to other scenes of their control of military camps.

Malaysian veteran politician and former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Thursday called out US President Joe Biden for his comments about the bombing of Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza, dubbing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Pentagon liars.

Biden said on Wednesday that the hospital blast, which killed hundreds of people, including women and children, was not caused by Israeli airstrikes.

"Based on what I've seen, it appears that it was done by the other team, not you," Biden said during a news conference with Netanyahu, evidently pointing a finger at Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian group with similar goals to Hamas.

"There’s a lot of people out there that are not sure, so we have got to overcome a lot of things,” added the president, who arrived in Israel on Wednesday for a hastily arranged visit amid the armed conflict with the Palestinian group Hamas.

Mahathir, Malaysia's longest-serving prime minister, stated in a post on the social media platform X that Biden's narrative is based on feedback from Nethanyahu and the Pentagon.

"Obviously Netanyahu lies about everything. And if Biden wants to use Pentagon to give credence to his narrative, we have not forgotten how Pentagon and other American institutions lied about the existence of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in Iraq," he said.

A more recent lie involves Biden claiming to have seen images of Hamas beheading babies, referring to allegations that Hamas "beheaded babies" in Israel, which later proved false.

"Indeed, the White House had withdrawn the statement, admitting that there was no proof of such a deed. The question is how Biden could blatantly lie in the first place and with a straight face," Mahathir said.

Eekad, a global platform for publishing facts and monitoring fake news, in its latest investigation, discovered evidence pointing to Israel's involvement in the Baptist hospital bombing.

"By conducting a comprehensive analysis of the events and scrutinizing live broadcast footage, surveillance camera recordings, and pictures, Eekad’s team has uncovered evidence pointing to Israel's culpability in this tragedy, supported by concrete proof, " it said in a post on X on Thursday.

Eekad added that Tel Aviv quickly disavowed its involvement, attempting to distort the narrative by linking the incident to Hamas.

'Murderous regime is after Palestinians'

Mahathir said there should not be any doubt that the hospital bombing was caused by an Israeli airstrike, as the "murderous" regime has been attempting to wipe Palestinians and Gaza out of existence since last week.

He said "all these" atrocities committed by Israel against Palestinians stem from the American support for Tel Aviv.

If Washington, he observed, withdraws its support for Tel Aviv and stops all military aid to the regime, Israel will no longer be able to carry out "genocide and mass murders of Palestinians with impunity."

"The US government needs to come clean and tell the truth. Israel and its IDF are the terrorists. The United States is blatantly supporting terrorists. So what is the United States?" he asked.

The conflict in Gaza, under Israeli bombardment and blockade since Oct. 7, began when Hamas initiated Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, a multi-pronged surprise attack that included a barrage of rocket launches and infiltrations into Israel by land, sea, and air. It said the incursion was in retaliation for the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and growing violence by Israeli settlers.

Source: Anadolu

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received “special support” from US President Joe Biden for a ground invasion of the besieged Gaza Strip during talks in Israel on Wednesday, the Times of London reported.

The report said that Biden told Netanyahu that he still “fully supports” Israel’s plans to launch a ground incursion to “eliminate Hamas” despite anger over the bombing of the Arab National Hospital in Gaza City, which Israel blames on the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, with a missile that went astray. The United States supports the Israeli side of the story, while Palestinian officials insist that the Israeli airstrike hit the hospital.

According to a report issued by the American website Axios about Wednesday’s talks between Biden and Netanyahu, the basic message expressed by Israeli officials to President Biden was that the war in Gaza will take time and will test American support for Israel, which will double the number of Palestinian civilian deaths, especially since until this moment More than 3,500 Palestinians have been killed, the vast majority of them civilians, since the beginning of the Israeli attack on Gaza on October 7th.

An Israeli ground invasion of Gaza appeared imminent near the end of last week when Israel ordered the evacuation of northern Gaza, an area where 1.1 million people live.

The Jerusalem Post reported that the incursion was delayed due to fears that Hezbollah would open a second front in the north.

The United States has deployed two aircraft carrier strike groups and other military assets to “deter” other actors from joining the war, and the White House has discussed the possibility of using military force against Hezbollah if it launches a major attack on Israel.

The Axios report said that Biden expressed to Netanyahu his concern that Hezbollah might join the war beyond the cross-border missile strikes it exchanges with Israel in the north.

Today, Thursday, armed settlers desecrated a mosque and damaged loudspeakers in the village of Manizil, east of Yatta, south of Hebron.

According to local sources, a group of armed colonists, wearing the uniform of the Israeli occupation forces, stormed the mosque of the village of Manizil, desecrated it, destroyed the unified call to prayer devices and speakers, and smashed the glass of one of the windows, chanting that they did not want to hear the call to prayer and that it bothered them, before the sheikh of the mosque was able to... Confront them and prevent them from continuing acts of desecration and vandalism.

These sources added that the Israeli occupation forces raided the village of Al-Tuwanah in Masafer Yatta, and searched the house of citizen Musa Rabi.

In the same context, the occupation forces stormed and searched a number of shops and workshops in the Kharsa Triangle area, south of Dura.

Author: Maher Al-Sharif

On Friday, October 13, the United Nations indicated that the Israeli army, which is waging its widespread aggression against the Gaza Strip, informed it on Thursday evening that approximately 1.1 million Palestinians residing in the northern Gaza Strip will have to go to the south. sector within 24 hours. In a tweet published in Arabic a few minutes later, Avichay Adraee, a lieutenant colonel in the Israeli army, called on the residents of the Gaza Strip “to head south to the Gaza Valley, and urged them to stay away from Hamas terrorists who are using them as human shields,” adding that “they will not be allowed to return to Gaza City.” Unless a permit is issued to do so, it is prohibited to approach the fence area with the State of Israel”. 

This statement raised fears that the Israeli goal was to force a large portion of Gaza’s population to head towards the Egyptian border and revive their resettlement projects in the Sinai Desert, especially in light of the statements made by the former Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister, Danny Ayalon, to Al Jazeera, in which he stated: “There are almost endless spaces in the Sinai desert on the other side of Gaza and they (the Palestinians) can leave (the Gaza Strip) to those open spaces where we and the international community will prepare infrastructure and tent cities and provide them with water and food.”

Settlement projects in Sinai

Since the Nakba of Palestine, the Zionist movement, which wanted the land without its people, saw in the Sinai desert a wide area to which Palestinians could be displaced and resettled.

The Egyptian government, which emerged from the revolution of July 22, 1952, was still searching for its way in terms of foreign policy and was attached to its local issues, when in 1953, after months of negotiations it conducted with UNRWA, it agreed to a project to settle about 12,000 refugee families from the Gaza Strip settled on lands in the northwestern Sinai desert after making them suitable for agriculture, by delivering a percentage of the Nile River’s water to them annually. $30 million was allocated for the implementation of this project, which received the support of the US administration at the time. Popular movements in the Gaza Strip began against this project since Egyptian newspapers hinted at it in May 1953. 

Then these movements took on new dimensions following the massive Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip on February 28, 1955, as they were launched on March 1. March: A massive demonstration from the “Palestine Public” School in Gaza City, with the participation of the school’s teachers, students, car and bus drivers, and shop owners, who chanted: “No resettlement, no housing/Oh American agents,” “They wrote the Sinai Project in ink/and we will erase the Sinai Project in blood.” The Egyptian police forces confronted them with live bullets, and the first martyr was Hosni Bilal, a textile worker in the city of Majdal and a refugee to Gaza City.

The demonstration was not limited to Gaza City. Rather, the demonstrations spread to the rest of the Gaza Strip’s cities, villages, and camps, extending from Beit Hanoun in the north to Rafah in the south. The “Supreme National Committee” was formed from representatives of the communists, Islamists, nationalists, and independents to supervise and regulate the popular movement, and its representatives were chosen in Each camp in the Gaza Strip, and committees were formed to guard the demonstrations, which forced the Egyptian authorities to authorize the director of investigations in the Gaza Strip, Saad Hamza, to negotiate with two representatives of the “Supreme National Committee.” 

They were the Secretary-General of the Palestinian Communist Party in the Gaza Strip, the poet Moin Bseiso, and a member of the group’s leadership. Muslim Brotherhood Fathi al-Balaawi; Following those negotiations, the Egyptian authorities decided to cancel the project to resettle Palestinians in Sinai, and took a decision to train and arm Palestinians in the camps.

After Israel occupied the Gaza Strip, during the aggression of June 5, 1967, Minister Yigal Allon proposed a project to transfer numbers of refugees from the Gaza Strip to three areas in the Egyptian Al-Arish region, with Israeli funding, with the first phase starting with 50,000 of them. However, that project was completely rejected by Egypt.

The commander of the southern region in the Israeli army, Ariel Sharon, who, in 1971, was waging a bloody campaign to liquidate the armed Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip, returned and proposed a project to uproot 12,000 refugees from the Strip’s camps and place them in other asylum stations in the Sinai desert. But Egypt strongly rejected this project as well, and “the rejection of settlement in Sinai has become an established part of the security and political doctrine of the Egyptian state”. 

On the eve of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, in the fall of 2012, fears emerged that Israel would implement a plan “aiming to transfer the Palestinians from Gaza to Sinai as an alternative homeland,” and “shifting the Palestinian crisis towards the Egyptian neighbor, in the face of the worsening security failure in Sinai. Reports stated that the Israeli plan stipulates "the transfer of about 1.5 million Palestinians from Gaza to Sinai and Al-Arish."

Commenting on this plan, the head of the Sinai Development Foundation, Muhammad Shawqi Rashwan, told reporters, “The Sinai project as an alternative homeland for the Palestinians could be achieved if we do not move forward with the development of the region.” While Adel Soliman, Director of the International Center for Foresight and Strategic Studies, stated, “The Alternative Homeland Project encourages us to review the long-term development plan for Sinai and choose an urgent plan aimed at developing the roads leading to Sinai and facilitating the movement of its residents to other regions of Egypt”.

The Egyptian leadership firmly rejects the idea of resettlement in Sinai

The positions of Western analysts varied regarding the project to resettle a portion of the population of the Gaza Strip in Sinai, following its re-presentation these days, as some of them saw that there are reasons that encourage Egypt to accept this project, which may mean “an increase in American military aid and Western support to it, and funding from agencies.” United Nations,” while others estimated that the price that Egypt would pay, in exchange for accepting this project, would be: “Egypt’s reputation in the Arab and Islamic world,” in addition to “the challenge from the Egyptian street,” not to mention that Egypt is “a densely populated country with a fragile economy, and it It does not, in fact, want to see a new mass of poor people entering its territory.” 

While the residents of the Gaza Strip, despite their severe suffering as a result of the ongoing Israeli aggression, expressed their fear that a new catastrophe would befall them if their deportation to Sinai was successful, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi was firm when he called on them to remain on their lands, and announced, on Thursday On October 12, he stated that the residents of Gaza must remain “present in their lands,” expressing Egypt’s fears that Israel seeks to “empty Gaza” of its residents. 

During his meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Schulz in Cairo, yesterday, the 18th of this month, the Egyptian President delivered his “most comprehensive and violent” speech on this issue, as he estimated that pushing the Palestinians to leave their lands is “a way to end the Palestinian issue at the expense of neighboring countries.” He said: “The idea of forcing the residents of Gaza to move to Egypt will lead to a similar displacement of Palestinians from the West Bank, the territories occupied by Israel, and this will make the establishment of the State of Palestine impossible... and would drag Egypt into a war with Israel,” in addition to that “ By transferring the Palestinians to Sinai, we are transferring resistance and fighting to Egypt, and if attacks are launched from its territory, then Israel will have the right to defend itself (...) and will strike Egyptian territory,” concluding that the peace signed between Israel and Egypt in 1979 “will... It melts in our hands,” and that “if the idea is forced displacement, then there is the Negev...and Israel can then return them (to Gaza) if it wants to.”. 

For his part, Jordanian King Abdullah II warned on Friday in 13 of this month, against “any attempt to displace Palestinians from all Palestinian territories or incite their displacement,” adding that “the crisis must not extend to neighboring countries and lead to aggravation of the refugee issue.” He returned and announced that the evacuation of the residents of Gaza: “is unacceptable and will push the region towards another disaster and a new cycle of violence and destruction,” stressing that “there will be no refugees in Jordan and no refugees in Egypt,” and that it is necessary to address “the humanitarian situation in Gaza and the West Bank.” ". Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas also warned the US Secretary of State, who met with him in Amman, that the displacement and expulsion of more Palestinians from Gaza “would amount to a second Nakba”.

Source: Institute of Palestinian Studies

Israel is vowing to wipe out Hamas in a relentless onslaught on the Gaza Strip but has no obvious endgame in sight, with no clear plan for how to govern the ravaged Palestinian enclave even if it triumphs on the battlefield.

Codenamed "Operation Swords of Iron", the military campaign will be unmatched in its ferocity and unlike anything Israel has carried out in Gaza in the past, according to eight regional and Western officials with knowledge of the conflict who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.

Israel has called up a record 360,000 reservists and has been bombarding the tiny enclave non-stop following Hamas's assault on southern Israel on Oct. 7, which killed about 1,400 people, mostly civilians.

The immediate Israeli strategy, said three regional officials familiar with discussions between the U.S. and Middle Eastern leaders, is to destroy Gaza's infrastructure, even at the cost of high civilian casualties, push the enclave's people towards the Egyptian border and go after Hamas by blowing up the labyrinth of underground tunnels the group has built to conduct its operations.

Israeli officials have said that they don't have a clear idea for what a post-war future might look like, though.

Some of U.S. President Joe Biden's aides are concerned that while Israel may craft an effective plan to inflict lasting damage to Hamas, it has yet to formulate an exit strategy, a source in Washington familiar with the matter said.

Trips to Israel by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin this past week had stressed the need to focus on the post-war plan for Gaza, the source added.

Arab officials are also alarmed that Israel hasn't set out a clear plan for the future of the enclave, ruled by Hamas since 2006 and home to 2.3 million people.

"Israel doesn't have an endgame for Gaza. Their strategy is to drop thousands of bombs, destroy everything and go in, but then what? They have no exit strategy for the day after," said one regional security source.

An Israeli invasion has yet to start, but Gaza authorities say 3,500 Palestinians have already been killed by the aerial bombardment, around a third of them children - a larger death toll than in any previous conflict between Hamas and Israel.

Biden, on a visit to Israel on Wednesday, told Israelis that justice needed to be served to Hamas, though he cautioned that after the 9/11 attacks on New York, the U.S. had made mistakes.

The "vast majority of Palestinians are not Hamas", he said. "Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people."

Aaron David Miller, a Middle East expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said Biden's visit would have given him a chance to press Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu to think through issues such as the proportional use of force and the longer-term plans for Gaza before any invasion.

'CITY OF TUNNELS'

Israeli officials, including Netanyahu, have said they will wipe out Hamas in retribution for the Oct. 7 killings, the deadliest militant attack in Israel's 75-year-old history.

What will follow is less defined.

"We are of course thinking and dealing with this, and this involves assessments and includes the National Security Council, the military and others about the end situation," Israeli National Security Council director Tzachi Hanegbi told reporters on Tuesday. "We don't know what this will be with certainty."

"But what we do know is what there will not be," he said, referring to Israel's stated aim to eradicate Hamas.

This might be easier said than done.

"It's an underground city of tunnels that make the Vietcong tunnels look like child's play," said the first regional source, referring to the Communist guerrilla force that defied U.S. troops in Vietnam. "They're not going to end Hamas with tanks and firepower."

Two regional military experts told Reuters that Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, has mobilized for an invasion, setting up anti-tank mines and booby-trapped explosive devices to ambush troops.

Israel's coming offensive is set to be much bigger than past Gaza operations that Israeli officials had previously referred to as "mowing the grass", degrading Hamas's military capabilities but not eliminating it.

Israel has fought three previous conflicts with Hamas, in 2008-9, 2012 and 2014, and launched limited land invasions during two of those campaigns, but unlike today, Israel's leaders never vowed to destroy Hamas once and for all. In those three confrontations, just under 4,000 Palestinians and fewer than 100 Israelis died.

There is less optimism in Washington, though, that Israel will be able to completely destroy Hamas and U.S. officials see little chance that Israel will want to hold on to any Gaza territory or re-occupy it, the U.S. source said.

A more likely scenario, the person said, would be for Israeli forces to kill or capture as many Hamas members as they can, blow up tunnels and rocket workshops, then after Israeli casualties mount, look for a way to declare victory and exit.

CLOUDS OF WAR

The fear across the region is that the war will blow up beyond the confines of Gaza, with Lebanon's Hezbollah and its backer Iran opening major new fronts in support of Hamas.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian warned of a possible "preemptive" action against Israel if it carried out its invasion of Gaza. He said last weekend that Iran would not watch from the sidelines if the U.S. failed to restrain Israel.

Arab leaders have told Blinken, who has been crisscrossing the region this past week, that while they condemn Hamas's attack on Israel, they oppose collective punishment against ordinary Palestinians, which they fear will trigger regional unrest. Popular anger will ratchet up across the region when the body count rises, they said.

Washington has sent an aircraft carrier strike group to the eastern Mediterranean and is concerned that Hezbollah might join the battle from Israel's northern border. There has been no sign, however, that the U.S. military would then move from a deterrent posture to direct involvement.

The regional sources said Washington was proposing to reenergize the Palestinian Authority (PA), which lost control of Gaza to Hamas in 2007, although there is huge doubt whether the PA or any other authority would be able to govern the coastal enclave should Hamas be driven out.

Miller, a former U.S. Middle East negotiator, expressed deep skepticism about the potential for establishing a post-Hamas government to rule Gaza. "I could paint you a picture more appropriate to a galaxy far, far away and not on planet Earth on how you could combine the U.N., the Palestinian Authority, the Saudis, the Egyptians, led by the U.S. marshalling the Europeans, to basically convert Gaza from an open-air prison to something much better," he said.

In the meantime, calls for the creation of humanitarian corridors within Gaza and escape routes for Palestinian civilians have drawn a strong reaction from Arab neighbors.

They fear an Israeli invasion will spark a new permanent mass wave of displacement, a replay of the 1948 Israeli war of independence and 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Millions of Palestinians who were forced to flee then have remained stranded as refugees in the countries that hosted them.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said he rejected the forced displacement of Palestinians from their land into the Sinai peninsula bordering Gaza, adding that any such move would turn the area into a base for attacks against Israel. He said Egyptians in their millions would protest against any such move.

East Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 war and then annexed, and Israeli settlement expansion across occupied territory are at the core of the conflict with Palestinians. Netanyahu has openly embraced the religious and radical far-right, promising to annex more land to be settled by Jews.

Hundreds of Palestinians have died in the West Bank since the start of the year in repeated clashes with Israeli soldiers and settlers, and there is widespread concern that the violence might engulf the territory as nearby Gaza burns.

"Whatever worst-case scenario you have, it will be worse," a second regional source said about the potential for the conflict to spread beyond Gaza.

Source: Reuters

On Thursday, October 19, 2023, the Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth published what it described as “the broad outlines of the war plan” in order to change the situation in the Gaza Strip, hours after US President Joe Biden left Tel Aviv, on a solidarity visit, 13 days after... The Israeli war on the Gaza Strip.

According to the newspaper, this plan will be implemented in several stages, the first stage: which is the ongoing fighting of intense bombing operations targeting the Gaza Strip since the seventh day of October, which Israel says is in its infancy, leading to the final stage: which is the army’s withdrawal from Gaza and its return to His rules.

Below are the broad outlines of Israel's war on the Gaza Strip:

1- An operation similar to “Defensive Shield”: This operation will be in the form of an attack, concentrated in the northern Gaza Strip, in order to control it, which will enable the occupation forces to collect individual intelligence information.

The goal of this step, according to the Israeli newspaper, is to stop rocket launches and destroy the military and governmental capabilities of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements.

The newspaper adds: "This is the goal of the air strikes taking place now. Actual control over the entire northern sector is necessary to harm the fighters and military infrastructure, and this is also where the Hamas regime's center of government is located."

2- In the southern Gaza Strip, Israel will work to achieve exactly the same goals, but using other means, relying on accurate intelligence information that Israeli intelligence already has, or intelligence that will be collected during the fighting.

3- As for the ongoing confrontations with southern Lebanon, the newspaper says that the Israeli army will continue its skirmishes with Hezbollah, with the Palestinians operating from Lebanon, and perhaps also with armed groups from Syria and Iraq, in an effort to keep the conflicts below the threshold of war and confine them to the border areas.

The newspaper adds: “The Israeli army will essentially continue to maintain a state of alert for strong and large-scale military action in Lebanon, including ground maneuvers, if Hezbollah launches an all-out war at the request of the Iranians.”

It is natural that Israel would prefer to focus and harness the best forces and resources in the fighting in Gaza in order to achieve rapid achievements there. But if Hezbollah and the Iranians decide to escalate into a major war, the IDF has the ability to conduct active combat on a large scale on two fronts, and this will cause the fighting to continue for longer than desired.

4 - In conjunction with the fighting in the north and south of the Gaza Strip, Israel will work with the United States and the United Nations at the humanitarian level to maintain the legitimacy and political and logistical support that the United States and its allies provide for military action.

This includes humanitarian corridors and safe haven areas used by Palestinians who fled their homes in Gaza in accordance with Israel's invitation. Their flow will increase as the attack begins.

According to the newspaper, international entities and Arab countries will supply these areas - under the supervision and control of the Israeli army and the United Nations - with basic supplies including water, food, medicine, and basic services such as electricity and temporary housing.

5- According to the results that will be achieved on the ground in the first weeks of the fighting, Israel will have to reach decisions with the United States about the desired “exit plan,” and initiate the necessary political action to achieve and implement it.

The plan to exit the Gaza Strip and the arrangements on the ground after the exit must ensure the achievement of the desired strategic goals of Israel and the United States in the medium term (5-10 years).

The Israeli newspaper also published what it said were the five strategic goals that Tel Aviv seeks to achieve in the medium term after the end of the fighting in the Gaza Strip, which are as follows:

1. The entire sector must be demilitarized, and arrangements and mechanisms must be made to ensure this.

2. The administration in Gaza must be civil - professional - and not ideological - religious - and not political, and its only interest and directives should be to focus on the well-being of the Palestinian population. It will derive its authority from the basis of broad international legitimacy, and should be based on local civilian administration and officials, provided that their members are not former activists in the military wing of Hamas or other armed organizations.

The civilian government mechanism, in addition to local police, will rely on an international law enforcement force and cessation of hostilities arrangements. Gaza will receive a deep-water port that will operate under security supervision and the movement of passengers and tourists to and from Cyprus will also be allowed.

3. Israel must establish an integrated warning and defense system on the border that provides security for its citizens in the event that the conditions required in the Gaza Strip are not met or violated. The security arrangements will include a security perimeter ranging from one to three kilometers wide, and residents of the Gaza Strip will not be allowed to enter it without special permission. Whoever enters without permission risks his life.

4. The IDF will not remain in Gaza for longer than is necessary to achieve immediate combat objectives and enable the establishment of an alternative administration in the Gaza Strip. However, the IDF and the Shin Bet will reserve the right to engage in what is known as “hot pursuit” to thwart terrorist attacks and war intentions even after it returns to Israeli territory.

5. Israel will take into account the global strategic interests and considerations of the United States, domestic political considerations, and the religious and strategic interests of Islamic countries in the region with which we have peace agreements, normalization, and diplomatic relations.

Israeli official circles have already said that Israel is determined to bring about a radical change in the status quo, and the security establishment realizes the need for a radical change in patterns of thinking and action at the political and military levels.

The newspaper adds: “The measures this time will be different from how things were in previous rounds of battles with Gaza, as political and military estimates in Israel assumed from the beginning of the round that Hamas would remain sovereign over the Gaza Strip at the end of the battle.”

According to the newspaper: “The change in operational patterns depends on prolonging the phases of combat in order to reach the best result. This explains, for example, the phase of prolonging air, sea, and artillery strikes in preparation for ground entry.”

As the Israeli escalation in the Gaza Strip continues, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak arrived in Tel Aviv on Thursday, where he held discussions with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu told Sunak, during a press conference following a discussion session that brought them together, that the Gaza war will be long and Israel needs continued support from the United Kingdom.

He said, "The war against Hamas is not the battle of Israel alone, but of the entire world... and the world must unite to eliminate Hamas." He stressed, "We will not back down. We will defeat Hamas and release the hostages. Our people are united and ready to do whatever is necessary in the face of terrorism."

For his part, Sunak said: “We regret the horrific scenes and difficult moments that Israel is going through... and we support Israel’s right to defend itself.”

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged to his Israeli counterpart that Britain would stand by Israel in its "darkest hour" and welcomed the decision to allow aid into Gaza, saying that Israel was doing its best to reduce civilian deaths. Sunak stressed that "Britain will continue to cooperate with Israel to release the hostages."

During his meeting with the Israeli President, Sunak said: “It is important to provide water, food and medicine to civilians in Gaza,” stressing: “The Palestinian people are a victim of the practices of the Hamas movement.” While the Israeli President expressed his country’s desire to return the hostages, “We demand greater international pressure on Hamas,” he said.

Soon after his arrival in Tel Aviv, Sunak said: “We stand with Israel.” He addressed the Israelis by saying: “I share your grief and stand with you in the face of terrorism.”

The Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip continues after 12 days of attacks, incursions, the demolition of institutions, and the deaths of hundreds of innocent children, the elderly, and many who have no ability to participate in the war. In this war, Israel committed many massacres, the most notable of which happened in the Baptist Hospital, where hundreds gathered either to request medical service or because they believed that the hospital was far from being bombed. But what happened was exactly the opposite, and Israel bombed the hospital and hundreds of citizens fell inside or in the courtyard. Israel also bombed one of the mosques in the Gaza Strip, causing severe damage to those present there, as well as to the building itself.

These attacks led thousands of citizens to leave the northern area of the Gaza Strip, which is completely adjacent to Israel, and head to the south, perhaps where the dangers are less than in the north.

The head of the Yisrael Our Home party, Avigdor Lieberman, came out with broad criticism of the United Nations and claimed that this international organization was making mistakes and misleading, especially in its positions regarding Palestinian refugees. This reckless extremist proposed establishing a city for refugees in Sinai, considering that this solution was appropriate and at the right time. He also called for pressure on Egypt to accept this solution.

This continued aggression against the Gaza Strip sparked widespread reactions, and President Abu Mazen withdrew from the meeting that was proposed in Amman for a number of Arab leaders. He said that he would return to Ramallah to study the major developments and Israeli attacks, which called for the cancellation of the quadripartite summit that was scheduled, and after his return. Abu Mazen declared general mourning for the souls of the martyrs of Gaza.

The situation in the Gaza Strip does not seem to be on its way to calm, but what is happening is the opposite. Developments have begun to take shape in the West Bank as well, which has begun to move in condemnation of the occupation and all its practices.
These conditions that we are living in in light of the occupation’s arrogance and attacks, and its disregard for all international and humanitarian laws, may lead to the explosion of the region, and we have begun to notice this with the tension between Lebanon and Israel and the mutual attacks between the two sides and the possibility of this tension expanding, which makes Israel face two battles in the far north, with Lebanon and in the introduction. Hezbollah, in the far south, with the Gaza Strip, led by Hamas.

What is required in these situations: First, for all Arab countries to take a serious and influential stance so that Israel feels what it may face from the Arab nation, and second, what is required internationally is for there to be a strong, realistic and influential voice so that Israel feels the danger... and respects laws and rights.

In any case, our people are steadfast and cling to their land and rights, regardless of the developments, and if Israel feels strong and arrogant today, it must know that the future is ours and that what strength it has is destined to disappear.

As usual, it is difficult to imagine the extent to which Zionist and American impudence goes to justify their racist, fascist crimes against our people and the peoples of the world. But their barbaric massacre (is this description sufficient?) against the National Baptist Hospital in Gaza brings back to the surface what sometimes seemed to be defeated: that fascist, racist, anti-human policy that characterizes the colonialists, and which does not hesitate to exterminate tens of thousands, based on a racial ideology that does not see the other. Except outside the classification of humans.

Genocide, ethnic cleansing, barbaric massacre, racist holocaust? Which of these descriptions is appropriate to describe the Zionists and Americans after they bombed the Baptist Hospital? All of them, yes all of them and more if the vocabulary of the language can capture this level of barbarism to describe it.

However, the American and Zionist media machine found some space to deny responsibility from the American and Zionist parties, even if that attempt seemed extremely acrobatic and provocative. Sometimes responsibility for the explosion is placed on Hamas, sometimes on Jihad, and sometimes the source of the explosion must be investigated! Once again: Does the language find the vocabulary to describe this level of media decadence?

The official website of the Israeli army wrote without frills, explaining the retaliatory goal of bombing the hospital: “You are crying today... gloating yesterday. On October 7, you shed tears of joy and gloating, and today you are shedding them in grief and oppression. You killed Israeli women and children, and today you know that the Israeli does not sleep on injustice.” As for the American Wall Street Journal, it exposed them by publishing that the bomb that was dropped from the plane on the hospital was American-made, and that its type was MK-84. It enumerated its advantages, the aircraft that could carry it, its weight, and its enormous explosive power. Meanwhile, the Second Hebrew Channel went further than that, and quoted a military expert. His confirmation that the person who threw the bomb was an American Air Force officer. Many Zionist officials have previously said: We warned them to leave, in a clear admission of their crime. Biden and Blake are not in the entity and meeting with the war council to discuss and consult, but rather to participate in the war with their weapons, experts, technologies, and soldiers as well.

Yet they continue with blatant lies. Sometimes they deny and sometimes they admit. The function of the article is not, of course, to (prove) the truth of the Zionist and American responsibility for the massacre, and even the responsibility of all the imperialist Western countries that support Zionist terrorism, but rather to show the extent of the media’s impudence in promoting lies, and the extent of drowning in the racism of Zionist and Western discourse. Even the imperialist countries that rushed (to express their rejection and condemnation) such as Canada and France, while suppressing any manifestation of solidarity with our people, and declaring their support for Zionist barbarism, it would be better for our people to say to them: Shut up, for Zionist unrest will only continue with your support and shuttle visits to bless their fascism, and their right (to defend). On my own, and your suppression of those in solidarity with our people. The colonizer does not have the right to self-defense. This right, in addition to the right to resist, is exclusively for the colonized.

The rush of the leaders of the imperialist West to visit the entity, from Biden through Schulz to Macron, has only one goal: to take their share of our blood based on their fascism and imperialist racism. Therefore, the imperialist West is a partner in the aggression, not based on an alliance of countries only, but rather from the truth of the same ideological root. And the racist seed of the white man who sees different races as nothing but races outside of human classification. Is Nazism reinventing itself? Indeed, we are facing a new Nazism that will destroy them all.

As for the official Arab regimes, their condition goes beyond the historically known state of helpless, weak, and submissive, reaching the point of actually participating in the aggression against our people. Otherwise, how do we explain until the moment of writing this article, the remaining of the Zionist ambassadors in their countries, the remaining of the treaties and agreements as they are, and the normalization relations remaining as they are? The embassies of the imperialist countries participating in the aggression remained as they were, and some of them did not even have the minimum level of human morality to stand with the oppressed, so they condemned Hamas and its attacks on civilians! All of this means no-frills engagement.

As for relying on the formula (we condemn in the strongest terms) contained in the statements of the Arab regimes, even though no one knows what these particular phrases are! Peoples and their movement in the street.
The utmost insolence in their Zionist, European and American media, the utmost barbarism in their joint aggression and massacres, but as is also shown in the media: the resistance is steadfast and our people are behind it.

A US State Department official, who was working on arms transfer deals to key US allies, announced his resignation from his position, on Wednesday, in protest against the way the administration of President Joe Biden dealt with the Israeli escalation in the Gaza Strip.

Josh Paul, director of public and congressional affairs in the State Department's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, which handles arms transfers, said he "cannot support further military aid to Israel."

In his resignation, he described the Biden administration's response, and much of Congress' response, as "a knee-jerk reaction based on confirmation bias, political expediency, intellectual bankruptcy, and bureaucratic inertia. That is to say, it is deeply disappointing, and completely unsurprising."

Paul described the Hamas attack on Israel, which resulted in the killing of more than 1,400 people, as “atrocious atrocities,” but added, “But I believe deep down that the response that Israel is taking, along with American support for this response and the current state of the occupation, will only lead to... Greater and deeper suffering for both the Israeli and Palestinian peoples.”

Regarding his motives for making the decision to resign, Paul told Al-Sharq that he did not make this decision except after many discussions and arguments with American officials about the “controversial” arms transfers to Israel, indicating that “he cannot change anything about the matter.” Nor can he “do something effective to improve the results.”

Killing Palestinian civilians

The resignation of the American official is a rare measure to express “internal discomfort” regarding the administration’s strong support for Israel, the United States’ closest ally in the Middle East. More broadly, it represents an unusual public display of opposition within President Biden's foreign policy apparatus, which has worked to prevent such expressions of discontent from emerging, according to the Washington Post.

Paul spent more than 11 years in his position, coordinating relations with Congress and public messaging for an office that deals with military aid.

He wrote in his resignation that he “could not accept continuing” in a job, which he said contributed to “the killing of Palestinian civilians.”

Paul said in an interview with the American website "Huffington Post": "We must certainly point out the horror of what Hamas did and the extent of what happened. Therefore, I fear the size of the potential Israeli response or the ongoing Israeli response."

He added: "I acknowledge the right of the Israeli government to respond and defend itself. But I wonder how many Palestinian children must die in this process."

Absolute support for Israel

Paul considered that the strong American military aid to Israel gives Tel Aviv the green light to do whatever it pleases against Gaza, regardless of civilian losses.

The Israeli government announced that it was planning to destroy Hamas, and asked the residents of the northern Gaza Strip to move south, a request that United Nations observers declared would constitute a “humanitarian catastrophe.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken spent the past week traveling the Middle East, trying to create regional support for “Israel’s right to defend itself” and avoid a regional war, but also to push Israel to respect humanitarian concerns in Gaza.

Biden, who arrived in Israel on Wednesday, announced that the United States “will stand by your side,” but he urged the Israelis to distinguish between the Palestinians and Hamas, and reduce civilian casualties.

He said, "The vast majority of Palestinians are not from Hamas. The Palestinian people are also suffering greatly."

Source: Al Sharq Channel