With no coherent war plan, Netanyahu’s regime is using any excuse to derail ceasefire talks

By Robert Inlakesh | Al Mayadeen | September 17, 2024
At this point, it should be clear that Hamas is not and never has been the obstacle to securing a prisoner swap and ceasefire in Gaza. Yet, it doesn’t matter how willing Hamas truly is with the fact that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is using every tool he can to create excuses as to why the war can’t come to an end, which is important to understand.
When the United States and their Israeli partners talk about the need for Hamas to sit at the table, calling on the Palestinian Resistance to accept a ceasefire deal, it is all nonsense. The analysis pieces, leaked conversations, and update articles that we see regularly published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Axios, and other outlets are all adding to a work of fiction that has been crafted for domestic US and Israeli consumption.
There are no current negotiations, just discussions between the Israelis and Americans, which then are forwarded to the negotiating teams of Egypt and Qatar, before the conversation ultimately ends the exact same way it began, as useless ramblings that only give cover for further Israeli war crimes. This is the case as Hamas sits by and waits for the circus to end so that it can actually talk business.
The framework for a ceasefire and prisoner exchange has already been proposed by the United States and ratified by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), and Hamas has agreed to it. Meanwhile, the Zionist entity does not speak for itself on what it has or hasn’t exactly accepted; instead, it allows the likes of US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, to tell the world that the UNSC-endorsed Biden proposal was actually an Israeli proposal before later changing his story to that the Israelis had accepted Biden’s proposal. Even at this level, the contradictions prove how unserious the Zionist regime is.
On May 6, when Hamas announced that they had accepted a ceasefire proposal – that was almost identical to the one that Antony Blinken had spent two weeks lauding – the Israeli response was immediate rejection, followed by the invasion of the Rafah crossing.
The Israeli PM has continually argued that the war must continue until Hamas is defeated in Gaza, an objective that even the Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari has said is impossible. Moreover, Netanyahu’s insistence on destroying Hamas is indicative of his outright rejection of a ceasefire. You can either defeat Hamas or do a ceasefire deal with them, you can’t have both, it simply makes no sense.
Another important point to understand is that despite the change in US President Joe Biden’s rhetoric and that of his administration, calling for an “immediate ceasefire”, you will notice that when Israeli officials comment on the issue of a ceasefire, they do so with a focus on the prisoner exchange aspect and often follow this up by stating that they must still retain the right to attack Hamas. In other words, the only ceasefire that the Zionist entity entertains is a temporary one that will ensure the release of their captives, after which they seek the “right” to continue the war. This is exactly what Benjamin Netanyahu argues, which, in essence, means that he’s openly telling Hamas to give up its bargaining chips for no reason.
The issue of Israeli forces remaining in both the Philadelphia and Netzarim corridors is a new addition to the ceasefire talks and directly violates the framework outlined in UNSC Resolution 2735 that was adopted on June 10. The resolution states explicitly that in phase 2 of the ceasefire agreement “upon agreement of the parties, a permanent end to hostilities, in exchange for the release of all other hostages still in Gaza, and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza,” adding that it “rejects any attempt at demographic or territorial change in the Gaza Strip, including any actions that reduce the territory of Gaza.”
The evidence that “Israel” outright rejects what is quoted above from the Security Council resolution is not just limited to these new additions to the non-existent ceasefire negotiations. When Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to Congress in July, he swore that his regime was going to secure “total victory” and argued for occupying Gaza internally for a limited period of time instead of permanently. If we look at all the polling data on the opinion of Israelis, the majority of the public also agree with these ideas too.
On top of this, the Israeli military has been creating a “buffer zone” around the perimeter of the Gaza Strip, blowing up and burning every single structure in an area that constitutes 32 percent of the besieged coastal territory. Furthermore, the new addition to the Zionist entity’s war plan which is agreed upon by the majority of the Israeli cabinet is the idea of seizing the entirety of northern Gaza for a “security zone” and expelling the hundreds of thousands of residents who live there.
As occurred in Rafah, where around a million people were completely uprooted and pushed into the ever-changing so-called “safe zone” area of al-Mawasi, the Zionist entity appears to be trying to concentrate the entire Palestinian civilian population into this zone. When the civilians arrive there, they are then repeatedly forced to move on foot and their tents are bombed, burying their bodies beneath mounds of sand.
The Zionist regime is engaged in what is clearly an “endless war”, or a war of attrition, which the United States government is fully backing with tens of billions of dollars worth of weapons. The end goal here is not actually clear, but what is certain is that Benjamin Netanyahu is not about to give up. If we follow the trajectory of the war so far, it is completely dependent upon Israeli domestic politics. The war has worked as follows:
Stage 1: “Israel” launches an unprecedented air attack that decimates civilian infrastructure, while commanding the civilian population to head south, where they are also bombed.
Stage 2: “Israel” invades the Gaza Strip, focusing on the northern part of the territory and claiming that Hamas is operating its HQ out of Al-Shifa Hospital and bases out of other hospitals. It then fails to find any headquarters.
Stage 3: A prisoner exchange is concluded, during which time the Israeli regime is changing its narrative.
Stage 4: “Israel” invades Khan Younis and central Gaza, claiming that the “real Hamas headquarters is in Khan Younis,” ultimately failing to inflict any real blow on the Palestinian Resistance.
Stage 5: “Israel” winds down the clock with more brief military incursions into areas they have already invaded, inflicting countless more civilian massacres and holding off on what they now began arguing was the true headquarters for Hamas in Rafah. During this period, Benjamin Netanyahu argued that the tunnels were being used to transfer weapons and that the war could not be won without a Rafah invasion.
Stage 6: Hamas accepts a ceasefire proposal after the US had been placing pressure on the Israelis to steer clear from a major invasion of Rafah. Netanyahu decides that same day to invade Rafah but not to wage the sort of campaign he was hoping for.
Stage 7: After having invaded every area in Gaza, the Israelis are out of excuses and are throwing out random ideas, hoping they will stick and convince their own population. This has led to reviving the idea of seizing northern Gaza, which was initially proposed at the beginning of the war, yet a large portion of the Israeli public is now demanding the return of the captives, which presents a major issue. So, they are looking for anything new to buy time before the inevitable next steps must be taken.
This brings us to today.
The Zionist regime doesn’t want a ceasefire and the US pressure simply is not there to force it to change its mind. The only thing that is now applying real pressure is the relentless fire from Hezbollah on the northern front, which has grown to the point that it cannot be ignored. In order to stop the Lebanese Resistance, they have two options: End the war on Gaza or start another war with Lebanon. If the Zionist entity will not give up on its genocidal assault on the Gaza Strip, then war with Lebanon is inevitable and will likely end up taking place inside Syrian territory also.
‘Israel’ knows nothing about Hamas’ tunnels: Released captive
Al Mayadeen | September 8, 2024
Released Israeli captive Adina Moshe, 72, who was held by Palestinian Resistance factions in Gaza, revealed that the Israeli military has no real knowledge of the Resistance’s tunnel infrastructure.
During an interview for Israeli broadcaster Channel 12, Moshe said that the Israeli Shin Bet security service asked her to draw a map of the tunnels after she was released in a prisoner exchange deal.
“The Shin Bet asked me to draw a map of the tunnels in Gaza because they know nothing about them,” Moshe told an interviewer.
The security agency had dispatched an engineer to speak to Moshe at an earlier time, where she told him that the tunnels in the Gaza Strip are a “vast underground maze stretching across the entire area.” She also told the engineer that military operations alone will not help retrieve the remaining captives.
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is lying, and neither he nor the military know anything about Hamas’ tunnels in Gaza,” the released captive added.
According to Channel 12, when Moshe was asked to draw up a sketch of the tunnels, she responded by saying that she was not an artist.
She was also asked to describe the tunnels, their pathways, their locations, and the communication devices and wiring installed in them.
Hamas’ tunnel city, ‘Israel’s’ collapse
In an article titled “It is not Hamas that is collapsing, but Israel,” published in Haaretz, retired Brigadier General Yitzhak Brik offered a critical assessment of the ongoing battles in the Gaza Strip. He underscored the significant and escalating losses “Israel” is facing, arguing that the war is exerting a far heavier toll on “Israel” itself than on Hamas.
He pointed out the need to concentrate occupation forces in other sectors, namely in the north and the West Bank due to the ongoing escalations. This would necessitate occupation forces to withdraw from Gaza because there are “not enough forces to fight on several fronts at the same time.”
“In other words, the day will come when the IDF will no longer be able to remain in the Gaza Strip because Hamas will be in full control of it – both in the underground tunnel city that stretches hundreds of kilometers and above ground,” Brik explained.
Throughout the period of the war on Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s goal of uprooting the Palestinian Resistance from the Gaza Strip has proven elusive. A substantial factor as to why the Resistance has been able to command and control operations, even in the areas most hard-hit by the Israeli aggression, has been the exceptional use of underground tunnels by Palestinian Resistance fighters and commanders.
Despite the launching of hundreds of bunker-buster bombs, flooding tunnel networks with seawater, and other methods, the Israeli regime has found little to no success in deactivating the strategic infrastructure.
Gaza and Polio
By Richard Hugus | August 27, 2024
On July 30, 2024 the Health Ministry of Gaza declared a polio epidemic in Gaza. The World Health Organization then said it would send more than a million polio vaccine doses to Gaza. On August 16, according to Al-Jazeera, the first case was reported and the UN’s Antonio Guterres called for a ceasefire to make a vaccination campaign possible. This call was supported by Hamas.
Health authorities rightly point out that the cause of the horrific health conditions in Gaza is the ongoing Israeli genocide – the bombing of homes and infrastructure, the shelling, the withholding of food and medical supplies, the sadistic evacuations — and the authorities of course call for all these things to end. But the involvement of globalist agencies like the UN and WHO raise suspicions that the polio declaration may be just another attack on the people of Gaza concealed under a cloak of humanitarianism.
According to Al-Jazeera, the announcement of the alleged outbreak came on August 7 from one Dr. Hamid Jafari, a World Health Organization polio specialist who claimed the polio virus was found in wastewater samples in Deir el-Balah and Khan Younis. Dr. Jafari is currently employed by the US Centers for Disease Control, a deeply corrupt organization which has spent the past three years pushing vaccines for another purported virus – covid 19 – in spite of clear proof from the very beginning of multiple harms caused by the vaccine. This harm is not limited to the US. Denis Rancourt and colleagues have recently offered statistical proof of almost 31 million excess deaths globally for the period 2020-2022, deaths which they attribute to the strangely universal worldwide public health response to covid 19, to include lockdowns, business closures, isolation, harmful hospital protocols, and particularly the mRNA vaccines.
Regarding Dr. Jafari in Gaza, The CDC website tell us that he “is a graduate of CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) program, class of 1992. . . currently serving as the Principal Deputy Director, Center for Global Health, at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The website goes on to say that “Dr. Jafari served as the project manager of World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) National Polio Surveillance Project in India from 2007-2012. As the project manager, he was the main technical advisor to the government of India in the implementation of the nation’s large scale polio eradication, measles control, and routine immunization activities, and he directed WHO’s extensive network of more than 2000 field staff.”
Thus Dr. Jafari was in in charge of a vaccination campaign in India where, in one study, researchers found that between 2000–2017 there were “an additional 491,000 paralyzed children” above normal. The ambitious “polio eradication” program in India was funded and led by the Gates Foundation and the WHO. The number of paralysis cases was found to be proportional to the number of vaccine doses administered. The Gates Foundation and WHO are not exactly separate entities – Gates is a major funder of the WHO. Dr. Jafari’s employment at the CDC, his authoritative declaration of a polio epidemic in Gaza, and WHO’s immediate announcement of the shipment of over a million vaccines should raise red flags.
Polio is a condition that is often confused with the catchall “acute flaccid paralysis.” Acute flaccid paralysis may even be the result of injection of polio “vaccines, but it is not polio. The polio vaccine can and does cause acute flaccid paralysis. From experience in the US since the 1950s it is known that what was often called polio was not the gut virus that humans have lived with more or less uneventfully throughout history, but a form of paralysis caused by human exposure to neurotoxins introduced in the 20th century — for example, mercury and aluminum adjuvants used in vaccines, leaded fuel, fluoridated water, pesticides and herbicides like arsenic, DDT, dioxin, and glyphosate. DDT was in widespread use in the 1950s. When it was banned, the high numbers of “polio” cases went down. The famous Salk and Sabin vaccines had little to do with it, though the medical establishment claimed victory. Indeed, as we know from what is called “the Cutter incident” in 1955, vaccines produced by Cutter Laboratories ended up causing 40,000 cases of polio, severely paralyzed 200 children, and killed 10. Later iterations of the vaccine were found to contain a cancer-causing agent called SV-40 (SV being short for ‘simian virus’). Bernice Eddy, the scientist who discovered this, was hounded out of her job at the US National Institute of Health. Lest one think that things are surely more advanced now than in the 1950s, as recently as April 2023 a well-known scientist named Kevin McKernan found SV-40 in samples of the Pfizer covid -19 vaccine. A new term was coined to describe a common effect of the covid injections — “turbo cancer” — perhaps attributable to the SV-40 and the normally forbidden DNA plasmids also found in the samples.
In an emergency involving a projected 2,700 aid workers delivering 1.6 million doses over a short period of time (between bombings), will the parents of the one million children in Gaza be given complete information about the contents of the polio vaccine their children are about to be given? Will there be a full explanation about risks and possible side-effects? Will the parents have any understanding of the negative history of polio vaccines or of vaccines in general? Will they have the informed consent required in any medical intervention? Will they be given redress for any injuries? No, not a chance. The instructions will be “here’s your dose, now move along.” To be fair, it’s the same all over the world.
Dr. Suzanne Humphries is a well-known kidney specialist who spent years of her professional life coming to grips with organized medicine’s ignorance of the fact that vaccines may cause rather than cure disease. She found that high numbers of polio cases mysteriously went away when polio came to be named other things, like poliomyelitis, transverse myelitis, Guillain-Barré syndrome, enteroviral encephalopathy, traumatic neuritis, and Reye’s syndrome. A similar trick was played when influenza suddenly disappeared between 2020 and 2023 and “covid” took its place. Incidentally, one of the common effects of the covid vaccine was facial paralysis, or Guillain-Barré syndrome. Vaccines contain neurotoxins. Neurotoxins cause paralysis and myriad other problems. When it comes to Gaza, we might ask: is the confirmed case there actually polio, or is it one of the many distinct diseases under the umbrella of acute flaccid paralysis? Does a vaccine designed for one strain of polio address some, all, or even any of the mimicking diseases? Is there documentation that the confirmed case was actually polio, or do we just have to take Dr. Jafari’s word for it?
According to Dr. Humphries, “no vaccines are safe. Having “efficacy” means an antibody response is generated, not that they keep you from getting sick. There are many other ways to keep children healthy other than injecting them with disease matter, chemicals, animal DNA, animal proteins, detergents and surfactants that inflame and weaken the blood brain barrier, potentially causing inflammation and other problems.” One way would be to stop bombing them.
The Gaza Health Ministry and Hamas are surely busy enough dealing with zionist genocide, but they need to know that in the last few years public health has been revealed as a very effective weapon of war. The US Department of Defense had a leading role in the worldwide biowarfare operation known as “covid 19 countermeasures.” The WHO and the UN were very much involved in this operation. They are not to be trusted. Like the US government, these supposed humanitarian organizations speak from both sides of their mouth – calling for ceasefire while doing nothing to stop the weapons that every day kill more Palestinians. They know that the best way to protect the children of Gaza is to bring good nutrition, clean water, clean air, housing, and an end to the trauma of psychopath Israel’s daily bombing, yet they do nothing meaningful to bring this about. They are not offering aid with their polio vaccines; they are offering more poison.
25 shelters, 4 wells in Deir al-Balah went out of service due to forced displacement
Palestinian Information Center – August 26, 2024
DEIR AL-BALAH – The Municipality of Deir al-Balah announced that 25 shelters and four water wells went out of service, following the Israeli evacuation of new neighborhoods in Deir al-Balah over the past 72 hours.
The municipality said in a press statement on Monday, “25 shelter centers went out of service after forced displacement of 250,000 citizens within the past 72 hours, including the only government hospital which was still operating in the southern Gaza Strip.”
The municipality further explained that the closure of the four water wells brings the number of disabled wells to 14, noting that the disabled wells were supplying nearly 70% of the people in the city, and their closure would exacerbate the water and food crisis.
The recent Israeli evacuation order in the vicinity of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital threatened the only remaining main water tank in the city, according to official sources.
Deir al-Balah municipality called on the international community to urgently intervene to enable the humanitarian service crews, including municipalities, hospitals and relief associations, to carry out their humanitarian duty to provide service to the displaced and citizens.
On Sunday evening, the Israeli occupation army issued a decision to evacuate new neighborhoods northeast of Deir al-Balah, and some neighborhoods west of Salah al-Din Street.
Over 40 Palestinians released from Israel prisons with signs of torture, skin diseases

23 Palestinians detained by Israel are taken to the Nasser Hospital for medical treatment after release at Karm Abu Salem border crossing in Gaza on August 20, 2024. [Doaa Albaz – Anadolu Agency]
MEMO | August 23, 2024
Israeli strikes on Gaza kill two more Palestinian journalists, their family members

Deceased Palestinian journalists Abdullah al-Soussi (L) and Tamim Muammar (Photo via social media)
MEMO | August 10, 2024
The agency called on: “The International Criminal Court Prosecutor to quickly begin investigations into the occupation’s crimes against Palestinian journalists.”
Khan Yunis: Israeli army destroyed over 70 percent of the city’s water wells
Palestinian Information Center – August 8, 2024
GAZA – The municipality of Khan Yunis City in southern Gaza has affirmed that the Israeli occupation army has destroyed over 70 percent of the city’s water wells since October 7, 2023.
In a statement on Thursday, the municipality explained that the Israeli army destroyed the city’s water purification station, 26 of its 37 wells, and 220 kilometers of water lines.
According to the municipality, more than 1,200,000 displaced people currently sheltering in al-Mawasi area of western Khan Yunis are struggling to access drinking and usable water.
The municipality warned that the severe water shortage in Khan Yunis led to the spread of infectious diseases among the local and displaced families.
Jordan, Qatar, KSA balk at US-led ‘peacekeeping force’ for post-war Gaza: Report
The Cradle | August 7, 2024
Jordan, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia have reportedly refused requests to take part in a US-led “peacekeeping force” for Gaza once Israel’s genocide of Palestinians comes to a stop, according to informed sources who spoke with the Times of Israel.
One of the sources told the Israeli outlet that troops from the Arab nations would be seen to be “protecting Israel from the Palestinians.”
The reported positions of Aman, Doha, and Riyadh contrast starkly with those of the UAE and Egypt, which have reportedly expressed willingness to participate in the effort.
Abu Dhabi made this position public last month when Lana Nusseibeh, the country’s Permanent Representative to the UN and special envoy of the Emirati Foreign Ministry, penned an op-ed for the Financial Times (FT) in which she called for the establishment of a “temporary international mission” in Gaza.
“Any ‘day after’ effort must fundamentally alter the trajectory of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict towards the establishment of a Palestinian state that lives in peace and security with the state of Israel … A first step in such an effort is to deploy a temporary international mission that responds to the humanitarian crisis, establishes law and order, lays the groundwork for governance and paves the way to reuniting Gaza and the occupied West Bank under a single, legitimate Palestinian Authority (PA),” Nusseibeh declared.
The UAE in June hosted a secret gathering with US and Israeli officials to discuss plans for Gaza after the genocidal war ends. Abu Dhabi has also stepped up joint efforts with Tel Aviv since 7 October to construct military and intelligence infrastructure on the Socotra Archipelago off the coast of Yemen.
During trips to Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, and Israel in June, US State Secretary Anthony Blinken reportedly informed officials that Washington had received “support from Cairo and Abu Dhabi for the creation of a force that would work alongside local Palestinian officers” in Gaza, the Times of Israel reports.
“Blinken told counterparts that the US would help establish and train the security force and ensure that it would have a temporary mandate so that it could eventually be replaced by a fully Palestinian body, the third source said, adding that the goal is for the PA to eventually take over full control of Gaza. Blinken clarified, though, that the US would not be contributing troops of its own, the officials said,” the report adds.
US armed Israel with 25,000-plus bombs, missiles since Oct. 7: Report
Press TV – July 25, 2024
The United States has reportedly armed the Israeli regime with upwards of 25,000 bombs and missiles since October 7, 2023, which marked the onset of Tel Aviv’s yet-ongoing genocidal war against the Gaza Strip.
The New York Times provided the figure on Thursday, citing the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, a think tank.
According to the report, the American arms shipments to the occupied Palestinian territories throughout the war had featured over 20,000 unguided bombs, some 2,600 guided bombs, and 3,000 surgical strike missiles.
The regime launched the war following al-Aqsa Storm, a retaliatory operation staged by Gaza’s resistance groups against the occupied territories.
Ever since, it has been deploying the US-supplied projectiles against numerous civilian targets.
Earlier this month, the regime’s military radio reported that the Israeli Air Force had dropped a total eight US-manufactured JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munition) bombs against the al-Mawasi refugee camp in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, killing and injuring a total of 390 Palestinians.
In all, the war has so far claimed the lives of more than 39,175 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and wounded 90,257 others.
Last month, The Washington Post reported that the US had supplied the regime with over $6.5 billion in military supplies since the beginning of the brutal military onslaught.
The sheer increase comes while Washington’s annual so-called military aid for Tel Aviv stands at around $3.3 billion.
Washington has also used its veto power on several occasions so far to prevent the UN Security Council from issuing a resolution that would call for implementation of an immediate ceasefire in the war.
The untrammeled American political and military support for the regime comes despite an order issued by the International Court of Justice, the United Nations top court, on the regime back in January to take all measures within its power to prevent genocide in Gaza.
What’s behind Israel’s war against UNRWA?
By Ramzy Baroud | MEMO | July 23, 2024
Targeting a school during a war could be justified as, or at least argued, to have been a mistake. But striking over 120 schools, and killing and wounding thousands of civilians sheltering inside, can only be intentional, with each attack a horrific war crime in its own right.
Between 7 October last year and 18 July, Israel has done precisely that, targeting with total impunity UN infrastructure in the besieged Gaza Strip, including schools and medical centres. According to the estimates of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), at least 561 internally displaced Palestinians sheltering in UNRWA buildings have been killed and 1,768 have been wounded since the start of Israel’s war. Within just ten days between 8 and 18 July, at least six UNRWA schools serving as makeshift shelters for displaced Palestinians were targeted by the Israeli army, resulting in the killing and wounding of hundreds.
Historically, UN-linked organisations have been more or less immune from the impact of wars. The privilege of being neutral outsiders to any conflict allowed those affiliated with such organisations to carry out their duties largely unhindered. The Israeli war on the Palestinians in Gaza, however, is the primary exception among all modern conflicts. According to UN sources, 274 aid workers and over 500 healthcare workers linked to the international organisation have been killed by the Israeli occupation forces.
These figures are consistent with all other statistics produced by the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza. Indeed, not a single category of people has been spared: neither doctors nor civil defence workers, mayors or even traffic police, let alone the children, women and elderly.
It was obvious from the very start of the war that Israel wanted to criminalise all Palestinians.
Not only those affiliated with Hamas or other groups, but also the civilian population and any international organisation that came to their aid. Blaming and dehumanising all of Gaza was and remains part of Israel’s strategy that lets its army operate without any restraints, and without even the most minimal moral threshold or respect for international law.
However, the Israeli attacks on all UN institutions, in particular UNRWA, the agency responsible for the welfare of Gaza’s Palestinian refugees, serve a different purpose than that of mere “collective punishment”. Israel does not attempt to mask or justify its attacks on the agency as it did during previous Gaza wars. This time around, the Israeli war was accompanied, from the very beginning, with the outlandish accusation that UNRWA staff had participated in the 7 October cross-border incursion by Hamas and other Palestinian groups.
Without providing any evidence, Tel Aviv launched an international vilification campaign against the UN agency which has, for decades, provided essential educational, medical and humanitarian services to millions of Palestinian refugees, not only in occupied Palestine, but also in refugee camps in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. Sadly, and tellingly, some Western, and even non-Western governments, answered the Israeli call to punish UNRWA by withholding badly-needed funds, the urgency of which did not only stem from the direct impact of the Israeli war, but also the acute famine resulting from the war. UNRWA depends almost entirely on such voluntary donations from UN member states.
True, a number of governments eventually resumed their funding of the agency, but such action was only taken when much damage had already been done. Moreover, most, if not all, Western governments have taken no action against Israel for its continued targeting of UNRWA facilities, and thus the killing of hundreds of innocent Palestinians in the process.
This non-committal attitude has emboldened Israel to the extent that, just this week, the Israeli Knesset (parliament) passed the first reading of a bill to designate UNRWA as a “terrorist organisation”. On 18 July, Israeli spokesman David Mencer accused the Commissioner-General of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, of being a “terrorist sympathiser”.
Israel’s hate for UNRWA, however, stretches back long before the current war.
For years, successive Israeli governments, not least with the aid of the Donald Trump administration in the US, have sought to shut down the agency altogether.
Jared Kushner, Trump’s former advisor on the Middle East, said in January 2018 that it was “important to have an honest and sincere effort to disrupt UNRWA.” For him, the dismantlement of the agency meant the eradication of the legitimate Right of Return for Palestinian refugees.
Indeed, the issue is not just about UNRWA, but rather the historic role the agency has played as a reminder of the plight of millions of Palestinian refugees in occupied Palestine, the Middle East and across the world.
UNRWA was established through General Assembly Resolution 302 (IV) of 8 December 1949. The founding of UNRWA came one year after the passing of UN Resolution 194, which granted Palestinian refugees the right to “return to their homes”. Although UNRWA’s mission has turned into a de facto permanent mandate (albeit one that has to be renewed periodically), since Palestinian refugees were not granted their right of return, the role of the agency has remained as critical as it was decades ago.
Since Kushner and others have failed to have UNRWA shut down, the Israeli government has taken advantage of its war on Gaza to try to do so. According to Israeli “logic”, without a UN agency specifically for Palestinian refugees, there must be no more Palestinian refugees, so the issue of their return would lose its main legal platform and would ultimately disappear. This would give Israel the space and leverage to “resolve” the problem of the refugees in any way it sees fit, especially if it has Washington’s full support.
Israel must not be allowed to dismantle UNRWA or to dismiss the generational struggle of Palestinian refugees, which is the core of the Palestinian fight for justice and freedom. The international community must challenge Israel’s vilification of UNRWA and insist on the centrality of the Right of Return for Palestinian refugees. Without it, no real peace is possible.



