The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth revealed that the United States has sent more than 230 cargo planes and 20 ships loaded with weapons to Israel since the start of the war waged by the occupation on the Gaza Strip on the 7th of last October.

The newspaper said, "Since there are still politicians who mock themselves and claim that the United States is not relevant, it is also useful to explain to them that more than 230 cargo planes and 20 ships have so far arrived in Israel carrying weapons."

It explained that the American shipments included artillery shells, armored vehicles, and basic combat equipment for soldiers.

It pointed out that in some cases, the Israeli Ministry of Defense advanced the implementation date for multi-year contracts for products left on shelves, or were in American emergency warehouses, noting the ministry’s talk that the cost of the war so far amounts to 65 billion shekels ($17.5 billion).

Regarding the use of ammunition shipments, the newspaper quoted a senior official in the Ministry of Defense - which it did not name - that the Israeli army used a lot of the ammunition it had on the eve of the war, and was able to refill the warehouses in order to remain prepared for a large-scale war against Hezbollah.

According to the sources relied upon by the Israeli newspaper, the threat was much greater than what Tel Aviv expected, in reference to the war in Gaza.

Regarding the army’s losses, Ahronot said that the large number of casualties and injuries among the ranks of the Israeli army in the war on Gaza raises an extensive discussion about the scope and strength of the weapons that were used in part with the aim of facilitating the soldiers’ activities in dense and dangerous areas.

It added, "This is a complex and sensitive issue, and it has aspects that cannot be expanded upon during war, and the enemy does not need to know from the media what exists and what does not exist."

The number of Israeli soldiers and officers killed since the outbreak of the war on the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian resistance, led by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), carrying out the Al-Aqsa Flood operation on October 7, has reached 489, as the Israeli army announced on Monday morning.

The newspaper pointed out that one of the main lessons in Israel is to rely more on local industry, and accordingly, many leading Israeli companies were asked to cancel contracts concluded with foreign countries to supply the Israeli army with ammunition.

On October 25, the results of a poll conducted by CBS News in the United States revealed that 52% of Americans opposed their government sending weapons to Israel.

56% of Americans also expressed their dissatisfaction with President Joe Biden's policy regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Over the years, with the partnership and support of the United States, Israel has developed defense systems, including the “Iron Dome” to repel short- and medium-range missiles, the “David’s Sling” to repel medium- and long-range missiles, and the “Arrow 3” to repel long-range missiles.

Since October 7, the Israeli army has been waging a devastating war on Gaza, which has left 20,674 dead to date, 54,536 wounded, most of them children and women, massive infrastructure destruction, and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, according to the Gaza Strip authorities and the United Nations.

An American news website reported Israeli attacks that claimed the lives of 3 Israeli prisoners and two women inside a church in Gaza, and the execution of 11 unarmed Palestinians in front of their families, which raised new international concern about Israel’s continued targeting of civilians in the besieged Strip.

The Fox news website said in its report that these killings - which attracted great international attention - came within the framework of the ground invasion launched by Israel as it continued its bombing campaign on the Gaza Strip, which even its “loyal” ally, US President Joe Biden, described as “random” .

However - the site says - Biden has continued to press for additional and unconditional aid to Israel, despite what some foreign affairs experts say that current American laws aimed at preserving human rights should have restricted the flow of such aid long ago.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza announced today that the death toll from the Israeli aggression had risen to 20,674 dead and 54,536 wounded since the seventh of last October.

The ministry added that the occupation committed - yesterday, Sunday - 25 massacres in the Gaza Strip, and that 250 Palestinians were killed in Israeli raids during the past 24 hours, while 500 others were injured.

Former State Department official Josh Polis said, "We always treat Israel gently and leniently when it comes to potential human rights violations of any kind."

Boulos is considered one of the most prominent critics of Biden's policy towards Israel since his resignation from his position as Director of Congressional and Public Affairs in the office overseeing US arms sales, due to fears of the Israeli response to the attack of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) on October 7, 2023.

“When it comes to suspending or reducing lethal military aid, there is no indication that anyone is willing to take any actual steps,” Boulos added.

The United States provides more aid to Israel than any other country, amounting to about $3.8 billion annually, in recognition of the “special relationship” between the two parties dating back decades, according to the Fox website.

Bypass Congress

Biden now wants Congress to approve an additional $14.3 billion in aid to Israel as part of a larger package that also includes aid to Ukraine that had been suspended. The Fox report stated that Biden recently “bypassed” Congress and sold tank ammunition to Israel worth $106 million.

Biden administration officials told CNN that they are not currently considering placing conditions on aid beyond those already in federal law. They added that the United States expects Israel to adhere to international humanitarian law and for the Israeli army to conduct internal legal reviews of its strikes in advance.

But some foreign policy experts believe that these existing legal conditions do not adequately apply to Israel given the high number of civilian deaths in Gaza.

This includes policies aimed at preventing weapons from being sent to Israel that might help commit violations of international humanitarian law, or to outside powers suspected of using US weapons to harm civilians.

Leahy's law

However, Fox draws attention to the fact that there is one law in particular that has recently received much attention from progressive Democrats, which is the “Leahy Law.”

These experts argue that the United States may be "shirking" its legal duty to ensure that aid to Israel is not used to violate human rights.

The Fox report says that the purpose of the Leahy Act - which was first passed by Congress in 1997 - is to prevent the United States from engaging in serious crimes committed by foreign security forces that it supports, by cutting off aid to a specific unit if the United States has reliable information that the unit You committed a serious crime.

No security forces, not even American ones, enjoy complete immunity from committing such violations, according to the report.

The news site quoted a US State Department spokesman - whose name was not mentioned - as saying that the Leahy Law applies to all countries, including Israel, and that the authorization granted meets the requirements stipulated in the law.

However, the report attributes some former administration officials and Congressional staff to saying that the law would not have been applied against Israel, despite what human rights experts - whether inside or outside the US government - have identified as objective evidence that Israel committed human rights violations before and during its current war in Gaza.

“Our government has acted as if the Leahy Act does not apply to (Israelis),” said Tim Riser, a senior adviser to former Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Va.) who was a key architect of the law. “As a result, there is a kind of culture of impunity where they can He did almost anything for the Palestinians without being held accountable.”

The Ministry of Health said on Monday that the Israeli occupation forces committed 25 massacres during the past 24 hours against entire families, leaving 250 dead and 500 injured.

Ministry of Health spokesman Dr. Ashraf Al-Qudra reported that the toll of the Israeli aggression on Gaza on its 80th day had risen to 20,674 martyrs and 54,536 wounded.

During a press conference, he pointed to the Israeli occupation’s violations against the health system, which led to the death of 311 health personnel and the destruction of 102 ambulances and their removal from service.

He added, “Israeli violations against the health system led to the targeting of 141 health institutions and the withdrawal of 23 hospitals and 53 health centers from service.”

The Israeli occupation is still detaining 99 health personnel, including the directors of hospitals in northern Gaza, Dr. Muhammad Abu Salmiya, Dr. Ahmed Al-Kahlot, and Dr. Ahmed Muhanna, according to the health spokesman.

Al-Qudra confirmed that the occupation deliberately destroyed hospitals in northern Gaza and left 800,000 people without health services, pointing out that patients, pregnant women and infants are exposed to certain death.

He explained that medical teams are helpless in the face of hundreds of critical, dangerous and complex cases and severe burns due to the lack of the required therapeutic, human and clinical capabilities.

He continued, “The clinical occupancy rate in hospitals in the south reached 350%, and hundreds of wounded people are sleeping on the floor in departments and operating rooms.”

In a tragic and disastrous picture, Al-Qudra pointed out that medical teams are choosing between critical cases to save what can be saved, and dozens of lives are lost every day as a result of weak medical capabilities.

Al-Qudra described the health and humanitarian conditions in the shelter centers as having “reached catastrophic, catastrophic levels” for more than 1.8 million displaced people who are exposed to the risks of famine, extreme cold, and the spread of diseases and epidemics.

He pointed out that “900,000 children in shelter centers suffer from the risk of dehydration, famine, digestive and respiratory diseases, skin diseases, and anemia.”

He pointed to 50,000 pregnant women languishing in shelters without water, food, or any health care, adding, “About 180 women give birth every day in unsafe and inhumane conditions.”

He mentioned that 70% of kidney failure patients were exposed to the risks of bombing, displacement, and difficulty in accessing dialysis services, especially in northern Gaza.

He highlighted the reality that the wounded are experiencing, which has reached catastrophic levels, and there are accelerating complications in their health conditions and severe infections of wounds and burns that are difficult to heal.

He continued, "We are losing the lives of large numbers of wounded as a result of the lack of treatment in Gaza's hospitals."

Al-Qudra stressed that the mechanism used to send the wounded out for treatment abroad is “useless” and contributes to the killing of hundreds of them, calling for a new mechanism to ensure the exit of 5,000 thousand wounded as a priority and urgently to save their lives.

He called on all parties to take effective measures to ensure monitoring the flow of medical aid and fuel to all hospitals in the Gaza Strip without deadly Israeli restrictions on the wounded and sick.

Al-Qudra called on countries and health institutions around the world to provide field hospitals and specialized medical teams and reach Gaza to save the lives of the wounded.

He appealed to all international institutions to work immediately to operate Al-Shifa Medical Complex and hospitals in northern Gaza in order to save the lives of the wounded and sick.

Al-Qudra called on international institutions to move from describing the catastrophic reality of the displaced and warnings of its danger, to “finding effective and urgent mechanisms that guarantee their humanitarian intervention” to prevent disaster and famine by providing shelter, drinking water, personal hygiene, food, clothing, and blankets, and establishing medical points for the displaced in all their places of residence.

Read more via the Palestinian Information Center:

https://palinfo.com/news/2023/12/25/869104/

Today, Monday, the Israeli occupation forces arrested a number of workers and merchants from Jenin Governorate.

According to local sources, the occupation forces detained 17 workers and merchants from Jenin Governorate yesterday evening at the Barta’a military checkpoint, south of the governorate, after interrogating them. Today, they were transferred to Salem Camp and then to detention in Huwwara Camp, south of Nablus.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and Amnesty International said that Israel is arresting Palestinians in the Gaza Strip en masse, without publishing information about where many of them are being held or why. They called, in separate statements, for urgent investigations into violations related to “forcible disappearances.”

The organization said in a statement that it had received many disturbing reports from northern Gaza about mass arrests, ill-treatment and forced disappearance of thousands of Palestinian men and boys, and a number of women and girls, at the hands of the Israeli occupation forces, most of whom were arrested while trying to move south or were arrested. He took them during operations on their homes, hospitals, schools and other places of refuge.

It is reported that among the detainees are children as young as 12 years old and people as old as 70 years old. What is most disturbing is that there are numerous reports that many of the detainees have been subjected to serious ill-treatment, which in some cases may reach the level of torture. This includes allegations that many were forced to strip except for their underwear, were blindfolded and handcuffed tightly, and photographed in deliberately humiliating positions before being transported, without clothes and with little food or water, to unknown places of detention. Reports also allege that the IDF instructed remaining civilians, usually women and children, to move south before their shelters were destroyed, in many cases resulting in multiple displacements. Reliable information has also been received indicating that approximately 140 women and girls have been arbitrarily detained and are currently being held in undisclosed locations.

The families of the detainees were not provided with any information about the fate or whereabouts of their loved ones or any reasons for their detention, which exacerbated their feelings of pain and fear.

The IDF claims that it only arrests Palestinians “affiliated with Hamas” and that it has “good reasons” to suspect all Palestinians who have remained in northern Gaza contrary to orders from the IDF to move south – raising concerns about collective punishment.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights notes that Israel's instructions to civilians to move to the south in no way exempt Israel from its obligations under international humanitarian law. There are still tens of thousands of civilians in northern Gaza, and Israel maintains its obligations to ensure their respect and protection. International humanitarian law requires that civilians be detained only for compelling security reasons. Torture and other ill-treatment, including outrages on personal dignity, are strictly prohibited under international law, regardless of the detainee's status.

Israel must take urgent steps to ensure that civilians are detained only under the law – and that all persons arrested or detained are treated humanely and with dignity, with full respect for their rights to due process. Israel must also implement measures to enable families of detained persons to access all available information about their fate and location. All cases of ill-treatment or torture of arrested or detained persons must be fully and transparently investigated, and if proven to have occurred, the necessary measures must be taken to ensure accountability and prevent their recurrence.

It is of grave concern that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has received an increasing number of reports of civilian killings, including apparent extrajudicial executions, in places of refuge, particularly schools. Such incidents may constitute war crimes and must be investigated immediately and fully.

The organization's statement indicates that on the morning of December 12, the Israeli Defense Forces raided Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip, after several days of siege and bombing of the hospital. The hospital was reportedly hosting about 3,000 displaced people, in addition to patients and medical staff. The IDF reportedly detained between 1,000 and 1,200 Palestinians, mostly men and boys between 16 and 65 years of age, including medical staff, patients and internally displaced persons, and transferred them to an unknown destination. More than 70 medical personnel, including Dr. Ahmed Al-Kahlot, the general director of the hospital, are still detained.

On December 7, the Israeli occupation army reportedly stormed Beit Lahia mixed school, which was housing approximately 3,000 to 4,000 displaced people. The IDF arrested dozens of male Palestinians, including older men, boys and a well-known Palestinian journalist. The IDF then blindfolded the detainees and stripped them except for their underwear before forcing them to sit on the street outside despite the cold weather. After filming the detainees on video and taking photos, they were forced into trucks, still naked, and transported to unknown destinations. On December 9, footage of dozens of semi-naked Palestinian men surrounded by IDF tanks was published in the media. The IDF claimed that Hamas fighters were surrendering their weapons. The men were reportedly taken to an unknown destination, while the children and women were instructed to move south. Later, it was reported that IDF soldiers set fire to the school.

On 12 December, the World Health Organization expressed concern about the lengthy IDF screening operation and detention of a Palestine Red Crescent Society staff member during a joint mission to supply and evacuate Al-Ahli Hospital in northern Gaza. The World Health Organization reported that one of the wounded Palestinians died while being transported to the south while the IDF obstructed the convoy's movement. The WHO also reported that the IDF arrested one of the mission's staff, an employee of the Palestine Red Crescent Society, and "forced him to kneel at gunpoint... (He was) taken out of sight, where he was reportedly harassed and beaten." He was stripped of his clothes and assaulted. He was released later that night, but “left to walk south with his hands tied behind his back, without clothes or shoes.”

The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that tens of thousands of displaced people in hospitals in the Gaza Strip face the “risk of hunger,” which has reached “frightening proportions.”

He added in his blog post on the “X” platform, on Monday, that on December 23, he visited 4 hospitals in the Gaza Strip, including Al-Shifa Hospital, accompanied by other UN officials.

He stressed that there is a great need in the besieged hospitals in the Gaza Strip for medical equipment, food, drinking water, and beds for patients.

He warned of the consequences of "chronic hunger" that Gaza is currently witnessing, calling on the World Health Organization and its partners to increase their assistance in terms of drinking water and food.

He explained that Al-Shifa Hospital, “which was once one of the largest hospitals in Gaza,” now provides only first aid.

He pointed out that Al-Shifa Hospital hosts approximately 50,000 displaced Palestinians who face the risk of hunger, as he put it.

Ghebreyesus called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, which is suffering from a collapse in the health system due to intense Israeli attacks.

Israel may well wipe out Christian presence in Gaza as part of its genocide, and Western leaders would not care less.

Since October 7, Israel and its allies have tried to put the war in Gaza within the “war on terror” framework, actively comparing Hamas to ISIS. Many who instinctively equate Palestinians with Muslims have indeed fallen for this false narrative. But the brutal war Israel has waged on Gaza has not targeted “only terrorists” as it has claimed. Instead, it has massacred Palestinian Muslims as well as Palestinian Christians in what legal scholars agree amounts to genocide. The Christian community in Gaza has lost at least 21 members so far. This may sound like a small number, but given they were only 1,000 before the war, these massacres threaten to eliminate the Christian presence in the strip for the first time in almost 2,000 years. Proportionally speaking, the death rate of Palestinian Christians is double that of the entire Palestinian population in Gaza. And yet, the leaders of Christian-majority countries in the West have remained shockingly silent on the plight of Palestinian Christians. United States President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, has said and done nothing to protect fellow Catholics in Gaza, who have also been targeted by the Israeli army. This falls in line with decades of unwavering Western Christian support for the racist Israeli state, which has threatened the Christian presence in the holy lands for decades. 

A history of Christians targeted 

The Israeli onslaught against Palestinian Christians was taking place long before Hamas was even created. During the Nakba of 1948 when Jewish militias attacked Palestinian villages and towns, Palestinian Christians were targeted just like Palestinian Muslims. Christian Palestinians were forced out from Lydda (what Israelis call today Lod). Many ended up taking refuge in Ramallah, walking dozens of kilometers on foot while trying to avoid the brutal Jewish militants. In Jerusalem and other areas, Palestinians regardless of their faith were also expelled. Members of my own family – my dad, uncle and grandmother – had to flee for their lives. My aunt and her family who lived in the Musrara neighborhood sought refuge near the Notre Dame Catholic Chapel, thinking they would be safe there, but a Jewish sniper shot and killed her husband, leaving her a widow with seven young children.

The terror and dispossession did not stop even after the state of Israel was established. 

For example, residents of the two predominantly Palestinian Christian villages of Iqrit and Biram, which at the end of the Arab-Israeli War fell within northern Israel, were forced out in November 1948. They were told they could return “within two weeks”, but the Israeli state never allowed them to. In the following decades, the Palestinian Christians who remained within the territory Israel claimed faced the same apartheid regime that Palestinian Muslims did. They have been subjected to about 65 racist laws that deprive them of the same rights as Jewish citizens of Israel, according to research done by the Haifa-based Adalah NGO.

One of the earliest of these laws was the 1950 Law of Return, which enshrined the right of Jews to come to Israel, settle and automatically receive citizenship. It denied the same right to the expelled indigenous Palestinian population despite the fact that the United Nations had decreed in Resolution 194 that Palestinian should be allowed to return to their homeland and be compensated for the loss of their homes. More recently, the Knesset approved the Nation State Bill in 2018, which formally declares Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, thus further solidifying the legal iteration of Jewish supremacy. This emboldened even more the extremist elements within Israeli society and encouraged even more anti-Palestinian violence. 

Incidents of Jewish extremists harassing and intimidating Palestinian Christians, spitting on them and attacking their processions have spiked. Christian properties, including churches and cemeteries, have been targeted. Just days before Hamas’s October 7 attacks in southern Israel, a group of Jewish men and boys harassed a Christian procession carrying a cross, viciously spitting on them. A video of the incident went viral and caused international outrage, but clearly not among Western leaders. Repeated appeals from Christian church leaders for action on Jewish Israeli violence have fallen on deaf ears for years.

Western silence on Palestinian Christians’ plight

On October 17, just days after launching its brutal war on Gaza, Israel bombed the courtyard of the Christian-run Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza, killing hundreds of people who had sought shelter there from its bombardment. The Israeli propaganda machine tried to blame the attack on the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, but subsequent investigations confirmed that the “evidence” it had produced was fabricated. Two days later, the Israeli army bombed the nearby Church of St Porphyrius, the world’s third oldest church, killing at least 18 people. The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which runs the church, said many of those inside at the time were women and children. “Targeting churches and their institutions, in addition to the shelters they provide to protect innocent citizens … constitutes a war crime that cannot be ignored,” it said in a statement .But the targeting of Palestinian Christians continued. On December 16, two Palestinian women who had taken refuge in the Holy Family Catholic church in Gaza City were shot dead by an Israeli sniper. The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said the two women were “shot in cold blood” while Pope Francis condemned the murder during his weekly Sunday homily.

British MP Layla Moran, who has relatives trapped in the same church, has said they have witnessed the Israeli army use white phosphorus against its compound in addition to targeting its solar panels, water tanks and generators, making life incredibly difficult for those taking shelter there. Over the past 80 days of war, Christian Palestinians have not stopped appealing to the world to take note of their plight and the plight of all Palestinians and take action to stop the genocide. A Palestinian Catholic mother published an appeal to Biden, calling on him to base his policies on his moral beliefs. “We are not children of a lesser God, Mr. President, we are the Palestinian Christians of the holy land where the message of love peace, and justice started, and we call upon you to stop this Genocide.” Leaders of the Palestinian Christian community also sent an open letter to Western church leaders and theologians in which they challenged “western theologians and church leaders who have voiced uncritical support for Israel and [called on] them to repent and change”. 

Unfortunately, these appeals have been completely ignored. 

Biden and other leaders of Western Christian-majority nations have demonstrated remarkable disregard for Palestinian lives – both Muslim and Christian. The US has repeatedly voted against ceasefire resolutions at the UN Security Council and blocked any attempts to pressure Israel to stop slaughtering Palestinians or even to marginally criticize it. Biden and his administration have indeed treated us, Palestinian Christians, as the children of a lesser God. He and other Western leaders who have backed Israel are fully responsible for the genocide of the Palestinian people. What they have done will not be forgotten.

Today we are not celebrating Christmas. Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus Christ, is also not celebrating. All festivities have been cancelled as Palestinian Christians mourn the victims of the Israeli genocide.

What gives many hope in this dark time is the fact that despite Israeli brutality and Western silence, Muslim and Christian Palestinians stand as a united front. Israel has long deployed the divide and rule tactic on us, but in the past two months and a half, we have demonstrated that our unity is stronger than ever in the face of Israeli colonial violence and racism.

Source: Aljazeera

On Monday, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen refused to extend the residence permit of a UN employee and rejected another visa application, in objection to the United Nations’ positions on the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip that has been ongoing for 80 days and has led to the death of more than 20,000 Palestinians.

Cohen said in a tweet: “I issued instructions to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs not to extend the residence visa of one of the employees of the organization (UN Women) in Israel, and to reject the visa application for another employee.”

The Israeli minister considered that the behavior of the United Nations since October 7 “constitutes a disgrace to the organization and the international community,” as he put it.

He continued: “Starting with Secretary-General António Guterres, who legitimized war crimes and crimes against humanity, through the Commissioner for Human Rights, who spreads bloody, undocumented conspiracies, all the way to the United Nations Women’s Organization, which for two months ignored acts of rape against Israeli women,” according to his claim.

Cohen pointed out, saying: “We will stop working with those who cooperate with the propaganda carried out by the Hamas organization,” adding: “Stop remaining silent in the face of the hypocrisy of the United Nations,” as he put it.

UN employees working in the Palestinian territories are required to obtain Israeli visas to enter the occupied territories.

Since the beginning of the Israeli aggression on Gaza on October 7, Israel has directed sharp criticism at the United Nations agencies, led by its Secretary-General, António Guterres, because of his positions rejecting the war and his repeatedly calling for an immediate ceasefire.

During the aggression on Gaza, more than 130 United Nations employees were murdered as a result of the Israeli bombing, according to what officials in the organization announced.

Last Friday, after the Security Council approved the expansion of humanitarian aid to Gaza, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres confirmed that the Israeli aggression is “the real problem... and there are major obstacles” to the delivery of aid.

"Many people measure the effectiveness of humanitarian operations in Gaza based on the number of trucks from the Egyptian Red Crescent, the United Nations and our partners allowed to cross the border. This is wrong," Guterres said.

He also expressed "deep disappointment at the statements of senior Israeli officials questioning the two-state solution."

Guterres said, "Despite how difficult it seems today, the two-state solution, in accordance with United Nations resolutions, international law and previous agreements, is the only path to lasting peace."

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor documented, in a preliminary file submitted to special rapporteurs of the United Nations and the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, dozens of cases of field executions carried out by the Israeli occupation army in the Gaza Strip, calling for their immediate investigation to hold the perpetrators accountable and provide justice to the victims.

Euro-Med - according to a statement today, Monday - submitted the initial file to Mr. Maurice Tidball Benz, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial or arbitrary executions, and Ms. Francesca Albanese, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since In 1967, Ms. Navanethem Pillai, Chair of the Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and Mr. Karim Khan, Prosecutor of the Criminal Court.

Euro-Med urged the aforementioned parties to declare a position on all the widespread killing operations carried out by Israeli forces targeting Palestinian civilians, especially executions and physical liquidations in the Gaza Strip.

Euro-Med called for the announcement of the formation of an international legal team, and exercising pressure to ensure its access to the Gaza Strip, and the opening of an investigation into these and other incidents of killing and physical liquidation of Palestinian civilians.

Euro-Med urged the aforementioned parties to take serious action with the international community for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip to ensure an end to the ongoing killings without military necessity, leading to the opening of a criminal investigation into all the horrific violations that occurred to achieve accountability and justice.

The Euro-Mediterranean Observatory documented the Israeli occupation army carrying out dozens of direct executions and physical liquidations by shooting or shelling against civilians, without any military necessity, about 10 days after the start of the Israeli army’s ground attack in the Gaza Strip, on October 27, coinciding with the continued of its comprehensive military attack, which began on the seventh of the same month.

It stressed that this - in addition to the intense air and artillery attacks - came as a form of revenge after the armed attack carried out by Palestinian factions in the settlements surrounding the Gaza Strip.

Euro-Med highlighted the death of more than 28,000 Palestinians since the start of the Israeli genocidal attacks in the Gaza Strip, including those who have been counted so far who are still under the rubble of destroyed buildings, while children and women constitute about 70%. Thus, Palestinian casualties are the highest rate of civilian casualties in the world in the twenty-first century.

In the legal file, the Euro-Mediterranean Observatory reviewed a group of extrajudicial execution crimes and liquidations carried out by Israeli forces during their ground incursion into the Gaza Strip, as follows:

December 22, 2023: An execution was carried out against six civilians from one family when Israeli forces raided their home in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City, and opened fire on them without any justification. The victims of this execution were “Raed Abd Rabbuh Al-Khalidi,” “Amjad Abd Rabbuh Al-Khalidi,” “Ahmed Faisal Al-Khalidi,” “Hamid Muhammad Al-Khalidi,” “Moamen Raed Al-Khalidi,” and “Muhammad Zuhair Al-Khalidi.” While four others were injured, including a woman and her son.

December 21, 2023: Akram Abu Hasira and his wife, who were elderly, were killed after Israeli forces took them out of their home on Yarmouk Street in Gaza City. The soldiers shot them and left them to bleed to death, before burning their house and their families were able to transport and bury them after the Israeli forces retreated from the region, according to what their son, Mahmoud Abu Hasira, reported.

December 13, 2023: The elderly person, “Ahmed Suleiman Hassan Muhammad Abdel-Al” (60 years old), who was suffering from a psychological illness, was killed in his home in Jabalia camp, after he was exposed to gunfire from Israeli forces, after they stormed the camp and then the house after the Yemeni hospital was besieged for several days. 

December 13, 2023: Euro-Med received testimony about the execution by Israeli army forces of nine civilians, including children, inside a shelter center at the “Shadia Abu Ghazaleh” school in Jabalia. In his testimony about what happened, the elderly person, “Youssef Khalil,” told Euro-Med that after the Israeli forces stormed the school, two soldiers opened direct fire on his family members while they were in one of the classrooms. “Khalil” stated that after his family members were liquidated, Israeli forces arrested him and others for several days, during which he was beaten and tortured, before he was later released. After the Israeli forces withdrew from the vicinity of the school where they were stationed for a week, Khalil returned to the school to find the bodies of his family members nearly decomposed. Among the victims were a woman, her husband, and several of their children. Video clips from the school monitored by the Euro-Mediterranean Observatory, filmed from December 13 to 15, showed destroyed classrooms, at least two bodies on the floor, a number of bodies of people, including a woman, a mattress soaked in blood, bullet holes, and bloodstains on the floor.

December 10, 2023: Israeli forces executed an elderly person, “Nawaf Muhammad Musa Al-Zaanin,” while evacuating the “Awni Al-Harthani” school in the Beit Lahia project in northern Gaza. The elderly man, “Al-Zaanin,” is a resident of the town of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip. He and his family were displaced several times until Israeli forces stormed the school in which they took refuge and he was executed by a direct bullet to the head.

December 10, 2023: Israeli forces executed “Munir Fadl Ali Al-Najjar” (41 years old) after direct fire was directed at him while he was with his elderly mother (74 years old) in a house in the Jabalia camp. They wounded him in the neck and he continued to bleed to death while he was next to his mother. The elderly man was a civilian and had injured his foot since he was a child. The Israeli forces did not allow his brother, “Sami,” who works for a United Nations agency, to remove his brother’s body from the room, and subjected him to interrogation in the house, and he remained until the forces withdrew, a day later, when they turned the house into a barracks to interrogate civilians.

December 8, 2023: The elderly “Abdel Nasser Khader” Haboub (62 years old) was killed after he was subjected to field execution by an artillery shell fired by Israeli forces towards him shortly after his release after two days of detention, and “Ahmed Hamdi Abu Absa” (38 years old), was killed with him who is the dean of Faculty of Information Technology at the University of Palestine. An eyewitness told Euro-Med: that Haboob and his family took refuge in the Holy Family School after an Israeli bombing of a house where they were taking refuge after they had been displaced from their home before, following a previous bombing in Gaza City. The day after their arrival at the school, Israeli forces stormed it and arrested all the men and some women. They then stripped the men and took them to an unknown destination.

After midnight on December 10, the Israeli forces released some elderly people and a group of detainees while they were naked, then targeted them several minutes later with a tank shell and a Quadcopter flying over them, which led to the death of the elderly “Habob” and the academic “Ahmed Abu Absa ” who accompanied him.”

November 11, 2023: Israeli army forces executed “Muhammad Eid Shabir” (77 years old), the former president of the Islamic University in Gaza, along with his wife, “Rehab Muhammad Shabir” (74 years old), after they left a relative’s house that was bombed in Gaza City. His daughter told Euro-Med: “Israeli planes bombed my aunt’s house on Abu Hasira Street in Gaza, killing 5 civilians, and saving 15, the majority of whom were women and children.” Among them were my parents and my brother’s wife, “Najat Ayoub Al-Helu,” and my nephew, “Muhammad Malek Shabir.” They came out alive, fleeing into the street. My mother sent a distress message, and my father’s voice was heard after the bombing, calling for one of his grandchildren. After more than 24 hours, the army forced the survivors to evacuate the place and walk to Al-Shifa Hospital. Among them were some wounded and elderly people, leaving the bodies of the dead under the rubble. On the way, those who went out saw my brother's wife and nephew killed in the street. After the start of the truce on November 25, my parents were found in the street on the opposite road to Shifa, dead bodies after they had been shot by an army sniper.”

November 10, 2023: Israeli forces executed the elderly “Bashir Hajji” (71 years old), a resident of the Zaytoun neighborhood in Gaza City, while he was crossing the main “Salah al-Din” road, after the Israeli army published a photo showing one of its soldiers talking to him to claim that he was helping Palestinian civilians and providing Protection for them during their displacement.

The Euro-Mediterranean Observatory confirmed that the aforementioned victims are part of other victims whose killings were directly documented without justification, while Euro-Mediterranean crews continue to document and prepare comprehensive files on the circumstances of their arbitrary, extrajudicial, and unnecessary killing by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip.

Euro-Med stressed that these executions and liquidations carried out by Israeli forces violate international standards and violate the right to life stipulated in Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

It also violates Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which states that the right to life is an inherent right of every human being, that “the law shall protect” this right, and that “no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to life.”

Accordingly, the Euro-Mediterranean Monitor called on the rapporteurs at the United Nations and the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to investigate the violations documented above and other war crimes committed by Israel against civilians in the Gaza Strip, and to bring everyone who issued and implemented the orders to justice.

Pope Francis condemned the "desperate humanitarian situation" and called for an end to military operations in the Gaza Strip.

Pope Francis said in his Christmas message on Monday: “I appeal to the military operations and their horrific consequences, with innocent civilian casualties, to stop. I ask that the desperate humanitarian situation be addressed by allowing aid to arrive.”

He added to thousands of believers who gathered in St. Peter's Square in the Vatican, "Stop fueling violence and hatred, and move towards resolving the Palestinian issue, through an honest and continuous dialogue between the two parties, supported by a strong political will and the support of the international community."

In an infinite toll, the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip since the 7th of last October has resulted in the death of 20,258 citizens and the wounding of about 53,688 citizens, more than 70% of whom are women and children.

ActionAid Palestine said that tens of thousands of pregnant women are suffering from severe hunger due to the escalating food crisis in Gaza, and mothers are also suffering from malnutrition, which limits their ability to breastfeed their newborns.

ActionAid added in a statement issued today, Monday, that 71% of the population of Gaza currently suffers from acute hunger, while 98% of the population does not have enough food, according to the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Observatory.

It pointed out that this crisis affects pregnant women, mothers and their young children severely, indicating that there are 50,000 pregnant women and 68,000 breastfeeding women in Gaza, according to recent United Nations data, and they need immediate life-saving preventive, therapeutic and nutritional interventions, and 7,685 children at the age of five suffers from life-threatening wasting, making them vulnerable to delayed growth, illness, and death in severe cases, while more than 4,000 children are classified as suffering from severe wasting, and they need life-saving treatment.

It explained that the average amount of water that one person in the Gaza Strip receives is 1.5 liters per day to cover all his needs for drinking, bathing, and cleaning, although the minimum that one person needs is 15 liters to survive, but pregnant and breastfeeding women also need 7.5. additional liters of drinking water daily to maintain their health and the health of their children.

Action Aid reported the case of a mother (Khitam) of five children, including a newborn, who was displaced to a school in Deir al-Balah, and does not have food to feed her children, saying: “There is no water or food to eat. My little daughter suffers from a skin rash due to lack of hygiene.” "Here, our situation is very difficult. How can we drink water? We wonder if there is enough for us and the children? Of course not! There is no clean water. We can barely make ends meet. I also have four other children who have wanted to eat since the morning, but there is no bread."

Khitam, who was displaced from her home due to the bombing just two days after she gave birth, adds, “Evacuation orders were issued just two days after I gave birth. I was very tired in the postpartum stage after I left the hospital with continued bleeding. I was carrying my daughter. We were walking under missiles and bombing.” We sit and relax for a while on the sidewalk and the streets.”

ActionAid Palestine pointed out that despite the enormous needs in the Gaza Strip, the amount of aid entering the Strip is still not sufficient at all. An average of 100 trucks of humanitarian supplies are currently entering through the Rafah crossing every day, and despite the opening of the Kerem Shalom crossing last week, but only 79 trucks entered the day after it opened, a drop in the ocean compared to the 500 trucks of aid and other supplies that entered the Gaza Strip every day before October 7.

Reham Jaafari, communications and advocacy officer at ActionAid Palestine, said: “We do not have words to describe the extent of the horror that the residents of the Gaza Strip are enduring. All residents suffer from hunger, but pregnant and breastfeeding women and their children suffer the most. The stories we hear are horrific. Mothers are forced to watch their children helplessly screaming and crying from hunger, and they are completely unable to do anything.”

She added: "Things may get terribly worse. There is no time to waste. Every day hundreds of people die in Gaza due to bombing, and soon hundreds will also die from hunger and disease. Only an immediate and permanent ceasefire will prevent any more deaths from occurring at all." 

Red Crescent spokesman Abdul Jalil Hanjal said that the Red Crescent’s crews receive dozens of reports daily about the presence of dead and wounded, especially in the northern and central areas of the Gaza Strip, which are subject to continuous bombardment by occupation aircraft and artillery, and are inaccessible due to the seriousness of the field conditions.

Hanjal explained in an interview with Voice of Palestine Radio today, Monday, that the occupation forces killed 310 medical personnel and arrested 99 others, the last of whom were 8 from the Red Crescent at the Jabalia Ambulance Center, and nothing has been known about them for five days, in addition to arresting the director of the Crescent Center in Khan Younes 35 days ago and there is no information about him yet.

He added that the occupation forces targeted 102 ambulances and damaged 59 other vehicles as a result of the continued aggression for the eightieth day in a row.

In an infinite toll, the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip since the 7th of last October has resulted in the death of 20,258 citizens and the wounding of about 53,688 citizens, more than 70% of whom are women and children.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Palestine, Francesca Albanese, said that the genocide currently taking place in the Gaza Strip is taking place with the permission of the world.

This came in her blog post, today, Monday, on the “X” platform, commenting on the accusation that the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights accused Israel of “extrajudicial execution” of 11 unarmed Palestinians in front of their families, in the Al-Rimal neighborhood in the Gaza Strip.

The UN rapporteur added that what is happening in the Gaza Strip "is no different from other massacres committed (around the world) against civilians."

She continued: "Genocide is not a single act, but rather a process that extends over stages and must be obstructed."

She stressed that the genocide currently taking place in Gaza is being committed with the permission of the world and in full view of it.

Albanese explained that the genocide and massacres committed against children in Gaza are carried out by “mercenaries” coming from France, the United States, Britain, Ukraine, Italy, Germany, South Africa and India.

She added: "But no one describes these people as foreign terrorists."

She called for pressure on the judiciary in countries that send fighters who commit war crimes to other countries, including occupied Palestine, to try them and hold them accountable for what they committed.

In an infinite outcome, the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip since the 7th of last October has resulted in the death of 20,424 citizens and the wounding of about 54,036 citizens, more than 70% of whom are women and children.

On Monday, the Hebrew newspaper "Haaretz" revealed a deal between US President Joe Biden and the head of the Israeli occupation government, Benjamin Netanyahu, allowing the continuation of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip as long as humanitarian aid continues to enter it.

According to what military analyst Amos Harel wrote, as long as humanitarian aid continues, Washington will not pressure Israel to reduce the war on the Gaza Strip, but at the same time he pointed out that it is not certain that this will serve the Israeli interest in light of the large losses among the ranks of the occupation soldiers. .

Early expectations, in Washington and to some extent in Tel Aviv, were that the Biden administration might demand that Israel end the intensive ground operation in the Gaza Strip by the end of this December, and that the American side would allow at most a few more weeks of fighting in its current form.

Harel indicated that the US administration will work in a reduced manner during the Christmas period, and if nothing exceptional happens during the war in the Gaza Strip in the coming days, the Americans will not ask Israel to stop.

He continued, saying that the deal between Biden and Netanyahu, which stipulates the continuation of the war in exchange for the entry of aid, allows Israel more time in its current method of war.

The writer pointed out that the United States had aborted last weekend a resolution in the United Nations Security Council calling for an immediate ceasefire, in exchange for Netanyahu’s response to American demands to ensure the entry of large humanitarian aid into the sector, which is facing a very large humanitarian crisis.

He added that the American President, who justifies the Israeli response to the attack of last October 7, and supports the destruction of the Hamas authority, is in turn hindering the ceasefire, indicating that the Americans are not in a hurry to change the current form of the Israeli war, in the direction of reducing forces and reducing the areas in which the army is present in the Strip and the gradual transition to the method of raids, as long as aid continues to enter.

But at the same time, he pointed to two fundamental “weaknesses” in light of the current situation, claiming that humanitarian aid also helps Hamas, as it not only reduces pressure on it from civilians, but also benefits from fuel for tunnel ventilation systems and food. For the sake of its elements, he also stated that he is not confident that delaying changing the current form of war serves the Israeli interest.

He stated in this context that there are officials at the political level, as well as in the staff of the occupation army, who believe that there is a need to change the way the war is managed in the Gaza Strip as soon as possible, in light of the heavy losses in the lives of soldiers who are killed during the battles.

Netanyahu is accused of misleading the Israelis

There is also debate about whether the slow and methodical searches behind tunnels and weapons actually bring the declared goals of the war closer, including eliminating Hamas's capabilities and creating conditions for the return of Israeli detainees.

The writer believes that Netanyahu continues to mislead the public in Israel, as if the Israeli army is moving quickly towards achieving victory in the Gaza Strip without any obstacles.

Yesterday, Netanyahu pledged that Israel would continue its war on Hamas until achieving an “overwhelming victory,” while the Chief of the Strategic Department of the General Staff, General Eliezer Toldano, told the ministers, “This is a war that will continue for several more months. We will have to run an economy with weapons. We do not skimp on ammunition in war and do everything necessary to protect the lives of our soldiers."

The Israeli right, especially among its settler and religious wings, continues to openly fantasize about displacing the population of the Gaza Strip under the burden of war. In parallel with the normalization of calls demanding the killing of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, it is expected that prominent voices in the Jewish settlement camp will rise, angry at Netanyahu because he ostensibly negotiated with the Americans on the issue of transferring responsibility for the Gaza Strip [instead of displacing its residents], at a time when these voices celebrate With the scenes of displacement that come from the Strip. We are forbidden from falling into this trap, if not for moral reasons, then at least because, from a practical standpoint, this is nothing but utter nonsense.

First, Israel cannot tolerate forced deportation of this kind, because the international community will not tolerate it. The current war has taught us an important lesson about how much Israel needs the support of the United States and other Western countries in order to remain safe. This support is available to Israel for various reasons, one of which is that Israel belongs to the “right family” of countries. Mass displacement in China or Russia may be considered possible in the 21st century, but the international community, to which we prefer to belong, refuses to do such things. Whoever carries out such matters does not receive a grant in the form of an airlift of ammunition and two aircraft carriers to protect him personally. Rather, what happens is that sanctions and ostracism are imposed on him.

The matter would have been tolerable if such illusions had remained, confined to the internal meetings of the editorial board of Channel 14 [known for its right-wing], or the management of the settlers’ council in the West Bank. But the insistence on dragging us all in the direction of a discourse that seems serious about the issue of displacement harms Israel and the “just war” that we launched in Gaza. Any satirical real estate announcement about a [settlement] housing project in the Gaza Strip is completely similar to the call to drop a nuclear bomb on Gaza [the Israeli Heritage Minister’s call to drop a nuclear bomb on the Gaza Strip, published in our bulletin on 11/5/2023], or a political document issued from one of the ministries, [the position paper issued by the Israeli Ministry of Intelligence, published by the Institute for Palestine Studies on 10/31/2023], is translated almost automatically, and is taken seriously outside Israel. The result is a reduction in the time given to fighting, and with it a reduction in the ability to bring Hamas to its knees and recover the kidnapped.

It goes without saying that, even if we are not punished or excluded, we should not deport Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. The idea of forcing two million people to board ships, planes and buses (whose buses? Who will pay their fares?) without having a specific destination will not make the two million displaced people stop longing to return to their country, as they have not stopped doing so over the past 75 years. If there is anyone who knows that the people do not forget their homeland from which they were easily removed, it is us, the Jews.

I do not think that anyone observed this immediate and smooth transition in the statements of the Israeli right, from saying, “The Nakba did not happen in the first place,” to declaring that “The Nakba must be committed again.” The first statement was, at least to some extent, an expression of a sound moral feeling that the mass and intentional displacement of civilian populations should not be boasted about. As a people who have been expelled, time after time, throughout history, it is our right and our duty to protect ourselves from attempts to revoke our right to exist. In the same context, when we have a national homeland, we must renounce attempts to permanently displace millions of men, women and children from their homes.

The moral response of those calling for the Nakba is to say that Palestinians must be encouraged to emigrate, because it is in their interest. The proponents of this statement are trying to convey an objectionable message. It is true that it is forbidden to prevent Palestinians who wish to leave their homeland from fulfilling their desire. There are Palestinians who prefer to leave their country, just as there are Israelis who want to leave the country and immigrate abroad. But it is enough to imagine how we would feel if there was a Saudi project to pay a huge sum to every Jew who preferred to immigrate to Singapore, for us to realize that this innocent proposal to encourage immigration is not innocent when it turns into a political plan.

The right, which claims that it alone is realistic, but focuses on the disappearance of millions of Palestinians and the establishment of settlements in the lands from which they will flee, only proves that it is a camp that lives in illusion.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is primarily responsible for the widespread security and political failure that led to the October 7 “massacre” and the outbreak of war. The thousands who demonstrated at the end of every Saturday in Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Caesarea, and who demanded his resignation from his position as prime minister, prove that the conditions are ripe for the resumption of protest and the expansion of its ranks.

There is nothing more valid than protesting against Netanyahu, now, and in times of war. There is nothing more right than calling for his removal, now, and in times of war. The shock that the country experienced at Simhat HaTorah, which marked a turning point in the history of the State of Israel, is the reason for curbing the protest against Netanyahu.

It is no coincidence that Netanyahu refuses to bear responsibility for the disaster that befell the State of Israel. His rejection represents the essence of his character. It is proven by his behavior that he tries to take advantage of the wartime in order to prepare politically for the “next day” in order to consolidate the narrative that holds the army, intelligence, and Shin Bet responsible for their negligence, and that the only theory that collapsed is the Oslo theory, and that the accused are Yitzhak Rabin and those who followed in his path, and the protest against him, of course.

All this without saying a single word about the judicial coup that he pushed forward, in the service of the Kahanist extreme right, which thirsts for Jewish annexation and supremacy, and which Netanyahu himself encouraged in an unprecedented way.

On October 7, the “protector of Israel” turned out to be a scarecrow. Everything Netanyahu said turned out to be just bragging. Not only did he succeed in ignoring the Palestinian conflict, but the State of Israel appeared naked during his long years of rule, which were longer than any other prime minister, even the Ben-Gurion governments. It is not surprising that there were those who described the situation on October 7 in the cover settlements as a vacuum: there was no state, no army, and no one came.

The state did not exist because Netanyahu eliminated it. For years, he convinced everyone that he was the homeland, and put himself before its interests and the interests of the public and the future, and when the time came, the truth became clear: there is nothing.

Two and a half months after the start of the war, it is clear to everyone that Israeli citizens do not have the luxury of surrendering to the shock that has befallen them and allowing Netanyahu to continue his rule. Because the one who destroyed cannot be the one who will repair. It is time to demand that the person who caused this catastrophe to the State of Israel vacate his position and allow others to repair what he destroyed.

The Hebrew Broadcasting Authority revealed, on Monday, that Israel is considering a settlement that would require the deportation of Hamas leaders abroad, with the aim of ending the war that has been ongoing in the Gaza Strip for more than two months.

The commission said: “Israel is studying the possibility of transferring Hamas’ leadership abroad, as part of a settlement aimed at ending the war in the Gaza Strip.”

The authority quoted an Israeli source familiar with the details of the ongoing deliberations in this regard, saying: “There is no concrete proposal on the table at this stage, but this possibility is under discussion.”

According to the source, discussion of this issue is possible “provided that it does not harm the goal set by the Israeli mini-ministerial council for security and political affairs (the cabinet), which is to eliminate the authoritarian and military capabilities of the Hamas movement.”

The Commission did not reveal the names of the Hamas leaders it intends to deport, or the country to which they are expected to be deported, but it explained that “while there are leaders of the Hamas movement in Gaza, there are also leaders in Qatar, Lebanon, and other countries.”

On Sunday evening, the Broadcasting Corporation began circulating news about the deportation of Hamas leaders in exchange for ending the war, which is considered a clear reduction of the Israeli ambition after eliminating the movement and its leaders was a priority during the war in which Tel Aviv suffered many material and human losses.

Commenting on this, Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir said in a tweet on Sunday evening: “With (the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar) and (the leader of the military wing of Hamas, Muhammad Al-Deif), there is only one solution, which is to liquidate them!” Not deportation or negotiation.”

The number of Israeli soldiers and officers killed since the outbreak of the war in the Gaza Strip and Hamas’ implementation of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7 has reached 489, the Israeli army announced on Monday morning.

The Israeli government has repeatedly repeated that one of the goals of its war on Gaza is to liquidate the leaders of Hamas, the first of whom are Al-Deif and Al-Sanwar, and it has allocated material rewards to those who provide information indicating their locations and achieving this.

As of Monday morning, Hamas had not commented on this report.

Yesterday, Sunday, the Israeli government approved the allocation of 75 million shekels ($20 million) to secure illegal settlement outposts in the West Bank, in conjunction with the campaign of raids and arrests it launches throughout the West Bank, and the violent aggression against the besieged Gaza Strip.

At its weekly meeting yesterday, the Israeli government approved Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s proposal to allocate 75 million shekels for the security aspects of the illegal settlements in the West Bank, which are known as “young settlements,” according to the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

Recently, many Israeli officials have faced criticism for continuing to allocate funds to settlement outposts during the war.

The term "settlement outposts" refers to small settlements established by settlers on Palestinian land without official approval from the Israeli government.

Source: Al Jazeera

From yesterday evening until Monday morning, the Israeli occupation forces arrested at least (35) citizens from the West Bank, including children, with the continuation of systematic arrests and the comprehensive aggression launched by the occupation against our people.

The authority and the club said that the arrests were concentrated in the Jenin governorate, while the rest of the arrests were distributed in the governorates of: Bethlehem, Hebron, Ramallah, Tulkarm, Jericho, Tubas, and Jerusalem.

In addition to the arrests that were recorded, the occupation, since dawn today, continues to storm the town of Burqa/Nablus, and carries out field investigations with dozens of citizens, in addition to the ongoing raids on citizens’ homes, accompanied by widespread sabotage and destruction operations, and it has not been possible to confirm who the occupation has kept in detention. Until now.

It is noteworthy that the total number of arrests after October 7 amounted to about (4,730), 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.

Note that, in recent times, the occupation forces have been focusing on field investigation operations, where they arrest many citizens, with the aim of investigating them on the ground, and then release them later, after carrying out acts of abuse and torture against them.

Last night, Israeli colonists cut down 60 olive trees on the lands of the village of Jalud, south of Nablus.

The head of the Jaloud Village Council, Raed Haj Muhammad, said that colonists stormed the “entire sector” area east of the village, cut down trees, and destroyed water tanks and irrigation pipes, owned by the citizen Nizar Youssef Odeh.

The American newspaper “The New York Times” documented, in an investigative report, the killing of Israeli civilians in a house that an Israeli military commander ordered to be bombed with a tank, on October 7, in Kibbutz Be’eri on the outskirts of the Gaza Strip.

The newspaper said in a lengthy report that took 10 weeks to prepare, and included an interview with 80 Israelis from the kibbutz and an analysis of dozens of video clips: “With a state of military chaos, General Barak Hiram was suddenly appointed responsible for the Israeli efforts to reclaim Be’eri and the surrounding area.”

It added: “General Hiram was considered a rising star in the army, as he lost one of his eyes during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 2006. He was scheduled to take command of the army’s Gaza Division next year (2024), and his division was operating in northern Israel and in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.” .

It added, “He arrived in Be’ri at around four in the afternoon, to find a disorganized mixture of Israeli units fighting in different parts of the town.”

According to the report, surveillance camera footage showed the soldiers reclaiming the town’s dining hall, spreading across the parking lot, and evacuating wounded residents through the same side gate that the attackers had used hours earlier to penetrate the town.

It added: “A complex situation was developing in Bessie Cohen’s house, where the 14 hostages were being held. To slow the soldiers’ advance, the kidnappers forced nearly half of the hostages, including the Dagan family, into the backyard of Ms. Cohen’s house, and placed the hostages between the troops and the house.” 

It continued: “Expecting an exchange of gunfire, the Dagan family lay down next to the wall of the house, and Mrs. Dagan was hugging her husband from behind.”

It noted, “At approximately four o’clock in the evening, the police SWAT team and the gunmen began exchanging fire, while the hostages in the backyard were trapped in the middle.”

It said: “A Palestinian fighter hid in the kitchen and began to take off his clothes (the Israeli army asks militants to take off their clothes to ensure that there are no weapons), and he grabbed Mrs. Porat while he was almost naked, and took her out of the house towards the SWAT team, which prompted the officers to stop shooting.” The Hamas fighter was surrendering, and Mrs. Borat was his human shield.”

It noted, “During another period of calm, Ms. Dagan opened her eyes to see at least two hostages and one of the kidnappers killed in the shooting, and she said it was not clear who killed them.”

It added: “As dusk approached, the Israeli Special Forces Commander and General Hiram began to argue, and the Special Forces Commander thought that more kidnappers might surrender, while the General wanted to resolve the situation at night.”

The newspaper continued: “Minutes later, the militants fired a rocket-propelled grenade, according to the general and other witnesses who spoke to the New York Times.”

The newspaper noted that “General Hiram remembers saying to the tank commander: ‘The negotiations have ended, storm (the house) even if it was at the cost of civilian casualties, and the tank fired two light shells towards the house.’”

It added: “A fragment of the second shell hit Mr. Dagan in the neck, cutting an artery and killing him, according to what his wife said.”

The newspaper continued: “The kidnappers were also killed during the clash, and only two of the 14 hostages survived, namely Mrs. Dagan and Mrs. Porat.”

In a related context, a former leader of the Israeli opposition, on Sunday, December 24, 2023, called for an investigation into the Israeli occupation army’s implementation of the “Hannibal” Protocol in Israeli towns surrounding the Gaza Strip, on October 7, 2023. The “Hannibal” Protocol requires the use of weapons Heavy duty in the event of an Israeli being captured, even if this poses a danger to him, to prevent the captors from leaving the site of the event, given that a dead Israeli is better than a captured Israeli.

Controversy arose over the Israeli army's implementation of this protocol, after information about the killing of Israelis by bullets from its soldiers during a Hamas attack on towns and military bases in the Gaza Strip on October 7.

The former leader of the Israeli Labor Party, Shelly Yachimovich, said in a tweet on the “X” platform: “There is a violent campaign to prevent any investigation or talk about the hell incident, in which Brigadier General Hiram ordered the firing of a tank and storming the house in (the) Bari area, and killing 12 hostages, including children, were deliberately taken.”

She considered that what happened was an implementation of the “Hannibal Protocol,” and commented sarcastically: “Hannibal is turning over in his grave.” She added: "The reason? Hiram, he is an Israeli hero. Israel's heroes protect the children of Israel and do not kill them. Who am I to judge? Who is he to kill?"

Israel did not officially recognize the application of the Hannibal Protocol in the Israeli towns surrounding the Gaza Strip.

According to Israeli media, the “Hannibal Protocol” is a military directive applied by the Israeli army and relates to how field units respond when a soldier is captured by hostile forces.

According to the Israeli media, the protocol was drafted in 1986, and was canceled in 2016 by a decision of the then Israeli Army Chief of Staff, Gadi Eisenkot, who currently holds the position of minister in the Military Ministerial Council.

Source: Sama News

When US President Joe Biden took office three years ago, he announced in an enthusiastic tone that “America is back!” To assume its international responsibilities after the isolationist policy pursued by his predecessor, Donald Trump, but Washington finds itself today in increasing international isolation. Because of its firm support for "Israel" in its war on Gaza.

Since the war began on October 7, Washington has more than once been forced to stand alone in international forums to defend its ally.

In the UN Security Council, for example, the United States used its veto power twice in a row to prevent the issuance of two resolutions calling for a “humanitarian ceasefire” in the Palestinian Strip.

However, on Friday, the most powerful country in the world emerged timidly from its isolation in the UN Security Council by deciding not to support a resolution calling for the introduction of “large-scale” humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.

Contrary to the position taken by some of its closest allies, such as Britain, France, and Japan, which voted in favor of the resolution, the United States abstained from voting.

A week before that, in the United Nations General Assembly, the United States found only Austria and the Czech Republic among its other European partners to vote against a resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. This situation continues to have a negative impact on the image of the United States in the world.

Leslie Vinjamuri, an expert at the Chatham House Research Center in London, says: “The way all this is viewed in the rest of the world is that the United States cares about the Israelis and the Ukrainians,” and pays less attention to non-Western peoples.

Unlike his Republican predecessor, who supported “Israel” without any reservation, Biden lost his patience more than once with the Hebrew state, to the extent that he brought his differences with the government of Benjamin Netanyahu to public.

In his defense of the war that Israel is waging, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken urged the world to put pressure on Hamas and not just the Hebrew state, reminding that the fuse of this war was lit by Hamas.

US administration officials repeatedly say: The pressure they are exerting on the Israeli government behind the scenes is bearing fruit, as the Hebrew state agreed to allow fuel tankers to enter Gaza, restore Internet service to the Strip, and open the crossings.

But Vinjamuri says; This narrative that Biden “hugs Netanyahu while pressing in secret” will not hold true for long.

"Total bias"

An opinion poll conducted by the Independent Organization on a sample of Arab people, the results of which were published at the end of November, showed that only 7 percent of those polled believed that the United States’ role in the war on Gaza was positive.

Twenty years ago, the invasion of Iraq damaged the reputation of the United States in the world.

Munqith Dagher, an official in the Al-Mustaqla organization, says: Until recently, America “still represents this image, of a country that embodies (...) democracy, human rights, freedom of expression (...), and many values that befit the famous American dream.”

But the torrent of horrific scenes from Gaza, circulated en masse on social media, “turned the situation upside down,” he added.

Dagher considers that this showed the Arabs "the United States' complete bias toward the Israelis, and their lack of respect for human rights when it comes to the Palestinians."

The first to benefit from this shift in public opinion were China and Russia, but the most prominent beneficiary was Iran.

China has greatly intensified its diplomatic efforts in the region, but the Biden administration has besieged it by urging it to use its influence with Tehran to stop attacks launched by the Houthis, from areas under their control in Yemen, on commercial ships in the Red Sea. While China has a limited military presence in the Middle East, the United States has recently established a military alliance to protect ship traffic in the region.

Brian Katulis, from the Middle East Research Institute, says: Many of the Arab countries that denounce Washington's foreign policy "are the same ones that benefit from the security system established by the United States."

He adds: "I notice a certain form of schizophrenia in many of the statements coming from the Arab world. They cannot live with us, but they cannot live without us either."

By Aaron David Miller and Daniel C. Kurtzer

Wars in the Middle East rarely end cleanly. Some observers, however, have expressed the hope that the Israel-Hamas war could upend a dangerous status quo and eventually lead to more stability in the region. The war is often compared to the October 1973 Yom Kippur War between Israel and the combined forces of Egypt and Syria, largely because of the magnitude of Israel’s intelligence failures, the Israeli public’s loss of faith in their government, and the national trauma that followed. But the truth is that any meaningful comparison ends there. More than 2,800 Israelis were killed in the Yom Kippur War. Yet that conflict never incorporated the kind of sadistic, indiscriminate torture, killing, and hostage-taking that Hamas perpetrated in October 2023—nor the subsequent large-scale airstrikes by Israeli forces that have already resulted in thousands of civilian deaths. The 1973 war lasted merely three weeks and quickly entered a relatively well-structured disengagement agreement brokered by the United States, launching a process that led to a landmark Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty signed by two strong leaders: the charismatic, heroic Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat and the tough Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. By contrast, the two traumatized societies that emerge from the current war will face a level of anguish, casualties, and devastation that will demand a herculean task of physical reconstruction and psychological healing. As many as 1,400 Israelis and 18,000 Palestinians have died so far. Some 150,000 Israelis and more than 1.8 million Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced from their homes. In the West Bank, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) raids and extremist settler vigilantism have already led to the deaths of over 260 Palestinians, the arrests of nearly 2,000, and the displacement of almost 1,000 from their lands. The ideas that Israel, after completing its military operations to disable Hamas, will make a full exit from Gaza and that the Palestinian Authority (PA) can quickly and authoritatively take over are not realistic. And this war does not have heroic leaders: both sides suffer from profoundly ineffectual governance.    

There is no realistic prospect in the near term of a dramatic, uplifting denouement to the conflict that validates each side’s sacrifices and provides relief and hope for the future. In late October, U.S. President Joe Biden declared that the region must not return to its pre–October 7 status quo. If Biden wants change, however, his administration must undertake bolder policy moves—ones that firmly guide the region toward a two-state solution. Policymakers may wish to avoid bold moves in a fast-changing situation: such moves will be practically difficult and politically risky. But the facts on the ground suggest that the region cannot return to its unstable prewar status quo. Instead, without careful guidance, a new status quo is likely to emerge that will be even more problematic. Only bold American leadership now will support a good outcome in the aftermath of this war.

UNSTABLE EQUILIBRIUM 

In waging war in Gaza, Israeli officials have stated that their goals are to destroy Hamas and then demilitarize and deradicalize Gaza. What these leaders mean by “deradicalize” remains unclear. But even if the Israelis succeed in destroying Hamas’s military capabilities, they will not simply declare mission accomplished in Gaza and depart. Israel’s leaders have ruled out both Hamas and the PA as governing authorities, and Israel will thus likely remain in Gaza for an extended period. Israel already controls Gaza’s land, sea, and air access, as well as its electromagnetic spectrum. Even if Israel succeeds in ending Hamas’s rule in Gaza, it will undoubtedly want to retain some authority, ensuring at a minimum that all imports with dual-use military purposes are carefully monitored and controlled. Continued friction with the United Nations and other international aid organizations—already high thanks to Israel’s military operations and the deaths of thousands of Gazans, including UN aid workers—is inevitable. If Israel tries to remain in Gaza for an extended time, it will face residual attacks from Hamas and other terrorist organizations and enormous challenges in maintaining law and order. Even as some Israeli officials speak of exiting Gaza, they also talk openly about the necessity of creating long-term “buffer zones” and about Israel’s overall responsibility for security. But the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank and those in the Arab states will surely refuse to be subcontractors for Israel’s security operations. Simply put, no bright line will separate war from peace in this conflict. Instead, Israel’s military actions in Gaza will likely transition from an intensive air and ground campaign to more targeted operations, and Israel will be part of the Gazan landscape for some time. Try as Israel might to avoid former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell’s “Pottery Barn” rule—you break it, you own it—an extended Israeli presence in Gaza will inevitably involve taking on more, not less, responsibility for and involvement in the territory’s affairs. And that is likely to inflame tensions with whoever comes to formally govern Gaza.

A LIMITED PARTNER

On paper, the best option for Gaza’s future over the long term is Palestinian governance led by a revitalized and legitimized PA. The PA already helps cover Gaza’s public-sector employees’ salaries and assists in paying for the area’s electricity. The international community sees it as the legitimate authority in Gaza as well as in the West Bank. Earlier this month, in a meeting with PA President Mahmoud Abbas, U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan talked about the role a revitalized PA might play in governing Gaza. But because of its own dysfunction—and, in no small measure, Israeli policies—the PA has become weak and ineffectual. Palestinians perceive it to be corrupt, nepotistic, and authoritarian: in an Arab Barometer survey of Gazans conducted just before October 7, a majority of respondents considered the PA to be a burden on the Palestinian people. Abbas is 87 and in the 19th year of what was supposed to be a four-year term. He refused to hold new elections in 2021 and has increasingly lost touch with young Palestinians. When respondents in the same Arab Barometer poll were asked whom they would vote for if presidential elections were held in Gaza, 32 percent chose the imprisoned Fatah activist Marwan Barghouti and 24 percent chose the Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. Only 12 percent chose Abbas. During this war, the PA has been unable to protect Palestinians in the West Bank from IDF raids and attacks by settler vigilantes, let alone influence the course of Israel’s operations in Gaza. Hamas’s stock, meanwhile, has risen in the West Bank since its October 7 terror attack and its negotiated release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. For many Palestinians who distrust Abbas and revile Israel’s recent actions, Hamas is becoming the only game in town.  

Restoring the Palestinians’ faith in the PA will take a great deal of effort and time. It would require the PA to run fair and free elections in the West Bank and Gaza and to convince voters that it really will aim to end Israel’s occupation and create an independent Palestinian state. Should it succeed, Israel would also need to demonstrate its commitment—in words and actions on the ground—to advancing a two-state outcome. And with the current Israeli government, this scenario is impossible.

POWER GRAB

In one sense, it is not a surprise that the Israel-Hamas war broke out in Gaza rather than in the West Bank. Gaza has often been at the center of tensions between the Israelis and the Palestinians: the first intifada began in Gaza in 1987, and in the twenty-first century, Gaza has been the focal point of at least six significant Israeli-Palestinian conflicts. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition has focused on the West Bank, attempting to create the conditions for annexation. In the first half of 2023, Netanyahu’s government pushed any possibility of a two-state solution further away by advancing or approving permits for 13,000 new housing units in West Bank settlements, the highest number recorded since 2012.The fact that Netanyahu presided over the worst terror attack and the worst intelligence failure in Israel’s history, as well as the bloodiest single day for Jews since the Holocaust, has discredited his leadership. Many observers have reasonably presumed that his political career will soon reach its end, as Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir’s did after the Yom Kippur War. But Netanyahu will fight to hang on to power. Facing indictments for breach of trust, bribery, and fraud, Netanyahu desperately wants to avoid jail. Already, he has broken with tradition by suggesting that he will organize the inquiry into the government failures that preceded Hamas’s attack; the resulting inquiry will lack the legal authority of a state commission.

For now, Netanyahu retains a comfortable 74-seat majority in the Knesset, and he has shown he is willing to pay any price to extremist and haredi partners to keep his ruling coalition intact. In May 2023, the Knesset passed Netanyahu’s budget, cementing the coalition’s grip on power until 2025. The terms of the emergency government Israel created days after the war broke out foreclosed taking up any legislation unrelated to the prosecution of the war. Netanyahu’s government is likely to survive for some time to come. Netanyahu will continue to come under public pressure to step down. Some well-respected former leaders of Israel’s security establishment have already called on him to resign. If he refuses to do so, however, there is no clear mechanism to remove him from office—even though his trial has now resumed. 

Should Netanyahu remain in power, the situation in the West Bank is likely to deteriorate.

In the meantime, Netanyahu is moving to shore up support among his right-wing partners. In fact, his administration appears to be taking advantage of the attention Gaza is drawing away from the West Bank to pursue more settlement expansion and repress the Palestinians. Since October 7, extremist settlers in the West Bank have been involved in scores of incidents of aggression and intimidation against Palestinians, forcing at least a thousand—including entire shepherding communities—off their land. A third of these episodes involved settlers drawing firearms on Palestinians. In almost half the total incidents, the IDF accompanied or actively supported the settlers.

If the IDF succeeds in its war aims by killing Hamas’s top leaders, Netanyahu could even regain some support. Israel’s electorate had shifted to the right well before this war. Hamas’s terrorism may well encourage a further radicalization of the Israeli population.

Should Netanyahu remain in power for any extended period, the situation in the West Bank is likely to continue to deteriorate, possibly leading to a Palestinian uprising stimulated in part by extremist settlers. He will also exploit for his own benefit whatever the United States decides to do or not do. 

If Biden tries to revive the peace process, Netanyahu will likely emphasize what he has already told his Likud Party: that only he can stop the creation of an independent Palestinian state. If, on the other hand, Biden assesses that the chances of a two-state peace process are nonexistent in the near term, Netanyahu will trumpet his ability to convince the Americans to stay out of his way.

BINARY OPTIONS

For the United States, the policy dilemmas appear terribly complex. But after 56 years of Israeli occupation with no end in sight, these dilemmas need to be settled sooner rather than later. The United States’ choice is binary—either try to help create the conditions for a two-state solution or adjust to a postconflict situation that is worse than the status quo ante, resolves no underlying issues, and probably sets up the conditions for another war. 

Pushing hard for a two-state solution would be complicated. 

The United States would have to help orchestrate several critical processes simultaneously: setting in place Gaza reconstruction mechanisms to be ready to operate the day the IDF leaves, bringing reluctant Arab parties on board to help maintain law and order and set up interim governance in Gaza, keeping the remnants of Hamas at bay, compelling the PA to restructure itself so it can regain the confidence of the Palestinian public, and addressing legitimate Israeli security concerns.

This course of action by the United States would also be politically risky: it could have the unintended effect of giving Netanyahu a campaign tool to remain in power. Success is far from assured. The United States will be dealing with traumatized leaders who may be unwilling or unable to make big decisions. And the Israelis and the Palestinians have failed many times to create a pathway to peace when the external context was far less fraught than it is today. Even if Netanyahu leaves office, no other top politician in Israel appears eager to embark down a path of peace.  As a potential peace broker, the United States also lacks credibility. To move toward a two-state solution, Arabs and Europeans would need to have faith in the United States’ intentions and follow-through. The United States’ vetoes and no votes in the UN Security Council and the General Assembly on resolutions for humanitarian cease-fires have not inspired confidence. And even those allies that trust Washington to implement its plans will wonder what will happen if Biden loses his upcoming reelection bid. But the alternative approach—hoping for a return to the pre–October 7 status quo without a serious effort by the United States to advance the prospects for a lasting peace—could be worse. Even if Netanyahu leaves office, no other current top politician in Israel appears eager to embark down a path of peace. And there are no Palestinian leaders with the gravitas and political weight to engage seriously with Israel in the aftermath of the conflict. Some speak of Barghouti as a potential Palestinian leader, but he is serving five life sentences for murdering Israelis and has no track record in political life that suggests he would be a peacemaker.

Stimulating the PA to reform itself is a task beyond the capability of the United States alone. Washington will need to act in concert with others to get the PA to do what it has resisted doing for decades: become less authoritarian, fight corruption, and agree to hold new elections for its presidency and its Legislative Council. Pressuring the PA to reestablish its legitimacy among Palestinians will require significant efforts by Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates—the so-called Arab Quartet—as well as the EU, which has always played an important role in Palestinian institution building. To bring about this multilateral effort, however, Arab actors will need to see a clear American policy that goes beyond Gaza and focuses on ending the decades-long conflict. 

CALCULATED RISK 

But the risks of advocating for a two-state approach are worth taking. Other actors will take the measure of U.S. credibility from what Washington is prepared to do to confront the inconvenient realities that will almost certainly define the postconflict landscape. The Biden administration has the smarts and the backbone to follow through even when the going gets tough. And the going will get tough. A bold effort to push a two-state solution, however, could attract support from Arab states to help ensure basic law and order, interim governance, and reconstruction in Gaza, as well as a safety net for the PA as it embarks on the necessary efforts to reform itself.

The question facing the Biden administration is what can it realistically do in the year before the upcoming U.S. presidential elections given the constraints posed by American politics and those it is likely to encounter in Israel, among the Palestinians, and throughout the Arab world. In the near term, the United States can take actions that would help overcome some early obstacles to a two-state solution. 

First, Biden should continue to press Israel to quickly end its intense ground and air campaign—which is certain to keep causing substantial civilian casualties—in favor of more focused and targeted operations.

His administration must also push hard for an increase in the amount of humanitarian assistance that enters Gaza, including by ensuring that the recently opened Kerem Shalom border crossing remains open and pressing for the resumption of negotiations to release Hamas’s remaining Israeli hostages. And the administration must press Israel and the PA to clamp down on violence by extremist settlers and Palestinian militants in the West Bank.

The risks of advocating for a two-state approach are worth taking, and the Biden administration has the smarts to follow through.

Third, the United States needs to ensure that Israel respects U.S. guidelines on Gaza, including no reduction of Gaza’s territory, no forced relocations of Gazans, and Palestinian governance. U.S. officials should make clear, both in their public statements and in their private contacts with Israelis and others, that Gaza and the West Bank must remain one integral unit and that the PA will eventually resume its governance of Gaza.

The United States will also need to be proactive in trying to ensure that conflict along the Israeli-Lebanese border does not erupt into a full-scale war. At least 60,000 Israelis have been displaced from their homes in the north of Israel. If the 2006 UN Security Council resolution mandating Hezbollah’s withdrawal north of the Litani River is not enforced, Israel may deploy its military to contain Hezbollah, which could prompt a full-blown war with a terrorist organization far more potent than Hamas. To blunt this risk, the United States will need to maintain the deterrent military forces it dispatched to the region in October 2023.Finally, the Biden administration must make sure that all regional players understand that a two-state solution is the United States’ preferred outcome. It must define a pathway toward that outcome that clarifies what steps each side must take to create the right environment for eventual negotiations. U.S. leaders should tell the Israeli people that it is time for them to face the fundamental choice the country has avoided since 1967: Will Israel occupy Palestinian territory indefinitely, or can it live alongside a Palestinian state? The United States must send the message to the Palestinians that the time has come for them, too, to make a choice: Will they remain under occupation or reform their governance? U.S. leaders must work closely with key Arab countries such as Egypt, the Gulf states, and Jordan to support these shifts. Saudi Arabia, given its interest in normalization with Israel, will have an especially important role to play.

THE ONLY GOOD BET

Can any of this succeed with the current Israeli and Palestinian leadership at the helm? Not a chance. Netanyahu must go. And Abbas, too. But even if they stay in power in the near term, the United States has stronger options. Biden must not threaten to withhold necessary military assistance from Israel. But he can make it clearer to the Israelis that the continued strength of their relationship with Washington rests on Israel understanding that it cannot reoccupy Gaza, and that their ultimate security guarantee will be a peace agreement with a similarly peace-minded Palestinian state. By framing his rhetoric as the kind of straight talk that Netanyahu avoids, Biden may be able to influence Israeli attitudes without diminishing his chances of reelection in 2024.Most government policy memos, including many we wrote during our service in the U.S. State Department, propose three options: a bold one that suggests moves the policymaker will find difficult to swallow, a status quo option that allows the policymaker to believe that not much needs to be done, and a “Goldilocks” option that proposes just enough action to show muscle but not enough to ruffle feathers. Often, the Goldilocks option is chosen: it affords a sense of movement while incurring minimal risks.Yet there will be no Goldilocks option available in the aftermath of the Israel-Hamas war. 

Biden should adopt a determined stance—in words and deeds—that seriously advances the prospect of a two-state solution. Should he gain a second presidential term, the groundwork he lays in 2024 toward a more lasting resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will position him well to engage more intensively: the situation cannot be allowed to deteriorate until after the U.S. election season passes. 

Great political and practical pressures weigh on Biden, should he should choose to be bold. But far greater risks may emerge if he doesn’t.

More than 20,000 Palestinians have lost their lives in the Gaza Strip since the outbreak of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip on October 7th. The number of Gaza residents reported killed during Israel's 11-week war there has effectively exceeded the death toll in any other Arab conflict with Israel in more than 40 years, and perhaps any other conflict since the founding of the State of Israel in 1948.

A state of anger spread across the Arab and even international streets over the massive loss of life, which truly constituted a horrific human tragedy. Many experts and researchers expressed their opinions regarding the situation in the Gaza Strip by following the latest developments, and we present some of them in this article.

The war on Gaza has crossed all borders

Hala Suleiman, a Jordanian journalist specializing in political affairs, said in an interview with Xinhua News Agency that the extent of the destruction caused by the Israeli war in the Gaza Strip is great, pointing out that Israel continues to ignore all international calls for an immediate ceasefire, but rather It violates all international laws by targeting hospitals, mosques, churches and schools.

Raed Mahmoud, political editor at the Jordanian Press Foundation, pointed out that the Jordanians were a strong voice from the beginning in supporting the people of Gaza, adding that Israel continues to commit its crimes and prevent the entry of humanitarian aid intended to be delivered to civilians in the Strip, which led to the death of many injured people in hospitals due to a lack of medical supplies and medicines.

Also regarding the health situation in which Gaza suffers from the cessation of basic services and is desperately trying to obtain vital supplies, Dr. Ahmed Al-Mandhari, Regional Director of the World Health Organization, explained in an interview via the Zoom application on the “Masaa DMC” program that out of 36 Hospital in the Gaza Strip, only 9 hospitals are now operating, including 4 hospitals that only provide first aid.

On the other hand, military experts confirmed that the shocking numbers of the Israeli war on Gaza cannot be compared to any other war, as Major General Nasr Salem, while speaking to the Egyptian newspaper ((Youm 7)) described the scene, saying that the goals of the Israeli war on Gaza exceeded what was declared "It reached a war of annihilation against the Palestinian people."

Mark Garlasco, a military expert and former intelligence analyst at the US Pentagon, agreed with this opinion, describing the conditions in Gaza as exceeding everything he had seen in his professional life, as the pace of killing of civilians accelerated and the most vulnerable groups, such as women and children, became the most affected, compared to the wars United States led in Afghanistan and Iraq which were widely criticized by human rights groups.

At the same time, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry called for consideration of the extent of the massive destruction inflicted on the Gaza Strip, saying that it is unacceptable for civil society to deal with what is happening in Gaza in terms of killing and forced displacement outside the framework of the rules of international law.

Voices are rising with international impatience

António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, sent a message to the UN Security Council on December 6 regarding the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, saying, “We face a grave danger of the collapse of the humanitarian system. The situation is rapidly deteriorating toward a catastrophe that may have irreversible consequences for the Palestinians and for peace and security in the region.”

After arduous international efforts, the UN Security Council adopted a key resolution on Friday emphasizing the need to take urgent steps to allow immediate delivery of humanitarian aid to stricken civilians in Gaza, without calling for an “urgent cessation of hostilities” between Israel and Hamas. This vote came after the United States used its veto power against a Russian amendment that restored the call for a “cessation of hostilities.”

In fact, the United States has thrown its support behind its old ally Israel, repeatedly objecting to draft resolutions submitted at the United Nations regarding the situation in Gaza. In October and December, it used its veto twice against a draft resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, despite the support of the vast majority of Security Council members, which increased the dissatisfaction and anger of the international community.

For her part, the Secretary-General of Amnesty International (Amnesty), Agnes Callamard, said on the social media platform (X) that the United States’ use of the veto “shows extreme disregard for the suffering of civilians in the face of the massive loss of life” in the Gaza Strip.

She also noted in the statement published on December 8 that Washington “brazenly resorted to the use of the veto and used it as a weapon to impose its opinion on the UN Security Council, which undermined its credibility and its ability to fulfill its mandate of maintaining international peace and security.”

For his part, Hossam Zaki, Assistant Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, said during the Russian-Arab Cooperation Forum in Marrakesh, Morocco last Wednesday, “We hope that the Security Council will be able to pass this resolution, and that there will not be a vote from a permanent member, especially the United States,” adding that "The Arab hope is that the United States will understand that international patience has run out with Israeli practices."

In the same forum, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, stressed in a video speech from Cairo that everyone who stands against an immediate ceasefire in Gaza has the blood of innocent people on his hands.

A press statement issued by the Hamas government media office on Wednesday in Gaza indicated that more than 1.8 million displaced people in the Gaza Strip are clearly threatened in terms of food, water and medicine security, and are suffering from poor living and shelter, adding that the aid entering the Gaza Strip does not meet 2 percent of the Gaza Strip's enormous needs. The statement also holds the international community, the United States, and Israel fully responsible for the war.

Regarding Washington’s role in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Palestinian political writer Akram Atallah told Xinhua that the United States has moved in this war from an ally to a partner, a full partner that covers Israel diplomatically and politically and before international institutions, and has also isolated Israel’s opponents in the region, this will affect the ceasefire and weaken the prospects for calm.

On the other hand, James Zogby, an Arab-American academic and writer who heads the Arab American Institute in Washington, said that instead of dealing seriously with the huge loss of Palestinian lives and the extremely harsh conditions in which the displaced live, the United States continues to give priority to the imaginary Israeli military goal of "Eliminating Hamas."

Blatant double standards

At the same time, Sahar Khamis, a non-resident senior fellow at the Middle East Council for International Affairs, said that Western media has taken a clearly biased position in favor of Israel, causing the spread of misinformation about the crisis and the dehumanization of Palestinians to increase.

She added that while the Western media categorically classified October 7 as a “terrorist attack,” in contrast, they portrayed the Israeli attack on Gaza as an action that falls within the framework of “self-defense.”

In the same context, Rami Khoury, distinguished fellow at the American University of Beirut, said that the American media’s reluctance to use the word “genocide” in relation to the Israeli attacks on Gaza, along with its tendency to ignore or deny Israeli crimes against innocent Palestinians, indicates that Israel can continue the campaign of “murder with impunity".

Also, in November of this year, the Washington Post reported in a report that more than 750 journalists signed an open letter criticizing Western media coverage of the war. The letter includes two signatories from Reuters, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, and the Washington Post.

In the weeks before the new round of conflict and the weeks that followed, the Arab Barometer conducted a public opinion poll in Tunisia, the results of which revealed a major shift in respondents’ perceptions of the United States. In interviews conducted before October 7, 40 percent of Tunisians had “positive” or “somewhat positive” views of the United States, compared to 56 percent who had “unfavorable” views. But after the start of the war in Gaza, the results changed rapidly. At the end of the survey period, only 10 percent of Tunisians had “positive” opinions of the United States, while 87 percent had “unfavorable” impressions.

It seems that the leading thinkers in the Arab world share this perception with the Tunisians. In Al-Ahram newspaper, the Egyptian politician, writer, and thinker, Dr. Khaled Qandil, wrote about the prominent contradiction between American and European lip service all the time on issues of democracy, human rights, and adherence to international law, saying, “You read two realed news stories” one of them says: “America announces the provision of additional humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people,” while the American air bridge that began on the second day of the war continued to provide military support to the Israeli army.

In an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera Net, Kenneth Roth, former Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, said that the United States government is the largest provider of weapons and military assistance to Israel, and it should refrain from providing any weapons or assistance that could use them to bomb or attack Palestinian civilians. At the very least, any weapons or assistance must be formally linked to stopping these attacks.

Palestinian television announced that the number of dead from the Israeli bombing of several homes in the Maghazi Palestinian refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip had risen to more than 78.

Medical sources at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital confirmed the arrival of 78 dead, including those with body parts, as a result of the artillery shelling and raids that targeted many homes in Al-Maghazi camp, adding that a number of injured people also arrived at the hospital, including some in very serious conditions.

The spokesman for Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said that most of the dead who arrived from the Maghazi and Bureij camps were children, women and the elderly.

The spokesman for the Ministry of Health in Gaza, Dr. Ashraf Al-Qudra, confirmed that what is happening in Al-Maghazi camp is the annihilation of an entire residential square, noting that the number of killed has reached 70, but the number is likely to increase with the presence of many people under the rubble.

The spokesman for the Ministry of Health stated that there are focused targets on the central region, pointing out that the occupation directs residents to the places of their mass killings in areas that it claims are safe.

Al-Qudra pointed out that the Israeli occupation forces are bombing the main road between the camps in the central region to impede the arrival of ambulances and civil defense vehicles to the various targeting locations.

On the 80th day of the aggression against the Gaza Strip, today, Monday, the Israeli occupation forces continue their raids and bombardment on several areas in the Strip, concentrated in the center and south, which led to the death and injury of dozens of citizens, the majority of whom are children and women.

Local sources reported that the Israeli raids were renewed on several areas in the central and southern Gaza Strip, following a bloody night for the people of the Strip, after a massacre in the Al-Maghazi and Al-Bureij camps in the central Gaza Strip, which claimed the lives of about 95 persons, as the occupation warplanes and artillery bombed an entire residential square inn Al-Maghazi camp.

The courtyard of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip is crowded with the bodies of dead, after the intense Israeli raids on the area, awaiting their burial.

The Medical Director of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, Dr. Khalil Al-Dakran: The hospital is full of wounded and dead, and a large number of wounded were piled up on the ground, in the corridors and in tents, and more than 70 dead, most of them body parts, as a result of the Maghazi and Bureij massacres in the central Gaza Strip.

He added that the hospital deals with the injured by saving their lives in a very modest way, because there are not many medicines and medical equipment, and the intensive care rooms are completely full, and the artificial respirators are no longer enough. We need medicines, medical teams, and field hospitals. This closure is a death sentence for the wounded and injured.

He pointed out that infectious diseases began to spread among the displaced people who were filling the hospital's courtyards to escape the Israeli bombing, and infectious, intestinal, and skin diseases spread widely among them, and there were no medicines or beds for them.

In addition, occupation artillery bombed agricultural land near the entrance to the town of Al-Zawaida in the central Gaza Strip, and also bombed the vicinity of Abu Helou schools in Al-Bureij, coinciding with the firing of smoke bombs in the area.

The occupation warplanes targeted agricultural land at the entrance to the Nuseirat camp, coinciding with columns of smoke rising in northern Gaza.

Eyewitnesses said that occupation artillery bombed the town of Jabalia, causing fires to break out in several locations.

The occupation warplanes launched a series of raids on Khan Yunis Governorate, south of the Gaza Strip, specifically in the eastern region.

At dawn today, 23 citizens were killed and dozens were injured, after the Israeli occupation warplanes bombed two homes in the Ma’an area, east of Khan Yunis.

The Red Crescent Society in Gaza reported that there were more than 8,000 reports of missing persons under the rubble in various areas of the Strip.

In an infinite toll, the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip since the 7th of last October has resulted in the death of 20,424 citizens and the wounding of about 54,036 citizens, more than 70% of whom are women and children.

The Hebrew newspaper "Yedioth Ahronoth" said that high-tech factories in Israel find it difficult to import components from China, which imposes "sanctions on us" against the backdrop of the war in Gaza.

The newspaper says, citing importers, that the Chinese have begun to create bureaucratic difficulties for shipments to Israel of components that can be used for civilian and military purposes.

The newspaper also quoted a government source as saying: “It is clear that this is related to the war” on Gaza.

The components being discussed can also be used for military purposes.

Israeli importers say that Chinese suppliers have begun bureaucratic practices without announcing sanctions against Israel and are required to fill out many forms. They are delaying shipments under the pretext of not filling out the forms correctly, and the result is difficulties in obtaining supplies.

An Israeli government source told Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper that: “In recent weeks, high-tech companies have complained about delays in the supply of dual-use components (civilian and military) from China.”

The source adds, "In all the checks we conducted with official bodies, this was not a change in regulations, but rather a measure that had not been done in the past. We fear that the measure will be implemented strictly while we are at war (over Gaza). Appeals have been sent to the Chinese." "Their official response is that there is no change in policy. The problem is that until all the new requirements are met, it is impossible to know whether the supply will be carried out. It is clear to all of us that this is directly related to the war" on Gaza.

The Chinese government took a clearly pro-Palestinian line in the war.

A high-ranking source in one of the factories told Yedioth Ahronoth: “The Chinese are imposing some kind of sanctions on us. They do not announce this officially, but they are delaying shipments to Israel. They have various pretexts and excuses, such as asking suppliers from China to issue export licenses to Israel that were not It didn't exist before. In addition, it requires us to fill out a lot of forms, and it takes time. This has never happened to us before. And this is in many different types of components.. An electronic product has tens of thousands of components, but if it does not arrive, the product cannot be supplied.”

The newspaper says that importing through a third party caused a problem with high costs and delayed delivery time.

China, according to senior Israeli officials, refuses to send workers to Israel during the war. Against the backdrop of a shortage of workers in the construction and agricultural sectors.

According to senior officials, the Chinese are not interested in Israeli considerations such as “who is with us in the war and who is not with us.”

Russia's First Deputy Representative to the United Nations, Dmitry Polyansky, said that the "indecisive resolution" adopted by the Security Council regarding the Gaza Strip was unable to stop the ongoing Israeli cleansing of the Strip.

Polyansky wrote on his Telegram channel: “What is happening (now) is exactly what we warned about during the voting process on the humanitarian resolution on Gaza. Israel interprets it as follows: Creating the conditions for a long ceasefire implies continued cleansing of the Strip.”

He added: "What the Palestinians and Arabs in general benefited from this text remains a mystery to me. Had it not been for their urgent requests, and even their pleas, we would have used the right of veto on this - inconclusive decision -."

This is how the diplomat commented on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's statement regarding the expansion of Tel Aviv's military operation in the Gaza Strip, which is suffering from the scourge of war.

Russia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzia, confirmed that he did not use his veto against the humanitarian resolution issued by the Security Council, only out of solidarity with the Arab countries.

Nebenzia stressed that Russia “categorically disagrees” with the content of the resolution adopted, and noted that “responsibility for all possible consequences will fall on those countries that gave their consent to its version, which was pushed by the United States, and we cannot agree to that.” .

He stressed before the vote that the United States included a dangerous element in the draft resolution it adopted that would allow Israel to cleanse the Gaza Strip, noting that with this decision, “the Israeli armed forces will have full scope to move to cleanse the Strip just as they are doing. Whoever votes on the resolution will be complicit and responsible for the destruction of Gaza.” ".

The UN Security Council adopted a draft resolution prepared by the Arab countries aimed at facilitating the flow of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. 13 countries voted in favor of this document, and Russia and the United States abstained from voting.

One of the items on the Israeli government's agenda was to name the war on Gaza that Israel has been waging in Gaza for more than 11 weeks.

This will be Netanyahu's second attempt in this regard. In the first week of the war, the Israeli Prime Minister, for reasons known only to him, called it the “War of the Iron Swords.” The name was printed on official statements, but it was not widespread among the Israeli public. Even Netanyahu's ministers and Israeli army generals rarely used this term. This time, Netanyahu preferred to call it the “Genesis War” (derived from the biblical “Book of Genesis”).

It is, of course, an exercise in futility for politicians to try to name a war, says the British newspaper The Times, which says: “Netanyahu, the son of a historian, should realize that wars usually acquire their name over time, through popular culture, media usage, and finally the judgment of history".

Netanyahu gives a misleading name to the war on Gaza

But Netanyahu is keen to frame the narrative of what is happening in Gaza for his own political purposes, and the “Genesis War” conjures an epic event that has nothing to do with anything that came before it. It is an attempt to convince the Israeli public that the sudden Hamas attack on October 7 has nothing to do with his policies and management of Israel’s affairs during the long years that preceded the attack while he was prime minister.

These attempts have failed so far. In almost every poll and survey conducted since the war began, an overwhelming majority of the Israeli public has responded that it sees Netanyahu responsible and believes he should resign, either immediately or once the war is over. A clear majority of Israelis also want early elections.

Netanyahu would lose the elections if they were held today

If the elections were held today, most opinion polls predict that the Likud Party would lose about half the votes it received just one year ago, and that Benny Gantz, the former defense minister who joined the mini-war government that was formed days after the war began, would achieve a comfortable victory and become Next Prime Minister of Israel.

Netanyahu was in a difficult political position even before the war began. Due to corruption indictments and a lawsuit against him, in which he faces the possibility of ten years in prison, the centrist parties in the Knesset refused to join a government coalition under his leadership.

In June 2021, he lost power and remained in the opposition for a year and a half until he regained power at the end of 2022 in the fifth Israeli elections in four years.

Although his coalition of far-right and ultra-religious parties finally won a majority, Netanyahu struggled to control his new government, and was unpopular at the national level. Throughout the year, Israelis protested his government's controversial "judicial reform" program, which sought to weaken the independence of the Supreme Court.

He lacks a majority and distances himself from military decisions

Netanyahu now heads the war government, but he lacks a numerical majority in it. In addition to Gantz, the government includes current Defense Minister Yoav Galant, a member of the Likud Party who has distanced himself from his party's leader since last March, when Netanyahu tried to dismiss him after criticizing the government's controversial plan to reform the Israeli judicial system. And Gadi Eisenkot, a political ally of Gantz. All three were former senior army generals, unlike Netanyahu, who only reached the rank of captain. His only ally in the war cabinet, Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer, moved to Israel only as an adult and with no military experience.

A senior ministerial aide said: “Most of the decisions in the war government are made by the three former generals, and Netanyahu is waiting to make his decision until he sees which way the wind is blowing. He is not involved in most of the day-to-day military decisions, and needs a lot of convincing before he signs on the biggest decisions.” 

He spends his time in propaganda and trying to absolve himself of negligence in the face of the Al-Aqsa flood

But that doesn't mean he's not busy. He spent long hours during the war in meetings with political advisers and sympathetic journalists, and at photo ops with world leaders and visiting celebrities like Elon Musk.

There were also carefully designed visits to troops in the field, whether to young recruits who had to hold their tongues, or on rare occasions to well-screened reserve forces.

However, at the beginning of the war there were a few incidents in which reserve soldiers harassed the Prime Minister and demanded that he resign.

In the coming days and weeks, the Israeli government will have to make a series of decisions that will determine the future of the war and its aftermath. Netanyahu will not be alone in taking it, but he will be strongly involved in the process since it will have political repercussions.

Netanyahu must make a decision to reduce the ground offensive

The most urgent decision is the timing of reducing the ground offensive in Gaza. While the Israeli government is not expected to agree to a ceasefire, the war will take a different form now that most of Hamas' strongholds in Gaza City have been destroyed and the Israeli army has occupied most of Khan Yunis, the second largest city in the Gaza Strip.

However, Hamas as a military force has not been defeated, as thousands of its fighters are still hiding in tunnels or have disappeared among the civilian population. The Israeli army believes it will take several more months to eliminate them, but the campaign will be more mobile, with smaller units deployed than the current full divisions.

And conclude a temporary truce

Another major decision will be whether or not to agree to another temporary truce with Hamas to allow for an agreement to release the hostages. There are still 120 Israeli hostages being held in Gaza. Hamas demands a comprehensive ceasefire as a condition for the talks. Although the government views the previous week-long truce as a success after Hamas released 110 hostages, the war cabinet was originally divided over whether to allow Hamas some breathing room. Netanyahu hesitated and did not take sides.

“The hostage agreement could have been concluded weeks earlier if Netanyahu had not been so hesitant,” said a security official advising the government. “It cost valuable time.” With Hamas expected to push a harder deal this time, and the hostage situation turning desperate, the dilemmas will be more severe.

And expanding the aid allowed into Gaza

The government will also have to decide whether to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza for the more than two million people there, most of whom have been displaced by the fighting. Any such decision will lead to the division of the entire government. However, Netanyahu is also under intense pressure from Israel's main ally, the Biden administration, to make an effort to allow more aid to Gaza residents.

American pressure plays a major role in shaping Israel's strategy for the days that follow the war in Gaza. President Biden's stated policy envisions the Palestinian Authority assuming control of Gaza. Netanyahu has repeatedly opposed that plan, but this appears to be primarily a ploy to bolster his flagging nationalist base rather than a true final position.

He wants to create a subordinate Palestinian authority in Gaza, but the Americans refuse to do so

Last week, Netanyahu's national security advisor, Tzachi Hanegbi, published an opinion article on the London-based Arabic website Elaph, saying that there will be a need for a moderate Palestinian ruling body that enjoys broad support and popularity. He added: "In its current form, the (Palestinian) Authority finds it difficult to do this, and it will require great effort and assistance from the international community as well as from the countries of the region, and we are ready for this effort."

Hanegbi would not have written this without his boss's approval.

The Israeli prime minister appears stuck: the far-right parties that keep him in power are threatening to topple the government if the scope of the war is reduced and the Palestinian Authority is allowed to return to Gaza. However, Israel needs continued American support, and the more pragmatic Gantz may also leave the war cabinet if he believes that politics are guiding Netanyahu's decisions, and join calls for early elections.

Whatever Netanyahu does next, it will determine not only how the nameless war will proceed, but also his immediate political fate, his legacy at home and on the international stage, and perhaps his freedom.

Rajagopal noted that the current events in Gaza reflect “institutional impunity,” noting the importance of holding the occupation accountable, and bringing charges regarding war crimes, crimes against humanity, and even genocide.

UN Special Rapporteur on the right to housing, Balakrishnan Rajagopal, has called for the establishment of a new international court, if the ICC does not take effective action “in a very short time” regarding Israeli war crimes in Gaza.

In his post on the “X” platform, Rajagopal indicated that the current events in Gaza reflect “institutional impunity,” noting the importance of holding the occupation accountable, and bringing charges regarding war crimes, crimes against humanity, and even genocide.

He continued, explaining what he meant: “Impunity for: occupation, war of extermination, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.”

Rajagopal added: “If the International Criminal Court does not act very soon, we will need a special international court for Gaza, and action by states.”

Since last October 7, the Israeli army has been waging a war on Gaza, which as of Sunday left 20,424 dead, 54,36 wounded, most of them children and women, massive infrastructure destruction, and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, according to authorities in the Gaza Strip and the United Nations. .