Opinions|Israel-Palestine conflict In Gaza, Israel aims to destroy civil order, but it is failing As the Israeli army tries to wipe out civilian institutions and services, Palestinian solidarity steps in. Ghada Ageel Professor of political science 4 Sep 2024 Palestinians walk near a puddle of waste water in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on July 30, 2024 [File: Reuters/Hatem Khaled] As the head of Gaza’s ambulance services, Hani al-Jaafarawi had one of the toughest jobs amid Israel’s genocidal war on the strip. Even before October 7, his staff were stretched thin, overworked and under constant threat. After the start of the war, al-Jaafarawi was hands-on in the medical response. Hospitals, clinics and all health facilities were under extreme threat, and every day al-Jaafarawi’s life hung in the balance. But on June 23, the balance tipped away from him when Israeli forces attacked Daraj Health Clinic in Gaza City, killing him and four other civilians. His only crime was his dedication to the civil defence of Gaza’s beleaguered population. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, he was the 500th health worker killed in Gaza. The murder of al-Jaafarawi was part of Israel’s systematic campaign to destroy civil services provision in Gaza. It has purposefully targeted and killed medical personnel, Palestinian Civil Defence workers, ambulance drivers, rescue teams, police forces, civil engineers, utility workers, aid convoy drivers and civil society leaders with the aim to create chaos and lawlessness in Gaza and to demoralise the population. The official justification used by the Israeli Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) for the targeted killings of these professionals is that they are affiliated with the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) by virtue of working for government institutions in Gaza. This rationale is spurious. Working under a government does not infer support for its political agenda or membership in the political party that leads it. We cannot assume that every Israeli employed by the Israeli state supports the war crimes of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, so why should we assume anything about Palestinian public employees and their political sympathies? International law makes a clear distinction between combatants and civilians, and the political views of the latter make no difference. That, of course, is yet another aspect of the international legal regime that Israel wilfully ignores. Two days before al-Jaafarawi’s murder, an Israeli air strike killed four municipal employees and one passer-by in the centre of Gaza City. The workers were preparing to repair water pipes to help restore water supplies. The water infrastructure has been a frequent target of the IOF, as the deprivation of this basic service has led to mass suffering and the spread of disease among Palestinians, which, of course, helps Israel’s genocidal designs. Efforts by engineers and communications workers to break the Israeli-imposed internet blackout on Gaza have also repeatedly resulted in deaths. In January, an Israeli tank attacked a team sent to repair a switchboard generator in Khan Younis, killing two of them. This was despite the fact that they had coordinated their movements and the task they were sent to carry out with the IOF. The Israeli military has also repeatedly targeted health facilities and workers, killing or kidnapping some of Gaza’s best medical specialists and top hospital administrators. According to the United Nations, by August, 885 medical workers had been killed in Gaza. Some were targeted in their homes and some in the hospitals where they had stayed behind to take care of patients as Israeli forces carried out raids. Others were tortured to death like Dr Adnan al-Bursh, a senior orthopaedic surgeon at al-Shifa Hospital, and Dr Iyad al-Rantisi, head of obstetrics and gynaecology at Kamal Adwan Hospital. The decimation of Gaza’s health sector and the mass killing of doctors and other medical professionals mean that Palestinians do not have access to proper healthcare whether they are chronically ill, newly infected with a disease or injured by Israel’s incessant bombardments. This again helps Israel’s genocide. As many videos of the aftermath of air strikes show, the wounded are usually brought to severely underresourced and dysfunctional medical facilities where they are placed on the ground in a pool of blood as the few medical workers available scramble to do emergency care. Many who would normally be saved die. Israel’s wholesale destruction of every public service that sustains life in Gaza has brought the Palestinian population to the brink. A neighbour from Khan Younis refugee camp recently wrote to me: “[The Israelis] have not left a sewage pipe, a water pipe, a water desalination unit, bakeries, communication towers, or homes. They ran over the greenhouses and trees, they bombed the mosques and schools. They bombed anything and everything. Total destruction. We are all targets and no one is safe. No doctor, no university professor, no child, no woman, no lawyer, no journalist and no place or facility – UN or otherwise – is safe. They tell us that we have to leave Gaza if we want to stay alive.” Israel’s aim in wiping out any semblance of civil order and service provision is, of course, to sow despair among Palestinians and subdue any impulse they may have to resist occupation, subjugation and dispossession. But this strategy is doomed to fail for two reasons: because it is violating international law and because it is ineffective. Israel has long ignored and violated the international legal regime. But what it is doing in Gaza right now even its staunchest supporters are having trouble defending. In January, the International Court of Justice issued a preliminary ruling in which it called Israel’s actions in Gaza “plausibly” genocidal. In May, International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan called on the court to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, for war crimes committed in Gaza. In June, an independent UN investigation concluded that Israel had committed crimes against humanity during the war. The UN Commission of Inquiry, which conducted the investigation, stated in its report: “The immense numbers of civilian casualties in Gaza and widespread destruction of civilian objects and infrastructure were the inevitable result of a strategy undertaken with intent to cause maximum damage, disregarding the principles of distinction, proportionality, and adequate precautions.” While Israel is committing war crimes by wiping out Gaza’s civilian infrastructure and services and killing the people who maintain them, these actions will not fulfil the long-term goal: to force Palestinians to capitulate and renounce their claim to their homeland. For 11 months now, the strongest army in the region and one of the most advanced in the world has been unable to attain a military victory against an armed resistance group – unless one considers the mass killing of civilians, mostly women and children, and the total destruction of their livelihood as a measure of success. In a June article in Foreign Affairs magazine, political scientist Robert A Pape argued that Israel in many ways has “made its enemy stronger” than it was before the October 7 attacks because it has made it more popular and in this way more effective in recruiting. In a subsequent interview, Pape argued that Israel’s strategy of overwhelming airpower is failing just as such approaches failed in Vietnam and Iraq. Overwhelming firepower tends to bring civilian populations together in mutual solidarity against the enemy. This is what is happening in Gaza right now. Israel has been indiscriminately bombing to make Gaza ultimately unliveable and to force the Palestinians into a mass exodus at the threat of mass death. That has taken an unbelievable toll on the people of Gaza. But Israel’s attempts to destroy the social fabric of Palestinian society, erase its institutions and crush its spirit are ultimately failing. That is because the people of Gaza, supported by their global allies, are responding to this erasure through collective acts of defiance, striving with every effort to maintain utilities, health and education services, and their community life. The recent reopening of a small emergency unit at al-Shifa Hospital is emblematic of this enduring resilience. Such efforts not only demonstrate the courage of Palestinian public employees but also the global network of support and the immense mobilisation of the Palestinian diaspora and allies worldwide. This defiance to policies and acts of erasure is deeply rooted in the history of Palestinian resistance, expressed both in words and actions. When I last spoke with my niece, Amal, shortly after she had turned 18, I asked her what she wished for on her birthday. She responded by reciting an excerpt from the great Palestinian poet Fadwa Tuqan’s A Call of the Land that reflects the Palestinian spirit: I ask nothing more than to die in my country, to dissolve and merge with the grass, to give life to a flower that a child of my country will pick. All I ask is to remain in the bosom of my country, as soil, grass, a flower. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance. Ghada Ageel Professor of political science Dr Ghada Ageel is a third-generation Palestinian refugee and is currently a visiting professor at the department of political science at the University of Alberta situated at amiskwaciwâskahikan (Edmonton), Treaty 6 territory in Canada
Taking out Hamas and eliminating terrorism in the West Bank. Once again the explosives are hidden in a mosque. It's always a mosque, school, UNRWA center, or similar location that the terrorist entities operate out of. IDF destroys explosives lab hidden under mosque in Jenin counterterrorism operation Last week, the IDF eliminated the Hamas branch head Jenin. https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-818967
US to Present Gaza Proposal ‘in Coming Days,’ Blinken Says The US, Qatar and Egypt will present a new cease-fire proposal to Israel and Hamas in the coming days, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday, as the Biden administration struggles to find a way to end the war in the Gaza Strip.
Photo: AFP/ IDF Spokesperson's Unit Biden fears of yet another failed deal proposal, Hamas hardened its positions Sources in Israel assume the US is leaning toward withholding their proposal, having concluded that Hamas is not engaging seriously and has backtracked on several issues Itamar Eichner | published: 03:23 https://www.ynetnews.com/article/hk6tfaun0 The U.S. is growing increasingly frustrated with Hamas’ continued refusal to accept any new compromise, as well as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s insistence on maintaining a presence along the Philadelphi Corridor, which is complicating efforts to make progress in hostage negotiations. Israeli officials now believe the latest mediation proposal, initially planned for submission by the U.S. this weekend, is likely to be delayed. According to sources in Israel, the Americans are leaning toward withholding their proposal, having concluded that Hamas is not engaging seriously and has backtracked on several issues. Washington is expected to wait until mediators exert enough pressure on Hamas to bring them back to the negotiating table. Only when it's clear that Hamas is ready will the new proposal be presented. There is concern that introducing another offer — the second in just a few weeks — could lead to further embarrassment for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, especially in an election year, and amid constant criticism from Republican candidate and former President Donald Trump. Israeli sources express deep pessimism, stating that the chances for a deal are now slim. Nevertheless, Israel awaits a final decision from the Americans on whether to submit the mediation offer. This pessimism stems in part from Hamas hardening its stance in the negotiations, seeking to release as few hostages as possible in exchange for as many convicted terrorists as they can. “The more you push for the release of a larger number of hostages, the more Hamas raises the number of murderers they want freed,” an Israeli official explained. A security source involved in the talks emphasized that the public perception that a deal is being blocked due to Israel’s insistence on maintaining a military presence along the Philadelphi Corridor is false. “That’s simply not true,” he said. “There’s no deal because Hamas doesn’t want one. They’re insisting on an end to the war and a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.” Meanwhile, others involved in the negotiations argue that Netanyahu’s insistence on holding the Philadelphi Corridor is what ultimately derailed the chances for an agreement.
Biden, Harris condemn gun violence after Georgia school shooting: ‘We cannot continue to accept this as normal’ Sep 05, 2024 Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have released scathing statements after the shooting at Georgia’s Apalachee High School. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have released scathing statements after the shooting at Georgia’s Apalachee High School on Wednesday morning, September 4. Two students and two teachers died after 14-year-old gunman Colt Gray opened fire. Nine others were hospitalised. ...................... "We don't want American citizens involved in shootings, only on foreigners overseas do we approve it."
Interesting article about the conflict and taking on Hamas underground. How Israel learned to fight Hamas deep under ground The 300 miles of tunnels beneath Gaza form a remarkable subterranean world – and call for military tactics never attempted before https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-n...ael-learned-to-fight-hamas-deep-under-ground/