The Palestinian poet Rifaat Al-Arair was killed in an Israeli raid, those close to him announced on the night of Thursday-Friday. He was one of the leaders of a generation of young Gazan writers who bet on writing in English to tell their stories.

His friend Ahmed Al-Naouk wrote on the “X” platform that Rifaat’s “assassination” was “tragic, painful and scandalous” and a “terrible loss,” after bloody raids in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday evening, as announced by the Ministry of Health in the Hamas government.

In turn, his friend, the Gaza poet Musab Abu Toha, wrote on Facebook that his heart was “broken,” adding: “My friend and colleague Rifaat Al-Arair was killed with his family minutes ago... I cannot believe it,” according to what Agence France-Presse reported.

For his part, writer and journalist Ramzi Baroud said on “X”: “Rest in peace, Rifaat Al-Arair. We will continue to be guided by your wisdom today and forever.”

The specialized American website “Literary Hub” also praised him.

Al-Arair taught English literature at the Islamic University of Gaza, and was one of the founders of the “We Are Not Numbers” project, which brought together authors from Gaza with “mentors” abroad who helped them write stories about their reality in English.

A few days after Israel began its ground operation in response to the Hamas attack, on October 7, Al-Arair said that he refused to leave the northern Gaza Strip, which was the epicenter of the fighting.

He had published on the “X” platform a widely circulated poem entitled “If I Must Die,” and concluded it by saying: “Let this inspire hope, let this be a story.”

Source: Alsharq Alawsat

The Huffington Post website revealed on Friday, December 8, 2023, quoting a US State Department official, that a state of anger is prevailing in decision-making circles in Washington. Because of what he described as Netanyahu's "burning" of America's reputation to advance his personal agenda, at a time when Washington Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that there was a gap between the Israeli government's declared intentions to protect civilians and the death toll, in his most public criticism of Israel's approach in its campaign in southern Gaza.

The official also indicated that US intelligence believes that Israel is continuing its operations despite Washington's calls for restraint, indicating that there are doubts that the current Israeli military campaign is bloodier than the attack in the northern Gaza Strip.

The American official added, according to what the site reported: “This is a pivotal moment in history, and we must feel angry about the way Netanyahu literally burned our reputation to advance his personal political agenda.” The American official also considered that the side effects of the Israeli occupation war against Gaza - on  American security - has very serious consequences.

Simultaneously, Blinken said in a press conference following his meeting with British Foreign Secretary David Cameron in Washington: “As we stand here nearly a week after this campaign in the south it remains necessary for Israel to attach importance to protecting civilians. There is still a gap between intent and to protect civilians and the actual results we see on the ground."

US President Joe Biden spoke by telephone with both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jordanian King Abdullah separately earlier. Meanwhile, the White House said that Biden "stressed the urgent need to protect civilians and separate the civilian population from Hamas, including by corridors that allow people to safely exit the designated areas where hostilities are taking place."

This comes at a time when the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip has killed more than 17,170 Palestinians and injured 46,000, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, since October 7, when Israel began bombing the Strip after a cross-border attack carried out by Hamas fighters.

cease-fire

At the same time, the Arab countries are renewing their efforts for an immediate ceasefire for humanitarian reasons in Gaza. The United States and its ally Israel oppose the ceasefire and say that it will only benefit Hamas. Blinken is scheduled to meet with senior diplomats from Arab countries such as Egypt on Friday in Washington.

The draft resolution was amended to stipulate “the need to protect the Palestinian and Israeli civilian population, in accordance with international humanitarian law” and “demand the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.”

Adopting the resolution requires the approval of at least nine votes and the five permanent members not using the veto power, namely the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain. Washington said it does not support any further action by the Council at this time.

Opening the Kerem Shalom crossing

In a development that will help pave the way for more humanitarian aid to reach besieged Gazans who lack basic needs, the occupation has agreed, at the request of the United States, to open the Kerem Shalom border crossing to inspect trucks and inspect their cargo, an American official said.

Egypt and the United Nations are pressuring Israel to speed up the inspection process, which requires vehicles to go to the Egyptian border with Israel before returning to Rafah. The international organization says that the number of trucks crossing daily decreased to less than 100 from about 200 during the truce period, which lasted from November 24 to December 1.

The humanitarian truce also allowed the release of hostages held by Hamas in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli occupation prisons.

In Israel, Colonel Elad Goren told reporters: “We will open the Kerem Shalom crossing for inspection only. This will happen within the next few days.” Goren is the head of the Coordination Unit of Government Activities in the Territories, a unit of the Israeli Ministry of Defense that coordinates civil affairs with the Palestinians.

The Kerem Shalom crossing is located on the southern border of Gaza with Israel and Egypt, and was used to transport more than 60% of the cargo of trucks heading to Gaza before the outbreak of war two months ago.

With no end in sight to the fighting, White House National Security Assistant John Feiner said that the occupation has not set a final date for ending major combat operations against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

source: Arabic Post

An analysis conducted by the American newspaper Politico, Thursday, December 7, 2023, revealed that advocacy organizations that support Israel spent nearly 100 times more on advertising through Meta’s social media platforms, compared to pro-Palestinian and Arab groups, at a time when the decline in Supporters of the entity inside America reached 66%, according to a poll conducted last month.

The combined spending of more than $2 million on Facebook and Instagram, though uncoordinated, shows how pro-Israel groups are trying to shape public opinion among Americans, especially younger generations who are increasingly skeptical of Israel.

More than two million dollars

The efforts of these groups, including a group that spent nearly half a million dollars on Meta platforms during that period, come at a time when American and international lawmakers are considering adding conditions to additional support for Israel, as its military campaign has caused the deaths of at least 17,000 Palestinians. According to health authorities in the Gaza Strip, which is run by Hamas.

Politico analyzed the company's Meta Ad Library, or online database that tracks which groups buy paid messages on both Facebook and Instagram over specific time periods. The tech giant is one of the few social media companies, alongside Google, that discloses details about its ad buying numbers.

Politico reviewed ads that ran between November 2 and December 1, based on advocacy group affiliations with either Israeli or Palestinian issues.

On Meta's platforms, which collectively are the world's largest social media sites by number of users, groups buying pro-Israel ads include well-known names like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee as well as the Foundation to Combat Anti-Semitism, a group founded by billionaire Robert Kraft.

Politico found that combined spending of $2.2 million exceeded almost any other entity during that period, except for the conservative news outlet The Daily Wire and its Meta accounts, which spent nearly $3 million.

A big difference

By comparison, groups supporting Palestinians, Muslims and Arabs spent less than $20,000 in the same period on descriptive ads, Politico found.

The American-Arab Anti-Defamation Committee was the largest spender on advertising among pro-Palestinian advocacy groups. The group spent just under $10,000 on Meta platforms between November 2 and December 1, although almost all of its paid messages did not specifically mention the Middle East conflict.

“Help us protect the rights of Arab Americans,” one of the American-Arab Committee’s ads said, and was viewed 50,000 times, by mostly female users between the ages of 25 and 54 in states including California, New York and Texas, according to Meta data.

In this context, Abed Ayoub, national executive director of the American-Arab Committee, said: “The purpose of our ads is for people to know that we are here to protect them.” When asked why spending on pro-Palestinian ads lags behind those defending Israel, Ayoub considered that “it takes a lot of money to change people’s opinions about lying.”

Decline in support for Israel

The disproportionate spending on ads, many of which target younger users, coincides with growing skepticism about Israel among young Americans. A Quinnipiac University poll released last month showed that 66% of respondents under the age of 35 said they disapproved of Israel's response to the Hamas attack on October 7, compared to older Americans who were more supportive of Israel.

The largest pro-Israel advertiser between November 2 and December 1 was an organization called Facts for Peace, which spent more than $450,000 targeting meta users under the age of 30 in major US cities such as Houston, Atlanta and Los Angeles.

Within a month, the group also amassed more than 18,000 followers on TikTok, which does not provide transparency about ad buys in the United States.

Organized campaign

In a related context, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) announced earlier its cooperation with a variety of pro-Israel Jewish organizations in launching an organized campaign that seeks to reshape the narrative circulating in the American media regarding the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, according to what was published by the British website Middle East Eye.

The committee, which is described as the largest pro-occupation pressure group in the United States, called this campaign “Project 7/10,” and included the American Jewish Committee, the Jewish Federations of North America, and the Anti-Defamation League. And the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

The organizations participating in the campaign said that it aims to enable continued support from the two prominent American parties (Democrat and Republican) for the Israeli occupation war on Gaza. shaping media coverage of the war; and “mobilize more attention” to the issue of detainees and prisoners held by Hamas after the October 7 attack.

Source: Arabic Post

Hundreds of representatives of civil society organizations and Jewish institutions in the United States, in a letter to US President Joe Biden, Thursday, December 7, 2023, called for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

Prominent Jewish organizations whose representatives sent the letter include Jewish Voice for Peace, IfNotNow, and J Street.

The message stressed the necessity of a ceasefire in Gaza, the liberation of prisoners, and taking political steps for a two-state solution in Palestine.

What is noteworthy about the letter is that it included the names of many Jewish clerics.

It stated: “We meet to call for a ceasefire, the release of prisoners, and a long-term political solution that guarantees collective security and freedom for both Israelis and Palestinians.”

It is noteworthy that White House trainees sent a letter to Biden on Wednesday, in which they called for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

Last November, more than 400 former and current officials called on the Biden administration to pressure Israel for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, through a letter they sent to the administration.

Since last October 7, the Israeli army has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, which as of Thursday left 17,177 dead, 46,000 wounded, massive infrastructure destruction and an “unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe,” according to official Palestinian and UN sources.

Source: Arabic Post

The Israeli occupation forces stormed most of the cities of the occupied West Bank at dawn on Friday. The occupation soldiers deployed around homes and main roads and prevented the movement of Palestinian citizens.

Hebron

At dawn on Friday, Israeli occupation forces stormed a number of villages, towns and neighborhoods in the city of Hebron, in the south of the West Bank.

Local sources reported that the Israeli occupation forces stormed in large numbers the towns of Yatta, Al-Samu' and Dura, south of Hebron, in addition to the town of Beit Ummar in the north, and deployed around citizens' homes and on the main roads, preventing citizens' movement.

These forces also stormed several neighborhoods in the southern region of the city of Hebron, and detained a number of citizens’ vehicles, in the Karantina area, Wadi al-Haria and the Deek Junction, and searched them.

Nablus

At dawn on Friday, Israeli occupation forces stormed the villages of Salem and Talfit in the Nablus Governorate.

Local sources reported that foot forces from the occupation army stormed the village of Salem, east of Nablus, from the eastern side, and toured the village, without any injuries or arrests being reported.

The occupation forces also stormed the village of Talfit, south of Nablus, and drove several military vehicles through the streets and alleys of the village.

Ramallah and Al-Bireh

At dawn on Friday, Israeli occupation forces stormed the cities of Ramallah and Al-Bireh.

Local sources reported that a force of 20 jeeps stormed downtown Ramallah and were present at Al-Manara Roundabout, Al-Irsal Street, and Al-Nahda Street in Al-Bireh, and raided several buildings in the two cities.

The sources reported that the occupation forces stormed a store in the city of Ramallah near Al-Manara Roundabout, searched it, and tampered with its contents.

She pointed out that confrontations broke out with the occupation forces, who fired tear gas bombs, causing a number of citizens to suffocate.

Qalqilya

At dawn on Friday, Israeli forces stormed the villages of Kafr Qaddum and Jinsafut, east of Qalqilya.

Local sources confirmed that foot forces from the occupation army stormed Jinsafut and raided several homes. The occupation forces also raided several homes in Kafr Qaddum, and withdrew surveillance camera recordings from a number of them.

Jenin

Large forces from the occupation army stormed, at dawn on Friday, the villages of Rummana, Zabuba, and Al-Taybeh, west of Jenin.

Local sources reported that large forces of occupation forces stormed the village and conducted patrols through its streets.

Local sources reported that the occupation forces raided the house of citizen Ahmed Ratib Mahajna, searched it thoroughly, using police dogs, and broke the tiles on the roof of the house.

The occupation forces also stormed the villages of Rummana and Al-Taybeh, west of Jenin, and intensified their military presence in the vicinity of the town of Silat Al-Dhahr, south of the governorate.

A number of Palestinians were martyred, at dawn on Friday, and others were injured, in an Israeli bombing that targeted the Shujaiya neighborhood, east of Gaza City, according to Palestinian government media.

The Palestinian News Agency (Wafa) reported that the Israeli bombing of several areas in the Gaza Strip is continuing, especially the eastern areas in the city of Khan Yunis and on the beaches of the city of Rafah, south of the Strip, while Israeli warplanes targeted the central areas of the besieged Strip with several raids.

Six Palestinian citizens were killed and others were injured, today, Friday, during the Israeli occupation forces’ storming of Al-Far’a camp, south of Tubas.

The Ministry of Health reported that five citizens were killed and others were injured during the ongoing Israeli occupation forces storming the camp, while eyewitnesses reported that the occupation soldiers tried to prevent Red Crescent ambulances from reaching the injured.

Local sources said that Israeli special undercover forces, "Musta'arabiun", infiltrated the camp at first, and later the Israeli occupation forces sent military reinforcements to it, while snipers took to the roofs of a number of buildings.

Confrontations broke out with the forces storming the camp, amid heavy gunfire and the sounds of explosions being heard.

The American website Axios, citing four American and Israeli officials, said on Thursday that Egypt has warned the United States and Israel of a “rupture” in relations with the latter if it pushes Palestinians to migrate to Sinai as a result of the war it is waging in the Gaza Strip.

Egypt has always taken a decisive stance on the issue of the displacement of Palestinians and expressed its categorical rejection of it, and considered the war a threat to its national security, in light of Israel’s denial of the existence of a plan to displace the people of the Gaza Strip, despite its bombing, which is pushing them towards the border.

According to what three Israeli officials said, Egyptian officials expressed their concern that the crisis on the border with the Gaza Strip would lead to thousands of displaced people crossing the border in order to try to find shelter in Sinai, while one of the Israeli officials spoke of their Egyptian counterparts informing them of the possibility of fleeing. "Fighters" from the Gaza Strip to Egypt.

While Israeli officials said that the Egyptian side informed Israel that such a scenario could create a crisis in relations between Egypt and Israel, an American official confirmed to the website that his country shares Egypt’s same concerns, noting that Egyptian officials warned of a rupture with Israel if such an event occurred. Scenario.

Fears of an Israeli plan to displace Gazans at the expense of Egypt

Private sources previously told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that there is an Israeli plan after the cessation of military operations, with which the Israelis are bargaining, which is to gradually push a large number of the population of the Gaza Strip, which may reach a million people, to Egypt, and then distribute them to the Egyptian governorates. .

According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip resulted in the displacement of about 1.9 million people in Gaza, or approximately 85% of the population, while the Palestinian Ministry of Health said that the number of martyrs reached about 18,000.

In the first days of the war, which began on October 7, Israel was pushing Egypt to accept the transfer of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Sinai temporarily until the end of the war, according to what it said at the time. However, Egypt rejected the plan more than once, as did the Palestinian Authority and Jordan, which feared As well as the possibility of similar displacement occurring in the future from the West Bank.

Talk of the displacement of the people of the Gaza Strip has increased, with Israel expanding its war on the south of the Strip, which has focused in recent days on Khan Yunis, the largest city in the south, which contains hundreds of thousands of displaced people from the northern regions.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said, at the Aspen Security Forum in the US capital, Washington, on Thursday, that the displacement of Palestinian civilians from the Gaza Strip to Egypt contradicts international law, stressing the need not to punish the Palestinians and force them to leave their land.

The Egyptian Foreign Minister, along with a number of Arab foreign ministers, is visiting Washington to meet with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to discuss the war on the Gaza Strip.

Al-Araby Al-Jadeed

UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed announced that the UAE had submitted a draft resolution to the UN Security Council demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza for humanitarian reasons.

Bin Zayed said: “This request came in response to the catastrophic situation in the Gaza Strip and the worsening suffering of the Palestinian people, as stated by the Secretary-General of the United Nations in his speech to the International Security Councils.”

On Wednesday, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres sent a letter to the Security Council regarding Gaza, referring, for the first time since he took over the Secretariat, to Article 99 of the Charter of the United Nations.

The Secretary-General relied on the rarely used Article 99 of the Founding Charter of the United Nations, which authorizes him to “draw the attention of the Security Council to any matter that he considers may threaten the protection of international peace and security.”

For its part, Palestine welcomed the activation by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres of Article 99 of the United Nations Charter to confront what the Gaza Strip is witnessing.

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen considered the mandate of United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres a "threat to world peace" after he sent a letter to the Security Council about Gaza to activate Article 99 of the organization's charter.

Two months after the outbreak of war in the Gaza Strip, the United Nations previously warned of a “more terrifying scenario” in the Strip, which humanitarian operations may be unable to deal with.

Source: Sama News

Despite reports of an American deadline set for Tel Aviv to end its war on Gaza, estimated at weeks, a White House official denies that Washington has set a deadline for Israel to end the war, while Biden held new phone conversations with Netanyahu.

US President Joe Biden held telephone discussions on Thursday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, amid reports of a discrepancy in the American and Israeli positions regarding the date for ending the war.

This came according to what an official in Whites House said, who spoke to Reuters, without revealing further details of the call between Biden and Netanyahu, and what was discussed regarding the war on Gaza.

While Israeli reports indicated that the call between Biden and Netanyahu touched on the operations of the Israeli occupation army in the southern Gaza Strip, and the need to bring more humanitarian aid to the Strip.

In an official statement, the White House stated that Biden held two separate calls, on Thursday, with Netanyahu and Jordanian King Abdullah, and said that there was a need for more aid for civilians in Gaza.

The White House said that Biden "stressed the urgent need to protect civilians and separate them from Hamas, including through corridors that allow people to move safely from designated areas of hostilities."

Biden stressed to Netanyahu that “there is an urgent need for more assistance in various fields.”

A “gap” between what Israel says about protecting civilians and the results on the ground

In turn, US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, confirmed in a joint press conference with his British counterpart, David Cameron, Blinken stressed that there is a “gap” between what he described as “Israel’s intention to protect civilians” and the results on the ground in Gaza, adding that Washington is speaking with Israel regularly concerns the protection of civilians.

Blinken said, "It remains necessary for Israel to give priority to protecting civilians. There is still a gap between, exactly as I said when I was there, the intention to protect civilians and the actual results that we see on the ground," and he noted that after his visit to Israel, at the end of the week Last, “aid began flowing into Gaza.”

He added, "Over the past few days, we have noticed Israeli steps towards protecting civilians in Gaza," considering that "the task of protecting civilians is difficult because Israel is dealing with a terrorist enemy," and claimed that "there are safe areas for civilians in Gaza, and we are working to ensure their readiness so that they are far from the fighting."

He added, "Hamas should not be able to commit its atrocities again against Israelis, and there should not be a forced transfer of Palestinians from Gaza." He said, "I was clear about basic principles, including not reoccupying Gaza and rejecting forced displacement or reducing the area of the Strip."

On the other hand, White House National Security Assistant, John Feiner, confirmed that the United States did not give Israel a deadline or specific date to end combat operations in Gaza; He considered that if the war stopped now, Hamas would continue to “pose a threat.”

In statements he made during his participation in a security forum and reported by Reuters, Viner said that the United States believes that many of “Israel’s security targets are still in the southern Gaza Strip.”

According to the American official, “If the war stops today, Hamas will continue to pose a threat to Israel, and for this reason the United States is not asking Israel to stop.”

He explained that Washington believes that "there are many legitimate military targets that still exist in southern Gaza," and said that the Palestinian Authority is the only option to deal with them as a political and institutional entity, referring to "the day after the war."

This comes after the Wall Street Journal revealed, on Thursday, that US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, informed officials in the Israeli war cabinet that Washington believes that the war should stop within weeks, not within months.

It added, quoting informed American officials, that Israeli officials did not provide any guarantees regarding this, but they expressed their “interest in things returning to normal,” especially in terms of the Israeli occupation economy not receiving blows.

US Secretary of State, Blinken, had telephone conversations with the Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs, who is close to Netanyahu, Ron Dermer, and informed him that Israel must make more efforts to protect civilians in the Gaza Strip.

Blinken also urged Dermer for Israel to allow more humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, while he welcomed the decision issued by the Israeli government, on Wednesday evening, to “allow” more fuel to enter the Strip.

This comes within the framework of ongoing communications between the Biden administration and the Israeli government to achieve the equation that Washington is trying to establish, which is represented by “humanitarian steps in exchange for more time” that it may grant to Israel in its war on Gaza.

In this context, Weiner pointed out that more than 200 humanitarian aid trucks arrive in Gaza every day, stressing his country’s desire to see more of them.

The United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly, Thursday, on five periodic resolutions on the Palestinian issue, related to refugees, settlements, Israeli practices, and others.

This was stated in a statement issued by the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates.

The statement stated that the most prominent of these resolutions was the resolution on supporting Palestine refugees, “which received the support of 168 countries, while only one country, the occupying country, voted against it, and 10 countries abstained from voting, including the United States, Uruguay, and Paraguay.”

It added that the resolution concerned with the operations of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) received “the support of 165 countries, the objection of 4 countries: the United States, Canada, Israel, and Micronesia, and the abstention of 6 countries: Cameroon, Guatemala, Kiribati, Palau, and Papua New Guinea And Vanuatu.”

The Foreign Ministry said that the resolution regarding Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem and the occupied Syrian Golan, “received the support of 149 countries and the objection of 6 countries: the United States, Canada, the occupying state, Hungary, Micronesia, and Nauru, and 19 countries abstained from voting.” ".

Its statement stated that “the decision regarding the properties of Palestinian refugees and the revenues coming from them received the support of 163 countries and the objection of 5 countries, namely the United States, Canada, the occupying state, Micronesia, and Nauru, while 9 countries abstained from voting.”

While the resolution regarding the work of the Special Committee concerned with investigating Israeli practices that affect the human rights of the Palestinian people and other Arab residents in the occupied territories received the support of 86 countries, and the objection of 12 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, the occupying state, Canada, the Czech Republic, and Hungary, Austria, Australia, and 75 countries abstained from voting.”

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry welcomed the adoption of the resolutions, and called on the countries that abstained from voting “to correct their positions and stand on the right path, which is the path of truth, justice, and solidarity with the Palestinian people.”

It stressed "the role of states in ending the suffering of the Palestinian people, and urgent action at this time to impose a cessation of Israeli aggression and a ceasefire."

It is noteworthy that these decisions are not binding, but they have symbolic importance, and are issued annually by the United Nations General Assembly, which has 193 members.

The British newspaper The Times confirmed on Thursday that a British military team in the West Bank is working to prepare the Palestinian Authority to take over the administration of the Gaza Strip for the “post-Hamas era.”

This step brings to mind the project of American General Keith Dayton, who undertook the “Making a New Palestinian” program to retrain Palestinian Authority soldiers to thwart resistance operations against the occupation.

British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said, according to the newspaper: “The Palestinian Authority must assume responsibility in Gaza,” after the end of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip.

Shapps explained that the British support team has been on the ground in Ramallah for more than ten years, pointing out that Britain “will consider increasing its ability to assist the Palestinian Authority.”

He pointed out that he met today in Ramallah, Interior Minister Ziad Hab Al-Rih, and the British military team.

Shapps added that London is working with Washington to improve the capabilities of the Palestinian Authority, noting that he discussed the matter with his American counterpart, Lloyd Austin.

Secret meetings to discuss the “post-Hamas” phase

Press sources revealed a secret European-American-Palestinian meeting to discuss “what comes after Hamas in Gaza,” and a secret international meeting was held in early November in Geneva with the participation of a delegation from the Palestinian Authority.

The sources added that European countries and an American delegation are participating in this secret meeting, accompanied by a high-ranking political delegation from the Palestinian Authority. They confirmed that some delegations from European countries sent members of study centers to participate in the meeting.

It pointed out the participation of Arab countries through study centers and non-diplomatic researchers in the meeting, and the meeting is titled “After Hamas in Gaza.”

According to the sources, the first question on the agenda is “What is the possibility of the fall of Hamas?”, while the meeting discusses, in the second place on the agenda, the scenario of governance in Gaza after Hamas.

The Dayton project resurfaces

It is worth noting that the statements of the British Defense Minister, about what happened in March, when the United States formed a council to coordinate security cooperation between the Authority and “Israel,” led by American General Keith Dayton, who personally assumed the task of supervising the preparation and training of the Authority’s security agencies, to improve their ability in the security function, and “thwarting armed operations.”

That training was titled “The Making of the New Palestinian,” as Dayton not only worked to institutionalize security cooperation between the occupation and the Authority and make it more useful, but also ensured that the training courses he supervised would contribute to imposing a new security doctrine on the security establishment in the Authority, so that it would lead to thwart resistance work.

The American website “Axios” revealed in early February, quoting American and Israeli officials, that the visit of US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, to the occupied West Bank and the Israeli occupation was to pressure the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, to accept “a security plan that will restore the Authority’s control over the cities of Nablus and Jenin, and training a special Palestinian force to confront militants (i.e., resistance fighters) in the occupied West Bank.”

This evening, Thursday, hundreds of settlers organized a provocative march, starting from the Hebron Gate in occupied Jerusalem, all the way to Damascus Square and Gates, and from there to the Islamic Quarter, the Old Market, and the Al-Wad Neighborhood, on the occasion of “Jewish holidays,” and to demand an end to the Islamic Endowments’ jurisdiction over the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The participating settlers shouted insulting expressions at Arabs and Palestinians, and attacked a number of passers-by, while shops closed their doors to avoid their attacks.

Today, the occupation municipality placed a huge candlestick in Bab al-Jadid Square, one of the gates of the Old City, to light it to mark the start of the “holidays.”

According to the calls circulated by the so-called “Temple Groups,” the march received approval from the Israeli occupation police, and aims to “remove the guardianship of the Islamic Endowments from Al-Aqsa Mosque, and renew complete Jewish control over Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa.”

The occupation municipality lit up the historic Jerusalem Wall on the side of the Hebron Gate with light shows that included the menorah, which symbolizes this holiday.

Today, Thursday, the Israeli occupation army launched a massive arrest campaign in various areas of the Gaza Strip, most notably Beit Lahia, Khan Yunis, and Jabalia. Israeli media published pictures and clips showing a large number of Palestinians, stripped of most of their clothes, during arrest operations under the pretext of “confirming of their activity.”

The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth published pictures and video clips, quoting the Israeli army, of a large number of Palestinians, stripped of most of their clothes, and piled into a truck to be transported to an unknown destination in Tel Aviv, which the newspaper did not name.

The video clips also showed the moments of arrest of a large number of Palestinians, while they were on the ground after being stripped of most of their clothes amidst a siege by Israeli soldiers.

The Israeli Broadcasting Authority reported that army forces arrested dozens of Palestinians during their advance to take control of the northern part of the Strip, claiming that "some of them surrendered themselves voluntarily," in order to verify whether they belong to the Hamas movement or are activists in it.

On Thursday, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed announced that the Israeli army had arrested its correspondent from Market Street in Beit Lahia, along with a group of his brothers, relatives, and other civilians.

It added that its correspondent was among dozens of Palestinians arrested by the Israeli army. He deliberately forced them to take off their clothes, searched them, and humiliated them upon arrest, before taking them to an unknown destination, according to what the residents told the newspaper.

The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate announced that the Israeli army killed 75 journalists and workers in the media sector, while nearly 80 journalists were injured, and two journalists went missing, while it bombed the homes of the families of 60 journalists, destroyed the headquarters of 63 media institutions, and disrupted the work of 25 local radio stations (24 in Gaza and one In the West Bank, 3 media outlets were closed and restricted.

Recently, Israeli forces targeted areas in Beit Lahia, Khan Yunis, and Beit Hanoun with violent raids in northern Gaza, killing dozens of Palestinians on a daily basis.

High number of victims

Earlier Thursday, the spokesman for the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, Ashraf Al-Qudra, said that the Israeli strikes had killed about 17,177 Palestinians and injured 46,000 since October 7.

Al-Qudra added that 350 Palestinians were killed and 1,900 injured during the past 24 hours in Gaza.

Israel's war on Gaza is entering its third month, as the Israeli army continues its attempts to advance on the ground as part of its plan for a "ground incursion" into the Gaza Strip, but these attempts are still "slow" and geographically limited, with Palestinian factions continuing to target its soldiers and vehicles.

Although the number of civilian deaths in Gaza has risen to unprecedented levels, the Biden administration is not considering using any of its influence on Israel to force the Israeli army to change its tactics, according to statements by American officials.

American officials say that they express their concerns in their private dialogues with Israel in order to mitigate civilian deaths, and they claim that Israel is listening, but the current campaign in southern Gaza, where there are millions of displaced civilians, is no less brutal than the Israeli operations in the north.

The official spokesman for the US State Department, Matthew Miller, said in his response to the questions of the Al-Quds.com correspondent at the State Department that Israel is listening to the US administration and is “working to avoid large numbers of casualties among civilian citizens” who move from one place to another depending on the situation. 

The spokesman pointed to Israel allowing more aid trucks into Gaza as evidence that Israel is listening, but Martin Griffiths, the UN's top aid official, said the situation in southern Gaza was "horrendous" and ended any possibility of meaningful humanitarian operations.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza said that more than 16,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 7, 70% of whom are women and children, but this mass slaughter of civilians did not prompt the Biden administration to rethink support for the war, and refrain from taking measures that would force Israel to listen to concerns about civilian casualties, such as restricting military aid.

Instead, US officials emphasized that US military aid to Israel is unconditional, and the support has included near-daily weapons shipments, including thousands of massive bombs, and the deployment of more US firepower to the region to “deter” regional actors from entering the war.

American officials claim that reducing military support for the attack entails risks, as Reuters on Wednesday quoted a high-ranking American official as saying, “You begin to reduce the aid provided to Israel, you begin to encourage other parties to enter the conflict, you weaken the deterrent effect, and you encourage other enemies of Israel.”

Israeli officials made clear that they felt no pressure to change their tactics. Ofir Falk, foreign policy advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said: “I must admit that I feel that the prime minister does not feel any pressure, and that we will do whatever it takes to achieve our military goals.”

The Israeli occupation has administratively arrested about 700 Palestinians in Gaza since the beginning of the war on October 7.

According to the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation, the Israeli army and the Shin Bet Security Service have arrested, to date, about 700 people in Gaza, and their detention has been extended in an administrative procedure under the Unlawful Combatants Law.

It pointed out that "this number does not include the Palestinians who were arrested near the Gaza Strip on October 7th," and whose numbers were not specified.

The Broadcasting Corporation had previously indicated that the Israeli army had established an investigation and detention center for Palestinians who were arrested from inside the Gaza Strip.

Informed Palestinian sources confirmed that the US administration is pressuring Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to form a new Palestinian government with broad powers and carry out radical reforms in the Authority, specifically in the field of security.

American demands to form a new Palestinian government

The sources confirmed that the American demands that were repeated yesterday, Wednesday, during the meeting of US Vice President’s National Security Advisor, Philip Gordon, with President Abbas, focused on forming a new Palestinian government in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with a program whose goals are specific to reforming the security sector, rebuilding, economic empowerment, and preparing for elections. The sources continued: “American officials assured President Abbas that they will not interfere in who will be chosen or the names proposed for this government.”

According to the sources, “President Abu Mazen’s response was clear that these are internal Palestinian matters, and that what is required of the American administration is to put pressure on Israel in order to stop the bloody war on the Gaza Strip, through a ceasefire and an end to displacement in the Gaza Strip.”

Abbas's meeting yesterday, Wednesday, with US envoy Philip Gordon, at the presidential headquarters in the city of Ramallah, was "tense and negative," according to Palestinian officials. The sources who spoke to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed said, “The atmosphere of Gordon’s meeting is no less negative and tense than President Abbas’s meeting with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken last Thursday.”

He explained that "the meeting with Blinken was also tense, as he focused on what the Palestinian leadership is required to do in terms of reform in the field of security and freedoms, and touched on corruption and the need for reform, but he evaded the responsibility of the United States for the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip as it is the main supporter of the Israeli occupation state" which gave it political cover and military aid to continue the war on Gaza.” He continued: "Blinken was clear that the American administration cannot persuade Israel to stop the war."

During his meeting with Abbas, Blinken evaded US responsibility for the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip

According to the sources, “President Abu Mazen asked Blinken, if the American administration cannot pressure Israel to stop the war and massacres in the Gaza Strip, and also failed to convince the occupation government to transfer Palestinian funds from tax revenues (clearance) to the Palestinian Authority, Why can the American administration only put pressure on the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinians?

Revitalizing the Palestinian Authority

Last Monday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas received a phone call from US Vice President Kamala Harris, in which she paved the way for the visit of her Vice President Gordon yesterday.

According to a statement issued by the White House, Gordon stressed, during his meetings in Ramallah, the American administration’s commitment to supporting the Palestinian people and their right to security, dignity, and self-determination. He stressed Washington's commitment to establishing a Palestinian state in the future, and explained that the Palestinian people must have a hopeful political horizon. “To this end, Gordon discussed revitalizing the Palestinian Authority,” according to the statement.

He added that Gordon stressed "that Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people, and poses an unacceptable terrorist threat to the Israeli people, and that Hamas cannot control Gaza when the fighting ends." Gordon stressed that the Biden administration "is committed to accelerating planning for the next day (of the war in Gaza), so that when the intense fighting phase ends, we can begin implementing these plans, with great support from the international community." He added, "The revitalized Palestinian Authority must have the ability to govern both Gaza and the West Bank, and that the Palestinian Authority's security forces must be strengthened to eventually assume security responsibilities in Gaza."

Oxfam (an international federation of charitable organizations focused on alleviating poverty in the world) said that chaos is overwhelming the international humanitarian system and Israel is implementing a campaign of collective punishment in the Gaza Strip.

It added that politicians failed to reach a ceasefire, which is the only humanitarian action that is truly important.

It indicated that the Israeli aggression in southern Gaza makes any humanitarian response in the entire Strip impossible.

OXFAM stressed that the so-called safe areas established by Israel inside Gaza are not protected, reliable, and inaccessible.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak revealed a position of the late Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak regarding the Gaza Strip, as he confirmed that Mubarak had assured him of his complete rejection of any Egyptian control over the Strip.

Barak added, in statements to the 555 Pilots Forum, that former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak strongly refused to accept any temporary control over the Gaza Strip, and then Barak went to persuade Abu Mazen, but Abu Mazen refused to accept control of the Gaza Strip under the guise of subjugating Hamas to the Israeli army.

The "14 Now" website said that because both Mubarak and Abu Mazen refused to agree to rule Gaza, Barak had no choice but to continue allowing Hamas to rule the Gaza Strip until the next round.

Barak also said that the goal of Operation Cast Lead in 2008 was to eliminate Hamas and transfer the Gaza Strip to the Palestinian Authority, but in order to do this, Israel needed to rule Egypt for a transitional period until the Gaza Strip was transferred into the hands of Abu Mazen, which did not happen due to the Egyptian position of rejection. for this idea.

It is noteworthy that the Egyptian administration of the Gaza Strip began in 1948 until October 1956 and again from March 1957 until June 1967.

Gaza Ministry of Health spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra said in a press conference that 350 dead and 900 injuries arrived in Gaza hospitals during the past 24 hours.

He said that the number of dead rose to 17,177, and the number of injured to 46,000 since the start of the war on Gaza.

He continued, "The occupation deliberately targets ambulances and civil defense crews. We are facing difficulties in counting the dead and wounded due to the continuous bombing and the cutting of communications."

He stressed, "Less than 1% of the total wounded in the aggression left the Rafah crossing for the purpose of treatment abroad, and the occupancy rate in Gaza hospitals reached 206%."

He said that the liquidation of health services in northern Gaza would have serious and disastrous repercussions for the wounded.

He said, "We are facing great difficulties in operating the Al-Shifa Complex, and we need the support of international institutions. The Baptist Hospital has lost capacity and cannot provide health services, and the occupation is deliberately targeting ambulances and civil defense crews."

As the war on Gaza entered its 62nd day, several areas, specifically in the Khan Yunis and Jabalia region, witnessed fierce clashes between armed factions and the occupation forces, which continue to commit massacres against civilians throughout the Strip.

Today, Thursday, Israeli artillery and aircraft continued their intense bombardment and raids on various areas in the Gaza Strip, where the bombing and raids targeted residential squares and left dozens of dead and hundreds of injuries.

This comes as the number of dead and injuries continues to rise, as a spokesman for the Ministry of Health in Gaza reported today that the number of dead as a result of the Israeli aggression on the Strip has risen to 17,177, and the wounded to 46,000 people with varying injuries, in addition to thousands of missing people, with the continuation of the Israeli military aggression on the Gaza Strip.

As the war on Gaza entered its 62nd day, several areas, specifically in the Khan Yunis and Jabalia region, witnessed fierce clashes between armed factions and the occupation forces, which continue to commit massacres against civilians throughout the Strip. Israeli aircraft escalated its raids targeting residential squares, while artillery bombed populated areas and the vicinity of displaced persons’ shelter centers, while local sources reported that a bombing targeted the Yabna refugee camp, near the border with Egypt, south of the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip.

Oxfam Relief and Development stressed that "the so-called safe zones established by Israel inside Gaza are unprotected, unreliable, and inaccessible."

The US State Department refrained from describing leaving children to die in Gaza as a “war crime,” and merely described the incident as a “tragedy.”

In a press statement on Thursday, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller described the discovery of decomposed bodies of children and infants in Al-Nasr Children’s Hospital in Gaza as a “tragic event,” avoiding considering it a “war crime.”

Miller said: "This incident is a tragedy. A tragedy for these children, for their families, for the Palestinian people and for the entire world."

The American official called on Israel to reduce civilian casualties.

In response to a journalist about whether Washington sees these events as a war crime or not, Miller said: “I will never evaluate the situation here. We will reach a decision after completing the process of collecting evidence.”

Regarding a question about whether the United States would form a mission to collect evidence of “war crimes” in Gaza, Miller said: “Currently there is an ongoing conflict, and we are monitoring events closely. But we will not talk about the steps we can take. We are at present in the middle of a major conflict” ".

On November 10, the Ministry of Health in Gaza announced that Israeli forces surrounded the “Al-Rantisi” and “Al-Nasr Children’s” hospitals, west of Gaza City, and forced medical teams to leave them.

As a result of the (Israeli) occupation’s refusal to remove sick infants from Al-Nasr Hospital and evacuate medical staff, the death of 5 infants was discovered after their decomposed bodies were found.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) announced today, Thursday, the targeting of four of its schools and the evacuation of five other schools in the Gaza Strip during the past 24 hours.

UNRWA said in a statement, a copy of which was received by Xinhua News Agency, that its school in the town of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip was directly targeted, while three schools in Gaza City and the central Strip were subjected to indirect impacts.

The agency stated that it had completely evacuated five of its schools serving as shelters for displaced persons in towns east of Khan Yunis Governorate, south of the Gaza Strip, following direct orders issued by Israeli forces to facility managers.

Yesterday, the Israeli army allocated an additional area in the city of Khan Yunis, with an area of about one square kilometer, for immediate evacuation.

More than 1.9 million people (or more than 85% of the population) were displaced throughout the Gaza Strip, including about 1.2 million displaced people residing in 155 UNRWA facilities in all five governorates of the Strip, including the north and Gaza City.

UNRWA announced the killing of two of its employees, bringing the number of deaths among UN agency employees to 132 since the start of Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip, which is the highest death toll for United Nations employees during wars in its history.

For his part, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said that the number of civilians being killed in the Gaza Strip is "increasing rapidly," noting that civilians, including women, children, the elderly, the sick, and people with special needs, are suffering the most.

Lazzarini warned that at least 60,000 additional people had to move to already overcrowded UNRWA shelters in recent days, with more people demanding shelter.

He said, "The evacuation order forces people to concentrate in an area less than a third of the size of the Gaza Strip, and they need everything: food, water, shelter, and mostly safety."

He added, "Access to water is limited, as the Israeli operation blocked access to the largest desalination plant in Gaza, which previously provided drinking water to a total of 350,000 people."

Lazzarini warned of the risk of stopping the largest hospital in southern Gaza, which includes more than a thousand resident patients and shelters 17,000 displaced people due to a lack of supplies and insufficient staff.

The Commissioner-General of UNRWA stressed that "there is no safe place in Gaza, whether in Rafah or anywhere in what is unilaterally called the safe zone," reiterating the call for a humanitarian ceasefire.

Since last October 7, Israel has been waging a large-scale war against the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), leaving more than 17,000 Palestinians dead after Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on southern Israel, which, according to the Israeli authorities, claimed the lives of more than 1,200 Israelis.

Today (Thursday), the Palestinian Authority welcomed the initiative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, to call for a session of the UN Security Council to assume its responsibilities for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, based on Article 99 of the United Nations Charter.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that this initiative is a “very necessary step” that is consistent with the tasks assigned to the UN Security Council and institutions of international legitimacy.

The Ministry condemned "the attack and incitement carried out by Israel against the Secretary-General of the United Nations," and considered it "political terrorism to discourage Guterres from performing his role and carrying out his duties, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, international law, and human rights principles."

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry called on world leaders and countries to support Guterres’ initiative and rally around it to push the Security Council to fulfill its obligations and decide to cease fire in the Gaza Strip.

Guterres announced yesterday that he had sent a letter to the President of the Security Council in which he activated - for the first time - Article 99 of the United Nations Charter, which states that “the Secretary-General may alert the Security Council to any matter that he deems may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security.”

Guterres said on the X platform, "In the face of the grave danger of the collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza, I urge the Security Council to help avoid a humanitarian catastrophe and I call for the declaration of a humanitarian ceasefire."

This is the first time that Guterres has activated Article 99 of the Charter since he became Secretary-General of the United Nations in 2017.

Since last October 7, Israel has been waging a large-scale war against the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) that left more than 17,000 Palestinians dead, after the Palestinian movement launched an unprecedented attack on southern Israel that, according to the Israeli authorities, claimed the lives of more than 1,200 Israelis.

Israel announced today (Thursday) that the war in the Gaza Strip can be ended on two conditions: the release of all prisoners and the surrender of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).

The Israeli Prime Minister's spokesman said to the Arab world, Ofir Gendelman, in a briefing today, "I say to the Gazans, the war can be ended today on two conditions. The first is that all our kidnapped must be released. You are suffering greatly because of their detention by the monsters of Hamas, and the second is that Hamas must surrender, as it has no hope of survival." "Its destruction is inevitable."

He continued, "I say to the Gazans that there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon. After eliminating Hamas, your lives will improve, Gaza will be rebuilt, and you will enjoy security, stability, and prosperity...but there is no hope for achieving this as long as there is Hamas."

Gendelman added, "Israeli army forces are advancing in the southern Gaza Strip and surrounded the house of Yahya Al-Sinwar, the Hamas leader responsible for the October 7 massacres," adding, "The mission of these forces is to arrest him as soon as possible."

He went on to say that armed forces "breached Hamas' defensive lines in Jabalia and Shuja'iya in the north of the Gaza Strip, and in Khan Yunis in its south," stressing that "the city of Khan Yunis is cordoned off and besieged."

The Israeli occupation authorities seized 501 dunums of land from the town of Jaba, northeast of occupied Jerusalem.

The Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission said on Thursday, “The Israeli occupation authorities announced the confiscation of 501 dunums of citizens’ lands in Jaba in the Jerusalem Governorate, under the pretext that they are state lands.”

The head of the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, Muayyad Shaaban, said, “The lands targeted by the military order are located in Basin No. 3, a natural area of Wadi al-Nimr, and Basin No. 4, a natural area, of Erqan al-Jahsh, on the lands of the village of Jaba.”

Shaaban added that the occupation authorities are trying, by converting these lands into so-called state lands, to create geographical continuity between the “Adam” and “Geva Benjamin” colonies in occupied Jerusalem, given that these targeted lands are located in the space separating the two colonies, which will contribute in the future to Settlements are expanded on citizens' lands without regard to their basic rights and without paying attention to the position of international law, which criminalizes these grave violations committed by the occupying power in the occupied land.

With this type of declaration, the Israeli occupation authorities aim to transform citizens’ lands into the colonial project, in a terrible perversion of the laws prevailing before the occupation in favor of the increasing colonialism in the Palestinian land, and to prohibit citizens from entering these lands on the pretext that they have become state lands, and it is part of a large plan aimed at Controlling the eastern slopes of the West Bank, specifically those adjacent to the Jordan Valley and the edge of the Jordan Valley, by controlling vast areas in this region, according to the Commission.

Shaaban called on citizens who own lands targeted by the military order to go to the Commission’s offices in order to complete legal files as quickly as possible, to nullify the occupation order.

In Bethlehem, today, Thursday, Israeli settlers seized agricultural land of 12 dunams, south of Bethlehem.

The director of the Office of the Wall and Settlement Resistance Authority in the Bethlehem Governorate, Hassan Brejiyeh, reported that a number of colonists seized an area estimated at about 12 dunums and planted it with forest trees in the Khallet al-Nahla area near the village of Wadi Rahal in the south, which is located between the “Efrat” settlement and the colonial outpost. Kivat Eitam, which is located on citizens’ lands, belongs to the citizen Muhammad Issa Al-Harimi.

It is noteworthy that the colonists seized about 300 dunums in the same location a week ago, and planted it with forest trees.

Democratic US Senator Elizabeth Warren said that killing more than 15,000 people in Gaza is a moral failure for Israel.

She added in a tweet on her official page on the X website: “Today I spoke about Israel’s war against Hamas, the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, the growing hatred at home, and the efforts made to secure long-term peace.”

Warren stressed that “US military aid cannot be a blank check for the right-wing Netanyahu government, which has shown its disdain for Palestinian civilians.”

On Wednesday, Republican members of the US Senate blocked a request submitted by the White House to approve an emergency aid package worth $106 billion, primarily benefiting Ukraine and Israel, because it did not include immigration reforms they demand. According to the French news agency.

Reuters reported that as voting continued, the result reached 41 votes to 43, which means that the measure was unable to obtain the approval of 60 votes, which is necessary in the 100-member council to pave the way for the start of discussion of the draft law.

Israeli and US officials say that the war will last one more month. Despite lofty claims that Israel is ready to fight for years to come, simple discourse analysis, along with even simpler logic, tells us that this is not the case. The Israeli Army Radio reported on Wednesday that Israel’s own military assessment has concluded “that the land operations in Gaza will last for another month.” This assessment, reported by Al-Jazeera, coincided with reports in US media that the Israeli war on the besieged Gaza Strip will carry on until early January. “US officials expect the current phase of Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza targeting the southern end of the strip to last several weeks before Israel transitions, possibly by January, to a lower-intensity, hyper-localized strategy that narrowly targets specific Hamas militants and leaders,” CNN reported quoting multiple senior officials.

This raises many questions, lead among them: Why did Israel fail to eliminate any prominent Resistance leader in the first 60 days of the war? In fact, why would it need another 30 days, or so, before the Israeli army even enters into the phase of eliminating the leadership of the Resistance? 

Weeks, Months, Years? 

This is quite puzzling because Israel, and everyone else, understands well that this is an asymmetrical warfare, and that the Resistance leadership is not permanently located in a fixed place. Aside from the continued confusion of the Israeli narrative regarding the war, one is forced to contend with another question, why one more month? 

On November 30, Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that Israel will likely take months to win the war in Gaza. “We are going to fight Hamas until we prevail — no matter how long it takes,” he said during a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. This emphasis on months – or years as other Israeli officials claimed – is most likely aimed at sending a message to the Palestinian Resistance that the Israeli military operation, and subsequent genocide in Gaza, will carry on unabated until the Resistance is eliminated. But another target audience is the Israeli public itself, which is yet to see, even early signs of Israel’s military, even strategic, objectives being met. It is important to recall that on November 8, Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari had already declared victory in northern Gaza. “Hamas has lost control and is continuing to lose control in the north,” he said. That turned out not to resemble any version of the truth, however exaggerated. Aside from the Khan Yunis area, in southern Gaza, most of the Resistance’s well-documented battles are still taking place in northern Gaza, close to the Israel-Gaza border. 

Why One Month? 

But why did Israel allocate a month to supposedly defeat the Resistance in Gaza? 

One, the fact that US officials are also providing similar time estimations suggests that Israel has received a green light from Washington to do whatever it pleases in Gaza for at least one more month. Two, to sell the idea, to its own public, that the Israeli army is following a clear blueprint, a strategy towards a specific goal, and supposedly an imminent victory. This argument is strengthened by the constant references by the Israeli military that it moved from stage one, to stage two, and then stage three of the war, without providing any concrete evidence that these stages have been fulfilled. Three, to climb down the high ladder that Israeli leaders have climbed in the beginning of the war, that of making lofty promises, not only of defeating the Resistance but determining the very future of Gaza, in fact of the Palestinian people though their military performance in a single war. Four, then, there is the mathematical impossibility. 

Hardware Deficit 

Citing Israeli defense information, AXIOS said that Israel has nearly 2,200 tanks. Other sources say that 1,750 of these tanks are combat-ready. And of course, these tanks are distributed equally between north, south, center, and the eastern borders of the country, namely the Jordan Valley region. It is important to keep in mind that many of these tanks are positioned in the porous Israel-Sinai border, and that also many have not entered the war on Gaza to secure the so-called Gaza Envelope. According to claims by Palestinian Resistance, again supported by video evidence, Israel has so far lost between 400 to 500 Israeli military vehicles, most of which are Merkava tanks. A simple mathematical equation demonstrates that Israel simply does not have the military capability of sustaining its hardware losses in the battlefield for months to come, let alone years.

In fact, as early as November 19, the Israeli news source Calcalistech reported that the Israeli military has halted exports of its most advanced Merkava tanks to Europe due to the war in Gaza. Other sources spoke about Israel’s decision to incorporate older Merkava models to make up for its heavy military losses in Gaza. Israeli propaganda aside, logic tells us that the fate of Israel’s military operation in Gaza will be determined in the next few weeks, and that Israel’s allies, especially those in Washington, know this well. 

Palestinian Resistance is, too aware of this fact, and seems ready and prepared for all possibilities.

By Yosefa Loshitzky

Gaza acts as a mirror reflecting their own local resistance for different dispossessed groups. 

“Gaza as a Metaphor and the Right to be Human”, was the title of a paper that I wrote for a conference on International Law and the State of Israel: Legitimacy, Responsibility and Exceptionalism that took place in Cork, Ireland from March 31-April 2, 2017.  Due to health issues, I was not able to attend the conference in person and my paper was read by my husband. From what I learnt afterwards, it stirred some emotions and, as expected, I was even accused (not for the first time) of being an anti-Semite and a Holocaust denier by a Christian attendee. I also found out later that the label “jihadist” was used to vilify me in some Israeli websites whose mission is to mark and label as “traitors” Jewish people, and particularly Israeli Jews, critical of Israel.

The accusation of being a Holocaust denier is beyond the grotesque. I was named Yosefa after my mother’s father Yosef, who was murdered in Treblinka, perhaps the most horrific Nazi extermination camp in Poland. My mother was the only survivor of her family.

Only today, it occurred to me to look at the text of my paper, written in 2017 and referring mostly to the assault on Gaza in 2014. Going through the text again felt uncanny. A strange feeling of déjà vu with some past horror “show” that is currently being exponentially accelerated, multiplied and intensified in its ferocity, cruelty and velocity. The following is the original text of my 2017 paper: I would like to start by saying that despite the title of my paper I am fully aware that Gaza is not only a metaphor, but also a very harsh reality deliberately created and perpetuated by Israel. But metaphors can provide a useful way of exploring and understanding complex situations. Metaphors can also help to mobilize social and political protests and struggles. 

In this paper I argue that Israel’s murderous assaults on Gaza over the last few years constitute a formative political moment, “the Gaza moment” which was manifested in a variety of ways including the 2009 students’ occupation movement and the growing calls for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel.

Gaza as a site of extreme suffering inflicted by the state of Israel on the Palestinian people can be interpreted as a metaphor for a prison, a ghetto, a refugee camp, a space/state of exception in the spirit of Giorgio Agamben’s theorization, an experimental laboratory for exercising total control and surveillance, a ground zone for a futuristic warfare and a showcase for arms trade.

The attacks on Gaza introduce an apocalyptic vision of the present and the near present, a cataclysm of disaster capitalism where America’s “war on terror” through its proxy Israel can be more accurately described as America’s war on the world, a war, which as Mike Davies powerfully demonstrates, is specifically targeted against “the ‘feral, failed cities’ of the Third World – especially their slum outskirts,” where “the distinctive battlespace of the twenty-first century” (according to the Pentagon doctrine) will take place.

Gaza as a metaphor suggests that the “war” between gated Israel and ghettoized Palestine, applies to the current and future fortress globe, produced, perpetrated and perpetuated by the security sector.

Gaza as a metaphor introduces the true face of the “clash of civilizations”, the battle of the civilized West against the dark and barbarian forces incarnated according to the moral discourse of the “free world” by asylum seekers, refugees, and the poor, the “criminals” and the “terrorists” in the post 9/11 planet.

By Ksenia Svetlova

A billboard titled “Palestinian Authority is Hamas,” appeared in Tel-Aviv, Nof HaGalil, and other Israeli cities in mid-November. It displayed an image of Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas donning a green Hamas headband. According to the Uri Israel movement—a right-wing group whose declared goal is the dismantling of the PA—the billboard was meant to protest against the idea of bringing the PA back to the Gaza Strip in the aftermath of Israel’s war against Hamas. 

This movement was registered at the beginning of October in the aftermath of the October 7 terrorist attack and is connected to former Knesset Member Avichai Boaron of the Likud party and some activists in pro-settlement and extreme right-wing movements. Not surprisingly, its content on social media is liked and shared by prominent Likud activists, such as Orly Lev, one of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s staunch supporters.  

Uri Israel is not the only right-wing movement that speaks and acts against the PA and warns about the possible menace of its return to the Gaza Strip. 

“I have investigated terrorists, and I say clearly, money drives terrorism! It is forbidden to transfer money to the Palestinian Authority,” said Lieutenant Colonel Attorney Maurice Hirsch, former head of the military prosecution in the West Bank, on November 6.

On the same day when the anti-Abbas campaign was launched by Uri Israel, Prime Minister Netanyahu made a statement about the leader of the PA, too. Responding to the announcement of the PA Foreign Ministry that alleged the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had killed the partygoers at the Nova music festival in Re’im on October 7, Netanyahu said on November 19: “He who denies the Holocaust denies the massacre. We will not allow him to rule Gaza.”

It seems that Netanyahu was also indirectly responding to the earlier statement of US President Joe Biden, who argued in a Washington Post op-ed on November 18 that the Palestinian Authority should ultimately govern the Gaza Strip and the West Bank following the Israel-Hamas war.

Two-state solution? 

A year ago, Netanyahu established a political alliance and formed a government with the most ultra right-wing political forces in Israel, including the Likud, which believes that a two-state solution is a doomsday scenario that should be prevented at any cost. Tellingly, Netanyahu objects to the PA ruling Gaza due to Abbas’s denial of the Holocaust and the PA’s denial of the October 7 massacre. However, he also believes the same PA should continue functioning in the West Bank.  

In his remarks at the Foreign Affairs and Security Committee at the Knesset this summer, Netanyahu referred to the future of the PA as a day after the era of 88-year-old Abbas: “We need the Palestinian Authority, we will help it financially—we have no interest in it falling.” Netanyahu also said that “the Palestinian aspiration for a state must be suppressed.”

In fact, this logic was always a significant part of “the conception”—that the PA should exist so that it will be able to govern the Palestinians in the West Bank but also remain weak so that it will be unable to fulfill any state-related ambitions. That’s why Hamas in Gaza was so instrumental in achieving this goal—it was a tactical ally in Netanyahu’s war against the PA.

On October 7, when Hamas terrorists crushed the fence and poured into Israeli towns and kibbutzim, slaughtered over 1,200, and kidnapped over 240 Israelis and foreigners, it became clear that this long-term strategy had exploded in Israel’s face and resulted in the most horrific terrorist attack and loss of human lives in Israel’s history.  

At that moment, when the heads of all security services, as well as some Likud ministers, assumed responsibility for the disaster, and the official death of the “conception” was proclaimed in Israeli media, it seemed that it was time to reinvent the original idea of the two-state solution: Palestinian self-rule in both the Gaza Strip and West Bank; the construction of state institutions; negotiations; and an eventual political solution that would result in the establishment of a Palestinian state. 

On October 19, Tzachi Hanegbi, Israel’s national security advisor, suggested that the Palestinian Authority will step in instead of Hamas in Gaza. A two-state solution or the creation of a Palestinian state wasn’t mentioned. Yet, Hanegbi was immediately attacked by Likud MKs; Tally Gotlib was one among them, writing on X (formerly known as Twitter) that Hanegbi’s idea was “delusional” before sending her condolences to those who believed that strengthening the PA would prevent terrorist attacks. Separately, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who represents an extreme right-wing party, said that installing Abbas in Gaza instead of Hamas was like “changing a cow for a donkey,” whatever that might mean.

The other side of the political map wasn’t thrilled about Abbas’s return to Gaza either but seemed to consider it the lesser evil to the continuation of Hamas rule or a security vacuum. 

“Unfortunately, Abu Mazen [nickname for Abbas] is a well-known Holocaust denier, the Palestinian Authority’s statement denying the massacre on October 7 is a scoundrel, and the transfer of funds from the Palestinian Authority to the families of martyrs infuriates anyone with a heart. And, yet, the Palestinian Authority is better than the murderous Hamas, and if we could get it back into the Gaza Strip, we would do it. Between the lesser evil and the greater evil, the lesser evil is better,” former deputy chief of staff and ex-member of Knesset Yair Golan wrote on X.  

What’s next?

Weeks have passed since the horrific tragedy that shook every Israeli and led to the war against Hamas, which used to be considered a “strategic asset” in an attempt to prevent the creation of the Palestinian state. Currently, Netanyahu and the right-wing are back to their smear campaign against the PA and essentially back to the “conception” that any evil is better than the prospect of a Palestinian state.

Benny Gantz, the former defense minister in the Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett government—who is now rising quickly in the polls and is considered a possible candidate to replace Netanyahu—is now part of the emergency government and is mostly keeping quiet in an attempt not to jeopardize his chances of premiership. In 2021, Gantz met PA Chairman Abbas in his house in Rosh HaAyin to explore “political horizons”—something many Israelis saw at the time as his readiness to negotiate with and accept the PA.

Now, it seems that the Israeli government intentionally chooses to delay the inevitable discussion about the day after in Gaza, which, given the international pressure, might come sooner than Israeli officials hope. Netanyahu still hopes to safeguard his political future; the extremists around him believe that the war in Gaza presents them with a unique opportunity to get rid of not only Hamas but Palestinians, too (Gila Gamliel, the minister of intelligence who doesn’t have any authority over any of the intelligence services, had penned an article in the Jerusalem Post about the possible “exodus” of Palestinians from Gaza). Meanwhile, more moderate Likud seniors, such as Nir Barkat, keep to themselves, fearing the notorious “poison machine” of Netanyahu’s loyalists.

According to a November survey conducted by Mitvim Institute for Regional Foreign Policies, 27 percent of the Israeli public supports the two-state solution. In comparison, 25 percent believe that Israel should opt for unilateral disengagement from the West Bank. Only 5 percent believe in the continuation of “conflict management” (Netanyahu’s strategy), while 28 percent support some form of annexation (19 percent of respondents didn’t have an answer), and 52 percent believe that Israel should disengage from the Palestinians, whether that be through some kind of agreement or unilaterally (in the way it was done in the Gaza Strip in 2005).  

With that in mind, several things need to happen very soon so that the Gaza Strip, West Bank, and Israel have a chance for peace and stability: elections in Israel, reforms in the Palestinian Authority, and a firm international position that puts the two-state solution on the table. Otherwise, the vacuum in Gaza will quickly fill with Hamas 2.0, the weak PA might collapse in the West Bank, and Israel will be trapped in an endless circle of hostilities in many of its frontiers. The “day after” discussion should start today before it’s too late.