The Zionist occupation forces on Thursday presses on with its genocide in Gaza for the 83rd consecutive day, with strikes pounding different areas across the besieged enclave and occupation soldiers attempting to advance amid a catastrophic humanitarian situation.
In northern Gaza, Al-Manar correspondent reported at least 30 people martyred as Israeli warplanes struck a residential area in Beit Lahia.
The amount of destruction in Beit Lahia, as a result of the heavy Israeli airstrikes in northern Gaza, throughout the days of the aggression. pic.twitter.com/dJWFv5mJgW
Meanwhile in central Gaza Strip, Israeli strikes and shelling targeted residential areas in Al-Maghazi and Al- Nusseirat refugee camps, killing dozens of civilians, mostly shildren and women.
Elsewhere in southern Gaza, the Palestinian Red Crescent announced that at least 10 people have been martyred and 12 injured in an attack near El Amal City Hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis.
For its part, Health Ministry in Gaza put the death toll of the Israeli aggression on Gaza since October 7 at 21,110, noting that the number of injured people reached 55,243.
On the other hand, Government Media Office in Gaza said two more journalists were martyred during Israeli strikes in the last 24 hours, putting the death toll of the Palestinian journalists at 105.
“Catastrophic Hunger”
Tackling the catastrophic humanitarian conditions in Gaza, the UNRWA reiterated its call for a humanitarian ceasefire.
“Gaza is grappling with catastrophic hunger. Every day is a struggle for survival, finding food and finding water,” Thomas White, director of UNRWA affairs in Gaza was quoted as saying on X.
"Every day is a struggle for survival, finding food and finding water" @TomWhiteGaza
📍#Gaza is grappling with catastrophic hunger. 40% of the population are now at risk of famine.
“40 percent of the population are now at risk of famine,” the UNRWA added.
Incursions
For its part, the Palestinian Information Center reported that the Israeli occupation forces “are carrying out horrific crimes in areas that they are attempting to advance in, including field executions, raids, looting and destroying homes and facilities, as well as laying siege to home where Palestinian citizens are being trapped in.”
The center reported high number of injured people and martyrs in both streets and houses, noting that the ambulances can’t reach these areas.
The occupation forces also carry out random arrests against citizens, including widespread harassment, according to the Palestinian Information Center.
Al-Qassam Brigades also announced downing a Zionist drone (SkyLark-2) while it was carrying out an espionage mission over northern Gaza.
Al-Qassam military media also released a video which displays a song which addresses the Israelis in Hebrew with English and Arabic subtitles. The main idea of the song is the long agonies of the israelis with Netanyahu and his war decisions.
Al-Qassam Brigades successfully targeted two Israeli Merkava tanks with “Al-Yassin 105” shells, as well as an Israeli troop carrier, resulting in casualties among Israeli occupation soldiers and significant damage to their vehicles.
Meanwhile, the Al-Quds Brigades engaged in fierce clashes with anti-tank missiles, machine guns, and mortar shells, inflicting further damage on enemy forces. Additionally, the resistance fighters of the Al-Quds Brigades destroyed military concentrations of the Israeli occupation with a barrage of mortar shells.
In Gaza Strip, Izz al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades showcased scenes of its fighters targeting enemy soldiers and destroying their vehicles.
In an impressive display of strength, the Al-Quds Brigades bombed a position of Israeli occupation military vehicles in the Juhr al-Dik area, as well as military concentrations on Street 5 in the Al-Taqaddum axis. The attacks utilized a barrage of mortar shells, causing severe damage to the enemy’s assets.
Additional strikes by the Al-Quds Brigades successfully targeted enemy concentrations in the Abu Oreiban land, east of the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, with a staggering 107 missiles and mortar shells. An Israeli Merkava tank was also destroyed on Baghdad Street in the Shujaiya neighborhood, further debilitating the invading forces.
Making their mark in the fight, the fighters of Al-Quds Brigades annihilated military concentrations surrounding the Al-Zalal Mosque with a barrage of 60-caliber regular mortar shells. They also destroyed a gathering of enemy soldiers and vehicles near the Erez site, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.
Not to be outdone, the fighters of the Al-Quds Brigades targeted two Israeli occupation military vehicles on Bank of Palestine Street in Jabalia Al-Balad, further weakening the enemy’s presence in the northern Gaza Strip using Tandom and RPG shells.
Meanwhile, the Al-Qassam Brigades, joined the fight. They destroyed two concentrations of Israeli occupying soldiers north and east of the city of Khan Yunis using mortar shells, ending any semblance of control the enemy had in those areas. Further, Israeli occupation troop carrier fell victim to an “Al-Yassin 105” missile, causing even more damage to the occupying forces.
The Al-Qassam Brigades proudly announced their achievements, including the destruction of 35 vehicles, the killing of 48 Israeli occupation soldiers, and the injury of numerous others. In a show of solidarity, the Al-Qassam Brigades retaliated against the Israeli Liman military barracks in the Western Galilee, north of occupied Palestine.
As the resistance continues to fight back, the Al-Qassam Brigades showcased scenes of their missile launches towards the occupied territories. They also revealed footage of their fighters engaging in intense clashes with enemy soldiers in the northern Gaza Strip.
The spokesman for the Martyr Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Ubaida, announced the devastating toll of the last four days of resistance. He confirmed the destruction of 35 military vehicles, the killing of 48 Israeli soldiers, and the injury of numerous others. These numbers reflect the commitment and determination of the fighters to defend their land and people.
With the Palestinian resistance showing no sign of retreat, the ongoing battle against the occupying Israeli occupation forces in Gaza continues to escalate. The indomitable spirit of the resistance fighters serves as a beacon of hope for Palestinians, inspiring them to stand strong in the face of oppression.
The Palestinian resistance has continued their fierce confrontation with the Israeli occupation for the 79th consecutive day. The ongoing clashes, which took place in various areas of the northern Gaza Strip, coincided with relentless air raids on the region. As the battle intensifies, the resistance has successfully thwarted multiple Zionist attempts to advance into strategic locations.
The Palestinian resistance faced off against the occupation forces on the axes of Khan Yunis in a series of intense clashes. Simultaneously, the Israeli occupants launched heavy artillery shelling in an attempt to gain ground in Jabalia al-Balad. However, their efforts were met with fierce resistance from Palestinian fighters, forcing them to retreat.
Admitting the Killing of 13 Israeli soldiers
In a major blow to the Israeli occupation forces, it has been confirmed that 13 of their soldiers have been killed amidst the series of battles. The spokesperson for the Israeli army revealed on Sunday morning that eight soldiers were killed during the clashes in the southern and central Gaza Strip. Additionally, five more soldiers were pronounced dead the previous evening, bringing the death toll to 13 within a span of just 12 hours.
According to the enemy’s confession, an anti-armor missile managed to penetrate a military mechanism equipped with a missile interception system, instantly killing four soldiers and leaving two seriously injured. In a separate incident, an explosive device detonated within a building in central Gaza, resulting in the deaths of two occupation soldiers and the injury of ten others, including three in critical condition.
Another explosive device exploded near a military vehicle, claiming the lives of two Israeli soldiers and severely injuring a third.
بالفيديو | مشاهد من عملية قنص مجاهدي سرايا القدس لمجموعة من جنود العدو الصهيوني شرق الشجاعية pic.twitter.com/I1KBvWgBEC
Even the enemy’s media outlets have acknowledged the tenacity and resilience of the Palestinian resistance. The Israeli newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, noted that Hamas has been displaying remarkable patience on the ground and improving their fighting tactics, leading to the escalating number of casualties within the Israeli occupation army. Reports from various combat zones in Gaza highlight the use of snipers against Israeli occupation soldiers, exposing vulnerabilities in the Israeli occupation forces.
“Hamas is meticulously identifying the weaknesses of the Israeli army in Gaza and launching targeted attacks based on this information,” the newspaper stated, emphasizing the strategic precision adopted by the Palestinian resistance.
As the Palestinian resistance continues to confront the Zionist enemy head-on, their resilience and determination have proven to be formidable. Despite facing enormous challenges, they remain resolute in their quest for justice and freedom.
Al-Qassam snipers shoot their Ghoul sniper rifles at a shooting range, as part of a promotional video of the anti-materials sniper rifle. (Al-Qassam Brigades/Military media)
The Ghoul sniper rifle has been deployed by al-Qassam Brigades throughout the Israeli incursion of the Gaza Strip. Find out more about the specifications and history of this rifle in this short article.
Al-Qassam Brigades released cinematic footage of the production process of its “Ghoul” anti-materials sniper rifle, on Wednesday.
The footage took the internet by storm, as enthusiastic supporters of the Palestinian Resistance, toured a military production room of Hamas’ military wing. Although much is unknown about these production rooms, the military media has brought to light some of the production processes in footage released since October 7, as part of its psychological warfare targeting the Israeli enemy.
Such facilities are responsible for producing weapons, ranging from small firearms to long-rage artillery rockets that can hit targets 250 km away.
Interestingly, this is the first time that the Brigades reveal, in detail, the production process of the Ghoul rifle, which has been named in honor of martyr Engineer Adnan al-Ghoul, a senior al-Qassam official assassinated by “Israel” in 2004.
In fact, the Ghoul sniper rifle was first introduced in 2014, during “Israel’s” failed invasion of the Gaza Strip. Western media outlets paid special attention to the firearm, which highlighted a huge leap in the Resistance’s production capabilities.
At the time, outlets such as the US-based The Washington Post led a media campaign, falsely claiming that the Palestinian Resistance had not acquired the knowledge or expertise to produce such a weapon. The WP published an article, in August of 2014, alleging that the Ghoul is actually the Austrian-made Steyr HS.50 anti-materials sniper rifle.
Although the two rifles are extremely similar, since the Ghoul is a reverse-engineered rifle, the article produced no credible evidence that the al-Qassam Brigades had not produced their own version of the anti-materials rifle.
“Hamas’ claim to have indigenously manufactured this rifle is totally false — from what is visible on the video, it’s clearly an Austrian Steyr HS.50 rifle,” Charles Lister, told WP at the time. The Western propagandist said that Hamas probably bought the rifle off of the black market, attempting to belittle the engineering capabilities of the Palestinian Resistance faction.
“While the Qassam Brigades might achieve some level of internal morale boost by claiming things like this, the blatant falsity apparent to experts suggests a level of desperation on Hamas’ part,” Lister told WP.
More than nine years after Lister’s “expert” remarks, al-Qassam Brigades released the footage titled, “We will continue to kill your soldiers by our locally manufactured snipers,” to put all doubts to bed and silence critics.
The single-shot bolt-action rifle was first manufactured to fire 14.5×114 mm cartridges, according to information released by al-Qassam Brigades in 2014. The Brigades also stated that the first iteration of the Ghoul had an effective range of 2 km and anti-materials capabilities.
The updated version of the Ghoul rifle has kept its anti-materials capabilities, as seen in the video published by al-Qassam on December 20. In fact, rounds fired at steel targets penetrated the targets and exploded upon impact.
Qassam 12.7 mm rounds rip through steel metal targets at a shooting range. (Al-Qassam Brigades/Military media)
The casing of the bullet reads “QASSAM 12.7” matching the Ghoul’s receiver which reads “Qassami Ghoul Sniper Rifle.”
The casing of the bullet reads “QASSAM 12.7” matching the Ghoul’s receiver which reads “Qassami Ghoul Sniper Rifle.”
The receiver of a “Ghoul” sniper rifle is seen as al-Qassam Brigades fighters finalize the production process of several homegrown rifles. (Al-Qassam Brigades/Military media)
Adnan al-Ghoul
The Ghoul sniper rifle was deployed on several occasions in the Gaza Strip, specifically on December 5 and 7. In total, al-Qassam fighters confirmed hits on 10 Israeli occupation soldiers to the east of Khan Younis in these two days. In one operation, several snipers shot down at least six soldiers in one area in the al-Rannah axis to the northeast of the city of Khan Younis.
An illustrated photo of al-Qassam Brigades Engineer, martyr Adnan al-Ghoul. (Al-Qassam Brigades/Military media)
Al-Qassam fighters, through their successful targeting of Israeli occupation forces in 2014 and 2023, have engraved al-Ghoul’s name and legacy into stone. The senior engineer and commander was assassinated by an Israeli attack helicopter “leaving behind his work, knowledge, and jihad,” al-Qassam’s military media wrote in a memorial published this year on the anniversary of his martyrdom.
“Abu Bilal” left behind a number of student engineers who carried on his legacy and worked on producing the Ghoul anti-materials sniper rifle.
A commonality among Resistance factions in Palestine is commemorating the names of their greatest martyrs by naming locally produced devices and weapons after them. Indeed, naming the anti-material rifle after Adnan al-Ghoul ensured “that even after his martyrdom, [the Resistance leader’s] name continues to haunt the [Israeli] occupiers, who believed that with his death, they would find relief from his [acts of Resistance].”
The Israeli aggression against the people of Gaza has continued for 75 consecutive days, leaving devastation in its wake. As the death toll soared to 100 within hours, the total number of martyrs and missing persons since the start of the aggression on October 7 has reached a staggering 27,000.
Yesterday evening, the Israeli occupation aircraft mercilessly bombed a house in Deir al-Balah, resulting in the martyrdom of 13 citizens and leaving others injured. Similarly, in a horrifying display of violence, 15 citizens were martyred and numerous others were injured when the occupants aircraft targeted a house belonging to the Hamdan family in Khan Yunis.
The neighborhoods of Al-Tuffah, Al-Daraj, and Al-Shujaiya in Gaza strip were not spared from the vicious attacks either, as they were bombarded by the occupation artillery. Additionally, a house near Sheikh Radwan Pool in the city faced the wrath of the Israeli warfare.
Tragically, eyewitnesses reported that the occupation forces executed more than 13 citizens near Al-Jalaa Tower in Gaza, leaving them bleeding on the ground. Despite desperate pleas from children and women, who called on the International Red Cross and ambulance crews for assistance, the victims remained stranded.
Medical sources confirmed the arrival of approximately 100 martyrs and hundreds of wounded individuals at hospitals in the past few hours, highlighting the massacre inflicted by the occupation forces throughout the Gaza Strip. A grim reality came to the forefront earlier when an Israeli air strike obliterated two residential towers in the Al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City, resulting in the martyrdom of 50 citizens and leaving others injured and trapped under the rubble.
The occupation’s relentless targeting of the Jabalia area in the northern Gaza Strip continued, causing further devastation and loss of life. Local sources reported that rescue crews discovered the bodies of 50 martyrs and rescued 12 injured individuals from the wreckage. Despite ongoing efforts, 50 people are still missing and trapped underneath the debris.
The Israeli Occupation warplanes carried out a heavy fire belt in Jabalia, north of the Gaza Strip last night. pic.twitter.com/DP9G2DBAwi
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Refugees (UNRWA) headquarters in the Al-Sinaa area of Gaza also suffered the wrath of the occupation forces, adding to the long list of targeted locations.
Khan Yunis, in the south of the Gaza Strip, faced intensive attacks from the occupation’s aircraft and artillery. At Nasser Hospital, numerous bodies of martyrs and dozens of wounded arrived, victims of Israeli raids and live bullets fired by drones targeting a house and a school sheltering displaced people.
A little child finally finds his mother following an Israeli strike on their house Al Amal neighborhood in Khan Yunis, #Gaza. pic.twitter.com/CQzNM78hD5
In the Nuseirat camp of the central Gaza Strip, tragedy struck again as a female citizen was martyred, and four others were injured when the occupation bombed a residential apartment. Ambulance and rescue crews tirelessly worked to recover the bodies of martyrs and wounded individuals from under the ruins of the Al-Salhi Tower in the camp.
Ynetnews : The Israeli occupation forces blew up 56 buildings this morning on the suburb of the Shujaiya neighborhood in the Gaza Strip. pic.twitter.com/rUeCmQlwdM
While these brutal assaults continued unabated, the United Nations General Assembly demonstrated overwhelming support for the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination. In a resolution adopted by 172 countries, the majority called for an end to the Israeli occupation, the establishment of an independent state of Palestine, and the achievement of a just and lasting peace settlement based on relevant United Nations resolutions.
The destruction of the homes in the central governorate of the Gaza after the heavy Israeli. pic.twitter.com/xK0a4RkhHR
Amidst the ongoing tragedy, the World Health Organization issued a grave warning regarding the deteriorating health system in Gaza. An epidemic outbreak looms large, with concerns heightened due to the displacement of nearly one million children in Gaza. The desperate situation is exacerbated by the onset of cold and rainy weather, creating a real state of hunger among the population.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society is struggling to provide essential ambulance services, and the provision of medical supplies to hospitals has also been severely hampered.
Once viewed as a fringe group, Israel’s messianic settler movement holds the reins of power today. Their plans for the ethnic cleansing and resettlement of Gaza needed only two things: a big war and an extremist government.
Almost three weeks into Israel’s bloody ground invasion of Gaza, an Israeli soldier filmed a video from inside the bombed and besieged enclave exclaiming, “We will complete the mission we have been assigned. Conquer, expel and settle. You hear that, Bibi?”
Two months into Tel Aviv’s aerial assault of Gaza, its end goals are still unclear. CNNhas revealed that Israel’s “original plan” for the war was to “level Gaza.” And Israeli minister Ron Dermer proposed a plan to “thin out” the Gaza population by forcing civilians to flee to Egypt by land, or to other parts of Africa and Europe by boat, because the “sea is open to them.”
What is certain is that this is like no other Israeli bombing spree on Gaza. In past campaigns, the Israelis sought out international mediators “from the first day” to broker a ceasefire within days or weeks.
This time, however, the Israelis and their American supporters most decidedly do not want a ceasefire. While their end goals for Gaza have shifted in this conflict, it is equally important to note that Tel Aviv’s plans for that future may be entirely different from Washington’s. Simply, Israel has never had a government as right-wing as the current one cobbled together by its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; a cabinet heaving with religious fundamentalists and messianic fervor.
Plans to ‘reclaim’ Gaza
The roots of Israel’s current campaign to conquer Gaza and ethnically cleanse its 2.3 million Palestinian inhabitants trace back almost two decades, originating with the evacuation of the Gush Katif settlement bloc in 2005.
This move, orchestrated by then-prime minister Ariel Sharon, aimed at continued Jewish settlement and military occupation in the occupied West Bank, but was deemed treacherous by Israel’s uber right-wing, religious settler movement.
It was Ariel Sharon, “the father of settlements,” who designed the Gaza disengagement to ensure continued Jewish settlement and military occupation of the West Bank, but the religious settler movement viewed him as a traitor for giving up “Jewish land,” just as they viewed former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin as a traitor for signing the Oslo Accords to eventually establish a Palestinian state.
Rabin was murdered by Jewish extremist Yigal Amir in 1995, in an act publicly encouraged by a young but prominent religious settler activist, Itamar Ben Gvir.
Another young religious settler, Bezalel Smotrich, was arrested for opposing Sharon’s disengagement policy. To stop Gaza disengagement, Smotrich wanted to blow up cars on the Ayalon highway, at rush hour, using 700 liters of gasoline.
Both men are today allies and prominent ideologues in Netanyahu’s extremist coalition government.
Over the next 18 years, the Likud Party and the religious settler movement, led by figures such as Ben Gvir and Smotrich, harbored dreams of reconquering Gaza to reconstruct Gush Katif. This undertaking would entail completing the expulsion initiated by Zionist militias in 1948, as noted by Israeli historian Benny Morris, by forcing Gazans into exile and preventing their return.
In 2010, then Prime Minister Netanyahu and Knesset member (MK) Gila Gamliel, both Likud members, proposed to the late Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak the settlement of Palestinians in the Sinai peninsula as part of a peace deal-related land swap.
After insisting, “I’m not even willing to listen to those kinds of proposals,” Mubarak was toppled in a US-orchestrated color revolution, part of the region-wide ‘Arab Spring,’ as it was known.
Netanyahu proposed a similar deal to Mubarak’s successor Mohammad Morsi in 2012, and to Morsi’s successor, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi in 2014, but these yielded the same outcomes.
In 2014, during Israel’s brutal 51-day assault on Gaza, Netanyahu sought US intervention with Sisi to propose settling Palestinians in Sinai, but got nowhere. Over 2,300 civilians were killed in that military operation – yet another of Israel’s “mowing the grass” campaigns to inflict setbacks for the resistance, without making any meaningful gains against Hamas.
The plan takes shape
By June 2018, reports surfaced of a new Israeli army plan to “create a considerable change in the situation if it is required to launch a major campaign in Gaza.” This would involve moving beyond temporary bombardment to offensive missions involving elite units who “will enter Gaza and dissect it in two, and even occupy significant parts of it.”
Meanwhile, in 2019, fundamentalist settlers like Ben Gvir continued to express a fervent desire to level Gaza and return to rebuild Gush Katif.
Ahead of the 2022 Knesset elections, three extreme right-wing political parties united to form the Religious Zionism Coalition. These included the Religious Zionism party, headed by Smotrich, the Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party, headed by Ben Gvir, and Noam, a small ultra-orthodox party.
In July 2022, Religious Zionist candidate Arnon Segal wrote during his campaign announcement: “It is time to begin to plan a return to Gush Katif.”
“Yes,” he wrote, “to physically return and rebuild it.”
That September, as the elections drew closer, i24 News, an outlet close to Netanyahu, addressed the issue of Gush Katif, calling it a “lingering wound,” one still open and fresh for Israelis.
“It’s a trauma,” an Israeli named Hillel quoted by i24 News said. “The whole country was hurting.”
The ‘legality’ of the settlers’ return
The effort to rebuild Gush Katif converged with a significant shift in the situation in Gaza when Netanyahu became prime minister for the sixth time after the December 2022 elections. Following a year out of power, Netanyahu formed a coalition between his Likud party and the Religious Zionism Coalition.
The deal with Netanyahu allowed Ben Gvir to become national security minister, while Smotrich was made both finance minister and a minister in Israel’s Defense Ministry, responsible for civil administration in the occupied West Bank.
Under their direction, the occupation state quickly stepped-up military raids against Palestinian resistance groups, accelerated Jewish settlement building, and issued calls for annexing the West Bank.
As violence intensified in March 2023, the Likud-Religious Zionism coalition quietly reversed a crucial aspect of the 2005 Gaza Disengagement. Sharon’s original withdrawal plan involved abandoning four small settlements in the northern West Bank due to security challenges.
However, the Knesset passed an amendment to the disengagement legislation on 21 March, which enabled Jewish settlers to return to these evacuated settlements and paved the way for their reconstruction.
Following the vote, MK Limor Son Har-Melech of the Jewish Power party stated: “We must not rest on our laurels or the euphoria of the moment.” We must also galvanize to “return home to the region of Gush Katif, which was abandoned [in 2005] in an act of terrible folly.”
Minister of National Missions Orit Strock of the Religious Zionism party made a similar call, telling Israel’s Channel 7:
“I believe that, at the end of the day, the sin of the disengagement will be reversed.”
She suggested this would require going to war, adding that “Sadly, a return to the Gaza Strip will nvolve many casualties.” In response, the left-wing Peace Now NGO warned that:
“A messianic revolution is taking place. This government will inevitably destroy our country. They will also deepen the occupation, ignite the region, and establish a Jewish supremacist regime from the river to the sea.”
The Gazan Nakba
In the aftermath of the Palestinian resistance operation of Al-Aqsa Flood on 7 October, a slew of propaganda and fake news created the public outrage needed to justify using overwhelming violence against not only Hamas, but all Gazans, and to implement plans to return to Gush Katif.
Public calls to commit genocide against Gazans became widespread among Israeli politicians, journalists and celebrities.
Israel seized the opportunity and initiated a massive bombing campaign on Gaza, accompanied by demands that Palestinians evacuate the northern half of the besieged enclave, a region home to 1.1 million people — about half of the territory’s population — within 24 hours.
Ex-Israeli Deputy Foreign minister and senior diplomat Danny Ayalon wrote on social media that Gazans must not only go to southern Gaza, but flee to Egypt:
“We don’t tell Gazans to go to the beaches or drown themselves … No God forbid … Go to the Sinai Desert … the international community will build them cities and give them food … Egypt ought to play ball with it.”
Israeli demands that Palestinians flee to Egypt were accompanied by the release on 13 October of a report from Israel’s Ministry of Intelligence, led by Likud MK Gamliel.
Clearly prepared before the events of 7 October, the report recommended the occupation of Gaza and total transfer of its 2.3 million inhabitants to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, while insisting they never be allowed to return.
Further, the plan stated the government should launch a public relations campaign directed toward the west that will promote the ethnic cleansing in a way that does not foster international hostility to Israel or damage its already tarnished reputation.
The mass deportation of the population from Gaza must be presented as a necessary humanitarian measure to receive international support, the report stated. Such a deportation could be justified if it will lead to “fewer casualties among the civilian population compared to the expected number of casualties if they remain.”
Israel’s horrific bombing campaign continued, ensuring that the number of casualties would indeed be massive.
On 27 October, after 7,028 Palestinians – including 2,913 children – had been killed, Israel launched its long-anticipated ground invasion of Gaza.
A week later, the rabbi of an Israeli army unit gave a rousing speech to the troops declaring:
“This land is ours … the entire land, including Gaza, including Lebanon, including all of the promised land! … Gush Katif is tiny compared to what we will achieve with God’s help!”
As outlined in the 2018 plan by the military leadership, invading Israeli troops quickly cut the Gaza strip in two, while also invading from the north along the coast.
After planting an Israeli flag in the sand on Gaza’s beach, one Israeli commander told his troops: “We returned, we were expelled from here almost 20 years ago … This is our land! And that is the victory, to return to our lands.”
As Israeli soldiers were celebrating in Gaza, MKs from the Likud party submitted a bill on 8 November to again amend the 2005 Disengagement Law – this time to “repeal the law that bars Jews from entering the Gaza Strip.”
Three days later, Danny Danon, Israel’s former ambassador to the UN, and Ram Ben Barak, a former deputy director of the Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence service, published an article in the Wall Street Journal advocating the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza, while feigning humanitarian motivations, as outlined in the ministry of intelligence plan.
Sensing that his dream of ethnically cleansing Gaza and rebuilding Gush Katif on the corpses of dead Palestinian children was about to be realized, Bezalel Smotrich welcomed the proposal, stating that “this is the humanitarian solution.”
Former Minister of Justice Ayelet Shaked also welcomed the move, but was less diplomatic, exclaiming on Israeli TV:
“After we turn Khan Yunis into a soccer field … we need to take advantage of the destruction [to tell] the countries that each of them should take a quota, it can be 20,000 or 50,000 … We need 2 million to leave. That’s the solution for Gaza.”
Faced with the monumental task of resistance against US-backed occupation forces, the onus is on Hamas and the other Palestinian resistance factions to thwart any progress made on Israel’s “messianic revolution” in Gaza.
The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of The Cradle.
The Palestinian resistance persists in their heroic struggle against the Zionist invasion of the Gaza Strip, engaging in fierce clashes with occupation forces for the 45th consecutive day.
Notably, the resistance has successfully targeted and destroyed multiple enemy military vehicles, inflicting casualties upon enemy soldiers.
Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad movement, reported that its fighters utilized tandom shells and guerrilla action bombs to destroy 7 military vehicles during ongoing clashes in multiple areas of the northern Gaza Strip, including Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahia, Al-Saftawi, and the Jabalia Camp.
They also launched mortar shells at concentrations of enemy soldiers and vehicles near the Sheikh Zayed Towers.
Meanwhile, the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, bombarded the “Ra’im” military base with a barrage of missiles. Furthermore, they achieved a significant victory by killing and injuring a group of occupation soldiers who had taken refuge inside a building in Hajar al-Deek.
The resistance forces employed anti-fortified and anti-personnel TBG shells, engaging in gun battles and partially or completely destroying 29 enemy vehicles throughout the city.
Al-Qassam Brigades showcased video footage capturing their fighters launching attacks on Israeli tanks and vehicles in Gaza. The scenes revealed the aftermath of the clashes, including military equipment and personal effects left behind by fallen Zionist soldiers.
Al-Qassam Brigades also shared images of the heroic actions of resistance fighters storming Al-Rantisi Hospital, targeting occupation soldiers while risking their own lives.
Despite the relentless aggression displayed by the Israeli occupation forces, the resistance persists and the assault on Gaza continues unabated.
Extensive airstrikes have been launched across various areas of the Gaza Strip, resulting in a surge in casualties, with over thirteen thousand martyrdoms reported. Among the recent targets were the Indonesian Hospital and Al-Awda Hospital in the northern region, where eight martyrs were claimed, including a doctor.
The Indonesian Hospital Under Siege
The situation at the Indonesian hospital is dire, as the occupation forces have laid siege to the medical facility. Gaza’s Ministry of Health spokesperson, Dr. Ashraf Al-Qudra, expressed concern that the Indonesian hospital would face a fate similar to that of the Shifa complex during previous attacks. He denounced the catastrophic conditions and highlighted the intensified assaults on the Indonesian hospital, specifically designed to render it inoperable.
Despite the siege, the medical staff at the Indonesian hospital remains steadfast in their commitment to treat the wounded. With approximately 700 individuals, including medical personnel and injured patients, sheltering within its walls, the hospital’s closure would compound the already dire situation.
Desperate Circumstances and Urgent Pleas
Muhammad Al-Zaqout, the Director General of Hospitals in the Gaza Strip, reiterated the critical situation at the Indonesian hospital, housing thousands of displaced individuals along with 200 medical staff members. Al-Zaqout condemned the occupation for executing wounded and sick patients in hospitals, stressing the urgent need for assistance. The Gaza health authorities have appealed to the World Health Organization to evacuate the patients, but their pleas have gone unanswered.
Imminent Threat of a Massacre
The government’s media office in Gaza issued a stern warning, raising alarm over the potential for a massacre to occur at the Indonesian hospital. The Ministry of Health has reported that 12 people, including wounded patients and their caretakers, were martyred following an intense bombing by the occupation forces. The dire circumstances faced by the people of Gaza continue to worsen as the resistance and their dedicated medical staff struggle against overwhelming odds.
An al-Qassam Brigades fighter shoots a tandem rocket charge at an Israeli armored personnel carrier, “Namer”, near Gaza’s coast, the Gaza Strip, Palestine, November 2-3, 2023. (Al-Qassam Brigades/Telegram)
The Israeli occupation has admitted that one soldier was killed during confrontations on Tuesday, while the Resistance says it put 15 armored vehicles out of service.
Another Israeli occupation soldier has been killed in the northern Gaza Strip while three others were critically injured, according to a statement released by the occupation’s military.
Following the announcement, the death toll of Israeli occupation forces has risen to 349 since Operation Al-Aqsa Flood was launched on October 7. During its invasion of the Gaza Strip, the occupation lost 36 of its soldiers, which equates to more than half of its total losses during the 2014 invasion of the Gaza Strip.
The recently killed soldier is a First Seargent reservist who served under the infamous Golani Brigade.
The military spokespersons for al-Qassam Brigades and al-Quds Brigades, Abu Obeida and Abu Hamza respectively, challenged the occupation on separate occasions to reveal the true extent of its personnel losses in the Gaza Strip.
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin haunts Israeli soldiers
On Tuesday alone, the al-Qassam Brigades announced that they had destroyed or put out of service 15 Israeli armored vehicles, including 13 Merkava tanks, an armored personnel carrier, and an armored bulldozer.
Since Operation Al-Aqsa Flood was first launched, the Brigades have prided themselves on the effective use of locally produced weapons, such as tactical explosive charges and tandem rocket-propelled grenades.
Al-Yassin 64/105 mm tandem charges have been heavily deployed in the battle, specifically to repel infantry and armored forces from point-blank range. The locally-produced weapon can also be found in thermobaric form, in which the grenade would carry liquid fuel. This allows Resistance fighters to deal extensive damage to fortified troops.
The charges were named after Hamas’ founder, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who was assassinated via a missile launched by an Israeli helicopter as he was being wheeled off from Fajr prayer on March 22, 2004.
Resistance’s cooperation detrimental to “Israel”
On Wednesday morning, al-Qassam announced that its fighters destroyed two APCs and four Merkava tanks, as they confronted intruding occupation forces near al-Tawm roundabout to the northeast of Gaza City. The Brigades also destroyed two Merkava tanks to the western axis of Gaza City and another tank in northwest Beit Lahia.
The announcements coincided with a statement from al-Quds Brigades which revealed that their fighters had also targeted a convoy of Israeli armored vehicles in the morning in the western axis of Gaza City.
Interstingly, al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), announced for the first time since October 7 that its fighters used explosive devices and tandem charges, developed by Hamas’ al-Qassam Brigades, to target occupation forces.
The Resistance has showcased an exceptional ability to export strategies, production plans, and weapons from one faction to another to further boost Gaza’s collective defensive capabilities. This has been showcased by the use of tandem charges by al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and al-Quds Brigades, shortly after al-Qassam Brigades introduced the game-changing weapon.
Social media users heavily interacted with footage of an al-Qassam surprise attack on Israeli armored vehicles in the Gaza Strip. Users on X lauded the fighter for engaging an occupation forces tank from point-blank range as he ran from an attack tunnel to plant an explosive device on the tank’s hull, as he rushed back and fired an RPG at it.
Palestine’s resistance fighters have been described as brave and courageous, standing in contrast to occupation soldiers, who have been instructed to take shelter inside their armored vehicles, as the Israeli military and political command seeks to contain its losses on the battlefield.
In a heart-wrenching display of brutality, Israeli aircraft have unleashed a relentless onslaught, raining down terror upon Palestinian civilians and targeting the very essence of life itself. With hundreds of raids, they have left no stone unturned, bombarding innocent civilians and subjecting them to unspeakable horrors.
Cancer patient and paralyzed mother from Gaza gets stuck in the rubble of her bombed house along with her daughter. pic.twitter.com/tIEB7Awc5y
The latest chapter in this tragic saga unfolded near the Ansar roundabout, west of Gaza City, where the occupation artillery struck a school housing displaced people. The scene was one of unimaginable devastation, as the innocent lives of thirteen citizens, most of them children, were abruptly cut short.
Eyewitness accounts, relayed by Al-Manar’s correspondent, paint a grim picture of the aftermath.
lsrael commits 1071 massacres against civilians in Gaza Strip since the beginning of the aggression. pic.twitter.com/A8PTM3xcH2
Palestinian Resistance Continues to Defy Zionist Invasion
To retaliate against the merciless massacres targeting civilians, the Palestinian resistance, led by the Martyr Ezz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, has once again struck a blow against the Zionist invasion of the Gaza Strip. For the 32nd day in a row, the heroic fighters have unleashed their might, destroying enemy vehicles and eliminating soldiers and officers.
According to the spokesman for the Martyr Ezz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the past few hours witnessed the destruction of 15 military vehicles on the outskirts of the Beach Camp and in Beit Hanoun. The invading forces were also bombarded with mortar shells, as fierce clashes erupted on various fronts of the fighting.
Al-Qassam Brigades also fired multiple volleys of rockets towards the greater Tel Aviv area. Videos circulating on social media captured the devastating impact of these missiles, leaving behind a trail of destruction.
In previous statements, Al-Qassam reported the obliteration of enemy concentrations breaching the Gaza Strip’s borders using powerful mortar shells.
The resistance fighters fiercely clashed with the invading occupation forces northwest of Beit Lahia, successfully annihilating a number of vehicles. The Brigades were swift to share the scenes of battle, demonstrating the valor of Al-Qassam fighters.
Not stopping there, Al-Qassam Brigades revealed their latest victories against enemy forces penetrating the northwest and south axes of Gaza City. With dozens of mortar shells, they effectively destroyed the invaders. Footage of these successful attacks was made public, showcasing the gallantry of the resistance fighters.
Amidst these triumphs, the Al-Qassam Brigades unveiled a troubling development. Several days ago, they had planned to release 12 detainees in Gaza who held foreign nationalities. However, the occupation obstructed this humanitarian act, leaving these individuals in imminent danger.
Al-Qassam reaffirmed their willingness to release the detainees, but the volatile field situation created by Israeli aggression remains a significant hindrance.
In a display of strength and retaliation, the Al-Qassam Brigades launched a missile barrage targeting the occupied city of Ashdod. This response came as a direct consequence of the enemy’s targeting of civilians.
Meanwhile, the Al-Quds Brigades joined the struggle against the occupation forces, launching missile barrages at the “Gush Dan,” “Sderot,” and “Miflasim” areas. This powerful response aimed to avenge the occupation’s ruthless massacres. These bombings coincided with the Al-Qassam Brigades’ assault on the occupied city of Tel Aviv, creating a synchronized symphony of resistance.
Earlier today, the Al-Quds Brigades reported a successful attack on enemy soldiers and vehicles attempting to breach between Birkat Abu Daqqa and Abu Raida Gate. The assailants were met with a barrage of mortar shells and direct clashes before being forced to retreat to their bases.
The Al-Quds Brigades did not stop there, targeting an armored gathering of the enemy army northwest of Gaza with a relentless onslaught of mortar shells. Furthermore, a gathering of incursive vehicles east of the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood and an enemy command center behind the Pioneer factory northwest of Gaza City were struck with precision.
Sharing the scenes of their remarkable triumph, the Al-Quds Brigades showcased the destructive force of their “mortar lava,” obliterating the enemy’s dismounted forces along the northwestern and southern Gaza axis.
Yemen
Not limited to the borders of Palestine, the Yemeni armed forces made a resounding statement by launching a batch of drones at various sensitive targets in the occupied territories. The operation had a significant impact, temporarily halting movement at the targeted bases and airports for several hours.
As the Palestinian resistance continues to defy the Zionist invasion, their courage and resilience become even more evident. With each passing day, they write heroic epics against the forces that seek to oppress them.
An Israeli occupation soldier stands on artillery near the border with Gaza (October 28, 2023).
Eyes are on the Palestinian resistance on Monday as the Israeli occupation is stepping up aggression on the besieged Gaza strip, with ground incursions taking place in several areas following sustained bombardment for long hours.
The Israeli ground offensive has been shrouded in secrecy, with no official declaration of the operation. During the last few days, the occupation military announced it was staging “targeted operation” and then “expanded efforts” in to the coastal enclave.
On Monday, the occupation army said its ground operation in the Gaza Strip was “progressing,” claiming that several cells belonging to the Palestinian resistance “have been thwarted.”
Media reported on Monday that Israeli tanks entered the edge of Gaza City this morning and cut a key road, Salahuddin.
The video below recaps the general view in Gaza in the last two days. Israeli tanks and vehicles appear in the first second of the footage operating in open areas near the Gaza strip.
Shortly after the news emerged, it was reported that Al-Qassam Brigades hit two Israeli vehicles in neighboring Zeitoun neighborhood with “Yasmin-105” explosive device. Al-Quds Brigades also announced its fighters were engaged in fierce clashes with occupation forces in Zeitoun neighborhood.
Commenting on the developments, Gaza’s Government Media Office announced firmly denied any Israeli advance in the residential areas in Gaza.
“Israeli occupation forces have by no means advanced in Gaza’s residential neighborhoods,” the media office announced in a statement.
It added that the Israeli enemy is adopting sustained bombardment strategy at several areas including Beit Lahia, Al-Atatera, Zeitoun neighborhood and Shujaiya.
BREAKING: An armored Israeli tank directly bombs the car of a Palestinian family attempting to flee Israel’s ground invasion into eastern Gaza.#GazaGenocidepic.twitter.com/mV6j9FkTJV
For his part, spokesman of Hamas resistance movement in Gaza said that the Israeli occupation deployed tanks at fragile areas following sustained bombardment.
Meanwhile, the Islamic Jihad resistance movement noted that the “Israeli ground invasion has already started days ago.”
In a statement, the resistance group stressed that the “enemy secured no military achievement but to stage minor incursions into open areas.”
The Islamic Jihad affirmed that the resistance is resolute in the battlefield, vowing to foil enemy plans.
The Palestinian resistance has repeatedly stressed that any ground invasion will be met with harsh resistance and great surprises. On Saturday (October 28), Abu Ubeida, the spokesman of Al-Qassam Brigades, stressed that the resistance views an Israeli ground invasion as an opportunity.
“We want to convey to our enemy that we are impatiently awaiting the opportunity to introduce [its forces] to new forms of demise.”
Ongoing Rocket Fire
On the other hand, and despite intensive strikes on several areas across the besieged strip, the Palestinian resistance kept up its rocket launches, with several Israeli settlements and kibbutzim being targeted on the 24th day of the Israeli aggression.
Al-Qassam Brigades and Al-Quds Brigades, the military wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad Palestinian resistance movements, announced it had pounded Netivot, Nirim, Kissufim, Mars Post, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ofakim, Beersheba and Al-Quds.
Israeli media confirmed the rocket attack, reporting sirens sounds and several housings being directly hit by the resistance rockets.
They do not care about innocent human lives and blatantly ignore the violations of the military offensive on the battlefields, where civilian casualties are soaring every passing day. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by: Arwa Makki)
Despite witnessing these atrocities, the leaders and officials of the Western governments are shamelessly supporting the Israeli war crimes and their narrative.
The well-coordinated Hamas operation was a huge blow to the myth of the Israeli security doctrine, an unprecedented event in the history of the protracted Arab-“Israel” conflict since 1948. The following day, Israeli Security Minister Yoav Gallant announced the complete siege by saying, “We’re fighting against human animals”, derogatory words he used for the Palestinians. He further explicitly revealed the Israeli regime’s intention to annihilate the civilian population by saying “Gaza will never go back to what it was”. In a renewed escalation, the Israeli leadership affirmed that this is going to be a full-scale and long-drawn war, supported and armed by the US and West European liberal democracies.
The moment the world realised the intensity and scope of the Hamas blitzkrieg attacks, Operation al-Aqsa Flood, on Israeli settlements and military installations on 7 October, it was quite apparent that the Israeli invasion would be far more intense than ever before.
The massacre of the displaced civilians at the al-Ahli Arab Anglican Episcopal Hospital in Gaza is an unprecedented event that sent shockwaves across the globe. This heinous crime was executed moments after the Western countries vetoed the Russian resolution in the UN Security Council to halt the ferocious missile attacks.
Amid the raging bombardment of the densely populated Gaza Strip, the 1.1 million civilian residents of the northern part, half of whom are children, were ordered to evacuate the entire area to go down south. Many media reports emerged that Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) fighter jets are deliberately targeting civilians who are scrambling to find safe places within the blockaded territory. To maintain the psychological warfare in their favour, the Israeli military is more ruthless in its aggression. In this effort, the forceful displacement plan is a vicious tactic to occupy the land and inflict Nakba 2.0 on the Palestinian people and society. These orders are a grave violation of international laws, and amount to war crimes.
The apartheid Zionist regime is employing the tactics of Hitler’s Nazi forces. Russian President Vladimir Putin said that to besiege Gaza is on par with the siege of Leningrad during the Second World War. Netanyahu has revived the medieval practice of imposing a complete blockade of food, water, electricity, and even medical supplies and other humanitarian aid. His racist ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, are shamelessly making fun of the human suffering, and are even openly distributing arms to the settlers. Adding to the despicability, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has confirmed that banned lethal white phosphorus munitions have also been fired. To put things into perspective, Western leaders had created much hue and cry over the unconfirmed use of the banned lethal weapons in Syria, but their deafening silence on Gaza is complicit in this act and is a blatant instance of betrayal.
With no end in sight, questions arise as to how much the Western nations are responsible for emboldening “Israel” and its expansionist plans in the Palestinian territories. The contentious issues of the right to return of Palestinian refugees was never implemented, even after the recognition of “Israel” and the “two-state solution” following the Oslo Accords in 1993.
The US-brokered historic treaty proved to be a huge strategic success for “Israel”, whose Western allies never paid heed to the demand for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, and that resentment eventually emboldened the desire to liberate the occupied territories.
The Western media are also peddling the prevailing narrative to implicitly favour the Israeli effort to maneuver public opinion. These mainstream media outlets operating under the guise of neutrality are equally to blame for rationalising “Israel’s” killing spree and not calling their governments out to keep it from happening.
They do not care about innocent human lives and blatantly ignore the violations of the military offensive on the battlefields, where civilian casualties are soaring every passing day. In a few days of pounding on civilian infrastructure, the death toll has shockingly risen. Hospitals are on the verge of operational collapse. Distressing images are swirling on social media platforms that tell the story of a huge human catastrophe that is not being televised in Western mainstream media.
Showing solidarity with the Palestinian cause and opposing Israel’s aggression are being weaponised by the European governments who are calling it anti-Semitism. Massive protest marches are being held in European cities, and the swelling public outrage on the streets is clamping down upon by the goverment. The French and British Interior Ministers have issued ban orders on pro-Palestine protests in their different cities. What kind of so-called Western liberal and democratic values are they following? Is this not an assault on civil liberties and freedom?
At this juncture, the Western governments’ double standard and their ‘moral high grounds’ need to be called out. Paying no heed to the opinion of the international community, the Biden administration is dispatching tons of arms and ammunition to “Tel Aviv” and sending military vessels to the shores of the Mediterranean in the wake of possible involvement of the Iran-led Axis of Resistance.
The extensive military hardware and technologies provided to “Israel” have long been seen as an unjustified provocation, which critics say, has been emboldened in its aggressive posturing. Moreover, the Israeli clandestine nuclear weapons programme has also been deliberately ignored by the West over the years. Whilst the humanitarian aid that is being sent to the war-ravaged Gaza is blocked by the IOF.
On a diplomatic level, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is doing his job as an emissary of the Zionist regime, and shuttling back and forth between his regional Arab counterparts to prevent any escalation beyond this theatre. There is a great possibility of the involvement of the Lebanese Islamic Resistance movement Hezbollah in the war if the bombings are not halted.
In fact, Western leaders and policymakers, not all of them, are paying back to their sponsors or lobbyists. Most Western politicians are often backed and bankrolled by influential right-wing Zionist lobbying groups and think tanks which are very much penetrated in the corridors of power in their respective countries. Very few European governments or political leaders take an independent stance when it comes to the Palestinian issue.
The American-“Israel” Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the American Jewish Committee (AJC), European Friends of “Israel (EFI)” and the Friends of Israel “Initiative” (FII) are some of the few potent Zionist advocacy groups which influence domestic politics to block any anti-Israeli moves and to ensure the domination of the arena of narrative control and information manipulation. These political leaders, including lawmakers, political parties and media outlets, have also been long-engaged by Hasbara— Hebrew for explanation— a soft public diplomacy effort to enhance the “Israel’s” positive image and legitimise every action of the Zionist entity. The American Military Industrial Complex (MIC) also adds much woe to the international world order.
As the fierce aggression is underway, Western governments are repeating their usual position that “Israel” has the ‘right to self-defence’ without taking into consideration “Israel’s” earlier repressive policies, coupled with the construction of illegal settlements by occupying lands, the increasingly xenophobic settler militia’s attacks and storming of al-Aqsa holy site in al-Quds that led to these consequences.
Since the blockade in 2007, the collective punishment has made daily life worse by controlling mobility, making Gaza an open-air prison. Now, the Western leaders are exposing themselves by deliberately ignoring Benjamin Netanyahu’s despicable strategy to cut off humanitarian supplies during the invasion. They are weaponising the Israeli deaths and the pretext of eliminating top Hamas officials to justify “Israel’s” collateral damage.
The way Israeli warplanes are relentlessly raining down tons of missiles on the civilian ghetto, killing unarmed civilians and flattening high-rise residential complexes, have qualified “Israel’s” actions for the classic case for committing genocide. It is ethnic cleansing, plain and simple. Such acts certainly amount to war crimes under the fourth Geneva Convention, and constitute brazen violations of international law. The perpetrators should be dragged to court for their barbarity. Even if “Israel” withdrew from the Rome Statutes, Netanyahu and his racist vile colleagues should be tried in the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for their crimes against humanity.
Despite witnessing these atrocities, the leaders and officials of the Western governments are shamelessly supporting the Israeli war crimes and their narrative. In fact, Western European governments are equally complicit in the dehumanization of Palestinian people. They are enabling the genocide in Gaza.
The opinions mentioned in this article do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Al mayadeen, but rather express the opinion of its writer exclusively.
The only country that could possibly distract the west from Ukraine is Israel. But the US and its allies are walking into an existential trap if they think a West Asian victory will be more easily won than a European one.
The Russia-Iran strategic partnership – with China in the wings – is laying an elaborate, Sun Tzu-tinged trap for the Hegemon in West Asia.
Apart from Israel, there is no entity on the planet capable of switching the focus, in a flash, away from the west’s spectacular debacle in Ukraine.
The warmongers in charge of US foreign policy, not exactly Bismarckian stalwarts, believe that if Project Ukraine is unattainable, Project Final Solution in Palestine could instead be a – ethnic cleansing – cakewalk.
A more plausible scenario, though is that Iran-Russia – and the new “axis of evil” Russia-China-Iran – have all it takes to drag the Hegemon into a second quagmire. It’s all about using the enemy’s own, discombobulated flip-flapping to unbalance him and disorient him to oblivion.
The White House’s wishful thinking that the Forever Wars in Ukraine and Israel are inscribed in the same lofty “democracy” drive and essential to US national interests, has already backfired – even among American public opinion.
That does not prevent cries and whispers along the Beltway revealing Israel-allied US neocons increasing the tempo to provoke Iran – via a proverbial false flag that would lead to an American attack. That Armageddon scenario neatly fits Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s biblical psychopathy.
Vassals would be forced to meekly comply. NATO heads of state have made a beeline to visit Israel to demonstrate their unconditional support for Tel Aviv – including Greece’s Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, Britain’s Rishi Sunak, Germany’s Olaf Scholz, the senile lodger at the White House, and France’s Emmanuel Macron.
Avenging the Arab “century of humiliation”
So far, Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah has shown extraordinary restraint by not taking any bait. Hezbollah supports the Palestinian resistance as a whole – and until a few years back, had serious issues with Hamas, with which it clashed in Syria. Hamas, incidentally, while partially funded by Iran, is not run by Iran. As much as Tehran supports the Palestinian cause, Palestinian resistance groups make their own decisions.
The big news is that all these issues are now dissolving. Both Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) went to Lebanon to visit Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah in person this week. That spells out unity of purpose – or what the region’s Axis of Resistance calls the “Unity of Fronts.”
Even more eye-opening was Hamas’ visit to Moscow this week, which was met with impotent Israeli fury. The Hamas delegation was headed by a member of its Politburo, Abu Marzouk. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri came especially from Tehran and met two of Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov’s key deputies, Sergei Ryabkov and Mikhail Galuzin.
That spells out Hamas, Iran, and Russia negotiating at the same table.
Hamas has called on the millions of Palestinians in the diaspora, as well as the whole Arab world and all lands of Islam, to unite. Slowly but surely, a pattern may be discerned: could the Arab world – and great swathes of Islam – be on the verge of significantly uniting to avenge their own “century of humiliation” – much as the Chinese did after WWII with Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping?
Beijing, via its sophisticated diplomacy, is certainly hinting at it to key players, even before the ground-breaking, Russia-China brokered Iran-Saudi rapprochement was struck earlier this year.
That by itself won’t thwart the perpetual US neocon obsession to bomb critical infrastructure in Iran. Worth less than zero when it comes to military science, these neocons ignore how Iranian retaliation would – accurately – target each and every US base in Iraq and Syria, with the Persian Gulf an open case.
Peerless Russian military analyst Andrei Martyanov has shown what could happen to those expensive American iron bathtubs in the Eastern Mediterranean in case of an Israeli-threatened attack on Iran.
Moreover, there are at least 1,000 US troops in northern Syria stealing the country’s oil – which would also become an instant target.
Ali Fadavi, IRGC’s deputy commander-in-chief, cut to the chase: “We have technologies in the military field that no one knows about, and the Americans will know about them when we use them.”
Cue to Iranian hypersonic Fattah missiles – cousins to the Khinzal and the DF-27 – traveling at Mach 15, and able to reach any target in Israel in 400 seconds.
And add to it sophisticated Russian electronic warfare (EW). As confirmed in Moscow six months ago, when it comes to military interconnection, the Iranians told the Russians at the same table, “whatever you need, just ask.” The same applies vice-versa, because the mutual enemy is one and the same.
It’s all about the Strait of Hormuz
The heart of the matter in any Russian-Iran strategy is the Strait of Hormuz, through which transits at least 20 percent of the world’s oil (nearly 17 million barrels a day) plus 18 percent of liquified natural gas (LNG), which amounts to at least 3.5 billion cubic feet a day.
Iran is able to block the Strait of Hormuz in a flash. For starters, that would be some sort of poetic justice retribution for Israel aiming to gobble up, illegally, all the multibillion-dollar natural gas discovered offshore Gaza: this is, incidentally, one of the absolutely key reasons for the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
Yet the real deal will be to bring down the Wall Street-engineered $618 trillion derivative structure, as confirmed for years by analysts at Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, as well as independent Persian Gulf energy traders.
So when push comes to shove – and way beyond the defense of Palestine and in a scenario of Total War – not only Russia-Iran but key players of the Arab world about to become members of BRICS 11 – such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE – do have what it takes to bring down the US financial system anytime they choose.
As an old school Deep State higher up, now in business in Central Europe, stresses:
“The Islamic nations have the economic advantage. They can blow up the international financial system by cutting off the oil. They do not have to fire a single shot. Iran and Saudi Arabia are allying together. The 2008 crisis took 29 trillion dollars to solve but this one, should it happen, could not be solved even with 100 trillion dollars of fiat instruments.”
As Persian Gulf traders told me, one possible scenario is OPEC starting to sanction Europe, first from Kuwait and then spreading from one OPEC country to another and to all countries that are treating the Muslim world as enemies and war fodder.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has already warned that oil to western markets could be put off because of what Israel is perpetrating in Gaza. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has already called, on the record, for a total oil and gas embargo by Islamic countries against nations – essentially NATO vassals – that support Israel.
So Christian Zionists in the US allied with neocon asset Netanyahu threatening to attack Iran have the potential to pull down the entire world financial system.
Forever War on Syria, remixed
Under the current volcano, the Russia-China strategic partnership has been extremely cautious. To the outside world, their mutual official position is to refuse to side with either Palestine or Israel; call for a ceasefire on humanitarian grounds; call for a two-state solution; and respect international law. All their initiatives at the UN have been duly sabotaged by the Hegemon.
As it stands, Washington has refused the green light for the Israeli ground invasion of Gaza. The main reason is the immediate US priority: buy some time to expand the war to Syria, “accused” of being the key transit point for Iranian weapons to Hezbollah. That also doubles as re-opening the same old war front against Russia.
There are no illusions in Moscow. The intel apparatus knows well that Israeli Mossad agents have been advising Kiev while Tel Aviv was supplying weapons to Ukraine under serious US pressure. That infuriated the siloviki, and may have constituted a fatal Israeli mistake.
The neocons, for their part, never stop. They are advancing a parallel threat: if Hezbollah attacks Israel with something else than a few sparse rockets – and that simply won’t happen – the Hmeimim Russian Air Base in Latakia will be “eliminated” as a “warning” to Iran.
This does not even qualify as children playing in the sandbox. After the serial Israeli attacks on the civilian Damascus and Aleppo airports, Moscow did not even blink before offering its Hmeimim facilities to Syria – complete with clearance for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) cargo flights, according to some Russian intel sources. Netanyahu will not exactly harbor a death wish by bombing a fully A2/AD (anti-access/area denial) Russian Air Base.
Moscow also clearly sees what those expensive American iron bathtubs in the Eastern Mediterranean might be up to. The response has been swift: Mig-31Ks are patrolling neutral air space over the Black Sea 24/7, equipped with hypersonic Khinzals, which would take only six minutes to visit the Mediterranean.
Amidst all this neocon-drenched madness, with the Pentagon deploying a formidable array of weaponry plus “undisclosed” assets to the Eastern Mediterranean, whether the target is Hezbollah, Syria, Iran, Russia, or all of the above, both China and North Korea – part of the new American-concocted “axis of evil” – have indicated they will not be mere bystanders.
The Chinese Navy is for all practical purposes shielding Iran from a distance. Yet even more forceful has been a statement by Premier Li Qiang – something unusually blunt and rare in Chinese diplomacy:
“China will continue to firmly support Iran in safeguarding its national sovereignty, territorial integrity, and national dignity, and will strongly oppose any external forces interfering in Iran’s internal affairs.”
Never forget that China and Iran are linked by a comprehensive strategic partnership. Meanwhile, Russian Premier Mikhail Mishustin has reinforced the Russia-Iran strategic partnership in a meeting with Iran’s First Vice-President Mohammad Mokhber.
Remember those rice eaters from Korea
Pro-Iran militias across the Axis of Resistance, are keeping a carefully tempered degree of confrontation against Israel, close to guerrilla hit-and-run. They won’t be engaged in massive attacks yet. But all bets are off if Israel invades Gaza. It’s clear the Arab world, for all its massive internal contradictions, will simply not tolerate the civilian massacre.
Bluntly, at the current incendiary juncture, the Hegemon has found the offramp from its Project Ukraine humiliation. They erroneously believe that the same old Forever War rekindled in West Asia can be “modulated” at will. And if two wars turn into an immense political albatross, as they will, what else is new? They will simply start a new war in the “Indo-Pacific.”
None of that fools Russia-Iran and their ice-cold monitoring of the flipping and flapping Hegemon every step of the way. It’s enlightening to remember what Malcolm X was already predicting in 1964:
“Some rice eaters ran him out of Korea. Yes, they ran him out of Korea. Rice eaters with nothing but gym shoes, and a rifle, and a bowl of rice took him and his tanks and his napalm, and all that other action he’s supposed to have and ran him across the Yalu. Why? Cause the day that he can win on the ground has passed.”
The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of The Cradle.
Families of Israeli captives held by Palestinian resistance in Gaza during a rally in Tel Aviv.
Families of the Israelis held captive by Hamas since Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7 called on the government to ‘use every opportunity’ to release them, warning that their “patience ran out.”
Just before the public news conference of the captives’ families began in Tel Aviv on Thursday, rocket warning sirens sounded in occupied city and environs, and those attending it had to evacuate to a protected area.
“20 days have passed. 20 days. 20 days we have no idea how they are doing or how they are being treated, if they are okay, if they are breathing, where they even breathe. 20 days that ask us to be patient. 20 days, can you imagine? A mother, a father, a child, a parent who doesn’t know where his loved one is, can you even imagine? Because we live it every day, all of us. We were very patient, beyond a lot, but that’s it. Our patience has run out. Our patience has run out,” mother of an Israeli captive said.
Before the press conference, the members of the families shouted in English: “Free then now,” and “200 families don’t sleep at night!”
Another mother of an Israeli captive addressed the comments to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “Bibi, now is the time to make a deal and return all the hostages to Israel. I am begging you. Try to imagine that it was your son who was kidnapped to Gaza. Bring Almog (her son) home. Now!”
For its part, Hamas Palestinian resistance group said it could not release the Israeli captives it is holding until a ceasefire is agreed in the continuing conflict, according to Russia’s Kommersant newspaper.
The newspaper quoted an official called Abu Hamid as saying on Friday that the group needed time to locate all of those who had been taken to Gaza by various Palestinian factions during Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7.
Israeli bombing of Gaza has killed 50 of the captives, Abu Hamid said.
Nasser Qandil made a fiery statement: Netanyahu will be tried! And the Americans to calm down?
Politics Today 10-25-2023
Fadi Boudia reveals the dimensions of Al-Sayyid’s message and 3 messages carried by envoys… and a bomb in the face of Charles Jabbour: This is what he did in Erbil!
UPROOTED PALESTINIANS: SALAM ALQUDS ALAYKUM 