ARAB AND WORLD
Tue 29 Oct 2024 5:42 pm - Jerusalem Time
Security Council session on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian issue
The UN Security Council held a session on Tuesday on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian issue.
The session witnessed open discussions on the recent developments in the Palestinian territories and the ongoing challenges resulting from the military escalation, the humanitarian situation in Gaza, and the impact of increasing colonial policies on the lives of Palestinians in the West Bank, including Jerusalem.
Wennesland: We are witnessing a horrific humanitarian nightmare in Gaza
At the session, the Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wenneslund, said that we have entered the second year of a horrific conflict, and the region is on the brink of another dangerous escalation. Violence in the Palestinian territories and the region as a whole continues. Yesterday, Israeli forces in Gaza struck a building in Beit Lahia, killing at least 90 Palestinians, including at least 25 children. This strike is another episode in the series of bloody violence in Gaza.
He added that we are witnessing a horrific humanitarian nightmare, which is developing at a speed that prevents us from reaching a sustainable settlement, noting that during his presence in Gaza, he saw beyond imagination the extent of the great destruction caused by the war on the population, from the destruction of residential buildings, roads, hospitals and schools, and the thousands who live in camps with no place to go to as winter approaches.
He pointed out that he spoke to colleagues in the United Nations and humanitarian partners about the growing challenges, and they described the dire humanitarian situation in northern Gaza, which has not received any humanitarian assistance since the beginning of the war. He continued: I listened to Palestinian NGOs, and their demands were clear: the war must end immediately, civilians must be protected and assisted, and a political solution must be found to end this conflict.
“We are in the most dangerous phase in the Middle East in decades, and each of us must make efforts to de-escalate the region and create a path towards peace, stability and an immediate ceasefire,” he said, calling on all parties to engage constructively in urgent diplomatic efforts to de-escalate and avoid a vicious cycle of death and destruction. “UNRWA’s work must not be allowed to stop and be undermined.”
Swiss Representative: Israeli Knesset Decision Against UNRWA Violates International Law
In turn, the Swiss representative called for respect for international law, allowing humanitarian aid to reach and stopping the violation of international law, which is unacceptable, calling on all parties to respect the decisions of this Council, implement our decisions and rise to the occasion.
He considered the decision against UNRWA by the Israeli Knesset to be in violation of international law and to threaten humanitarian aid in the face of indescribable suffering, stressing that his country will continue to help civilians, calling for reaching a real solution and a ceasefire, putting an end to the spread of violence and destruction, and working together to find a political solution.
US Representative: We Reject Starving Citizens in Gaza, Israel Must Allow Aid to Enter
In turn, the Permanent Representative of the United States of America to the Security Council said that her country rejects the starvation of the population in Gaza, and that Israel must allow the entry of aid and protect workers in this framework.
She also expressed concern over the Knesset's decision to stop UNRWA's work, calling on the Israeli government to release the Palestinian Authority's revenues and work towards a political settlement to find a future for both parties.
PALESTINE
Tue 29 Oct 2024 5:25 pm - Jerusalem Time
Jordan calls for emergency meeting of Arab League
The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan called today for an emergency meeting of the League of Arab States at the level of permanent delegates to discuss a joint Arab response to the dangerous illegal laws passed by the Israeli Knesset that ban the activities of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and to discuss the steps necessary to take a unified Arab position rejecting these invalid Israeli laws and measures, and to mobilize international support to confront and invalidate them.
The official spokesman for the ministry, Ambassador Dr. Sufian Al-Qudah, said that the Jordanian ambassador in Cairo and the permanent representative to the Arab League were directed to address the General Secretariat of the League to hold an emergency meeting of the Council of the Arab League at the level of permanent representatives as soon as possible to discuss the mechanism of joint Arab action to confront these illegal laws.
Ambassador Al-Qudah stressed that this step comes within a series of measures and communications undertaken by the Kingdom and coordination with Arab brothers to confront the aggressive Israeli practices against the brotherly Palestinian people, warning of the disastrous consequences of the continuation of the campaign of false Israeli allegations and measures aimed at politically assassinating UNRWA and obstructing its efforts to provide its basic services and humanitarian aid to the Palestinians in light of the unprecedented catastrophe caused by the Israeli aggression on Gaza and the escalating measures in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The official spokesman also stressed Jordan's continued coordination with its Arab brothers to take all steps and measures to ensure the provision of protection to the brotherly Palestinian people, the United Nations organizations and relief agencies, especially UNRWA, which plays an indispensable and irreplaceable role.
The Ministry issued a statement yesterday condemning the Israeli Knesset's approval of draft laws banning UNRWA's activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem.
PALESTINE
Tue 29 Oct 2024 5:12 pm - Jerusalem Time
West Bank: Israeli settlers steal olives in Salfit
Today, Tuesday, settlers stole olive crops from citizen Ayser Shamlawi from the village of Haris, west of Salfit.
According to local sources, a group of settlers stole olives from his land in the "Qibli Mountain" and olive-picking equipment, threw stones at him and tried to assault him.
PALESTINE
Tue 29 Oct 2024 4:45 pm - Jerusalem Time
Israeli Knesset Committee Approves Law to Deport Family Members of "Perpetrators"
The Israeli Knesset Committee approved the law to deport family members of "operation perpetrators" and referred it to the General Assembly in preparation for voting on it in the second and third readings.
According to the bill, the so-called Israeli Minister of the Interior can order the expulsion of a family member of the perpetrator of an operation if he had prior knowledge of his plan to carry out this operation, or expressed identification with the operation, or published praise for him, or admiration or encouragement for this action.
The bill stipulates that deportation outside Israel and the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967 will be for a period of seven years if the perpetrator of the operation is a citizen of Israel, and for ten years if he is a resident of the territories occupied in 1967.
OPINIONS
Tue 29 Oct 2024 4:22 pm - Jerusalem Time
The heated presidential race to the White House 2024
I do not want to recount the history of the parties in the United States of America, but I would like to clarify and analyze what the presidential election race has reached recently, that is, what is related to the events of the last week before the elections are held and the final results are announced between the Democrats and Republicans and in the final stages of the competition between them.
About two years ago, former President Donald Trump announced his intention to run for the 2024 presidential election. This comparison in terms of time is matched by the announcement of candidate Kamala Harris of her candidacy a while later to run in the election rally. Two years ago, Trump worked with a focus on his election campaign, specifically in the Arab-American community and in its entirety, especially since Muslims and Christians among them supported the Democratic Party in the previous presidential elections. This campaign is supported by businessman Massad Boulos; the father of Michael Massad Boulos, the husband of his daughter Tiffany, who is of Lebanese origin. It is known that his cousin Michael is the heir to the Nigerian Boulos Enterprises group, which is valued at billions of dollars and works in distributing bicycles. Therefore, Michael's father is the one leading the important file in Trump's campaign. Trump made it clear that his cousin Michael's father succeeded brilliantly in that electoral file, especially in the state of Michigan, specifically the Islamic community, which now supports Trump.
According to American public opinion polls, the scales are tipped in Trump's favor in the swing states. The question is, how did Trump succeed in winning these swing states? The first reason is the social problem in America, especially candidate Harris' support for the issue of changing gender for those under 18 years old in schools without taking permission or opinion from parents, and working to give hormones to help in this process, followed by changing the gender and then the names of these transsexuals, and this is rumored to have happened with Elon Musk's son in California, who turned into a female, without his father's knowledge, which prompted his father, Elon Musk, to move from California to another state that does not adopt the gender transition law in schools, and thus joined the campaign to support Trump, and most importantly, the Arab community in America also rejects this law and practice and thus supports and stands with Trump against candidate Harris, who lost the entire Arab community with all its spectra and ethnicities, and on the other hand, Trump promised the Arab community, especially the Lebanese, that he would make efforts to bring peace and security and stop the war raging today in the Middle East, which apparently will escalate and expand into a regional war if candidate Harris wins the electoral race, according to Trump's speeches.
In his speeches and election tours, Trump praises the Arab community, especially the Lebanese, in America, noting that they are distinguished and economically successful in their businesses and investments in America, promising them to resolve the ongoing conflict and work to establish peace, especially since the peoples and societies there in our region are suffering from the long war. Trump added in his speeches that he will make America great again, America strong and better, and most importantly, stop the flow of immigrants from Latin American countries to America, accusing Harris and the Democrats of having contributed to the entry and flow of immigrants to America, including about 21 million Venezuelan terrorist prisoners who entered the American borders in favor of voting for candidate Harris, which worsened the security situation and spread chaos in some states, such as the state of Louisiana, which suffers from chaos due to the increase in illegal immigration. These immigrants break into homes and enter citizens’ homes, exposing their owners to danger and their homes to destruction and setting them on fire, which resulted in clashes between American security and these immigrants in some states such as the suburbs of New York.
Trump wants to settle the issue of illegal immigrants, especially terrorists, and other files in American domestic affairs include the issue of health and food. Trump wants to impose restrictions and prevent the use of processed foods and food additives in food-producing states, announcing his desire in the future to hand over the food and health file to former candidate Kennedy if Trump wins the presidency, based on an alliance that took place between them. Other problems and files include the issue of inflation and improving the economic situation, as Trump promised that he would succeed in this file, especially since he succeeded in that during his term when he was a former president, and he will try to reduce the price of oil, which will lead to a decrease in prices for the American people and globally.
The most prominent and important issue today is the raging conflict in the Middle East in Gaza and Lebanon, as well as the conflict with Iran, which is currently raging and tense. Regarding the issue and file of Iran, he stated that his position will be clear and known, but he cannot express it now since he is not the president currently. However, he announced that he has strong ideas, and when he was asked before the Israeli strike on Iran, what would you do if you were President of the United States? He stated without hesitation that he would strike the Iranian nuclear reactor. Previously, when he was President of the United States, he stopped negotiations with Iran on the nuclear file, and also withheld funds related to this file, while the Democrats, specifically during the Biden presidency, worked to lift the freeze on Iranian funds and negotiations were held about them. Trump also stated that he will eliminate the bad guys in the region, and that he wants peace to prevail in the Middle East, and he also wants to work on conducting negotiations between all the conflicting parties. On the other hand, he has a strong relationship with Netanyahu and the Jewish community in America, which supports his election campaign financially.
I expect that he will have a fair position for everyone, considering that his goal is peace in the Middle East, and most importantly, that the new Middle East will be based on peace and economic recovery, even after these wars that have lasted for decades in the region, especially the Arab region, which is witnessing an economic decline. However, Trump’s project, which he proposed with Kushner, did not succeed previously, and he did not win the previous presidency either, as the situation deteriorated and the Gaza war broke out, and matters worsened later, and with the situation we are currently living in, with fears of the situation worsening into a regional war.
I believe that if Trump wins and reaches the White House after these raging wars, he will play a role in stopping the war and seeking to resolve the crisis. His victory will contribute to solving the economic problems in America, which will be reflected on the whole world, given that his goal is to reduce global oil prices, which will lead to lower prices for citizens. I hope that he achieves his goals, the most important of which is spreading peace in the Middle East, especially the Palestinian conflict with Israel, which if this file is not resolved, there will be no peace in the Middle East. It is clear based on the results of the polls that Trump has won so far, with 47% of the votes of the participants compared to 45% of the votes of the participants for Harris, but the result remains incomplete and there may be other changes as long as the electoral race is still ongoing.
PALESTINE
Tue 29 Oct 2024 4:06 pm - Jerusalem Time
Five dead and dozens of injuries in Israeli bombing of Gaza City
At least five citizens were killed and more than 20 others were injured in an Israeli bombardment of Gaza City on Tuesday evening.
Local sources confirmed that the Israeli occupation forces' warplanes launched two raids on the Al-Sahaba market in the Al-Daraj neighborhood east of Gaza City, which is crowded with vendors and shoppers, leading to the deaths of at least five citizens and the injury of more than twenty, all of whom were transferred to hospitals.
According to the latest statistics, the death toll in the Gaza Strip has risen to 43,061 dead, most of them children and women, since the start of the Israeli aggression on October 7, 2023, while the number of injuries has risen to 101,223, in addition to thousands of victims under the rubble, amid the deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the besieged Strip.
PALESTINE
Tue 29 Oct 2024 4:00 pm - Jerusalem Time
UNRWA: We work under a UN mandate and will continue humanitarian work without interruption
Adnan Abu Hasna, spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), confirmed that “the agency operates under a mandate from the United Nations that is renewed every 3 years, and will not receive a mandate from Israel because it is not affiliated with it and does not operate under its orders, so the agency will continue its work and will not stop.”
According to the official website of UNRWA, Abu Hasna said in a statement published on the official website of the agency on Tuesday that one of the reasons that prompted Israel to suspend the agency’s work in East Jerusalem is that “it believes that by liquidating the agency, the Palestinian refugee issue will be liquidated, as well as the political solution and the two-state solution, which is what its officials have stated,” noting that UNRWA is a lifeline for Palestinian refugees, and the Israeli decision will have disastrous consequences for the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
He explained that Israel has a long history of contradictions and hidden hostility with the agency, but today the issue has become more serious and dangerous and has become involved in a legislative issue for the first time since the agency was established. The Israeli government has also tried in recent months to replace UNRWA with some small organizations, while the agency has more than 30,000 employees in the Middle East, including 13,000 in Gaza.
He pointed out that UNRWA is an element of security and stability in the region and operates in 5 countries, and the system will be affected in the event of its absence because there is no alternative to it, stressing that in the concept of regional security and stability linked to humanitarian operations, the absence of the agency will have a serious impact.
It is noteworthy that the Israeli Knesset had approved a law yesterday evening, Monday, preventing the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) from operating inside Israel.
PALESTINE
Tue 29 Oct 2024 3:29 pm - Jerusalem Time
Israeli army: Officer and 3 soldiers killed in Gaza Strip battles
The Israeli army revealed the killing of 4 soldiers, including an officer, in Jabalia, north of the Gaza Strip, which has been subjected to a campaign of genocide and ethnic cleansing for about a month.
The Israeli military said that Officer Yehonatan Johnny Keren, 22, and Sergeants Nissim Meital, 20, Aviv Gilboa, 21, and Naor Haimov, 22, all from Unit 888, were killed in a battle in the northern Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army said in a statement that an officer from the same unit was also seriously injured in the same battle.
Israeli media quoted the army as confirming that the four soldiers were killed as a result of an explosive device exploding inside a building in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip.
All of the dead and wounded belonged to a commando unit, known as the "Multi-Dimensional Unit", or the "Ghost Unit", an elite unit in the Israeli army that operates in difficult environments and on all battlefronts.
According to Israeli army data, the number of soldiers killed since the beginning of the war on October 7, 2023 has risen to 776, including 365 in the ground battles that began on the 27th of the same month.
PALESTINE
Tue 29 Oct 2024 3:24 pm - Jerusalem Time
Director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza: The health system is collapsing and the wounded are dying
Director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, Hussam Abu Safiya, announced on Tuesday that the health system in the region has completely collapsed, and that those who arrive at the hospital from the wounded from the Israeli raids die due to the lack of capabilities.
Abu Safiya told the Anadolu Agency correspondent: There are international delegations present in the southern Gaza Strip or abroad. We want the entire world to put pressure on Israel urgently to get these delegations and medical teams, especially surgical ones, to northern Gaza with medical supplies before it is too late.
He added that the health system has completely collapsed in northern Gaza, and that any wounded person who reaches the hospital dies, in light of the difficult reality that the health sector is going through.
He called for the necessity of bringing in ambulances and fuel, after the Israeli army destroyed several vehicles and put them out of service, noting that there are no ambulances in the northern Gaza Strip.
He continued: There is no means of transporting the injured. The injured who reach us either come themselves or are transported by citizens. During this journey, their blood runs out and they die.
Kamal Adwan Hospital Director stressed that Israel is waging a war of cleansing and extermination in northern Gaza against the residents and the health system.
He pointed out that there is only one doctor left in Kamal Adwan Hospital, and he cannot provide any surgical services to the injured.
He added: We have a case of a child who needs an abdominal exploration to stop the bleeding, and this requires a surgeon who is not available. There are children whose bones have come out of their bodies and they need orthopedic surgery, and there are brain injuries that need neurologists.
Abu Safiya described the situation as catastrophic in every sense of the word, with the wounded dying in the streets because they were not transported to hospitals and because of the lack of supplies and medical staff.
He pointed out that there are more than 150 wounded people in Kamal Adwan Hospital and we cannot provide them with anything except first aid, warning that one wounded person will be lost every hour due to the lack of doctors and medical staff.
Earlier on Tuesday, Israeli aircraft targeted a multi-storey house belonging to the Abu Nasr family in the Beit Lahia project area, which was home to 200 people.
The government media office in Gaza said in a statement that the occupation army is committing a terrible massacre by bombing a residential building in Beit Lahia, in which more than 200 civilians were killed, 93 of whom were killed, more than 40 are missing, and dozens of others were injured.
The office added that the occupation army knew that the residential building contained dozens of displaced civilians, and that the majority of them were children and women who had been displaced from their civilian residential neighborhoods.
PALESTINE
Tue 29 Oct 2024 2:07 pm - Jerusalem Time
War on gaza: The death toll surges to 43,061
The Ministry of Health in Gaza announced today, Tuesday, that the death toll in the Gaza Strip has risen to 43,061, the majority of whom are children and women, since the start of the Israeli occupation aggression on October 7, 2023.
It added that the number of injuries has risen to 101,223 since the beginning of the aggression, while thousands of victims are still under the rubble.
It pointed out that 115 dead were killed in raids on the Gaza Strip since dawn today, 109 of them in the northern Gaza Strip.
94 dead were killed in the Beit Lahia massacre this morning, in addition to dozens of wounded and missing people.
It explained that a number of victims are still under the rubble and on the roads, and ambulance and civil defense crews cannot reach them.
PALESTINE
Tue 29 Oct 2024 1:10 pm - Jerusalem Time
26 thousand patients and injured people are in urgent need of treatment outside the Gaza Strip
The head of the NGO Network in the Gaza Strip, Amjad Al-Shawa, said that the number of relief aid trucks that have entered the Gaza Strip since the beginning of this month does not exceed 800 trucks, amid the occupation’s tight siege on the Strip.
In an interview with Voice of Palestine Radio, Al-Shawa warned of the widespread famine and malnutrition in light of the large increase in the number of wounded people receiving treatment in tents and shelters amid a shortage of medicine and medical supplies.
Al-Shawa added that there are more than 26,000 patients and injured people in urgent need of treatment outside the Gaza Strip due to the lack of the necessary medical capabilities to treat them in Gaza.
PALESTINE
Tue 29 Oct 2024 12:54 pm - Jerusalem Time
Gaza ceasefire talks resume in Qatar but progress 'unexpected'
Officials from the United States, Israel, Egypt and Qatar resumed talks on a Gaza ceasefire in Doha on Monday, but no progress toward a solution is expected before the U.S. presidential election on Oct. 5.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is waiting to see who will succeed US President Joe Biden before making any diplomatic commitments, sources told The New York Times. He has also made clear that he has no intention of ending the genocidal war on Gaza, repeatedly saying he would only agree to a temporary truce that would allow Israel to resume military operations.
Hamas's position was that any agreement must include a permanent ceasefire and a withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. But Netanyahu's insistence on keeping troops in Gaza, and his demand to maintain control of the Philadelphi Corridor on the Gaza-Egypt border sabotaged the latest round of negotiations.
"The discussion about the post-Sinwar conflict in Gaza" and whether there is now a horizon for a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said on Monday: "I think it's too early to say, to be completely honest."
“I think Hamas has a process to go through to choose a new leadership,” he added. “It appears to be going through that process now. Obviously, we don’t have a lot of insight into Hamas’s internal decision-making process, but based on our conversations in the region, our understanding is that Hamas is now run by a body. At some point, it will go through a process to choose a new leader. I think the results over the next few weeks will determine whether there is a change in their position.”
“What we do know is that the roadblock we faced before his death was that Sinwar ruled out further negotiations on any issue,” Miller explained. “The proposal he made in July was his final offer, and he was not willing to negotiate any further, and he had the ability to make that decision. He was the clear leader of Hamas.”
Earlier this month, Haaretz reported that the Israeli government was not interested in new ceasefire talks and was instead focused on pursuing annexation of territory in Gaza. Since then, Israeli forces have killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, prompting the United States to call for new truce talks.
While Israel has agreed to new talks, its military operations in Gaza have been relentless. Israeli forces are imposing a blockade on northern Gaza as part of an ethnic cleansing campaign known as the “General’s Plan,” which calls for the forced expulsion of Palestinian civilians from the north and the extermination of anyone who remains.
While the United States has called on Israel to re-engage in ceasefire talks, it has not put any real pressure on Israel to agree to a deal because it continues to provide military aid, which Israel relies on to support operations in Gaza.
PALESTINE
Tue 29 Oct 2024 12:17 pm - Jerusalem Time
Updated: Settlers continue their attacks on Palestinians and their properties in the West Bank
Today, Tuesday, settlers continue their attacks against citizens and their property in the West Bank.
In Bethlehem, settlers began plowing agricultural lands belonging to citizens from the Abu Kamil family in the Khalayel Al-Loz area, under the protection of the Israeli occupation forces.
According to local sources, a group of settlers used an agricultural tractor to plow land planted with olive trees in the housing area located between Khallet al-Nahla and Khalayel al-Loz.
He added: When the landowners tried to confront the settlers and stop the plowing, the occupation forces intervened, fired bullets into the air, and detained citizens Ahmed Kamel Abu Kamel and his two sons Tariq and Muhammad, along with Firas Yousef Abu Kamel and Mahmoud Khalil Abu Kamel, before releasing them later.
In Salfit, settlers broke olive trees and stole their fruits in the village of Yasuf.
Meanwhile, dozens of settlers stormed the same area yesterday and damaged olive trees there, but the citizens have not yet been able to reach their lands and assess the damage.
In Hebron, an armed settler blocked the road with his vehicle near the Abu Al-Arqan area, south of Hebron, preventing them from passing, and brandished his gun at them, threatening to kill them.
Eyewitnesses added that the aforementioned settler has been moving for hours on that road searching for citizens’ vehicles, and is trying to approach them brandishing his weapon, warning citizens who wish to move in that area to take the utmost caution and care.
In the northern Jordan Valley, settlers brought a bulldozer this morning and began digging dozens of holes in agricultural lands south of the village of Ein al-Baida, in preparation for planting trees and seizing them.
These lands are owned by the Tabu of citizens of the village of Ein al-Baida, and their owners use them for agriculture. He pointed out that the area that the occupation seeks to seize exceeds 30 dunams, near the junction of the "Mikhola" settlement, which is located on citizens' lands.
PALESTINE
Tue 29 Oct 2024 12:14 pm - Jerusalem Time
UN official warns of polio outbreak in Gaza as vaccinations fail to be completed
UNICEF spokeswoman in Gaza Rosalia Paulin warned of the consequences of more than 119,000 children in the northern Gaza Strip not receiving the second dose of the polio vaccine before mid-November.
"If we miss this deadline, the immunity of children who received the first dose will decline rapidly," Pauline told UN News.
She pointed out that the three UN agencies participating in the vaccination campaign, namely the World Health Organization, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and UNICEF, along with the Palestinian Ministry of Health, were forced to delay the start of the third and final phase of the second round of the polio vaccination campaign in the north.
She said that in a vaccination campaign, we need several things. We need safety for health care workers, for social motivators, for families who come to vaccinate their children. We need people to be stable for the campaign to be successful.
“Because of the ongoing escalation of the bombing, health workers are exhausted. Hundreds of people have been killed over the past weeks. Many more have been injured. Hospitals have been bombed and besieged. So the conditions are not right to start this second phase of the vaccination campaign in Gaza,” she added.
The first round of vaccinations, which ran from 1 to 12 September, successfully vaccinated 559,161 children, or an estimated 95 percent of the children targeted by the campaign. The second round began in central and southern Gaza on 14 October, but failed to reach children in the north of the Strip.
She warned that some 120,000 children in Gaza are at "grave risk." She also said that this poses a risk not only to those children aged 10 and under, "but also to children in the wider region."
For 25 days now, the occupation army has continued its genocide in the northern Gaza Strip, specifically Jabalia and Beit Lahia, in one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world, as it continues to bomb civilians, blow up their homes, and prevent the entry of aid, food, water, medicine, and fuel, resulting in the deaths of more than a thousand martyrs, thousands of wounded, and dozens of missing persons.
The occupation forces continue their aggression on the Gaza Strip, by land, sea and air, since October 7, 2023, which resulted in the martyrdom of 43,020 citizens and the injury of 101,110 others, the majority of whom are children and women, in an incomplete toll, as thousands of missing people are still under the rubble.
ARAB AND WORLD
Tue 29 Oct 2024 12:12 pm - Jerusalem Time
Eleven dead in Israeli bombing of the northern Bekaa in Lebanon
11 Lebanese citizens were killed today, Tuesday, in the Israeli occupation air force's bombing of the town of Al-Ram in the northern Bekaa.
The National News Agency reported that 11 citizens were martyred as a result of the massacre committed by the occupation in the town of Al-Ram in the northern Bekaa against the Noon family. The body of a dead was found after being blown away by the airstrikes by dozens of meters, in addition to the remains of another martyr being recovered from the targeted location.
ARAB AND WORLD
Tue 29 Oct 2024 10:36 am - Jerusalem Time
Hezbollah announces the election of Naim Qassem as Secretary-General, succeeding Nasrallah
The Lebanese Hezbollah party officially announced today, Tuesday, the election of Naim Qassem as the party’s secretary-general, succeeding Hassan Nasrallah, who was assassinated in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
Hezbollah said in a statement issued today, "Based on faith in God Almighty, commitment to authentic Muhammadan Islam, adherence to Hezbollah's principles and goals, and in accordance with the approved mechanism for electing the Secretary-General, Hezbollah's Shura Council agreed to elect His Eminence Sheikh Naim Qassem as Secretary-General of Hezbollah, carrying the blessed banner in this journey, asking God Almighty to guide him in this noble mission in leading Hezbollah and its Islamic resistance."
The same statement added: “We pledge to God Almighty and to the spirit of our highest and most precious martyr, His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah (may God be pleased with him), and to the martyrs, the mujahideen of the Islamic Resistance, and our steadfast, patient and loyal people, to work together to achieve the principles of Hezbollah and the goals of its path, and to keep the flame of resistance shining and its banner raised until victory is achieved, and God is victorious over His affair, God is strong and mighty.”
Qassem had stressed in his third speech since the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut on the 15th of this month that Israel is “an occupying, usurping entity that poses a real threat to the region and the world,” stressing that it considers Lebanon part of the “expansion project” that it seeks to achieve, and that its Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, “wants a new Middle East.”
Qassem stated that Hezbollah has moved to the "stage of causing pain to the enemy" and that it has "the right to target any point in Israel."
He said, "Israel is betting on criminality that terrifies others and absolute adoption by America."
He added, "The Palestinians have the right to take action that expels the occupation, shakes its presence, and prevents it from continuing."
He stated that "the Al-Aqsa flood came after 75 years of occupation, and this is a legitimate right," noting that "in Lebanon, we cannot separate Lebanon from Palestine, nor the region from Palestine."
OPINIONS
Tue 29 Oct 2024 9:41 am - Jerusalem Time
Delegitimizing UNRWA's role is a dangerous precedent
The Knesset decision, which was taken yesterday in the second and third readings, to ban the role of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, in Jerusalem and inside, is a dangerous precedent that violates the United Nations charters under international law, which Israel disregards.
This unjust decision, in addition to depriving tens of thousands of Palestinians of their rights that they obtain from the activities and services of the UN agency, aims to distort the role and reputation of the agency and is another attempt to delegitimize it, and to limit its humanitarian role in providing development services to Palestinian refugees. It is one of the most dangerous measures that extend to include all aspects of life, after Israel destroyed all the components in the Gaza Strip, and destroyed the camps of the West Bank as well.
At a time when extremist and rebellious Israel is taking a decision against this institution, it is aiming to liquidate the refugee issue once and for all in another episode added to the chain of episodes of displacement and forced displacement of refugees. In addition, this decision is considered against the world and the United Nations, which formed this institution to carry out its humanitarian and developmental duty, and it has no relation to the events of October 7, as Israel claims.
The Commissioner-General of the Agency condemned this dangerous decision, as did the Palestinian presidency, the Fatah movement, the Department of Refugee Affairs in the PLO, and the Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, amid warnings against the continuation of the campaign of malicious allegations against UNRWA, with the aim of assassinating its services and obstructing its efforts in light of the catastrophic conditions caused by Israel since October 7, 2023, and which are used as a justification for further punitive policies.
The entire world must act immediately, urgently and urgently against Israel, as a racist state that does not enjoy international legitimacy, and deprive it of this legitimacy, towards complete political isolation. The United States, which supports this resolution, is the one that provides Israel with all the means to continue its defiance of the international community, its stubbornness and its violation of all charters and norms. Its policies of domination over the peoples of the Middle East and its leniency towards Israel must be confronted.
This decision has disastrous consequences, targeting Palestinian refugees and liquidating their cause, as Israeli laws prohibit dealing with UNRWA as an international organization and make it a target for the occupation.
It is clear that the Israeli government is continuing its policies, violations and programmed war against the UN agency, in attempts to strip the Palestinians of their inherent right to return, stressing that the right of refugees can never be waived and is a right guaranteed by international law and international legitimacy resolutions.
Free people of the world are required to come forward and raise their voices in order to pressure Israel to abolish its racist laws, and international courts must take the necessary decisions against Israel to prevent the implementation of this decision on the ground.
OPINIONS
Tue 29 Oct 2024 9:39 am - Jerusalem Time
Has the countdown to aggression begun?
The Israeli aggression against Iran was neither earth-shattering nor unprecedented, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened, nor creative, as you do not know what happened to it, as Yoav Galant, the Israeli Minister of Security, warned. Rather, it was much less than threats, and more of a symbolic response. This is what came in the warning of Iranian Leader Ali Khamenei "against exaggerating the response or downplaying it." With this strong Israeli response, but under the roof of allegations, the Netanyahu government missed a great opportunity to achieve the great goals that Netanyahu spoke about, which included destroying the Iranian nuclear program, changing the Middle East, undermining the axis of resistance, and providing a different security environment in the region that will last for decades at least. This is due to the following:
First: Either because Tel Aviv is unable to fight Iran alone, and this is a correct assessment, and this explains why it has not struck the Iranian nuclear reactor throughout the past years despite Tehran’s approach to obtaining a nuclear bomb and fortifying itself, especially since Israel has begun to feel exhausted after more than a year of war on several fronts, and needs a break and a period to catch its breath.
Second: Or because the war has exhausted itself, as there are no longer any targets to strike except “destruction for the sake of destruction” and “death for the sake of death”, and there is a growing need to stop the war, even in the form of declaring “Israeli victory”, and to seek to complete the achievement of the goals through the economy, politics, negotiations, and investment in the Palestinian-Palestinian, Lebanese-Lebanese, and Arab-Arab disputes. This is evidenced by the return of the disputes within the Israeli government, to the point that Netanyahu promised the religious to dismiss Galant immediately after the end of the current round of conflict with Iran, in addition to the disputes between the government, the occupation army, and the security services regarding the Israeli goals of the war, and whether most of them have been achieved or not, as the Minister of Security and the circles of the army and the security services see it, and this appeared in the support for the Egyptian initiative and the demand to make concessions, because as Galant said, military achievements alone are not enough, but rather the goals of the war need to be updated, because the war is changing its face and the threats against Israel are renewed, and painful concessions must be made so that we can release the prisoners. While Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich believe that the goals set by the government have not been achieved, and that their goals are much greater than the declared goals, they are also seeking the surrender of the resistance and not reaching a political solution with it.
Third: Or the far-right government has submitted to the desire and will of the American administration, and this is absolutely true, as Washington does not want a strong aggression against Iran that would open the doors to a regional war on the eve of the American elections, and with the continuation of the Ukrainian war, and in light of the presence of strong cards in Tehran’s hands, which make it capable of causing a global economic crisis if it closes the international straits, and targets American military bases and oil facilities in the region.
There is also a fear that China will exploit the war to its advantage, or enter it by force, if its interests are threatened by the inability to import oil, or to sell Chinese goods, given that China has become the world’s undisputed merchant, especially since the Netanyahu government realizes in its heart, and far from the claims, that there are limits to power, and that Israel cannot wage a war with Iran alone and win it without full American participation.
Fourth: Israel fears a stronger Iranian response than the honest promise 1 and 2, if the aggression is strong as Tehran has threatened, to the point that there is a possibility that if Israel strikes the Iranian nuclear reactor, Iran will decide to obtain a nuclear bomb, and this only needs one week, as stated by William Burns, Director of the US Central Intelligence Agency. If Iran’s response is stronger than previous responses, this is something that the Israeli home front cannot bear, which has been exhausted after the fall of about 2,000 dead and many times that number wounded according to official sources, and greater than this number according to unofficial Israeli sources, especially after Hezbollah regained the initiative, as evidenced by the volume and regularity of the launching of missiles and drones and the valiant resistance in the south, to the point of more than 73 Israeli dead and many times that number wounded during the current month of October, and this is the largest number of dead and wounded in one month since the Al-Aqsa Flood if we exclude October 2023.
In addition, despite the Israeli military achievements that caused euphoria among the Israeli political and military leadership, which imagined that they had removed Hezbollah from the battle, it proved that it was still strong and reorganized its ranks, which prevented the occupation forces from achieving significant progress. Rather, Galant and Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi began talking about stopping the ground war without linking that to achieving the declared goals.
Fifth: Or there is a need to choose an appropriate timing, and make more preparations and install defensive systems so that all or most of the Iranian missiles and drones do not hit their targets, as we noticed in the installation of the American THAAD defense missiles, so that if Iran responds, the response can be absorbed with minimal losses, provided that the response to the next Iranian response is earth-shattering.
Perhaps, and most likely, Israel has taken into account all four possibilities, as the Netanyahu government will not miss an opportunity to destroy Iran’s capabilities, especially its weapons, oil, and nuclear capabilities, if it can do so without paying a high price that it cannot bear.
The answer to the article’s question “Has the countdown to aggression begun?” refers us to three issues:
The first issue: The field, before anything else, will decide whether the Israeli aggression will stop or not. What happens on the field is reflected on the negotiating table, and what you did not achieve on the field you will not achieve through negotiations.
Based on the above, if the rate of Israeli human losses continues as it was in October, and increases, the Netanyahu government will not be able to continue the aggression for a long time. Therefore, the coming month is crucial to determine where things are heading towards continuing the war or stopping it. If the Israeli human hemorrhage continues, the differences within the Israeli government and between it and the army and security services will worsen, and Israeli public opinion, which suffered from “intoxication” after the assassinations and the pager and wireless operations and supported his government to a very large extent, will rise up, but “the intoxication went away and the idea came.”
The second issue: It is related to the proximity or remoteness of the regional war. The more likely it is to break out, the more American pressure on Netanyahu's government increases. This is due to the reasons mentioned above in this article. In addition, the deep state in the United States believes that the policy of siege, sanctions, fueling internal unrest, and the carrot and stick policy can lead to a change in the Iranian regime's policy, or to its downfall if it does not change its policy. There is another reason, which is the American need to continue to threaten the Iranian threat to ensure that the Arab regimes, especially the Gulf ones, operate within the orbit of American policy, although the impact of this reason diminished when Saudi Arabia needed American support after being bombed by the Houthis, whether during the era of Barack Obama or Donald Trump, and its need was not met. No one will protect the Arabs except the Arabs.
The third issue: The outcome of the US presidential elections. If Donald Trump wins, he will return to the deal of the century that aims to liquidate the Palestinian cause, and he will support Netanyahu to do as he pleases, as was leaked from a phone call between them, and as he stated publicly, where he went so far as to say that the area of Israel is small and must be expanded. Here, the issue of annexing the northern Gaza Strip and displacing its residents becomes more likely if he wins, as well as establishing buffer and safe zones along the border and on the Egyptian-Palestinian front.
Sources reported that Trump promised Miriam Adelson, in exchange for $100 million in campaign support - as her husband promised before winning the election to move the US embassy to Jerusalem and fulfilled - that he would agree to annex Area C, especially the settlements, to Israel.
Yes, Kamala Harris will support Israel, and will defend its alleged right to defend itself, but she prefers the less extreme and racist currents and parties in Israel, while Trump will support the more extreme, and without betting on either of them, but the differences between them must be seen, and politics is the art of the best of the possible, and requires seeing the differences no matter how small or large, and without that there is no politics.
The field and what will happen on the field remains the decisive matter, and if there is no steadfastness and resistance that causes human losses, there is no limit to what the Israeli forces can reach. Didn’t David Ben-Gurion, the first and most important prime minister in Israel, say that the borders of Israel are determined by the place where the Israeli soldiers stand?
OPINIONS
Tue 29 Oct 2024 9:38 am - Jerusalem Time
Israel, not just Netanyahu... from one impasse to another
Israel, and not just Netanyahu, is going from one predicament to another, regardless of who accepts this view and who rejects it, despite all the “achievements” it has achieved and celebrated, including distributing sweets in the streets following the assassinations of senior resistance leaders, headed by Nasrallah and Sinwar.
The first dilemma related to Hezbollah: It may have discovered that Hezbollah has recovered its health at a record speed, through the heavy losses it inflicts on its soldiers daily on the southern edge, and through the bombing of its major cities from Haifa to Acre to Safed to Tiberias to Nahariya to Tel Aviv, which forces millions of these cities to hide in shelters, rushing like herds, the strong does not care about the weak or the big or the small, the important thing is to reach the shelter first. This scene, which cameras are forbidden to capture, is enough, when we imagine it, to see it as more of a dilemma than a shelter, so what about when it is repeated more than once a day. There is another dilemma, not only the failure of the displaced who fled to their homes in the north to return, but the expansion of their number to more than double, when the party recently announced placing dozens of other villages on the targeting map and "in the line of fire".
The second dilemma concerns Gaza. The Chief of Staff of the Army, Herzi Halevi, recently announced that the Jabalia area had fallen, after about a month of siege, bombardment, destruction, and “liberation” for the third time in 13 months. This is a clear admission that it had never fallen before, and what applies to it applies to Khan Yunis and Rafah as governorates, cities, villages, and camps. Jabalia is nothing more than a camp, occupied since 1967. Sharon announced its fall in the early 1970s, when he went to suppress its resistance led by Muhammad al-Aswad, “the Guevara of Gaza.” He demolished its homes and widened its streets so that his tanks could enter it quickly and easily. Halevi will of course find those who will congratulate him and bless him for the fall of Jabalia, and those who will distribute sweets in the streets. Halevi’s announcement of the fall of Jabalia means that it will never, ever fall. Another dilemma related to Gaza is that your prisoners are still in the resistance tunnels for the second year, but their harsh conditions have become more difficult and harsh, and each one of them has understood after all this time that they are no more than a feather on the scales of their government and people. What awaits them at the beginning of the second year is not only the cold winter, but also the terrible death.
The third dilemma is related to Iran. This is not Gaza or southern Lebanon. This is a semi-superpower regional state in terms of its area, population, wealth, and most importantly, its ideology and weapons. An “armed ideology.” This is not an Arab state that fears, terrifies, deters, and resents. And here you are, dragging it into a direct confrontation. Or did you think you could eliminate its allies in Gaza and Lebanon without it intervening?
There are dilemmas that come to you from where you do not expect, the latest of which was embodied by Ibn Qalansawe in the triangle near the Mossad military air base in Tel Aviv, which resulted in dozens of deaths and injuries. This qualitative operation was not the first of its kind, as it was preceded by operations in the Negev and Afula, and the rope, it seems, is still on the tractor.
OPINIONS
Tue 29 Oct 2024 9:37 am - Jerusalem Time
Gaza and the US elections
The US presidential election is approaching, and the war on Gaza and Lebanon is not over.
Will Gaza affect the election results?
American election experts divide the electorate along several lines, including age, culture, ethnicity, economic level, and urban area.
I will review these views in relation to Gaza.
In terms of age, there has been a significant development among the youth in terms of their interest in global political situations. They mostly vote for the Democratic Party, but in a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center last February, it was stated that 33% of American adults under the age of 30 sympathize more with the Palestinians. Accordingly, and in light of the positions taken by the Arab communities (especially the Palestinians) regarding the elections, a large portion of the youth will not vote for the Democrats. This is a setback for Kamala Harris. In addition, 65% of university students supported the demonstrations that took place against the war on Gaza and they certainly resent the Democratic government because of its continued support for Israel.
In terms of culture, intellectuals and artists are also considered part of the Democratic Party. If we observe the positions of intellectuals in the last year of the war on Gaza, we notice that they are pro-Palestinians, for example: Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders, youth activist Jackson Henkel, third presidential candidate Jill Stein, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, Senator Peter Welch, writer Naomi Klein, philosopher Noam Chomsky, and a number of other thinkers, writers and representatives in Congress such as Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Dalida Ramirez, Jerry Nadler and a large number of artists and journalists such as singer Macklemore, all of whom voted for Biden 4 years ago and will not be on Harris' side this week because of the Democratic Party's position on the war on Gaza.
In terms of ethnic origins, Democrats usually attract Americans of Arab and Muslim origins, who number about 6 and a half million, in addition to voters from third world countries and of Latin origin. A very large portion of these will not vote for Harris, even though they elected Biden 4 years ago.
As for the economic and urban level, these are Republican Party supporters and will remain so.
If we remember that Biden defeated Trump by a small number of votes (about 7 million votes), we will know the impact of the great shift that will occur this year. Kamala Harris is expected to fail due to the boycott of intellectuals, youth, students, Arabs and Muslims, who will boycott the elections or give their votes to candidate Jill Stein in order to strengthen the idea of the third pole in the upcoming elections.