In addition to killing thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, Israel has been routinely attacking at least four other nations in the region: Iran, Yemen, Syria, and Lebanon. Why does the U.S. media keeps the American public in the dark?

BY JAMES NORTH  

For years, this site has warned that Israel, especially Benjamin Netanyahu, have tried to instigate the U.S. into a wider war in the Mideast, particularly with Iran. We’ve also regularly indicted the U.S. mainstream media for ignoring this danger.

Today, the threat is greater than ever. And, true to form, the New York Times, National Public Radio, and the others continue to cover it up, instead treating Netanyahu as the embattled but honest leader of an Israel that is only trying to defend itself. For more than a decade, Netanyahu’s main aim was to destroy Iran’s alleged (and unproven) program to build nuclear weapons. He openly tried to sabotage the Obama administration’s successful nuclear deal in 2015, and then vigorously encouraged Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to end the agreement 3 years later. 

Secretly, Israel conducted a long campaign of sabotage against Iran, which included cyber warfare, and actual assassinations inside the country, including the November 2020 killing of an Iranian scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. Netanyahu wanted to provoke Iranian retaliation, which would draw in the U.S., and — he hoped — trigger an American attack that that would set back or even destroy Tehran’s nuclear program.

Since October 7, the stakes for Netanyahu are much higher. Israelis blame him for the Hamas attack, and the opinion polls show his popularity has never been lower. A number of Israeli commentators have called him the worst leader in the country’s history. If just a handful of members from his own coalition in the Knesset abandon him, his government will fall, and he will be trounced in new elections. Even worse, the pending court cases against him for corruption will then revive, and he could well end up in prison.

Luring the U.S. into a conflict with Iran will distract from his own troubles, and give him time to maneuver. So: On December 24, an Israeli air strike assassinated Iran’s top commander in Syria, Razi Mousavi. The always valuable Iranian/American expert Trita Parsi, asked: “Did Israel kill Iranian commander to provoke a wider war?” Also last week, a cyber attack “caused two-thirds of Iran’s gas stations to suddenly stop working,” yet another sabotage effort with Israel’s fingerprints all over it. No country will be able to endlessly ignore such provocations.(Netanyahu is not the only Israeli leader who wants the U.S. to attack Iran. Former prime minister Naftali Bennett just published an opinion article in the Wall Street Journal headlined: “The U.S. and Israel Need to Take Iran On Directly.” He disclosed 2 secret Israeli attacks inside Iran during his 2021-2022 tenure as prime minister: the destruction of a drone base and the killing of an Iranian military commander. After the article appeared, some Israeli officials criticized Bennett “for revealing classified information saying that he was potentially putting the country in danger.”)

The New York Times did run a brief report on the December 24 air strike that killed Ravi Mousavi in Syria. But the article was a model of dishonesty. The paper feigned ignorance in the report’s opening sentence: “Iran accused Israel on Monday of killing a high-level military figure in a missile strike in Syria at a time when concerns are growing that the war in Gaza could escalate into a regional conflict.” Nowhere do we learn that many observers, including some Israelis, believe that Netanyahu may actually want a wider conflict, as long as he can embroil the U.S. in it.

National Public Radio was even worse. In recent days, the network ran three on-air reports, including one from a correspondent in the region. The broadcasts were uniformly inept. They barely mentioned Israel’s provocative killing of Mousavi. In one, host Leila Fadel asked: “Does the U.S. or Iran really want this to become a regional war?” Somehow, she forgot to add Israel or Netanyahu to her question, although anyone who follows the story using a range of non-U.S. mainstream sources, even including some in Israel itself, would have known to broaden the inquiry. The Washington Post report has a single throwaway sentence about how an “airstrike” by an unnamed air force killed a “senior [Iranian] officer” in Syria. That was it.

Of course, the situation in the region is complicated. Ansar Allah, Iran’s allies (commonly referred to as the Houthis) who control much of Yemen, have been attacking shipping in the Red Sea, and Hezbollah, the political/military movement in southern Lebanon that is also allied with Iran, has been clashing with Israel across their mutual border. (This site’s estimable Mitchell Plitnick has explained at length how the Biden administration’s flawed response to the Red Sea shipping crisis could also trigger a broader conflict.) It is doubtful that even Benjamin Netanyahu would want to widen the conflict to bring in either of these other two actors.

But what makes Israel’s provocative killing of General Mousavi and its latest cyberattack even more dangerous that it also raises the risk of a lethal accident. Let’s go back to July 1988, when tensions in the region were similarly high. A U.S. Navy warship in the Strait of Hormuz accidentally shot down a civilian Iranian jetliner, killing all 290 people on board. Iran did show restraint, and so the conflict thankfully did not escalate further. 

Today, the danger is arguably even higher. Israel continues to murder thousands of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and attack at least four other nations in the region: Iran, Yemen, Syria, and Lebanon. Israel’s desperate leader is rolling the dice for his last time, and the Biden administration is letting him get away with it — while the U.S. media keeps the American public in the dark. The chances for a greater tragedy are high. 

In politics, preferring intentions over outcomes, and action - any kind of action - over thinking, and choosing the noisy and tumultuous over the calm or measured, are among the defining characteristics of a romantic mindset.

We thus see, for instance, that the call for establishing a "Palestinian state," which the Palestine Liberation Organization advocated after realizing that violent methods were a dead end, and which was later endorsed by Arab and international states and institutions, did not become a popular slogan that spoke to and stimulated the popular imagination. This slogan has always seemed insufficient for alleviating the masses’ accumulated frustrations. Moreover, it does not turn attention away from genuine concerns in the countries around Palestine, concerns that some regimes in our region were keen on turning attention away from. Consequently, the slogan of a "Palestinian state" is a "dwarf" compared to the "giant" that is "liberating Palestine from the river to the sea, annihilating Israel," or "liberating Al-Aqsa." That is part of a robust tradition of Arab political culture: even Gamal Abdel Nasser, who is not generally associated with workable strategies, could not make his famous yet modest slogan of "removing the effects of aggression" popular, unlike almost everything else associated with the Egyptian leader.

However, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his friends on the furthest end of the Israeli right, thought differently: they knew that the “giant” slogan did not scare them, and that, in the end, it was hot air that would vanish in the heat of the Arab streets. If it did scare them, they could dispel their fears through their military and technological superiority and their infinite capacity for killing Palestinians. When Iran became the region's largest giant slogan factory, the Israelis became more convinced that the real issue was not the slogans but the specter of Iran developing a nuclear weapon. As for the slogans, they are frail to an extent that has rendered them a game Tehran uses.

Netanyahu and his political school were and remain consistent on one matter: they are afraid of seeing this Palestinian state that has failed to capture our collective imagination come to light, as the emergence of such a state is feasible in principle. Moreover, the unequivocal justness of this demand undermines the narrative that Netanyahu and his allies have been using to blackmail the world: Israel’s existence is constantly questioned and threatened. On the other hand, such a state fulfills both Arab and international demands, paving the path for its legitimation.

This awareness led Netanyahu to bet on killing it, sometimes through procrastination and evasion, breeding despair among Palestinians and leaving the world disillusioned, and at others through direct violence, which began with the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin by an extremist right-winger (a move that found a partner in Arab and Iranian rejectionists, albeit from opposite position), and thirdly, by supporting Hamas. Since October 7, Israeli and international media outlets have been brimming with reports about the Israeli leader's facilitations to the Islamic movement, be it by allowing the entry of Qatari aid into the Gaza Strip or consistently giving Gazan workers preferential treatment. This support aimed to foster a distinct entity in Gaza that encouraged independence from the West Bank.

With a Palestinian state seemingly the only possible theoretical solution, Netanyahu's war on the Oslo Accords continues. He recently called it the founding father of the October 7 attack and took a hard line in opposing the return of the “Ramallah Authority” to Gaza.

The fact is that Israel can, as we are seeing today, retaliate to the Hamas attack with security and military operations, and by ratcheting up its genocidal brutality, which is helped by the fact that Hamas is a non-state actor. On the other hand, the attack helps strengthen the hateful ideology of the extreme right - the Likud's bloc also calls for a state “from the river to the sea,” as well as reinforcing accusations of anti-Semitism, which are brandished with or without reason to blackmail others. In addition, the October 7 attacks could be used as a pretext for bringing the global far-right together in backing a universal war against “ISIS terrorism,” as Netanyahu called it, and in the meantime getting away with paying the massive debt the Israelis owe the Palestinians. As for a legitimate Palestinian state, it is the only thing that could undermine this extreme right ideology and its raison d'etre, deny Netanyahu the talking points that Hamas provides him with, liberate the Palestinian cause from the clutches of Iranian-Israeli competition, and end wars instead of fanning their flames in perpetuity.

In this sense, two wars are being fought today: a destructive one, the Gaza war, and a political one, the Palestine war. While some have claimed that October 7 “put Palestine on the table,” the total opposite seems to be true, unless the Gaza war manages to find shade under the Palestine war and the forces of Gaza can stand behind the forces of Ramallah. That is perhaps precisely what is being engineered today in Cairo and Doha, and perhaps elsewhere as well.

However, the theoretical solution, the Palestinian state, will not emerge unless we see shifts in Palestine itself, as well as Israel. Besides the Israelis removing Netanyahu and his ilk and showing genuine readiness to resolve the settlement issue (there are 750,000 of them) in a way that paves the way for a Palestinian state, what is required, above all else, is sharpening a Palestinian political instrument and rendering it vigorous and dynamic, qualities that do not apply to the current Ramallah authority. Although bringing about this happy eventuality will not be simple, easy, or swift, its slow emergence late on certainly remains better than its non-occurrence.

Source: Alsharq Alawsat

Although the normal date for the Israeli elections is in 2026, after the Al-Aqsa Flood operation shook the Israelis’ confidence in Netanyahu, calls began to escalate to isolate him and dismiss the Israeli government, but this matter requires an internal coup in Likud or the collapse of the government coalition.

A report by the Israeli newspaper Maariv says that in terms of strategic value: Is it right and wise to hold elections simultaneously with war? What if the Knesset was dissolved and Yahya Sinwar bragged by saying that “Netanyahu threatened to bring my head, and in the end I brought his head”? How will Israel manage a military campaign in the north amid a political campaign? What if submitting elections harms the management of the front against Hassan Nasrallah?

The second question is tactical: Who will press the button? Who will break up the government coalition alliance? The answer to this dilemma is not the best; It is an answer that does not provide a solution. But after October 7, there are no comfortable answers; but it is more disturbing, according to the newspaper.

The newspaper says that the principle that grants immunity to the ruler and the government as long as the war is ongoing characterizes authoritarian regimes. Neville Chamberlain and Joseph Stalin made a mistake in analyzing Adolf Hitler's intentions, just as Benjamin Netanyahu made a mistake in analyzing Sinwar's intentions. The British dismissed Chamberlain eight months after the outbreak of World War II.

As for the Russians, they were unable to dismiss Stalin. He continued to abuse, starve, kill, exile, and send his people to hard labor in labor camps. Therefore, when some claim today that the overthrow of Netanyahu and the dissolution of the Israeli government or the Knesset, or both, is tantamount to offering a gift to Hamas, it is like someone saying that the overthrow of Chamberlain was a gift to Hitler.

The prevailing dynamics in Israeli society call for the overthrow of the government. Since Israel's situation is closer to that of Britain at the beginning of World War II than to the Soviet Union, the public's influence will inevitably be focused on the political system.

The Israeli newspaper Maariv says that the best outcome as long as Israel is still fighting under a state of mistrust is to form a broad unity government without dissolving the Knesset and heading to elections, as proposed by Yair Lapid and Avigdor Lieberman. But this step is impractical; Because it is unlikely that the Likud will include five rational men who support this step.

How will the Israeli government collapse?

Therefore, the practical question is: Who will take the initiative and call for early elections? The obvious answer at this moment is Itamar Ben Gvir. The leader of the Jewish Greatness Party has the ability to dismantle the government in two ways: by remaining or stepping down, and both measures seem to reinforce this step, with the possibility that his stay will be more influential than his resignation.

Bezalel Smotrich's hesitation regarding taxation of sugary drinks and disposable dishes, as well as the mismanagement of coalition funds, despite being publicly criticized, also indicate that the government's days are numbered.

Every moment in power is of great importance, hence the frustration of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish partners with Ben Gvir, who is accelerating the government's demise. His recent actions, such as announcing that the term of Israeli Prisons Commissioner Kathy Perry would not be extended (in violation of the plan to form a war government) indicate a trend in which only those who comply with him will retain their positions.

Netanyahu appeases Ben Gvir with state funds, and this may hasten the overthrow of the government

In the case of Ben Gvir, as in other cases, Netanyahu chose to manage the conflict by providing financial incentives from the Israeli state treasury to this provocative minister. Ben Gvir reached a clear conclusion that provocation is not only permissible, but necessary to fortify and expand his support base. With every statement Netanyahu issues, Ben Gvir escalates to another level of provocation.

Each rise increases popular opposition to the government and accelerates the possibility of the departure of Benny Gantz and Gideon Saar. When they step down, Ben Gvir will be ready to dismantle the government, after Netanyahu allows him to reach a position that only leads to elections.

Even if Ben Gvir wanted to stop at the last moment, he would face difficulties in curbing the dynamic he started.

The newspaper says that Netanyahu could have shown a little statesmanship by curbing this unruly minister; In any case, Ben Gvir would not have submitted his resignation during the war. Even if he chooses to resign, Gantz and Sa'ar will provide the government with the necessary majority until the end of the conflict. But what Netanyahu is doing is allowing Ben Gvir to cause problems that will worsen after six months of war.

When there is a clear majority in the public that does not trust the government, its days will be numbered. Whether because of Itamar Ben Gvir, or because of coalition actions in the wake of any future reservist protest, or for any other reason. And in 2024, someone is sure to push the button.

Experts and observers in Washington estimate that the presence or emergence of a wing in the US Congress has begun to pressure the Biden administration to transfer the Palestinian Authority’s financial dues suspended by the Israeli Ministry of Finance, a step that once again indicates the isolation experienced in the United States by the extremist fundamentalist crew in Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

A letter continues to be signed by members of the US Senate calling on President Joe Biden to pressure Israel to transfer Palestinian funds held by Israel, contrary, of course, to the direction of the entity’s Finance Minister Smotrich.

As of Friday evening, more than ten members had signed a document in this context to express their concerns about the deteriorating security situation in the West Bank, with a particular focus on the lack of tax revenue transfers from Israel to the Palestinian Authority since October 7.

“Israel must take steps to address the growing instability in the West Bank,” including settler violence and deteriorating economic conditions, which “threatens the lives of innocent Palestinians,” the senators said in their letter, whose signature collection is being led by Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner. civilians and “risks opening an additional front to the conflict, at the great expense of Israeli and regional security.”

The letter said that after October, “economic conditions reduced the PA’s revenues by 80%, raising concerns about the PA’s continued ability to pay the salaries of members of the Palestinian security forces and public employees.”

The letter specifically raised concerns that the Israeli government's decision to withhold a significant portion of the tax revenues it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority and the PA's refusal to accept the reduced funding offered by Israel "significantly exacerbates economic volatility in the West Bank."

It “directly threatens the economic situation of the security services in the West Bank.”

The letter warned that gaps in the wages of these employees could lead to the withdrawal of security forces or allow armed groups to “financially coerce these services,” which could create the possibility of war on two fronts in Gaza and the West Bank.

“We urge you and senior members of your administration to continue to prioritize the resumption of these transfers in any talks with the Israeli government as well as Palestinian Authority officials,” the letter read.

  “Israel’s commitment to immediately transfer the full revenue allocations to the Palestinian Authority is vital to stave off a significant increase in instability, and will represent a decisive step by Israel toward de-escalating tensions in the West Bank,” she said.

The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics said that the estimated number of Palestinians at the end of 2023 reached about 14 million and 630 thousand.

A statement by the agency stated that the estimated number of Palestinians at the end of 2023 was approximately 14.63 million Palestinians, 5.55 million in Palestine, more than a third of whom reside in the Gaza Strip, approximately 1.75 million Palestinians in the 1948 territories, approximately 6.56 million in Arab countries, and approximately 772 thousand in foreign countries. 

The statement stated that by the end of 2023, the percentage of individuals under 18 years old reached 44%, and 65% of the total population in Palestine under 30 years old, while the percentage of individuals aged 65 years and over reached 4%.

It pointed out that the year 2023 recorded the highest percentage of martyrs among Palestinians since the 1948 war.

The British newspaper “Observer” published in a report by its correspondent in Jerusalem, Emma Graham Harrison, that Israeli aircraft bombed refugee camps in Gaza yesterday, Saturday, as its forces expanded their ground operations and tens of thousands of Palestinians fled their homes, paving the way for a new year as bloody and destructive as the last three months of the year. 2023.

She spoke of broader signs of escalation in the region as well, “with the intensification of skirmishes on the northern border with Lebanon, while Israeli officials hinted that the ‘diplomatic hourglass’ was beginning to run out to reach a negotiated solution.”

She added that at the moment there appears to be little hope for a temporary halt to the attacks, even after Egypt hosted talks last week and pushed through plans for a gradual halt to the war.

She noted that a senior Hamas official told the Associated Press on Saturday that it was “steadfast in its position that there will be no release of hostages without a permanent ceasefire.” On the other hand, “Israel will not accept an end to a war that its leaders describe as an existential war without borders.”

She stated that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says, “Hamas must be destroyed after the brutal attacks that occurred on October 7.”

The writer emphasized that “the scale of death and suffering inside Gaza has isolated Israel internationally, so much so that allies such as the United Kingdom are now calling for a “sustainable ceasefire.” Health authorities in the Hamas-run Strip say that more than 21,600 people were killed in Gaza, the majority of them women and children, and thousands more were buried under the rubble.

The authorities said that the intense attacks that took place on Friday and Saturday, including on the refugee camps in Nuseirat and Bureij, killed 165 people within 24 hours.

The writer pointed out that Washington's consistent support helped Israeli leaders ignore international concerns about the humanitarian crisis and focus on the military campaign.

Last Friday, President Joe Biden's administration approved the sale of military equipment to Israel worth $150 million (£118 million), bypassing Congress to do so for the second time in one month. The US State Department pointed to “the urgent Israeli defense need.”

The report quoted Dalia Sheindlin, a political strategist and fellow at the Century Foundation for American Foreign Policy, as saying that there is widespread support in Israeli society for the war, despite widespread anger over the military and intelligence failures that left Israelis vulnerable on October 7.

She added, “The families of the hostages were strong critics of the government, and loud voices were calling for a ceasefire,” but even they “are not really calling for an end to the war.”

The report noted that US officials have called in recent weeks for more “targeted” attacks on Hamas leaders, amid daily warnings from the United Nations and other relief agencies about the devastating scale of human suffering.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said on Saturday, “Gaza is suffering from catastrophic hunger, and 40% of the population is now at risk of famine.” “Every day is a struggle for survival.”

The writer pointed out that almost all of Gaza's residents fled their homes, and that they gathered in tents and densely populated parts of the south and center of the Strip, which Israeli military officials say are safer, although they are still subject to regular bombing.

There is a shortage of food, clean water and medical supplies, after weeks of tight Israeli siege. And when supplies are allowed in, active fighting and logistical challenges in a war-torn region mean they do not reach many desperate residents.

Thomas White, UNRWA's director of Gaza affairs, said Israeli forces opened fire on UN staff who were on an aid mission on Friday.

White said on the “X” website: “Israeli soldiers opened fire on an aid convoy as it was returning from northern Gaza along the route specified by the Israeli army.”

He added: “The commander of our international convoy and his team were not injured, but one vehicle was damaged.”

The writer emphasized that military and diplomatic support is still flowing to Israel, but the end of unconditional American support looms on the horizon next year, which means that Israeli leaders have little incentive to curb their campaign now.

“America is pressuring the Israeli authorities to at least begin to envision the end of the intensive phase,” Scheindlin said.

Having sworn to destroy Hamas and eliminate its leadership, they still lack any tangible evidence that the war that has brought devastation to Gaza and claimed increasing numbers of Israeli soldiers has made the country safer.

The Israeli army has repeatedly claimed that it is closing in on the men behind the October 7 attacks. A spokesman said on Saturday that “forces destroyed a tunnel complex in a house used by Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar,” and posted photos of the site.

But they were unable to kill or arrest any of the senior Hamas leaders on the country's hit list, or provide details on how they believe they can take down an organization with political and ideological ties beyond Gaza.

Sheindlin described the war as “beginning as a concerted effort to stop an active attack, then turning into a campaign with a legitimate military objective, but fueled by anger and a desire for revenge, and now moving toward a stalemate.”

She stressed that “the unity that brought the country together in the shadow of grief and terror after the October 7 attacks launched by Hamas has begun to show cracks.”

According to the author, perhaps the most divisive question is how much priority the fate of hostages in war should receive: many families say they feel neglected by the government.

Now questions have resurfaced over Netanyahu's push for controversial judicial reforms, which have fueled violent political divisions and mass protests.

So too is the economy, she stressed, with reservists away from their jobs, tourism hit hard by the war, and spending falling at a bleak time for the nation.

However, the author emphasizes, “combined domestic and international pressure may not have the effect that those who want to stop or curb the attacks might hope for, simply because the government has no other plan.”

“Despite all the internal pressure that might make us believe that the government wants to end the war, I am not completely convinced,” Sheindlin said. She added: “They are acting completely steadfastly with their absolute incompetence in the first months (in power)... and they do not have any other plan, even if this plan does not succeed.”

On Sunday, the Israeli newspaper “Haaretz” called for an increase in humanitarian aid to civilians in the Gaza Strip, stressing that the aid entering the Strip does not meet 10 percent of its needs.

The newspaper said, in its editorial, that “increasing the amount of aid to civilians in the Gaza Strip is an urgent matter, as about half of Gaza’s population suffers from extreme and very severe hunger.”

It pointed out that “90 percent of the Gaza Strip’s population may spend an entire day without food.”

It explained that “the 190 aid trucks that Israel allows to enter the Gaza Strip daily do not meet 10 percent of the needs of the population there.”

The newspaper stressed that “the Israeli media conceals from its audience the extent of destruction, killing, and real humanitarian disasters in the Gaza Strip as a result of the ongoing war.”

It added, “Israelis’ support for the war and identification with its goals does not necessarily mean accepting the massive harm being caused to civilians in Gaza.”

The residents of Gaza are suffering from a catastrophic humanitarian and health situation, as about 1.4 million people out of 2.3 million have been displaced from their homes, and Israel has deprived them of supplies of food, water, medicine, and electricity, in light of intense bombardment.

Officials in the Gaza Strip have repeatedly stressed that the volume of aid entering Gaza is not in line with the needs of the population in light of the strict siege imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip since 2006.

On October 26, a report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) revealed that the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip for 17 years has made 80 percent of its population dependent on international aid.

Since last October 7, the Israeli occupation army has been waging a devastating war on Gaza, which as of Sunday left 21,822 killed, 56,451 wounded, massive infrastructure destruction and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, according to the Gaza Strip authorities and the United Nations.

Professor Devi Sridhar, head of the Department of Global Public Health at the University of Edinburgh, says that a quarter of the population of the Gaza Strip may die within a year due to disease outbreaks resulting from Israel's unprecedented war on the Strip.

In an article in the British Observer newspaper, Sridhar expressed the concern of public health organizations around the world, saying, “Not bullets or bombs. I have not seen these organizations as concerned about diseases as they are currently concerned about them in Gaza.”

World records

The writer said that this war set many world records, describing it to journalists as the bloodiest conflict in 30 years, and causing the largest individual loss of lives of United Nations employees in the organization’s history, adding that Gaza witnessed the worst number of attacks in the world on health care facilities. And its employees, and schools were destroyed, with 51% of educational facilities damaged.

She also pointed out that it is the deadliest conflict for children in recent times, “nearly 160 children were killed daily last November, according to the World Health Organization,” noting that the recent conflict in Syria recorded 3 deaths daily, two in Afghanistan, and in Ukraine. 0.7. She said that the number of children who had already been killed as of December 29 was more than 5,300, according to UNICEF.

It's just the beginning

Sridhar went on to say that these numbers will only be the beginning. By looking at similar conflicts around the world, public health experts know that we are likely to see more children die from preventable diseases than from bullets and bombs.

World Health Organization spokeswoman Dr. Margaret Harris was quoted as saying that in early November, diarrhea rates among children in camps in Gaza were more than 100 times normal levels.

Sridhar added that with no treatments available, children can become dehydrated and die quickly. Diarrheal diseases are the second leading cause of death in children under five years of age worldwide, and are caused by contaminated water and lack of access to oral rehydration fluids. Upper respiratory infections, chicken pox and painful skin diseases have increased, and there are fears that recent floods could lead to untreated sewage mixing with fresh water used for drinking and cooking, and causing a cholera outbreak.

Diseases played a major role in wars

Sridhar recalled that diseases played a major role in wars in past centuries. During the American Civil War, two-thirds of estimated soldier deaths were caused by pneumonia, typhoid, dysentery, and malaria. In 1994, cholera and dysentery, caused by unclean water and conflict zones, killed more than 12,000 Rwandan refugees in just 3 weeks in June 1994.

She explained that estimates indicate that 85% of the population of Gaza are already displaced, and experts who analyze previous refugee displacement cases in the British medical journal “The Lancet” estimate that the initial mortality rates (i.e. deaths per thousand people) were more than 60 times higher than they were. When each conflict started, on average.

Applying that equation to the current situation in Gaza, where the pre-conflict crude death rate was 3.82 in 2021 (relatively low due to the young demographic), death rates could reach 229.2 in 2024 if conflict and displacement continue at the current level of intensity, and continue to do so. Gazans lack access to sanitation, medical facilities and permanent housing.

Crude assessment

Ultimately, unless something changes, the author says, the world will face the possibility that nearly a quarter of Gaza's population of 2 million will die within a year. The causes of these deaths will largely be preventable health causes, as well as the collapse of the medical system. Sridhar commented that this is a crude estimate, but it is based on data, using the horrific true numbers of deaths in previous and comparable conflicts.

The author concluded her article by saying that she had never heard health and relief organizations as frank and concerned as they were about the level of suffering and deaths in Gaza. “It is an unprecedented, record-breaking, most tragic conflict, and while experts debate whether or not it is genocide, the reality is that we are witnessing the mass killing of populations, whether by bombs, bullets, hunger or disease.”

Source: Guardian

Israeli Channel 12 said on Sunday, December 31, 2023, that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair will head a team working to persuade European countries to receive refugees from the Gaza Strip.

The channel indicated that Blair arrived in Tel Aviv last week, and met with both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister in the War Council, Benny Gantz, in meetings that were not officially revealed.

According to the channel, the goal of this visit is to be an envoy who will actually mediate between Israeli desires “the next day” after the war on the Gaza Strip, and between the moderate Arab countries, and to study the possibility of accepting refugees from Gaza in the countries of the world.

Later, Channel 12 reported that Tony Blair's spokesman denied what was contained in the channel's report and said: "The reports that Tony Blair has anything to do with voluntary immigration are incorrect, and there was no such discussion and he does not intend to look into it either."

This comes as Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich renewed his call on the Palestinians in Gaza to leave the Gaza Strip, “to make room for the Israelis who can transform the desert into prosperous valleys.”

Smotrich's statements seem to confirm widespread fears that Israel wants to expel the Palestinians from the lands on which they want to build their future state, in a repeat of the mass exodus of Palestinians that followed the declaration of Israel's establishment in 1948.

“What needs to be done in the Gaza Strip is to encourage immigration,” Smotrich told Army Radio. “If there were 100,000 or 200,000 Arabs in Gaza and not two million Arabs, the discussion for the next day would be completely different.”

He added that if Gaza's 2.3 million residents who "were raised with the ambition to destroy the State of Israel" left their land, Gaza would be viewed differently in Israel.

He continued: “Most members of Israeli society will say, ‘Why not, it is a beautiful place.’ Let us turn the desert into thriving valleys, and this does not come at the expense of anyone.”

Smotrich, whose far-right Religious Zionism party enjoys the support of the Israeli settler community, made similar statements in the past, entering into a dispute with the United States, Israel's most important ally.

The Palestinians accuse the occupying state of seeking a new catastrophe “Nakba,” similar to what happened following the 1948 war, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced to flee their homes when the establishment of Israel was declared.

Since last October 7, the Israeli army has been waging a devastating war on Gaza, which as of Sunday left 21,822 martyrs, 56,451 wounded, massive infrastructure destruction and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, according to the Gaza Strip authorities and the United Nations.

The Commission for the Affairs of Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners revealed the conditions of female prisoners in Damoun Prison. The Commission explained that “the number of female prisoners in the prison has risen to 76, including 43 female prisoners from Gaza, 18 from the West Bank, and the rest from Jerusalem and the occupied interior.”

It stressed that "the female prisoners face very difficult circumstances, as the prisoners' rooms are raided on an almost daily basis, and the most basic necessities of life are confiscated from them."

The authority noted that “all female prisoners suffer from abdominal and kidney pain, due to the chlorine content in drinking water, and they face deliberate medical neglect by the prison administration, in addition to being provided with bad food and confiscating all of their clothes and personal belongings.”

It is noteworthy that the number of prisoners in the Israeli occupation prisons reached about 7,800 prisoners by the end of November 2023, including 76 female prisoners and 260 children, and the number of administrative detainees reached 2,870 detainees, according to data issued by the Commission.

At dawn on Monday, the Israeli occupation forces continued to bomb several areas in the Gaza Strip, especially Khan Yunis, which led to the death of a number of citizens and the injury of dozens.

On the 87th day of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, Israeli air and artillery bombardment continued, targeting the central region of the Gaza Strip and the vicinity of Abu Dawood Mosque in Camp 2 in Nuseirat, while artillery bombardment continued on the vicinity of the areas of Jabalia al-Balad, north of the Gaza Strip, and the Al-Tuffah neighborhood, east of Gaza City.

The east and north of Khan Yunis witnessed artillery shelling on various areas of the city, where one citizen was murdered, and others were injured in the bombing of the Abu Hatab family home near Bilal Mosque, west of Khan Yunis.

In addition, violent explosions rocked the central region of the Gaza Strip, in intense bombardment by aircraft and artillery.

Late yesterday evening, medical sources reported that a number of citizens were killed and others were injured, after the occupation warplanes bombed a group of citizens near the Dawla roundabout in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, east of Gaza.

A number of citizens, the majority of whom were children, were also injured after an occupation drone bombed a house in the Maghazi camp in the central Gaza Strip, while a number of injuries arrived at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital as a result of the occupation forces targeting homes in the Nuseirat camp.

The Israeli occupation continues its aggression against the Gaza Strip for the 87th day, which led to the death of 21,822 citizens, and the injury of 56,451 others, most of them children and women, in addition to thousands of missing people, an infinite toll.

An Egyptian intelligence delegation visited Tel Aviv late last week to discuss ways of complete Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, according to what Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper published on Sunday.

Palestinian factions’ discussions

On the other hand, Yedioth Ahronoth said that Cairo summoned the Gaza factions for an additional round of talks in Cairo after January 7. The Egyptians are working through more than one channel to reach a unified Palestinian position regarding a unified government responsible for Gaza.

So far, discussions between the factions about concluding a new deal regarding the Israeli hostages held in Gaza have not resulted in an agreement, as Hamas needs a commitment from the countries participating in the mediation not to resume fighting under any circumstances, according to the newspaper’s report. It explained that the head of the intelligence service the Israeli Mossad's David Barnea informed the military cabinet that Qatar said that Hamas is ready to negotiate the release of between 40 to 50 hostages, including women, the elderly, and sick prisoners, in exchange for a ceasefire for 20 to 30 days, and the release of Palestinian prisoners. While the rest of the hostages would be released under a comprehensive agreement that guarantees a complete ceasefire.

Once again, the newspaper pointed out that while the offer is being studied in Israel, Netanyahu is obstructing any deal that would lead to a ceasefire. A short humanitarian truce between Hamas and Israel, which took effect from November 24 until the morning of December 1, witnessed a deal to release 105 hostages from Gaza including 80 Israelis, in exchange for Israel releasing 240 Palestinian prisoners.

Israel believes that about 137 hostages remained with Hamas after this deal, while Netanyahu faces intense pressure from their families and inside Israel to release them, even through negotiation.

Philadelphia Axis

Palestinian political analyst, Nadhar Jabr, comments, “There is no doubt that Egypt plays a major role in mediation, and its initiative is the most logical, but I expect that the visit of the intelligence delegation to Israel carries a much greater message than mediation efforts.”

Jabr explained that this message “I believe it has something to do with the Philadelphia border axis with Egypt, and Netanyahu’s statements that Israel must control it.” However, according to the agreements signed regarding this axis, this buffer zone is supposed to be unarmed, and I believe that Egypt will insist on that.” .

As for the truce talk, he says, “There will also be talk about a ceasefire truce, as Egypt is a reliable mediator for both sides, and the details of the truce will not inevitably deviate from the initiatives put forward by Egypt.”

Netanyahu said in a press conference on Saturday that Israel must take complete control of the Philadelphia axis to ensure demilitarization in the region, in reference to an attempt to close the door to weapons reaching Gaza factions from abroad.

Netanyahu is concerned about stopping the war

In the opinion of the researcher specializing in Israeli affairs, Abdel Ati Ismail, Netanyahu’s talk about the Philadelphia axis “may be a provocation against Egypt, as it is the country that most pressures Israel to end the war.”

At the same time, the Israeli Prime Minister, Ismail continues, does not seem to accept stopping the war now. “Israel wants to achieve a military victory over Hamas, because so far it is considered defeated, as it has not implemented any goal of its war on the Gaza Strip, and internal public opinion is angry.” 

Ismail inferred this, in his interview with Sky News Arabia, by saying, “If Netanyahu now leaves Gaza, his fate will be imprisonment, and this is not an expectation, but he will be subjected to a special trial for security negligence on October 7 and the failure of his war on Hamas.”

What is the focus of Philadelphia?

The name Philadelphia Axis or Salah al-Din Axis is given to a strip extending on the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.

It is located within buffer zone D, according to the peace agreement signed by Egypt and Israel in 1979.

The axis extends from the Mediterranean Sea in the north to the Kerem Shalom crossing in the south, with a length of about 14 kilometers.

The peace agreement between Egypt and Israel imposes numerical and qualitative restrictions on the deployment of forces on both sides of the border, including the Egyptian side of the axis.

Israel controlled the Philadelphia axis within its control over Area D, to which it belongs, until it withdrew from Gaza and handed it over to the Palestinian Authority in 2005.

In the same year, a new agreement was signed to regulate the presence of forces in the Axis region, and allowed for Egyptian-Israeli security coordination.

Egypt deploys a limited number of forces on its side of the axis, to prevent infiltration and smuggling operations.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) announced on Sunday that more than 300 people were killed in Israeli bombing operations that targeted 180 of its facilities in the Gaza Strip, some of them with direct strikes.

This came in an interview conducted by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) with Juliette Touma, Director of Media and Communications at the UN agency, and the latter published its content on the “X” platform.

Touma added, "About 1.4 million Palestinians who were displaced due to Israeli raids live in UNRWA facilities throughout Gaza."

“Our facilities have become completely full, so people have started sleeping rough,” she stressed.

In a separate blog post, the UN agency said: “While the world is crowded with New Year’s celebrations, the streets of the southern Gaza Strip are crowded with displaced people.”

Since October 7, the Israeli army has been waging a devastating war on Gaza, which as of Sunday left 21,822 dead, 56,451 wounded, massive infrastructure destruction and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, according to the Gaza Strip authorities and the United Nations.

The Israeli aggression against Gaza continues for the 86th day in a row, with intense air and artillery bombardment of several areas in the Strip, especially its center and south, in light of the continuing fierce clashes between the resistance factions and the occupation army.

The Government Information Office in Gaza said that it recorded 1,825 Israeli massacres, and 28,822 dead and missing persons, including 9,100 children, during the 86 days of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip.

The office added - in a statement - that the number of wounded people rose to 56,451 infected people, while the number of displaced people reached 1.8 million people.

The Times of Israel newspaper reported that the five brigades that were demobilized from the Gaza Strip will return to help revive the Israeli economy.

In turn, the Israeli "Wala" website said that according to developments in the fighting in the Gaza Strip, additional forces are expected to be demobilized during the next week.

Israeli extremist settlers attacked citizens in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron.

The head of the Musafer Yatta village council, Nidal Younis, said that settlers wearing the uniform of the Israeli occupation army attacked the citizen Mahmoud Issa Ahmed Muhammad while he was herding sheep, and the citizen Malik Maher Ahmed Muhammad in Khirbet Janbah, and took them to a center after handcuffing and blindfolding them, and subjected them to investigation.

He added that the occupation forces forced the citizen, Muhammad Al-Jabareen, to remove the tin from his home in the Shaab Al-Butm area, and his brick home was demolished several times by settlers.

In the same context, settlers pursued citizens while they were grazing their sheep in Wadi al-Jawaya and Khallet al-Adra, while an armed settler pursued citizens’ sheep in Khirbet al-Tuba.

Younis said that the settlers escalated their attacks on citizens and their property in Masafer, including arrests, demolition of homes, and damage to projects and water wells, with the aim of controlling more lands for the benefit of colonialism. He pointed out that all communities in Masafer Yatta formed guard committees, in light of the escalation of settler attacks. , which is carried out under the protection of the occupation forces.

A Hebrew newspaper revealed, on Sunday, that an Israeli impersonated a military man, stole weapons and ammunition from the combat zones in the Gaza Strip, and took pictures with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galant on the borders of the Gaza Strip.

Yedioth Ahronoth said that the Public Prosecution filed an indictment today (Sunday) against Roi Yifrah (35 years old) from Tel Aviv, and asked the District Court in the same city to “extend his detention until the end of the procedures.”

According to the indictment, “Yifarah” arrived, on October 7, to the combat zone in the south, and falsely presented himself in various positions, including as an explosives expert, a fighter in the “Yamam” special police unit, and an officer in the Public Security Service (Shin Bet).

According to the indictment, “on the basis of his impersonation of these characters and his remaining in the combat zone, Lefareh was allowed access to weapons, ammunition, military equipment, and police equipment.”

During the period between the outbreak of the war and his arrest on December 17, “Yifarah” stole weapons and ammunition in large quantities, including hand grenades, cartridges, bullets, and others.

In addition, the accused stole a lot of military and police equipment, such as uniforms, a walkie-talkie, a drone, etc. He transported some weapons and ammunition in his car to different places, and during his arrest, he was carrying weapons, ammunition and equipment in his car, his apartment, and his mother’s apartment, according to Indictment.

Also found in his possession was an M4 assault rifle, three explosive devices with Arabic inscriptions (confiscated by the Israeli army from the Gaza Strip), 14 stun grenades, two smoke grenades, an M203 shell, a 5.56 mm ammunition box, a 9 mm pistol ammunition box, and an army tablet. 

Yedioth Ahronoth, which described the incident as a "security breach," said that "Yifarah" appeared in photos taken with Netanyahu and Gallant, during their visit to Israeli army soldiers on the Gaza border.

Since last October 7, the Israeli army has been waging a devastating war on Gaza, which as of Sunday left 21,822 dead, 56,451 wounded, massive infrastructure destruction and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, according to the Gaza Strip authorities and the United Nations.

Source: Anatolia

Activists launched a global campaign calling on people to turn the countdown to the New Year in their countries into a countdown to a ceasefire in Gaza, which has been subjected to devastating Israeli bombing since October 7.

“New Year’s Eve is a moment of celebration around the world, and an opportunity to make resolutions for a brighter future,” said Countdown2ceasefire, a global grassroots campaign based in London.

It added in her statement, "With nearly 30,000 civilians killed, including more than 10,000 children, our only resolution for the New Year is to call for a permanent ceasefire, and our goal is to transform the traditional countdown to the New Year into an impactful and resounding countdown to a ceasefire." Perpetual fire in Gaza.

The campaign has so far been successfully adopted by activists in more than 30 countries, including Switzerland, Turkey, Malaysia, Australia, Tanzania, Mexico and Germany, according to organizers.

With the advent of the new year, these local events calling for a ceasefire will be broadcast live on Countdown2ceasefire’s social media platforms, according to the “Al Jazeera International” website, which attributed Bushra Mohammed, the campaign’s spokeswoman, as saying in a statement: “The ceasefire "Permanent action is the first step to ending the current deplorable situation and making tangible movement toward a future in which affected communities can rebuild and recover."

Israel's brutal bombing of the blockaded Gaza Strip has killed more than 21,500 people, most of them women and children, and injured more than 55,000 others, sparking global outrage, with demonstrators marching around the world to demand a ceasefire. Many also expressed their disappointment towards politicians and countries, especially the United States of America, which used its veto power, or abstained from voting on the ceasefire at the United Nations.

Human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and Doctors Without Borders, have condemned the countries that are using their veto power against the ceasefire, warning that what we are seeing in Gaza is a humanitarian catastrophe that is worsening every moment. Additional consequences of continued Israeli bombing.

The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) warned on Saturday that it is in a race against time to avoid starvation for millions in Gaza.

“Only a long-term ceasefire and unimpeded humanitarian access can end this,” the UN agency posted on X.

With the full support of the administration of US President Joe Biden, Israel refuses to stop the bombing that destroyed more than 70% of Gaza’s homes and caused the displacement of more than 90% of the Strip’s 2.3 million residents.

Countdown2Ceasefire pointed out how people power can make a difference.

The statement added: “As we enter 2024, we look forward to it being the year in which our New Year’s resolution for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza is implemented.”

The countdown is a global tradition in the West that begins in the last seconds of each year from one to one, and ends at midnight announcing the world's transition from the current year to the new year.

At least 68 citizens were killed today, Sunday, in the bombing of Gaza City by occupation warplanes.

Local sources reported that the occupation warplanes launched a bombardment with several missiles on the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood in central Gaza City, which led to the death of 48 citizens and the injury of dozens.

It added that the occupation aircraft bombed the vicinity of Al-Aqsa University in Gaza City, killing 20 citizens and wounding dozens.

The West Bank, including Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, is one geographical unit

- We will not accept displacement from our land, whatever the cost

- Jerusalem and its sanctities are a red danger

- The Palestinian revolution transformed the issue of the Palestinian refugee into an issue of liberation and independence

- The Palestine Liberation Organization is the protector of the national project, and we will never accept harming it

President Mahmoud Abbas said that the Palestinian people will remain steadfast and adhere to their legitimate rights, and we will not accept displacement from our land, whatever the cost, under the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole legitimate representative of our Palestinian people.

The President added, on the 59th anniversary of the launch of the Palestinian revolution led by the Fatah movement, the protector of the national project and the leader of our people’s revolution, “Today our steadfast Palestinian people are subjected to a comprehensive war of extermination in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Jerusalem, with the aim of liquidating our national cause and turning it into a humanitarian cause, in a repetition of the 1948 Nakba.” But we say to them, the more your aggression and terrorism increase, the stronger, more determined, and more determined our people will become in adhering to their land and their legitimate national rights.”

The President stressed that the Israeli war of annihilation will not break our will, and we will remain steadfast on our land and continue the struggle until we achieve victory and independence, stressing that the West Bank, including Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, is one geographical unit that is indivisible.

The President continued, “Today we commemorate the launch of our glorious revolution that transformed the Palestinian refugee issue into an issue of national liberation and independence, stressing the need to immediately stop the Israeli aggression, which aims to annihilate the Palestinian people through massacres against defenseless civilians, which led to the martyrdom of more than 21,000, most of them Palestinians.” Children, women, and the elderly, tens of thousands of wounded, and hundreds of thousands of displaced people, and the necessity of accelerating the entry of humanitarian aid to our people into the Gaza Strip. We will not allow displacement, whether from the Gaza Strip or the West Bank, which is witnessing a frenzied war by the occupation army and terrorist settlers.

The President said that the plan of the Israeli occupation authorities to eliminate the Palestinian national project, Jerusalem and its sanctities, and divide and steal the land will not pass. The Gaza Strip is part of the occupied Palestinian territory, of which we will not give up a single inch, and we will not abandon our responsibilities towards our beloved Gaza and our people who have not We leave them one day, from the coup to the present day.

The president added, “We told the whole world that military and security solutions will not bring security and peace to anyone, but rather will push the region and the world to the brink of explosion, and the only solution is to recognize the rights of the Palestinian people to freedom and independence, and move toward a political solution based on international legitimacy resolutions, by holding an international peace conference.” Ending the Israeli occupation of all lands of the State of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital, and the return of refugees in accordance with Resolution 194.

The President pointed out that despite all the difficult circumstances we are going through, freedom and independence will inevitably come. Our steadfastness and adherence to our national constants under the umbrella of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which we will never accept to be infringed upon as it is the protector of the Palestinian national project and the Palestinian right, has made the whole world realize that the establishment of the state The Palestinian Authority has become a necessary requirement to achieve security and peace in the world, stressing that the State of Palestine’s acquisition of full membership in the United Nations and recognition of the State of Palestine are the basis for the international community to begin a real political process that achieves justice and peace in our region and the world.

The President said, “We salute the steadfastness of our heroes held captive in the occupation prisons who face the tyranny and aggression of the jailer, and we remember the blood of our martyrs who rose on the path of struggle towards freedom and emancipation from the most horrific occupation, and we say to the free people of the world, we value your positions in support of the Palestinian right, and today the issue of Palestine, which represents truth, justice, and freedom is an issue.” Every free and honorable person in this world that witnesses unacceptable double standards.

The President renewed his pledge to the dead of the Palestinian revolution, the dead of all our people, and their national movement, specifically the founding martyrs of the Fatah movement, that we will remain loyal to their sacrifices, and that we will continue the struggle with unwavering determination and move forward on their path, and the path of the prisoners, the wounded, and the fighters.

- 65% of individuals in the State of Palestine are under 30 years of age

- About 14.63 million Palestinians in the world by the end of 2023

The Central Bureau of Statistics said that the toll of dead this year is the largest toll that Palestine has witnessed since the Nakba of 1948.

The census added in a statement today, Sunday, at the end of the year 2023, that the number of killed in Palestine since the beginning of the year 2023 is (22,404) person, including (22,141) killed since the seventh of October, 98% of whom are in the Gaza Strip, including about 9,000 children and 6,450 women, while the number of killed in the West Bank since October 7 reached 319 person, including 111 children and 4 women. More than 100 journalists were also killed according to the records of the Ministry of Health, while the number of missing persons who were reported in In the Gaza Strip, more than 7,000 people are missing, including 67% of children and women. Nearly 1,900,000 citizens have been displaced inside the Strip, far from their places of residence.

By the end of 2023, the population in the Gaza Strip reached 2.3 million individuals, including 1.06 million children under the age of eighteen, constituting 47% of the Strip’s population. More than two months after the aggression on Gaza, 40% of the martyrs were children and about 30% were women.

According to the data of the Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners’ Affairs Authority until the end of the year 2023, the number of prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons reached about 7,800 prisoners by the end of November 2023, including 76 female prisoners and 260 children, and the number of administrative detainees (detainees without charge) reached (2870). Detained.

The agency stated that more than 745 thousand settlers in 151 colonies were established on Palestinian lands in the West Bank at the end of 2022, and the Israeli occupation demolished and destroyed more than 1,200 buildings and facilities, completely or partially, in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), according to data. United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Since the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, the Israeli occupation has completely destroyed at least 65,000 housing units, in addition to partially destroying more than 290,000 housing units.

A severe water crisis and limited access to water threaten the lives of residents in the Gaza Strip

The Gaza Strip suffers from a severe crisis in access to water, as, under normal conditions in the period before October 7, the average per capita consumption of water in the Strip was estimated at approximately 82.7 liters/person/day. With the outbreak of the aggression, estimates indicated that The residents of the Gaza Strip can barely reach between 1-3 liters/person/day only.

The percentage of supplies from water sources decreased by 90%, and thus the percentage of water consumption was lower by 92% than it was before the aggression, and there is one pipeline that supplies the southern regions only with about 1,100 cubic meters per hour, while the northern governorates of the Strip suffer from a lack of Complete access to safe water.

The residents of the Gaza Strip lack the basics of life, including housing, food and water. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) indicated that at least 40% of the population of the Gaza Strip are at risk of famine, which means that the population of the Gaza Strip is suffering from catastrophic hunger, and this indicates that the Gaza Strip is now considered one of the most famished regions in the world. .

39% of the affected agricultural lands in North Gaza Governorate

The data indicated that 18% of the agricultural areas in the Gaza Strip were damaged, and the direct and greatest damage was in the northern Gaza governorates, as the damage affected 39% of the agricultural areas in the North Gaza Governorate and 27% in the Gaza Governorate.

Agricultural census data also indicated that 32% of the cultivated area in the Gaza Strip is in Khan Yunis Governorate, and 29% in North Gaza Governorate.

About 14.63 million Palestinians in the world by the end of 2023

The estimated number of Palestinians at the end of 2023 was approximately 14.63 million; 5.55 million in the State of Palestine, more than a third of whom reside in the Gaza Strip, about 1.75 million Palestinians in the 1948 territories, approximately 6.56 million in Arab countries, and about 772 thousand in foreign countries.

It is expected that the number of Palestinians will reach about 7.3 million in historic Palestine, while the number of Israelis will reach 7.2 million by the end of 2023.

65% of individuals in the State of Palestine are under 30 years old

The percentage of individuals (0-5) was 16% of the total population in Palestine, 15% in the West Bank and 18% in the Gaza Strip, while the percentage of individuals under 18 years old was 44%, 41% in the West Bank and 47% in the Gaza Strip. Gaza, and the percentage of individuals under 30 years of age in Palestine reached 65% of the total population in Palestine. 63% in the West Bank and 68% in the Gaza Strip. The percentage of individuals aged (65 years and over) was 4%.

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Irish Member of the European Parliament Mick Wallace said that the peoples of Europe stand with the Palestinian people, “unlike their governments that support Israel.”

He pointed out in a post on the “X” platform, on Sunday, that the General Assembly of the European Parliament had been held 4 times in Strasbourg, France, “since the beginning of the genocide in Gaza,” but no decision was taken regarding Gaza in those meetings.

Wallace noted that there had not been an "sufficient resolution" from the European Parliament on the "US-NATO proxy war in Ukraine."

He criticized the European Parliament's position, saying: "We did not want a ceasefire in Ukraine or Gaza because the American empire does not want that."

Irish Representative Wallace also shared in his post a clip of a speech he gave at a demonstration in support of Palestine.

In his speech, Wallace criticized the visit of European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to Tel Aviv after October 7.

Von der Leyen was accused of "giving the green light to the genocide committed by Israel against the Palestinian people."

Wallace pointed out the hanging of Israeli flags on official buildings in Europe as evidence of support for Israel, and added: "But the same does not happen for Palestine."

“In some countries in Europe, you are not even allowed to carry Palestinian flags,” Wallace said.

He considered that "the so-called values of the European Union are nothing but the interests that coincide with the Zionist plan of the occupying and settlement state Israel," adding that European governments "have not changed their approach and are still on the side of the colonizers."

On the other hand, Wallace pointed out that people in Europe support Palestine in the Gaza issue, “unlike governments.”

Wallace added: "The people of Europe are in a different place (from politicians). More than 80 percent of politicians support the apartheid state of Israel, but more than 90 percent of European people stand with the oppressed Palestinians."

Since October 7, the Israeli army has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, which has left tens of thousands dead and wounded, massive infrastructure destruction and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, according to the Strip authorities and the United Nations.

The Israeli army targeted and destroyed more than 200 archaeological and heritage sites, out of 325 sites in Gaza, as part of its ongoing aggression since last October 7, according to the government media office in the Strip.

The "government journalist" added that he documented among those targeted sites "archaeological mosques, churches, schools, museums, ancient archaeological houses, and various heritage sites."

He considered targeting these sites “a failed attempt to erase the Palestinian cultural and heritage presence, and to erase historical evidence and the depth of Palestinian history in Gaza.”

Israel destroyed 200 archaeological sites in Gaza

He explained that "the heritage and archaeological sites destroyed by the army, some of which date back to the Phoenician and Roman eras, while some of them date back to 800 BC and 1,400 years ago, and others date back to 400 years ago."

Gaza is one of the ancient cities of the world, as it was subject to the rule of the Pharaohs, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, and then the Islamic era.

The office condemned the targeting and destruction of these sites, considering it “a clear international crime in accordance with international laws, especially international humanitarian law, and conventions that prohibit the deliberate targeting of cultural and religious sites in all circumstances.”

He called on "international and international organizations related to the cultural and heritage dimension to condemn this organized crime committed by the occupation in Gaza," calling on them to "urgently intervene in order to stop this crime and work to rehabilitate and restore these sites."

The most prominent targeted sites

Among the most prominent sites destroyed by the army, according to the “government journalist,” were “the Byzantine Church of Jabalia, the Al-Omari Mosque in Jabalia (north), the Sheikh Shaaban Mosque, the Al-Dhafar Damri Mosque in Al-Shuja’iya (east of Gaza City), and the Al-Khader Shrine in Deir Al-Balah (central).” .

In addition to "the Balakhiya site (Anthedon Port) northwest of the old city of Gaza, the Khalil al-Rahman Mosque in the Abasan area in Khan Yunis (south), and the Center for Ancient Manuscripts and Documents in Gaza City."

In addition, the army targeted "the Church of Saint Porphyrius in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, east of Gaza City, the ancient Saqqa House in Al-Shuja'iyya, Tel Al-Mantar, east of Gaza City, Tel Al-Sakan, south of Gaza City, Hill 86 in Al-Qarara, south of the Strip, and Al-Sayyid Hashem Mosque in Gaza City."

Last November 21, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Observatory said that Israel “deliberately” destroys Palestinian archaeological monuments in Gaza, in “an explicit targeting of the human cultural heritage.”

BY JAMIE DETTMER

The country’s leaders can’t see a future for a Jewish homeland with a Palestinian state sitting alongside it — not until Palestinians have changed.

Israel’s top politicians sense a possible near-term election. And in their preparation, they have started complicating Israel’s war on Hamas, making relations with the country’s key Western ally, the United States, more difficult.

In fact, currently, none of the key contenders in this race are talking of a short war — nor are they embracing calls from the U.S. and Europe for a serious effort to revive long-moribund talks on a two-state solution to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

They wouldn’t dare even if they wanted to. There’s no appetite in Israel for a revival of two-state talks, as no one can envision how it would bring peace in the wake of the brutal Hamas attacks on southern Israel on October 7, which left 1,200 dead in a terrifying spree of violence.

And it is this collective stance — not just Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — that is increasingly at odds with the U.S. administration, which has publicly called for a shift from high intensity warfare in Gaza to a more surgical war to reduce civilian casualties.

In fact, despite growing international pressure to wind down Israeli military operations amid a mounting civilian death toll, as well as clamor from the relatives of the Israelis still held hostage by Hamas for a deal to free captives, Netanyahu and other top leaders are vowing to continue the fight. And they are offering no letup until the job is done and Hamas is crushed enough to never again — at least for years to come — deliver a blow like it did.Speaking at the Knesset on Monday, Netanyahu was uncompromising, telling lawmakers, “We need to keep going until the end.” Explaining how he’d come to the session directly from Gaza, he cited battalion commanders who told him, “Time, we need time.”In an op-ed published the same day, the prime minister wrote that for Hamas to be demolished, “its military capabilities must be dismantled and its political rule over Gaza must end. Hamas’ leaders have vowed to repeat the Oct. 7 massacre ‘again and again.’ That is why their destruction is the only proportional response to prevent the repeat of such horrific atrocities. Anything less guarantees more war and more bloodshed.”Some American and European officials who POLITICO spoke with suggested this is, as one of them put it, simply “Bibi being Bibi,” and that Netanyahu has a vested interest in pursuing a long war, hoping to help erase the missteps that failed to prevent the attacks. In short, he needs time to restore his public image as Mr. Security. They also noted that he has restricted room for maneuver thanks to the religious and hard-right parties in his coalition. But while that may be so, to view the military campaign as primarily motivated by Netanyahu’s political needs is to mistake the Israeli psyche in the wake of October 7.

The perspectives of Israel and Washington are in stark contrast to one another — the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden is focused on a political strategy, while Israeli eyes are firmly set on a war strategy to the exclusion of all else. And no active party leader is outlining a serious plan for the postwar governance of Gaza. They don’t see how the Palestinian Authority can be sufficiently revitalized enough to be given the responsibility of running Gaza.

Just listen to active politicians who aren’t Netanyahu’s friends. Take, for example, Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, one of the likely contenders to replace Netanyahu. Gallant told Knesset lawmakers, “This is a long, tough war. It has costs, heavy costs, but its justification is the highest that can be.” And he vowed Israel would punish Hamas over its brutal attacks “whether it takes months or years.”Citizens queue for food that is cooked in large pots and distributed for free during war-time on December 28, 2023 in Rafah, Gaza

Gallant — whom Netanyahu tried to fire last March for opposing his controversial bid to weaken judicial independence — is also at the forefront of war Cabinet members and Israeli Defense Forces commanders pushing for a reckoning with the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Talking to the Knesset’s Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee, Gallant emphasized that Israel can’t afford to allow threats to fester along its borders, north or south. “Without meeting the goals of the war, we will find ourselves in a situation where the problem will not be those who live near Gaza or live in the north; the problem will be that people will not want to live in a place where we do not know how to protect them.”According to Gallant, Israel is “in a multi-front war. We are being attacked from seven fronts — Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), Iraq, Yemen and Iran. We have already responded and acted on six of those fronts.” And in a clear threat to Iran, he added: “Everyone who acts against us is a potential target. Nobody has immunity.”Then there’s Benny Gantz — the former defense minister who’s widely seen as the man most likely to call time on Netanyahu’s long, turbulent career. Before the Hamas attacks, Gantz had expressed concern over the dangerously “extremist” direction Netanyahu and his right-wing political allies were taking the country. But after October 7, he has largely echoed Netanyahu when it comes to the war.For the sake of national unity, Gantz joined Bibi’s war Cabinet and in a speech earlier this month, the former minister indicated he and Netanyahu are of like-minded skepticism when it comes to a two-state solution. “It is clear to both us and our partners that the old concepts and the reality of the past decades, need to change and be forward-facing.”At this stage, Gantz can at best envision a Palestinian “entity.” Exactly what that might be, he has not detailed — but it clearly isn’t a full-fledged state.In fact, across the political spectrum — outside a left wing that’s in utter disarray — there appears to be little stomach for a two-state solution. (Although most mainstream Israeli politicians aren’t as damning as Netanyahu of the Oslo Accords.) And privately, they have been urging the Biden administration to row back on its two-state talk — which is only adding to America’s frustrations with its difficult ally. 

From Washington’s point of view, without the prospect of serious discussions about a two-state solution, the Palestinian Authority will never be persuaded to take on the governance of Gaza, and Gulf Arab countries won’t cough up the billions needed to rebuild the Palestinian coastal enclave. 

The war will only radicalize Palestinians more.

Netanyahu is “a good friend, but I think he has to change,” Biden said at a campaign fundraiser this month. “You cannot say there’s no Palestinian state at all in the future.”However, Israel’s leaders can’t see a future for a Jewish homeland with a Palestinian state sitting alongside it — not until Palestinians have changed and “deradicalized.” For them, this is a prophylactic war — one that will secure Israel from repeated pogroms but offer no cure.

The Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs Authority said on Sunday that a large number of prisoners from Ofer Prison were poisoned because spoiled meals were served to them.

The Commission’s lawyer confirmed that the prisoners were poisoned, after difficult attempts to visit the prison on 12/28/2023, when the prisoners felt severe abdominal pain, diarrhea, and vomiting, immediately after eating food.

It is noteworthy that the prison administration, since the beginning of the war on the Gaza Strip, has deliberately practiced the most horrific punishments against our prisoners, including keeping them hungry for long periods, and only providing them with poor quality and quantity of meals, and meets anyone who objects to this with severe beatings and isolation.

The Prisoners' Club and the Prisoners' and Ex-Prisoners' Affairs Authority reported that the Israeli occupation forces arrested at least 16 citizens from the West Bank, from yesterday evening until Sunday morning, including a number of family members of the martyr Muhammad Masalmeh, who died as a martyr yesterday.

The statement added that the arrest operations were concentrated in the Nour Shams camp, and affected 10 citizens after a massive raid and field investigation with dozens of citizens, in addition to widespread sabotage and destruction operations in citizens’ homes, and the destruction of infrastructure, while the rest of the arrests were distributed in the governorates of: Hebron and Nablus. .

He pointed out that the total number of arrests rose after the seventh of last October to about (4,876), and this total includes those who were arrested from homes, through military checkpoints, those who were forced to surrender themselves under pressure, and those who were held hostage.

The occupation forces continue to implement systematic arrest campaigns, as one of the most prominent established policies, which escalated in an unprecedented manner after the seventh of October, not only in terms of the level of the number of detainees, but also in terms of the level of crimes they committed, in addition to the raids into the homes of the detainees’ families, which Accompanied by widespread sabotage and destruction.

The former Minister of Endowments and Religious Affairs, the preacher of Al-Aqsa Mosque, Yousef Salama, was killed today, Sunday, in an Israeli raid on his home in Al-Maghazi refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip.

According to local sources, the occupation warplanes bombed Sheikh Salama’s house, leading to his death and wounding a number of his family members.

By Matt Surman and Edward Wong

The move comes as Israel presses on with its offensive in Gaza despite increasing pressure from the United States to lower the conflict’s intensity.

The Biden administration is bypassing Congress for the second time since the start of the war in Gaza for a weapons sale to Israel, a move that comes amid growing anger at the United States over its backing of Israel as the Gaza death toll rises and misery spreads.

The State Department said Friday that it had approved a proposed $147.5 million sale of artillery munitions and related equipment to Israel, invoking an emergency provision that avoids a congressional review process generally required for arms sales to other nations. The department used the same provision this month to facilitate a government sale of about 13,000 rounds of tank ammunition to Israel.

That earlier instance was the first time the State Department had invoked the emergency provision for an arms shipment to the Middle East since May 2019, when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo approved weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, a move that lawmakers and some career officials inside the State Department criticized.

The State Department has also used the emergency provision at least two times since 2022 to rush arms to Ukraine for its defense against Russia’s invasion.

As casualties in the war against Hamas mount, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has faced increasing pressure from the United States to lower the conflict’s intensity in Gaza, but he said last week that Israel would “deepen” the fighting in coming days.

Criticism of the United States has been building as international calls for a cease-fire grow. The United Nations Security Council this month adopted a resolution that called for more aid to reach civilians in Gaza but, to gain support from Washington, stopped short of imposing a cease-fire.The State Department’s move is certain to anger some Democratic lawmakers, who have criticized the Biden administration for unconditionally supporting a war in which Israel has killed a large number of Palestinian civilians, following terrorist attacks by Hamas.Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, asked on social media early Saturday why the administration would bypass congressional authority on weapons sales to any nation.

The Department of Defense said in a statement on Friday that Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken had “provided detailed justification to Congress that an emergency exists that requires the immediate sale” to Israel.“The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to U.S. national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability,” it said. “This proposed sale is consistent with those objectives.”“It is incumbent on all countries to employ munitions consistent with international humanitarian law,” it added.

Israeli airstrikes and ground operations have killed more than 20,000 people in Gaza, according to the enclave’s health ministry. The war started on Oct. 7 when Hamas launched cross-border attacks in Israel, killing at least 1,200 people, according to the Israeli authorities.

At midnight tonight, the world bids farewell to the year 2023 and welcomes the new year 2024, hoping that it will bring with it good events and memories after unprecedented suffering in a difficult year that can be said to be one of the bloodiest and most tragic years in the world.

The world bid farewell to the year 2022, leaving behind the tragedies and pain of the Corona pandemic, which has killed millions with its deaths, vaccines, and health crises that have harmed the world and its economy. 

As is the custom of humans in every new year, they lay out a pile of wishes that may bring goodness and happiness, but the year 2023 insisted on a sad appearance full of tragic events, starting with an earthquake. Turkey and Syria in February, where they caused the death of about 50,000 people and injured 24,000 others, through the violent clashes between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces, which left more than 12,000 dead in April, and the earthquake in the Al Haouz province in Morocco during the month of September, leaving behind more than three thousand dead and thousands more. 

The displaced people and the world did not catch its breath until Storm Daniel struck Libya, destroying the city of Derna and drowning it, causing the death of hundreds and the loss of thousands. The year concluded with the most difficult incidents and tragedies affecting the Palestinian people through Israeli aggression and a war of genocide that continues until this moment, claiming the lives of about 22 thousand citizens of the Gaza Strip and wounding about 56. One thousand and seven thousand missing, still under the rubble, in conjunction with a systematic aggression against the West Bank, its cities, camps, and Jerusalem, which has claimed more than four hundred martyrs, thousands of wounded, and nearly five thousand detainees since the seventh of October.

In light of the toll of the war on the Palestinian people, which destroyed their homes, lives, and assets in the Gaza Strip, other events dwarf other events, and the war on Gaza takes the lead in the scene of the year 2023, from door to door, and with it, it can be said that the year that is gathering its papers in preparation for farewell tonight has par excellence won the title of the (bloodiest) year. .

We hope that the new year will come bringing with it happy news. We call on all the inhabitants of the world to celebrate tonight by bidding farewell to a past year and welcoming a new year under the slogan of calling for peace, security, reassurance and freedom for our people, who remain the only people in the world who have not achieved their freedom and whose joy remains limited because the people of Palestine is an icon of patience and challenge. 

There is no home or family without a martyr who rose to sacrifice for his homeland, so that our people throughout the ages may learn to love the homeland and defend it through families that instilled in their children belonging to Palestinian customs and traditions, respecting them, and readiness to sacrifice what is dear and valuable at any time.

A people who enjoy peace of conscience and are armed with pride, despite the harsh years and the bitterness of the past, deserve a state in which they can build their dreams and aspirations, like all the peoples of the world, an independent state, with Jerusalem as its capital, Zahrat al-Mada’in, and to get rid of the yoke of the most dangerous and longest occupation in the world.

Tomorrow comes the year 2024, and all Palestinian issues are hot, inflamed, and flammable, from prisoners to settlements to attacks on Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque, incursions and assassinations in the West Bank, and the aggression against the Gaza Strip. Therefore, the fate of the new year will not differ from last year and all previous years in which a usurping occupation crouched a defenseless people prevented from achieving their wishes.

The years in the history of Palestine remain rolling numbers and change, but the constant element remains our national cause, which cannot change and is considered the essence and core of the conflict in our contemporary history.

Various cities in the occupied West Bank are witnessing continuous incursions and invasions by the occupation forces, the reasons for which and their pretexts are multiple, but they are united in their goals and objectives, especially since they coincide with the brutal war that Israel is waging against the Gaza Strip. Therefore, it integrates with them in political goals, confirming that the Palestinian people, with all their groups, sectors, and political and social forces, are the target of these operations, and not a specific faction. The claims of the Israeli government and its army regarding the declared goals of the war on Gaza are misleading. Indeed, the real goals of these waves of oppression and brutality are the same ones that existed before the war, and their essence is to subjugate the Palestinian people and resolve the conflict with them on the basis of liquidating their national rights.

The occupation government has abandoned its hands for many years, specifically since the Al-Aqsa Intifada in the year 2000, from the divisions of the occupied Palestinian territories provided for in the Oslo Accords, which classified the main cities as Category A, so that administrative and security responsibilities fall within the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority. Although the aforementioned agreement contained provisions allowing the occupation forces to invade Area A under the pretext of “hot pursuit,” that is, intervening in the event of information that a person is on his way to carry out a military operation against the occupation, this pretext has turned over time into a fixed approach that allows for the appropriation of lands. Palestinian territories, regardless of their classification, at any time and for any reason the army deems appropriate, such as arresting wanted persons, demolishing homes, carrying out assassinations of resistance members, or closing press offices, television stations, and civil society organizations, all the way to the attack on exchange companies last week, which included pirating the sector’s funds. Private, in addition to the periodic theft of public sector funds through the detention and confiscation of Palestinian funds known as clearing.

Israeli military operations in the West Bank include carrying out assassinations of activists or wanted persons using warplanes, helicopters, or drones, all of which are deaf tools that do not distinguish between wanted persons and those who happen to be near them. Moreover, these executions take place in areas that are completely under Israeli control. Therefore, an occupation army force can arrest wanted persons who are only a few minutes' walk from the nearest occupation army camp. But the feeling of overconfidence that Israel will escape punishment and accountability no matter what it does is what pushes the occupation army and its political leadership to continue these criminal policies without distinction between fighters and civilians, or between adults and children, as Palestinian statistics indicate that among the martyrs there are more than 520. More than 90 children were martyred during the year 2023.

These invasions are closely linked to the war on Gaza, considering that any Palestinian is a legitimate target for operations of revenge and torture in response to what happened on October 7, and to prevent the rise of a mass movement in the West Bank in support of our people who are being slaughtered in Gaza in public and amid the silence of the world, and thus prevent the West Bank from turning into a third front. It is burning alongside the Gaza and northern fronts, and in this context, the arrest of about five thousand Palestinian activists from all areas of the West Bank and from various political orientations came as a kind of waving a big stick against any activity opposing the occupation in the West Bank, even if it was just a passing comment on social media.

The open campaigns of repression are linked to the political plan adopted by the ruling far-right coalition, the summary of which is that force alone, and not negotiations or agreements, is capable of resolving the conflict with the Palestinians. In this context, there are partial and special agendas carried by extremist settler groups, and others carried by the army and security services, and they all intersect and meet. In a unified format to control Palestinian lands, displace some population centers, and settle scores with a number of sites that represented advanced models of resistance in its renewed forms, especially the camps in the north: Jenin, Nour Shams, Tulkarm, and Balata, which were the scene of widespread torture and displacement operations that the occupation seeks to change. The terrain of these camps and erasing them from the map if necessary.

In addition to all of the above, there are political calculations that are strongly present with all Palestinians, especially with the Authority and its leadership. These invasions, in addition to the theft of clearance funds, contribute to weakening and embarrassing the Authority and making it appear incapable of protecting its people. It is no secret that the Israeli extreme right does not care about the collapse of power. Rather, it is working towards this goal, claiming that it has ready-made alternatives for elected local leaders.

The continued invasion policies and settler violence have raised public observations and reservations by the US administration and the West in general, warning against these policies that may lead to a state of chaos not only in the West Bank but in the region in general. However, the Netanyahu government has some margin of disagreement with the US administration, and is using it as an excuse. At the time when some demands are made of it, Netanyahu and the central movement in Israel may not have reached a final conviction regarding the collapse of authority, but he is always working to weaken it, reduce its role and blackmail it to force it to accept that its fate depends on Israel’s satisfaction and therefore it must abandon its national aspirations. Here, it must be pointed out that whatever the Authority does or whatever concessions it makes, it will not gain the satisfaction of Israel, which rejects “Hamastan” with the same force it rejects “Fathestan,” not out of love for this or hate for that, but rather in support of the permanent Palestinian division and rejection of the unified Palestinian entity. With the national rights it symbolizes.

By launching an unprecedented attack on Israeli territory, commit killings against civilians and taking hostages, what objectives was aimed at Hamas? The Islamist movement could not ignore that it would trigger a massive Israeli military reaction against the Gaza Strip whose Palestinian population would be the main victim, says historian Yezid Sayigh, researcher at the Malcolm H. Kerr center for the Middle East of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

This new phase of clashes in the Middle East replaced the Palestinian issue at the center of the diplomatic scene when it had been relegated to the background for two decades. And in particular by the Western countries which have ignored the work of the undermining carried out by Israel to hinder a solution to two states.

What objectives did Hamas pursue when he decided to commit the attack and killings of October 7?

Given the magnitude of the attack on the military level, my reaction in the very first hours of October 7 was to think that the objectives of Hamas were to be very ambitious. Even if one of his goals was to obtain the release of the 5,000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel, a subject which has a deep emotional resonance in Palestinian society, it could not be the only one. Because even supposing that Hamas ends up obtaining such a massive release, it would always be in charge of the Gaza Strip and the 2.3 million people who live there, still besieged.

As we have gone when we learned the reality of the killings of Israeli civilians committed by Hamas and others, I understood that, whatever the goals pursued by the movement, they would be impossible to reach, And that the consequences would inevitably be terrible for the Israelis and for the Palestinians. For me who has been for many years a negotiator of the peace process, which was also involved in the Israeli-Palestinian and Judeo-Palestinian dialogues, I had the feeling that all for which I worked came from be destroyed.

Subsequently, the morally repugnant rhetoric of some Hamas officials who tried to hide, put into perspective or justify the death of Israeli civilians led me to ask me if Hamas had really developed long -term goals.

How could a movement that pretend to be the Palestinian national leadership missing at this point of capacity for political analysis on the situation in Israel, on the balance of power in the world, on the reaction of public opinion, especially in Western countries, Faced with such killings? The effects of the October 7 attack are dramatically clear: the Israelis opposed to the peace process have been reinforced in their conviction that there is no partner for Palestinian side negotiations. And some have even withdrawn from it a suspicious satisfaction in the register "We told you well".

In the past, the violence committed by Palestinian armed groups against Israeli civilians already pushed Israel to negotiate?

Such acts have never favored the peace process, on the contrary. Whether it was rocket fire from Jordan or Lebanon in the late 1960s against Israeli localities in the Jourdain valley or in Galileo. Or bomb attacks against buses, hostage -taking in line planes in the 1970s. Or, of course, later since the 2000s, suicide attacks and other types of bloody attacks.

Is Hamas really convinced that he can get the disappearance of Israel?

Hamas is not a homogeneous or static movement. It has a pragmatic wing, if not moderate, which today lives in exile, especially in Qatar, and a radical wing, embodied in particular by the military leaders who are in Gaza. The pragmatic branch, embodied by Ismaïl Haniyeh, head of the political bureau of the movement, has long proposed a compromise which would consist that Hamas did not recognize the jure Israel, nor its right to exist, but de facto established a truce of very long, ten or fifteen years.

However, the incessant blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip by the government of Benyamin Netanyahu ended up making this compromise proposal for the management of Hamas. And yet until October 7, Benyamin Netanyahu's policy explicitly aimed to maintain the Islamist movement in power in Gaza to divide the Palestinian national leadership, as many Israeli media have confirmed it. But after the 2021 war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, the military branch took the ascendant within the movement, as the attack on October 7 proves.

I add that beyond the division between pragmatics and radicals, there are millennarist currents within Hamas who think that the end of the world is approaching. Some of their representatives said after the attack on October 7, that they described as "victory", that Hamas was going to beat Israel in Gaza and then release the whole Palestine.

This form of thought, totally detached from reality, is not very far from that of certain Israeli Israeli Jews from the far right who refuse the Oslo agreements because they want to carry out the mission that, according to them, God has Entrusted to the Jewish people to control all of Judea and Samaria, that is to say the West Bank and Jerusalem. These extremists, who include an important ultra -nationalist current represented in the current Israeli government, are convinced that the attacks of October 7 offer the opportunity to expel millions of Palestinians from West Bank and Gaza to the rest of the world.

The symmetry of certain radical speeches in both camps is found on another register. In an interview with a Lebanese media on October 24, Ghazi Hamad, a member of the Hamas political bureau, said that the Palestinians have been victims for so long that all the acts that the Islamist movement is justified. Some Israelis are expressed in identical terms, believing that given the magnitude and nature of the killings of October 7, all the military actions of Israel in Gaza and in the West Bank are now justified.

The attacks committed by Hamas on October 7, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the center of the diplomatic agenda replaced. Why had he almost disappeared before?

The Israeli-Palestinian peace process started in 1993 with the Oslo agreements signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (OLP). This process provided for the establishment of an interim administration in part of the occupied territories, then the holding of negotiations on the so -called "final" status of the territories, which were to start at the latest in 1999.

But this process collapsed in July 2000 in Camp David, in the United States, with the failure of negotiations between Yasser Arafat, president of the PLO, and Ehud Barak, Israeli Prime Minister, at the invitation of Bill Clinton , President of the United States. A failure in which Israeli and Palestinian leaders have their respective share of responsibility.

Since then, despite attempts to relaunch it, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process has gradually disappeared from the diplomatic agenda, despite the commitments made by Western countries. In Berlin in March 1999, for example, the European Council made an unconditional support declaration to the right of Palestinians to have a state. She specified that if the Council hoped that such a State was due to the day via good faith negotiations, the right of the Palestinians "to self -determination, including the right to create a State" was neither conditioned to negotiations nor negotiations or negotiations or negotiations at the approval of Israel.

However, almost twenty-five years later, it is clear that no European state has placed this requirement at the heart of its policy in the Middle East. Similarly, in 2002, the United States, under the chairmanship of George W. Bush, voted for resolution 1397 of the United Nations Security Council which supports the solution to two states. However, at the end of the attacks of October 7, it took two weeks for Joe Biden, followed by other US officials, simply begins to mention the need to relaunch a negotiated process around this solution.

In reality, since the mid-2000s, Western governments have chosen to ignore what Israel has done on the ground, in particular the expansion of colonization in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as well as the endless seat of Gaza . It is a moral and political failure of which we see the tragic consequences.

Hamas is obviously responsible for the atrocities he committed on October 7 against Israelis, but this moment in history does not come from nowhere. It has been sixty years since the problem of Palestinian refugees existed because of the creation of the State of Israel and that any form of recognition, compensation and obviously return has been refused. It has been their-six years since Israel has occupied the West Bank, Jerusalem East and Gaza. And if, in 1993, the Israeli government undertook to resolve the conflict with the Palestinians by the peaceful route, it continued to create the facts accomplished on the ground which hindered the solution to two states.

Western governments have failed to create incitement mechanisms that would have forced successive Israeli governments, right or left, to be honest with their public opinion: it is impossible for Israel to have everything at the same time, on the one hand , peace and security, and on the other hand, the incessant expansion of the colonies.

However, incentives of this type worked in the past: in 1991, American president George H. W. Bush had threatened to retain $ 10 billion in real estate loans, guaranteed by Israel to the United States, in order to force the Prime Minister of right lasts at the time, Yitzhak Shamir, to agree to attend the Madrid peace conference.

What are the respective responsibilities of Israeli and Palestinian leaders in the failure of the OSLO process in the early 2000s?

Between the start of the process in 1993 and the negotiations qualified as "finals" in 2000, Israeli governments, whether they were supporters of the Oslo agreements, like the cabinets led by the Labor Party, or that they Or oppose, like the firms led by Likoud, did not interrupt a single day colonization in the West Bank, whether by creating new colonies or by extending existing colonies.

Such a policy has of course been perceived by the Palestinian population as a desire to create facts accomplished on the ground, to change the terms of the final negotiation on the status of the territories even before it begins.

Consequently, the deliberately provocative visit of Ariel Sharon, then head of the Israeli opposition, on the esplanade of the mosques on September 28, 2000 spontaneous demonstrations of Palestinians, without instruction of the OLP, while the services of Israeli security had strongly warned Ariel Sharon against his visit. The Israeli authorities reacted very violently, opening fire on demonstrators and killing several of them, but also by closing the West Bank, cutting the cities of each other. What was felt very hard by the inhabitants of these regions who needed to go from one area to another or to Israel to work, to earn a living.

When this violence exploded, Yasser Arafat, who was not the promoter, decided to use it opportunistic by giving the green light to his party activists, the Fatah, to take part. He hoped to tear additional concessions from the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, in future negotiations. This was a major strategic error, a completely counterproductive decision that I criticized during the time1, because it fueled the rhetoric of the Israeli right and settlements of settlers who were hostile to the Oslo process.

And, on the Palestinian side, it made the game of Hamas, also hostile to the Oslo process. After the election of Ariel Sharon as Prime Minister of Israel in February 2001, the Islamist movement launched a series of suicide attacks in major Israeli cities in order to demonstrate to the Palestinian population that it was more patriotic than the Palestinian authority.

It was soon imitated by Islamic jihad and even by Fatah, which did not want to be overwhelmed by Hamas. All this has obviously made the game of opponents of the Oslo agreements within Israeli society and has explained largely the longevity in power of Benyamin Netanyahu since 2009.