More than 30 citizens were killed and dozens were injured, this Sunday evening, in a new massacre committed by the Israeli occupation forces in Jabalia al-Balad, north of the Gaza Strip.

Local and medical sources reported that 30 citizens were killed, dozens were injured, in addition to dozens of missing persons after the occupation aircraft bombed a residential square belonging to the Al-Bursh and Alwan families in Jabalia Al-Balad.

At least 8 citizens were killed, including two children and a woman, and dozens were injured, after the occupation aircraft bombed a house belonging to the Al-Qatshan family in the vicinity of Al-Nour Mosque in the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip. A number of citizens were also killed and dozens were injured after military aircraft bombed a house belonging to the Abu Gharqud family, west of the camp  Al Nuseirat.

The Israeli artillery shelling renewed in the center and east of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip. The occupation artillery also bombed a house for the Al-Louh family in the Al-Baraka area in Deir Al-Balah in the central Strip, while Israeli warplanes bombed several areas in the Al-Maghazi camp, and a house for the Al-Jadba family in the Zarqa area in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood, north of Gaza City. .

The Israeli report stated, on Sunday, that officials in the administration of US President Joe Biden are in contact with the leadership of the Palestinian Authority, to discuss the possibility of deploying members of the Authority’s security services in the Gaza Strip, after the end of the Israeli war on the besieged Strip, within the framework of a series of “reforms.” The broad plan that urges the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, to conduct it.

This came according to what the Walla website reported, citing American officials (whom it did not name). The report considered that this step confirms the Biden administration’s determination to establish and strengthen a “renewed Palestinian authority” so that it can play a role in managing the Gaza Strip in the coming months, which was expressed by the US President in public statements, by US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken.

The report pointed out that US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, during his meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah last Friday, focused on “the ways in which the Palestinian Authority can participate in managing Gaza after the Israeli war” on the Strip. .

Regarding the meeting between Sullivan and Abbas, White House spokesman John Kirby said that they discussed “what Gaza will look like after the war, how it will be managed, and ways to develop and renew the Palestinian Authority so that it can bear responsibility for the future of the Palestinian people.”

Kirby indicated that Sullivan discussed with Abbas the reforms that must be implemented so that the Palestinian Authority “is more reliable, more representative of the segments of the Palestinian people, and more able to bear responsibility,” noting that the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had stressed that he “will not allow the Authority to administration of the Gaza Strip, and that Israel will control security after the war.”

According to the Walla report, the Biden administration wants the Palestinian President to lead “wide-ranging reforms in the Palestinian Authority, including the infusion of new blood into leadership positions,” and urged the introduction of young figures into decision-making circles who “have administrative skills and enjoy the support of masses in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and the confidence of the international community.”

The report added, “One of the issues that the Biden administration has discussed with senior Palestinian Authority officials in recent weeks is the form in which the Palestinian Authority can integrate through its security force in Gaza, the day after the war, through which Tel Aviv and Washington aim to “eliminate Hamas movement, ending its ability to rule the Gaza Strip and returning the hostages.”

The American officials proposed to the Palestinian President “to reactivate the security elements who served in the security services of the Palestinian Authority in Gaza before Hamas took control of the Strip in 2007 following the movement’s victory in the legislative elections in early 2006,” in preparation for returning these elements to service.

The website quoted an American official as saying: “There are a number of residents of the Gaza Strip who were previously part of the Palestinian security services and it may be possible to use them as the nucleus of a future Palestinian security force in the months that follow the Israeli military operation, but this is only one from many ideas.

The report quoted a source familiar with the details of the talks between Washington and Ramallah, saying, “The Palestinian Authority has begun in recent days to contact some of these people, especially those who are of an appropriate age for security service, with the aim of verifying whether they are interested in returning to serve in the Palestinian security forces.”

The report pointed out that the US administration believes that the security services of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, which receive training and guidance from Washington, “are carrying out effective activities in combating terrorism and preventing many operations against Israel, and Washington intends to copy this model of authority to apply it in the Gaza Strip after the war".

The report indicated that “the Israeli army and the General Security Service (Shin Bet) also believe that the Palestinian security forces contributed to thwarting operations against Israeli targets and also contributed to stabilizing the security situation in the West Bank, but at the same time they lost partial or complete control over cities such as Jenin or Nablus.

On Sunday evening, Israeli occupation forces stormed the towns of Ya`bad and Wasila al-Dhahr in Jenin Governorate.

Local sources reported that the occupation forces stormed the town of Ya'bad and carried out a wide inspection campaign. They also launched a combing campaign in Silat Al-Dhahr, and the villages of Nazlet Zaid and Al-Arqa, and set up several military checkpoints at the entrances to Ya'bad, near the village of Zabada, and on the Jenin-Haifa Road, and intensified their presence in the vicinity. The villages of Rummana and Zabuba, west of Jenin.

The French newspaper L'Express published a report trying to extrapolate what the Palestinian-Israeli conflict will lead to after the end of the war in Gaza, specifying that the best that can happen is the implementation of the two-state solution, and the worst is the continuation of the war between the two sides without a resolution.

The report, written by Charles Hacke and Cyril Briat, explained that the situation in the Gaza Strip has become more complex than ever before, and pointed out that the solution, which has remained an elusive dream for a long time, and which is now considered the only possible way to guarantee peace is the establishment of two states, Israel and Palestine, to coexist between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

Hamas' ideology will never end

They said that eliminating Hamas fighters, if that happened, would end the fighting, but it would not end their ideology.

Former Palestinian negotiator Ghaith Al-Omari, currently a researcher at the Washington Institute, was quoted as saying that if Hamas is defeated, there will be a period in which people in Gaza will continue to adopt its ideas, but without being able to implement them.

Al-Omari said that the post-Hamas militant period should be used to propose a more attractive political alternative and start the peace process, but if Gaza is not rebuilt, the Palestinian Authority will remain weak, discredited and corrupt, and the Israelis will find no place for real cooperation.

The need for new leaders for peace to emerge

Also quoting Omar Shaaban, director of the Pal Think Center for Studies based in Gaza, “It will be necessary to organize elections in Palestine, but also in Israel, in order to provide new leaders capable of continuing the path towards peace.”

In Israel, the report says, many are waiting for the war to stop to demand accountability, and it is difficult to imagine how the Prime Minister can survive an investigation committee charged with determining his responsibility for the October 7 massacre. However, Benjamin Netanyahu has often proven his ability to survive.

Perhaps there is a greater danger

The report also predicted that there may be a greater danger awaiting the region, represented by the extension of the conflict. He explained that as the war in Gaza continues, Lebanese Hezbollah will continue to threaten Israel on its northern border, and if Hamas is on the verge of losing the war, Hezbollah may become more involved in the war, and perhaps Iran as well.

The report continued its expectations to say that the situation in the West Bank could worsen, and Hamas could seek to open another front against the Israeli army.

The two writers concluded their report by citing what Ghaith Al-Omari said, “If Hamas is defeated militarily, it is possible for Gaza to be governed by an international coalition with the participation of Arab countries until it is rebuilt and the Palestinian Authority is rehabilitated.”

Source: French press + Aljazeera

By Victor Chalhoub

In dealing with the war on Gaza, the administration of US President Joe Biden is relying on a miniature version of “shuttle diplomacy” formulated by Henry Kissinger to contain the October 1973 war.

Successive visits and tours, bargaining and pressure to identify commonalities that lead to the desired exits. The difference between the two cases, in addition to the difference in circumstances and the nature of the two wars, is that Kissinger's diplomacy - designed to serve Israel in the end - had an accurate compass, and dealt with Israeli intransigence at times with the firmness of a superpower, which allowed it to achieve its goal at the time of a ceasefire and disengagement.

Joe Biden's shuttle compass seems to be faltering at best, and Israel is dealing with it as if it is the superpower with regard to how to manage the war and determine its time limit. There appears to be no indication on the horizon that Joe Biden intends to use the influence of his position to regain the initiative and put the war on Gaza on another path.

So far, four members of the administration have made nine visits to Israel, the last of which was on Sunday with the arrival of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in Tel Aviv for the second time. The officials’ talk about these tours ranged between “providing advice to the ally,” and expressing repeated and tiresome concern for “the safety of civilians,” and the importance of the flow of “humanitarian aid,” and the need for Israel to adhere to these obligations, but without drawing any red line in this regard or even waving at it.

All violations were implicitly given as mitigating reasons under the guise of “Israel’s right to defend itself,” although this tone has declined somewhat, following the increasing scale of the humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip. As more aspects of it were revealed and the hype around it rose, even within America, expressions of distress began to increase, even if they remained within the limits of insinuations and talk that the administration had “ran out of patience” with excessive Israeli power and was “fed up with it,” to the point that Joe Biden was forced to disclose his annoyance, even if he was shy, with it .

As a result, Jake Sullivan and Secretary Austin were quickly scheduled to visit Israel, to ask officials to begin the phase of “reducing” the intensity and intensity of military operations and moving them toward “focused” selective targeting, but what accompanied and surrounded their visit reinforced the belief that the mission was further than that. The demand to "reduce indiscriminate bombing" does not require the visit of two senior officials to Israel. According to precedent, communicating such a request does not require more than a phone call to the head of its government.

It is most likely that the purpose is elsewhere, indicated by growing fears about the possibility of the war deviating from its invasive nature. Israeli signals in this regard continue in the speech as well as in the field, and this may have been behind the decision of Secretary of Defense Austin, on the eve of his travel to Israel, to extend the deployment of the aircraft carriers Gerald Ford and Dwight. Eisenhower is in the area until further notice.

The aircraft carrier Gerald Ford was supposed to depart in the middle of this month. This is the second time that it has been decided to renew its residency there, with the expectation that this entails anticipating developments that are not excluded, related to the possibilities of expanding the war that is still faltering in Gaza, and in which doubts are growing about Israel’s intentions to open its northern front. Such a scenario is constantly being pointed out on the grounds that the current moment provides Israel with direct leverage by American power in the region to push towards open escalation, perhaps leading to the cutting of ties between Washington and Tehran. The moment is appropriate for Netanyahu to achieve this strategic goal.

Likewise, there is another fear reflected in the Israeli field stumble in Gaza, which is sometimes likened to the failure of the Ukrainian forces in the counter-attack that they launched in early summer, which ended in stagnation at best. This brings to mind what was said by Israeli military authorities before the war on Gaza about the existence of a defect in the preparedness of the Israeli forces, which explains the increase in their losses in Gaza and their confusion, as was shown in the killing of three prisoners at the hands of these forces, which was highlighted by the American media with many comments. Question marks surrounding the incident and its implications.

A month later, partisan elections for candidates begin. The continuation of the war on Gaza in this manner “for several months,” as the Israelis suggest, is a possibility that Democrats fear will have negative repercussions on Biden’s already threatened situation. The president's fumbling diplomacy exacerbates his difficulties and expands and complicates the war.

Source: Alaraby Aljadeed

An analysis conducted by an artificial intelligence company revealed that the absolute majority of posts on social media sites and articles in major international media are against “Israel” in its war on the Gaza Strip, despite the restrictions practiced by technology companies against Palestinian content.

According to the analysis published by Israeli Channel 12, 83% of online posts related to the war are against “Israel,” and only 9% are in favor of it.

According to MIG AI data, since October 7, the date of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, 1.9 million posts have been written about the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip. More than a million and a half of those posts were against Israel, with an absolute majority of 83%. Only 9% of the posts were in favor of Israel, while 8% were neutral.

The analysis also indicated that most conversations (64%) took place on the social network X (formerly Twitter), while Instagram ranked second with 17%.

As for media coverage, the analysis revealed that “on major news sites, for every positive report toward Israel, there are three reports that present Israel in a negative light,” out of approximately 372,000 articles published about the war on websites that receive more than a million visits. Monthly, 64% were neutral, 28% were against Israel, and 8% were in favor of Israel.

Social media sites, especially those affiliated with Meta, are launching an organized campaign against Palestinian content that informs the world of the crimes of the occupation.

In mid-October, the American website The Intercept published a report in which it talked about the repressive practices pursued by TikTok and Instagram during periods of Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people.

He added that these platforms' targeting of accounts that provide coverage of Palestinian events comes at a time when it is difficult to obtain information from people in Gaza, amid the comprehensive Israeli siege on its population of two million people, and during which Israel prevents foreign media from entering the Strip.

On Saturday, the NetBlox Observatory said that it was the fifth time that the Israeli occupation had cut off communications since the start of the war on the besieged Gaza Strip. The observatory concerned with monitoring access to the Internet around the world added, in a tweet via the “X” platform, that the new outage is the longest since the start of the war last October.

He added that an Internet outage would greatly limit knowledge of what is happening in Gaza, which has been subjected to round-the-clock bombardment for 72 days, which has so far led to the death of nearly 19,000 Palestinians and the injury of 51,000.

Israel is trying to obscure the story, after the global mood turned against it. Israeli Channel 12 reported that the majority of social media posts and major international media articles are against Israel.

With the fierce fighting taking place in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation army is suffering heavy losses, and it was announced that the number of its dead as of last Thursday had reached 445 soldiers, including 119 officers, i.e. approximately 27% of the number of soldiers killed.

Since last October 7, the Israeli army has been waging a devastating war on Gaza that, as of Friday, has left 18,800 dead and 51,000 injured, most of them children and women, massive destruction of infrastructure and an “unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe,” according to Palestinian and UN sources.

Here is the Gaza Strip being erased and disappeared. With all its families, people, children, and the smiles and laughter of these children. What allows the majority of the state’s Jewish population to support this systematic and collective erasure, and to consider it the only decent response to the “massacre” carried out by Hamas militants and those who accompanied them, and it is the only decent response to the insult that Israel received, militarily, in addition to the suffering of the kidnapped, the wounded, the survivors, their families, and the families of the hundreds of unspeakable dead?

The Israeli army is wiping out the Gaza Strip's cities, streets, villages, fields, amazing vineyards, the alleys of its refugee camps, and its coastal parks, as well as the Strip's cultural institutions, universities, and archaeological sites. It is true that the military infrastructure of the Hamas movement is being destroyed, and perhaps completely destroyed, and it is true that thousands of Hamas fighters are being killed, and will be killed soon. But the Hamas movement itself, and its leaders, will recover and return to prosperity. In every population center and in every place, the process of erasing the Gaza Strip will remain engraved in the conscience.

What makes the majority of Jews in Israel not feel shocked, as a result of our killing within two months of nearly seven thousand children (this is a temporary number that is likely to rise), using advanced bombs provided to us by the United States? What allows the majority of Jews not to choke in fear when they hear the news that 1.8 or 1.9 million people are crammed into an area that does not exceed 120 square kilometers, in addition to the fact that this area is also being bombed without stopping? What prevents the Jews from screaming in terror when they hear reports about the starvation and thirst of 2.2 million Palestinian civilians, and news of epidemics spreading among them due to overcrowding, water shortages, and lack of hospitals? What is it that allows all this erasure and mass killing of children, with our participation, whether active or passive? Here are some answers:

Decades of education on the principles of absolute belief in the exclusive ability of military force to ensure the existence and prosperity of the Israeli state, in light of the deprivation of the Palestinian people of their rights.

Ignoring any “context” in which the events took place: to the Israeli public, incitement became synonymous with supporting the Hamas movement and justifying the atrocities it committed.

We, the Jews, have a monopoly on the issue of suffering resulting from the savagery of others.

We choose not to know, and not to watch the cruel and unbearable scenes that show Palestinian children, their faces covered in ash and dust, being pulled from destroyed buildings. And do we not know who are the luckiest: are these children, or those who were killed?

All the mass or fragmented massacres that we committed against the Palestinians over the years, and every plundering, every insult, and every torment, pass through media, psychological, and academic filters. The result of all these filters is to convince ourselves that their situation is better than that of Somalis or Syrians, and therefore, they should not complain.

Remember every massacre that the Palestinians committed against us. And forgetting every massacre we committed against them.

For decades, it has become accustomed to living in relative peace and prosperity, five minutes away from our backyard, in which Israel (i.e. us) demolishes Palestinian homes and builds homes for Jews, provides water to Jews, and makes Palestinians thirsty. And all the matters recorded in the reports of human rights institutions.

Decades of ignoring the warnings of “moderate” Palestinians, according to which the plundering of lands and the freeing of settlers’ hand in violence, with the help of the state (and inspired by the violence practiced by the state itself), diminishes the prospects open to their children, and generates despair and faith in the force of arms and revenge alone.

That perception of the world that Palestinians are destructive by nature. And they were born with hatred for us in their blood. They are a direct continuation of the legacy of Bohdan Khmelnytsky [the Cossack hetman responsible for the murder of thousands of Jews in present-day Ukraine], and Titus [the Roman emperor responsible for suppressing the “Jewish revolt” and demolishing the Temple].

We have convinced ourselves that we are a democratic country, even though for more than 56 years we have been controlling the lives, lands, and economies of millions of people who lack citizenship rights.

Our deep racist contempt for the Palestinians, which we have cultivated in order to justify, cognitively and psychologically, the issue of crushing them under our feet.

Denying Palestinian history and the roots of Palestinian existence between the sea and the river.

Wiping out the Gaza Strip is permissible because since 1994, we have deliberately missed the opportunity that the Palestinians gave us: getting rid of our characteristics as an occupying and settler entity, based on plunder, and granting them a state on 22% of the lands west of the Jordan River. In July 2021, I wrote the following: In the turmoil of talk about apartheid, we ignore and diminish the dynamic, active, and dangerous dimension of talk about Jewish settler colonialism.

Replacement colonialism's ideology holds that Palestinians are 'surplus'. The matter is represented by the actions that shaped this ideology. This is a settlement designed, inspired by the actions committed, and it in turn feeds these actions.

In short: it is possible, and even advisable, to live without the Palestinians. The presence of these people among us is a suspended existence, and it is a result of the generosity of our morals, not because of their right to exist. It is conditional on our will and the goodness of our hearts, and it is a temporary matter. The ideology of “being generous with the blessings” that we bestow on them is nothing but a poison that spreads through our veins, especially when the settlement based on plunder is at the height of its activity. Replacement colonialism is in a constant movement of seizing lands, eliminating historical borders, redrawing them again, and expelling the local population.

When I wrote these words, at the time, I was talking about the “blessings” in which Palestinians live in the West Bank, and I was warning of the intention to expel them. I assumed that treating the residents of the Gaza Strip as “surplus” was limited to separating them from their people and families behind the Erez checkpoint. 

But today we are witnessing the consequences of being redundant, through their voluntary expulsion (“displacement”), under the bombing, their physical erasure, and through plans to renew Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip. Woe to them, and woe to us for the consequences of that.

A report by the American newspaper The Washington Post, published on Sunday, December 17, 2023, revealed that a number of extremist Israeli settlers are planning to expand their attacks on Palestinians to include all Palestinian Arabs, stressing that they “derive this boldness from the most extremist government in the history of Israel, which granted them more weapons and money, taking advantage of the war on Gaza.”

The American newspaper says, “As Israel suffers the repercussions of the Hamas attack on October 7, the extremist settler group in the country sees new opportunities to expel Palestinians and expand the Jewish presence in the occupied territories, which represents a greater threat to the two-state solution.”

“We must wage war on the Arabs.”

When Gilad Zar, who was overseeing the security of Jewish settlers in the area, was shot dead by Palestinian gunmen in 2001, his father, a member of the Jewish underground, which Israel considers a terrorist organization, swore that he would establish six new illegal settlements, one for each letter of his name. .

One of these settlements is Havat Gilad, or Gilad Farm, which includes about 80 families residing on steep hills near the Palestinian city of Nablus.

Yehuda Shimon, a 48-year-old lawyer, says: “We have to wage war with the Arabs. here and in Gaza, the Arabs are one. If they do not leave, we have to fight them, and the strongest will win.”

Extremists here were already emboldened by the most extreme government in Israel's history, which includes settlers like Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, but the October 7 attack earned them more money, weapons and political support.

While Israel is raining bombs on Gaza, nearly a dozen Zionist organizations have incited a return to the Gaza settlements from which the Israelis were expelled in 2005 when Israel withdrew from the Strip. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected this idea and described it as “unrealistic,” but these ideas began to spread among Israeli public opinion.

"This is the right time"

Since October 7, settlers in the West Bank have had a growing sense of impunity for their attacks on Palestinians. Over the past two months, armed settlers raided 15 Bedouin communities, destroyed homes, tore up tents, and displaced more than 1,200 people. The United States and Britain imposed a ban on granting entry visas to settlers involved in these attacks.

Shimon, who is appointed to defend some of these perpetrators, says that he knows nothing about the violence committed by the settlers. But he acknowledged that there was little fear of the consequences.

He also added: "This is the right time, the time when no one will stop you or tell you not to do it."

Also, Chamoun, like others here, claims that Zar bought large areas of land in the region from the Palestinians in the 1970s, but he did not divulge any details, claiming that no one actually owned it, and that it was “cheap.”

While the Palestinians confirm that it is private land that has been stolen, the Peace Now organization, which advocates a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, describes the settlers’ claim to land ownership as “beyond logic” because it relates to dozens of lands owned by hundreds.

"A new turning point"

Daniela Weiss, an extreme nationalist who sees the borders of the Jewish homeland as extending from the Jordan River to the Nile, helped establish the settlement of Havat Gilad and other illegal outposts, and said the best way to deal with “the dream of many Arabs of annihilating Israel” is to build .

She also added: "If I want to deal with a cruel enemy, the most effective way is not to kill him, but rather to build the Land of Israel. So when I face killing, I know that the way that makes me feel safer is to weaken the enemy."

She recalls setting up the first caravans on the hillside in Havat Gilad on the night Zar was killed: “That is the way of Zionism, and that is the way of Zionism.”

The first settler organization founded by Weiss, Gush Emunim, emerged from the ashes of the 1967 war. Its goal was to occupy territories that Israel had invaded after attacking Arab forces, such as the West Bank and Gaza Strip, so that the state would not have to return them.

She added that the eviction of 8,000 settlers from Gush Katif, which was a bloc of 17 settlements in Gaza, in 2005, led to the revitalization of this movement. Its current organization, "Nashala", was founded then, which aims to establish illegal settlement outposts.

It considers October 7 to be a “new turning point” in the settler movement.

She said: “Our position now is to return to Gaza, and this is normal. The moment we have the opportunity to return to the community to which we belong, we do so.”

To achieve this, it wants to expel Gazans from the Strip. “The Arabs cannot continue their lives in Gaza,” she said.

Return to Gaza

In this context, Settlements Minister Orit Struck called for a return to Gaza before October 7. Pictures were taken of Israeli soldiers fighting in the Gaza Strip carrying banners demanding the return of settlers. Some of them carried the giant menorah that once towered over the Jewish temple in Netzarim, south of Gaza City.

While a quarter of Israeli Jews want to rebuild the settlements in Gaza, according to a study conducted last month by the Jewish People’s Policy Institute.

Oded Ravivi, mayor of the West Bank settlement of Efrat, says that even with their ideological allies in government, approval for new construction in the West Bank will remain restricted because Israel will focus all its political capital with the United States on ending its military campaign in Gaza.

But in informal settlement outposts, construction takes place without permits. Even before October 7, demolitions of illegal Israeli construction had declined, while budgets for road construction and basic services had been boosted.

The next generation is "more extreme"

There is no fence separating the Havat Gilad settlement from its Palestinian neighbors, and residents rely on security cameras and armed guards.

About half the men here serve in the army, but Palestinians are afraid of launching an attack here, Shimon says. “We were treated strictly from the beginning, and this will teach others not to mess with you,” he added.

One of the original buses, now rusted, is now a meeting place for the settlement's boys and girls movement. A mural depicts black rockets burning in a blue sky, and each rocket bears the name of a young member of the settlement, Shamoun said.

For her part, Yael Shevach (38 years old), the widow of the rabbi who was killed in 2018, states that she still believes that Palestinians and Jews can live together in the West Bank.

She says the settlement's younger residents are more radicalized, and the October 7 attack further radicalized them. She said: “My children are more extremist, of course, and their hatred for the Palestinians is increasing.”

At sunset, Shimon returned to the trailers in which he raised his 11 children to light the menorah for Hanukkah, which celebrates the Maccabees’ revolt against Greek rule.

“If we don't fight for ourselves, no one will fight for us,” says his 21-year-old daughter, Judith.

The Hebrew newspaper Haaretz criticized the practices of Gilad Erdan, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, as the latter raised a banner bearing Yahya Sinwar's phone number, accompanied by the phrase, "If you want a ceasefire, call him."

 The newspaper considered that this “brings shame to Israel and portrays it in a ridiculous position,” adding, “It is unfortunate that at such a critical time, there was no thought of sending this childish ambassador home and replacing him with someone of stature to represent us in a more dignified manner.”

 The article by political analyst Carolina Lindsman stated: “During a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly to discuss the call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, Erdan raised a banner bearing the phone number of Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza. “If you want a ceasefire, call him,” she said. (By the way, the number was the number of the Hamas media office.)

  She continued: “It was a childish gesture redolent of an attempt at creativity, taken from the high-tech playbook in which young entrepreneurs are taught that they only have a few seconds to sell an idea.” This trick sent the message that Israel is trying to mobilize support just as one mobilizes capital, which means that diplomacy for Israel is a branch of marketing.”

  She emphasized: “In all fairness, one must admit that Erdan’s style is not merely an expression of his mental maturity. His constant choice of tricks (let's not forget the yellow Star of David he wore as a sign of protest, which led to the state of Israel being reduced to death camp status) is indicative of a broader issue, which is that Israeli intelligence is trapped within a hasbara (propaganda) mentality that “explains” Israel. It seems that Israel really believes that it can eliminate the problems through one “genius” show or another. After all, we live in the era of Netanyahu, the maestro of shows.”

  She added: “One might have expected that the wave of violence that swept Israel in October would have shattered the Hasbara bubble. In fact, that's what seemed to happen at first. The government remained silent, while the media and public tried to understand what was happening. The Cabinet members, who had not stopped talking until then, seemed to have swallowed their tongues, hiding away from public view.”

  She confirmed that “they felt guilty and ashamed.” This was before the ground operation began, when fear and terror were in the air. Maybe military intelligence didn't know what was going on? Maybe we are less powerful than we thought? Less intelligent? Maybe there's a chance we'll lose?

  The writer said: “Israel is no longer at that stage. Something changed the moment the Israeli army invaded the Gaza Strip and Israel crossed the barrier of fear. Thinking subsided and intelligence returned to Hasbara's comfort zone. Any gnawing doubts disappeared. “There is really no discussion between people who think differently, no one seems to think, and the desire to understand what happened has been silenced by pre-made explanations, by propaganda.”

  She explained: “Israel is not really ready to sit with the doubts that erupted on October 7, or to ask the big questions. This partly explains the refusal to discuss any context, along with a widespread collective disdain for the word “context” itself. As if what Israel is doing in Gaza now is unjustified in its view because of the context of October 7. Are the Israeli reactions alone present in a context that justifies them?

  She stressed that “Israel prefers public diplomacy over real debate, because it is not ready for a real debate.” “Israel has no idea who it is, where it is going, and what vision it has for the future in its relations with the Palestinians living under its military rule.”

  She concluded: “Israel is unwilling to talk about the context because it refuses to share responsibility for what happened to it, preferring to see itself as a Jewish victim facing a spontaneous wave of anti-Semitism, as if the group attacking it could just as easily be a fanatical group from Belgium, instead of bearing the heavy burden of responsibility. Without it, it would be impossible to change reality. So maybe, just leave Erdan where he is after all.”

A young man from Balata camp, east of Nablus, was injured this Sunday evening, after Israeli occupation soldiers severely beat him.

Medical sources confirmed that the young man, Aseed Al-Bourini, suffered fractures and bruises after the occupation soldiers assaulted him, while he was detained for long hours near the town of Huwwara. He was transported by a Red Crescent ambulance to Rafidia Hospital in the city of Nablus.

The raids that targeted populated areas in Jabalia, Khan Yunis, and Shuja’iya camp on the 72nd day of the Israeli war on Gaza resulted in the death of dozens and the injury of hundreds, while the Civil Defense Forces continue to recover the dead bodies from under the rubble, while the Israeli aircraft continue intense raids on various areas in the Gaza Strip. Today, Sunday, Israeli artillery renewed its bombardment of residential squares, coinciding with fierce battles being waged by Palestinian factions with Israeli army forces in the areas of incursion.

The Israeli army announced this evening that one soldier was killed and another was seriously injured during clashes in the northern Gaza Strip today. Both of them belonged to the 46th Battalion, and one of them was a reserve soldier. The army spokesman had announced earlier today, Sunday, that two soldiers had been killed in battles in the north and south of the Gaza Strip, yesterday, Saturday, bringing the death toll among its ranks, including officers and soldiers, to 454 since the start of the Al-Aqsa Flood Battle on October 7th. And to 121 since the start of the ground operation on October 27.

The death toll since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza has risen to 18,800 dead, and the wounded to 51,000, most of whom are women and children, according to what the government media office in Gaza reported. Communications services (fixed, mobile, and Internet) gradually returned to the Gaza Strip, after a 4-day interruption due to the continuing Israeli bombing.

15 Israeli organizations have begun preparing for settlement projects in the Gaza Strip, in the event that the occupation army is able to extend its control over the Strip, while an Israeli contracting and real estate marketing company has opened the door to reserving residential units there.

This took place during a conference held in Tel Aviv, on December 11, entitled “Practical preparation for settlement in the Gaza Strip,” organized by a coalition of settlement organizations funded by the Israeli government.

One of the companies published an advertisement entitled “A house on the beach is not a dream,” in which it said, “We are working to prepare the land for the return to Gush Katif.”

The Hebrew website Davar said that the meeting took place despite the opposition of the government and the security apparatus, but the leaders of the conference see the war as a historic opportunity that the settlement movement should not waste.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will begin visiting Israel and two countries in the Persian Gulf this week, as US President Joe Biden administration officials pressure Israel “to end its large-scale ground and air campaign in the Gaza Strip within weeks and move to a more focused phase in its war against Hamas,” according to statements by American officials.

In conjunction with the start of the visit, the British Foreign Minister, David Cameron, and the German Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbueck, stated in a joint opinion article in the Sunday Times newspaper (Sunday) demanding the activation of a sustainable ceasefire in Gaza, which indicates the isolation of the administration of US President Biden in its dedicated position in support of the Israeli genocidal war on the Palestinians in Gaza.

Austin will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant to discuss the details of “when and how Israeli forces will implement a new phase that American officials envision will include smaller groups of elite forces that will move inside and outside the country,” while American officials said that “the United States will carry out more precise missions.” It relies on intelligence to find and kill Hamas leaders, rescue hostages, and destroy tunnels,” according to the New York Times.

According to the newspaper, “A senior Pentagon official said that while the minister is expected to express support for the Israeli campaign to destroy Hamas’ ability to launch military operations, he will also reinforce the importance of taking civilian safety into account during operations and the urgent need to increase the delivery of humanitarian aid.”

As a former head of the Pentagon's Central Command, Austin is keenly aware of the hard lessons the US armed forces have learned in the past two decades as they transitioned from major ground wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to more targeted operations. “He wants to share those lessons with Israeli officials,” the Pentagon official told the New York Times on condition of anonymity to discuss internal assessments.

In a sign of how critical this moment in the war is, General Charles Brown Jr., Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will join Austin in Israel.

Ten weeks after the initial Hamas attack (October 7) on Israel, the death toll in the Gaza Strip rose to nearly 20,000 people, most of them women and children, according to local health officials, while international human rights groups warned of a worsening humanitarian crisis there. The danger faced by people kidnapped by Hamas and other armed groups - and there are believed to be at least 100 individuals still detained - was clear on Friday, when Israeli forces mistakenly killed three Israeli hostages.

Austin's visit, his second to Israel since October 7, is considered part of full pressure by the US administration to urge Israel to end the high-intensity part of the war. Jake Sullivan, President Biden's national security adviser, met with Israeli leaders on Thursday about the direction of the conflict. Sullivan did not set a timetable, but US officials said Biden wants Israel to shift to more precise tactics within about three weeks.

Secretary Austin will also travel to Bahrain, the US Navy's 5th Fleet base, to discuss freedom of navigation and maritime security in the region. The United States is in discussions with its allies to expand a naval task force to guard ships passing through the Red Sea after several recent attacks by Houthi rebels on commercial ships in what appears to be an escalating extension of Israel's war with Hamas to  Iran-sponsored Proxy forces.

Mr. Austin will then visit Qatar, where the Pentagon operates a major command center at Al Udeid Air Base. Austin will meet with senior Qatari officials who played an important role in facilitating the release of hostages taken by Hamas fighters on October 7.

A soldier in the Israeli occupation army reserve forces was injured after being exposed to a stabbing attack near the Rantis military checkpoint, north of the Arab city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. Reports indicated that the perpetrator was able to withdraw from the place.

Israeli media reported that the condition of the injured soldier ranged from mild to moderately serious, and explained that the occupation forces began search and combing operations in an attempt to find the perpetrator of the attack.

According to reports, the perpetrator was hit by occupation bullets before he withdrew on foot towards the village of Rantis.

Amid talk about the start of negotiations on a new truce, described as being “long and arduous” between Israel and Hamas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expresses his insistence on continuing the war, saying that he is relying on a “popular mandate.”

Netanyahu is strengthened by a “popular mandate.” The Cabinet, headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, held a session on Sunday. The “Israel in Arabic” account on “X” said that he read the text of a letter from families whose sons fell during the ongoing war, in which they presented him with a “full popular mandate” to proceed. Go ahead in the fight, not to stop the battle at this stage. Strengthened by this “mandate,” Netanyahu stressed by saying: “We will continue the battle until its full goals are achieved, which are to dismantle the terrorist Hamas, return all the kidnapped people, and make Gaza a place that will no longer pose a threat to Israel.”

On the other hand, a number of the hostages' families had a different opinion. On Saturday evening, a massive demonstration headed to the headquarters of the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv, demanding an end to the fighting and the start of negotiations to return the remaining hostages. The demonstrators decided to sit in front of the ministry, amid mounting feelings of concern among them for the lives of the hostages, after the Israeli army announced that it had killed 3 of them by mistake during an operation to liberate them in Gaza.

Noam Peri, the daughter of hostage Haim Peri, said: “We are only receiving bodies. We want you to stop the fighting and start negotiations.” Amid actual movement towards negotiation, Reuters reported on Sunday that the head of Israeli intelligence, Mossad, David Barnea, met with the Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani, in Europe, on Friday evening, as part of talk about a possible truce and an agreement to exchange detainees.

For its part, Hamas confirmed in a statement on Telegram its position “not to open any negotiations to exchange prisoners unless the aggression against our people stops once and for all,” explaining that it had “communicated this position to all mediators,” as reported by Agence France-Presse on Sunday.

Benefit from Shalit's experience

Palestinian political analyst, Talal Abu Rukba, outlines what he sees as the reasons behind Israel’s return to negotiations, despite Netanyahu’s statements regarding the continuation of the war until its full goals are achieved:

• Israel's operations since last October have not succeeded in freeing the hostages. This made the Netanyahu government realize that no matter how long the war continued, they would not be liberated except through negotiation.
• Hamas is good at hiding hostages, and it previously had experience when it hid the Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, from the date of his capture in 2006 until his release in 2011 in exchange for Israel releasing Palestinians (with Egyptian mediation).
• Netanyahu wants to get rid of the pressure of the hostages' families and calm the tense street, especially since the dispute is growing over the feasibility of the war, which did not succeed in liberating the rest of the hostages or eliminating Hamas.

Increasing pressures

The American researcher in international affairs, Irina Zuckerman, believes that eliminating the infrastructure of the Hamas movement can be achieved through the ongoing Israeli ground operation in Gaza, but it is “ineffective” in the issue of liberating the hostages.

She also attributed this to the skill of the Palestinian factions in hiding the hostages. She said that the hostages are separated from each other, and they are likely to be transported through the tunnel network from one place to another, which is a vast network that is difficult to penetrate, and its destruction may lead to the death of the rest of the hostages.

One of Tel Aviv's motives for accepting a return to negotiations, according to the American researcher, is the pressure placed on it from Washington, other countries, and the families of the hostages, adding that "the more time passes, the pressure increases, in order to preserve the lives of hostages who are at risk of being killed in accidental operations, or due to health conditions, or stress. Or lack of nutrition, or something else.”

The Hamas movement announced the killing of 60 hostages before the humanitarian truce that took place between it and Israel from November 24 until the morning of December 1, in an Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip.

After the truce, Hamas and Israel continued to announce the killing of a number of other hostages from time to time during bombing, or by mistake, or in circumstances that were not announced.

Prisoners' file in numbers

• On Friday morning, December 1, a week-long truce between Israel and Hamas ended with Qatari-Egyptian-American mediation, during which 84 Israeli children and women were released, in addition to 24 foreigners detained by Hamas, while Israel released 240 Palestinian prisoners (71 women and 169 children).
• Israel demanded the release of women it claimed were civilians, which Hamas rejected, stressing that they were female soldiers who had been captured in military uniform. It considered the request to be in violation of the terms of the truce agreement, on the basis that negotiations on the release of the soldiers would take place at a later stage.
• Hamas still has 137 detainees, including 126 Israelis and 11 foreigners.

Source: Sky News

The German News Agency quoted the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs as saying that a French diplomat died from wounds he sustained during an Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip.

The ministry said in a statement yesterday, Saturday, that the official took refuge with two other colleagues and family members at the home of one of his colleagues at the French consulate in Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, near the border with Egypt.

The statement said that the house was subjected to an Israeli bombing last Wednesday, which resulted in the diplomat being injured and about 10 people killed.

The ministry said that the official - who had been "working for France" since 2002 - was later killed, adding that "France condemns the bombing of a residential building that led to the deaths of many other civilians."

It continued, "We call on the Israeli authorities to fully clarify the circumstances of this bombing as soon as possible."

Israel began a war on the Gaza Strip that left more than 18,000 dead - most of them children and women - and tens of thousands wounded, following the Al-Aqsa Flood operation on October 7 last year.

Source: Al Jazeera + German News Agency

A citizen was injured today, Sunday, as a result of a settler attack in Khirbet Al Farisiya in the northern Jordan Valley.

Human rights activist Arif Daraghmeh reported that citizen Barakat Ali Zuhdi was injured as a result of an assault with a sharp object by settlers.

In turn, the official responsible for the Jordan Valley file in Tubas Governorate, Moataz Bisharat, said that the settlers raided the pastures in the Ghazal Spring area in Al-Farisiya, and attacked the shepherds, which led to the injury of the citizen Zuhdi, and the attack also led to the death of a number of sheep.

The Prisoners and Ex-Detainees Affairs Authority reported on Sunday that female prisoners at Damoun Prison, especially those arrested from the Gaza Strip, face very difficult detention conditions and are subject to severe punishments that have increased daily since October 7.

The Commission reported, through its lawyer, that the occupation forces launched a massive arrest campaign in the West Bank, Jerusalem, the 1948 territories, and Gaza, against our female prisoners, and all of them were subjected to torture and abuse from the moment of arrest until entering the prison, whether by beating and cursing, or strip searches, in addition to isolation and deprivation of the most basic rights.

One of the female prisoners said, “An old woman (80 years old) from Gaza arrived at the department a few days ago, walking on a crutch and without a cover on her head. Her body and clothes were full of blood and she did not know anything. It seemed that she was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.”

The Commission indicated that all the female prisoners of the Gaza Strip had their clothes taken and replaced with summer clothes, and they were subjected to many beatings and assaults, in addition to non-stop insults. Some of them remained for 7 days outdoors in the rain and in the cold, and all the female prisoners of the Gaza Strip arrived in the prison in a deplorable health, physical and psychological conditions. 

It pointed out that one of Gaza's prisoners, a mother, said, "When she was arrested, she was accompanied by her four young children. She did not know what to do with them. There was a man from Gaza close to her. She gave him her children, not knowing who he was, and left them without knowing their fate."

The Commission confirmed that the testimonies mentioned express a very small part of what we were able to reach, and what is hidden is greater, as the prison administration deliberately isolates the female prisoners in Gaza from the rest of the female prisoners, and from the outside world completely, in order to continue committing its crimes without accountability or oversight.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said on Sunday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “cannot continue in office,” calling for elections during the war that has been ongoing in the Gaza Strip for more than two months.

This is the first call from a senior Israeli official to hold elections during the war, as previous calls were limited to calling for elections after the war.

Lapid said, in an interview with the “Ynet” website affiliated with the “Yedioth Ahronoth” newspaper: “Netanyahu cannot continue as prime minister,” and that “elections can be held during the war.”

Netanyahu insists on continuing the war, hoping to end Hamas’ continued rule of Gaza since the summer of 2007, and to eliminate the military capabilities of the movement, which asserts that it resists the Israeli occupation and defends the Palestinians.

Expectations are rising within Israel that anticipated post-war investigations into the military and intelligence failure against the Hamas movement will spell the end of Netanyahu’s political career.

For about a year, Netanyahu has headed a coalition government described in the Hebrew media as “the most extreme right-wing government in the history of Israel.”

Regarding his opinion about the news of a possible new truce agreement that includes a prisoner exchange deal, Lapid, the former prime minister, responded that “a new proposal must be presented to the table.” “Once the card is on the table, it will trigger action, even if it is not accepted.”

He added: “I made it clear to the Prime Minister that the opposition would provide support, even in exchange for painful prices in a deal (regarding) kidnapped persons.”

Netanyahu had not commented on Lapid’s statements, but he repeatedly tried to hold the army and intelligence services responsible for the failures. This sparked sharp criticism even within his own government.

The Israeli government is facing increasing pressure to reach a new prisoner exchange agreement with Hamas, in light of a series of demonstrations that began on the evening of December 15 in Tel Aviv and other cities.

The demonstrations began after the Israeli army announced that it had “accidentally” killed three Israeli prisoners in the Shujaiya neighborhood, east of Gaza City, in the middle of this month, while they were raising the white flag and calling for help in Hebrew.

According to Hebrew media, about 132 prisoners remain in Gaza.

In response to “daily Israeli attacks against the Palestinian people and their sanctities,” on October 7, Hamas launched the “Al-Aqsa Flood” attack against Israeli settlements and military bases around Gaza.

Hamas killed about 1,200 Israelis, wounded about 5,431, and captured about 239, exchanging dozens of them, during a humanitarian truce that lasted 7 days until December 1, with Israel, which holds more than 7,800 Palestinians in its prisons.

Source: Sama News

Today, Sunday, settlers attacked citizens’ homes with stones and burned 3 livestock barracks in the Arab Al-Malihat community, west of Jericho.

According to local sources, dozens of settlers attacked the homes of citizens in the Arab Mleihat community on Al-Marajat Road, west of Jericho, threw stones at them, and set fire to sheep barracks belonging to the citizen, Atta Suleiman Mleihat.

The World Health Organization confirmed on Sunday that the emergency department at the Shifa Medical Complex in the Gaza Strip had turned into a "bloodbath" and needed "rehabilitation" after it was severely damaged by the Israeli bombing.

The occupation has continued its air, land and sea bombardment of the Gaza Strip for 72 days, resulting in the death of about 19,000 citizens and the injury of more than 52,000 others, 70% of whom are women and children, an infinite toll.

The organization explained that a team from it and other United Nations agencies was able yesterday to deliver medical supplies to the Al-Shifa Complex, located in the west of Gaza City (north), which is the largest hospital in the Strip.

It pointed out that "tens of thousands of displaced people" took refuge in this complex, which "lacks" water and food.

It added, "The team (that visited the complex) described the emergency services as a 'bloodbath', with hundreds of injured patients inside and new patients arriving every minute," noting that trauma patients are receiving treatment on the ground and that "measures to relieve pain are very limited." And it's not even available."

The organization reported that the medical complex is working at its minimum capacity with a very limited medical team, and that “serious patients were transferred to the Arab National Hospital (Baptist) to undergo surgical operations.”

The organization's statement quoted the team that visited Al-Shifa as saying that the hospital also needs a "rehabilitation" process, stressing that only 30 patients are able to undergo dialysis.

The entire health infrastructure in the Gaza Strip was severely damaged as a result of the bombing and ground operations carried out by the occupation army since the seventh of last October.

The World Health Organization said it is ready to reinforce the Al-Shifa Complex “in the coming weeks” so that it can resume its basic services.

It explained, "Up to 20 operating rooms can be activated in the hospital, as well as post-operative care services, if it is provided with fuel, oxygen, medicines, food, and water," noting at the same time the need for employees.

The National Arab “Baptist” Hospital is the only one that is “partially operating” at the present time in the entire northern Gaza Strip, with only three hospitals operating on a limited basis: Al-Shifa, Al-Awda, and Al-Sahaba. Before the war, there were 24 hospitals in this area.

35 Palestinians were killed and dozens injured, today, Sunday, during the bombing of several homes by occupation warplanes in the town of Jabalia, north of the Gaza Strip.

Local sources reported that civil defense and ambulance crews recovered 24 martyrs and at least 90 wounded, as a result of the occupation aircraft destroying a house for the Shihab family in Jabalia, and dozens are still under the rubble.

Also, 11 citizens were killed and dozens were injured in an Israeli bombing that targeted a house for the Khalla family in the town of Jabalia.

The occupation warplanes targeted a house in Deir al-Balah camp in the middle of the Gaza Strip, killing about 12 citizens and wounding dozens, the majority of whom were displaced.

To the south, the occupation artillery fired an unexploded shell into the courtyard of Nasser Hospital in the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, wounding at least two young men.

The occupation boats also bombed several areas north of the city of Khan Yunis and its western coast.

The Government of Japan decided to provide new aid to the Palestinian people, worth $64,025,500, through international organizations and Japanese non-governmental organizations, in response to the deteriorating humanitarian conditions, especially in the Gaza Strip.

The Japanese government explained, in a statement issued by its representative office in Palestine, today, Sunday, that this new package includes several areas of projects that will be implemented by relevant international organizations and Japanese non-governmental organizations.

She pointed out that the package includes urgent humanitarian assistance for food security, water and sanitation, health care, education, and mine action, through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), the World Food Program (WFP), the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the International Federation. of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the United Nations Mine Action Service, and the Japan Platform (JPF), a coalition of Japanese NGOs.

Part of the package will also be allocated to reproductive health and women's protection through the United Nations Population Fund, UN Women, and the International Planned Parenthood Federation.

The statement confirmed that part of the aid package will be allocated to facilitating the movement of people and goods across borders, through the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and the Quartet office, as well as supporting the agricultural sector and its value chain through the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization. and agriculture for the United Nations.

The government media office in Gaza announced on Sunday that the number of journalists killed by the Israeli occupation army during its war on the Strip had risen to 92 since last October 7.

The media office said, in a statement, “Journalists Rami Badir and Asim Kamal Moussa were killed during the past two days in Israeli raids on the Gaza Strip,” without details regarding the circumstances of their deaths.

He added, "This brings the number of killed journalists at the hands of the Israeli army during its war on the Gaza Strip to 92 journalists."

The office also continued, "By assassinating journalists, the occupation is trying to obscure the Palestinian narrative and attempt to obscure the truth, but it has failed miserably in breaking the will of our great Palestinian people."

Egypt informs Israel of its objection to carrying out air strikes near the Philadelphia axis.

According to the source, Israel fears the presence of tunnels in the Palestinian area east of Rafah, which is considered an extension of the Philadelphia axis, while Cairo has clarified more than once that the border area is devoid of any tunnels linking the Strip and Sinai.

Egypt informed the Israeli side of its reservations against the backdrop of the Israeli Air Force carrying out several strikes near the Philadelphia axis separating Egypt and the Gaza Strip, especially since the axis is subject to a bilateral agreement that requires obtaining prior permission from the other party before carrying out any military actions in the region.

The Israeli occupation forces arrested at least 20 citizens from the West Bank from yesterday evening until Sunday morning.

The arrest operations were distributed in the governorates of: Hebron, Bethlehem, Nablus, Ramallah, and Tulkarm, which witnessed a major aggression, and this was accompanied by the rise of martyrs, in addition to the arrests and widespread sabotage operations that affected the Nour Shams camp, specifically the infrastructure.

The occupation forces continue to carry out massive incursions into several areas, accompanied by field executions, widespread arrest and torture campaigns, severe beatings, field investigations, and threats against detainees and their families, in addition to widespread sabotage and destruction of citizens’ homes.

It is noteworthy that the total number of arrests after October 7 reached about 4,540, 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 the ongoing and escalating arrest campaigns in an unprecedented manner come within the framework of the comprehensive aggression against our people and the ongoing genocide in Gaza, after October 7, which targeted all groups in an unprecedented manner.

There does not seem to be an end in sight for the war on the Gaza Strip due to internal Israeli considerations and the resistance’s insistence on continuing the fighting until God decrees something that was already in effect. 

Internal considerations in Israel are summed up in Netanyahu’s awareness that his political life ends with the end of the war, and begins with criminal files awaiting him in the courts and committees investigating his role in the negligence that occurred on 10/7, and his belief that achieving a victory, any victory, in this war may mitigate his bad political end. 

His political history gives him some credit in his record, as he spent the longest period as prime minister in the history of Israel, and no one expected his political career to end in this way. Therefore, Netanyahu will continue, in a demagogic manner, to raise his expectations from the war, and to resort to playing the string that the extreme right wants to hear, because he believes that this right is his only lifeboat in this turbulent sea, and that he can convince him that he is the most qualified to continue running the government in Israel to implement the Presbyterian plan to establish Jewish Kingdom.

The Council of War and its aftermath
As for Minister of Defense, Joab Galant, he is unable to digest or “swallow” the cruel insult to which the invincible army was subjected, which shook the foundations of the Israelis’ sense of security in their homes and in their state, the aim of which was said to be to create a safe national home for the Jews, especially after the Nazi Holocaust. Galant, who will also have to stand before the investigation committees and be held accountable for the negligence that led to the disaster that befell the Israelis on 10/7, is trying through this war to restore the morale of the army, which was damaged to the core, and to achieve any form of victory that improves its situation after the war. It reduces the burden of the price he will pay as a result of this negligence.

Gantz, the war council trinity, is trying to play the role of "Mr. Security" and feels euphoric whenever he looks at the public opinion polls that indicate that he won by more than double or double the seats he has today in the Israeli Knesset and promises that he and no one else will be the next prime minister. This is taking into account the signs of cracks that have begun to appear in his alliance with Gideon Sa'ar, who seems to have enjoyed sitting in the government with Netanyahu and is seeking to separate his "Tikvah Hadashah" party from the coalition he established with Gantz's party, and return to the Likud House in which he grew up.

Together, these factors make thinking about searching for an end to this ugly, dirty war seem to be on the horizon, and that preferring the subjective considerations of those in charge of it is stronger than the humanitarian considerations, whether the mass murder and barbaric destruction in the Gaza Strip or the deaths and injuries of many Israeli soldiers, and, more or less, my day is in a battle that could have been prevented a long time ago if Israel had abandoned the lust for expansion and regional expansion and accepted the recognition of the right of the Palestinians to live freely in an independent Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel and on the basis of the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, which is still on the table and can still be formed. 

As a basis for an acceptable settlement of the conflict, especially since it is the only political initiative that enjoys the consensus of all Arab countries, as well as the Islamic countries that are members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, including Iran.

Fighting to win one of the two good deeds
As for the resistance in the Gaza Strip, all indications suggest that the resistance did what it did on 10/7 and it expected the violent Israeli response, perhaps not with the violence that occurred, and it prepared for a long-term battle and prepared its men to fight and withstand this war from a ideological jihadist standpoint seeking victory. One of the two good deeds is victory or martyrdom, and it sees each of them as a gain, not a loss. It is not expected to surrender or retreat as Israel thought.

In the face of this intransigence on the part of Israel, which sees Hamas remaining on stage as a defeat that Israel cannot accept, even if it kills thousands of Hamas supporters, or condemns to death tens of thousands of unarmed civilians, because its war leaders are governed by the aforementioned considerations. Its adherence to the idea of eliminating Hamas puts it in the face of a long war with no end in sight, and the Islamic resistance’s insistence on victory or martyrdom in return coincides with the path that Israel has entered, which is walking on a path from which there is no return.

The third party that does not exist!
In the face of this situation, a third party must intervene forcefully to separate the roosters who have bloodied each other, and none of them shows any intention or desire to stop fighting.

Unfortunately, such a third party does not exist on the international scene because of the way the major Western countries, led by America and Germany, dealt with the war on the Gaza Strip. In addition to the Jewish influence and control over their policies on the one hand, and their sympathy with the Jews for common religious considerations and historical responsibility, as is the case with Germany, these countries see this war as a continuation of the war against political Islam for some of them, and against Islam and Muslims in general for others, and believe That it is possible for Israel to wage a proxy war on behalf of these countries against Islam, especially after Israeli propaganda succeeded in the first days of the war in drawing a stereotypical image of Hamas that placed it within an ISIS framework and found those eager to pick it up and believe it.

These facts will cause the region to revolve in a vicious circle of bloody violence, the results of which cannot be predicted, while acknowledging one fact proven by this war, which is that Israel is not the safest region in the world for Jews, but perhaps the most dangerous for them, and that the negative impact of the expansionist ambitions of extremist Jewish groups Whether religious or national, its violations of the human, political and religious rights of the Palestinians, its desecration of their sanctities, the plundering of their lands and property, its refusal to acknowledge the national rights of the Palestinian people, and the Palestinians’ response to this aggression have become a real existential threat to the security, stability and survival of Israel.
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The revealing truth about the Biden administration's relationship with the Netanyahu government is that it "uses the most flexible degrees of persuasion, and tries with all force to avoid doing or saying anything that Israel or AIPAC could consider as a type of political pressure."

Information confirms that the visit of Jake Sullivan, the US National Security Advisor who was sent in a hurry by Biden to avoid any personal or political dispute between Biden and Netanyahu, ended with Washington acquiescing to the Israeli vision in the form and manner of Tel Aviv’s management of the battle in Gaza, and accepting the timetable set by the presidency. Israeli staff to end operations.

It was also learned that any political vision for the project “the day after” the fall of Hamas in Gaza is “vague and not agreed upon,” and that Sullivan heard several categorical no’s in Tel Aviv:

1- There is no immediate ceasefire now.

2- There is no explicit pledge not to harm civilians in northern or southern Gaza.

3- There is no desire or intention on the part of the Netanyahu administration to begin any secret or public dialogue with the Palestinian Authority led by President Mahmoud Abbas, and this is explained by the Israeli army’s continued conduct of specific operations in the cities of the West Bank, with the army and security continuing to pledge full support for “the settlers’ right to defend themselves and their property.” 

4- The Netanyahu government’s unwillingness now and its complete avoidance of committing to any specific political vision to find a negotiating path that leads in any way to giving any independent authority to the Palestinians to manage their affairs in Gaza or the West Bank.

As for the phrase “two-state solution,” it is considered one of the phrases that is prohibited from being used with any pillar of the current ruling coalition in Israel.

The revealing truth about the Biden administration’s relationship with the Netanyahu government is that it uses the most flexible levels of persuasion, and tries with all force to avoid doing or saying anything that Israel or AIPAC could consider as a type of political pressure.

Why did Sullivan come?

What ideas did Jake Sullivan carry in his backpack? Why did he come in the first place?

Sullivan's political mind comes from the famous Yale University School, influenced by the centrist thought of the Democratic Party.

Since studying law, the man possesses a political-legal vision that has qualified him in the difficult art of negotiation on thorny issues that require “strategic patience.”

This has appeared since the man worked as an advisor in the Biden administration, and a member of the initial negotiating stages of the first nuclear agreement with Iran during the Obama administration.

The man gained Obama's trust and even served as Assistant to the President and National Security Advisor to Vice President Joe Biden at the time. Before that, he served as Director of Policy Planning at the State Department, and the man has held his position since the first day of the Biden administration.

Sullivan came to the region after Secretary of State Anthony Blinken complained to President Biden that he, the minister, had reached a difficult point in the stubborn dialogue with the Netanyahu government, and that at the same time he heard harsh words from the Arab-Islamic ministerial delegation.

Blinken added that the interests of the United States with its allies in the region are going through a very critical stage due to the extreme frustration that these allies are suffering due to unconditional support for Israel, while Washington neglects to exert any pressure to stop brutal military operations against civilians.

This vision was supported by several reports from Washington's ambassadors in several capitals, and reports from the Middle East departments of US intelligence warning of popular anger in the Arab and Islamic worlds, and the extent of the political embarrassment that this caused to many of the region's rulers who face popular pressure to take harsh decisions against relations with Israel and show... Official anger at American support for Israel.

The assessment of the American position, based on all of the above, amounted to the necessity of trying to soften the American position and avoid making the disagreement with Israeli behavior appear as a conflict that might lead to confrontation.

Blinken's advice to his boss was that there are two behaviors that should be avoided at the same time:

First: The difference in visions between Washington and Tel Aviv has emerged as a conflict that requires American pressure on Israel, which is fighting to defend the interests and security of the Hebrew state. Therefore, any current or future American behavior should not be interpreted as an abandonment of unconditional support. For Israel.

Second: It is necessary to find a formula that reduces the anger and frustration that could affect the historical relations of the countries of the region, officially or popularly.

Hence, the Biden administration must appear to be seeking to save the situation through a ceasefire, exchange of hostages, provision of humanitarian aid, and finding an acceptable political and security path for the Palestinian file.

Biden was afraid that he would lose the Jewish vote if he failed to unconditionally support Israel, and it seems that the man will pay the price for this support with his presidency and Washington’s political reputation.

Biden is worried about the elections

Perhaps the most dangerous of the warnings given to Biden was the emphasis on a double statement that says, “Continuing unconditional support, and stopping or reducing it to satisfy allies, will in both cases have negative effects on the president’s electoral battle.”

These perceptions stated that “the president’s next speech to the Senate and the House of Representatives (the union speech) at the beginning of next year must contain a success for the American role in supporting the Israeli people and their efforts to save the deteriorating situation in Gaza.”

Hence, it was important for the president, who is facing difficulties in 6 major states, to obtain basic support in Michigan, where the volume of the Arab and Islamic voice plays an essential role.

Indications indicate that the Arab-Islamic voice in Michigan will not naturally be with the Biden administration.

Michigan is known as traditionally deeply Democratic because of the strength of its labor unions, which defend labor interests in this influential industrial region.

Therefore, Jake Sullivan was assigned to travel urgently to perform a difficult mission that seeks to:

1- Agreeing on an imminent timetable, not later than next January, for a ceasefire.

2- Responding to the complaint of the Arab-Islamic demand by increasing the volume and flow of humanitarian aid, fuel and medicines to Gaza.

3- Focus Israeli firepower on Hamas forces and their leadership and stay away as much as possible from any civilian targets, whether intentionally or by random fire.

4- Not to fire again on civilians who were displaced more than 3 times from north to south and have now settled in the city of Rafah.

5- Trying to reach an initial map with the Israelis for a political dialogue about the shape of the future of the Palestinians’ relationship with Israel.

Sullivan is required to save the government of Israel from itself, and to reorganize the tactics of the Israeli Defense Forces, to speed up the resolution of matters so that presidential candidate Joe Biden does not pay the price for them.

What is needed is to save Netanyahu

The US State Department suggested to Sullivan the continuation of attempts to reach a new truce that would alleviate the blow of popular and official reactions in the world until the picture almost became very damaging after Washington’s veto in the Security Council and international support in the recent General Assembly vote until Washington and Tel Aviv seemed alone in a negative way.

In short, Sullivan is required to save the government of Israel from itself, and to reorganize the tactics of the Israeli Defense Forces, to speed up the resolution of matters so that presidential candidate Joe Biden does not pay the price for them.

Hence the timid American suggestion that Netanyahu should reconstitute his government because the current hard-line coalition makes it difficult for any calm that could lead to a settlement.

The American assessment has reached that if this coalition continues, Israel’s loss of political goals is certain, and that the possibilities of expanding the scope of the war, whether internally by the residents of the West Bank and the residents of the Green Line or externally through the Houthis, the Popular Mobilization Forces, and the party, is something that Washington is striving to achieve with all force. She avoids him, especially as she suffers from the failure of the Ukrainian forces to achieve any progress against the Russian army.

In short, the Biden administration cannot afford to pay the bill for two failures at the same time, one in Ukraine and the other in Gaza!

What did Sullivan succeed in and what did he fail in his visit?

1- Sullivan succeeded in convincing the Council of Ministers to increase the volume of humanitarian aid through the Rafah crossing, and the first new batch was 16 trailers of Saudi aid that came through the previous batch of aid via the air and sea bridge.

2- The man succeeded in convincing the Chief of Staff to carry out specific operations against Hamas instead of falling into the ambush of urban warfare that led to a major loss 4 days ago.

3- The man failed to stop the following:

A- Supporting the arming of settlers.

B- Changing the ruling coalition.

C- Commitment to an imminent timetable for a ceasefire.

The evil formula of Compromise was to replace ground operations as soon as possible with a type of specific liquidation and assassination operations against the Hamas leadership, similar to what the Israeli army is carrying out in some cities in the West Bank.

So, there are no indications of an immediate settlement or cessation, but rather the continuation of the previous in a different form.

So, an American green light for the continuation of the above, but with less apparent brutality.

The frightening thing is that Netanyahu is dealing with Biden as if the crisis is Biden's crisis and not a crisis of his government and his political future.

Biden was afraid that he would lose the Jewish vote if he failed to unconditionally support Israel, and it seems that the man will pay the price for this support with his presidency and Washington’s political reputation.

Ravit Hackett

The results of opinion polls published by the Palestinian Center for Research, indicating broad Palestinian support for the October 7 attack, coupled with denial of the “massacres” carried out by the “saboteurs” and their accomplices, can only lead to anger and despair. At the same time, we cannot and are forbidden to deny the strengthening of the power of the Israeli Kahanism once again. There are, more and more, people who are talking about solutions, such as "transfer", and sometimes even the annihilation of people, as legitimate and realistic options that are also desirable and can be talked about.

The great helplessness, the national humiliation, the great damage to personal security, and also dealing with complex and painful issues such as the issue of the kidnapped - all of these are difficult compounds to deal with psychologically, and can even be too heavy. The disastrous solution to this intolerable situation, embraced by many Israelis, is the adolescent withdrawal from faith in Kahanistic ideas, which is always interpreted as “understanding the culture of the region.”

The war came at a time when Israel was ruled by an extremist and unreasonable government, elected by many votes after years of severe extremism. Despite this, the government's shameful performance last year, the storm of the constitutional coup, and, essentially, the poor performance of the Kahanist representatives in power, all led to a certain weakness in the Kahanist trend, in preparation for returning it to the margins once again. However, the violent massacre carried out by Hamas, and the war that came after it, took Kahanism once again out of the zone of failure, and removed from it its clear failure.

Kahanism raises a very clear question mark in a field of many questions. It gives a false sense of strength in a state of weakness that is exceptional in terms of its strength, and disguises itself as renewed and clear good news in a situation where clarity prevails. In addition, it disguises itself in a practical way: the (impossible) euphoria of hiding the conflict, despite the difficult costs, is transformed into a plan to hide all of the Palestinians. This is without completely addressing the deep moral problems, and the damage that cannot be prevented as a result of the encounter between reality and divination, which is always accompanied by a very great failure. It is completely unrealistic.

Benjamin Netanyahu diagnoses well this strengthening spirit in Israeli society, and understands the need to ride on the Kahani tiger for his own survival - and this time he does it during the war, after the disaster. The campaign to reject the participation of the Palestinian Authority in any solution for the future of the Gaza Strip, after the dismantling of “Hamas” - and more than that, the public and almost initiated confrontation with Israel’s only friend in the world today, the United States, are the first signs of the gifts that Netanyahu will give to the extreme right during the war, the same extreme right that Netanyahu is completely attached to today. President Joe Biden understands this, and this issue is his main criticism when he talks about Israel in general, and about Netanyahu in particular.

The strengthening of the far-right's power will not guarantee anything but painful polarization - in light of fundamental differences in the field of morality and the great damage that will be caused to "democratic" values - a major threat to Israel, no less than the threat of "Hamas" or Hezbollah.

Strengthening the power of the extreme right will ensure the presence of a large and determined mass force that opposes any political solution proposed to Israel from abroad, and it could be the only alternative to the continued flow of blood. The strengthening of the far-right's power will attract more extremist forces to the regional table.

There is no connection between steadfastness in the face of barbaric killing, and teenage and savage fantasies. By the way, the relationship is inverse. The extreme right is weakening Israel, and its strengthening is only evidence of its weakness.

24 citizens were killed and dozens were injured today, Sunday, during the bombing by occupation warplanes of a house in the town of Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip.

Local sources reported that civil defense and ambulance crews recovered 24 dead and at least 90 wounded, as a result of the occupation aircraft destroying a house for the Shihab family in Jabalia, and dozens are still under the rubble.

The occupation warplanes targeted a house in Deir al-Balah camp in the middle of the Gaza Strip, killing about 12 citizens and wounding dozens, the majority of whom were displaced.

To the south, the occupation artillery fired an unexploded shell into the courtyard of Nasser Hospital in the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, wounding at least two young men.

The occupation boats also bombed several areas north of the city of Khan Yunis and its western coast.