Operation Iron Swords - Day 148 - 02 March 2024

Contents

NEW - War Termination NEW - Operations NEW - Operations - Gaza NEW - Operations - Judea-Samaria NEW - Operations - Lebanon NEW - Operations - Yemen NEW - Operations Maps NEW - By-Standers NEW - Axis of Resistance NEW - Allied for Democracy UPDATED - By the Numbers

Israeli Channel 12 said that the size of the Israeli forces present in the West Bank exceeds the number of forces in Gaza due to security tension and the harbinger of a possible explosion during the month of Ramadan.

For its part, Israeli Channel 13 revealed that the Internal Security Service ( Shin Bet ) and the army warned the political leadership against turning the conflict into a religious conflict and demanded the necessity of staying away as much as possible from the Temple Mount during the month of Ramadan, otherwise the situation will get very bad. The channel reported that the head of the Shin Bet warned the political leadership that the ambiguity would lead to a deterioration of the situation and urged it to make a quick decision regarding the restrictions during the month of Ramadan.

“US President Joe Biden sent 250 planes loaded with ammunition and missiles to kill and destroy Gaza, and is now sending 3 planes to help the Gazans.” Al-Jazeera Major General Fayez Al-Duwairi said.

The United States of America and Jordan dropped humanitarian aid cargoes for residents of the Gaza Strip. US military C-130 cargo planes dropped food in pallets over Gaza, the first American airdrop of humanitarian aid into the Palestinian enclave, three US officials said. Three planes from Air Forces Central dropped 66 bundles containing about 38,000 meals into Gaza at 8:30 am EST, This was announced by the Central Command of the United States of America. "U.S. Central Command and the Royal Jordanian Air Force conducted a combined humanitarian assistance landing in Gaza to provide essential assistance to civilians affected by the ongoing conflict," CENTCOM said in a statement. The military dropped more than 38,000 food portions along the Gaza coastline, "allowing civilians to receive vital aid."

CENTCOM said this was the first US aid shipment to Gaza, but plans are underway for potential "further airlift missions." "These landings are part of an ongoing effort to get more aid into Gaza, including by expanding the flow of aid through land corridors and routes," the statement added. Senior administration officials said they were exploring all possible channels to get aid to Gaza, and that the Defense Department was currently planning additional drops. But they say their biggest hurdle is opening up new ways to get aid to Gaza, including a sea route that would deliver aid directly by sea.

Airdrops have been historically used in the 1970s by the World Food Program in Africa's western Sahel after years of drought and in war zones. The US claims that it is familiar with the risks that accompany airdrops, with the White House National Security Communications Advisor, John Kirby, stating that they are one of the "complicated" military operations. Vowing to improve with every drop, Kirby explained that the US was trying to "be more creative" to meet the needs of the people of Gaza desperate for help.

Politico newspaper said that US President Joe Biden’s decision to airdrop humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip reveals the limits of the American approach towards Israel. The newspaper explained that when the United States sends military planes to drop food, water, medicine, and other aid to people in need, it usually does so in areas occupied by “terrorist groups” or hostile regimes, not allies, in reference to the Israeli occupation forces. However, months of pressure on Israel to allow more aid into Gaza - where about 80% of the population has been displaced and famine looms - has yielded limited results.

Even Biden, who refuses to blame Israel for the scarcity of supplies, publicly acknowledged on Friday that more aid must enter the Strip. Biden announced yesterday that the United States will carry out an airdrop of food aid to Gaza , at a time when hunger is worsening and claiming the lives of more residents of the Strip.

The newspaper says that the step of dropping aid from the sky indicates that Biden cannot convince Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to do more for the suffering of the Palestinians. It quoted former USAID humanitarian aid coordinator Dave Harden as saying, “We appear 100% weak,” adding that administration officials are only doing this to feel good about themselves. Senator Chris Van Hollen - a Democrat who supports Biden's decision - said that what can be provided by aircraft alone is "a drop in the bucket of what is needed in order to mitigate the impending famine."

The member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee added in an interview, “It sends the right message, which is that the United States is so fed up with the Netanyahu government restricting humanitarian aid to Gaza that the United States has to do this (airdrop).”

However, the newspaper quoted some critics as saying that the operation was unnecessary. The newspaper says that the United States has many ways to influence Israeli actions, not the least of which is considering adapting military aid to Israel. Democrats in Congress have long suggested that Biden halt new arms sales to Israel until Netanyahu addresses the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

But National Security Council Strategic Policy Coordinator John Kirby, who is aware that the United States is in talks with Israel about delivering new weapons, stressed on Friday that the United States will continue to support Israel's right to self-defense.

Politico quoted an American official as saying that the motive behind Washington's decision to drop aid from the air was the killing of Palestinians searching for aid in Gaza in what is known as the "flour massacre." Kirby said that his country would seek to open a humanitarian sea corridor to send larger quantities of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.

According to Israeli media, the fears of the Israeli security authorities regarding the upcoming Ramadan season in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem are rising, amid warnings from the occupation that Hamas may exploit the most important time for Muslims as an opportunity to ignite the scene. The biblical holidays for the Jews this year intersect with the second week of Ramadan and Tarawih prayers, which may open the door to a new battle in Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Ramadan is celebrated Mar 10, 2024 – Apr 9, 2024. Tarawih, also known as Taraweeh, is a voluntary (nafl) night prayer performed by Muslims during the Islamic month of Ramadan. Tarawih prayers are a sunnah of the Prophet, which means that it was his practice to perform them. Purim is a Jewish holiday that celebrates the survival of the Jewish people from annihilation in the 5th century BCE. The story is told in the Book of Esther and is known as the Feast of Lots. Purim dates are March 23–24, 2024.

Hamas called on 28 February 2024 for Palestinians to march to Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque at the start of Ramadan, raising the stakes. “This is a call on our people in Jerusalem and the West Bank to march to Al-Aqsa since the first day of Ramadan,” said Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. “It is the duty of the Arab and Islamic nations to take the initiative to break the starvation conspiracy in Gaza,” Haniyeh said.

At least 115 Palestinians were killed and 750 others were injured on 29 February 2024, according to what health officials in the Strip confirmed, while eyewitnesses said that Israeli forces “opened fire while huge crowds were racing to obtain materials from the aid convoy.” It was not the United Nations that organized the aid convoy on Thursday, as it was under the supervision of the Israeli army, which said that its forces were securing it to ensure its arrival in northern Gaza, while the shooting of Palestinians raises questions about whether Israel will be able to maintain order. If it continues its plan until after the war on Gaza.

New York Times reported that eyewitnesses and doctors confirmed that the occupation army opened fire on Palestinians who were trying to obtain food supplies, killing them and wounding many of them. The newspaper quoted an eyewitness, in its report on the violence with which Israeli forces faced the hungry citizens of Gaza , as saying that he saw people falling to the ground after being shot, while others took the food supplies they had with them and continued running for their lives.

The report indicated that thousands of Gazans were camped out overnight on the coastal road in the cold Gaza night, gathering around small fires they had lit, waiting for supplies to arrive so they could feed their families. A number of eyewitnesses and one doctor who treated the wounded at Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza said that what they saw were dead and wounded, while Israeli forces opened fire on desperate Palestinians who moved forward when relief trucks finally arrived.

The Associated Press quoted the director of the Gaza Hospital as saying that “more than 80 percent” of the injuries that reached them in the vicinity of the aid convoy were from gunshots, indicating heavy gunfire at them by Israeli forces, while the New York Times reported that the clip, which Published by IDF forces "increases confusion" about what happened.

Israel claims in its account that many of the dead "were trampled in the stampede that began when desperate Palestinians in Gaza rushed to aid trucks... as Israeli forces fired warning shots after the crowds moved toward them in a threatening manner." The Israeli army had published video clips of the crowds before they were shot, and refused to provide a full copy of the video filmed from a drone, “which increases the confusion” about the series of accounts and events that resulted in the deaths of dozens of Palestinians and the wounding of hundreds of them, according to a report published by the New York Times. .

The American newspaper stressed that the quality and shortness of the video clips “makes it difficult to confirm the Israeli allegations that the injuries and deaths that occurred on Al-Rashid Street were due to “a stampede or being run over.” The newspaper noted that one of the clips published by the Israeli army showed “two Israeli tanks positioned a quarter of a mile (more than 400 meters) from the aid route and at least 12 bodies near them.”

The New York Times reported that the videos do not show the incident that caused deaths and injuries, "but a number of people can be seen crawling and lying down for protection." The newspaper quoted a video clip broadcast by the Al Jazeera network that helped “fill in some of the gaps regarding what happened,” noting that it showed gunfire as crowds spread out in search of protection. The newspaper noted that the timing of the video being taken was not clear when compared to the clips published by the Israeli army.

However, the newspaper says that this video clip documents what it called “tracer ammunition” (tracer ammunition), which is “a special type of munition used to illuminate its path, allowing the forces to hit their targets accurately.” It noted that the source of these munitions did not appear in the aforementioned clip, but that Its launch route comes from the same location where the Israeli forces were located, about half a mile (800 meters) away.

Acting Director of Al Awda Hospital, Dr. Mohamed Salha, told the Associated Press, “Of the 176 wounded who arrived at the hospital, 142 of them were injured by gunshot wounds, while 34 people were injured due to the stampede.” Director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, Doctor Hossam Abu Safia, in turn, confirmed that the majority of the injured who arrived at the hospital had gunshot wounds to the upper part of their bodies, and many deaths were the result of gunshot wounds to the head, neck, or chest.

An Israeli official also said that soldiers fired warning shots into the air and then opened fire on those who refused to move away, considering they posed a threat. When asked about the number of people who were shot, he said that the shooting was “limited.” Four witnesses, speaking from Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City in a video clip obtained by Reuters, said that Israeli forces opened fire on them, and some of them spoke of tanks and drones firing.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that a United Nations team visited Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on Friday to deliver medical supplies and met with people injured in the incident. "By the time of the team's visit, the hospital had also received the bodies of more than 70 dead," the office stated.

An Israeli official said that two incidents occurred hundreds of meters apart. Dozens were killed or injured in the first while trying to get aid from trucks and were trampled underfoot in stampedes or by cars, according to Reuters.

IDF spokesman, Brigadier General Daniel Hagari : "Q: Good week, Brigadier General Hagari, why didn't they start bringing in humanitarian aid from the north of the Gaza Strip as planned, and instead they only bring in through the south of the Gaza Strip and then have to travel to the north?

"A: Look, we bring in humanitarian aid both from the air and from the land, both from the Kerem Shalom crossing and some of it also comes in from Rafah after an inspection. We are considering the right ways, what motivates us first of all is that it is with the approval of the political level, we act subject to the instructions. And the second thing, there is a challenge in the distribution of aid. Not only in bringing it in but also in distributing it to the places it needs to go, we also don't want it to reach the heart of Hamas' terrorist strongholds. All these things together create greater complexity, we are trying to produce creative solutions together with international organizations in order to bring the distribution in a better way, today we did it from the air, the event that was on Thursday by the way, this is the fourth operation in the same area, and in the fourth operation there was A distribution problem with a mob that took over the trucks and also endangered our forces."

"This morning, the IDF coordinated a convoy of 38 trucks to deliver vital humanitarian aid to the residents of northern Gaza. This aid, originating from Egypt, underwent rigorous security screening at the Kerem Shalom humanitarian crossing in Israel before being transported into Gaza for distribution by private contractors," Rear Admiral Hagari stated.

"Tragically, as the convoy made its way toward Gazans in need, it was besieged by thousands of individuals. Some resorted to violence, resulting in numerous casualties and injuries," he explained. Clarifying the sequence of events, Hagari emphasized, "At 4:40 a.m., the initial aid truck began its journey through a humanitarian corridor secured by the IDF. Our tanks and UAVs were deployed to ensure the convoy's safe passage to its destination in northern Gaza."

"Our tanks attempted to disperse the mob with warning shots and ultimately retreated to avoid further harm," he explained. "No IDF strike targeted the aid convoy. Our mission was solely to facilitate the safe delivery of aid to Gaza's civilians," he reiterated. "We recognize the suffering of innocent Gazans and remain committed to expanding our humanitarian efforts," Hagari stated. "Our war is against Hamas, not the people of Gaza. We are actively working with humanitarian organizations and the international community to address aid distribution challenges within Gaza."

An investigation by the American newspaper The New York Times questioned the Israeli army’s account of the flour massacre it committed against civilians in the northern Gaza Strip to obtain aid. The investigation accused the occupation army of modifying the video materials it broadcast and claimed that those killed had been killed as a result of a trampling and crushing operation, to ward off responsibility for its forces in the attack. Committing a massacre that resulted in the death of at least one hundred and twelve Palestinians, according to a tally announced by the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip.

The New York Times reported in its investigation that the Israeli army’s photos include scattered clips of large numbers of people in queues waiting for aid, then scattered bodies and attempts to hide by numbers of survivors. An analysis of the photographic material carried out by the New York Times showed that the images available from a side street show shots being fired while crowds of people disperse and hide. The American newspaper said that the trajectory of the bullets appeared to be coming from the direction where Israeli military vehicles were stationed, only half a mile away.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Observatory had reviewed evidence of the occupation army’s involvement in the flour massacre, the first of which were the injuries on the bodies of the martyrs and the wounded at the moment of their arrival to Al-Shifa Hospital, the video clips published by eyewitnesses to the crime, and the sound of bullets coming from Israeli tanks stationed towards the sea, with a five-point-fifty-six caliber used by the occupation. . The aerial video published by the Israeli army shows the presence of at least two tanks and bodies in the path of the tanks and not in the path of the trucks. It also appears that people are escaping in the opposite direction from the aid trucks, which means that the source of the danger is external and not from the trucks.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz said that the fatal incident that took place in the northern Gaza Strip the day before yesterday, Thursday, in reference to the martyrdom of more than 100 Palestinians in what became known as the “ flour massacre ,” whether intentional or not, could change the course of the ongoing war between Israel and the resistance movement Hamas for the 148th day in a row. The newspaper reported that the Israeli explanations for what happened were delayed by 10 hours and it is doubtful that they will convince anyone. It added that what she described as Thursday's horrors would inflame the situation in other arenas, such as the West Bank, and said that Israel may face a comprehensive and more insistent international demand for a ceasefire.

War Termination

Israel has essentially approved the framework of a proposed cease-fire agreement and the release of hostages in Gaza , and it is now up to Hamas to agree to that agreement. This was reported by the Associated Press with reference to a high-ranking representative of the US administration on Saturday, October 2. It is noted that the next day, negotiations should resume in Egypt in order to reach an agreement.

International mediators have been working for several weeks to reach an agreement that would suspend hostilities until the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins around March 10. The deal is also likely to allow aid to reach hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in northern Gaza, who humanitarian organizations say are at risk of starvation. The Israelis have "more or less accepted" the proposal, which calls for a six-week ceasefire and for Hamas to release hostages deemed vulnerable, including the sick, wounded, elderly and women, the official said.

Israel relayed to Egyptian and Qatari mediators on Friday the message that it refused to hold further negotiations over a hostage deal until Hamas provide a list of living hostages. The report from well-known Israeli journalist Barak Ravid also said that Israel urged Hamas to submit a "serious" and realistic proposal regarding the terrorists it seeks to see freed in the deal.

The Israeli Walla website reported that Israel informed Qatar and Egypt of its refusal to hold another round of talks to exchange prisoners and ceasefire in the Gaza Strip until the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ) sends a list of the names of its surviving prisoners. The website explained that Israel is asking Hamas to provide a "serious response" regarding the number of Palestinian prisoners it demands to be released.

While Israel demands details, Hamas leader Osama Hamdan revealed that until now, negotiations are still taking place within the general framework. Hamdan explained - in an interview with Al Jazeera Net - that there is no detailed discussion of names or even numbers, while the focus is on a general framework that is discussed until an agreement is reached on it, which indicates the difficulty of the negotiations and the lack of real progress in them. Israel only wants to exchange prisoners - according to Hamdan's statements - while the resistance demands a complete halt to the aggression, withdrawal from Gaza, the entry of aid, reconstruction, and the return of the displaced to their homes, saying that the prisoner exchange process comes within this context.

Abu Hamza, spokesman for the Al- Quds Brigades - the military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement - said that the issue of the day following the war in the Gaza Strip “can only be determined by the mujahideen,” and called for the first day of Ramadan to be considered an international day to support Gaza. Abu Hamza added - in a speech broadcast by Al Jazeera - saying, “I call on our Arab and Islamic nation to make the first day of Ramadan an international day in support of Gaza,” before adding, “Let Ramadan be a month of terror and anxiety for the occupation.”

Abu Hamza confirmed the continuation of the “ Al-Aqsa Flood ” battle on the basis of the unity of the arenas in Gaza, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen, and continued, “We will not stop our resistance, no matter how long it extends, until the occupation is defeated from Gaza and from all of Palestine.” He added, explaining, "We went to open war to liberate the prisoners and achieve the interests of our peoples," and sent a message to the Palestinian people in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem, saying, "Go, light and heavy, to attack the enemy."

He stressed the continuation of steadfastness in the face of the Israeli war machine and the clear war of annihilation, and revealed that the Al-Quds Brigades had killed and dismembered all members of an Israeli force in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, east of Gaza City, in addition to carrying out many diverse combat missions against the occupation forces.

Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said that the Palestinian Authority hopes to reach a ceasefire agreement in Gaza by the month of Ramadan. Speaking at a press conference at a diplomatic forum in Antalya, Turkey, Al-Maliki said the Palestinian Authority would be the “sole legitimate authority” to administer Gaza after the war.

Al-Maliki warned that Israeli occupation Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would proceed with his plan to attack the city of Rafah if the international community failed to oblige him to a ceasefire , which would mean committing more horrific massacres against civilians and forcibly displacing them outside Palestine, according to the Palestinian News Agency. " Wafa ."

Al-Maliki's statements came in a special discussion session entitled "Contact Group on Gaza", during the work of the Antalya Diplomatic Forum, along with some members of the Arab-Islamic Ministerial Committee emanating from the Riyadh Summit, to discuss the recent developments in the Gaza Strip . Al-Maliki added: “The Israeli occupation aims to strike at all aspects of life in the Gaza Strip, and operates within a systematic policy based on starvation, thirst, and depriving citizens of their most basic human rights, as about 150,000 Palestinians suffer from famine and live in harsh conditions in the north .”

He stressed the necessary need for a serious international will for a ceasefire in Gaza, in light of Netanyahu’s stubbornness to the ceasefire, and he and members of his government are working to escalate the pace of colonization operations in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, and the occupation forces and colonialist militias practice crimes and violations against civilians in the West Bank, which It leads to the explosion of the conflict arena and threatens security and stability in the region .

He pointed out that it is not possible to reach a solution regarding what is happening in Palestine, because the Israeli side, especially Netanyahu, is very clear that it wants to prolong the war and expand its scope, to achieve his personal interests .

Al-Maliki warned again, during the session in which the Foreign Minister of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Sameh Shukri, and the Turkish Foreign Minister, Hakan Fidan, participated, of the Israeli government’s undeclared plans for its war on the Palestinian people, in light of the international inability to provide protection for defenseless civilians and secure the arrival of humanitarian aid. For the sector . He stressed the need to oblige the Israeli occupation entity to comply with international law and international legitimacy resolutions, especially Security Council resolutions and precautionary measures issued by the International Court of Justice .

Given the inability of the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority (PA) to even slow down the pace of land theft and ethnic cleansing on the West Bank, or break the siege on Gaza, Palestinian public opinion has turned against the PA and has become more favourable to the Resistance. In November-December 2023, most of those polled (72%; 82% in the West Bank and 57% in the Gaza Strip) supported the offensive of October 7. 95% believe the Israelis committed war crimes in their attacks on Gaza; while only 10% believed Hamas committed war crimes.

The two most popular options for future governance of Gaza were Hamas (60%) or a Palestinian Unity government excluding PA ‘President’ Mahmoud Abbas (16%). Another recent poll showed that 79% of Palestinians think unelected ‘President’ Mahmoud Abbas should resign. The Fatah-led PA has not faced an election since 2006, when it lost to Hamas. Nevertheless, propped up by funding from Washington, the EU, and some Arab monarchies, Abbas and the PA still present themselves as the municipal rulers of the occupied Palestinian territories. Polls say that 80% in the West Bank and 61% in the Gaza Strip believe Hamas will succeed in returning to rule over the Gaza Strip despite the Israeli operations.

Deputy Head of the Political Bureau of Hamas, Musa Abu Marzouk, affirmed the movement’s insistence that Russia play a major role, vis-à-vis the United States and Israel, in ending the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Abu Marzouk said in an interview with the "Novosti" agency, "The movement demands that Russia be a major player in confronting the United States and Israel and that it receive the support of a number of countries that will support it, and we will try to achieve this goal, to create balance in the solution negotiations."

He also affirmed Hamas' readiness to continue negotiations with Israel through mediators, noting that the movement's priority is the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, the arrival of humanitarian aid, and the liberation of hostages and prisoners on both sides. The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed Russia's readiness to continue contributing to efforts for a comprehensive settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

American officials said that there is a growing feeling of pessimism in the White House about reaching a ceasefire agreement in Gaza, despite the contacts made by President Joe Biden and senior officials in his administration with officials in the region yesterday to save the negotiations. NBC News channel quoted these officials as saying that the killing of civilians by occupation bullets yesterday at the Nabulsi roundabout (the flour massacre) in Gaza led to an even worse collapse of trust between the two parties at the negotiating table. The officials also said that Biden is desperately seeking a truce, but is still unwilling to change his policies toward Israel and place conditions on US aid, as some Democrats are demanding.

US President Joe Biden said that he hopes to reach a ceasefire agreement between the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas ) and Israel by the month of Ramadan. In response to a question about the possibility of reaching an agreement on a truce in the Gaza Strip in exchange for the release of hostages by that date, Biden replied, "I hope so. We are still working a lot on the issue. We have not reached that yet."

Operational Update

“There were 24 regional battalions in Gaza — we have dismantled 18 of them,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told foreign reporters. “Now, Rafah is the next Hamas center of gravity.”

International newspapers and websites, in articles and reports, criticized Israeli practices in the Gaza Strip and called for holding Israel accountable and restraining it, especially after the horrific massacre it committed against Palestinians who were waiting to receive aid in northern Gaza.

The British Guardian highlighted the pain experienced by the families of the victims of the recent massacre in the northern Gaza Strip, and spoke to members of the family of Bilal Al-Issa, who was martyred in the incident. They revealed that Bilal was fond of football and photography, but his inability to provide food for his family affected him. His pain worsened over the days.

An editorial in the French newspaper Le Monde called for holding Israel accountable and restraining it, and said that its allies in the West can stop the war crimes it is committing, stressing that “the fall of dozens of victims during the distribution of food aid in Gaza cannot be considered an isolated incident, as it is the result of the systematic crushing of the Gaza Strip.” The editorial added, "The Gaza Strip has been turned by a free-handed army into a field of rubble, with heavy human losses."

Politico newspaper focused on the decision of the administration of US President Joe Biden to airdrop humanitarian aid into Gaza, and Alexander Ward said that this decision is “a sign of the Biden administration’s inability to influence Israel.” The writer quoted Dave Harden, a former official at the US administration's International Support Agency, as saying: "Washington is completely helpless, and what it is doing now is only an attempt to save face."

Operational Update - Gaza

The American network NBC quoted a source familiar with intelligence information as saying that Israel did not move ground forces or equipment towards the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip , which indicates that the ground incursion that the Israeli army intends to launch into the city is not imminent. NBC also quoted US administration officials as believing that Israel will postpone its ground invasion of Rafah for at least several weeks, partly because many of Israel's resources are concentrated elsewhere in Gaza. The officials explained that the United States had not received until last Thursday the Israeli army's plans for the military operation in Rafah or its strategy for evacuating about 1.5 million civilians there.

Military and strategic expert, Major General Fayez Al-Duwairi, expressed his fear that the aid dropped by American planes would suggest that the famine has ended in Gaza, which means that Israel will take the green light to continue its aggression against the Palestinian Strip. The United States of America announced earlier the implementation of the first airdrop of aid into the Gaza Strip by three C-130 aircraft. CNN quoted an American official as saying that the planes dropped 66 aid packages into Gaza.

Al-Duwairi said it is not unlikely that the war on Gaza will continue, and that talk of slow killing by starvation will be moved beyond, so that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will continue implementing his project.

The American aid comes at a time when the residents of the Gaza Strip, especially in the north, are suffering from a real famine that has claimed the lives of at least 13 Palestinian children in the Gaza and northern governorates, according to what the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ) revealed. Al-Duwairi said that the world stood in shock at the massacre committed by the Israeli occupation in the northern Gaza Strip, and that countries supporting Israel began to reconsider their calculations, but not for the sake of the children of Gaza, but rather out of fear for their political future.

Regarding field developments in the Gaza Strip, the military and strategic expert announced that he agreed with what Abu Hamza, spokesman for the Al- Quds Brigades , the military arm of the Islamic Jihad Movement , said about the continuation of battles between the Palestinian resistance and the Israeli occupation forces, and revealed that the intensity of the fighting had declined in the last 24 hours for most of the time. Regions.

Regarding the announcement by the spokesman of the Al-Quds Brigades of the continuation of the Al-Aqsa Flood Battle on the basis of the unity of the arenas in Gaza, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen, Al-Duwairi said that there is partnership between the arenas, “and those who participate are better than those who do not participate.”

Regarding the developments in Beit Lahia and Jabalia, north of the Gaza Strip, Al-Duwairi indicated that there are Israeli forces positioned east of Jabalia, north of Beit Lahia, and north of Beit Hanoun, and others between Beit Hanoun and Jabalia, which is an unstable presence in a permanent state. The most dangerous thing - Al-Duwairi adds - is that the occupation forces sent an engineering company specialized in destroying buildings and began demolishing Beit Hanoun, and in one week 150 buildings were destroyed.

Military sources in the Israeli Ministry of Defense warned of the Israeli army's inability to conduct rapid and intense military maneuvers in Gaza and that soldiers were exposed to surprise attacks or explosive devices. The Wallah Hebrew website quoted sources in the Israeli Ministry of Defense as saying that there is a warning in the “defense establishment” of a situation in which “the Israeli army cannot carry out rapid and intense maneuvering, and also carry out operational tasks such as locating terrorist homes and underground systems, surveying and destroying, and as a result.” The enemy can approach the forces and hit them with counterfire or explosive devices.”

The "Wallah" website indicated that there were disagreements between army commanders, members of the War Council, and members of the Israeli Army General Staff Forum regarding the invasion of Rafah. The website quotes a senior officer in the army’s Southern Command as saying: “We do not want to expand the maneuver to Rafah or the central camps in a manner that coincides with an agreement to release the hostages, which would impose a cessation of the attack and prevent a decisive operational momentum to defeat Hamas and hand over senior officials,” adding that “the coming days will be "Tense. The highest political and military levels will be asked to study developments in the negotiations and decide on major issues." Two army combat divisions are currently deployed in the northern Gaza Strip and 4 combat divisions from brigades in the Khan Yunis area, while forces are deployed along the borders of the Strip.

Although the momentum of the war has transferred to the ground operation, the occupation aircraft are still dropping heavy bombs on the besieged sector, causing casualties among civilians and children, in light of the deteriorating health situation, scarce entry of humanitarian aid, and interruptions of water and fuel.

The Air Force carryied out a massive wave of attacks in the area of Deir al-Balah in the center of the Gaza Strip and in Khan Yunis in the south - even in places that have not been bombed so far. The Air Force began a wave of massive attacks in the Deir al-Balah area in the center of the Gaza Strip and in Khan Yunis in the south. More than 40 targets were bombed within minutes using various armaments, from the air and from the ground. As a result of the activity, loud explosions are heard in the southern region. According to Palestinian reports, eyewitnesses reported that at the same time as the powerful attacks of the Air Force, there is a ground advance of the IDF in the area of Al-Karara and Al-Quds University in eastern Khan Yunis.

Beit Lahia, the Sheikh Zayed area, and the eastern region of Jabalia camp, north of the Gaza Strip, witnessed a series of military aircraft raids, and the occupation army also blew up residential homes in the project area, west of Khan Yunis. The Israeli army published aerial scenes showing its warplanes raiding residential towers and populated areas in the Gaza Strip, as part of its ongoing aggression, leaving tens of thousands martyred and wounded.

Israeli forces carried out more than 40 attacks on the areas north of Khan Yunis, around the Nasser Medical Complex, and southeast of Deir al-Balah. RT correspondent, Saed Al-Suwayrki, said: “A series of fire belts targeted dozens of homes and lands in the areas of Hamad, Al-Qarara, Tabba 86, and eastern Deir Al-Balah, with more than 40 raids. Israeli aircraft also launched several targets in the vicinity of Nasser Hospital in the center of the city of Khan Yunis.” Eyewitnesses said that the Israeli vehicles began to advance from the east of Khan Yunis towards the town of Al-Qarara and the Al-Matahin area northeast of Khan Yunis and the outskirts of Hamad Town, with a simultaneous artillery shelling, intense shooting, and fire belts.

IDF and Shin Bet attacked terrorists from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organization who were staying in the organization's infrastructure in the Rafah region. The attack was carried out in a targeted manner against the GAP terrorists, no damage was caused to the hospital located in the area.

IDF spokesman, Brigadier General Daniel Hagari : "Yesterday during the fighting in Khan Yunis, 3 IDF soldiers fell, and 14 soldiers were injured. Two charges exploded in the building where the force was staying, the IDF is investigating the incident. The IDF continues its efforts to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza, the claim that we deliberately harmed the Palestinians who arrived at the aid trucks is without foundation."

"The prices of war are heavy and painful, every void, every wounded person is a world in its entirety. In the north and center of the Gaza Strip, the IDF forces are operating in the field following intelligence, this is intelligence that we bring, the IDF and the Shin Bet, bring it as a result of research on servers, research on prisoners. Intelligence that brings us information about Hamas terrorist infrastructures in the region. Infrastructures that we have not yet reached to them or attempts by terrorists to restore infrastructure.

"There is a phenomenon in fighting in a densely built-up urban space, the way the terrorists operate, dressed in civilian clothes, planting explosives, firing RPGs at our forces is the main challenge in this area. We use all means, scanning means, engineering means, dogs, we use all means. When an event happens, we investigate, learn and are required to draw lessons. The commander of the 98th division himself entered the field, investigate this incident with the forces, things reached the commander of the Southern Command, we will see if there was anything different here in the pattern of action, we will learn and draw lessons, we do it quickly because the forces are in the field and we need to see if there is anything new that could endanger them. This is how we behaved in the past, this is how we behave now, it is a big challenge in fighting terrorism in urban areas."

The fighters of the commando formation are in intense fighting in the west of Khan Yunis, they are eliminating dozens of terrorists and carrying out raids on terrorist infrastructures in accordance with designated intelligence. for further details .

Following the launch that was carried out last night (Friday) from the territory of the Gaza Strip towards the territory of Israel, aircraft under the direction of the fire center of the Southern Command attacked the launch area in the north of the Strip from which the launch was carried out and a number of other targets including launch pits and terrorist infrastructures used by Hamas.

The fighters of the 7th SDF continue to operate in the west of Khan Yunis and in the last day they eliminated terrorists and found weapons in the area among them, explosives, grenades, Kalashnikov type rifles and vests. In addition, in a series of airstrikes, the brigade's fire complex targeted aircraft that eliminated eight terrorists, among them terrorists who were carrying An object suspected to be cargo near the forces.

In the center of the strip, the Nahal brigade's combat team eliminated about twenty terrorists throughout the last day. In one of the activities, the brigade's fire complex identified a squad of terrorists loading weapons on a vehicle that started driving near the forces, the fire complex directed an aircraft that closed a circle on them and eliminated them.

In another operation carried out by the forces, they identified a number of terrorist squads near the forces and with the cooperation of the brigade fire complex and forces in the field, the squads were eliminated. In the last day, the 215th fire brigade prepared an aircraft that attacked and killed three terrorists in the Rimal neighborhood. In addition, in response to yesterday's launches into Sderot, the forces directed an aircraft that attacked a terrorist infrastructure from which the launches were carried out. In the center of the Gaza Strip, the fighters of the 'Ghost' unit, Rabbi Mamdit, continue to operate and in the last day the forces eliminated a number of terrorists using an innovative means of attack.

a least 3 Israeli soldiers were killed and 14 others were injured in Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip , while the resistance announced that it confronted the occupation forces penetrating the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood and inflicted heavy losses on it. This came after the occupation opened fire for the second time on citizens who had gathered to obtain aid in the northern Gaza Strip.

Israeli social media platforms reported that a difficult event had occurred to Israeli occupation army soldiers east of the city of Khan Yunis after the bombing of a building in the soldiers’ building. These platforms indicated that the army does not announce its losses until after the end of the Saturday vacation.

The army had previously announced in a statement that soldiers of the Commando Brigade (Special Forces) continued to fight violent battles west of Khan Yunis, during which they eliminated dozens of militants, he said. The statement stated that Israeli forces carried out raids on sites according to specific intelligence information.

The army added that the Egoz unit raided a compound that it said belonged to the head of the Hamas movement in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, where soldiers found Kalashnikov weapons hidden in the building. The soldiers also raided another compound, where they found a lot of military equipment.

The Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas movement, announced that it "blown up a house that had been booby-trapped in advance by a foot force of the occupation forces consisting of 7 soldiers, leaving it dead and wounded north of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip." Al-Qassam had announced that its fighters had seized a Skylark reconnaissance plane belonging to the occupation forces , south of the Zaytoun neighborhood in Gaza City.

It added in a separate statement, received by Quds Press, on Saturday evening, that she "detonated an anti-personnel device in an occupation foot force, and targeted two Merkava tanks with Al-Yassin 105 shells southeast of the Zaytoun neighborhood in Gaza City." The "Jerusalem Brigades", the military wing of the "Islamic Jihad" movement, also announced today, Saturday, that it shot down a "Hermes 900" occupation drone with an anti-aircraft missile in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip, in cooperation with the " Mujahideen Brigades " (a resistance faction in Gaza).

Operational Update - Judea-Samaria

Armed Israeli settlers, under the protection of the occupation forces, attacked Palestinian citizens in the Ain Samiya area and the town of Kafr Malek, northeast of Ramallah. Other groups also attacked the villages of Turmus Ayya and Umm Safa, north of Ramallah, assaulting Palestinian farmers and sweeping away their crops. In the towns of Al-Lubban Al-Sharqi and Qaryut, south of Nablus, settlers opened fire on citizens in their homes and shops. In the area of the Arab Mlihat community, north of the city of Jericho, a group of settlers stormed the Bedouin community and raided a number of homes, searched them, and assaulted their residents.

Members of the occupation police also assaulted Palestinians, including women, at the gates leading to the Holy Mosque, in the occupied city of Jerusalem . Pictures showed that police officers assaulted a man and two women at Lions Gate, arrested them, and transferred them to an unknown destination, while others were arrested in areas close to the doors leading to the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque. The occupation police had intensified their presence and deployed military checkpoints at the doors, in an attempt to prevent young men from reaching the mosque, for the 21st week in a row.

Preparations are being made for the release of about 30 administrative detainees, it was learned this evening (Saturday). The release is the second in number after the release of dozens of detainees who were supposed to end their detention in the coming month - which was done in order to make room for detainees in a higher threat level."

The release comes to the dismay of the Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gavir, who demanded that Prime Minister Netanyahu instruct the head of the Shin Bet Ronan Bar to stop this beating. "Before Ramadan, we are in the middle of a war in Gaza and in the north, attacks almost on a daily basis, and now we decide to release another blow?", the minister told us in response and added - "Someone in the Shin Bet thinks we are in Switzerland."

The minister addressed the issue during an interview with "Meet the Press": "This is bullshit, we are in a time of war - are you paying tribute to Ramadan?", the minister asked in bewilderment, "There is overcrowding in the prisons, that is true. But if there is no room, then release Jewish administrative detainees or tax delinquents. Do not release terrorists. This is a big mistake by the prime minister."

The Shin Bet, on the other hand, tell us that they never said "there is no place for the Palestinian security detainees - the terrorists", this is contrary to the claims that appear in the Public Defender's report on the subject, which indicates an unprecedented overcrowding in the prisons during the war . All the guidelines" of the Shin Bet for the release of additional administrative detainees, in addition to those already released due to the shortage of places of incarceration.

A young Palestinian man was killed by occupation forces' bullets in the town of Kafr Ni'ma, west of Ramallah in the West Bank . This comes as the occupation army continues its night raids, and settlers continue their attacks on Palestinians and their property in cities and towns in the West Bank. Israeli media also warned of a possible explosion during the holy month of Ramadan, noting that the size of the Israeli forces present in the West Bank exceeds the number of forces in Gaza due to escalating security tension.

Al Jazeera's correspondent reported that the occupation forces stormed the cities of Dura and Yatta tonight, south of Hebron in the West Bank. The occupation army also stormed the towns of Bani Naim, east of Hebron, and Tarqumiya, west of it, and conducted its patrols in the area, raiding and searching a number of homes, and erecting barriers in several neighborhoods in the two towns. Thet also arrested a young man and beat up a group of other young men in the town of Bani Naim. The reporter reported that the occupation forces also stormed the city of Qalqilya, in the northern West Bank, and the city of Yatta, south of Hebron.

Operational Update - Lebanon

The Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah launched multiple strikes against Israeli military positions in the northern sector of the 1948 Israeli-occupied territories, as part of another retaliatory operation amid the Gaza war. According to Lebanon's al-Mayadeen television, citing a brief Hezbollah statement, the resistance group launched two surface-to-surface Falaq (Dusk) missiles at the Khirbet Ma'ar base late Friday, and the projectiles precisely hit their targets.

Lebanese Hezbollah movement announced the implementation of six operations against the Israeli army, confirming direct casualties. Hezbollah issued several statements stating that “in support of our steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and in support of their valiant and honorable resistance”:

1. At 7:00 pm today, Saturday (Lebanon time): “The Mujahideen of the Islamic Resistance targeted the Hadab Yarin site with two Burkan missiles, and hit it directly.”
2. At 5:30 pm on Saturday: “The Islamic Resistance Mujahideen targeted the Zibdin barracks in the occupied Lebanese Shebaa Farms with missile weapons and hit it directly.”
3. At 04:40 pm on Saturday afternoon: “The Mujahideen of the Islamic Resistance targeted Al-Raheb’s site with missile weapons, and hit him directly.”
4. At 03:20 in the afternoon on Saturday: “The Mujahideen of the Islamic Resistance targeted Al-Zaoura’s camp with missile weapons, and hit it directly.”
5. At 10:10 a.m. today, Saturday: “The Mujahideen of the Islamic Resistance targeted a gathering of Israeli enemy soldiers in the vicinity of the Jal al-Alam site with missile weapons, and hit it directly.”
6. At 05:40 a.m. today, Saturday: “The Mujahideen of the Islamic Resistance launched an air attack on the leadership of the newly created sector in Liman with an assault march and hit its target accurately.”

Lebanese Hezbollah mourned 7 of its fighters who were killed by Israeli bombing in southern Lebanon. The border between Lebanon and Israel continues to witness escalating tension and clashes between the Lebanese Hezbollah and Israeli forces since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, with warnings of the repercussions of the war.

Hezbollah fighters also struck a gathering of Israeli soldiers inside the Ruwaisat al-Alam outpost in the occupied Kfar Chouba Hills, causing casualties among the troops. Moreover, the Lebanese resistance group targeted Israeli forces stationed near the al-Menara military site, leaving several soldiers injured as a result. It also rained down rockets on other Israeli military sites, including one in the occupied Lebanese village of Hounin and al-Baghdadi outpost.

A gathering of Israeli troops came under a drone strike as the troops were about to take a position in the Ma’ayan Baruch kibbutz. Additionally, Israeli soldiers positioned near Ramim barracks were targeted with a salvo of rockets. There were no immediate reports about possible casualties and the extent of damage caused.

The Islamic Resistance in Lebanon continues to target the sites of the Zionist enemy in response to the attacks and in support of the people and resistance of Gaza, "an American green light, and the complicity and silence of the Western and many Arab regimes". In this context, the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon targeted, this Saturday evening, the Hadab Yarin site with two Burkan missiles, hitting it directly.

The Islamic Resistance also targeted the Zibdin barracks in the occupied Lebanese Shebaa Farms with missile weapons, hitting it directly.

In a statement issued by it, the Islamic Resistance announced that “its mujahideen targeted, at 5:30 pm, on Saturday 03/02/2024, the Zibdin barracks in the occupied Lebanese Shebaa Farms with missile weapons, and hit it directly.” The Islamic Resistance stressed in its statement that this operation comes “in support of our steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, and in support of their valiant and honorable resistance.”

Security sources in Lebanon said that an Israeli drone strike killed three Hezbollah fighters in the south of the country on Saturday, in the latest casualties suffered by the group in the months-long combat operations across the border coinciding with the war in Gaza. The sources told Reuters that the men were killed when the car they were traveling in was targeted on a coastal road near the town of Naqoura at approximately 0830 (0630 GMT). One source stated that among the three dead was a weapons technician.

For its part, the Israeli army said that it "targeted a car in southern Lebanon, and eliminated saboteurs from the Imam Hussein Division who had previously fired rockets toward Israeli territory." He explained in a statement, “This morning, Air Force planes targeted a car in southern Lebanon in which a number of terrorists were traveling who had fired rocket-propelled grenades into Israeli territory, noting that these terrorists worked within the Imam Hussein Division, which is affiliated with Iran and works for Hezbollah.”

Fighter jets attacked two military buildings of the Hezbollah terrorist organization in the Lebanon region of Lebanon. In addition, another military structure of the organization in the Ramya region was attacked.

Aircraft attacked a vehicle this morning in the area of southern Lebanon, containing a number of terrorists who fired rockets at Israeli territory. The terrorists operated under the Imam Hussein Division, which is associated with Iran and works for Hezbollah. In addition, a short time ago fighter jets attacked a terrorist infrastructure of the Hezbollah terrorist organization in the Lebanon region of Lebanon and during the night two more military structures of the terrorist organization were attacked in the Leyda region.

Operational Update - Yemen

The British cargo ship Rubymar , which was attacked by the Houthis in February, sank in the southern part of the Red Sea . This was announced by the internationally recognized government of Yemen on Saturday, March 2, Al Arabiya reports. It is the first vessel lost since the militants began attacking commercial shipping in November, the newspaper writes. A government statement said the vessel sank on Friday night and warned of an "environmental disaster".

The ship was carrying more than 41,000 tons of fertilizer when it was attacked, US Central Command said earlier. Yemen's Houthi rebels have been attacking commercial vessels in the Red Sea region since mid-November, saying they were acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. A Yemeni government team visited the British-owned Belizean-flagged cargo ship Rubymar on Monday and said it was partially submerged and could go to the bottom within days.

The U.S. military previously said the attack heavily damaged the cargo ship and caused a 18-mile (29-kilometer) oil slick. In February, the Yemeni Houthis said they had hit the British cargo ship Rubymar in the Gulf of Aden. At the time, British maritime security company Ambrey said the Belizean-flagged cargo ship Rubymar, registered in Lebanon, was attacked in the Bab el Mandeb Strait off Yemen while en route from Khor Fakkan, UAE, to Varna, Bulgaria.

In his comment on the announcement of the sinking of the ship "MV Rubymar" in Yemen, the military and strategic expert, Major General Fayez Al-Duwairi , expected that there would be a mutual escalation between the maritime coalition led by the United States of America and Britain and the Houthi group. The Crisis Cell of the internationally recognized Yemeni government announced the sinking of the British cargo ship MV Rubymar off the Yemeni coast yesterday evening, Friday, coinciding with strong winds in the Red Sea.

Al-Duwairi said that the circle of escalation between the American coalition and the Houthis will expand, which will lead to navigation being affected and record highs in insurance levels, stressing that everyone will pay the tax. While he called for containing the current situation, Al-Duwairi said that Al-Houthi’s statements are clear, “As long as Gaza is besieged, Israel is besieged from the Bab al-Mandab Strait , and so is everyone who participated with Israel.” He also saw that the American and British bombing is affecting Yemen, but it does not paralyze the capabilities of the Houthis.

Al-Duwairi warned the United States and Britain, which he said were trying to impose their will, that the Yemeni reality is different in terms of geography and demographics, and that even historically no invading force has entered Yemen. Regarding the environmental catastrophe that the sinking of the British cargo ship might cause, the military and strategic expert recalled his previous statement in which he said that targeting an oil tanker, at a minimum, would lead to pollution of the right shores.

It is noteworthy that the Crisis Cell said that the sinking of the ship would cause an environmental disaster in Yemeni territorial waters and the Red Sea because the ship contained thousands of tons of inorganic fertilizers and fuel, according to international warnings. According to the Yemeni News Agency, the sinking of the ship "Rubimar" was expected because the ship was abandoned for more than 12 days and did not respond to the Yemeni government's appeals to avoid the disaster.

Data issued by the London Stock Exchange Group showed that Russia is shifting its shipments of liquefied natural gas to China to the Cape of Good Hope. Due to the increasing risk of attacks in the Red Sea . For its part, the French company CMA CGM - one of the largest container shipping groups in the world - said that it expects commercial shipping traffic to be disrupted for several months, with the continued Israeli operation in the Gaza Strip.

The French company recorded a loss of $93 million in the last three months of 2023, compared to net profits of $3.04 billion in the same period of 2022. But the group recently said that its net profits fell to $3.64 billion for the entirety of last year. Danish Maersk warned last week that disturbances in the Red Sea may continue until the second half of this year. The attacks prompted many shipping companies to divert their ships to the Cape of Good Hope , in the far south of Africa, which extends the journey between Asia and Europe for about a week, which is a long and expensive route. The Mediterranean Shipping Company temporarily suspended transit in the Red Sea. The German shipping company Hapag-Lloyd also announced that the measure to suspend traffic in the Red Sea will remain in effect.

International energy companies have taken measures to avoid the passage of ships carrying oil, gas and refined products in the Red Sea, and this comes as tensions continue in this shipping lane. The following is the position of major international energy companies regarding the continuing tensions in the Red Sea:

• France's Total Energies has refrained from sending ships through the Bab al-Mandab Strait for weeks.
• British company BP stops all ship crossings in the Red Sea.
• The Norwegian company Equinor changed the course of ships that were heading towards the Red Sea.
• Italian Edison Company, slowdown in the company's supply of liquefied natural gas.
• Qatar Energy, using alternative sea routes to the Red Sea to deliver liquefied gas shipments.
• American company Valero Energy, Red Sea attacks lead to higher crude oil shipping prices.

The United States carried out an attack on Houthi positions in the city of Hodeidah , western Yemen, overlooking the Red Sea, while the Yemeni government said that the attack hit two fishermen’s boats, and led to the death of some of them and the loss of others. The Houthi Al-Masirah satellite channel reported that an American-British bombing targeted the Al-Jabanah area, west of the city of Hodeidah, with two raids. The US Central Command explained on the X website that the Houthis launched - yesterday, Friday - an anti-ship ballistic missile towards the Red Sea from Yemen.

Maps

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.

Bystanders

Under the title: “The occupying entity’s unacceptable chaos strategy in Gaza,” the French newspaper Le Monde said in an editorial for its weekend issue that every day that passes in the Gaza Strip reveals a lot about the plight of Palestinian civilians.

On Thursday, February 29, the same day that the number of Palestinian martyrs exceeded 30,000, according to estimates by Hamas health services, a new tragedy was added to the horrors of war, as crowds in Gaza that had gathered to receive aid were shot. A food stampede ensued, leading to the fall of dozens of martyrs. This is the result of the obstacles that Israel places in the delivery of vital food aid, which is relentlessly pushing these densely populated lands towards famine.

“Le Monde” considered that this tragedy should not be considered an isolated incident.. On the contrary, it reveals what the “Israeli state” intends to do in Gaza after battles that have not yet ended, despite the absence of results with regard to its dual goal: liberating the hostages and eliminating On the Hamas movement. After the systematic crushing of the narrow strip of land, which the Israeli army turned into a field of ruin at the cost of huge human losses, this project now includes the destruction of the lowest form of administration.

The matter is not limited to Hamas only, as the attempt to kill UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees, whose work is considered crucial in Gaza, forms part of this perspective. “Le Monde” explained that the allies of the occupying entity, starting with the United States in addition to the Europeans, will be partners if they continue to finance without demanding anything in return, for the sake of survival, which has now become a question in this region, such as the appearance of the status quo prevailing in the West Bank, which has been corrupted by it. Israeli settlement.

On the contrary, they can decide to establish a beginning balance of power if they are convinced that protecting civilians in a land where Israel cannot claim any internationally recognized right is a basic condition for any political perspective.

Airdrops of humanitarian aid to Gaza may not be necessary if pressure on the Israeli occupation was effective, Patrick Wintour of The Guardian reported. Wintour remarks that the use of airdropping supplies at random "makes little sense" and is particularly costly when there is the option of the West exerting more influence over Israel.

The chief executive of Medical Aid for Palestinians, Melanie Ward, stated that rather than dropping aid packages from the sky and having some end up "in the sea or outside of Gaza," "Israel's" allies, namely the US and the UK, should pressure the occupation to open "all crossings into Gaza for aid and aid workers to assist those in need. This includes the 'Karni and Erez' crossings, which give direct access to the north of Gaza."

The UN Relief and Works Agency is also concerned with the distribution of help once it arrives on the ground. Chris Doyle, executive director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding, believes the decision of the US to airdrop aid is a sign of "America's ineffectiveness". Doyle notes that airdrops are considered dangerous and not enough, emphasizing that the US is only doing so since it "cannot persuade Israel to allow aid into Gaza by land and in trucks. It is the ultimate sign of weakness and shows the US is unwilling to stand up to Israel.”

David Miliband, the former Labour foreign secretary and chief executive of the International Rescue Committee, called them a desperate measure. If the crossings were "properly open" and a humanitarian ceasefire was recognized, there would be no need for airdrops, he explained.

According to Politico, the airdrops expose Biden's very limited approach with "Israel" since the US usually delivers airdrops to areas that are occupied by "terrorist groups or hostile regimes, not allies." Biden mentioned that the US airdrop would occur in the upcoming days but did not provide additional details. "We need to do more and the United States will do more," Biden told reporters, adding that "aid flowing to Gaza is nowhere nearly enough." He failed to point any fingers toward "Israel".

Many believe the drop is significant evidence that Biden cannot move the Israeli Prime Minister to scale back on the cruel measures against Gazans. According to Dave Harden, a former humanitarian assistance coordinator at the US Agency for International Development, the situation makes the US look "100% weak", stressing that officials in Biden's administration are only doing the airdrops to "make themselves feel better.” Harden emphasized that, short of convincing "Israel" to open all of the gates into Gaza, the US would be better off pressuring "Israel" to allow 10 additional trucks to pass through existing open crossings. He called the airdrops "stupid...expensive" and "inefficient".

The European Commission announced that it intends to resume funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees ( UNRWA ) next week at about $54 million. A statement by the Commission said that two second and third tranches worth $17.3 million would be issued at a later time. The statement added, "In addition to its support for UNRWA, UNHCR remains fully committed to addressing the humanitarian plight of the Palestinian people, especially in the Gaza Strip and also more broadly in the region."

Humanitarian workers and government officials working to deliver much-needed aid to Gaza say a "clear pattern" has emerged of Israeli "obstruction", as disease and famine take hold in parts of the besieged enclave, a CNN investigation has revealed. The American network highlighted the "arbitrary and contradictory" standards imposed by the Israeli agency supervising the delivery of aid worth billions of dollars to Gaza, according to more than two dozen humanitarian and government officials interviewed by CNN.

The network also reviewed documents collected by key participants in humanitarian operations that identify materials repeatedly rejected by Israelis. These devices include anesthesia devices and machines, oxygen cylinders, ventilators, and water purification systems. Other items that "ended up in bureaucratic limbo" include dates, sleeping bags, cancer treatment medications, water purification tablets, and maternity supplies, according to the network.

Most of CNN's sources requested anonymity for fear of prosecution and Israel raising its conditions on the already limited aid. Several sources reported that a large portion of the aid they supervised delivery to the Israeli side was rejected or withheld for a long period in order to have its evacuation approved by the “Government Coordination Unit in the Territories” affiliated with the Israeli authorities, which manages the flow of aid coming from Egypt.

“It's perfectly engineered chaos,” said one source who oversees donations from four different aid organizations on one of the network's crossing routes. The source said that more than 15,000 tons of relief supplies are awaiting Israel's approval to enter Gaza. More than half of it consists of food. Another senior humanitarian official told CNN: “It is deliberately vague, deliberately vague... You can get a permit from the ‘Government Coordination Unit in the Territories’ but upon arrival you find police or finance and customs officials who will return the truck.” Where she came from.

The Coordination Unit for Government Activities in the Territories has not yet responded to CNN's request to comment on the results of its investigation. The unit insists it facilitates the delivery of humanitarian aid. In a tweet , Thursday, on the X website, she said: “There is no limit to the amount of aid that can enter Gaza.”

The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, “bragged” at a meeting on January 13, the network reported, to introduce “the minimum amount of humanitarian aid to the sector,” according to what the network reported. Netanyahu said at the time: “We provide the minimum amount of humanitarian aid. If we want to achieve our goals, we must provide the minimum amount of aid.”

The international community has repeatedly criticized Israel for issuing insufficient permits for aid trucks to Gaza. There have also been cases in which the Israeli military has struck food shipments. Looting by desperate civilians and criminal gangs in some of the worst-affected areas of northern Gaza has exacerbated that crisis, bringing the delivery of UN food aid there to a grinding halt.

“I have never seen a supply chain that should be so simple be so complex,” said Jante Surripto, president and CEO of Save the Children. “The level of barriers that are being put in place to obstruct humanitarian aid; we have never seen anything like it before.” Soripto, who visited the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing with the United Nations, told CNN that she had seen many of the materials returned by Israeli inspectors in January. She stated that toys were rejected because they were in a wooden box rather than a cardboard box, sleeping bags were rejected because they had zippers, and sanitary pads were returned because nail clippers were in the hygiene kit.

In January, US Senators Chris Van Hollen and Jeff Merkley saw maternity supplies and water filtration systems among the items returned by Israel from the checkpoint at the Nitzana crossing. “In no rational world can these materials be considered dual-use or pose any kind of military threat,” Van Hollen told CNN weeks after his trip to the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing. "We've learned that when a truck with just one of those materials is rejected, the entire truck is sent back and has to go back to the beginning of the process, which can take weeks," Van Hollen added.

The senator continued, saying: "We spoke to the heads of international relief organizations that have been working in conflicts around the world for decades. They said that they had never seen a system more broken than this before." This situation prompted Van Hollen to lead the US Congress' efforts to hold Israel accountable for its handling of humanitarian aid, which he described on the Senate floor earlier this month as "a textbook of war crimes."

Axis of Resistance

At the seventh summit of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum in Algeria, the Iranian President said that the Western hegemonic system, which was formed on the basis of the colonialism of countries, has today become weaker and meaningless, and its survival is considered a continuation of the relationship between the dominant and the dominated.

He added, “There is no doubt that the establishment of the Zionist entity was a colonial project in order to maintain the hegemony and influence of the West in our region, and that thanks to the resistance of the Palestinian people, the pillars of this glass protector collapsed and its body received irreparable blows, and it is everyone’s duty to support that oppressed and powerful people with all their might in all possible ways."

He continued, “The current war is a confrontation between the axis of evil and the axis of honor.” On one side, there is an army waiting for more and more powerful weapons and bombs from the Americans, and on the other side, there are children who are missing a morsel of bread. The Iranian President stressed that whoever remains silent today will undoubtedly receive a strong slap tomorrow.

The spokesman for the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, Abu Hamza, announced the continuation of the Al-Aqsa Flood battle on the basis of the unity of the arenas in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen and Syria, adding that the Palestinian resistance is capable of continuing the battle no matter how long it extends.

Al-Quds Brigades spokesman Abu Hamza said in a statement that there is no excuse for anyone to neglect the battle we are waging on behalf of the Nation of Islam, especially those who own armies, planes and cannons. He added: Isn't it time for you to raise your guns like the free people in Yemen, Lebanon and Iraq? Isn't it time for you to take off the garment of slavery and humiliation to America, the Great Satan, and follow the example of the honorable?

He continued: We say to our people that the resistance shares with you all the circumstances you are experiencing, and we will later reveal the scenes of this battle and the protection of the mujahideen in the alleys of danger and the arenas of martyrdom. Addressing the Arabs and Muslims, he said: Just as you turn to God with the obligatory prayers and fasting, turn to Palestine with weapons and the obligatory jihad.

He added: We say to our people that you are the symbol of dignity, pride, and the crowns of heads, and we will not fulfill your rights no matter how much we share the pain and wounds with you. He continued: Our message to the enemy and the leader of the herd, Netanyahu, is that the issue of the next day in Gaza is determined only by the Palestinian resistance.

Abu Hamza said: Let Ramadan be a month of terror and anxiety for the occupation, and we pray for the first day of Ramadan to be a day of global mobilization in all squares. They attacked the checkpoints, confronted the enemy, and intensified the strikes. We are certain that the single body of the nation will do the impossible, and will make Ramadan historic days to wash away shame and threaten... The presence of the enemy entity and global arrogance. He added: I say to our people in the West Bank and Jerusalem, go out, light and heavy, to attack the enemy.

He saluted the steadfastness of the brave Palestinian people inside the besieged Gaza Strip, "who are enduring pain and persecution for the sake of a dignified life," adding that "the Resistance shares with the Palestinian people the conditions they live in, and we will later reveal the details of this battle and the valiance of the fighters" engaging in combat while in constant danger of being killed. He addressed the Palestinian people in the besieged Gaza Strip, saying, "You are the symbol of dignity and resilience," adding that there is nothing that could compare to their sacrifices "no matter how much pain we share with you."

Abu Hamza stressed that the Resistance has the ability to continue the battle "no matter how long it lasts," adding that "the outcome of this battle will only be a defeat for the enemy, paving the way for" liberating all of Palestine from the Israeli occupation. Speaking to Al Mayadeen, the Palestinian Resistance affairs expert Hani al-Dali commented on Abu Hamza's video address, noting that his speech comes in the context of Palestinian Resistance preparations for what is being dubbed "Ramadan Flood", noting that "there is an unusual mobilization in this context."

He added that "all Palestinian Resistance factions have been calling for mass mobilization, especially during the month of Ramadan," and therefore, "Israel, the United States, and their proxies in the region are making great efforts to thwart these calls." "There are many indicators confirming that Ramadan will pose a real threat and danger to the Israeli occupation entity, especially from the West Bank and the 1948 occupied territories," al-Dali pointed out.

The United States will also be affected by the continuation of the war during the holy month of Ramadan, he said, adding that this includes [threats to] its interests in the region and public outrage in Western nations against Washington and other governments participating in this genocide. There are indications that popular movements will also include Egypt and Jordan, he continued.

Alalam News Network, Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, stated " that the United States carried out the first airdrop of humanitarian aid into Gaza. It is difficult to imagine that a country, which claims to be the “most powerful” in the world, would descend into this abyss of blatant hypocrisy, when it resorts to such shameful practices, in the hope of silencing the anger of the peoples of the world regarding the genocide and famine to which Gaza is being exposed , as if they were living in the midst of a world of idiots.

"It is known that when America sends military planes to drop food, water, medicine, and other aid to people in need, it usually does so in areas occupied by “enemies” of America, not “allies,” as is the case in Gaza.

"The peoples of the world without exception, including the American people, know very well that America is the party preventing Netanyahu from stopping the genocide and starvation, which he has been practicing for more than four months against the Palestinian people in Gaza, on the same day that Biden announced that he would drop humanitarian aid. Over Gaza, John Kirby, coordinator of strategic policies at the US National Security Council, announced that America is holding talks with “Israel” about handing over new weapons, and that it will continue to support “Israel’s right” to self-defense.

"This disgusting American measure was not taken by Biden until one day after the “flour massacre” committed by the Israeli occupation forces in the northern Gaza Strip, which resulted in the death of more than 120 Palestinians and the injury of hundreds, who were part of a crowd trying to obtain humanitarian aid, in an attempt to cover up the role of America regarding what is happening in Gaza, and making his administration appear as if it is incapable of imposing its will on Netanyahu.

"The process of landing American aid aims to achieve several goals. The first is to impose the tragic situation that the people of Gaza are experiencing, as if it is a fixed fact that cannot be changed. Starvation is a fixed measure in the strategy of the American-Israeli duo, to break the will of resistance. The second goal is to humiliate the Gazans and make them pay the price for embracing the resistance. Third, marketing Netanyahu as a “solid and strong leader” who even stands in the face of America, and there is no force that can stop him alone.

"It has become clear that America’s attempts, through the landing operations, to appear incapable of dealing with Netanyahu, and when the major powers beg Netanyahu to allow the entry of aid, and when the Arab regimes are content to take a bystander position and are unable to bring a single drop of water into Gaza, all of this confirms that the option of breaking The will of Gaza and its people and their resistance with military force has failed, and this failure is what prompted this coalition to use the starvation option, with the aim of pushing Gaza to raise the white flag and surrender to Netanyahu, something that has not and will not happen, as Gaza was stubborn against the occupier despite his use of firepower that exceeded its strength several times. Nuclear bombs will remain impossible to surrender, no matter how hard the Israeli occupier and the Zionists and Zionists behind him try."

The expert on Israeli affairs, Amer Khalil, confirmed that the killing of dozens of Israeli prisoners makes it clear beyond doubt that the Israeli political level, especially Netanyahu, is not concerned with the prisoners’ issue, pointing out that it is an indicator of the faltering negotiations related to the prisoner deal.

In an interview with Al-Alam News Channel for the “With Al-Hadath” program, Amer Khalil pointed out that the killing of dozens of Israeli prisoners makes it clear beyond doubt that the Israeli political level, especially Netanyahu, is not concerned with the issue of the prisoners. He pointed out that this explains the current stumbling block in the negotiations that took place in Doha and later in Cairo to complete the details related to the prisoner deal .

While he reiterated that the Israelis are not concerned with this deal and do not care about releasing these people, he explained: These people could have been killed in Israeli bombing operations that took place during the past weeks and not just yesterday. He hinted that at the same time, the price that Israel will pay for the prisoners, whether those who died in the bombing or those who remained alive, could decrease depending on the number.

He added, saying: What we notice is that yesterday, in the press conference, Netanyahu alluded to this issue and said, “I want to know the names of the living Israeli prisoners,” and he has goals in that. He wants to determine the number of Palestinian prisoners who can be released. He believes that this issue is linked to the number of living ones. The fewer the number of people alive, the fewer Palestinian prisoners will be released.

He pointed out that the American administration had reached a critical stage in dealing with the Israeli occupation entity regarding the aggression against the Gaza Strip, and said: It gave a long rope to this entity in this aggression, and gave it complete political and military cover, but it has reached a pivotal stage, as it is exploiting these negotiations. It believes that it could perhaps lead to a cessation of aggression or war for a temporary period that would relieve the American administration a little.

A number of theories are circulating about the capacity of the Palestinian and allied armed resistance, as the Israeli reprisal slaughter of civilians in Gaza proceeds. Information gathered by Iran’s Press TV for the month of February 2024 allows us a better perspective. Overall, despite the widely denounced genocidal bombing and siege, there is little sign that Gaza Resistance activity is diminishing.

Press TV lists items of Resistance activity on a daily basis, with brief descriptions of each. The list includes regional resistance actions by Hezbollah (Lebanon), the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, and the Yemeni armed forces (called ‘the Houthis’ by Western governments and media, which do not want to recognise Yemen’s revolutionary government).

Most of the Palestine resistance activity listed is in Gaza, the Hezbollah activity is in the northern parts of occupied Palestine as well as parts of occupied Lebanon and Syria.

Details in the listings afford a rough idea of which activities involved heavy weapons, such as artillery of 100mm or above, or heavy rockets (e.g. heavy Katyushas, Falaq and Burkan rockets) and long-range drones. However, this information is insufficient. Put into numerical form, the raw data (1-27 February 2024) appears in the graphic below. It is mostly for the militia of six Palestinian Resistance factions: Al-Qassam (Hamas), Al-Quds (Palestinian Islamic Jihad), Al-Aqsa and Al-Asifah (both Fatah), Mujahideen, Abu Ali Mustafa (PFLP) and Omar al-Qasim (DFLP). Data also appears for Hezbollah, Iraq’s Islamic Resistance and the Yemeni armed forces.

Key points which can be drawn from this data are as follows:

1. Rumours that Hamas's armed wing(al-Qassam) has been decimated are false. Al Qassam carried out multiple operations on most days in February and 88 in total, many of them with heavy weapons such as 105 and 107 shells. One-third of their operations were in the last week of February.
2. Hamas is far from alone. There were almost the same number of operations each by the Al-Quds (PIJ) and the Al-Aqsa and Al Asifah Brigades (Fatah) – 90 and 81 respectively. However, it seems that Al-Qassam may have used more heavy weapons. Overall Al-Qassam accounted for about one-quarter of the combined Palestinian Resistance operations. All this makes even more illusory the supposed Israeli aim of eliminating “Hamas”.
3. It is notable that the militia of Fatah (the dominant party of the PLO and the Palestinian Authority: PA) is very active in armed resistance, given that the Fatah-led PLO ‘recognises’ "Israel" and the Fatah-dominated PA’s prestige is at an all-time low, given its collaborationist role in recent decades. The Fatah Resistance groups (mainly the Al-Aqsa Brigades but also Al-Asifah) may be vindicating the party to some extent, in the eyes of Palestinian people.
4. Hezbollah is the most active force imposing itself on the Israeli military, with 202 operations in February. Hezbollah does not operate in the Gaza theatre but is certainly drawing a substantial part of the Israeli military away from Gaza. The descriptions at Press TV do not allow too much analysis of the weapons used, but many have included heavy weapons. It is well known that Hezbollah has heavy weapons and that much of its missile arsenal remains in reserve.
5. There is no real sign of the armed resistance flagging. The Al-Qassam, Al-Quds, Al-Aqsa and Hezbollah militia all carried out more operations in the second half of February than in the first half. Of course, this has come at a cost. Hezbollah reported on 27 February that it has lost 209 fighters in the current round. Yet, as the data shows, its operations also are not slowing down.
6. Smaller resistance groups linked to the PFLP (Abu Ali Mustafa) and the DFLP (Omar al-Qasim) carried out another 21 operations in February. Two operations were also recorded for the Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades (on 21 Feb and 22 Feb).

Allied for Democracy

In Foreign Affairs magazine, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak wrote an article in which he strongly criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Barak asserts, "The American President proposed to Netanyahu an implementable plan that is beneficial to Israel in the long term, but Netanyahu is unable to act and make the appropriate decision." He added that approving Biden's plan would be costly for Netanyahu internally, and "rejecting it means dragging Israel deeper into the mud of Gaza, and risking another intifada in the West Bank ." He concluded by explaining, "Time is running out for Netanyahu and Biden together."

Minister Benny Gantz, head of the opposition party and a minister in the war government, headed to Washington without informing Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. This matter was interpreted by some observers as meaning that the United States of America began dealing with Benny Gantz as the “president of the shadow government ” in the Israeli entity , and this matter made the government coalition become angry in the Israeli entity and ask Benny Gantz not to treat himself as president of the government.

Those close to Netanyahu confirmed his anger at Gantz’s behavior, and that it violates government regulations, as they put it. Yedioth Ahronoth reported that Netanyahu explained to Gantz that Israel has only one prime minister, and that he must obtain his permission before traveling.

Israel is witnessing a sharp dispute between Gantz and Netanyahu, as the leader of the National Unity Party and a member of the Military Ministerial Council tried weeks ago to overthrow the prime minister, using members of the Likud Party led by Netanyahu, according to what Israeli Army Radio reported. Since the formation of the War Council - which is headed by Netanyahu and includes Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Gantz - Israeli media have reported on more than one occasion that there are disagreements between Netanyahu and Gallant on the one hand, and Netanyahu and Gantz on the other hand regarding the management of the war and the file of Israeli detainees in the Gaza Strip.

The visit of Israeli War Council Minister Benny Gantz to the United States and Britain is a clear message from Washington to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in light of his recklessness in leading the war on the Gaza Strip . The writer specializing in Israeli affairs, Ihab Jabareen, said that Washington was fed up with Netanyahu’s actions, and opened a parallel line with Gantz to mitigate the former’s recklessness in the current war. Jabareen added - in his speech to the program "Gaza... What's next?" - that Gantz is as if he is rebelling against Netanyahu after the latter was comfortable during the past month and seemed to be in control of the war councils and the cabinet, pointing out that the visit may also come in the context of moves to replace Netanyahu.

He pointed out that Gantz is experiencing the euphoria of opinion polls that show his party is the strongest and most popular, before adding that it may dissipate at the end of the war, which will only end with supporters of the extreme right paying the price. As for Netanyahu, he is trying - according to Jabareen - to prove the equation that he is the only prime minister who says “no” to the United States and gets “yes,” supporting what was said to be humiliation for the United States after the latter carried out an airdrop of aid into Gaza, and seemed to act like other countries and without Control of Israel.

In turn, international affairs expert Hossam Shaker believes that Gantz's visit expresses a state of political dissent and represents a moral blow to Netanyahu that was preceded by warnings such as the former's participation in demonstrations by families of prisoners and the exclusion of Gantz from the Paris consultations.

It appears that the crisis surfaced again after Gantz went to Washington in the context of strengthening his internal standing and his alliance with the United States. It is also a message of American annoyance by talking to Netanyahu’s political rival. Despite this, Shaker says that Netanyahu has proven that he is able to impose his choices on the White House repeatedly, and that he may make Gantz appear hostile and not suitable for defending Israel’s interests . He added, "Therefore, the American air landing on Gaza may be to cover up this impression that Washington is involved in starving the Palestinians," indicating that America fears the month of Ramadan as it may be a stop that may destabilize the security of the region.

Regarding Gantz’s expected visit to Britain, the expert in international affairs points out that London is on the American side and it seems as if Washington is moving it from a distance. There may be a signal that came to London about the need to receive Gantz and pain Netanyahu without political content.

As for former US State Department official William Lawrence, he confirms that there is no admiration between US President Joe Biden and Netanyahu, and Biden had refused to meet with him at the White House before the seventh of last October, before the situation changed later, as Biden tried not to criticize him publicly. He added that Gantz's visit to Washington holds benefits for both parties, and there are also negotiations between him and leaders of the Likud Party to remove Netanyahu, according to Israeli reports.

This comes at the same time that the American media reported that reaching a deal between the Israeli entity and the Hamas movement may be soon and very soon within the meetings currently taking place in Cairo, noting that the Israeli delegation had already headed to Cairo from In order to receive Hamas's responses to its demands, and whether there is a possibility of reaching a truce.

All of this coincides with what was written today in the Hebrew newspaper Yehudoot Ahronoth by one of the Israeli writers, who said that there are two dangerous indicators in the occupation entity. The first indicator is the indicator of the captured soldiers who have begun to be killed one after the other, while Benjamin refuses. Netanyahu should go to a truce, and this matter will increase the Israeli crisis. The other indicator is that the writer talked about the holy month of Ramadan and the recommendations of the Shin Bet and the Israeli occupation army not to approach the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque during the holy month of Ramadan, otherwise the war will turn into the West Bank , the Gaza Strip and the entire region. A religious war, and this has undesirable consequences for the Israeli entity.

Muhammad Ghazi Al-Jamal wrote "The Zionist idea is based on the fact that “Palestine is a land without a people, and it will be inhabited by a people without a land.” In order for this idea to become valid for implementation, the land must actually become without a Palestinian people. It is known that the Israeli settlement pattern is “replacement,” meaning that it is based on expelling the owners of the land and settling in their place. This is what appears in the geography of the cities and settlements of the occupying state, which are based on the ruins of Palestinian villages destroyed in 1948. Despite this concern, Zionism and the occupying state were unable to fully achieve the goal of displacement....

"The occupation leaders saw the Al- Aqsa Flood operation on October 7 as a strategic strike, the impact of which might be mitigated by bringing about a strategic change in the situation of the Strip, in terms of land, population, or both. This is done by creating a buffer zone within it, or occupying its entire north and emptying its population, or displacing the people of the Strip, or a large percentage of them, outside Palestine, voluntarily or unwillingly, by land or sea.

"This is in addition to the traditional motives, such as achieving the Zionist goal of seizing the land after getting rid of the population, and the desire to get rid of the resistance, or at least reduce its human reservoir, and this enhances its opportunity to seize the gas fields in the waters of Gaza, and neutralize the threat to its projects to extract gas from Mediterranean sea.

"In this context, the occupation has created repulsive conditions for the people of the Gaza Strip since its occupation, and has intensified them by besieging Gaza since 2006 following the victory of the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ) in the legislative elections, which prompted the United Nations Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Robert Piper, in 2017, to warn that the Gaza Strip Gaza is on its way to becoming uninhabitable due to the deteriorating humanitarian conditions at all levels....

"What is noteworthy is that no attempt to penetrate the Egyptian border has been recorded so far, despite the horror of the bombing and the severity of starvation over the course of nearly 4 and a half months. This is something rare in the history of conflicts and wars, and indicates awareness and keenness to cling to the land, based on the conviction of the small possibility of them returning to their homes if they leave the land of Gaza. Especially as they witness the occupation government’s refusal to return the residents of the northern Gaza Strip to it."

US President Joe Biden strongly attacked the Israeli government, and specifically mentioned Minister Ben Gvir, as Biden warned that if Israel continued on its current path with “such a conservative government” it could lose “international legitimacy.” Senior American officials told the Yedioth Ahronoth website that the United States continues to press “with all its might” to reach an exchange and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, and they warned that “if we prove that Netanyahu is sabotaging this matter for political reasons, this will lead to a direct collision with the White House.”

American officials claimed that although “Hamas is evasive and maneuvering and does not make life easy for us, Israel is doing the same thing,” adding, “This will not stop us. We are focused on completing the deal.” US officials also pointed to statements by President Biden on the subject, who attacked Netanyahu's government and actually stopped short of promoting the term "ceasefire."

They explained, "What we heard from the president is only the beginning, and if we come to the conclusion that the Israeli Prime Minister is postponing the deal for political reasons, we will hear more serious things from Biden, and the goal of Gantz's arrival in Washington may also be to convey a message to Netanyahu."

Writer Mark Landler said in a report published by the New York Times that some of the repercussions of the ongoing war on Gaza have begun to have clear effects on the political scene in both Britain and the United States, explaining that a number of parties have begun to exploit the issue to try to achieve political gains. He added that the British Parliament witnessed a battle this week, as legislators booed and left the House of Commons in protest against the Speaker of Parliament’s handling of the vote calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

The writer pointed out that the ruling Conservative Party took advantage of anti-Israel statements made by a Labor Party parliamentary candidate to accuse his opponent of failing to eliminate the legacy of anti-Semitism in its ranks. In contrast, Labor cited insulting comments made by a Conservative MP about London's Muslim Mayor Sadiq Khan as evidence of growing Islamophobia among Conservatives.

Landler added that both parties maneuvered fiercely in Parliament regarding the ceasefire decision, not because they disagreed greatly about the substance of the decision, but rather because the conservatives saw it as an opportunity to highlight the differences within the Labor Party regarding Britain’s support for Israel.

The report quoted Stephen Fielding, emeritus professor of political history at the University of Nottingham, as saying that this is an example of how a serious issue is distorted through the prism of party politics in Britain. Writer Landler added that anger among some Democrats in the United States over President Joe Biden's strong support for Israel fueled a protest vote in the Michigan primary this week, raising questions about whether the war could change the outcome of the closely contested presidential election. Close.

In France, President Emmanuel Macron was forced to retreat from his full support of Israel. But in Germany, support for Israel continues as a firm principle in light of its responsibility for the Holocaust, even though Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock recently began emphasizing the importance of “the survival of the Palestinians.”

The writer emphasized that the conflict has awakened disturbing ghosts in British politics. When Lee Anderson, the Conservative MP, spoke about “Islamist control” in a allusion to London Mayor Sadiq Khan , he was trading in this type of anti-Muslim sentiment. Khan described the comments as "racist, anti-Islamic and anti-Muslim". Prime Minister Rishi Sunak suspended Anderson from the party, but he is now facing criticism from the party's right wing for doing so.

The writer reported that Sunak's government has changed its position on the conflict in recent weeks enough to erase differences with the opposition. On a trip to the Falkland Islands last week, Foreign Secretary David Cameron called for a ceasefire, saying the fighting must stop "immediately."

According to Sander Katwala, director of the British Future Institute for Research on Migration and Ethnicity, David Cameron and Keir Starmer - the leader of the Labor Party - have the same position on Israel and Gaza, and both adopt the position of two-thirds of the public. But even if Starmer wins the general election, Israel could pose a problem for him in government.

The writer explained that the war on Gaza represents a different set of challenges for conservatives, just like the Republican Party in the United States, which has taken a strong position in favor of Israel.

According to Ben Ansell, professor of comparative democratic institutions at Oxford University, many Conservative MPs will lose their seats, so they are looking for media opportunities to appear and attract votes, and here it appears that playing on anti-Muslim sentiment reflects a last-ditch attempt by the Conservatives to derail the Labor Party’s momentum.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) believes the airdrop is the "right message" that tells Netanyahu that the US administration is "absolutely fed up" with its restriction of aid. Charles Lister, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, expressed that the real "baffling" fact was that the US has not ended its arms supply to the occupation despite being the sole reason forcing the US to conduct airdrops. This comes as Biden faces backlash in his party for supporting "Israel's" genocide in Gaza. A new Reuters/Ipsos poll shows that most Democrats favor a presidential candidate who does not give military aid to "Israel", as opposed to the current US President Joe Biden ahead of the November elections.

Progressive Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) accused President Joe Biden's administration of "giving the green light to the massacre of Palestinians " during a press conference calling for a ceasefire in Gaza on Thursday. Ilhan Omar has been vocal about demanding a ceasefire in Israel's bloody war on Gaza, and has often expressed concerns about the staggering number of civilian casualties and the displacement of more than a million Palestinians.

Omar criticized the Biden administration for approving additional aid to Israel without congressional approval in remarks delivered Thursday alongside other lawmakers, including Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Cori Bush (D-Missouri), about the expected Israeli invasion of Rafah. Omar said: “This administration cannot claim to be an honest broker of peace while giving the green light to the massacre of Palestinians.” “Restocking the Israeli arsenal does not constitute foreign policy.” “It is state-sponsored violence against defenseless families who just want to live in peace.”

She added: “If we truly want to advance humanity to protect...the innocent people of Gaza, return the hostages safely, and revive hope for peace, we must demand a ceasefire now.” Her statements come at a time when the Ministry of Health in Gaza reported that the number of martyrs exceeded 30,000 people. Gaza officials also revealed that more than 100 Palestinians were killed in Gaza City on Thursday while trying to secure vital humanitarian aid.

She said: “Despite the clarity surrounding the desperation in the Gaza Strip, the response of political leaders has been nothing short of callous inaction. Empty rhetoric about human rights becomes empty rhetoric when it is not followed by action. Omar noted that this administration's policies fail to meaningfully pressure Israel through restrictions, sanctions, or any hint of consequences.

American Jewish activist Medea Benjamin said that the administration of President Joe Biden and members of Congress have their hands stained with the blood of the residents of the Gaza Strip. Benjamin, founder of the anti-war civil organization Code Pink, added that the Israeli destruction in the Gaza Strip is “ genocide.”

She continued, “The United States has been involved in many wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and many other places since the Vietnam War.” She stated, “The United States is a strong country, and it has not been held accountable for what it committed in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and as an American citizen, I want my government to bear responsibility for its actions.”

Benjamin described the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the Israeli aggression against the Strip as “terrifying,” considering “what is happening in Gaza to be genocide, ethnic cleansing, a massacre, and even a Holocaust.” She pointed out that Congress is still seeking to send new aid to “Israel,” and that the American media “does not truthfully report what is happening in Gaza.”

She said: “I am Jewish, and I believe that I have the right to have an opinion on this matter. This situation does not help the Jewish people or Israel, nor does it help the United States’ relations with Muslims, or the stability of the world in general.” Benjamin called on the American administration, which continues its unconditional support for “Israel,” to “stop aid and weapons sent to Tel Aviv.”

She added: “I say to the Biden administration, shame on you for what you have done so far (in Gaza), and I color my hands with this color (blood red) every day because the hands of this administration and members of Congress are stained with blood, and we call for a ceasefire to be achieved and for you not to send aid to “Israel”.” She stressed that the world must not forgive the United States for what it did in Gaza, noting that people there are dying of hunger, describing the situation as “tragic.”

She indicated that Congress does not want to help the people of Gaza, and allows this famine, adding: “The Biden administration says: We care about the people in Gaza and we say to “Israel” please do not kill this large number of people, but what it is doing is exactly the opposite, and now they are trying to send Another $14 billion to Israel to buy bombs to kill more.”

At the conclusion of her speech, the Jewish activist addressed the Israelis, saying: “What can you say to the (Benjamin) Netanyahu government other than resign? Put this man (Netanyahu) in prison and transfer him to The Hague (International Court of Justice), they are all war criminals, but frankly we have our own war criminals in the United States as well.” Benjamin called on the international community to “urgently unite to open borders and ports to deliver humanitarian aid to the city of Rafah and other areas of Gaza.”

Operation Iron Swords - By the Numbers

• 71,533 Gazans injured
• 40,000 Gazans killed, including buried under rubble
• 30,320 Gazans martyred
• 14,492 Israelis were injured [i24 TV]
• 12,400 Gazan children martyred
• 12,000 HAMAS combatants killed [IDF]
• 11,000 arrested by Israelis in the West Bank in 2023
• 9,000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons
• 9,000 IDF psychological assistance
• 8,450 Gazan women martyred
• 8,000 Gazans missing
• 7,325 arrested by Israelis in the West Bank since Oct.7th
• 6,000 HAMAS combatants killed [HAMAS]
• 5,500 IDF wounded [reports]
• 4,611 West Bank Palestinians injured
• 3,484 administrative detainees
• 2,976 IDF wounded [IDF]
• 1,609 terrorists killed on the first day
• 1,200 Israelis killed on the first day
• 575 Israeli officers and soldiers killed
• 431 West Bank Palestinians martyred
• 245 Israeli officers and soldiers killed in Gaza
• 202 Hezbollah fighters were killed in Lebanon
• 126 people recovered, including 91 Israelis, 11 bodies, and 24 foreign workers
• 116 living hostages in Palestinian custody
• 50 civilians killed in Lebanon
• 29 IDF deaths were caused by "friendly fire"
• 15 Israelis killed in the West Bank and Israel

The Palestinian resistance says that the losses of the occupation forces are much greater than what is announced. 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."

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.