Several young men were injured by live bullets, and dozens suffocated with tear gas, Monday evening, during confrontations with the occupation forces, south and east of Nablus.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society in Nablus reported that three young men were injured by live bullets, two of them in the foot area, another in the chest and hand area, while another young man was injured by shrapnel in the head area, during confrontations at the Huwwara military checkpoint.

Local sources indicated that confrontations broke out between young men and the occupation forces at the checkpoint, during which the occupation fired live bullets and toxic tear gas bombs, causing dozens to suffocate.

In the town of Beit Furik to the east, confrontations broke out between the occupation forces and young men at the military checkpoint erected at the entrance to the town, during which soldiers fired sound and gas bombs, causing a number of citizens to suffocate.

Confrontations broke out between young men and the Israeli occupation forces, Monday evening, in the city of Qalqilya.

Local sources reported that confrontations broke out between young men and the occupation forces stationed at the eastern checkpoint in the city of Qalqilya, during which the occupation fired stun grenades and toxic tear gas, but no injuries were reported.

Today, Monday, at the Carthage Palace, the President of the Republic of Tunisia, Kais Saied, chaired a working session that included: Prime Minister Ahmed El Hachani, Minister of National Defense Imad Mamish, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Migration and Tunisians Abroad Nabil Ammar, Minister of Social Affairs Malek Zahi, and Minister of Health Ali Murabit. The Minister Advisor to the President of the Republic, Mustafa Ferjani, and the President of the Tunisian Red Crescent, Abdel Latif Chabou.

During the meeting, ways to support the Palestinian people were discussed at the diplomatic level and in the health field, especially by providing the Palestinian people with the medicines, surgical tools, and blood donations, in addition to directing field electric generators, especially after the power was cut off in a large part of the Gaza Strip. .

Contacts took place between the Tunisian Red Crescent and its Palestinian counterpart to determine what the brothers need in their confrontation with the Israeli occupation.

In the same context, the possibility of transporting a number of wounded Palestinians to Tunisia was discussed.

On Monday evening, the northern border of occupied Palestine witnessed new security tension after an anti-tank missile was fired at an Israeli site, without causing any casualties.

This comes hours after the Israeli army announced the liquidation of an armed cell that infiltrated from Lebanon and managed to injure 7 Israeli soldiers with varying injuries before being neutralized, as reported by the Hebrew channel Reshet Kan.

The Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement, claimed responsibility for the attack.

In response to the operation, the Israeli army bombed targets in southern Lebanon, including Hezbollah targets.

On Monday evening, Hebrew Channel 12 reported that the number of Israeli deaths following the attack by the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, had risen to 900.

According to the Hebrew Channel, there are about 3,000 wounded, including serious and critical conditions.

It indicated that these numbers were recorded in the settlements surrounding the Gaza Strip and Israeli cities, and that the majority of them were killed as a result of the armed attack, and a group of them were killed by rocket firing.

High-level Egyptian sources warned against pushing defenseless Palestinians towards the Egyptian border, and against some parties calling for mass exodus.

Egyptian sources said in statements on Monday evening that Egypt has intensified its contacts with all active parties of the international community to stop the escalation and stop the bloodshed of the Palestinian people.

It stressed the seriousness of the calls for displacement and that they are enough to empty the Gaza Strip of its population and liquidate the Palestinian cause itself, in addition to the fact that Egyptian sovereignty is not permissible.

The sources held the occupation authority responsible for creating humanitarian corridors, stressing the need to stop military operations immediately.

A settler tried to run over citizens, Monday evening, in the town of Tuqu, southeast of Bethlehem.

Youth activist Mustafa reported that a settler tried to run over a group of young men while they were passing on the main street in the Khirbet al-Deir area, and then fled, without anyone being injured.

It is noteworthy that settler attacks against the residents of Teqoua have escalated in the recent period, and were represented by trampling and shooting attacks.

A young man died on Monday evening, succumbing to critical injuries sustained during clashes in the town of Beit Ummar, north of Hebron.

According to the Ministry of Health, the young man, Montaser Abdel Hamid Zaqeq (31 years old), died after being hit in the head by live ammunition.

On Monday evening, settlers set fire to two tents near the village of Kisan, east of Bethlehem.

The head of the Kisan Village Council, Musa Abayat, reported that settlers set fire to two tents located in the “Al-Qanoub” area of the lands of the town of Sa’ir, north of Hebron, opposite Kisan, close to the “Ibi Hanahel” settlement, which is located on citizens’ lands. They belong to citizens of the Al-Shalalda family, and they were used For livestock.

It is noteworthy that the settlers escalated their violations against citizens in the eastern region of Bethlehem, especially against sheep herders.

Sudan announced Monday that it will resume diplomatic relations with Iran. This comes seven years after it was cut off and three months after a meeting between the foreign ministers of the two countries. Sudan severed its diplomatic relations with Iran in 2016 after storming the Saudi Arabian embassy in Tehran.

The Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement Monday that Sudan will resume its diplomatic relations with Iran.

The ministry added that the decision to resume relations came after a number of high-level contacts between the two countries and that it would serve the common interests of both countries.

This comes seven years after the severing of relations between the two countries and three months after a meeting between the foreign ministers of the two countries.

Saudi Arabia and Iran, mediated by China, agreed to resume relations last March, which raised expectations that Tehran and other Arab countries would fully resume diplomatic relations.

In addition, no statement has been issued yet from Iran, but its Foreign Minister Hussein Amir Abdullahian said last July that the two countries are working to resume relations after his meeting with Acting Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Al-Sadiq in Baku.

It is noteworthy that Sudan, which is currently going through a devastating war, cut off its diplomatic relations with Iran in 2016 after the storming of the Saudi Arabian embassy in Tehran.

The Israeli occupation forces continued their aggression against the Gaza Strip, leaving hundreds of martyrs and thousands wounded, amid the most violent air, sea and land attacks in 3 days.

According to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, the number of martyrs exceeded 560, and 2,900 other citizens were injured with varying injuries, including hundreds of children and women.

According to the Ministry, there are large numbers of people infected with critical and serious conditions.

The nursery department at Al-Shifa Medical Complex was damaged as a result of the occupation’s targeting of the vicinity of Al-Shifa Medical Complex.

Several ambulances were also directly targeted, while Beit Hanoun Hospital was completely out of service due to the violent Israeli bombing.

The occupation forces continued their violent attacks, destroying economic, civil, social and educational institutions in a series of violent raids that targeted Gaza City, in addition to targeting residential buildings and homes in various parts of the Gaza Strip.

The occupation forces committed major massacres against Palestinian citizens in the Gaza Strip, especially after bombing homes over the heads of their residents.

Thousands of citizens took refuge in UNRWA schools seeking displacement under difficult circumstances.

While the Palestinian resistance continued to fire missiles at the occupation cities and settlements, causing serious and varying injuries and causing massive damage.

The number of Israeli deaths has risen to 800 and about 3,000 have been injured since the beginning of the operation last Saturday.

On Monday evening, Israeli occupation forces fired live bullets and rubber-coated metal bullets at anyone approaching the southern and western sides of the village of Qaryut, south of Nablus.

Local sources reported that the occupation forces have been present for hours south and west of the village, shooting bullets at anyone who tries to approach the outskirts of the village.

Yesterday evening, the people of Qaryut responded to an attack by colonists south of the village, which led to the outbreak of confrontations and the injury of a citizen to the face as a result of the attack.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported, on Monday evening, that the Israeli occupation forces attacked one of its ambulances, near the village of Al-Mazraa Al-Gharbiyya, west of Ramallah, and assaulted its crew.

She explained, in a statement, that the occupation forces beat the vehicle crew, threatened them, searched the vehicle thoroughly, and detained them for a period of time before releasing them.

On Monday evening, a citizen was injured by live bullets following a settler attack on farmers in Duma, south of Nablus.

The head of the Duma Village Council, Suleiman Dawabsha, said that settlers attacked the olive pickers near the western entrance to the town, amidst gunfire and protection from the occupation army, which led to the injury of a citizen with live bullets.

He added that settlers burned four vehicles in the area, amid clashes.

Russia considered on Monday that the establishment of a Palestinian state is the “most reliable” solution to the conflict with Israel, warning of a “high” risk of other parties engaging in the ongoing escalation with Hamas after the lightning operation launched by the movement against the Hebrew state from the Gaza Strip.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov confirmed on Monday during a press conference on the occasion of the visit of Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit to Moscow that Russia and the League will work to "stop the bloodshed" in Israel and Gaza in cooperation with countries that want "permanent peace in the Middle East."

He said, "We do not agree with those who say that security can only be achieved by fighting terrorism."

He stressed that "eliminating terrorists" is a strategy that Israel has previously applied, but it has never allowed the "fundamental problem" to be resolved.

He saw the creation of “a Palestinian state living side by side with Israel... as the most reliable path to finding a solution to the” Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Supporting these statements, Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit called for finding a “just solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict” and creating “political horizons.”

Aboul Gheit said that the Arab League rejects violence "from both sides."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned that “the risk of third powers getting involved in this conflict is high,” calling for launching “a negotiation process as soon as possible,” according to what was reported by the Russian RIA Novosti and TASS agencies.

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On Monday, 9 citizens were injured by Israeli occupation forces’ bullets in Hebron and Al-Bireh.

According to the Red Crescent, 5 citizens were injured by live bullets in Beit Ummar, including one in serious condition.

In Al-Bireh, 4 citizens were injured by live bullets at the northern entrance to Al-Bireh, and they were transferred to the Palestine Medical Complex.

Today, Monday, the Israeli occupation forces bombed, with artillery, the Al-Dahira border area in the western sector, reaching the Lebanese towns of Marwahin, Al-Bustan, and Al-Zalutiyah.

The Lebanese National News Agency said that intense gunshots were heard at the Dahaira border, and Lebanese citizens also heard explosions in various southern regions, from the Lebanese border.

The National News Agency announced that the Israeli occupation army deployed its forces to confront what it called a possible “infiltration” from Lebanon.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday evening, “The war that began in Gaza will change the face of the Middle East.”

This came during a call he made with the heads of the local authorities of the Gaza envelope settlements, expressing his support for them and the settlers.

Netanyahu said: What Hamas will go through will be difficult and terrible. We are already in the midst of the campaign and have just begun it, and we must be strong in these difficult days. This matter will take time and there is a need for a strong position in these difficult days.

He stressed that his government would stand by the settlers and work to help them, calling on them to be steadfast.

On Monday evening, settlers attacked citizens’ homes in the town of Ainabus, southwest of Nablus.

According to local sources, a group of settlers, protected by occupation soldiers, attacked the town amid heavy gunfire, gas bombs, and sound bombs. They attempted to break into and attack homes, and burned land at the entrances to one of the homes.

Israel declared war Sunday as it bombarded the Gaza Strip with airstrikes in retaliation for a major surprise attack by Hamas. The declaration came a day after an unprecedented incursion by Hamas fighters who blew through a fortified border fence and gunned down civilians and soldiers in Israeli communities along the Gaza frontier during a major Jewish holiday.

As many as 1,000 Hamas fighters took part, U.S. Secretary of State Andrew Blinken said. The rampage included an assault on a crowded music festival where authorities had removed about 260 bodies by Sunday.

Israel struck back including with airstrikes that flattened a 14-story tower that held Hamas offices. More than 400 people were reported killed in Gaza and at least 700 in Israel.

What does the war declaration mean?

Israel has previously carried out major military campaigns in Lebanon and Gaza that it portrayed as wars, but without a formal declaration.

The declaration gives the green light for Israel to take “significant military steps” against Hamas. It came as the military continued efforts to stamp out the last groups of militants in southern Israel following the attack.

Israel hit more than 800 targets in Gaza by Sunday, its military said. That included airstrikes that leveled much of the town of Beit Hanoun in the enclave’s northeast corner.

Hamas had been using the town as a staging ground for attacks, Israeli Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters.

There was no immediate word on casualties, and most of the community’s population of tens of thousands likely fled before the bombardment.

The leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which participated in Saturday’s attack, said it was holding more than 30 Israelis among dozens of captives in Gaza. He said they would not be released until all Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails are free

Israeli occupation aircraft completely demolished 619 housing units, while 5,350 housing units were partially damaged during the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip.

According to the government media office, 72 towers, buildings and buildings were completely demolished, while 171 housing units were damaged and rendered uninhabitable.

He pointed out that dozens of public and service facilities, mosques and bank branches were bombed.

The American newspaper "Wall Street Journal" claimed on Sunday that security officials contributed to planning the surprise attack launched by the Islamic Resistance Movement "Hamas" on Saturday on the Israeli occupation forces, and gave the green light for the attack at a meeting held in Beirut last Monday, according to senior members of Hamas. And Hezbollah.

According to the newspaper, these people said that Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officers had worked with Hamas since last August to plan air, land and sea incursions - the most significant violation of Israel's borders since the 1973 Ramadan War.

The newspaper claims that they added that the details of the operation were refined during several meetings in Beirut “attended by officers from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and representatives of four armed groups supported by Iran, including Hamas, which controls power in Gaza, and Hezbollah, a Shiite armed group and faction.” politician in Lebanon.

It is noteworthy that US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said on Sunday that the US administration had not seen any evidence of Tehran’s involvement in the sudden Hamas attack, and in an interview with CNN broadcast on Sunday, Blinken said: “We have not yet seen evidence that Iran directed this attack.” "Or she was behind it, but there is definitely a long relationship."

A US official involved in the alleged meetings told the Wall Street Journal: “We do not have any information at this time to confirm this account.”

In response to a question about the alleged meetings in Beirut, Mahmoud Mardawi, a senior Hamas official, said that the movement planned the attacks on its own, explaining, “This is a Palestinian and Hamas decision.”

The Wall Street Journal quotes a spokesman for Iran's mission to the United Nations as saying that the Islamic Republic supports Gaza's actions but does not direct them.

The spokesman said: “The decisions taken by the Palestinian resistance are completely independent and unshakably consistent with the legitimate interests of the Palestinian people... We are not concerned with the Palestinian response, as it is taken by Palestine itself only.”

A direct Iranian role would bring Tehran's long-standing conflict with Israel out of the shadows, increasing the risk of a broader conflict in the Middle East. Senior Israeli security officials vowed to attack the Iranian leadership if it was proven that Tehran was responsible for the killing of Israelis.

The newspaper claims that the broader plan of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is to create a multi-front threat that can strangle Israel from all sides - Hezbollah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in the north and Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas in Gaza and the West Bank.

The Israeli occupation government claimed that at least 700 Israelis were killed in the attack, and Saturday's attack "shattered the country's aura of invincibility, leaving Israelis wondering how their vaunted security forces could allow this to happen," according to the newspaper.

Israel blamed Iran, saying it was behind the attacks, albeit indirectly. “We know that there were meetings in Syria and Lebanon with other leaders of the terrorist armies surrounding Israel, so it is easy to understand that they tried to coordinate,” Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, said on Sunday.

Hamas publicly acknowledges that it receives support from Iran, and Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi spoke on Sunday with the leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, Ziad al-Nakhalah, and the head of the Hamas movement, Ismail Haniyeh.

Senior members of Hamas and Hezbollah said that Iran has put aside other regional conflicts, such as its open conflict with Saudi Arabia in Yemen, to devote external resources to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard to coordinate, finance and arm anti-Israel militias, including Hamas and Hezbollah, according to the newspaper’s claim.

The United States and Israel have designated Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist organizations.

The newspaper says, “The aim of the strike was to strike Israel while it appeared distracted by internal political divisions around the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.” Senior members of Hamas and Hezbollah said that the attack was also aimed at disrupting the accelerating talks brokered by the United States to normalize relations between the kingdom. Saudi Arabia and Israel, which Iran considers a threat.”

The newspaper points out that based on the peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan, expanding Israeli relations with the Arab Gulf states could create a chain of US allies linking three major choke points for global trade - the Suez Canal, the Strait of Hormuz, and the Bab el-Mandab, which connects the Red Sea.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati stressed, “The government’s priority is to maintain security and stability in southern #Lebanon, continue calm on the Blue Line, adhere to Resolution 1701, stop the ongoing Israeli violations of Lebanese sovereignty by air, sea, and air, and withdraw from the Lebanese territories that are still occupied.”

After following up on the situation in the south through a series of international, Arab and local contacts, he confirmed that “friendly and brotherly countries are keen to keep Lebanon safe from the repercussions of the explosive situation in the Palestinian territories, and to protect it.”

Mikati reiterated that "fortifying Lebanon in the face of stormy developments requires accelerating the election of a new president and stopping the existing political tensions. The danger threatening Lebanon does not affect a specific group or one political faction. Rather, it will have, God forbid, serious repercussions on all Lebanese and on the situation." The entire Lebanese people.

The Prime Minister continued, "In these difficult circumstances that the region is going through, it is no longer acceptable for internal tensions and divisions to continue over issues that have been overtaken by imminent events and potential repercussions. Let the positions of incitement and incitement stop, and let all wills unite in a phase that is, without exaggeration, one of the most dangerous phases that Lebanon is going through." “The region is the most uncertain in terms of expectations, options and possibilities.”

Regarding the Palestinian file, the caretaker Prime Minister said, “What is happening inside the Palestinian territories is an inevitable result of the Israeli enemy’s approach against the Palestinian people and their rightful demands. The solution to this conflict open to blood begins with the international community assuming its responsibilities in pressuring Israel to force it to return to the peace option with its considerations.” “The well-known Arab Peace Initiative, which was issued by the Beirut Summit in 2002, and anything other than that is a further spiral of violence that will not benefit anyone.”

The Palestinian Prisoners' Club said on Monday that the occupation prison administration continues to implement retaliatory measures against detainees in all prisons.

According to the latest developments documented by the Prisoners’ Club, the Ofer Prison administration today cut off electricity and water to the detainees’ sections, and in Nafha Prison, they withdrew the tools that the detainees use for cooking, completely isolated the sections from each other, and prevented them from going out to ( Al-Fura) prison yard.

In the Negev prison, the prison administration transferred all Gaza detainees outside the prison without knowing the destination to which they were transferred. The prison administration also deliberately cut off electricity and water to the detainees’ sections from time to time, and this was recorded in most prisons.

The Prisoner's Club added that sick detainees were denied transfer to prison clinics.

Earlier, and over the past two days, the occupation prison administration implemented a series of other retaliatory measures, which included closing sections in all prisons, withdrawing the limited number of television stations available to detainees, increasing jamming devices, stopping visits to detainees’ families, and extending the detention of detainees from 96 hours, to 8 days, and prevented from meeting with a lawyer, during the first four days of detention.

According to the Prisoners’ Club, raids were also recorded in a number of prisons, including “Naqab,” “Megiddo,” and “Damoun,” where female detainees are held.

The day before yesterday, the repressive forces stormed the detention section of the “Damoun” prison, using poisonous gas, cutting off their electricity, isolating the female detainees’ representative, Marah Bakir, and transferring her to the “Jalama” prison.

In light of this, the female detainees decided to take protest steps by returning meals and rejecting the so-called “number” procedure.

In Megiddo prison, the repressive forces stormed the sections, isolated them from each other, and took away the electricity.

The Prisoners' Club warned against aggression against detainees or harming them. He renewed his call on all international human rights institutions to play their necessary role at this current stage.

The number of detainees in the occupation prisons is more than 5,250, including 39 female detainees, 170 children, and more than 1,300 administrative detainees.

The number of Israeli deaths due to attacks by the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, rose to 800.

According to the Hebrew channel Reshet Kan, the death toll is likely to rise, especially since many areas have not yet been regained control.

She indicated that the number of wounded approached 3,000.

The Palestinian Minister of Health, Dr. Mai Alkaila, today, Monday, called on the international community to take urgent action to curb the occupation’s aggression against treatment centers, cars and ambulance crews in the Gaza Strip.

She added: The occupation deliberately bombs hospitals and ambulances and kills and injures crews, and this is a major and clear violation of all international laws and norms.

Today, Monday, the Israeli occupation forces continue to close the main gate, the “military checkpoint,” linking the town of Barta’a, which is isolated behind the apartheid wall, which exacerbated the suffering of citizens, especially the sick.

According to local sources, the occupation forces closed the Barta'a military checkpoint in both directions, which is considered the only outlet for the people of the village and its neighboring ruins, to communicate with Jenin Governorate and its towns.

The sources confirmed that there is a shortage of supplies and food supplies in the town after merchants were prevented from entering them, in addition to chronic medical cases that are not allowed to go to Jenin Hospital except with a permit, and only for chronic medical cases, indicating that the danger threatens students in universities and schools as a result of this siege.

When bombed by Israel, the besieged Palestinians in the Gaza Strip will receive no more compassion from the West than in previous times. The expression “Israeli response” will once again be used to justify their immense suffering.

The current outpouring of sympathy for Israel should make anyone with a little heart shudder. Not because it isn’t horrible to see Israeli civilians dying and suffering in such large numbers. But because the Palestinian civilians of Gaza have regularly suffered, for decades, Israeli aggressions which cause them much greater suffering, without ever arousing even a fraction of the concern currently expressed by politicians or Western public opinions.

The West's hypocrisy in the face of Palestinian fighters who kill and injure hundreds of Israelis and hold dozens more hostage in communities around and inside the besieged Gaza Strip is striking. This is the first time that the Palestinians imprisoned in the coastal enclave of Gaza have managed to launch an attack in Israel on a scale that vaguely reflects the savagery that has regularly befallen them since they were put into cage, more than 15 years ago, when Israel began its land, sea and air blockade in 2007.

Western media describe as "unprecedented" the manner in which the Palestinians in Gaza managed to escape from their open-air prison and go on the attack, as well as Israel's most abject failure intelligence since the Yom Kippur war, where it was also caught off guard, exactly 50 years ago.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas, which nominally runs Gaza's open-air prison, of starting "a cruel and evil war." But the truth is that the Palestinians didn’t “start” anything. They managed, after decades of struggle, to find a way to cause some damage to their executioner.

Inevitably, for the Palestinians, as Netanyahu also noted, “the price to pay will be heavy,” especially for civilians. Israel will inflict on the prisoners the harshest punishment for their impudence. You will see the lack of compassion and concern that the Occident will show towards the many Palestinian men, women and children that Israel will still murder. Their immense suffering will be obscured and justified by the expression “Israeli response”.

The real lessons

All current analysis that focuses on Israeli intelligence “mistakes” distracts from the real lesson to be learned from these rapidly evolving events.

No one really cared about the Palestinians in Gaza subjected to the Israeli blockade which deprived them of basic necessities. The few dozen Israelis held hostage by Hamas fighters pale in comparison to the two million Palestinians held hostage by Israel in an open-air prison for nearly twenty years.

Who was concerned when it became known that the Palestinians in Gaza were being subjected to a "starvation diet" by Israel, which allowed in only a small amount of food, just enough so that the population did not die entirely? made of hunger?

Who cared that Israel bombed the coastal enclave every two or three years, killing hundreds of Palestinian civilians each time? Israel calls this “mowing the lawn.” The destruction of large areas of Gaza, in order to return the enclave to the Stone Age, as Israeli generals have boasted, has become an official strategy known as the “ Victim "Dahiya" Doctrine.”

Who was alarmed when Israeli snipers shot at nurses, young people and people in wheelchairs who came to protest the Israeli siege? Several thousand people had to have amputations because these snipers were ordered to shoot protesters in the legs or ankles.

Western concern over the deaths of Israeli civilians at the hands of Palestinian fighters is heartbreaking. Haven't hundreds of Palestinian children died over the past 15 years during Israel's repeated bombing campaigns on Gaza? Do their lives not matter as much as those of Israelis – and if not, why?

After so much indifference for so long, it is hard to bear to see the horror suddenly spilling over into Western governments and media because the Palestinians have finally found a way – similar to Israel's inhumane policies towards them, suffered for decades – to respond effectively.

The masks fall and everyone sees that what tries to pass off as moral concerns in Western capitals is in reality pure racism.

Hypocrisy incarnate

Volodymr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president, embodies this hypocrisy. Last weekend, he posted a lengthy tweet condemning Palestinians as “terrorists” and offering Israel his unwavering support.

He affirmed that “Israel’s right to defend itself is indisputable,” adding: “The world must be united so that terrorism does not succeed in subjugating or suppressing life anywhere and at any time.”

Such an inversion of reality leaves you speechless. Palestinians cannot “subjugate life” in Israel. They do not have this power, although a few have managed to escape their cage for a short time. It is Israel that has subjugated the lives of Palestinians for decades.

It appears that not all forms of “terrorism” are equal in the eyes of Zelenskiy or his patrons in Western capitals. Certainly not the state terrorism of Israel which has made the lives of Palestinians an ordeal for decades.

Why does Israel have the “indisputable right” to “defend itself” against the Palestinians whose territory it occupies and controls? Why does Russia not have the same right to “defend itself” when it strikes Ukrainian cities in “response” to Ukrainian strikes aimed at liberating its territory from Russian occupation?

Israel, by far the strongest warring party, is devastating Gaza “in response,” as the BBC says of the latest Palestinian attack.

How will Zelenskiy or his ministers condemn Moscow when it fires missiles “in response” to Ukraine’s strikes on Russian territory? If Palestinian resistance to the Israeli occupation of Gaza is terrorism, as Zelenskiy claims, then isn't Ukrainian resistance to the Russian occupation also terrorism?

Nowhere to escape

Israel is so used to being covered by its allies that it allows itself to tell bigger and bigger lies. Last weekend, Netanyahu told Palestinians in Gaza to “leave immediately” because Israeli forces were preparing to “act with all necessary force.”

But Netanyahu knows well, as do his Western accomplices, that the population of Gaza has nowhere to flee. Nowhere to hide. The Palestinians are locked in Gaza and Israel is besieging them by land, sea and air.

The only Palestinians capable of “leaving Gaza” are the armed factions who escaped from the prison to which Israel keeps the key, and who are accused of being “terrorists” by Western politicians and media. The Western governments so horrified by the Palestinian attack on Israel are the same ones that remain silent when Israel cuts off the electricity to the prison that is Gaza, again in pursuance of its so-called “response.”

The collective punishment of the two million Palestinians in the Gaza enclave, who depend on Israel for electricity because Israel surrounds them and controls every aspect of their lives, is a war crime.

Strangely, Western officials understand that it is a war crime when Russia bombs power plants in Ukraine and thus cuts off electricity. They are clamoring for Russian President Vladimir Putin to be brought before the International Criminal Court in The Hague. So why are they unable to see that Israel is doing the exact same thing in Gaza? 

A daring escape

There are two immediate and opposing lessons to be learned from what happened in Gaza. The first is that the human mind cannot be caged indefinitely. The Palestinians of Gaza have never stopped imagining new ways to free themselves from their chains.

They built a network of tunnels, most of which were spotted and destroyed by Israel. They fired rockets which were invariably shot down by increasingly sophisticated interception systems. They protested en masse against the heavily fortified fences, topped with pylons, with which Israel surrounded them, before being shot down by snipers.

Today they staged a daring escape. Israel will subject the enclave to massive bombings, only “in response”, of course. However, the Palestinians' thirst for freedom and dignity will not be diminished.

Another form of resistance, undoubtedly even more brutal, will emerge. And the main culprits for this violence will be Israel and the West which so generously supports the Jewish state, because Israel refuses to stop martyring the Palestinians whom it forces to live under its thumb.

The second lesson is that the lenient support Israel enjoys from its Western patrons does not encourage it to realize the aforementioned fundamental truth. The rhetoric of its current government, made up of fascists and Jewish supremacists, is undoubtedly particularly detestable, but there is, in any case, a broad consensus among Israelis of all political persuasions that we should not stop oppressing Palestinians.

This is why the so-called opposition will not hesitate to support the military shelling of the besieged Gaza enclave, and to kill even more Palestinian civilians to "teach them a lesson", the lesson being that the Palestinians must accept , once and for all, to be treated as inferiors and to live in prison.

The “good Israelis” – opposition leaders Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz – are already in talks with Netanyahu to join him in an “emergency unity government.”

What “urgency”? The urgency of dealing with Palestinians who demand the right not to live as prisoners in their own homeland.

Israelis and Westerners can continue their mental acrobatics to justify the oppression of Palestinians and deny them any right to resistance. But their hypocrisy and duplicity are not lost on the rest of the world.

Today, Monday, the Governor of Ramallah and Al-Bireh, Dr. Leila Ghannam, secured the security of dozens of workers in the Gaza Strip, who were expelled by the occupation from their workshops and workplaces within the 1948 territories.

Dr. Ghannam confirmed that the workers were secured, and all their needs of housing, food and drink were provided, noting that they are now among their people, after their employers left them and the occupation expelled them without shelter.

She indicated that the Ramallah and Al-Bireh Governorate and the governorate’s institutions will fulfill their full duty towards our people, in light of the difficult situation that our people are experiencing in all their places of residence.

For their part, the workers confirmed that last night the occupation launched a massive arrest campaign among their ranks, harassed them, and expelled them to the cities of the West Bank, and prevented them from taking their belongings.

The spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Ubaida, said on Monday, October 9, 2023, that the occupation’s bombing tonight, and today, on the Gaza Strip, led to the killing of 4 Israeli prisoners, and the martyrdom of their captives, who were Al-Qassam members.

The occupation escalated its aggression and war against the Palestinian people, launching hundreds of raids successively in the last hours on all governorates of the Gaza Strip.

The Ministry of Interior in Gaza confirmed that most of the targets were residential towers and buildings, civil and service facilities, and many mosques. The raids left martyrs and injuries, most of whom were women and children.