Operation Iron Swords - Day 116 - 30 January 2024
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NEW - War Termination NEW - Operations NEW - Operations Maps NEW - By-Standers NEW - Axis of Resistance NEW - Allied for Democracy UPDATED - Oasis of Martyrs UPDATED - Hostages |
Central Command of the US Armed Forces (CENTCOM) announced on January 28 that a base hosting American soldiers, on the border between Jordan and Syria, had been attacked by a drone. Washington accused groups allied with Iran of being behind the attack, and confirmed that it would respond, while Tehran denied responsibility for targeting the American base and said that the "Islamic Resistance" takes decisions in this regard independently.
US President Joe Biden announced that he had taken a decision regarding a response to the attack on the American base on the Jordanian-Syrian border. Biden stated : "Today, I was briefed by members of my national security team in the Situation Room on the latest developments regarding the attack on U.S. service members in northeastern Jordan. As I've said, we'll hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner of our choosing."
The US reportedly sent messages to Iran through Switzerland, urging the Islamic Republic not to retaliate after the upcoming U.S. response. According to Al Jazeera, Iran sent back a message stating that: “Iran will respond to the US militarily if there is even the slightest attack on Iranian soil, with or without human casualties.”
Politico wrote that Biden has prepared retaliation options against Iran for the drone strike that killed 3 US soldiers. One option is large-scale & sustained attacks against Iranian & Iranian proxy group targets in Syria & Iraq. Another would be sinking Iranian naval assets.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that the United States may resort to a gradual response to the attack that killed three of its forces stationed in Jordan. Kirby explained that the response may include "multiple actions, not a single action." Secretary of State Anthony Blinken confirmed that the American response to the attack “may be on several levels , and it occurs in stages and lasts a certain period.”
The New York Times reported that the negotiators in the war file in Gaza, led by Washington, are close to reaching a deal requiring a halt to the war for two months in exchange for the release of Israeli prisoners from Gaza. Israeli media reported that the War Council discussed the details of the proposed prisoner exchange deal after talks that took place in Paris, and while Qatar and the United States indicated that there had been progress in this file, the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ) confirmed that any agreement depended on To stop the war on Gaza. Israeli media said that the war council meeting was held after Mossad chief David Barnea returned from the Paris meeting in which Israel, the United States, Egypt and Qatar participated. The Israeli Prime Minister's estimates indicate that the Paris discussions were constructive.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing accusations from the families of Israeli prisoners detained in the Gaza Strip and from opponents of his government of obstructing efforts to conclude an agreement that would lead to the release of about 130 Israeli prisoners in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners in order to maintain his position.
Blinken said that he discussed with the Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani during their meeting yesterday the ongoing efforts to release the “hostages” and reach an expanded truce. Blinken added - in a press conference - that the proposed proposal regarding detainees in Gaza is strong and convincing and that there is great consensus among the countries concerned, indicating that there is “some hope” for the success of the efforts being made in this regard.
For his part, the Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister said that there is progress in negotiations to reach a deal between Israel and Hamas, stressing that it is the only opportunity available to calm the situation. Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani said that Qatar has no influence on any party regarding the ongoing negotiations regarding the prisoner exchange deal, and called for focusing on bringing calm to the Gaza Strip as it is essential to reduce the escalation in the region.
The Qatari Foreign Ministry said that Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken reviewed the strategic relations between the two countries, discussed the latest developments in the situation in the Gaza Strip and the occupied Palestinian territories, the necessity of finding a just and lasting solution to the Palestinian issue, and the continued entry of humanitarian aid. Sustainable information to the Gaza Strip, in addition to the latest developments in the region and ways to reduce the escalation.
The US National Security Council's Strategic Communications Coordinator, John Kirby, said earlier yesterday that the discussions are very constructive regarding negotiations to release detainees in Gaza, adding that he believes there is a framework for reaching a new agreement between Hamas and Israel. Israeli Channel 12 quoted the families of the Israeli prisoners after their meeting with the Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani in Washington that they clarified their position that all concerned parties must reach an agreement to return the detainees, and they also thanked Qatar for its efforts to reach a new agreement.
Israeli Broadcasting Corporation said that the discussions held in Paris with the participation of Israel, the United States, Egypt and Qatar ended with progress on the prisoner exchange. The authority quoted an Israeli political source as saying that the discussions dealt with the plan to release Israeli prisoners in stages. The source added that the parties discussed a ceasefire for approximately two months in exchange for the release of about 100 Israeli prisoners, with Israel releasing a large number of Palestinian prisoners.
CIA Director William Burns and US Middle East envoy Brett McGurk participated in a series of negotiations over the past few days regarding the exchange of prisoners and reaching a truce in Gaza.
For its part, Hamas reiterated that the prisoner exchange is contingent on stopping the war on Gaza and the withdrawal of the occupation forces from the Strip. Sami Abu Zuhri, head of Hamas's political department abroad, said in a statement to Reuters, "The success of the Paris meeting depends on the extent of the occupation's response to stopping the comprehensive aggression against Gaza."
For his part, Taher Al-Nono, media advisor to the head of the political bureau of the Hamas movement, told Agence France-Presse that there must first be a comprehensive and complete ceasefire and not just a temporary truce. Al-Nono stressed that when the war stops, the rest of the details can be discussed, including the release of Israeli prisoners.
In a statement, Hamas said that it and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine insist that Israel stop its war on Gaza and withdraw its forces from the Gaza Strip before concluding any prisoner exchange agreement.
The Secretary-General of the Islamic Jihad movement, Ziad al-Nakhalah, confirmed in a statement that the Palestinian movement requires a comprehensive ceasefire to enter into any understandings regarding the Israeli prisoners. The Secretary-General of the Islamic Jihad Movement explained: “We will not engage in any understandings without ensuring a comprehensive ceasefire, the withdrawal of the occupation forces, ensuring reconstruction, and a clear political solution that guarantees the rights of the Palestinian people.”
The head of the Hamas Political Bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, affirmed “ the movement’s openness to discussing any serious and practical initiatives or ideas, provided that they lead to a comprehensive cessation of aggression and securing the shelter process for our people and families.” The media advisor to the head of the Hamas political bureau, Taher Al-Nono, also announced yesterday that the movement wants a “ comprehensive and complete ceasefire ” in Gaza, after the Qatari mediator touched on a proposal for a temporary truce.
Analysts and experts had different opinions about the possibility of soon reaching a new prisoner exchange deal between the Palestinian resistance and Israel that would lead to stopping the war on the Gaza Strip , after the Paris Quartet negotiations with the participation of Doha, Cairo, Washington, and Tel Aviv.
Professor of Political Science at An-Najah Palestinian University, Dr. Raed Nairat, said that there is a new climate and perception that may require some time to put pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu , indicating the presence of a will on the part of Washington in light of pressure from countries in the region.
He added that the United States is afraid of the outbreak of a regional war after its involvement in air strikes in Yemen, in addition to the increase in the number of Palestinian martyrs and wounded, believing that failure to complete the deal will only lead to the continuation of the war of extermination and destruction.
Nairat considered - while speaking on the program "Gaza... What's next?" - that Netanyahu's conditions for stopping the war cannot be logical, and his speech is populist and expresses his right-wing coalition, referring to opposition leader Yair Lapid's proposal to expand the government coalition in order to move forward with the prisoner return deal.
He added that Lapid wants to extract a strong card from Netanyahu, who fears that he will lose his government coalition if he goes for an agreement, stressing that this proposal represents a lifeline, a pressure card, and an alternative option for Netanyahu.
For his part, writer and political analyst Sari Orabi believes that the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ) has several considerations regarding the current proposals to complete an exchange deal, the most important of which is its awareness of the occupation’s intentions to strip it of its most important card, citing previous experiences that confirm this.
Orabi adds that Hamas realizes the importance of this paper, and its adherence to the negotiating file is what improves the proposals presented to it and pushes the occupation to make successive concessions. It is also aware of the humanitarian catastrophe and the necessity of alleviating it by stopping the aggression and withdrawing the occupation from Gaza.
As for US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken ’s description of the proposals presented as strong and convincing, Orabi believes that perhaps there are perceptions drawn up to bring Netanyahu down from the tree, stressing the need not to trust Washington’s statements “because it may want to rid the occupation of the burden and weight of the prisoner file.”
He pointed out that Hamas may be convinced if it finds in the proposals “foundations and foundations that require the ongoing truces to be transformed into a final ceasefire,” revealing that the matter depends on its assessments.
Orabi added that the occupation described its current war as an existential war, and tried to obscure the prisoners’ file, but Gaza’s steadfastness, resistance, and awareness of Netanyahu’s tricks are what improve the conditions and proposals presented. He pointed out that the divergent positions place a burden on the Arab and international mediators to bring Netanyahu down from the tree after the war turned into absurdity, stressing that it is difficult to be certain that the two sides have approached a common point.
Orabi expressed his conviction that it is not easy to have a declared ceasefire, because this would mean defeat, retreat, and a strategic loss for the occupation. He suggested reaching a long-term truce that might end with a ceasefire and the occupation’s withdrawal from Gaza.
In turn, the military and strategic expert Al-Duwairi said that the field situation confirms that Netanyahu knows the truth and does not speak it, and knows that he will not be able to defeat Hamas and its military wing, but he wants to prolong the war for as long as possible in the hope of a surprise that may occur. Al-Duwairi pointed out that Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant said that Hamas cannot be completely eliminated, and Chief of Staff Herzi Halevy also said that the absence of a clear vision leads to the erosion of the army’s achievements.
Al-Duwairi concluded that there was an absolute conviction that they would not be able to achieve this, and he cited the launching of rockets towards Tel Aviv on the 115th day of the war, as they were launched from southwest of Gaza City. He stressed that Hamas knows for sure the importance of the Israeli prisoners’ card, indicating that after the collapse of the humanitarian truce, the battle in Gaza was expanded by land and in the air, before pointing out that the occupation failed to release the prisoners militarily, but rather through a negotiating path, while it only succeeded in destroying the necessities of life in Gaza.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz announced that the Israeli military operation will continue even if all hostages held by Hamas and other Palestinian factions are released. In a statement to the German newspaper "Bild", in response to a question whether the Israeli government is ready to agree to stop combat operations in the event of the release of hostages in Gaza, without completely eliminating Hamas, Katz said: "My answer is no." He continued: "We would like to free the hostages, and this will only happen if military pressure continues in Gaza, Khan Yunis and all other places where Hamas is present." He added, "Other countries, such as Egypt, must continue to exert pressure on Hamas. But we will not agree to stop the war unless Hamas is defeated, both militarily and politically."
On the other hand, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel will not withdraw its forces from the Gaza Strip or release thousands of Palestinian detainees. Netanyahu added in statements broadcast on Israeli television, “We will not end this war without achieving all its goals,” according to what was reported by Reuters. He added, "This means eliminating Hamas, returning all the hostages, and ensuring that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel." Netanyahu's statements conflict with media reports regarding some of the conditions of a possible agreement to declare a truce with Hamas.
"A squad of armed Hamas terrorists hiding in the "Ivan Sina" hospital in the city of Jenin in the Menashe division, and planning to carry out an attack in the immediate time frame, was foiled." according ot the IDF.
An Israeli special force infiltrated Ibn Sina Hospital in the city of Jenin in the West Bank on Tuesday morning, and assassinated 3 young Palestinians, one of whom was wounded and lying in the hospital. Eyewitnesses reported that about 10 Israeli Special Forces soldiers entered the hospital, disguised as Palestinian civilians and doctors, and went to the third floor, where they assassinated the three young men using silencer pistols.
The Jenin Battalion, affiliated with the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military arm of the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ), said, “A special force of Musta’rabs infiltrated Ibn Sina Hospital and assassinated a number of our fighters.” The Israeli army announced that it had liquidated a Hamas cell that hid inside Ibn Sina Hospital in Jenin and planned to carry out a “sabotage operation,” as it put it.
Sirens sounded in the city of Jenin and its camp, while monitoring the preparation of an Israeli special force to storm the governorate. The Palestinian national forces called for a strike and a general mobilization in Jenin after the assassination of the three young men in Ibn Sina Hospital.
The Israeli army said in a statement that it had "liquidated an armed Hamas cell that hid inside Ibn Sina Hospital in the city of Jenin and planned to carry out a sabotage operation in the near future." It added, "Muhammad Jalamneh, a military activist in Hamas who was in contact with the movement's leaders abroad, was neutralized and injured when he sought to develop a sabotage operation using a car bomb. Jalamneh also transported weapons and ammunition to carry out shooting operations and planned a storming operation in a simulation of the events of the 7th of September." October".
The Israeli army statement said, "In addition to Jalamna, Muhammad Ghazawi from the Jenin camp, who is an activist in the Jenin Brigade and involved in shooting operations towards IDF forces, was neutralized, in addition to Basil Ghazawi, Muhammad's brother, who is an activist in Islamic Jihad."
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor issued a "statement of condemnation" of what the Israeli occupation army committed inside a civilian hospital in Jenin, in the northern West Bank. Euro-Med stressed that what the Israeli forces committed represented a complex crime in which there were multiple violations of the rules of international humanitarian law, whether by storming a protected civilian hospital, or committing a crime of treachery by disguising themselves in doctors’, nurses’, and civilian clothes, in addition to carrying out the crime of extrajudicial execution against individuals who did not They pose a danger to anyone, including a seriously injured person, at a time when they could have been arrested, in addition to assaulting and intimidating medical personnel.
The Observatory for Human Rights said, " The Israeli occupation army committed a double crime by carrying out an extrajudicial execution targeting three Palestinians, one of whom was wounded, inside a civilian hospital in Jenin." It stated in the statement, "The three Palestinians were liquidated by a special Israeli force, whose members were disguised in civilian clothes. Three of them were wearing nurses' and doctors' uniforms, in flagrant violation of the rules of international humanitarian law."
According to the statement; “An Israeli special force consisting of at least 10 individuals stormed the “Ibn Sina” Hospital in Jenin, while they were disguised in civilian clothes, three of them wearing doctors’ clothes (white jackets) and nurses’ clothes (blue uniforms), in addition to others who were disguised in women’s clothes; one of them was carrying a baby bag. He hid the weapon with it, and another was pushing a person in a wheelchair to facilitate their access to the third floor of the hospital and then killed the young men using silenced pistols.”
It explained, "Members of the Israeli special force suddenly drew their weapons when they approached the room of the wounded Basil Ayman al-Ghazawi, who had been suffering from a serious injury since last October, and executed him along with his brother, Muhammad, who was taking care of him, and their friend, Muhammad Walid Jalamneh, who... He accompanied them in the place from a zero distance, before they withdrew from the place.”
The Euro-Mediterranean Observatory said: “The occupation army’s statement regarding the assassination of the three young men comes within the framework of continuing to use what happened on October 7 to carry out horrific and retaliatory crimes, stressing that liquidating a wounded person in a critical condition is something that violates the rules of international humanitarian law that require protection for the wounded.” "It constitutes a war crime, as does treachery and disguising ourselves as doctors, nurses, and civilians."
"This crime is an extension of the occupation army's violation of hospitals and medical staff and another serious violation of the international special protection guaranteed to them, under claims and allegations that have not been proven true." The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor noted that "more than 380 Palestinians have been martyred since the events of last October 7 in the West Bank and East Jerusalem by bullets from the occupation army and settlers, a large number of whom were subjected to field executions."
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health’s statement, this crime comes after dozens of crimes committed by the occupation forces against treatment centers and staff. International law provides general and specific protection for civilian sites, including hospitals, in accordance with the Fourth Geneva Convention and the First and Second Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions of 1977 and The Hague of 1954.
The health sector in the Palestinian NGO Network denounced the cold-blooded execution of 3 young men inside Ibn Sina Hospital in the city of Jenin in the northern West Bank, at dawn on Tuesday, when a number of soldiers infiltrated the hospital and opened fire on the young men from a distance of zero. Among them was one of the wounded who was receiving medical treatment in the hospital after being injured in a previous Israeli bombing of the city.
In a press statement, the health sector demanded the formation of an investigation committee from the United Nations and its relevant institutions after about 10 occupation soldiers disguised themselves as doctors and nurses , and others dressed as civilian Palestinian women. They arrived at the third floor of the hospital, stormed one of the rooms, and opened fire directly from the Silenced pistols on the upper parts of the young men’s bodies, according to eyewitnesses.
The health sector considered that the use of the uniforms of doctors and nurses is one of the serious crimes for which the international community must bear its responsibility, and play its role in providing protection for medical teams, hospitals, and ambulances that the occupation directly and continuously targets, without caring about the possibility of being subjected to international accountability or accountability, which is time. To activate all available tools in this regard, in line with humanitarian justice, which the decisions of the International Court of Justice referred to just a few days ago, and demanded an end to the series of targeting defenseless civilians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The statement stressed the importance of working to form a specialized international legal team in order to prosecute the occupying force for its crimes and implement international laws in this regard, calling on human rights and humanitarian organizations and United Nations organizations to make their voices heard in denouncing this crime, lifting the lid on these ongoing crimes, and issuing clear positions condemning this behavior. It is dangerous for the occupation, which continues to target hospitals and health facilities in the Gaza Strip, as happened with the Baptist Hospital, the besieged Al-Amal Hospital, Nasser Hospital, and dozens of centers that are subjected daily to systematic targeting by the occupation.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said that it is expected that the countries of the world will not stand idly by in the face of the terrorist act carried out by the Zionist entity against a hospital in the Jenin camp, and to condemn this barbaric behavior that could pave the way for the normalization of organized terrorist practices in the world.
Kanaani expressed his strong condemnation of the Zionist entity’s assassination of a number of wounded Palestinians in a hospital in the Palestinian Jenin camp in the West Bank, and said that it is expected that the countries of the world and international organizations will not stand idly by in the face of this terrorist and brutal act, and consider this barbaric behavior that could pave the way. To normalize organized terrorist practices in the world, as a serious threat to human societies, and to condemn it.
Kanaani stressed, saying: “It is unfortunate that the supporters of this entity, who did not hesitate to exert any pressure on the oppressed Palestinian people, and condemned and accused the legitimate resistance of the Palestinian people against the occupation, have chosen to remain silent regarding these clear and public crimes that are being committed in hospitals and medical centers and the continuation of The Zionist war machine committed genocide.”
A resistance fighter from the Martyr Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades sparked widespread popular reaction on the social networking site “X” as he fired an anti-tank missile and destroyed one of the occupation army’s tanks penetrating the areas west of Khan Yunis. The resistance fighter caught the eye with his remarkable elegance. Wearing a long black coat and white shoes, he successfully targeted an enemy tank with determination and steadfastness, after turning behind it, oblivious to the dangers facing him from all sides.
The Al-Qassam Brigades broadcast footage of resistance fighters confronting the occupation’s incursion west of Khan Yunis , while one of its fighters appeared attacking one of the tanks while wearing a “jacket” and carrying an anti-tank launcher in his hand. Analysts considered that the significance of the scene meant that Hamas resistance fighters were not intimidated by the enemy, and were going to fight the occupation forces, ready to meet God, in the most beautiful way, while journalists described the fighter as the most elegant in the history of national liberation movements.
Journalist Youssef Al-Damouki, commenting on this legendary scene, says: “Wrapped in his elegant coat, coming out of an underground tunnel or above the ground, he must have dusted any piece of clothing of that color, and despite that, he was concerned enough to prepare his robe as if it were on a holiday, continuing.” His outfit, with his sports shoes and well-dressed pants, and his appearance suggested that his turn had come after a long wait, making a covenant with God between him and himself: “By God, God will like what I do.”
Joseph continues: Then he set off, preparing to defeat his enemy and to meet God together, preparing with goodness and goodness to meet the two good deeds if he attained one or both of them, embracing his stone while it was as tall as he was, running lightly as if he were not carrying anything, and that is because of the humiliation of the beloved’s burden on the lover, and from Love did not kill, just as its shell kills its hate.
He concludes: The elegant resistance fighter smiles after seeing his target on fire, and he stands and hits it from a close distance that neither the shooter nor the shooter can miss. He sees his image in the mirror of the sky, quickly styles his hair, blows a cloud of smoke from the nozzle of his cannon, thanks God, kisses the launcher, then returns in all his elegance to his base. In peace, protected by the beautiful God who loves beauty.
The Israeli forces stormed camps, cities and towns in the West Bank, and destroyed the infrastructure in some of them, while resistance fighters clashed with them in Tulkarm. Clashes broke out between the Israeli army and resistance fighters in the areas of Al-Balawneh neighborhood and the schools neighborhood in the Tulkarm camp in the northern West Bank, where the occupation forces stormed the camp and sent in new reinforcements. The forces also stormed Nour Shams camp, east of Tulkarm, and sent dozens of vehicles supported by bulldozers before declaring a curfew in the camp.
Local Palestinian platforms published scenes showing the Israeli army bulldozing and destroying infrastructure in the streets of the camp. Also in the northern West Bank, the Israeli forces stormed the eastern area of the city of Nablus, where they were exposed to fire from resistance fighters. The new incursions in the area included the town of Azzun, in the vicinity of the city of Qalqilya, and the town of Ya`bad, near Jenin.
In the central West Bank, early today, Israeli forces stormed the town of Sinjil, north of Ramallah, attacked Palestinians, and closed all entrances to the town with dirt barriers. These forces prevented residents from entering and leaving the town from the evening until the morning.
In the southern West Bank, the occupation forces arrested a number of Palestinian youth, including a former prisoner, during their storming of the Arroub camp north of Hebron. Israeli soldiers raided and searched some homes before withdrawing from the camp.
The Israeli army announced that it had destroyed some of the tunnels of the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ) in the Gaza Strip by flooding them with water, while the resistance factions in the Strip announced that they had targeted Israeli tanks and injured many occupation soldiers. The occupation army said, in a statement, that it used new capabilities to neutralize Hamas' underground infrastructure in the Gaza Strip by pumping huge quantities of water into the tunnels. The Chief of Staff for Reserve Fighters in the Gaza Division : "There will be no shelter for terrorism in Gaza, in IOS, in Lebanon, neither above ground nor in tunnel shafts."
The Israeli military is currently involved in intense fighting in Gaza, particularly in the southern city of Khan Yunis, as per Bloomberg. The objective is to "eliminate or capture Hamas leaders believed to be hiding in tunnels along with hostages." In a briefing, an Israeli military intelligence officer claimed that among Hamas' five fighting brigades, Israeli forces have either killed or captured the majority of the commanders from two brigades located in the northern part of Gaza.
One of the most confounding issues for Israel is that Hamas continues to fire rockets into the country, and the latest barrage was launched on Monday, with some reaching Tel Aviv. The current focus is on the Khan Yunis brigade, as stated by Daniel Hagari, the chief military spokesperson, in a recent press conference. He further claimed that Israeli troops have killed and apprehended over 300 Palestinians "suspected of engaging in terrorist activities." Additionally, Hagari stated that, for the first time, Israeli forces are actively engaging in combat within the tunnel network beneath Gaza. Khan Yunis, Gaza's second-largest city with a dense population, holds strategic significance as the hometown of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and military chief Mohammed Deif. Israel claims they are currently in the city.
After four months, the situation in Gaza remains challenging, with key Hamas figures still controlling the battlefield, and a significant portion of the military infrastructure undamaged, Bloomberg reported. This has made the confrontations more challenging than anticipated by Israeli military officials. The resistance is inflicting substantial losses, with at least 220 Israeli soldiers killed. However, Israeli leaders maintain that they are making significant progress.
The Israeli intelligence officer mentioned that Israel is still many months away from achieving its goals, which include capturing or destroying munitions and weapons and rendering military bases and tunnels inoperative. Accomplishing that will take all of 2024 — and perhaps longer, he said. The expectation that dismantling Hamas will not occur swiftly is one of the reasons Israeli officials are resisting the idea of a prolonged or permanent ceasefire in exchange for the release of Israeli captives.
The Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that, after stealing organs from some of them, the Israeli occupation handed over the bodies of martyrs that were stolen from hospitals and cemeteries in the Gaza Strip. The bodies of 100 martyrs were buried in a mass grave in Rafah. The Israeli occupation had stolen them from various areas in the Gaza Strip and handed them over on Tuesday morning through the "Kerem Shalom" crossing. The agency cited medical sources as saying that the examination of the bodies revealed that the occupation had stolen organs from some of them.
IDF warplanes attacked an operational headquarters and an observation post of the terrorist organization Hezbollah in the Al-Khyam area. Also, during the day, IDF warplanes attacked an observation post and a military structure of the organization in the areas of the villages of Eyta a-Sha'ab and Haviv. Earlier, a launch was detected that crossed the territory of Lebanon and fell in an open area near Arab al Aramsha, there were no casualties.
In the wake of the war: the recruitment of approximately 1,300 pre-military preparatory schools, year-of-service groups and yeshiva students will be accelerated for March 2024.
Soldiers of the 4th TDF have been operating in the Khan Yunis area for the past few weeks, where they eliminated terrorists, raided terrorist infrastructures and located many weapons. The fighters used collection drones to obtain real-time intelligence and quickly close circuits to eliminate terrorists. In one of the incidents, the drone operators identified a terrorist squad that was moving towards The forces, the fighters directed an aircraft and the terrorists were eliminated.
The Air Force, under the direction of the fire center of the 98th Division, attacked and destroyed last night with fighter jets the rocket launchers from which the launches were made towards Gush Dan. According to an estimate, the destroyed launcher had additional mortars for firing. In another attack, a military asset of the Hamas anti-tank unit was destroyed.
The forces of the 98th Division continue fighting in the west of Khan Yunis. The fighters of the combat team of the paratrooper brigade eliminated terrorists and located many weapons in the area. The fire assembly of the 7th Brigade targeted an aircraft that attacked and eliminated a number of terrorists in the area.
At the same time, the fighters of Division 162 continue to operate in the northern and central Gaza Strip. In the Shati area, the fighters of the 401st Brigade combat team eliminated many terrorists and located weapons in the area.
In the north of the Gaza Strip, the fighters of the 5th Brigade's combat team eliminated a number of terrorists in the last day. In the center of the strip, the fighters of the Nahal Brigade's combat team, from an observation post, identified a squad of terrorists armed with RPGs advancing towards the force, a remotely manned aircraft attacked and eliminated the terrorists.
In response to the continuing genocide in Gaza and with the escalating confrontation with the Washington-led maritime coalition, the Yemeni “Ansar Allah” movement may target international submarine cables, a sophisticated target that could seriously disrupt global communications and the economy, according to analyst Emily Milliken.
Milliken added, in her analysis, that “despite Western operations that sought to weaken the Houthis’ ability to threaten maritime traffic in the Red Sea , they continued to strike commercial ships (linked to Israel) off the coast of Yemen.” The analysis continued that if the fighting continues, the movement may adjust its strategy towards targeting the network of vital undersea communications cables. On December 24, 2023, a Telegram channel linked to Ansar Allah published a map showing cable networks in the Mediterranean, Red Sea, Arabian Sea, and Persian Gulf.
The analysis said that the Yemenis attached the image with a message (carrying a veiled threat) that “there are maps of international cables that connect all regions of the world across the sea,” adding that “it appears that Yemen is in a strategic location, as Internet lines that connect entire continents pass near it, and not Countries only.”
Maps
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All maps are lies. “Not only is it easy to lie with maps, it is essential,” wrote cartographer Mark Monmoneir in his book How to Lie with Maps. He showed that condensing complex, three-dimensional spaces onto a two-dimensional sheet of paper [in old days] is bound to be reductive. But it is impossible to comprehend the war in Gaza without reference to maps, otherwise the entire conflict is reduced to an endless series of meaningless acts of random violence and the suffering of civilians. The first characteristic of guerrilla warfare is the loss of a front line. Evidently, different mappers have different ideas of how to depict the war in Gaza, notably those that seek to depict Israeli progress in the ground campaign. Part of the problem is latency. The news that forms the basis of the maps takes time to filter out to mappers, and the cartographers take time in crafting their maps, and it takes time to curate them. These processes are uneven among mappers, so their maps may differ in detail. Probably there is some ideological bias, or at least thematic apperception, which is understandable in wartime. It may come as no surprise that al-Jazeera maps depict rather less Israeli territorial progress than other sources. Finally, there remains the epistemological question of just exactly what are the colored in areas depicting. Naively, this might be understood as areas of Israeli control, that are no longer contested by the HAMAS. Or possibly these are areas of Israeli presence, in many of which the possibility of an RPG-wielding HAMAS militant popping out of a tunnel unexpectedly remains a live possibility. With the "zero-range" combat characterized by small unit tactics on both sides, maps may be prey to a fallacy of misplaced concreteness. Indeed, by late January 2024 mappers were rather less exuberant in their depictions of IDF advances. While by the end of 2023 maps suggested that it was "mission accomplished" in North Gaza which was depicted as entirely pacified, by late January 2024 enclaves of IDF elements were depicted at the margins of Gaza City, much of North Gaza was now depticted as either HAMAS-controlled, or "contested". Another noteworthy cartographic ambiguity was found to the south of Khan Yunis in the stretch of Salah Al-Deen avenue running north from Al-Nasr through al-Fukhari to the vicinity of Tawhid Mosque in the environs of Khan Yunis proper. By the end of 2023 some cartographers indicated that a large swath of territory centered on this avenue had been liberated by the IDF, while other cartographers professed no knowlege of an IDF presence in that part of the Strip. By late January 2024 there are suggestions that while the avenue itself was an IDF permissive corridor for nearly the full length of the Strip, much of adjacent territory was not. By 29 January 2024 Al-Jazeera had finally come around to some of the cartographic conventions of other mappers, indicating "occupied areas", and even providing a map of IDF ORBAT in the Strip.
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Bystanders
Nine relief organizations warned of suspending funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees ( UNRWA ), considering this a threat to the lives of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the region. In a joint letter, the organizations expressed their concern and anger at the union of some of the largest donors to suspend funding to UNRWA. She said that this "affects the assistance that can be described as life-saving for more than two million civilians in the Gaza Strip." The organizations' message urged donor countries to reactivate their support for the important work of UNRWA and its partners to help the Palestinians.
The number of countries that announced the cessation of their funding to UNRWA increased to 12. Under the pretext that 12 of its employees participated in the Al-Aqsa Flood operation , according to Israeli allegations, at a time when the agency warned that its services would stop at the end of next month. In a related context, the Israeli Foreign Minister called on the Agency's Commissioner-General to resign from his position.
The European Commission decided to review the funding provided to UNRWA, and that there will be no additional funding for the agency until the end of next February. Romania , Austria , and Japan joined the list of countries that adopted the Israeli position and announced the cessation of their support for the agency. The three countries called for an investigation into the Israeli allegations, and UNRWA responded to the Israeli accusations by expelling the accused employees, and promised to conduct a comprehensive investigation and take legal measures if their participation was proven.
The Relief and Works Organization for Palestine Refugees UNRWA had said that if funding was not resumed; after the end of next February, it will not be able to continue providing its services in the region, including Gaza.
Axis of Resistance
The Iraqi Hezbollah Brigades announced the suspension of military and security operations against American forces in the region, in a decision aimed at not “embarrassing the Iraqi government.” The Secretary-General of the Hezbollah Brigades, Abu Hussein al-Hamidawi, said in a statement, “The road to Dhat al-Shuka is difficult and difficult, and its taxes are heavy, and the free people walking it realize that the prices, no matter how great, are insignificant in the face of achieving God’s satisfaction and supporting the oppressed. The Islamic Resistance, Brigades Hezbollah, has made its decision to support our people.” The oppressed people in Gaza are persevering willingly, without any interference from others.
He added: “Indeed, our brothers in the axis, especially in the Islamic Republic, do not know how we work jihad, and they often object to the pressure and escalation against the American occupation forces in Iraq and Syria, and out of our commitment to fulfilling our humanitarian and ideological mandate, we have worked with wisdom, deliberation, and taking into account legal and moral balances.” Accurately in the harshest and harshest conditions.
Al-Hamidawi pointed out, saying, “As we announce the suspension of military and security operations against the occupation forces - in order to prevent embarrassment of the Iraqi government - we will continue to defend our people in Gaza in other ways, and we recommend to the brave Mujahideen of the Free Hezbollah Brigades to passive defense (temporarily), if any hostile American action occurs towards them.” .
A member of the political bureau of the Yemeni Ansar Allah movement, Fadl Abu Talib, said in an exclusive interview with Al-Alam news channel: Al-Alam channel has a major role in supporting the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian people, and it also has a major role in supporting the Yemeni people and in supporting the nation’s issues and confronting the media machine of global arrogance.
Abu Talib added: The Yemeni position (on the events in the Gaza Strip ) stems from a sense of responsibility as a religious, religious, moral and humanitarian duty. It is a popular and official position and was adopted by all political parties, groups and components of the Yemeni people, and it is the subject of national consensus.
He explained: In the face of this major aggression against Gaza and the Palestinian people, the Yemeni people had to have a position and a word regarding what was happening, and they were distinguished in their position of solidarity with the Palestinian people. The roles that the Yemeni people carried out in supporting the Palestinian people were varied, including military operations at sea as well as targeting the entity. Zionist and occupied Palestinian ports, as well as targeting Israeli ships and ships heading to Palestinian ports.
Fadl Abu Talib, a member of the political bureau of the Yemeni Ansar Allah movement, continued: There are also popular stances weekly in more than 40 squares in most of the Yemeni governorates, where millions and massive demonstrations are held, and all the Yemeni people stand with the resistance and the Palestinian people.
Abu Talib stressed that the American move and the American-British attacks and strikes will not prevent Yemen from continuing its position, and this will not happen and there will be no retreat or anything that will discourage the Yemeni people from continuing their support for the Palestinian people, and the Yemeni operations will continue in all their forms, whether military, popular, economic or media.
He accused the United States and Britain of acting out of their commitment to global Zionism in supporting the Zionist entity in its aggression against Gaza, and any move by any people or country to support the Palestinian people, they stand in its face because they want the suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza to continue.
Fadl Abu Talib considered that the truth of the American position was revealed in the aggression against Gaza more than ever before, in the extent of its brutality, criminality, falsity and lies in this war, and it exploits the headlines and lies and misleads public opinion, such as human rights and international law. Human rights, women's rights, and people's rights, but this was revealed and disappeared in Gaza.
Abu Talib pointed out that the United States claims that it wants to protect maritime navigation in the Red Sea , but this coalition formed by America is to protect Israeli ships and ships associated with the occupation, and within the framework of American support for the Zionist entity with the aim of continuing the aggression against Gaza.
He described Western accusations that Iran was behind the Yemeni attacks as mere justifications that the Americans used and continue to repeat in any aggression against the peoples of the region.
A member of the political bureau of the Yemeni Ansar Allah movement, Fadl Abu Talib, considered that the United States does not have the credibility to classify others, as it is the most criminal and brutal country and does not have any moral or ethical standards. It is the most tyrannical and the mother of terrorism, and it has no right to classify others.
Abu Hamza, spokesman for the Al-Quds Brigades - the military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement - said, "The idea of Zionist victory in Gaza has begun to fade little by little," reiterating that the Israeli prisoners detained in the Gaza Strip will not return except by a decision from the resistance. He added, "The matter became clear in the war cabin, which does not qualify as a village council in one of the towns."
He continued: “Give good news to the people of Gaza that God’s victory is coming . Humans are from the field and what we see, and that is sufficient proof and proof.” Abu Hamza continued during his speech addressed to Benjamin Netanyahu, saying: “Your empty threats to continue the war have not and will not be of any use. With which army will you continue your war, Netanyahu?! The defeated and crisis-ridden army afflicted with contagious mental illnesses, or the army that is not good at confronting men in all parts of the Gaza Strip.”
He continued: "You antichrist criminal, plot your plot and pursue your efforts. By God, you will not kill our resolve, you will not erase our memory, and the shame of your actions in Gaza will not fall from you. You have only been gathered together and your days are only numbered, and we, God willing, are the people of war and victory, and you are the losers."
Abu Hamza: The occupation prisoners will not return except by a decision from the resistance Al-Quds Brigades spokesman Abu Hamza also confirmed that if the occupation searches the sands and sea of Gaza, its prisoners will not return except by a decision from the resistance. Abu Hamza said in his speech, “We appreciate the patience of our people and announce our continued confrontation with the Israeli machine of oppression on all fronts.”
He added: We shot down a large number of enemy marches along the Gaza Strip and targeted the supply lines of the occupation “army.” He stressed that Netanyahu's threats to continue the war will be of no use. Abu Hamza directed his words to the occupation, saying: Your prisoners will not return to you except by a decision from the resistance.
He continued: We extend our salutes to the support of our resistance and the brotherly arms in Hezbollah and Yemen, the valiant resistance of Iraq, and all those who followed their example. He stressed that the idea of Zionist victory over the resistance factions in Gaza began to fade little by little, and we still affirm that the prisoners will not return except by a decision of the resistance, whether you like it or not.
Abu Hamza announced a series of blessed operations, including sniping, bombing, seizing control, targeting logistical lines, and shooting down a number of their drones. He stressed: In the midst of battles and suffering, we declare the continuation of confrontation and struggle against the Zionist machine of oppression in all areas of progress.
The Minister of Defense of the Houthi Ansar Allah group, Major General Mohammed Nasser Al-Atefi, said that the Houthis are ready for a long confrontation with the United States and Britain. “We are prepared for a long-term confrontation with the forces of tyranny,” Mohammed Al-Atefi added in an extraordinary meeting today with the commanders of the naval and coastal defense forces. He continued, saying, "The Americans, the British, and those who coordinated with them must realize the strength of the sovereign Yemeni decision and that there is no debate or disagreement about it."
Al-Atifi stressed that Yemen's "leadership, government, people, army, and geography are superior, stronger, and too severe to be shaken by the American, British, and Israeli raids." Al-Atifi continued, "The continuation of the treacherous American-British aggression is a blatant violation of the sovereignty of Yemen and destabilizes the security and stability of the region," continuing to say, "The forces of aggression are unaware that the Yemeni people and their armed forces will not be intimidated by America's internationally banned missiles and bombs, and the fleets, aircraft carriers, and destroyers will not deter them from carrying out their religious and national duties." Humanity and morality towards what the Palestinian people and their resistance are exposed to in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem.”
He stated that "the American administration is tampering with the international value system through the standards it sets in a way that serves its political whims and its wars and aggression against peoples, especially the Yemeni people." He considered Washington's classification of the positions of the Yemeni people in support of Gaza as "terrorism" to be ridiculous, adding, "America is originally a terrorist state and sponsor of terrorism and terrorists. It is a leader of wars of extermination and assassinations and supports Zionist brutality."
He declared that "Washington and Tel Aviv are always the symbol of chaos, destruction, tampering, murder, and international terrorism. They are actual destroyers of security, safety, and stability, and do not believe in peace," explaining, "The strategy of taking revenge and punishment on the tables of Washington and London is coming, and every side that hurts them, pains them, and makes them bite their fingers of remorse will be targeted."
Al-Atifi stated, “We tell them from the Red Sea that we are the ones who put the painful end to American hegemony, which writes its end with its own hand,” noting that Abdul Malik Badr al-Din al-Houthi is aware of the nature of the challenges, consequences, and consequences of closing the Red and Arab Seas to Israel. The Minister of Defense of the Houthi "Ansar Allah" group stressed that they will make the Red and Arab Bahrain a "wall of fire" that will not have mercy on Israel and those with them, stressing that they "will not allow them to be an artery that feeds their brutality and crime against the Palestinians."
Allied for Democracy
The Israeli website Calcalist, which specializes in economic affairs, said that the war on Gaza is depleting Israeli weapons stocks, and that its long duration may push the army to economize on military means and increase its dependence on American military supplies, not to mention that the Israeli defense industries will be forced to postpone the delivery of their orders to their customers around the world. To direct it to the battlefields.
In an investigation entitled “The ammunition stock is running out and the army is forced to regulate the pace of bombing,” the site said that the coincidence of the war in Gaza with the Russian war against Ukraine has created an unprecedented global shortage of all types of ammunition, and that the Israeli government is avoiding addressing the issue publicly, but the head of the Strategy Directorate In the General Staff, General Eliezer Toledano acknowledged last month that the army had reduced its air attacks, and spoke of the necessity of regulating the use of ammunition; Because the war may last.
With the intensification of ground battles in Gaza, the Israeli army is using old “Merkava-V3” tanks that were removed from the service of the Armored Corps. The site says that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself commented on the problem when he was heard on a recording talking about three things that Israel wants from the United States: “Ammunition! Ammunition! Ammunition!” Two weeks ago, he announced plans - which the site describes as completely unrealistic - to end the industries’ accreditation. The Israeli military abroad, especially the United States , which has so far delivered 25,000 tons of weapons to Israel, transported on board 280 aircraft.
The Calcalist website explained two weeks ago how Israeli defense industries companies rejected weapons orders worth about $1.5 billion from their customers around the world, directing them instead to the battlefields, at a time when these companies received orders worth about $10 billion from the Ministry of Defense in the past three months.
Calcalist attributes the enormous need for ammunition to the extraordinary pace of bombing, which - according to the Israeli army, until two weeks ago - targeted 30,000 targets, using firepower that Israel rivals only the United States, according to what a security source told the Israeli website, who did not rule out the possibility that The amount of ammunition used in Gaza has exceeded that consumed by Russia in its war against Ukraine, which may force the army to explain to the political level the limits of its firepower, before the ammunition shortage reaches a very severe level.
But the Israeli website attributes the significant increase in targets not only to the improvement of technical capacity that allows hundreds of them to be attacked daily, but also to the “light finger on the trigger” policy that the army adopts regarding the damage that may be caused to infrastructure and civilian buildings, not to mention Pressure by the Israeli government and public to increase airstrikes, so as to minimize the danger to forces on the ground.
The Israeli website expects to increase pressure to use the air force to destroy buildings, instead of assigning forces on the ground to do so, after the killing of 21 soldiers last week, who were on a mission to blow up one of these buildings.
Le Monde newspaper said that 11 ministers from the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu participated the day before yesterday, Sunday, in a joyful celebration that included a group of the extreme religious right, calling for the “deportation” of the Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip , and demanding the recolonization of the Strip as “the fruit of the divine will” as a result of the ongoing war.
The newspaper explained - in a report by its correspondent in Jerusalem, Louis Imbert - that large families and students from religious schools and academies preparing for military service gathered in the conference hall in the Ministry area in Jerusalem, and viewed, “with complete Messianic enthusiasm,” three-dimensional views of possible future settlements in Gaza, under A huge map of the Strip, which includes the old settlements of Gush Katif, and a new colony that organizers envision in place of the largely destroyed Palestinian city of Gaza today.
According to the reporter, the leader of the local authorities in the occupied West Bank, Yossi Dagan, and the “Nahala” organization affiliated with Daniela Weiss, one of the settlers whose “Faith Bloc” built the first settlements after the October War in 1973, worked for this meeting. Daniela Weiss, who is interested in farmer Avi Farhan, who was evacuated from Gaza in 2005, confirms that “the Palestinians lost the right to live in Gaza” on October 7, and she seeks to ethnically cleanse the Strip.
This demonstration (celebration) highlights the extent of the influence of fundamentalists within the ruling right, as it was attended by 11 ministers and 15 parliamentarians, most of whom represent the extreme religious right in the government, including 7 ministers and elected officials from the Likud Party led by Netanyahu, which is a confused party - according to the reporter - that tends to racial supremacy. Many of them stressed the necessity of “deporting” Palestinians from Gaza under duress.
The correspondent pointed out that those present did not show much interest in the Israeli detainees held by the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ), nor in the deal to return them alive to their families, nor even in the possibility of the Israeli army’s involvement. Rather, Bezalel Smotrich , Minister of Finance and Minister responsible for defense affairs in the West Bank, praised the memory of about 220 soldiers died in Gaza, especially those belonging to religious Zionism.
The loudest applause was accompanied by the display of video clips filmed by the soldiers themselves in Gaza, which confirmed that “there are no innocent civilians” and vowed to reoccupy the Strip, noting that some of the images were shown in the hall of the International Court of Justice in The Hague by lawyers from South Africa in support of their argument that accuses Israel. committing genocide in Gaza.
The reporter concluded that Netanyahu believes that the elected officials and ministers participating in this meeting “were right in their opinions,” although he said that the settlers’ project was “unrealistic,” and rejected any discussion about “the day after” the war.
A report in the British newspaper "The Telegraph" stated that Israel is experiencing a state of anxiety and tension, as its army is fighting on two fronts. One is in the Gaza Strip against the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ), and the other is in southern Lebanon against Hezbollah. The newspaper said in the report written by its chief correspondent, Robert Mendik, that the population in Israel is apprehensive and feels that the situation is ominous, and some of them even believe that “World War III” has already begun.
The reporter tried to link the fighting taking place on the two aforementioned fronts and the end-of-the-world war known as Armageddon, “which once seemed far-fetched, but it does not seem completely unlikely now.” Armageddon is a word derived from the Hebrew language and means "Har Megiddo", or the hill of Megiddo, located west of the city of Jenin in Palestine , and it is the site of the gathering of armies for the final battle, according to the Book of Revelation in the Old Testament, the holy book of the Jews.
The newspaper reported that in the north there are about 160,000 Hezbollah missiles aimed in this direction, while in the south the Israeli army is fighting raging battles against Hamas in a war that has been going on for nearly 4 months. It added that Israel is experiencing tension. Standing in the city of Megiddo, located in central Israel, which is now home to a large archaeological site, there is apprehension of an evil omen prevailing in the region.
Megiddo is located on the ancient trade route between Egypt and Mesopotamia ( currently Iraq and Syria ), and was the site of a number of battles, mentioned in the Old Testament. According to the British newspaper, no one is visiting Megiddo these days, which suggests that the country is still in a state of shock more than 100 days after the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7. Tourism has disappeared, and Christian visitors who used to come to Armageddon now prefer to stay away from the region for fear of an end-of-history war, as the report indicates.
The truth is that war on Hezbollah, which the newspaper describes as a more dangerous opponent than Hamas, is looming on the horizon. Border towns were evacuated of tens of thousands of their residents months ago, and tensions have become high in light of the army's daily statements about air strikes on southern Lebanon, or missiles launched by Hezbollah at Israel.
Writer and social activist Mamdouh Egbari believes that the current conflict will spread because “the whole world is now against Israel,” adding, “There is already a war on Hezbollah (..) and it is extremely difficult to reach an understanding between major countries such as China , the United States , and Britain .”
“World War III is happening now,” he says spontaneously, while sipping a cup of coffee in one of the luxurious cafes in Umm al-Fahm.
The “Return to Settlement in the Gaza Strip and Voluntary Displacement of Palestinians” conference, which was organized by settlement associations and far-right parties in occupied Jerusalem , carried many messages that unanimously agreed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had become a hostage of the policies and ideology of this right.
The conference, which was held on Sunday, came after the decision of the International Court of Justice in The Hague and its demand that the occupation government take measures to prevent genocide and avoid targeting Palestinian civilians in the war on Gaza, reflecting the differences and differences in Israeli positions regarding the day after the war, as well as the state of confusion that the Israeli political map is witnessing in The fighting continued.
The conference calls for settlement in all of historic Palestine for Biblical religious motives, and analysts say that it deepened the rift and conflict in Israeli society over the identity of the “Jewish state,” and reversed the state of polarization between the religious and secular currents, the intensity of which eased slightly with the outbreak of the “ Al-Aqsa Flood ” battle.
Estimates agreed that this conference came with a green light from Netanyahu, who delegated some ministers and members of the Knesset from the Likud Party to participate in the conference alongside the alliance of “New Religious Zionism,” “Messianic Nationalism,” and the Settlements Council in the West Bank. Israeli analyzes suggested that Netanyahu's hidden support for this conference reflects the polarization of the political and partisan scene in Tel Aviv , as well as his submission to the blackmails of religious movements and the extreme right to prevent the disintegration of his government coalition, and the fear of ending his political career and ousting him from the prime minister's chair.
Under the title “The Poisoned Tea Party,” political analyst Amir Bar Shalom wrote an article on the Zaman Yisrael website in which he criticized the conference and the timing of its holding. He said, "The Kahanism celebrated the greatest victory in its history in a frenzied carnival of speeches, songs and dances that the word shame cannot describe." He added, "The far-right conference comes at a time when tens of thousands of soldiers are risking their lives in the Gaza Strip, while the fate of those who were kidnapped and are being held in Hamas tunnels remains ambiguous , while entire areas of the country have been abandoned by their residents who have become internally displaced, and the economy is in danger."
The political analyst explained that the conference, in which ministers and Knesset members from the right and Likud participated, comes after the decision of the Hague Court, as Israel's international status has become more ambiguous than ever before. He continued, "At least 26 ministers and representatives of the Knesset spoke, sang, and danced ecstatically at the "Victory Conference," which calls for the renewal of Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip, after the deportation of the Palestinians in what has become known to the extreme right as voluntary immigration."
Bar Shalom believes that if the people who danced around the “Golden Calf” in the “Nation Buildings” in Jerusalem are not curbed and pushed to the margins of Israeli society, “they will plunge Israel into an abyss much deeper than the one into which we all fell on October 7.” The first is 2023.”
In turn, Rabbi Danny Danieli confirmed, in an article on the Walla news website, that the so-called “Conference for Victory and Return to Settlement in Gaza reflects the messianic tendency that has taken control of power in Israel, and that it amounts to madness and does not express the presence of Jewish associations and organizations only, but rather a coalition.” "Netanyahu's failed and dangerous government." Daniele, a member of the Executive Committee of the "Rabbis for Human Rights" organization, explained that this conference indicates that the "Jewish people" have not learned lessons from the experiences and what happened to them in the past. He said, "It is as if we have learned nothing from the atrocities that the people of Israel have experienced."
He added that this conference was preceded, in recent weeks, by many statements by numerous Israeli figures who spoke and wrote explicitly about the occupation of the Gaza Strip, the annexation of large parts of its north, the “voluntary” transfer of Palestinians, and the establishment of Jewish settlements in the lands to be occupied and annexed. He stressed that "all of this is accompanied by extreme vindictive language by the Israelis towards all residents of Gaza without discrimination, and demands from the government not to allow the entry of food and humanitarian aid, and not to end the war without achieving its originally unclear goals."
The holding of this conference at the present time, Rabbi Daniele says, “reflects and expresses well the image and essence of extremist Messianic Israeli Judaism, which has given it a tight grip on the systems and levers of government in Israel, and which gives preference to Jewish racial superiority.” On the political side, Moran Azoulay, political affairs analyst at Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, says that holding the conference amid the fighting in Khan Yunis and other areas in the Gaza Strip caused embarrassment to some Likud leaders and even Netanyahu, the hidden supporter of this trend.
Azoulay pointed out that the state of embarrassment was reflected in the slogans, texts, and statements heard at the conference, which were once the property of right-wing extremists and people marginalized in the Israeli political scene. “Most of the ruling party ministers who did not attend the right-wing conference felt uncomfortable,” Azoulay says. “But why are they afraid to stand against the conference openly? And why do many Likud members refuse to present their extremist point of view?”
It is likely that the silence in Likud and the timid reservation by Netanyahu regarding the conference and the timing of its holding, and even its contents and slogans, reflects the state of damage caused by the conference, which increases internal discord in Israel, and thus engages in a more divisive policy, and could also result in complex international challenges.
The political affairs analyst believes that Netanyahu is besieged, and has become a hostage of the Religious Zionist Alliance headed by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, and the “Jewish Greatness” party headed by Minister Itamar Ben Gvir . It is likely that the biggest challenge for Netanyahu has not yet come, and that it will be in exchange for an exchange deal and stopping the war, which threatens his government coalition.
Both Benny Gantz, Minister in the Israeli War Council, and the leader of the opposition in Israel, Yair Lapid, denounced the settlement conference that was held last Saturday in occupied Jerusalem with the participation of ministers in the ruling Israeli coalition. Gantz said that the participation of ministers and members of the ruling Israeli coalition in the conference that called for the restoration of settlement in the Gaza Strip “harmed Israeli society, Israel’s legitimacy before the international community, and the efforts made to return the prisoners detained in Gaza.”
For his part, the leader of the opposition in Israel, Yair Lapid, accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of not paying attention to the damage caused by the conference calling for the return of settlement in Gaza, and the participation of ministers and members of the Knesset from the ruling Likud Party in the conference. Lapid said, "All Netanyahu cares about is staying in power even if Israel burns," adding that Netanyahu "is not qualified to lead the country and that it is time to replace him."
Twelve ministers in Benjamin Netanyahu's government participated in a popular conference on Sunday calling for the revival of settlements in the Gaza Strip and taking measures to encourage the displacement of Palestinians from the Strip. Among the participating ministers are members of the Likud Party headed by Benjamin Netanyahu. National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir called on the Prime Minister to take what he described as courageous measures, by resuming the settlement project in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
The Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ) considered the ruling coalition’s call in Israel during the conference to annex the West Bank and Gaza “a revelation of premeditated intentions to implement the crime of displacement and ethnic cleansing against our people, and a disregard for the recent decisions of the International Court of Justice, which demanded that it take all measures to stop the genocide in Gaza.”
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said that London is considering recognizing the Palestinian state, and stressed the need to show the Palestinian people irreversible progress towards a two-state solution. Cameron explained in an interview with the BBC that Britain is considering with its allies the issue of recognizing a Palestinian state, including at the United Nations.
The British Foreign Secretary urged Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip , and said it was ironic that vital aid sent by Britain and other countries was being returned from the border without reaching its destination. Cameron said that Israel has failed over the past 30 years to provide security for its citizens, and stressed that peace and progress will not be achieved without acknowledging this failure. The participation of senior American officials was initially aimed at providing expertise and direct experience, as well as what was often described as “asking difficult questions,” in the context of the “bear hug” strategy pursued by US President Joe Biden , using public support to take advantage of public pressure, But as the war continued unabated and the American point of view was ignored, these officials were tasked with managing relations as tensions rose.
With this introduction, Haaretz newspaper opened an article by Ben Samuels in which he tried to shed light on the narrow team that is managing the reality of Biden’s policy towards Israel and Gaza, whether it is related to negotiations to recover Israeli detainees in Gaza, or preventing the Gaza war from spreading to Lebanon and across the Middle East, or ensuring that Exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, or by maintaining Israel's diplomatic standing regionally and globally, or by trying to revitalize the Palestinian Authority on the path toward a two-state solution after the war, or perhaps by a growing list of concerns.
It includes five officials, starting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who effectively serves as a barometer for the administration's response, and whose speeches during his many shuttle trips in the months following the attack provide the United States' view of the facts on the ground, and what they reflect of the steadily growing concern about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Israel failed to limit civilian casualties.
The “five nos” in his speech in Tokyo on November 8, 2023, summarized the American principles regarding the Gaza war and the future of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which are: “No forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza now or after the war, no to using Gaza as a platform, no reoccupation.” Gaza after the end of the war, neither to siege or close Gaza, nor to reduce the area of ??Gaza, but it must also ensure that there are no terrorist threats from the West Bank.”
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, especially through his top deputy John Viner and senior Middle East advisor Brett McGurk, is considered the closest voice to Biden's ear on all foreign policy matters. They were among the strongest advocates for re-prioritizing Israeli regional integration before October 7, until the attack by the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ) turned this approach upside down.
Since then, they have intensified their efforts publicly and privately to stimulate Israeli-Saudi normalization as a path toward a two-state solution. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby was the most prominent official to speak publicly about the war, and he won the praise of the pro-Israel American Jewish establishment for his steadfast defense of Israel's right to self-defense and rejection of accusations of genocide .
The newspaper pointed out that Kamala Harris, US Vice President, was deliberately exploited in foreign policy, and her speech at the 28th Climate Summit, in which she urged Israel to make more efforts to protect civilians, led many observers to believe that she was exposed to playing the “dirty” role, but Her Jewish husband, Doug Emhoff, served as the face of the administration to combat growing domestic anti-Semitism caused by the war.
As for the US Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, she was increasingly isolated on the global stage, as the majority of countries in the world demanded that Israel change its course in Gaza to better protect civilians and significantly increase humanitarian aid, while the United States was using its veto power against the resolution. He calls for a ceasefire almost alone.
US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew, who was urgently appointed within weeks after October 7, has served as a key on-the-ground interlocutor between the US and Israeli governments, particularly regarding the distribution of humanitarian aid in Gaza, as well as efforts to halt firing, keeping the Palestinian Authority solvent amid settler violence inside the West Bank, and the Israeli government continuing to withhold Palestinian tax revenues.
Although McGurk is involved in every aspect of the conflict, his interest is increasingly focused on efforts to negotiate over detainees as a key to ending the war and the transition to normalization and efforts for a two-state solution, but it is CIA Director Bill Burns who is leading the negotiations over detainees. Burns' efforts are supported by Roger Carstens, who works in the State Department as a special US presidential envoy for detainee affairs, and his deputy, Stephen Gillen, who traveled to Israel alongside Blinken immediately after October 7 and remained there to work with the families of the detainees.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin remained in constant contact with his Israeli counterparts, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevy, where he received tactical updates about Israeli military operations, presented his own experiences and lessons about urban warfare, and worked to strengthen the American military position as a potential deterrent to Iran and its proxies. Regionalists.
As the war developed and tensions increased on the Lebanese border and with the Houthis in the Red Sea , he was tasked with conveying US dissatisfaction with Israeli tactics due to the regional ramifications. Biden's senior envoy to Lebanon, Amos Hockstein, has been tasked with finding a diplomatic solution to a potential agreement to create a de facto buffer zone, to move toward an eventual long-term border agreement.
Although Biden did not appoint a special envoy to supervise the Israeli war on Gaza, he appointed David Satterfield as a special envoy for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza days after the war. Satterfield has worked with the Israeli government to expand humanitarian aid entering Gaza as the risks of famine and disease grow, and he has defended the freedom of movement of Palestinians in Gaza and the need for new mechanisms to prevent clashes, Haaretz says.
For her part, USAID Director Samantha Power played an important role in coordinating American efforts to provide humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians, as she traveled to Egypt and supervised the delivery of 500,000 pounds of food aid and tens of millions of dollars in supplementary aid, with the establishment of a field hospital and the expansion of aid to include cCommercial goods.
Despite the progress that has been made in transporting flour through the port of Ashdod, simplifying the process of delivering aid through the Kerem Shalom crossing, and allowing the United Nations mission to visit northern Gaza to assess the possibility of the return of displaced Palestinians, senior American officials realize that their efforts face major obstacles, the newspaper says.
Sullivan directly discussed the need for reforms within the Palestinian Authority during his meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas , including steps to revitalize leadership, and the need for PA security forces to help maintain order in the West Bank and play a potential role in post-war Gaza. At the same time, senior State Department officials are working to maintain relations with the Palestinian Authority, whose current and future role as a governing body for the Palestinians has become a point of contention between the United States and Israel.
Indeed, Hadi Amr, the US Special Representative for Palestinian Affairs, visited Ramallah to meet with Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh, who stressed the need for an immediate ceasefire as well as the ongoing financial pressures facing the Palestinian Authority due to withheld tax revenues. Other senior State Department officials, such as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Henry Wooster, Senior Middle East Diplomat Barbara Liff, Counselor Derek Chollet, US Security Coordinator Lt. Gen. Michael Fenzel, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Israeli-Palestinian Affairs Andrew Miller, have played roles in Communicating with Israeli, Palestinian, and Jordanian officials, they spoke about the need for internal reform in the Palestinian Authority, as well as the dangers of settler violence. Liv seeks to communicate with Arab allies regarding reconstruction plans, post-war administration, and normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia, and is assisted in this by two of Harris’ senior advisors, Phil Gordon and Ilan Goldenberg.
Butcher's Bill / Oasis of Martyrs
On 7 October 2023, Hamas and other armed groups present in the Gaza Strip carried out an attack in Israel, killing more than 1,200 persons, injuring thousands and abducting some 240 people, many of whom continue to be held hostage. It was the second largest loss inflicted on the Israeli forces after the 1973 war. Palestinian armed groups launched thousands of missiles at Israel Following this attack, Israel launched a large-scale military operation in Gaza, by land, air and sea.
The 1,200 Israelis killed on the first day would be the equivalent of 36,000 Americans killed in an attack, as a proportion to Israel’s population of 9.3 million people (compared to 332 million in the USA). Israeli President Isaac Herzog stated: “Not since the Holocaust have so many Jews been killed in one day". PM Netanyahu stated "On October 7th, Hamas murdered 1,400 Israelis. Maybe more. This is in a country of fewer than 10 million people. This would be equivalent to over 50,000 Americans murdered in a single day. That’s twenty 9/11s. That is why October 7th is another day that will live in infamy."
The HAMAS Ministry of Health in the besieged sector announced that the number of victims of the Israeli operation its beginning had risen to 26,751 martyrs, and the killing of nearly 10,000 Palestinian children and 6,600 women killed. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
The number wounded was 65,636 The Palestinian Government Media Office in Gaza had said much earlier that the number of missing people had risen to more than 8,000, including including 4,700 children and women, amid expectations that the toll will be double thi figures.
The IDF intensified its military operations in the West Bank, and increased the pace of incursions and raids into cities, towns, and camps, resulting in the martyrdom of 380 Palestinians, the injury of about 3,950, and the arrest of 5,780, according to official HAMAS sources. As of 17 January 2023, the Israeli escalation in the West Bank led to the death of 360 Palestinians, the injury of nearly 2,200, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, and the arrest of about 6,000, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club.
More than 130 Hezbollah fighters were killed in Lebanon during exchanges of bombing operations with Israel.
Israel revised down the death toll from the October Hamas attacks in southern Israel from 1,400 to 1,200. IDF had said previously it was holding 1,500 bodies of terrorists, a total that now would increas to about 1,700.
The total number of Israeli deaths has risen to 559 [557?] since the start of the war on October 7, including 229 [220?] killed since the ground invasion as a result of the ongoing clashes with the Palestinian resistance [other sources report the total number of deaths of the army had risen to 222 since the start of the ground invasion]. Among them were at least 56 with the rank of platoon commander, 43 with the rank of company commander, 9 with the rank of battalion commander, and 5 with the rank of brigade commander. These officers constitute 23% of the total deaths of the Israeli army in the war on Gaza.
Israeli media reported that 27% of the Israeli military casualties in the war were officers. In detail, the media highlighted that three brigade commanders, four battalion commanders, and other senior officers have been killed in the war so far.
The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation reported that 29 of the army's deaths were caused by "friendly fire" and operational incidents since the start of the ground war in Gaza, late last October. The Israeli authority explained that "18 army soldiers were killed by friendly fire, two were killed as a result of gunfire (without explanation), and 9 Israeli soldiers were killed in ammunition, weapons, or run-over accidents." The Jerusalem Post newspaper revealed that 15 soldiers were killed in the Strip without their bodies being found.
According to some reports statistics indicate that 20% of the Israeli losses were due to friendly fire. Because the nature of the battle has become completely different from what was expected, and it lacks a front line.
According to the latest data published by the army, the number of wounded soldiers and officers had risen to 1,276 since the start of its ground attack on Gaza on October 27, including 228 seriously wounded, while the total number has reached 2,602 wounded since the outbreak of the war on the 7th of October.
The Israeli army reported that 2,771 officers and soldiers were injured since the seventh of last October, including 407 who are still receiving treatment for their injuries in the Gaza battles, and the condition of 48 of them is serious, while 405 were seriously injured, 692 were moderately injured, and 1,562 were described as having minor injuries since the start of the war. The Israeli army also said 26 January 2024 that since the beginning of the ground attack on Gaza, 258 soldiers have been seriously injured. There are 423 moderate injuries, compared to 577 minor injuries.
At least 13,599 Israelis were injured, according to i24 TV.
Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper had reported that 5,000 soldiers had been wounded since the beginning of the war on October 7, and that the Ministry of Defense had recognized 2,000 soldiers as disabled so far.
An estimate by the Israeli Ministry of Defense expected that the number of soldiers with disabilities in the war taking place in the Gaza Strip since October 7 of last year would reach 12,500 soldiers. The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth said that the Soldiers' Rehabilitation Department of the Ministry of Defense has dealt with 3,400 soldiers who were classified as disabled in the army since last October 7.
The Israeli army revealed that about 9,000 of its soldiers have received “psychological assistance” since the beginning of the war on the Gaza Strip on October 7, and about a quarter of them have not returned to combat. This came according to a new statement revealed by the Army Medical Corps, according to Channel 12 and the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. According to the statement, nearly 9,000 soldiers have applied for psychological assistance since the beginning of the war, and approximately a quarter of them have not returned to combat.
The statement continued, "In total, about 13,000 regular and reserve soldiers required accompaniment or medical treatment at some level during the fighting, and thousands of them were injured in the battles."
Al Jazeera military and strategic expert Major General Fayez Al-Duwairi expressed his conviction that the numbers of dead and wounded announced by Israel “cannot represent the truth,” due to a discrepancy between the Israeli army’s data and the Walla website, which is close to the army itself.
In an interview with RT, Military strategist retired Tunisian Brigadier General Tawfiq Didi said that the number of Israeli army deaths in the Gaza battles is much greater than what Israel announces. Didi explained in an interview with the “Best Saying” program on RT channel, “The number of people killed in battles can be easily known, as the equation in wars is that for every 3 wounded there is a dead person, and the numbers now in Israel hover around 12,500 wounded and disabled people, and when we divide by Three, we find that the death toll exceeds 4,000, especially after eliminating more than a thousand tanks and armored vehicles, and I know what happens when Kornet missiles hit a tank. Its ammunition explodes and no one is left alive.”
He added, "The Israelis announce their dead only of those of Jewish origin and of the first race, meaning all Arabs, Falash, and those who are among them. They are not counted because they are of the second category. So I am sure that the number exceeds 4 thousand dead, and this is a very easy military calculation."
He pointed out, "The Palestinian resistance documented everything it did, unlike the Israelis. The resistance documented shooting at tanks and armored vehicles and destroying the houses in which the Israeli soldiers were holed up, and we saw them being killed... We saw the Kornet hitting the tanks, we saw Al-Yassin 105, so the difference is clear."
Hostages
Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed have been held as hostages in Gaza since 2014 and 2015, respectively. Unlike the roughly 240 people kidnapped in the Hamas October 7 terrorist attacks, the campaign for the release of Mengistu and al-Sayed has received little publicity. Mengistu is known to suffer from what HRW deemed "serious" mental health issues. "Avera crossed one of the safest borders in the world, under the eyes of the security services," recalled Gil Elias, a relative. "We're talking about a mentally ill person who got lost." The calls for the release of Mengistu and al-Sayed have been barely audible during the many years they have been held captive in Gaza.
Israel had previously estimated there were 116 living hostages in Palestinian custody. Israel declared 20 out of 136 people in Gaza captivity dead in absentia, after announcing its forces had recovered the bodies of two hostages. By another count, 132 of them are still being held in Gaza, and 25 of them have been confirmed dead. Israel considers those still held by Hamas to be hostages regardless of whether they are dead or alive.
Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy earlier had told reporters that Hamas still held 137 captives. The resistance released 10 Israeli detainees, 4 Thais and 2 Russian women, who were released outside the agreement. Over the course of 6 days, Israel has received 102 detainees, women and children, including 78 Israelis, in exchange for the release of 234 Palestinian prisoners, women and children.
Eylon Levy, the Israeli government spokesperson, told reporters 01 December 2023:
- Hamas still held 137 hostages from the October attacks, in addition to four others who went missing before the war
- The hostages include two children aged four and 10 months, who, Hamas now claims, are dead
- 117 male hostages are still kept in Gaza, including the two children, as well as 20 females
- 126 hostages are Israelis, and 11 others are foreign nationals
- Foreign nationals are eight Thais, one Nepalese, one Tanzanian and one French Mexican citizen
- Ten of the remaining hostages are 75 and older.
- There are seven missing people since the October 7 attack
- Hamas had released 110 hostages so far – 86 Israelis and 24 foreign nationals.
Some of the rest are soldiers, seized when Hamas raided military bases in Israel. They may end up being held the longest. The Israeli military had not specified how many soldiers were captured, nor their ranks.
According to some estimates, Hamas was initially holding nearly 210 of the 240 hostages, while Palestinian Islamic Jihad was holding the remaining 30. About 40 Israelis remained missing. More than 40 hostages taken from Israel into Gaza on October 7th are not currently in the custody of Hamas, the group responsible for the attack, according to a CNN report based on a diplomatic source briefed on the negotiations, CNN's prior reports had indicated that an estimated 40 to 50 hostages were held by Palestinian Islamic Jihad or other unidentified groups or individuals.
Abu Ubaida, the spokesperson for the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said on Hamas’ telegram account that 23 bodies of the 60 missing Israel hostages were trapped under the rubble. “It seems that we will never be able to reach them due to the continued brutal aggression of the occupation against Gaza,” he said.
The Palestinian Prisoners' Club revealed that about 11,000 arrests were carried out by the Israeli army during the year 2023 in the West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem, in addition to arrests from the Gaza Strip before the seventh of last October. The number of people arrested by the Israelis in the West Bank since that date has exceeded 6,305. The total number of prisoners in Israeli prisons is 8,800, as documented by the club until the end of December 2023. Palestinian prisoner institutions said more than 3,290 administrative detainees, which is the highest percentage since the years of the 1987 Intifada, and 661 who were classified as “unlawful combatants” from Gaza, and this is the number available only as a clear given. The Prisoners' Club stated that cases of arrest among women amounted to (300), and this toll includes women from the occupied interior detained after October 7, while the number of cases of children reached 1,085. The arrest campaigns affected all groups, including women and children, as the number of women who were arrested reached about 200, while the number of arrests among children until the end of last December exceeded 355 children.
Israel said on 14 January 2024 that, since the beginning of the war, over 2,960 wanted persons have been arrested throughout the Judea and Samaria Division and the Bekaa and Valleys Division, over 1,350 of whom are affiliated with Hamas. On 08 January 2024 it was reported that more than 1,350 wanted persons had been arrested throughout the Judea and Samaria Division and the Bekaa and Valleys Division, more than 870 of whom are associated with the terrorist organization Hamas.
The institutions added in the statement that “the occupation arrested 210 women during the aforementioned period, and this statistic includes women who were arrested from the territories in 1948, and more than 355 children,” pointing out that “the outcome of the arrest campaigns includes all those who were arrested from homes, and through military checkpoints, Those who were forced to surrender themselves under pressure, and those who were detained.” It explained that "the number of arrests among journalists reached 50, of whom 35 remain in detention, and 20 of them were transferred to administrative detention."
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