The Palestine Chronicle – May 18, 2024
225 Days of Devastation – Gaza Genocide Continues
Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has now persisted for 225 days, marked by continuous massacres and heavy bombardments focusing on Jabaliya, Khan Yunis, and Rafah.
On Saturday morning, Israeli warplanes pounded a house in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, killing two Palestinians, while artillery shelling targeted east and central Rafah, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
Israeli forces opened gun and artillery fire towards Palestinians, in the southeastern part of Rafah, injuring a number of them. The casualties were rushed to the Kuwait Specialized Hospital.
Israeli fighter jets also targeted the vicinity of Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip and the Miraj area, north of Rafah, resulting in a number of casualties.
Additionally, the eastern and central areas of Rafah experienced heavy artillery shelling and gunfire from Israeli helicopters.
In Khan Yunis, also located in the south, the Al-Farahin area in the town of Abasan Al-Kabira was struck by an Israeli raid.
An Israeli bombing in the Ma’an area of Khan Yunis, targeting a house belonging to the Aslih family, resulted in injuries.
WAFA quoted medical sources as saying that the occupation forces opened artillery and machine gunfire towards the area east of the al-Bureij and al-Maghazi refugee camps in the central Gazza Strip.
In the northern Gaza Strip, at least 15 civilians today were killed and 30 others were injured as a result of bombing and targeting by the Israeli occupation army in the Jabalia refugee camp, WAFA reported.
The occupation tanks bombed the entrance to one of the shelter centers in Jabalia camp, and targeted citizens who tried to return to their homes inside the camp, resulting in the killing of several civilians and causing multiple casualties.
Sources cited by WAFA said that the humanitarian situation inside the camp, which has been subjected to continuous bombardment for days, is catastrophic, in light of the siege imposed on the families still inside it, in light of the scarcity of the necessities of life, such as food, water, and medicines.
Ambulance and civil defense crews are unable to reach the camp and retrieve bodies and injuries from inside it, which portends a real disaster.
Quds News Network also reported that Israeli soldiers reportedly set fire to homes and shops in Jabaliya.
Staggering Death Toll
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 35,303 Palestinians have been killed, and 79,261 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 7,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/225-days-of-devastation-gaza-genocide-continues/
Palestine Chronicle May 16, 2024
Over 15,000 Gaza Children Killed by Israel Since October 7
No one is spared Israel’s killing machine in Gaza, neither children nor journalists. Meanwhile, an Israeli organization is dedicated to blocking any aid to starving Palestinians.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said in a tweet today that 15,103 children were killed in the Gaza Strip during the Israeli genocide which has been going on for more than seven months.
Meanwhile, new data issued by the Gaza government media office said that the number of journalists killed rose to 145.
The new tallies come at a time where more Palestinians are being reportedly killed and wounded throughout the Gaza Strip.
The latest casualties were three people, including a child, and the injury of several others in a bombing that targeted a house on Al-Sahaba Street in Gaza City.
Also, several Palestinians were killed, and others injured following shelling of a building in the Sidra area in the Al-Daraj neighborhood, east of the city.
In the Jabaliya refugee camp, clashes resumed between the Palestinian Resistance and the Israeli occupation forces.
Gaza and the war of attrition
By Dr Marwan Asmar
After 10 days of fighting in Gaza the Palestinian resistance have destroyed 100 Israeli military vehicles that included tanks, large-scale bulldozers and troop carriers. This is in addition to tens of soldiers killed and injured on the streets of Jabalia, its Camp, Al Zaitoun neigborhood of Gaza City and Rafah.
The figures were given recently by the Izz Al Din Al Qassam military spokesman Abu Obaida, Friday evening. He says the war by the Palestinian resistance on the Israeli army which started a protracted onslaught on these areas of Gaza, is being carried with renewed sense of purpose and destiny.
He adds Palestinian are alive, well and kicking despite the deadly onslaught against them over the last eight months and are ready to meet and stay steadfast against the Israeli invaders. This is not the first time they have entered these places. In Al Zaitoun, they entered the area for the third time. The case is the same for Jabalia. The battle raging now is the second in as many months.
The Israeli army have already said that they already eradicated the presence of Hamas from the north but this is clearly is a wrong assumption. If this was the case, they wouldn’t keep coming back for more with the tactics of the resistance movement far superior, relaying on urban warfare and ease of movement in addition to the deep underground tunnels they are coming out from.
In Al Zaitoun, the Israelis are being hammered with their tanks proving awkward and bulky and resistance fighters having greater edge, moving faster and quicker whilst carrying their “carry on” missiles and shells.
They are already reports the Israeli army had to withdraw from this neigborhood under heavy fire. Now, the battle is continuing in Jabalia and its camp where Palestinian fighters are increasing the tempo through its home-made launchers, missiles, shells, grenades and drones.
Abu Obaida says this is an unequal war between the resistance against one of the strongest armies in the world. However, he adds, the resistance is ready for a long drawn-out conflict if there need be. While he says Hamas is ready for a negotiated settlement in the interest of the Palestinian civilians – over 35,000 killed with 15,000 children and 10,000 women dead – the resistance is ready to continue this war against the Israeli enemy for a long-time if this is what’s required. It is already becoming a war of attrition.
Just before the onslaught on north Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli army were on the verge of another protracted attack on Rafah which has 1.4 million displaced refugees. Some of them – 600,000 so far – are relocating north to Al Mawasi as per the instructions of the Israeli army before a full-blown attack.
However, the Israeli push into Jabalia – which they are yet to penetrate – means their calculations, especially Netanyahu and his Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi may now be altered. Excluding the fact there are now growing mutterings of grievances about the war, the Israeli army is over-stretching itself after months of fighting all over Gaza and may have pushed the Rafah offensive to a later unknown date.
Netanyahu, while insisting on military incursion into the southern city, maybe holding back due to a number of factors. The Israeli army is one, with the other to do with the fact the Palestinian resistance is putting up a strong fight with Israeli soldiers killed and tanks and troop carriers destroyed daily and Hamas snipers on their trail. The final factor maybe to do with the US President Joe Biden who has repeatedly warned the Israelis not to enter Rafah without a credible plan to protected the displaced Palestinians there.
But can the Americans be trusted since they continue to be the major supplier of weapons to Israel in this drawn-out onslaught. Regardless, Netanyahu might to this as an opportunity not to order a full invasion of Rafah to ease the political heat on him, primarily from the army and the relatives of the 100 and so hostages that continue to be held by Hamas.
He would also be satisfying the call from Biden for the Israeli army is already in east Rafah, hostages’ relatives may continue to be hopeful because they fear a full-scale onslaught will definitely mean their death and dampen voices of dissent among the officers and soldiers. Such manouverings also, may satisfy the extreme rightwing in his coalition cabinet that want him to invade Rafah and end the presence of Hamas.
But this might be a parochial view because of what is happening in northern Gaza which may have indeed pushed back the Israeli offensive in Rafah for further months as the Israeli army is now trying to eradicate Hamas in the north but with no apparent success and is being clobbered daily.
This apparently is becoming a major worry for the Israeli army itself. Some fear if the bloodiness become unbearable soldiers would simply refuse to obey orders if the battles increase and the end of the war is not insight. Already 900 Israeli mothers wrote to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant telling him they don’t want their sons to serve in Gaza.
Gallant, a man who is seen to represent the Israeli army already called on Netanyahu to start looking for a political solution for Gaza rather than continue a war in which the army would lose the “gains” it made in the enclave as he claims, and particularly in light of the fact the army has already said it doesn’t want to stay in Gaza in the so-called “day after”.
Such comments have upset the extreme rightwing lead by Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich who are calling for the resignation of Gallant with the latter accusing for working for Hamas.
This war has proved divisive for the Israelis themselves, right up from the higher political echelons down to the man-in-the street with endless debates of what to do next. Such internal bickering may only end when the guns are down, the Israeli hostages return and a real political solution is found to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands.
Dr Asmar is an Amman-based writer covering Middle East affairs
https://countercurrents.org/2024/05/gaza-and-the-war-of-attrition/
Hezbollah carries out first Arab airstrike on 'Israel' since 1973
The Islamic Resistance in Lebanon carried out its first-ever airstrike on the Israeli occupation, setting a precedent since the October war of 1973.
The Islamic Resistance in Lebanon - Hezbollah - announced that it had targeted the Israeli settlement of Metula, and an Israeli garrison and vehicles in the vicinity of the settlement's military site through an attack drone armed with two S5 rockets.
The airstrike marked the first-ever airstrike launched by Lebanon, Hezbollah's first-ever airstrike, and the first airstrike to be carried out against the Israeli occupation since the October 1973 war.
In its statement, the resistance said that when the drone reached the designated point, it fired two rockets at one of the vehicles and the soldiers gathered around it, inflicting devastating damage on the Israeli forces before then carrying out a kamikaze attack on the designated target.
For its part, Israeli media reported that Hezbollah used, for the first time, a drone armed with S5 rockets, an air-to-surface missile, to attack Metula.
Reports said the Ziv Medical Center received three soldiers wounded by a drone strike near Metula, "one of them was very seriously wounded, and the other two were lightly wounded."
Moreover, the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon announced attacking a drone jamming device in the Jal al-Deir outpost on the Blue Line.
Hezbollah said it launched a drone attack on the "Israeli War Ministry's industrial facilities in Tel Hai", north of Kiryat Shmona, in response to the Israeli attack on industrial facilities in the Lebanese Bekaa region.
Hezbollah bombed the David Cohen factory of the Elbit Military Industries Company in Tel Hai.
The David Cohen factory struck in the attack specializes in producing electronic systems for the Israeli forces, the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon said.
The Resistance on Thursday carried out numerous operations, including on the Summaqa and Jal al-Alam military sites, as well as the Israeli settlement of Nafah.
Islamic Resistance in Lebanon announced carrying out an operation whereby it launched more than 60 Grad rockets on the command quarters of the 210th Division in Nafah, the Kela air defense barracks, and the Yoav camp for artillery support.
The Israeli occupation military confirmed that a sensitive military site was hit in a Hezbollah drone attack near occupied Tabarayya on Wednesday.
The occupation military said two suicide drones were launched toward Tabarayya, noting that one of them was shot down while the other hit a military base housing surveillance balloons.
The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth said Hezbollah's second drone hit a sensitive security site housing a large surveillance balloon in Tal Shamaim near the Golani junction.
The newspaper's military correspondent, Yoav Zitun, suggested that Hezbollah's strike was in response to the assassination of commander Hussein Makki near the southern Lebanese town of Tyre on Tuesday.
Hezbollah had announced that its Resistance fighters launched an aerial attack using several kamikaze drones on the Israeli Ilaniya base west of Tabarayya, targeting part of the comprehensive surveillance and detection system of the Israeli Air Force.
The Lebanese Resistance group confirmed that the specified targets were hit accurately, achieving the intended objectives of this limited operation.
Hezbollah added that the operation came in response to the assassinations carried out by the Israeli occupation forces.
'A strategic achievement for Hezbollah'
Avi Ashkenazi, a military analyst in Maariv, described the drone attack in Tal Shamaim as "extremely important in terms of its impact," adding that the Israeli occupation military is investigating the incident to determine whether the drone entered from the border with Lebanon, Syria, or other borders.
Ashkenazi reiterated that the attack is being "comprehensively investigated at the highest levels" as the latest incident was "very difficult and dangerous."
The military analyst said the estimations indicate that the drone entered through Lebanon, crossed a distance, and exploded near an Israeli military facility, causing further damages as well.
Israeli security and military affairs expert, Yossi Melman, said the fact that a drone successfully evaded the Israeli anti-air systems and reached the location of the large surveillance balloon in Tal Shamaim is a "strategic achievement for Hezbollah."
Meanwhile, the Israeli website Mivzakim stated that the infiltration of the drone represents a serious failure for the Israeli anti-air systems, adding that the Israeli occupation military is investigating the way Hezbollah succeeded in slashing the advanced system of the Israeli Air Force.
Israeli media also suggested that this was Hezbollah's "biggest achievement" since the beginning of the war, where it managed to successfully destroy one of the most expensive and advanced anti-air systems in "Israel".
The media pointed out that "Israel" intended to deploy multiple systems all over occupied Palestine through the targeted surveillance balloon, noting that the balloon is used as a key tool in the Israeli anti-air system against missiles and drones.
Experts explained that the targeted balloon, flying at an altitude of up to 4000 meters, detects threats from long distances and provides accurate information about them, before transferring the data to "Israel's" security systems, such as the Iron Dome or David's Sling.
Radio Free Europe – May 18, 2024
U.S. Seeks Shift In Iranian ‘Decision-Making Calculus’ Through Saudi-Israeli Normalization
By Kian Sharifi
The United States wants to force a gradual shift in Iran’s “decision-making calculus” by signing a defense deal with Saudi Arabia and securing the normalization of relations between Riyadh and Israel.
“We continue to work with allies and partners to enhance their capabilities to deter and counter the threats Iran poses, impose costs on Iran for its actions, and seek to shift Iran’s decision-making calculus over time,” a U.S. State Department spokesperson told RFE/RL.
The security package has several components, including a bilateral U.S.-Saudi defense pact aimed at enhancing the Sunni kingdom’s deterrence capabilities. But Washington is adamant that regardless of how close the Americans and the Saudis are to a bilateral agreement, the security package cannot materialize without Saudi-Israeli normalization.
Saudi Arabia has conditioned the normalization of ties with Israel on the establishment of a cease-fire in Gaza and a credible pathway to Palestinian statehood.
The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden sees a three-way deal key to ensuring a sustainable peace in the Middle East, which includes isolating Iran and making it costly for the Islamic republic to maintain its current regional policies.
“Iran’s isolation in the region and in the international community is a result of its own policies,” the spokesperson said in an e-mailed statement to RFE/RL.
A calculus shift will “definitely” happen, but not in the way that the United States wants, according to Hamidreza Azizi, a fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.
“Any sort of coalition-building would result in Iran going for counter-coalitions,” he added.
But analysts maintain that for Saudi Arabia, isolating Iran is not the core objective of a security pact with the United States.
The Saudis see normalizing relations with Israel as a strategic leverage to help them extract substantial security commitments from Washington, “thereby balancing against Iranian influence without overtly antagonizing Tehran,” Azizi said.
Meanwhile, securing a path toward Palestinian statehood could help Saudi Arabia assert its leadership within the Muslim world and effectively end the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Iran has long opposed Arab normalization with Israel and is a staunch critic of the Abraham Accords, which saw Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) establish diplomatic ties with Israel in 2020.
On May 1, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei implicitly criticized Saudi Arabia for looking to normalize relations with Israel in the hopes of resolving the Palestinian question.
Anna Jacobs, a senior Gulf analyst at the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, argued that the U.A.E. model of balancing relations with Iran and Israel suggests that Saudi Arabia can do the same.
“Riyadh seems confident that normalization with Israel wouldn’t have a major impact on its relationship with Tehran,” she said. “The Saudi strategy with Iran right now is both containment and engagement.”
https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-saudi-israel-deal-defense/32941112.html
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The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
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Prof. Arthur Scott
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