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The Palestinian Authority insists that its operation in the Jenin refugee camp was intended to maintain security and thwart any Israeli plans for the West Bank. Yet other Palestinian factions have criticized the move, which comes amid Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza and ahead of Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
Israel has been long hailed as an oasis of democratic rule in a region of would-be savage Arabs. But now, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has essentially ruled that it is a racist rogue state.
The Arab nations and people are facing a general state of failure that includes actions of regimes, societies and political parties, armed militias, national liberation and resistance movements. And while Israel’s genocide in Gaza and Lebanon is abhorrent, Arabs hold most of the responsibility.
Tipped to succeed slain leader Yahya Sinwar, Hamas commander Mohammed Deif, has just been targeted by an ICC arrest warrant. Back in July, Israel said Deif had been killed in a strike, but Hamas has insisted that he is alive and well.
Palestinians need to rationalize their anger and resentment for the sake of a humanitarian project that enjoys global support.
The situation in Gaza has become so dire that Palestinians have observed hungry dogs and cats eating dead bodies on the streets — and even digging up buried corpses — and becoming more aggressive toward people.
A prominent figure of Israel’s far-right, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has announced that 2025 will be the year of the West Bank’s annexation. With Donald Trump’s victory, supporters of colonization hope he will back their approach, despite it being contrary to international law.
With the arrival of Donald Trump to the White House, we must expect a major shift in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and a return to the vision of the “Abrahamic Peace,” which includes no reference to the Palestinians’ right to a state.
Will the Arabs take the initiative to take tangible measures before the fire reaches their countries, or will they be forced to be mere tools and bases to protect Israel? After the six-day war of 1967, the Three No’s of an Arab Summit set a new hardline. That should be the model now.
Israel’s new offensive in northern Gaza is trying to make the region uninhabitable, and force Palestinians into the south, toward the Egyptian border and into the Sinai. But since the start of the war, Egypt is dead set against taking in more war refugees.
In the Middle East and North Africa, divisions are as stark as they can be. War-torn nations stand side-by-side with wealthy oil-rich countries where the elites feel disconnected from the rest of the region. But, as Yemeni freelance journalist and a human rights defender Afrah Nasser, warns, these inequalities breed monsters, and wealth will not prevent oil-rich countries from experiencing chaos and destruction.
The Arab front in favor of the Palestinian people is more feeble and ambiguous than ever, even as the people of Gaza are being killed by the thousands. Multiple factors explain this weakness, from fears of a repeat of the 2011 uprisings inside their own countries to longstanding competition with Iran.
The ongoing crackdown on critics of the MBS regime becomes more difficult with the dire situation in Gaza and the ambiguity of Saudi foreign policy.
The director of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has denounced the treatment of civilians in the Israel-Hamas war. But nothing is stopping this war, not even the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, while the ambiguity continues over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war aims in Gaza.
Since the Israel-Hamas war began, Palestinians in Gaza have lived in emotional, psychological and physical stress — a situation that has pushed many couples to the brink. The Cairo-based news website Al-Manassa speaks with Palestinians who have divorced due to the war.
“Then the white man found the Middle East: a distant place, rich in nature and humanity, with a beautiful climate. He invaded it, then divided it, then separated the sections accordingly.”
The question of who will succeed Yahya Sinwar is essentially a question of whether Hamas will return from its “Iranian exile” and embrace the Muslim Brotherhood.
The death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and mastermind of the Oct. 7 attack is just the latest Israeli strike against those who have tried to monopolize the notion of “resistance” as a purely military pursuit. The result has been the absolute destruction of Gaza, and now Lebanon, and the reinforcement of the Israeli occupation.
The Israeli military says Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader, has been killed in Gaza. The strike is a major victory for Israel, closing a chapter in recent Palestinian history in which Sinwar rose to the top of Hamas, and bet everything on the Oct. 7 attack, which made him more divisive than ever among the people of Gaza.
Observers believe that the military operations targeting civilians and blocking humanitarian aid in northern Gaza is the prelude to Israel reoccupying the region and establishing Jewish settlements.
With up to two million displaced, United Nations designated more than 50 sites and shelters as the most vulnerable areas for floods and rainfall across Gaza. But as some people have been displaced multiple times, and humanitarian aid is being blocked, refugees have few options to shelter themselves ahead of the upcoming winter.
Israel’s war on Gaza has turned into a bloodbath, as ultimately demanded by the country’s ultra-religious rulers to remain in power as long as possible.
Benjamin Netanyahu escaped the growing calls to stop the war in Gaza and bring the hostages back, by launching another war on Hezbollah. It’s a taste of what’s to come.
Egyptian authorities give Gaza’s refugees a 45-day tourist visa which doesn’t allow them to apply for residency, study or work in the country. But online learning platforms, including the West Bank’s official educational system, are helping children with their schooling, despite the war.
It’s clearer than ever that Israel — backed by a number of militarily and economically powerful countries that claim to abide by international law and human rights — continues to destroy these laws and standards that are based on the equality of all human beings.
Arab countries remain largely missing in action as the region goes up in flames. Those that have recognized Israel are keeping a low profile, the Saudis are talking about a Palestinian state, but they are not averse to crushing the pro-Iranian forces and targeting Tehran. And yet a regional war would upset the current balance.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu laid out a careful plot to push and ultimately shatter the long-established “rules of engagement” in the Middle East. It caught everyone, from Iran to Hezbollah to the White House, by surprise. The aim is to remake the whole region to revolve around Israel.
Wounded by the bombs, some had to face surgeries on kitchen tables. La Stampa reporter Francesca Mannocchi met them and their parents in Doha, Qatar, where they seek refuge.
The author, whose family was forced to flee during the 1947 “Nakba” expulsion of Palestinians, sees how the event has been used by leaders in the Arab world to wield authority without actually improving anyone’s life.
Nearly a year into the war in Gaza, the people of Lebanon are paying a price for both a failing of Hezbollah security, and more broadly for a support war so ambiguous that it’s impossible to understand its cause, purpose, or if anything has been achieved.
The latest developments in the Middle East are part of longer-term shifts that are pushing to U.S. into a tougher stance in the region.
Joe Biden delivered his final speech to the UN General Assembly, in the form of a message from a wise old man who has seen dark times before. But while he has re-established a predictable presidency, he still appears hesitant on Ukraine and the Middle East, which tarnishes his record.
It was the exceptional time that changed the equation, and revived the Palestinian dream. It also awakened the hidden Israeli plans: the extermination of the Palestinian people, the liquidation of their cause, and the evacuation of their land.
With its unprecedented attacks on pagers and walkie-talkies in Lebanon that again killed innocent victims, Israel now faces the risk of losing the war not just on moral and legal grounds, but also from a strategic perspective.
The porn industry and amateur and professional adult content plays a role in the Israeli war on Gaza. Some pornographic companies did not only provide support to Israel, but adult content also contributed to drawing a violative imagination about Israeli soldiers and their relationship with the battlefield and the Gazan victims. It is part of a long history linking pornography and war.
It seems the White House will pay attention to your case depending on your ethnicity, but it’s actually your politics. The Biden administration’s response to the death of Turkish-American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi after the Israeli-American hostages killed by Hamas raises the question: does the United States only care about its citizens when they agree with US policy?
The UN Security Council is paralyzed by the major powers, and the General Assembly, which opens today, has no binding power. At a time when conflicts are multiplying around the world, how can global governance be saved? Is it time to scrap the UN and start over?
Efforts to vaccinate children in Gaza are undoubtedly motivated in part by moral reasons, but they also stem from the world’s concern – especially in neighboring countries – about the virus becoming endemic in the Palestinian enclave. The writer recalls how it can all implode, or spread, at any time.
If there is a real peace project and an Israeli intention to solve the Palestinian tragedy, Hamas would have lost its justification for existence. Not just Hamas, but all the resistance factions.
Residents of southern Lebanon believe that their hometowns will remain an open arena for a long-term war between Israel and Hezbollah, even if this has only happened so far in a way that allows both sides to stop short of declaring an all-out war.