Operation Iron Swords - Day 151 - 05 March 2024
Contents |
|
NEW - War Termination NEW - Operations NEW - Operations - Gaza NEW - Operations - Judea-Samaria NEW - Operations - Lebanon NEW - Operations - Syria / Iraq NEW - Operations - Yemen NEW - Operations Maps NEW - By-Standers NEW - Axis of Resistance NEW - Allied for Democracy UPDATED - By the Numbers |
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 Israelis 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.
Prime Minister's Office Statement: "At a meeting of all security elements chaired by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it was decided: Israel strongly safeguards freedom of worship for all faiths, at all sites in Israel, especially the Temple Mount; Ramadan is sacred to Muslims; its sanctity will be upheld this year, as it is every year. During the first week of Ramadan, the entry of worshippers to the Temple Mount will be permitted, similar to the numbers in previous years. A weekly assessment of the security and safety aspects will be held; a decision will be made accordingly."
At the end of the discussion it was decided that there will be no age limit for entering the Temple Mount, but there will be quotas.
Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir responded to the announcement by the Prime Minister's Office: "The decision to allow an ascent to the Temple Mount in Ramadan, similar to previous years, contrary to the position of the police and my position, shows that Prime Minister Netanyahu and the small cabinet think that nothing happened on October 7. This decision endangers the citizens Israel and may allow a picture of victory for Hamas."
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.
Former Israeli Intelligence Official and regional analyst Avi Melamed suggested that “Despite calls from Hamas leadership to escalate their attacks further during Ramadan, it's unlikely that Hezbollah will divert from the modus operandi it has operated under during the ongoing war between Hamas and Israel. It is unlikely that after watching the destruction wrought by the nearly five-month Israeli operation in Gaza, Iran would allow its most valuable proxy to risk its political position and its assets in Lebanon for a war that would most assuredly bring about Hezbollah’s destruction and break Iran’s hold on Lebanon. Hezbollah at some levels has already begun to withdraw some of its forces, not yet to the Litani, but fully understanding that parable that “one who plays with matches eventually gets burned,” and understanding that given the trauma inflicted by Hamas on Oct. 7, Israeli public opinion would fully support an Israeli preemptive incursion into Lebanon to mitigate the threat of a Hezbollah-initiated attack on a similar scale.”
War Termination
A senior Hamas official said that the first week of Ramadan is a “more realistic goal” for reaching an agreement. The Wall Street Journal reported that a temporary truce in the Gaza Strip “may be close,” despite the “obstacles” that still surround it."The negotiators believe that Hamas and Israel are making slow progress and could reach an agreement before the month of Ramadan," according to the newspaper.
A report by the American website " Axios " stated that the Hamas movement considers "the return of the Palestinians to their homes in the northern Gaza Strip to be a top priority" in the ongoing negotiations for a ceasefire and the release of the hostages it is holding, noting that “the Egyptian and Qatari mediators were surprised by how important this issue was to the movement.”
The website quoted an Israeli official and a knowledgeable source as saying that the Egyptian and Qatari mediators informed the Israelis during talks last week that Hamas (which is on the US terrorist lists) “is prepared to reduce the number of Palestinians required to be released from Israeli prisons, in exchange for allowing a larger number of civilians to return to their homes north of the Gaza strip".
The Israeli official, whose identity was not revealed by the website, said that during the indirect talks in Doha last week, he informed the mediators that the return of the Palestinians to northern Gaza was a “top priority” for Hamas in the negotiations". The official added that Hamas presents this issue of return as a humanitarian issue, but pointed out that the Israeli government considers the matter a “political issue.”
The report considered that if Israel allowed the return of Palestinians to northern Gaza, this might cause “the strengthening of Hamas as a governing structure in the Gaza Strip, and make achieving Israel’s goal of eliminating it more difficult.” Many countries have expressed their refusal to displace Palestinians from their areas in the Gaza Strip, stressing their rejection of Israel's reoccupation of the Strip, while Israel says that it has asked the Palestinians to leave their homes in various parts of the Palestinian Strip and head south, to reduce civilian casualties. Israel threatens to launch a ground incursion into the city of Rafah, the southernmost part of the Strip, on the border with Egypt.
A source in the Palestinian Resistance told Al Mayadeen that the final response of the resistance is in the hands of the mediators, and it is the Israelis that refuse to respond to the proposal. The source added that the resistance leadership is demanding the withdrawal of the Israeli occupation forces, the return of the displaced Palestinians to their areas, the opening of the crossings, and the entry of aid into Gaza.
The resistance leadership provided everything necessary to the mediators to make efforts successful in reaching a ceasefire and a prisoner exchange deal, the source stressed. The source emphasized that every time, the mediators bump into the occupation’s efforts to thwart their attempts and disrupt any progress in the negotiations. Osama Hamdan, a member of the Hamas political bureau, stated in a press conference on Tuesday that Hamas will only consent to swap captives with "Israel" if a ceasefire is achieved.
An Israeli official expressed concern about “whether Hamas was sincere in reaching an agreement,” after the delegation in Cairo failed to provide a list of the names of the living hostages and their condition - a request that was denied. Mediators say Israel presented it over the weekend. The Israeli official added that his country "believes that it is negotiating the fate of about 40 sick, elderly, and women hostages, but it does not know who of them is still alive." According to Egyptian and Israeli officials, on Sunday, Hamas did not provide answers to two main sticking points: “Who are the Palestinian prisoners whom the movement wants to release? How many hostages will be released?”
Even if the two negotiating teams were able to reach an agreement, “there remains another major challenge, namely the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, with whom communication has not been possible for at least a week, raising fears of not being able to reach the man who can implement the agreement.” The deal,” Egyptian and Qatari officials said.
People familiar with the discussions said that Sinwar's final message to Hamas's political leadership in Qatar was that "there should be no rush to secure the hostage deal." They explained that Sinwar "hoped that the Israeli incursion into the city of Rafah in southern Gaza during the month of Ramadan would push the Palestinians living in Israel and the West Bank to rise up against Israel," according to the Wall Street Journal.
Israel now also believes that Sinwar “may prefer to increase tensions during Ramadan, rather than reach a cessation of fighting,” according to the Israeli
official.
Operational Update
Intense Israeli bombardment and ground operations as well as heavy fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups continue to be reported across much of the Gaza Strip, resulting in further civilian casualties, displacement, and destruction of houses and other civilian infrastructure.
The Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth said that a leaked secret document by Defense Minister Yoav Galant warns of a major explosion in the situation in the West Bank during the month of Ramadan. The "warning" document said: "Fear of escalation in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) during the month of Ramadan. It will destroy the goals of the war" on Gaza.
Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper said that it had obtained the document, and quoted Gallant's office as saying: "We regret the irresponsible leaking of sensitive materials," while at the same time refusing to comment on the document. The document prepared by Defense Minister Yoav Galant was directed to Chief of Staff Herzi Halevy and the heads of Shin Bet Ronen Bar, Mossad David Barnea, National Security Council Tzachi Hanegbi, the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ministers Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot.
Gallant says in the document that there is an upcoming security escalation in the month of Ramadan that requires the transfer of forces from Gaza and the northern border to the West Bank. The document quotes Gallant as saying that the reasons for the expected explosion are the increasing incitement, the economic situation in the Palestinian Authority areas, and the inflammatory statements of Israeli politicians. Gallant recommended allowing Muslims to worship at Al-Aqsa as much as possible, according to the document.
Multiple sources say Gallant actually made these remarks in several closed-door meetings, but now he warns against them in writing and in relatively widespread circulation. The document addresses the need to take steps within the framework of the security establishment’s preparations for a possible escalation in the West Bank.
A discussion on this issue was held today (Tuesday) with the participation of Prime Minister Netanyahu. Gallant warned that the ability to continue fighting until the goals in Gaza are achieved depends largely on the degree of security stability in the West Bank. He says, "The escalation will make it difficult for us to continue focusing our efforts and carrying out the tasks of the Israeli army to achieve the goals of the war due to the need to transfer forces to Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) from other sectors," referring to the Gaza and Lebanon sectors.
The document indicates that the security escalation in the West Bank "is in the interest of Hamas and Iran." According to Gallant, security officials repeatedly presented him with a problematic reality in the West Bank that could spiral out of control. “Military Intelligence and the Shin Bet went so far as to identify this under a strategic warning of the outbreak of violence in the region,” he said.
The Minister of Defense enumerates several items in the document that made Ramadan more sensitive this year, including “the expansion of the scope of terrorist incidents, the increasing incitement on social networks, the intensified counter-terrorism efforts by the security forces, the deterioration of the economic situation in the West Bank due to the failure of workers to enter Israel, and the weakness of the Palestinian security services due to the lack of money transfer".
Gallant also points to "irresponsible statements" by political elements in Israel regarding the Temple Mount before Ramadan, referring to extremist Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. “There is a real chance of deteriorating into unnecessary escalation in Judea and Samaria and throughout Israel, which will divert resources and the battlefield from Gaza in a way that is detrimental to our ability to achieve the war objectives,” Gallant notes in the document.
Israeli writer Amira Hass depicted Israel 's "secret" brutality as operating like a factory assembly line, its end product being the impoverishment, confiscation and expulsion of Palestinians as a matter of routine in normal times, and the destruction, killing, confiscation and impoverishment of wartime. The writer said, in her column in the Israeli newspaper "Haaretz", that there are many people working to make the product - Israel's secret brutality - and all of them derive their authority from a parliamentary or "divine" law or from the rulings of the Supreme Court, and responsibility is distributed among them, and all of them are exempt from the characteristic of "cruelty" due to their large number. As she put it.
She explained that the prizes in the brutality competition go to the one who hides it the most, and therefore Israel is the biggest winner, because its cruelty has many characteristics that it hides from everyone except its victims, and thus makes it easy for allies such as the United States and Germany to treat it as a victim of the people it subjugates and continue to sell Her weapons.
Among these characteristics, Hass says, is that every Israeli who stands along this assembly line and adds another component to the product that passes in front of him, is an ordinary person, often a completely nice person, perhaps has a sense of humor, respects his parents, is addicted to science fiction films, and also enjoys... The engineers and administrators involved also have positive traits, she says.
The writer gave an example of the destruction of water storage tanks used by Palestinian communities that Israel refuses to connect to the water network. The Civil Administration orders their destruction or confiscation, and a long chain of strangers creates the final product, so that sand is poured into the tank and absorbs the precious water, or the space on which it stood is evacuated. Water tank.
The bulldozer driver demolishes or moves the violating water tank because he has to feed his children, and the border guards prevent any interference with the bulldozer because they obey orders, and they did not make the tear gas bomb or the stun bomb that they threw at the children and women who are disrupting the implementation of law and order. It was made by the Americans.
The soldier coordinates the deployment of the various units at dawn, and the supervisor signs the unified form for ordering the demolition of buildings built without a license or within areas declared as military firing zones, as if the matter is a divine command, because the jurist who drafted the demolition or confiscation order died a long time ago.
The head of the West Bank Civil Administration is a soldier and a law-abiding citizen, and like his predecessors, he will not turn a blind eye to the crime of thirst committed by a Palestinian and his flock of sheep as they brazenly wandered through the “ sacred” Area C , which the Oslo Accords had placed under full Israeli control and should have ended. In 1999, it is not responsible for the extreme heat in the Jordan Valley.
The author believes that Israel's brutality is hidden not only because its followers and perpetrators are too numerous to count, but because the state prevents the identity of most of them from being revealed, and the cruelty remains mysterious because it is decentralized in space and time, like an invisible chemical element.
Other than their identity documents, there is nothing linking the Supreme Court judges who in 2022 allowed the army to train with live ammunition among the Palestinian villages in the Masafer Yatta area and the soldiers, and none of these people consider themselves an element in the assembly line leading to the expulsion of the Palestinians, but they all share That they are terrified of Palestinian cruelty.
Amira Hass concluded that Israeli institutional cruelty, decentralization of years and locations, allows hundreds of thousands of law-abiding, regime-following Israeli Jews to be cruel without an iota of reflection. But some Israeli Jews - as the author says - “are aware of this assembly line and realize that we, the privileged, unintentionally add the screw to the harsh final product.” Therefore, activists sometimes try to remove the screws to disrupt production, but the assembly line continues to work and moves smoothly. , as has been the case for a long time.
Operational Update - Gaza
Following the disclosure of a terrorist tunnel dated December 16, 2023, the terror tunnel of the terrorist organization Hamas , which has several branches and was dug from the north of the Gaza Strip towards the territory of Israel, was foiled. The route did not cross into Israeli territory. Throughout the last few weeks, the IDF has been engaged in exploring and thwarting the tunnel.
On 4 March, the Israeli military announced that its forces had encircled the Hamad area in western Khan Younis and conducted a night-time operation reportedly targeting armed groups’ infrastructure and facilities from the air and the ground. According to the military, a corridor was established for civilians to exit the area, following the issuing of an evacuation order on 3 March which instructed the residents of Hamad area to evacuate to Al Mawasi.
LOTAR fighters were fighting in the depths of Khan Yunis under TSK 7. LOTR unit (acronym for war on terror) is an elite unit in the IDF in charge of training all IDF units in the areas of counter-terrorism, sniping and other areas related to small-scale warfare. The fighters carry out special and targeted missions in the heart of the built-up area, raiding hiding apartments and military strongholds of the terrorist organization Hamas in the various neighborhoods in Khan Yunis.
The 98th Division forces continue to surround the "Hamad" neighborhood and raid terrorist infrastructure in the area. The fighters of the commando formation raid Hamas terrorist infrastructures in the neighborhood and found many weapons in them.
The fighters of the 7th Israel Defense Forces continue to operate as part of the effort to evacuate the residents from the fighting area, the fighters arrested dozens of terrorists from the terrorist organizations Hamas and GAP in the last day who tried to escape under the protection of the population in the neighborhood.
The battle team of the Nahal Brigade continues to operate in the center of the Gaza Strip and eliminated about twenty terrorists during the last day, using sniper fire, tank shells and remotely manned aircraft. In one of the attacks, with the cooperation of the brigade fire complex, brigade intelligence and the air force, they closed a circle on a terrorist and through the direction of the brigade fire complex, he was eliminated in a precise attack.
During an activity in the area of Beit Hanon, the fire assembly of the northern brigade identified a terrorist squad that operated a drone during the activity of the forces in the area, after the identification a fighter jet attacked and eliminated the squad.
Air force forces continue to attack targets of the terrorist organization Hamas throughout the Gaza Strip and in the last day over 50 targets of the organization were attacked. Among the targets that were attacked, launch positions, munitions warehouses, tunnel shafts and other military infrastructures.
The correspondent of Al-Alam News Channel [Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting] in the Gaza Strip reported that the Palestinian resistance did not stop its operations against the occupation army, despite the latter’s claim to eliminate the resistance, its members and its capabilities, especially missiles. The correspondent added that the resistance is operating in the western area of Khan Yunis Governorate , as well as in Tal al-Hawa and in the Zaytoun neighborhood, and during the last hours, it launched a missile salvo at the sites and settlements of the Israeli enemy.
He pointed out that the Palestinian population is trying to return to the areas from which the occupation army withdrew, especially in the eastern regions of Khan Yunis Governorate, including Abasan al-Kabira , al-Saghira, Khuza’a, Bani Suhaila , and al -Zin. The Al-Alam correspondent continued that everyone who returns to his home is targeted by the occupation army through military aircraft raids, drones, and armed quadcopters .
The Jordanian Armed Forces, in partnership with friendly countries, carried out 8 airdrops of relief and food aid into the northern Gaza Strip. The Jordanian Armed Forces carry out the largest airdrops of aid into northern Gaza. The landing operations, which the Kingdom considered the largest since the start of the landing operations until today, included 3 C130 aircraft belonging to the Royal Jordanian Air Force, 3 American aircraft, an Egyptian aircraft, and a French aircraft.
Relief and food aid targeted a number of sites in northern Gaza, while the aid included materials provided by the World Food Program (WFP). The landing operation comes as part of the ongoing Jordanian efforts to send more medical, relief and food aid to citizens in the Gaza Strip, to mitigate the effects of the war and compensate for the severe shortage of food and medicine as a result of the continuing Israeli war on the Strip.
The Jordanian Armed Forces confirmed that they "continue to send aid via an air bridge, whether through aid planes from Marka Airport towards Al-Arish International Airport or through airdrops on the Strip."
Since the beginning of the Israeli operation in Gaza, the Jordanian Armed Forces - Arab Army have carried out 28 Jordanian airdrops, 15 airdrops carried out by the Armed Forces in cooperation with other countries. The Jordanian King, King Abdullah II, confirmed during his reception of the United Arab List delegation in the Knesset, headed by MP Mansour Abbas, on Tuesday, that the Kingdom “continues to deliver humanitarian, relief and medical aid to the people in the Gaza Strip by all available means,” noting: “the necessity of making the utmost efforts to reach For an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza and the protection of innocent civilians.”
He warned of "the danger of the continuation of the war on the Gaza Strip and the hostilities practiced by extremist settlers against the Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem." He stressed "the need to stop the unilateral Israeli attacks and measures in Jerusalem, which affect the freedom of worshipers at Al-Aqsa Mosque and prevent them from practicing their religious rituals, especially during the month of Ramadan."
He stressed that "Jordan will continue its historical and religious role in protecting and caring for the Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem, based on the Hashemite custodianship over them."
The White House confirmed that the United States is considering using both military and commercial options to transport humanitarian aid to Gaza by sea. White House National Security spokesman John Kirby told reporters that the sea route could transport a larger volume of aid, but trucks were the best way, according to what Reuters reported. Kirby's statements came hours after Jordan announced the implementation of the largest airdrop of aid to the Gaza Strip to date, in partnership with the United States, Egypt and France.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller revealed on Monday that the United States is optimistic that a new sea route to deliver aid to Gaza, currently under discussion, could complement current efforts to deliver aid to the Strip by land and through airdrops. Miller said that the sea aid corridor "is still in the development stage," adding that "it is now very difficult to deliver aid from southern and central Gaza to its north." He stressed that "Washington is focusing on increasing aid to Gaza and continuing it through the largest possible number of channels."
The World Health Organization had warned that children were dying of hunger in two hospitals in northern Gaza, which its mission visited at the weekend, observing a severe shortage of food, fuel and medicine.
"In recent weeks, it has become common for some countries, including the United States, to drop a few parcels of aid. I do not understand why they are behaving this way towards us. They want to show the whole world, especially their people, that they are helping Gaza , but in reality they are humiliating the people of Gaza."
This is how Rami Abu Jamous - who writes his memoirs in this space allocated to him on the Orian 21 website - summarized the last chapter of his daily life and the lives of the residents of Gaza in Rafah, who are stuck in a small, poverty-stricken, overcrowded enclave, after the founder of the “Gaza Press” website was forced to... (GazaPress), who had been providing assistance and translation to Western journalists, had to leave his apartment in Gaza City with his wife and two-and-a-half-year-old son, Walid, and now shares a two-bedroom apartment with another family.
Rami Abu Jamous said that "throwing food with umbrellas is like feeding dogs, so that pieces are thrown at them, and the dogs rush to eat them. There is a famine situation in the northern Gaza Strip, where children are dying of malnutrition, and then they come and drop us a few bags of flour and rice. It is a humiliation" - says Rami Abu Jamous - "and the Israelis know this, and that is why they gave the green light, because they are the ones who give permission for this. And they are the ones who determine where the planes drop this humanitarian aid. Everything is done by the Israelis."
The writer says, “What I do not understand is that these countries, instead of providing assistance in a dignified manner, do so in this humiliating manner. We do not need this assistance if they are mired in humiliation.” I do not understand countries such as Canada, France, and the United States wanting to participate in this type of operation, and they are considered “superpowers.” Can they not provide food to the people of Gaza in a dignified manner?
The writer pointed out that everyone was quick to pass goods to Israel with dignity, when the Houthis prevented its ships from passing through the Red Sea , and that all countries provide aid and weapons to Ukraine in a dignified manner, wondering why they do not do so when it comes to the Palestinians. Should we always add humiliation to the Palestinians? ? Although there is no difference between Ukraine and Palestine, “both are occupied, the first by Russia and the second by Israel,” as he put it.
Operational Update - Judea-Samaria
Since 7 October 2023, OCHA has recorded 615 Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians that resulted in Palestinian casualties (54 incidents), damage to Palestinian-owned property (491 incidents), or both casualties and damage to property (70 incidents).
On 4 March, Israeli forces shot and killed a 10-year-old Palestinian child during a raid in Burin village, in Nablus governorate, which escalated into clashes between the Israeli army and Palestinian stone throwers. Community sources reported that the child was fatally injured while he was in a vehicle with his father, and that two other Palestinians were injured while they were trying to assist them.
On 5 March, another house was punitively demolished in Kafr Dan village in Jenin, displacing a family of seven, including two children. The house belonged to the family of two brothers who were detained after being accused by the Israeli authorities of being involved in the shooting attack in Huwwara on 19 August 2023, which resulted in the killing of two Israelis. Since 7 October, a total of 25 houses have been punitively demolished and two others sealed off, leading to the displacement of 129 Palestinians, including 53 children.
Israeli forces carried out a military operation in Nur Shams Refugee Camp in Tulkarm, during which an exchange of fire took place between Palestinians and Israeli forces. The operation resulted in extensive damage to roads connecting the camp with Tulkarm and Nablus cities as well as the destruction of electricity and sewage infrastructure. At least five livelihood structures were also damaged by bulldozers.
A terrorist carried out a stabbing attack at the Great Yitzhar intersection in the Shomron Division, the IDF forces operating at the scene killed the terrorist. The fighters continued to search the area. Following the stabbing attack that took place today (Tuesday) at the Great Yitzhar Junction in the Shomron Division, an IDF soldier was seriously injured. The soldier was referred for medical treatment and his family was informed. "A short time ago, a terrorist armed with a knife arrived at the position where my soldiers and I were operating in the area of the Great Yitzhar Junction, and wounded one of the soldiers," said Sgt. contact and eliminate the terrorist. We work day and night to maintain the security of the sector and thwart terrorism. We will not allow terrorism to disrupt the citizens' way of life."
IDF forces, the Shin Bet and the Israel Defense Forces arrested 21 wanted persons suspected of involvement in terrorist activities throughout Judea and Samaria and in the Bekaa and Emekim Brigade. In Balta, the IDF forces and the IDF arrested this morning, under the direction of the Shin Bet, the terrorist Muhammad Tanji, according to Modi'in It emerged that he is planning, together with others, to carry out an attack in the immediate time frame. Muhammad is one of the main activists in the terrorist infrastructure in Balata in the last year. The fighters operated tonight in the village of Dan in the Menashe division to demolish the house of the terrorist Abed Massad who took part in the shooting attack on August 19, 2023 in Hawara in which the late Silas-Shay Nigarkar and his son Aviad Nir Nigarkar were murdered.
In Kfar Kobar in the division of the brigade, the forces arrested four wanted persons and in Kfar Yatta in the Yehuda division, the forces arrested a wanted person and confiscated terrorist funds. In Ein Sultan and Aqebat Jaber in the Valley, the forces arrested three wanted men and confiscated a Carlo-type weapon, in Kfar Jamal in the Ephraim Brigade, the forces confiscated two Carlo-type rifles and military equipment.
The wanted persons who were arrested and the weapons confiscated were transferred to the security forces for further treatment. No casualties to our forces. So far, since the beginning of the war, about 3,450 wanted persons have been arrested throughout the Judea and Samaria Division and the Bekaa and Valleys Division, about 1,500 of whom are affiliated with Hamas.
An article in the British newspaper The Guardian described the imposition of American, British and French sanctions on more than 30 Israeli settlers for committing acts of violence and incitement against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank , as a historic step. This step will result in freezing the assets of those settlers, who have documented records proving that they committed arson, theft, physical assault and destruction of property. They will also be subject to restrictions on traveling abroad, and their ability to do business limited, according to an article by independent journalist Zach Witus.
International human rights organizations have long protested the lack of accountability for settler violence. Witus - who works as coordinator of the sector concerned with youth leadership and education at the "New Israel Fund", based in the US state of California - comments on these sanctions, saying that they will significantly hinder the mechanism of settler violence and may be the strongest message so far directed to the Israeli government about the need to curb attacks on Palestinian societies, as its continuation will have repercussions.
However, the writer believes that these sanctions on a few settlers will not solve the basic problem, as they are “not just a bunch of rotten apples,” but rather part of a long-term, systematic policy of the Israeli government aimed at expelling the Palestinians from their lands to make way for the expansion of the settlements. He described it as a bad policy that only produces corrupt people.
Witus said that he personally saw some of these Palestinians while working as a volunteer as a human rights monitor in 2022 in the rural area of Masafer Yata in the West Bank, where the Palestinian population largely depends on pastoralism and agriculture as a source of livelihood. He added that he saw with his own eyes two settlers - Yinon Levy and Eli Federman - attacking Palestinians almost weekly without justification.
He added that he saw the two settlers and some of their accomplices in the crime in the vicinity of the village of Zanuta, south of the city of Hebron , repeatedly attacking Palestinian shepherds and their herds of livestock and chasing them with dogs and drones to intimidate them and push them to leave their lands so that they (the Israelis) could graze their sheep and lambs on the Palestinians’ crops.
He added that he took pictures of Lennon Levy and others in the village of Susya in the Hebron Governorate, as they were illegally paving a road on private Palestinian land that leads to a settlement outpost. Another video clip showed Levy driving a bulldozer and moving piles of dirt to a road in order to close the only entrance and exit to the village.
Witus went on to tell stories of settler violations, and said that his fellow human rights activists filmed Federman unleashing his dachshund on a Palestinian resident of the area and biting his arm and stomach, while other settlers were aiming their rifles at Palestinians watching the scene. He continued that during his time in the West Bank, he saw more than once that the Israeli army and police were unable to stop the crimes of settlers.
According to the Guardian article, the settlers informed the residents of Zanota - weeks after the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ) attacked Israel on October 7 - that if they did not leave within 24 hours, they would kill them. The next day, all 250 residents of the village packed their belongings and left. Last month, settlers erected a fence around the village so that its Palestinian residents could not return to it.
Witus stated that 2023 was the worst year ever for settler violence, who attacked Palestinians and their property in more than 1,200 separate incidents; They killed at least 10 Palestinians and set dozens of homes on fire, all of which occurred before the Hamas attacks on October 7.
He referred to the explicit orders issued by the Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir , to the Israeli forces not to apply the law in cases of “Jewish nationalist violence.” As a result of these policies, settlers and the Israeli army were able to forcibly displace at least 198 Palestinian families, with an estimated number of 1,208 people - including 586 children - from more than 12 villages during the months of November and December.
On December 18 of 2023, the US State Department issued an interesting statement. In it, she said , “We saw the Palestinian Authority playing a constructive role in maintaining stability in the West Bank after the events of October 7.” On the 6th of the previous month, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken thanked Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for the “extremely important” role played by the Authority in controlling the West Bank and preventing it from becoming another front of flames in light of the Al-Aqsa flood battle.
Although anyone who follows the developments of the scene in the West Bank (more than 412 martyrs in the West Bank since the beginning of the flood), specifically in the northern cities, knows that it is boiling in a covered pot, and also knows that this cover may quickly fly off as a result of the pressure. This is something the occupation is well aware of, as last January it sent Duvdovan's unit from the battles in the Gaza Strip to the West Bank, perhaps in response to estimates by the Israeli internal security service " Shin Bet " that the West Bank was about to explode.
Many factors, both subjective and objective, help in understanding the scene in the West Bank, but none of them can explain more than the role of the Palestinian Authority can do. What role did the authorities play in controlling the state of resistance and trying to prevent its development? How did you work and work during the flood to control the scene and prevent it from exploding?
The policy with which the authority dealt with West Bank society during the flood was gradual and varied, starting from its orbit and containing the anger of the street before venting it, then excessive repression of those who tried to express their anger peacefully and did not respond to the first policy, all the way to seeking to dismantle and strike the structures of armed groups that are active in several areas. Areas in the West Bank.
After more than four months after about 200,000 workers from the West Bank were unable to work in the occupation’s settlements and cities, and after about 4 and a half months’ salaries had accumulated for more than 140,000 public employees in the Palestinian Authority, he met secretly on February 7 with the Secretary of the Executive Committee. To the Palestine Liberation Organization and Minister of Civil Affairs, Hussein Al-Sheikh , to the head of the Israeli National Security Service, the head of the Shin Bet, and the Israeli Coordinator of Government Activities in the West Bank.
As usual, and as is clear from the Israeli ranks present, there was no political discussion under the President of the Palestinian Authority. Rather, the Israelis clearly requested a security mission from the Authority that required preventing escalation in the West Bank before the month of Ramadan. The month before which Israeli policies are confused.
As for Hussein Al-Sheikh, in return, he requested an economic “expansion”, the main focus of which is allowing the return of West Bank workers to the occupied territories, as an answer to the question of the explosion of the situation in the West Bank, which is what the Israelis promised to deal with.
Thus, the compressed area called the West Bank, the Authority, and behind it, Israel, will work to relieve it a little, with solutions in the form of economic “facilitations.” This is after the resignation of Palestinian Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh’s call for the workers of the occupied interior to head towards the land was of no use, after the “Palestine TV” broadcaster asked him on December 22, 2023 whether the Authority had plans to absorb these workers in the Palestinian market, and he answered. “The workers who were working in Israel are returning to cultivate the land... We all go to the land to cultivate, because this is a historic opportunity to eat what we produce.”
However, according to Shtayyeh, this “historic opportunity” was not seen by the workers as well, as they know that the largest percentage of lands in the West Bank (61% = Area C) are being stolen on a daily basis, ordeals are carried out on them, and those who work there are threatened by the settlers, and the occupation also prevents any Development carried out by its people, including agriculture, without the authority doing anything about it.
According to the Israeli "Peace Now" organization, from 2009 to 2018, the occupation approved only 98 permits for the purposes of housing, industry, agriculture, and infrastructure services. According to the Israeli organization Bimkom - Planners for Planning Rights, between 2016 and 2020 only 24 permits were approved.
According to the Israeli organization "B'Tselem", the Israeli pretexts for preventing a Palestinian from using his land vary between the following arguments: "state land" - about 35% of Area C, military training areas (firing zones) - about 30% of Area C ), natural reserves and national parks - about 14% of Area (C), or areas of influence belonging to settlements - about 16% of Area (C).”
This reality, which Israel is following in full swing, is being tried by the authorities to contain it with populist speeches that cannot be implemented, or with requests for “economic facilitation” that increase dependency on the occupation, in the context of preventing the West Bank from joining the flood war.
However, in order to avoid a clash as much as possible, the winds of power did not come in the opposite direction to the people’s ship supporting the flood, but rather they moved in their direction before working to direct the direction. For example; The Authority’s Ministry of Endowments and Islamic Affairs did not prevent speech about Gaza and the war taking place against it, but it tried to control and direct it. It generalized the topics of the Friday sermons to ensure that the war and its horrors were addressed without mentioning the duty of action. It even prevented a number of imams from performing the Friday sermon because of the rhetoric of motivation in their sermons to the worshippers. At the beginning of the flood, it was content and focused on collecting donations, praying for Gaza, and praying for the souls of the martyrs.
The authorities not only abolished the effectiveness of the mosque and its role in revolutionizing people, but it also abolished the effectiveness of the strike tool. After every martyr’s rise in one of the governorates of the West Bank, the authority was quick to announce a strike, which meant closing shops and people sitting in their homes. These strikes were not accompanied by the slightest kind of public national activities and programmes, in what seemed like a distraction and venting of the people’s energy and anger. . It was also able to contain the paralysis of university life. These are the factories of confrontation with the occupation, by converting them to the e-learning system.
As for the remaining space for people to demonstrate, the authority worked under the name “National Forces” to contain popular anger by organizing periodic demonstrations that included various factions in the various governorates of the West Bank, thereby ensuring unified speech and slogans and that the demonstration remained within the acceptable limits of the authority. When she did so, she turned the demonstration into a routine act devoid of content, closer to a folkloric festival than anything else.
In the end, the authority in general did not enter into a clash with the residents of the West Bank, but rather used soft policies of containment and relief, through which it presented itself as a guardian of the people’s hopes and aspirations, and at the same time ensured that they did not revolt and deviate from the regime towards igniting a new front that occupied “Israel.”
On the evening of last October 17, the eleventh day of the genocidal war, the skies of West Bank cities were filled with tear gas. People, families and youth, went out in demonstrations in large numbers that spread across the cities of the West Bank, denouncing the Israeli occupation massacre in the Baptist Hospital , which claimed the lives of about 500 martyrs. Feelings of anger and sadness were evident in the faces of the people who flocked to the city centers, and only the members of the Palestinian security services were standing in line preparing for repression.
At this time when oxygen was running out for the demonstrators in the streets of the West Bank, as a result of the back-and-forth operations of live bullets, sound bombs, and gas bombs fired by the security services, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his men were in the Jordanian capital in a meeting with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken , arranging a quadripartite summit. However, he stopped his visit and immediately returned to the district headquarters in Ramallah because of the massacre, and he addressed his group for only seven minutes and twenty seconds!
The Baptist demonstrations continued in the West Bank for several days, and the security services did not provide any methods of excessive repression. According to the Independent Commission for Human Rights, within less than two weeks, the authority had killed 4 Palestinians in a precedent that did not receive serious protest. The first was a 12-year-old girl who was hit by bullets from bullets during a peaceful demonstration in Jenin, and the second was also in Jenin. A 20 year old young man. As for the third, an 18-year-old young man, he was run over by an armored security vehicle during a peaceful demonstration in Ramallah. The fourth, a 19-year-old young man, was hit by security bullets during a peaceful demonstration in Tubas.
Within about a week, the Authority's security services had arrested more than 100 demonstrators in Ramallah alone. Lawyer Muhannad Karaja, director of “Lawyers for Justice,” said in an interview with Al Jazeera Net that only about 50 of them were referred for trial, while all were later released on financial bail, and some of them continue to be tried until now. It was observed that detainees were subjected to torture and ill-treatment, and the arrest charges varied between “assaulting public property,” “inciting sectarian strife,” and “slandering the authority.”
Karaja points out that the arrests against the backdrop of the demonstrations spread throughout the various governorates of the West Bank, but were concentrated in Ramallah, where, for example, the security services directly opened fire on the student Diaa Zaloum during an attempt to arrest him in one of the demonstrations denouncing the aggression on Gaza.
Karaja also points out the concentration of arrests in Nablus against the backdrop of political activity and expression of opinion, specifically among university students, which is consistent with the report of the “Committee of Families of Political Prisoners in the West Bank,” which mentioned the continued detention of three from “Asira al-Shamaliyya” in the Nablus district ( Hamza, Adham, and Imad Al-Shuli) in the authority’s prisons, and the continued detention of two from the same city (Muhammad Al-Azizi and Montaser Saqf Al-Hait) for more than four months, despite the issuance of three judicial decisions to release them, and the continued detention of the young man (Nizar Mona) in Al-Junaid prison for about four months. months, despite the fact that he also obtained a judicial decision to release him.
In addition, the security services affiliated with the authority, according to testimony from Al Jazeera Net, used pressure on families and threatened them with a fine and the destruction of homes, in order to force their children to delete written publications supporting the resistance after last October 7.
This repression was not the result of the flood, as the year 2023 was full of attacks by the authority’s security services against the residents of the West Bank. According to the annual report of the “Committee of Families of Political Prisoners - West Bank,” the authority committed 3,062 violations during this year, which in part meant: 5 cases of murder, 900 cases of arrest, more than 500 cases of suppression of freedoms, and 277 cases of persecution and repression. Demonstrations and other violations. This affected all active social segments in the West Bank, even school students, 17 of whom were assaulted by the authorities.
Thus, in the absence of any social and political organization of people in the West Bank, the authority eliminated early on the possibility of the development of popular protest, which would have constituted a type of pressure on the occupation, which feared that the West Bank would ignite and get out of control. Thus, it did not require much effort, as the Israeli army took upon itself the task of arresting activists and those affiliated with the resistance factions. From the first day of the flood until February 6, the occupation arrested 6,870 Palestinians from the West Bank, according to the “Palestinian Prisoners’ Club.”
In 2016, the head of the Palestinian Intelligence Service, Majed Faraj , stated in a press interview with the “Defense News” website that the Palestinian security services had thwarted, in less than four months, 200 potential attacks against Israel and arrested more than 100 Palestinians. These devices, which Faraj is proud of, have about 65,000 members, meaning there is a security person for approximately every 49 Palestinians.
This rare statement by a man in authority constitutes a key to understanding American and European interest in the Palestinian Authority and its role in what they call “the day after the war.” Less than a month before the flood, and in the context of the expansion of the activity of armed groups in the West Bank, the Americans sent the Palestinian Authority a group of armored vehicles and weapons, which according to Israeli media amounted to no less than 1,500 weapons, including laser-guided M16 weapons, a Kalashnikov, and 10 armored vehicles. To break up the demonstrations.
Not only the international level, the statements of Israeli politicians also express the security need of the Palestinian Authority. This is the Minister of Defense in the war emergency government, Yoav Galant , in the context of assessing the security situation in the West Bank during the “Al-Aqsa Flood,” that the presence of “a strong Palestinian authority is an Israeli security interest.” Earlier in the flood, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated : “We need the Palestinian Authority... We cannot let it collapse,” and Benny Gantz stated : “We need to maintain the relationship with the Authority for the sake of our security.”
In this context, the Authority launched its campaign against what most threatened the security of the occupation army when it stormed Palestinian cities and camps. Explosive devices. During the “Al-Aqsa Flood” battle, it was observed that IEDs were dismantled more than once in the city of Jenin and the town of Azzun, east of the city of Qalqilya. For example; On December 24, the security services dismantled 3 large explosive devices in the town of Azzun, while confiscating a group of homemade bombs, which are devices and bombs prepared by the resistance fighters to confront incursions by the occupation army.
Dismantling bombs is not a new matter for the authority. On August 30, 2023, the security services removed bombs and barricades that the “Tulkarm Brigade” had placed in the camp to confront the occupation forces, which led to confrontations erupting between the camp’s youth and the security services, which resulted in the death of a young man by bullets from the authority. In 2018, the authority discovered a field of explosive devices that were planted on the “Alar” road in the city of Tulkarm, apparently prepared to explode against occupation army patrols.
At the beginning of 2024, the Jenin Brigade also accused the authority’s security services of assassinating Ahmed Hashem Obaidi, a fighter from the “Burqin Brigade.” In addition, the authority continues to arrest a number of armed group fighters, as stated in previous statements by armed groups such as the “Tulkarm (Rapid Reaction) Brigade” and the “Tulkarm Brigade - Saraya al-Quds.” According to the “Committee of Families of Political Prisoners,” the authority had assaulted 30 persecuted by the occupation during the year 2023. Perhaps the most prominent detainee today in the Authority’s prisons is Musab Shtayyeh, from the “Lions’ Den” group that the Authority worked to dismantle. He has been detained for more than a year, and according to the Quds News Network, he was transferred at the end of last month to intensive care due to the deterioration of his health condition.
As a continuation of these efforts to pursue military activity, on February 8, the security services arrested three people pursuing the occupation from the Jenin camp, namely: Aboud Al-Natour, Muhammad Abu Abed, and Qais Al-Bitawi, while they were outside the camp, and transferred them to Al-Junaid prison in the city of Nablus after confiscating Their weapons. A few days later, the persecuted Uday al-Tarush and Sharif Abu Muhammad were also arrested from Jenin after confiscating their weapons. Also, the persecuted Yousef Al-Tayeh was arrested from Al-Faraa camp. Then, specifically on February 14 of the same month, the authorities pursued the youth of the Tubas Battalion and the Fara’a camp and opened fire on them, which led to the outbreak of confrontations.
During the past twenty years, the Palestinian Authority, led by the godfathers of the period, President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, has worked to re-engineer Palestinian society, as a result of American and Israeli conclusions, to ensure that the second intifada is not repeated. This was expressed when, after the second intifada (i.e. from 2007-2011), the United States allocated more than half a billion dollars to arm, equip, and train 29,000 members of the security services. American General Keith Dayton was appointed to carry out this mission of “reforming the security services.”
The stated aim was to “confront and dismantle the terrorist (resistance) infrastructure”, including military, social and economic aspects. As early as August 12, 2007, Abbas issued a decree stating: “The Executive Force and the armed militias affiliated with the Hamas movement ( the Martyr Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades ) are prohibited and considered outlaws.” Their funds are confiscated, and anyone who assists, arms, or hides any of them is punished.
This meant at the political and security levels; Pursuing the resistance factions, confiscating their weapons, exposing their military cells and attacking them, either by liquidating the pursuers, such as the Qassamists Muhammad al-Samman and Muhammad Yassin in Qalqilya in 2009, and even liquidating those who were sheltering them, or by arresting them, such as: Amin al-Quqa from Nablus (detained since 2007 and affiliated with Hamas), and Jad Humaidan from Nablus (detained since 2008 from the Popular Front), Alaa Zyoud from Jenin (detained since 2010 from Islamic Jihad), and Hadi Daadara from Bethlehem (detained since 2011 from the Fatah movement).
On the social level, for example, more than 90 zakat committees were dissolved in the West Bank, and more than 130 charitable organizations were dismantled, including sports and social committees and clubs, all of which constituted an important charitable source. Socially and economically, to support people and enhance their steadfastness, on charges of “terrorism” and “money laundering.” As happened during the same period, and during the era of Ministers of Endowments Jamal Bawatna (2007-2009) and Mahmoud Al-Habbash (2009-2014), the mosque in the West Bank was controlled as a social and political space, in which people carried out their activities and launched their demonstrations.
As for the economic level, Salam Fayyad’s policies in what was called “economic reform” left room for banks to flood people with loans, creating a kind of illusory economic well-being. According to the Palestinian Monetary Authority, the lending rate increased between 2007 and 2017 to more than 460%. The bulk of them were loans for consumer purposes.
The book “Shortly Before the Crisis: Policies of Flooding the West Bank with Debt” points out the features of this. For example, the value of loans to finance cars in 2008 amounted to about 40 million dollars, but by the end of 2013 this number reached more than 130 million dollars, and the percentage of cars Registered for the first time in 2018 and mortgaged to banks, 22%. As for artificial prosperity, according to the Ministry of Transport, in 2023, about 3,000 luxury cars (of the types: Mercedes, BMW, Land Rover, Jaguar, Alfa Romeo, and Porsche) that had never been licensed entered the West Bank market. In the West Bank before, that is, 10% of the total number of cars licensed for the first time this year.
According to the Association of Banks in Palestine, the value of credit facilities until November 2023 amounted to more than $11 billion, a growth rate of 5% over the previous year. In order to meet these great needs created for people in credit facilities and lending, the number of branches and ATMs providing banking services in Palestine increased, reaching 378 branches and 724 ATMs affiliated with 13 banks.
In the end, work on these three levels during these years led to the creation of deficits in the West Bank, the roots of which went deep into the earth. On the one hand, people’s right to organize within effective social frameworks that strengthen their social fabric was confiscated, so they were left defenseless in the face of occupation and settlement policies. On the other hand, their right to political expression was confiscated by blackmailing them with matters of living, so they were left defenseless in the face of the brutality of the banks, as they were tied to the debt guillotine. On the third hand, work was done. To dismantle the armed resistance by striking it and its social incubator.
While this is happening to an entire generational segment, upon which the policies of the post-second intifada were tried, there was a generation growing up that did not submit to these policies. It was not restricted by a loan or restrained by oppression, and did not drive itself into stakes of deficit in the land. These are some of the characteristics of the youth of the armed brigades in the West Bank today, who did not burden themselves to the ground in order for the West Bank to join...
Operational Update - Lebanon
Over 60 rockets fired by Hezbollah in the largest attack by Hezbollah against Israeli civilians since 2006. Hezbollah says it fired dozens of Katyusha rockets towards Israeli town of Kfar Blum. The terrorist group says the attack was in response to the death of a mother, father and son in Houla, southern Lebanon, earlier when Israel struck the area
The following is the text of the statement issued by the Islamic Resistance :
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. “Permission has been given to those who fight because they have been wronged, and indeed, God is Able to grant them victory.” God, the Most High, the Great, has spoken the truth.
In support of our steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and in support of their brave and honorable resistance, the Mujahideen of the Islamic Resistance targeted, at 01:00 am on Tuesday 03/05/2024, an Israeli enemy military force moving in the vicinity of the Raheb site with artillery shells and wounded it directly.
“And victory is only from Allah, the Mighty, the Wise.”
The Lebanese "Hezbollah" published a summary of its operations against the Israeli army since October 8, 2023 (following the Hamas movement's launch of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood) until Tuesday at 4 p.m. Lebanon time. Hezbollah's military media reported in an "infographic" that during this period, it carried out 1,194 attacks against Israel. Hezbollah indicated that Israel's human losses amounted to more than 2,000 dead and wounded.
Fighter jets attacked a launch site in the A-Taiba area from where launches were made to the Kiryat Shmona area this evening. In addition, an aircraft attacked an anti-aircraft launch site in the Arab El Loyza area from which launches were made to the Kiryat Shmona area. Fighter jets attacked a Hezbollah military structure in the Dabin area and a terrorist infrastructure of the organization in the Aita al-Sha'ab area.
Fighter jets attacked a Hizbollah military site in the Eyta al-Sha'ab area, from which two anti-tank missiles were launched today (Tuesday) towards the Birnit area, no casualties. Also, the IDF attacked the organization's operational headquarters in the Jabal al-Batam area, Launching positions in the El Matamura area and military buildings in the Majdal Zone, Khula and Kafra areas.
A UAV that crossed from Syria into Israel was detected by the HA's control and detection systems. An alert was activated in the Home Front Command application in open areas in the north of the country. Aircrew fighters in an F-15 fighter jet successfully intercepted it.
Deputy Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Naeem Qassem, confirmed today, Tuesday, that “stopping the war in the Gaza Strip will mean stopping it in Lebanon, and after that all discussions related to the south will be completed in the right way.” Qassem said: “When the truce begins in Gaza, it will also begin in Lebanon, and Hockstein can say what he wants and we will say what we want.”
The Deputy Secretary-General of the Lebanese "Hezbollah" threatened Israel that if it carried out any "folly" (meaning a war on Lebanon), it would suffer an "additional resounding defeat." Qassem said: “They threaten us with aggression, and we threaten them with steadfastness, resistance, and confrontation... confronting the brave heroes that they had tasted from us before, and we tell them if you commit any foolishness... I imagine that it will be an improved version of July 2006, an additional resounding defeat for Israel, and an additional resounding victory for Hezbollah.” God, Lebanon, and the entire axis of resistance.”
He added: “When the envoys come to Lebanon, they discuss with us the intimidation of the Israeli aggression! No one discussed with us how the aggression can stop. Rather, they tell us that the aggression against Gaza will continue and we advise that you do not continue in Lebanon, because Israel may expand its aggression. Who are you threatening? Who do you fear?!”
During his visit to Beirut, the American envoy to Lebanon, Amos Hockstein, carried a “threatening message” to Lebanese officials that “the truce in Gaza will not necessarily extend automatically to Lebanon,” and stressed that “escalation is a dangerous matter and there is no such thing as a limited war.” He also proposed “changing the security formula.” On the Lebanese-Israeli border.
Operational Update - Syria / Iraq
rien
Operational Update - Yemen
Theresa Fallon reported that 4 of 15 undersea communications cables in the Red Sea have been cut, affecting 25% of data traffic flowing between Asia and Europe.
The Ansar Allah group (the Houthis) announced o "the implementation of a qualitative military operation in which they targeted two American war destroyers in the Red Sea with naval missiles and drones." The Houthis announce the targeting of two American destroyers in the Red Sea. They said in a statement: “The Yemeni armed forces, with the help of God Almighty, carried out a qualitative military operation in which they targeted two American warship destroyers in the Red Sea, through our naval forces, missile force, and unmanned air force. The operation was carried out with a number of naval missiles and drones.”
The statement added: "The Yemeni Armed Forces will not hesitate to expand their operations against all hostile targets, in response to the calls of the free people of our great people and our Islamic nation to provide support and assistance to the Palestinian people, who until this moment are exposed to aggression and siege." The group stressed in its statement that: “The operations of the Yemeni armed forces will not stop until the aggression stops and the siege on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip is lifted.”
The Minister of Defense of the Yemeni Ansar Allah movement, Muhammad Al-Atfi, confirmed that the next stage is open to wide developments and that the movement has many cards that it has not resorted to using yet.
The Minister of Defense said during his meeting today with the moral guidance staff of the axes, brigades and military units in the Fifth Military District in Hodeidah: “The evil and criminal trio, America, Britain, and [Israel] and those in their orbit, must understand well the speech of Commander Abdul-Malik Badr al-Din al-Houthi and take what was stated in it seriously because He said that actions must be implemented without delay or delay.
He added, " The Yemeni armed forces , with all their types and formations, are fully prepared and prepared to carry out the immediate and interim sovereign tasks assigned to them. They are capable of surprising the enemies of the nation, religion, and humanity with painful and earth-shattering strikes in accordance with the new requirements, rules, and equations, foremost of which is the full right to Yemeni sovereignty in the Red and Arab Bahrain, and it makes all enemies rethink." "Time and again before they test the patience of the Yemenis."
Al-Atifi stated that the American-British criminal aggression against Yemen came in response to the position of the Republic of Yemen and its armed forces in strongly supporting and supportive of the Palestinian people and their valiant resistance in Gaza.
He repented: “We affirm to Washington and London that if you see yourselves concerned with protecting Zionist practices and sponsoring their brutal absurdity, then, out of religion and human, moral and Arab values, we are obligated to stand in support of our brothers and sons of our Palestinian people who are being subjected to genocide in front of the eyes of a mute and complicit international community.”
He added, "We will always be on the lookout for every Zionist, American, or British ship that seeks to violate the ban that we imposed on the movement of these ships in the Red and Arab Seas until they return to their senses and abandon their brutality."
He pointed out that the shortest way is for Zionism to stop its genocide and criminal acts against the Palestinian people in besieged Gaza, and in the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories, by stopping the aggression, lifting the siege, and ending the occupation so that fair and just peace prevails in the entire region.
He stressed that the blatant and repeated attacks carried out by the Americans and the British did not and will not affect the Yemeni resistance or the morale of the Yemeni people, and the more the aggression doubles its power, the more the people of Yemen double their strength, solidity, and steadfastness in the principled and firm position of supporting and assisting Gaza and its valiant resistance until victory is achieved.
He continued, saying, "The more the Zionist entity and those who support it persist in racial genocide and commit more brutality against children, women, and civilians in Gaza and in the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories, the more Yemen will escalate with a greater escalation and stronger military positions and influence."
The emotional minister pointed out that the next stage is open to major and broad developments, and the Yemeni armed forces have many cards that they have not resorted to, but if they are forced to do so, the price will be high for the decision centers in Washington, London, and Tel Aviv.
Sana'a continues its support for the Palestinian cause by restricting ships heading to the Israeli entity, as it imposed on ships passing through Yemeni territorial waters to obtain a permit from its Maritime Affairs Authority. This comes as the Yemeni armed forces targeted an Israeli cargo ship, hours after targeting American warships.
As part of its continued support for the Palestinian people who are subjected to ongoing brutal aggression, Yemen is expanding pressure on the Israeli entity and its supporters to stop the aggression, with a weapon that has proven its effectiveness. In this context, Sanaa recently imposed on ships that want to cross its territorial waters to obtain a permit from its Maritime Affairs Authority, and the Minister of Communications in the National Salvation Government, Misfer Al-Numair, said that this measure came out of concern for the safety of ships passing through the region and expressed his country’s readiness to help. In meeting requests for permits and identification of ships with the Yemeni Navy.
This Yemeni step comes at a time when the British Maritime Security Agency, Embry, announced that an Israeli cargo ship flying the Liberian flag, off the coast of Yemen, was targeted, causing damage to it without causing any casualties. Embry said that this ship was on its way from Singapore to Djibouti. It is listed as being operated by Israeli shipping company ZIM.
For its part, the Yemeni Armed Forces confirmed the targeting of an Israeli ship, just hours after another targeting of American warships in the Red Sea. This was confirmed by the US Central Military Command. An anti-ship ballistic missile was fired at the container ship MSC Sky Two in the Gulf of Aden. Which caused damage.
The Yemeni escalation against the Israeli entity and its supporters prompted the Hebrew newspaper Jerusalem Post to acknowledge the failure of the US-led naval coalition and the European coalition to stop the Yemeni operations, and considered their failure to lack a convincing explanation. This failure was also confirmed by American officials to the Financial Times, who said that the bombing campaign on Yemen is hampered by intelligence gaps and that the American army does not have accurate information about the Yemeni arsenal and they cannot assess the damage caused by the raids on 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
On 4 March, the UNRWA Commissioner-General, Philippe Lazzarini, addressed the UN General Assembly. In response to Israeli allegations of the involvement of UNRWA staff from Gaza in the 7 October attacks on Israel, 16 donor countries have paused their funding, amounting to a US$450 million loss to the Agency. In the West Bank, the Israeli authorities have initiated measures against UNRWA, including banning local staff members from entering East Jerusalem, which is affecting all its services. As a result of these measures, the Commissioner-General warned that UNRWA is functioning ‘hand-to-mouth’ and that the fate of the Agency, and the millions of people who depend on it across its five fields of operation, ‘hang in the balance.’ In Gaza, the collapse of the Agency would result in immense human suffering as ‘only UNRWA has the footprint and the capacity to deliver services … in the absence of a full-fledged state authority.’ The Commissioner-General also stated that ‘UNRWA’s mandate embodies the promise of a fair and lasting political solution’ and that ‘dismantling the Agency in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, would only serve those who oppose such a solution.’
According to HelpAge, the decision by major donors to withdraw funding from UNRWA will worsen the plight of already deprived Palestinian civilians. Prior to the current hostilities, older people in Gaza were already living with the long-term impact of conflict and displacement, with reduced access to essential health and social services. Anecdotal evidence indicates that the number of older people living in designated shelters is disproportionately high in the north of Gaza. The suspension of funding directly affects the health and well-being of older people, who are likely to lack the necessary medications for non-communicable diseases, and are also at risk of isolation, trapped in combat areas, and facing starvation due to food insecurity, the organization says. HelpAge calls upon ‘governments to reassess and backtrack on their decisions to withdraw funding from UNRWA. The humanitarian crisis unfolding demands collective responsibility and a commitment to the well-being of the most vulnerable and those who need it the most, including Gaza’s older people.’
The Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ) on denounced the adoption by a UN official of Israeli allegations of committing “sexual violations” against Israeli women during Operation Al-Aqsa Flood 5 months ago. After her visit to Israel, Pramila Patten, Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, yesterday presented a report in which she said that there were “reasonable grounds to believe that acts of sexual violence, including rape and gang rape, occurred in several places during the attack launched by Hamas.” On Israel on October 7th.
According to the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, the report stated that it cannot currently attribute all the actions in the Gaza envelope settlements that day to Hamas due to the possibility that some of them were carried out by a “mob” that arrived in the area after the outbreak of the attack. In a statement issued today, Hamas said that it strongly rejects the report regarding allegations that its fighters committed incidents of “rape and sexual violence” that day, and described the UN official’s accusations against it as false, noting that its report did not document any testimony from those it called “victims.”
The statement said that Patten relied in her report on Israeli institutions, soldiers, and witnesses chosen by the Israeli occupation authorities to push the issue in an attempt to prove what the statement described as “a false accusation refuted by all international investigations and reports.” Hamas added, “What it described as the UN official’s allegations completely contradict what was stated in the testimonies of released Israeli women and female prisoners about the good treatment of them by the resistance fighters,” adding that these accusations will not succeed in obscuring the ugliness and horror of the crimes committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip, which resulted in the death of more than Of 30 thousand Palestinians, most of whom are children and women.
Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said that he summoned Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, for consultations in protest against what he said were attempts by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to conceal and hide a report on "sexual violations" that Tel Aviv claims were committed by Hamas in The seventh of last October.
Katz added that Secretary Guterres brought the organization to its lowest level by ignoring what he called the terrible crimes against humanity committed against Jews and Israelis. He added that Israel will do everything it can to prevent the Secretary-General and his friends from ignoring the report and not taking the required steps. Katz criticized Guterres for not convening the Security Council to discuss what had been reached and for declaring Hamas a “terrorist” organization. According to Israel Today newspaper, the decision to summon the Israeli ambassador was made without consulting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In response to the statements of the Israeli Foreign Minister, Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the United Nations Secretary-General, said that Guterres may have sought to conceal the report on alleged sexual violations against Israeli women, adding that he supports the work of the Special Representative on Sexual Violence.
Axis of Resistance
Political analysts and experts confirmed to the Voice of America websitethat the regime in Tehran is trying to exploit the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, “to strengthen Iran’s influence in the Middle East, through its agents in the region.” Lebanese analyst and researcher, Patricia Karam, said that Iran sees the war that has been going on in the Palestinian sector for about 5 months as “an opportunity to exercise more influence over its agents in the Middle East,” within what is known as the “Axis of Resistance.”
She pointed to "increasing anti-Israel sentiment" in the Middle East due to the war between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hamas movement, which was sparked by the unprecedented attack launched by the Palestinian group (classified on the US terrorist list) on October 7 on Israel. Karam believed that “it has now become difficult” for signatories to peace agreements with Israel, such as the UAE and Bahrain, “to cooperate with it, given the staggering scale of death and destruction in Gaza and the deteriorating humanitarian situation” in the Palestinian Strip.
Since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip, the Iranian regime seemed happy and optimistic about what the Iranian guide, Ali Khamenei, described as “the defeat of Israel,” and this has its reasons, according to an analysis from the magazine “Foreign Affairs.” In addition, she warned that "the Gaza war put an obstacle in efforts to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia."
Karam stressed that Iran "will suffer greatly if the conflict escalates," especially with regard to Israel's northern neighbor, Lebanon, where Hezbollah militants are stationed in the south of the country. She added: "This attack has revitalized the discourse of (what is known as) resistance, but it is not clear how much gains Iran will gain from the aggravation of the conflict, especially since (Lebanese) Hezbollah represents an important asset to it and it does not want to weaken it." She added: "The clashes on the Lebanese-Israeli border continue, but there is always a risk of this balancing act collapsing, whether due to miscalculation or a deliberate decision, as events could escalate."
For his part, Diwan blog editor and managing editor at the Malcolm Kerr-Carnegie Middle East Center, Michael Young, explained that “despite the recognition of Iran’s growing regional influence, one thing is equally clear: wherever the Iranians impose their power, "The results were disastrous." Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said on Saturday that his country has been exchanging messages with the United States since the start of the Israeli war on Hamas in Gaza four months ago, including messages related to the Lebanese Hezbollah group.
He continued: "Observers have described the pro-Iranian network of regional political and military actors as an 'axis of resistance,' but the truth is that everywhere, it is primarily an axis of ruin." Young stressed that Iranian influence through proxies “enhanced Tehran’s power,” but “left many Arab societies in a state of misery,” pointing to the devastating wars supported by Iran in Syria and Yemen, while Iraq is dominated by militias loyal to Tehran, “which prevented the emergence of a state.” effective and undermined the elections.”
Young, who is based in Beirut, added: “In Lebanon, Hezbollah protected the political class that caused the economic collapse, while economic reforms were derailed; and in Gaza, Iran’s allies caused a war that devastated the region.” Young wondered whether Iran would agree to disarm its allies in the region, especially Hezbollah.
In a related context, the global fellow at the Wilson Center in Washington, the former US ambassador to Lebanon, David Hale, said during a recent webinar that “the United States must confront Iran directly,” without his words going so far as to call for the actual overthrow. By the regime in Tehran. He added: "We have a strong desire to avoid escalation in Lebanon, the Gaza Strip, and the rest of the region, so that a regional war does not occur, and here we tend to focus on the agents of our enemies."
He added: "Currently, the focus is on Iran's agent in Lebanon, which is Hezbollah... but if you do not have a strategy that deals with the mastermind (Tehran), your strategies in dealing with the agents will not lead to the desired results." At the same time, Iran warned that “a direct confrontation between it and the United States has become more likely” as long as the war between Israel and Hamas continues, according to the Voice of America website. The US envoy for energy affairs, Amos Hockstein, visited Beirut, hoping to stop the escalation of hostilities along the Lebanese-Israeli border, in an attempt to prevent a larger confrontation.
The foreign ministers of Iran and Saudi Arabia weighed plans to resolve the crisis in Palestine in advance of an emergency meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) about Gaza. In the meeting, held in Jeddah on Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian thanked Saudi Arabia for accepting Iran’s proposal for the OIC ministerial meeting, calling for a strong and unified stance in support of Palestine and for effectual efforts to stop the Israeli regime’s war crimes against the people of Gaza.
He also hailed the growing trend in cooperation between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Amirabdollahian stressed the need to promote economic and trade relations in tandem with the improving political ties between Tehran and Riyadh. For his part, Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud highlighted the role that the OIC meeting can play in ending the war on Palestine.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian stressed the need to find practical ways and serious steps to help get out of the current crisis, pointing out that the United States’ prevention of stopping the Israeli aggression on Gaza proves that pinning hopes on America for a ceasefire in Gaza is an illusion because it is a partner in it.
Hossein Amir Abdollahian, Iranian Foreign Minister, said: “The difficulties and misfortunes that the Palestinian people are going through will certainly end, but what is important is what we all do... Relations must be completely severed with the Zionist entity in a way that forces it and America to stop the massacres in Gaza. Washington prevented it from stopping.” The Israeli aggression proves that pinning hopes on America for a ceasefire in Gaza is an illusion because it is an accomplice in these crimes.”
The spokesman for the Islamic Jihad movement, Muhammad al-Hajj Musa, said that since the start of the first round of negotiations, the occupation has been stubborn and over time retreats after the negotiations take a positive turn.
Muhammad Al-Haj Musa added in an exclusive interview with Al-Alam Channel via the program (With Al-Hadath) that the resistance, the Islamic Jihad movement, Hamas, and all the Palestinian factions were very positive and dealt with unprecedented flexibility with the mediators, as they agreed to the issue of stages and other points because they wanted a ceasefire , but the occupation did not want that. The Prime Minister of the occupation government, Netanyahu, was not serious in all the negotiations he was talking about.
He continued that even the talk of America, which is managing this war, and the talk of the international community about the necessity of a ceasefire, and the decisions that happened in the International Court, and the talk of the Security Council about the necessity of a ceasefire in Gaza in general, were not followed by real and field measures. He stressed that the general picture is that there is a public relations party at the expense of Palestinian blood, but what is required and agreed upon strategically is that the United States of America, the Zionist entity, and the West are committed to the necessity of ending resistance and exterminating the Palestinian people.
Allied for Democracy
Tensions have only been on the rise since Benny Gantz and Benjamin Netanyahu demonstrated their dispute in the Israeli War Cabinet after Gantz coordinated a visit to Washington without governmental approval, the Wall Street Journal reported. "Israel only has one prime minister", Netanyahu said, however, he was still disregarded by Gantz who made his way to Washington and met with US Vice President Kamala Harris.
The WSJ's most recent piece on the situation in the war cabinet, it was analyzed that the incident reflects more on the commotion in the cabinet, as members rush to mount the political ladder, overstep, argue over how to proceed with the war, and altercate over the prisoner exchange deal. This is accompanied by international pressure that is urging the Israeli occupation to establish a ceasefire and end the aggression on Gaza.
The agglomerate of political power in Cabinet includes Gantz, Netanyahu, and Yoav Gallant, three rivals that have united to wage war against Gaza. However, as the war drags on, each of them transpires to work based on what they deem fit, independent of the cabinet itself. Gallant has recently suggested the legislation and conscription of Haredi Jews, a religious community exempt from military service, into the Israeli occupation forces. The move has been regarded as a major step in overthrowing Netanyahu's coalition that widely relies on two ultraorthodox parties.
Therefore, Gantz meeting with US officials, while they expressed their growing frustration with Netanyahu's policies and decisions, and during all this commotion, further fueled the feud. On Monday, Gantz met with Harris and other top officials from the Biden administration and is set to meet with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday. Both parties discussed the genocide in Gaza, the protection of Palestinians ahead of the invasion of Rafah, and further normalization of ties between "Israel" and countries in the region. He had also been in contact with international leaders, prominently Arab officials, a move considered a reflection of the international community's distrust in Netanyahu.
Gantz is generally highly regarded in the US, which is why he was the trusted party to bridge the gap between "Israel" and the US created by the war on Gaza. For example, the US airdropped humanitarian relief aid over Gaza, a move signifying the growing misunderstandings with "Israel". However, Gantz and Gallant's suggestions to the war cabinet were strategized to get the approval from their respective parties but rejected by Netanyahu. As the Cabinet moves to draft the Haredim Netanyahu finds himself at the center of trouble. The aim, according to the cabinet members' associates, is not to topple Netanyahu, but to leave a mark on the government as the fate of Gaza remains unknown, and Israel faces the threat of war with Hezbollah on the northern front.
Former Israeli Security Minister Avigdor Lieberman had stated that Netanyahu's government has reached its demise. Speaking with the Israeli Occupation's Army Radio on Sunday, Lieberman predicted that war cabinet member, Benny Gantz, would declare its end. Lieberman stressed that Israeli settlers have given Netanyahu's government confidence for 5 months during the Israeli war on Gaza but "this is over now" as the occupation has failed to achieve its goals, specifically that of "destroying Hamas."
These failures have ignited several internal conflicts between Israeli officials on different liability issues, in parallel with many protests in "Tel Aviv" urging the occupation government to opt for the captives deal. Former Deputy Chairman of the occupation's "National Security Council", Eran Etzion, confirmed that Netanyahu's government has been "lying" as no "military solutions" can solve the settlers' problems in the North or the South. Speaking with Israeli Channel 13, he added that it is no coincidence that Netanyahu's government has not solved "the issue of Hamas" in Gaza for five months since October 7 stressing that the latter is due to "failed administration".
Two Al Jazeera analysts confirmed that the visit of Israeli War Council Minister Benny Gantz to the American capital, and the shouting of the occupation army’s chief of staff, Herzi Halevy, at ministers during a meeting confirm that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has begun to lose his control over the political scene. The writer specializing in Israeli affairs, Ihab Jabarin, said that Netanyahu had imposed control over the war council, the government coalition, and the Knesset last February for the first time since he took the reins of leadership at the end of 2022.
Jabareen pointed out - in his interview with the program “Gaza... What’s next?” - that things had gotten out of control, especially with Defense Minister Yoav Galant’s statements regarding the recruitment of extremist Jews and the army’s release of a tape showing the killing of two prisoners in Gaza, “so that the extent and depth of the gap between Netanyahu’s ambitions and Israel’s capabilities becomes clear.” military in the field.
He pointed out that Halevy was, from the first day of the war, the target of Netanyahu's government partners, and for the first time in Israel's history , members of the Knesset mocked and attacked the Chief of Staff in the midst of a war. He stressed that Netanyahu did not control the field scene despite his political control, "so what he fears most are the elite security personnel, as he is a graduate of the diplomatic corps, and his war against these figures is not imaginary, because they are able to make him appear as a weak man."
In turn, Palestinian writer and political analyst Ahmed Al-Haila said that there is a problem between Halevy and the politicians, as the former believes that the army is achieving tactical achievements, while Netanyahu’s ministers hold him responsible for the failure, describing the dispute between them as strategic.
He added that Halevy accuses politicians of being unable to decide between options, such as eliminating the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ), or liberating detained prisoners, especially since Netanyahu raises slogans that complicate the political path, such as refusing to take power or Hamas over affairs in Gaza, and establishing a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu's level of confidence in Halevy appears weak - according to Al-Hila - who believes that the latter is not consistent with the goals of the extreme right, noting that the Chief of Staff reserves reservations on political decisions, while the Prime Minister takes his decisions based on ideological visions. Al-Haila believes that Netanyahu wants to open a front against his opponents, at a time when the Israeli public is accusing him of prolonging the war for personal goals. “Therefore, Washington believes that Gantz is a winning horse that can be bet on in light of the opinion polls that place him as the most prominent candidate to succeed Netanyahu.”
He added that Washington is sending strongly worded messages to Netanyahu through Gantz, saying, “Stop evasiveness and lying, and do not deviate from the path we want, and we do not have a surplus of time as the US presidential elections approach.” He explains that the Israeli scene is divided between the extreme right and between Gantz, Eisenkot, and opposition politicians outside the government, as Gantz agrees with the American view of not wanting regional escalation, especially with the failure of the Israeli army and Netanyahu to achieve the goals that the United States supported.
For his part, Jabareen described what Gantz is experiencing as a translation of the euphoria of fake opinion polls, pointing out that the man was in the United States on October 5 and discussed at that time how to enter Netanyahu’s government as part of Washington’s efforts to search for a partner to deal with him. He pointed out that Netanyahu was aware of the seriousness of the situation when he brought Gantz into the war council after the “ Al-Aqsa Flood ,” before wondering how the two men would deal with each other after the latter returned from his foreign tour that included the British capital, London?
The Israeli newspaper Maariv said on Tuesday that US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan called on Minister of the Israeli War Council Benny Gantz , who is visiting Washington, to set a specific timetable for ending the war that has been ongoing in the Gaza Strip for 5 months. The newspaper reported details of the meeting held at the White House, Monday evening, in which Sullivan called on Gantz to set a specific timetable for ending the war in Gaza.
The Israeli Broadcasting Authority also indicated that Gantz asked American officials to pressure Egypt and Qatar to make the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ) accept the Israeli position in the ongoing talks, to reach an agreement to exchange prisoners and a prolonged ceasefire in Gaza. The authority reported that Gantz told senior American officials - during Monday's meetings at the White House - "You must escalate the pressure on the mediators to make Hamas flexible. You have the ability to put pressure, and they have the tools."
On Sunday, Gantz began an official visit to Washington, in light of American reports indicating that the American administration is beginning to run out of patience with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s behavior in the war and allegations that he is being constrained by his two partners in the government, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich , according to the newspaper. Yedioth Ahronoth. Gantz also met on Monday evening with Kamala Harris , US Vice President, while negotiations were being held in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, in order to reach a truce in Gaza with the approaching month of Ramadan.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller stated today that the United States condemns the Israeli argument that the murder of more than 30,000 Palestinians, including women and children, is a "fair price" in the occupation's alleged attempts to "eliminate Hamas." When asked if it is a "fair price" during a press briefing, he answered "No, and we do not want to see any civilians killed. We made that absolutely clear."
In an interview for The New Yorker published on March 4th, US President Joe Biden told the world that he believes Israel has to "give this just a little bit of time". Biden tried to justify Israel's actions by saying that "the pressure on the [Israeli] leadership to move with every ounce of capacity against Hamas is real."
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said: “It is the responsibility of Hamas to make decisions about whether it is ready to participate.” Blinken added “We have an opportunity for an immediate ceasefire that can bring the hostages home, can significantly increase the amount of humanitarian aid reaching Palestinians who desperately need it, and can create the conditions for a lasting solution”.
A recent YouGov poll conducted by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) found that 52% of American citizens agree that the US government should cease weapons shipments to the Israeli occupation entity until it ends its ongoing aggression on the Gaza Strip. The poll reveals a significant partisan divide, with 62% of respondents who voted for President Biden in 2020 supporting the statement, "The US should stop weapons shipments to Israel until Israel discontinues its attacks on the people of Gaza." Only 14% of Biden voters disagree with the statement, while 24% remain undecided.
On the other hand, only 30% of former President Donald Trump's voters support suspending US weapons shipments to the Israeli occupation, with a majority (55%) opposing, and 15% expressing uncertainty. The poll showed that among those who did not vote in the 2020 presidential elections, 60% believe the US should block weapons shipments to Israel, while 17% disagree with the statement and 23% are unsure.
The survey also revealed that 52% of respondents favor the cessation of US weapons to the Israeli occupation over a ceasefire in Gaza, while 27% favored a ceasefire, and 21% were uncertain.
Operation Iron Swords - By the Numbers
- 72,043 Gazans injured
- 40,000 Gazans killed, including buried under rubble
- 33,000 Gaza targets attacked
- 30,631 Gazans martyred
- 15,000 rocket launched from Gaza
- 14,492 Israelis were injured [i24 TV]
- 13,430 Gazan children martyred
- 13,000 HAMAS combatants killed [N12]
- 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
- 8,900 Gazan women martyred
- 8,000 Gazans missing
- 7,335 arrested by Israelis in the West Bank since Oct.7th
- 6,000 HAMAS combatants killed [HAMAS]
- 5,500 IDF wounded [reports]
- 4,650 West Bank Palestinians wounded
- 3,484 administrative detainees
- 3,400 wanted persons arrested throughout Judea and Samaria
- 2,976 IDF wounded [IDF]
- 1,609 terrorists killed on the first day
- 1,500 wanted persons arrested throughout Judea and Samaria affiliated with Hamas
- 1,200 Israelis killed on the first day
- 575 Israeli officers and soldiers killed
- 431 West Bank Palestinians martyred
- 246 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 Israeli 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.
Lord Roberts of Belgravia (Con) stated 08 February 2024 "My Lords, even if we were to take as accurate Hamas’s statistics and the 27,500 figure — there is no reason why we should; we do not do that with Putin or ISIS — if one subtracts the number of Gazans who have been killed by the quarter or so of the Islamic Jihad and Hamas rockets that fall short, one is left with a less than 2:1 ratio of civilians to Hamas terrorists killed, of whom there have been more than 9,000 so far. War is hell, and every individual civilian death is a tragedy, but — I speak as a military historian — less than 2:1 is an astonishingly low ratio for modern urban warfare where the terrorists routinely use civilians as human shields. It is a testament to the professionalism, ethics and values of the Israel Defense Forces."
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
