Daily Sabah – December 10, 2023
Israel raises hell in southern Gaza with renewed US support
Seemingly emboldened by U.S. support at the Security Council, Israel launched Sunday a major new push into the main city in the southern Gaza Strip as tanks battled their way to the center of Khan Younis.
Residents said tanks had reached the main north-south road through the middle of Khan Younis after intense combat through the night that had slowed the Israeli advance from the east. Warplanes were pounding the area west of the assault.
The air rumbled with the constant thud of explosions and thick columns of white smoke rose over the city, which is sheltering hundreds of thousands of civilians who fled other parts of the enclave. As morning broke near a city-center police station, the constant rattle of machinegun fire could be heard. Streets there were deserted apart from an old woman and a girl riding on a donkey cart.
"It was one of the most dreadful nights, the resistance was very strong, we could hear gunshots and explosions that didn't stop for hours," a father of four displaced from Gaza City and sheltering in Khan Younis told Reuters. He declined to be identified for fear of reprisals.
"In Khan Younis tanks reached Jamal Abdel-Nasser Street, which is at the center of the city. Snipers took positions on buildings in the area," he said.
Israel launched the storm of Khan Younis this week after a truce collapsed, extending its ground war to Gaza's southern half in a new, expanded phase of its two-month-old campaign to wipe out Hamas. International aid organisations say this has left the enclave's 2.3 million people with nowhere to hide.
At the site of one Khan Younis home that had been destroyed by bombing overnight, relatives of the dead were combing the rubble in a daze. They dragged the body of a middle-aged man in a yellow T-shirt from under the masonry.
"We prayed the nighttime prayer and went to sleep, then woke up to find the house on top of us. 'Who's alive?!'" said Ahmed Abdel Wahab.
"The civil defense forces came and rescued who they could, and this is what's left. Three floors above collapsed down and the people are under it. God is our saviour and the disposer of our affairs. My mother and father, my sister and brother, all of my cousins."
Israel rejects cease-fire
Palestinian resistance group Islamic Jihad, allied to Hamas, said its fighters were battling Israeli forces in the area. The Israeli military said it bombed underground tunnel shafts in Khan Younis and attacked a squad of Palestinian gunmen preparing an ambush, but said nothing about any tank advance there.
Both sides also reported heavy fighting in the north of the Gaza Strip, where Israel had previously said its troops had mainly succeeded in their mission last month. Explosions rang out at dawn there and columns of smoke could be seen from across the fence in Israel.
The vast majority of Gaza's residents have now been forced from their homes, many fleeing several times with only the belongings they can carry. Israel says it is doing what it can to protect them, but even its closest ally the United States says it has fallen short of those promises. An Israeli siege has cut off supplies, with the United Nations warning of mass hunger and disease.
At an international conference in Doha, capital of Qatar which acted as the main mediator for a weeklong truce that saw more than 100 hostages freed, Arab foreign ministers criticized the United States for vetoing a U.N. Security Council resolution on Friday that demanded a humanitarian cease-fire.
Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said the war risked radicalizing an entire generation across the Middle East.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he would "not give up" appealing for a cease-fire.
"I urged the Security Council to press to avert a humanitarian catastrophe and I reiterated my appeal for a humanitarian cease-fire to be declared," Guterres said. "Regrettably, the Security Council failed to do it, but that does not make it less necessary."
Israel has spurned demands it halt the fighting. Briefing his cabinet on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had told the leaders of France, Germany and other countries: "You cannot on the one hand support the elimination of Hamas, and on other pressure us to end the war, which would prevent the elimination of Hamas."
Washington has backed Israel's position, rejecting any cease-fire as a step that would only benefit Hamas. But with the death toll soaring and U.N. agencies warning of humanitarian catastrophe, other Western allies have balked: France voted in favor of the U.N. cease-fire resolution and Britain abstained.
https://www.dailysabah.com/world/mid-east/israel-raises-hell-in-southern-gaza-with-renewed-us-support
Mondoweiss – December 11, 2023
‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 66:
Israel attacks ambulances, medics in Gaza
Palestinians have called for a global strike on Monday as Israel continues to kill Palestinians by the thousands, refusing a ceasefire as analysts warn a miscalculation could trigger a regional war.
BY LEILA WARAH
Casualties
17,997 killed*, including 7,729+ children, and 49,229 wounded in the Gaza Strip.
At least 275 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank since October 7.
* This figure was given by the Gaza Ministry of Health on December 10. However, due to breakdowns in communication networks within the Gaza Strip (particularly in northern Gaza) and the high number of people trapped under rubble, the Gaza Ministry of Health has been unable to regularly and accurately update its tolls since mid-November. Some rights groups put the death toll number closer to or above 20,000.
Key Developments
UN OCHA: Gaza’s Ministry of Health Director General of Pharmacy and two staff were shot and injured while trying to reach a medical warehouse.
UN OCHA:ﾠOne patient died during an evacuation coordinated by UN and Palestine Red Crescent Society staff due to multiple hour-long delays caused by Israeli forces.
PRCS: The Israeli military opened fire on an ambulance carrying critically wounded patients on Sunday.
A global strike is taking place in countries across the world on Monday, as a response to calls for increased solidarity with Palestinians, and an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
“The potential for a miscalculation that could trigger a wider conflict is increasing,” says the UN peacekeeping force in south Lebanon.
Jordan FM: Israel is trying to “empty Gaza of Palestinians” in a campaign that amounts to “genocide.”
WHO: calling for “immediate, sustained and unimpeded” healthcare aid for Gaza.
UN OCHA: Thousands of internally displaced Palestinians in Rafah, southern Gaza, are “facing extremely overcrowded and dire conditions.”
Patient dies waiting at Israeli military checkpoint in Gaza
International medical groups are becoming increasingly concerned about Israel’s full-on attacks against healthcare as the military continues targeting paramedics, ambulances, patients, and doctors.
On Sunday, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) reported the Israeli military opening fire on an ambulance carrying critically wounded patients as well as obstructing, detaining, and abusing paramedics.
The incident took place on Monday morning as six PRCS ambulances, escorted by the United Nations (UN), evacuated 11 critical patients from Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City to a hospital in the besieged enclave.
The ambulances, filled with amputee and head casualty patients, were forced to stop for hours at a time at several military checkpoints, during which two paramedics were detained, and one of the patients died waiting.
One paramedic, Rami Al-Qatawi, was held by the armyﾠfor over four hours and was subjected to beatings, abuse, and blackmail. After being released, he was forced to walk over 2 kilometers in cold weather while stripped of his clothes and handcuffed.
When Qatawi finally arrived at the other side of the checkpoint, he was in “deplorable condition.”
Later on Sunday, PRCS reported that their medical crews were once again put in danger by the Israeli army when soldiers invaded the area near the UNRWA clinic in the Jabalia camp.
“The team consists of nine doctors, nurses, and volunteers. The surrounding area is currently under bombardment, posing a constant threat to the lives of medical teams and the wounded,” it said.
“What we are seeing in Gaza is not simply the killing of innocent people and the destruction of their livelihoods, but a systematic effort to empty Gaza of its people,” Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said at the Doha Forum.
“Israel has created this amount of hatred that will haunt this region. [It] will define generations to come and, therefore, it’s hurting its own people as much as it’s hurting everybody else in the region,”ﾠSafadi continued.
The Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy called Safadi’s allegations Safadi “outrageous,” claiming Israel is simply “fighting to defend itself.”
As hopes of a ceasefire dwindle, the World Health Organization (WHO) executive board unanimously voted in favor of a resolution calling for the “immediate, sustained and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief, including the access of medical personnel.”
The rare executive board meeting is only the seventh in WHO’s 75-year history, highlighting the dire situation.
The resolution, which “underscores the importance of health as a universal priority,” even in the “most difficult of situations,” was proposed following the UN’s failure to call for a ceasefire.
“It is an important moment for WHO – an organization focusing on international public health. For me, it is a victory [for] humanity. A victory of member states in promoting health, protecting the vulnerable, and saving lives,” said Dr Ahmed al-Mandhari, regional WHO director, as cited by Al Jazeera.
Meanwhile, the United States representative said Washington agreed not to oppose the consensus on the text but had “significant reservations,” saying it “regrets the lack of balance in the resolution.”
Monday: Global Strike for Palestine
On Monday, Palestinians across the occupied West Bank are joined by global communities in the observation of a general strike called upon by Palestinian factions.
Businesses, banks, schools, universities, and public institutions in the West Bank have closed to honor the strike.
“We expect the entire globe to join the strike, which comes in the context of a broad international movement involving influential figures. This movement stands against the open genocide in Gaza, the ethnic cleansing and the colonial settlement in the West Bank,”ﾠsaid a statement released by a coalition of groups.
The strike called on by Palestinians is a response to the US veto againstﾠa UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire and the end to the Israeli war on Gaza.
“This is a message to the US administration that stands against the aspirations of our people,” Muwafaq Sahwil, Fatah’s secretary in Ramallah and el-Bireh, told Al Jazeera.
“It is also a message from people around the world to their politicians and the international community to stand up for the Palestinian people who have been suffering from occupation for 75 years,” Sahwil continued.
Countercurrent – December 12, 2023
Moscow and Gaza: Is Russia Ready for a Major Shift in its Middle East Policy?
by Dr Ramzy Baroud
Gaza was among the main topics on the agenda of Russian President Vladimir Putin as he arrived in the Middle East region on Wednesday, December 6.
Some news reports referred to the trip as ‘rare’, especially since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war in February 2022.
We know that the situation in Gaza, namely the Israeli war and the subsequent genocide, is a major objective in Putin’s visit, based onﾠpress statements from Russia’s official media.
But we do not know, yet, exactly how Gaza factored in, in Putin’s one-day visit.
Putin’s visit included the UAE and Saudi Arabia, two of the richest and most economically influential Arab countries, which are, like Russia, members ofﾠOPEC+ – the larger and most influential group of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
Oil prices, energy supplies and the fractious security of the Red Sea waterways are reportedly also part of Putin’s agenda. However, it is unlikely that the Russian president has initiated such an important visit to discuss any of these issues.
Indeed, fluctuating oil prices and achieving OPEC+ consensus regarding production levels have been ongoing issues linking Russia to the Middle East for years, especially since the start of the Ukraine war, which invited unprecedented US-Western sanctions.
But what does Putin have to say about Gaza, in particular?
In the early phase of the Israeli war with the Palestinian Resistance in the besieged Gaza Strip, Russia had taken a guarded position, condemning the targeting of civilians, while calling for a comprehensive political solution.
But, days later, Moscow’s position began evolving into a stronger stance, namely condemning the Israeli war on Gaza, Washington’s blind support for Tel Aviv and the US’ﾠintransigence during UN Security Council meetings.
President Putin, on October 13, compared Israel’s besiegement of the Gaza Strip to the Nazi siege of Leningrad in 1941. “In my view it is unacceptable, more than two million people live there. Far from all of them support Hamas, by the way, far from all. But all of them have to suffer, including women and children,” heﾠsaid.
Moscow’s UN ambassador, Vasily Nebenzia, hasﾠrepeatedly attempted, to no avail, to pass a UNSC resolution demanding an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in Gaza. His efforts culminated to nil due to US refusal, backed by equally strong rejection of other Western allies of Israel.
Despite his unsuccessful efforts, Nebenzia has used the UNSC as a platform to declare Russia’s progressively strong stances against the Israeli war, going as far as questioning Israel’s long-touted ‘right to defend itself’.
“All they (the West) can do is to keep (talking) about Israel’s alleged right for self-defense, which, as an occupying state, it does not have, as was confirmed by the (UN) International Court consultative ruling in 2004,” Nebenziaﾠsaid on November 2.
Following the US shameful use of the veto power to block the passing of a UNSC resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the Russian representative Dmitry Polyanskiy stated: “Our American colleagues have condemned thousands – if not tens of thousands – more civilians (..) including women and children, to death, along with the UN workers who are trying to help them.”
But for various reasons, the Russian position did not evolve beyond political rhetoric, however strong, into any tangible strategies.
The typical explanation for Russia’s inability to formulate a practical strategy regarding Gaza is its lack of any serious diplomatic or political capital beyond the current war on Ukraine; and that Moscow was fully aware of the Middle East’s delicate geopolitical balances.
But things began to change – not in Moscow, but in Gaza itself.
Over two months into a war that has resulted in the killing of more than 17,000 civilians, so far, Tel Aviv is finally discovering the limits of its military power.
Moreover, the war gradually began to destabilize the Middle East, involving state and powerful non-state actors, many of whom are close allies to Moscow and protectors of Russian interests in the region.
They include Iran, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Ansarallah in Yemen, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq and, of course, Hamas itself.
As a sign ofﾠcloser relationship between Hamas and Russia, the Palestinian movement has released all Israeli captives with dual Israeli-Russian citizenship.
It has done so without a formal prisoner swap agreement, like the ones that have been mediated through Qatar and Egypt, resulting in the release of scores of Israelis and hundreds of Palestinians, starting on November 24.
Surely, Putin’s visit to the Middle East carries greater meaning than the mere ‘emphasis on the strong relationships’ between Russia and a few Arab countries. This meaning is compounded by the immediate visit to Moscow by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on December 7, also with the sole purpose of discussing the situation in Gaza.
Is it possible that Russia has finally found a geostrategic opportunity in the Middle East that would allow it to expand, in terms of its strategic alliances and political role, beyond Syria?
This expansion must appear as an attractive opportunity for Moscow, especially as early signs of Israeli military failure and, by extent, American failure, in Gaza are becoming unmistakably clear.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is expected to deliver an important speech at the 21st Doha Forum in Qatar on December 10.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, was quoted by the TASS news agency on December 6 as confirming that Lavrov will be discussing the war in Gaza and the overall situation in Palestine and in the Middle East.
“The minister will pay special attention to the problem of Palestinian-Israeli settlement, of course, and security issues in the Middle East,” she said.
None of this, including the potential new Russian ‘vision’ in the Middle East, would have been possible if it were not for the Israeli-US inability to defeat small Resistance groups in a tiny, besieged region like Gaza.
Aside from the setback of the Israeli military machine, which has been financed and sustained by Washington, the genocide in Gaza has cost the US whatever little political credibility it still enjoyed in the Middle East.
Time will tell whether Russia will be able to stake a claim and help define a new Middle East in the post-Gaza war.
However, one of the most important factors that Russia will consider before making any major moves is the tangible outcome of the Israeli war on Gaza.
And, unlike most Israeli wars against Palestinians and Arabs in the past, this time around it seems that Palestinian Resistance – despite its very limited capabilities in the face of a powerful Israel-US military machine – is the one most likely to control the outcomes.
Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of six books. His latest book, co-edited with Ilan Pappé, is ‘Our Vision for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders and Intellectuals Speak Out’. His other books include ‘My Father was a Freedom Fighter’ and ‘The Last Earth’. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA). His website isﾠwww.ramzybaroud.net
Mondoweiss – December 11, 2023
Genocide in service of Nakba 2023
The ongoing genocidal war on Gaza is not about Hamas or Israeli captives, but the depopulation and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people which is being implemented in brutal but deliberate stages.
By Nour Odeh
The ongoing genocidal war on Gaza is not about Hamas or the Israeli captives in Gaza. Israel has more strategic goals for this war, which it reveals and normalizes in installments. In so doing, Israeli officials are banking on the fact that the enormity and widespread nature of the crimes committed will serve as the perfect cover, if not distraction, for such goals to materialize.
One goal was crystal clear from the beginning: widespread destruction and industrial-scale slaughter. The Israeli Prime Minister invoked passages of scripture that describe exacting revenge on the Amalek, thus promising genocidal violence and destruction. This was complemented by a plethora of officials vowing to “eliminate everything in Gaza” and turn it into “a city of tents” while others normalized the promised slaughter by systematic dehumanization in which Palestinians were called “human animals”, and “children of darkness”. High-level officials, including the Israeli President, even went as far as saying that there are no innocent civilians in Gaza.
Another goal for this war is advancing Netanyahu’s objective of squashing Palestinian ambitions for statehood. Although promising the U.S. administration that Israel had no intention to occupy or control Gaza, Israel now says it will maintain indefinite “security control” over the enclave.
Relatedly, the Biden administration said that a “revitalized Palestinian Authority” would take over Gaza after the war. Netanyahu pushed back immediately, accusing the toothless PA of supporting terrorism and inciting hate. On cue, the White House adjusted its messaging and agreed the PA was unfit to govern Gaza.
For the Israeli establishment, this is not related to the PA’s deep legitimacy crisis but rather to ensuring that there is no unified Palestinian governance of the West Bank and Gaza no matter who is in power. This objective was outlined in a leaked document prepared by the Ministry of Intelligence that views any Palestinian governance formula as problematic, likely due to the assumption it would encourage Western capitals to push for political dialogue.
To justify his opposition, Netanyahu talks about the “deradicalization” of Gaza after the war. The desired outcome, also outlined in the leaked document, is a Palestinian population that accepts its oppressor after undergoing a “transformation of consciousness” akin to the process of de-Nazification in post-war Germany.
Such a “goal” resonates with Netanyahu’s allies in government, who continue to brand Palestinians, including those in the West Bank, as Nazis that must be crushed.
Israeli officials talk of a prolonged war that will last months and entail shrinking the tiny enclave by imposing large depopulated “buffer areas” in northern and eastern Gaza. Despite rhetorical pushback from the Biden administration and the European Union, Western leaders are now engaged in discussions about this issue.
But Netanyahu’s most strategic goal is depopulation and ethnic cleansing, which is being implemented in brutal but deliberate stages.
First came starvation and siege. Israel cut off water, food, fuel, and medicine to Gaza. Instead of rejecting this war crime, world governments have normalized and legitimized this criminal policy. They adhered to Israel’s choking siege on humanitarian assistance in which it decides what and how much assistance enters Gaza after initially cutting off water, food, medicine, and fuel supplies.
Almost concurrently, Israel ordered 1.2 million Palestinians and international humanitarian agencies to leave northern Gaza, accompanied by a relentless campaign to completely obliterate health services there, making the area completely uninhabitable.
The ground invasion of the south is the second, more brutal stage. Hundreds of thousands of residents and displaced people have been ordered to leave Khan Younis and head to Rafah as the eastern and central parts of this large city are carpet-bombed. Desperate, terrorized, and hungry, tens of thousands are heading to Rafah, where they know there will be no shelter, food, or water for them.
As recently revealed in an investigation, Israel is deliberately applying “civil pressure” on the population by targeting civilian “power targets” that wipe out entire neighborhoods and result in wholesale killing. This obliteration is deliberate. It is not happening by accident, exposing claims of Israeli attempts to spare civilians as a cruel farce.
This pressure serves the goal of complete forced displacement or at best, the “thinning of the population in Gaza.” Netanyahu has tasked Ron Dermer with formulating the plan to this end. Even if full expulsion is not attained, the plan foresees that large portions of the population in Gaza could be pushed into Egypt or given a chance to flee to the sea. This planned ethnic cleansing is being normalized and even pushed as a humanitarian solution. In the United States, senior U.S. lawmakers have reviewed plans to condition aid to Arab countries on their absorption of Palestinians from Gaza, to the delight of rightwing racist policy pushers like Daniel Pipes.
Today, the vast majority of the population in Gaza is displaced and on the brink of famine. Amid international inaction and outright complicity, humanitarian agencies are at a breaking point, unable to meet the overwhelming needs of this Israeli-engineered cataclysmic crisis.
In such an environment, ethnic cleansing becomes almost inevitable, with the ongoing genocide in Gaza used as a means to that end. Rhetorical and toothless international concern is inconsequential. That’s why, absent a change in this lethal trend, Israel will continue to advance its Nakba 2023 objective in installments while garnering piecemeal international support or acquiescence in the process.
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The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
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