A five-day ceasefire deal in the Gaza war appears imminent. In the past, such provisional truces sometimes turned permanent. But is this time different?
Tag: gaza
Frustrated by the United States’ unwavering support for Israel’s war on Gaza, Arab governments have looked at other options to help establish a ceasefire before it becomes too late. First stop: Beijing. Moscow’s role may be more obscure, but no less essential, in building a global coalition that counters the West’s stance.
Iran this week has reaffirmed its full support for Hamas, issuing new threats to escalate with more attacks like Oct. 7. This came after some in the region had criticized Iran for now joining the fray directly. With the rising rhetoric, Iran can’t stay passive forever.
Launching a ground invasion in the south of Gaza, where residents have been forced to flee, will be virtually impossible for the Biden Administration to accept.
The debate over the war in Israel is raging on social media. In this divisive atmosphere, it is impossible to call out anti-Semitism in Muslim communities or on the right wing without being applauded by all the wrong people. What Germans are failing to acknowledge is how much the country’s own history has to do with this.
Taking the U.S. and France as leading indicators, with different histories and relationships inside the Middle East, Israel should be very worried about maintaining the support of its Western allies. The criticism of Israel and calls for immediate ceasefires are coming not only from the streets, but also inside the halls of power.
Palestinians are suffering under the Israeli regime and relentless bombardment of Gaza, yet the Western world, also known to be the “civilized” world, continues to support Israel. Turkey’s complex relationship with Islamic and Middle Eastern countries as well as with the West brings back the most fundamental questions about the past and future.
Iran’s revolutionary regime insists it wants Israel destroyed and has threatened a regional war, but its actions are ambivalent, suggesting it may fear a regional war that would hasten its demise. As a result, it may decide to stop supporting Hamas in Gaza.
After last Thursday’s announcement of daily, four-hour humanitarian pauses in the northern part of Gaza, masses of Palestinians fled southward. But the journey is anything but safe and easy.
The health situation in Gaza is becoming more and more dire as Israel continues to bomb the enclave. Egyptian media Mada Masr takes a look at the history of the Palestinian health care system.
At the moment, a two-state solution to end the conflict between Israel and Palestine seems impossible. But should a miracle occur, there is one example that, although not perfect, could serve as a model to build a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural federation: the ethno-federal democracy of India.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s military wing, the al-Quds Brigades, has said it is prepared to release two hostages held in Gaza if conditions on the ground permit. A spokesperson for the al-Quds Brigades said it is ready to release two Israeli hostages, a woman and a boy, for humanitarian and medical reasons. He added that […]
Reserved, not accustomed to the spotlight, capable of taking a step back and not overshadowing the president. In this time of crisis, Antony Blinken navigates geopolitics with the president’s full trust.
Qatar is leading negotiations for one to two day humanitarian truce in exchange for the release of up to 15 hostages held by Hamas.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top Israeli officials have referred to Hamas militants as “the new Nazis.” But as horrific as the Oct. 7 massacre was, what does it really mean to make such a comparison 80 years after the Holocaust? And how can we rightly describe what’s happening in Gaza?
Prime Minister Netanyahu’s mention of “indefinite” control of security in Gaza does not sit well with Washington. Biden has a growing number of reasons to start pushing back against Israel’s war and post-war aims.
Netanyahu gives scant signs of hope for any easing of the massive assault on the Palestinian enclave, as the number of dead tops 10,000.
Shortages of water, which have ultimately long been controlled by Israel, have long been a brutal reality for the Palestinians of Gaza. Now with the ongoing bombing and siege campaign, the daily search for water has become central to the struggle to survive.
As the death toll in Gaza reaches 10,000, Israel has launched what may be its most intense bombardment, as ground offensive continues to accelerate. All of this as U.S. Secretary of State Blinken says he’s trying to get Israel to limit the civilian casualties.
Calls for a “humanitarian pause” are multiplying as the war rages on for almost a month, but the West is careful not to talk about a ceasefire, which Israel totally rejects. Where does that leave us in a search for a way out?
Here are six key points from Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah’s long awaited speech, including a threat to Israel that it was a “realistic possibility” that the war along the Lebanese border is about to escalate.
Was it a pogrom? Could it happen again? Vazhnyye Istorii looks at the recent history, ethnic makeup and politics of the Russian Republic.
Secretary of State Blinken is traveling back to Israel with a more explicit message for Netanyahu after President Biden said late Wednesday it’s time for a “pause” right now. Meanwhile, Israel shows no signs of letting up its ground and air assault on Gaza.
Considering that our “final war” may be arriving isn’t so far-fetched when states like Iran, Russia and North Korea are courting confrontation and taking “crazy” risks, a little like the European powers of 1914. But let’s proceed with caution.
As outrage spreads over the civilian casualties in Tuesday night’s bombing, Israel justifies the strike as necessary to eliminate Hamas leaders, including at least one suspected mastermind of the Oct. 7 attack.
Journalist Noor Swirki writes about what its like for Palestinian journalists working from Gaza, with everything on the line, every night and day.
Dubbed by some as the ‘Eiland plan,’ after a retired Israel general, Egypt is vehemently opposed to any attempt to transfer Palestinian refugees from Gaza, which could turn Sinai into a launch pad for operations against Israel, and ultimately redraw the map of the Middle East again.
Death count rises above 100 in the West Bank, as sources reports weapons flooding in through Iran.
Hamas has dug an enormous network of tunnels under Gaza that may turn out to be the biggest challenge for the impending Israeli ground offensive.
Ten years after the publication of this award-winning photographic series of daily life in the Palestinian Territories, Tanya Habjouqa’s “Occupied Pleasures” is a poignant testimony to both the living and the dead.
A Hamas delegation arrived in Russia, as Putin warns Israel that the war could spread beyond the Middle East.
The growing rift between Israel and the United Nations, since Secretary-General António Guterres’ statement that the Oct. 7 Hamas attack did not happen in a “vacuum.”
While everyone acknowledges the civilian toll is climbing in Gaza, a new doubt has begun to spread in recent days about the reliability of the death counts given by Gaza’s government, which is run by Hamas. U.S. President Joe Biden now says he doesn’t believe the numbers at all, which has set off criticism about his lack of both sources and “empathy.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ comments on the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas, which he said “did not occur in a vacuum,” constitute an incomprehensible relativization of a barbaric mass murder. Shameful, but not surprising, writes Die Welt‘s editor-in-chief Jennifer Wilton.
Among the victims of the recent conflict in Israel are many Ukrainian citizens who fled the Russian invasion and are now finding themselves at the center of another war.
What happens next in the Middle East, including a possible expansion of the war at the Israeli-Lebanon border, will be determined by choices that are made in different capitals. Keep your eye on Tehran.
Also: Russia and Iran blast Biden’s speech, Aid blocked at Rafah crossing, Explosion at Gaza’s oldest church. And more…
October 23 – October 29, 2023
The American president succeeded in obtaining humanitarian corridors through Gaza, and supported Israel’s claims that it wasn’t responsible for bombing a Gaza hospital. But in the Arab world, he consolidated his image as Israel’s main supporter, and lost the political battle for public opinion.
There are very real risks that this conflict may expand and re-shape the entire region. Israel appears to have the means to win on the battlefield, but risks losing along the way the very principles of justice on which it was founded.