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Gaza’s resistance groups announce response to 2nd truce proposal

Press TV – February 6, 2024

Resistance movements in the Gaza Strip, which has endured some four months of a genocidal Israeli war, have announced their response to a proposal for a second truce in the brutal military onslaught.

On Tuesday, the movements responded to the proposal that had been hammered out among Egypt, Qatar, the US, and the Israeli regime during talks in Paris late last month.

The proposal reportedly features three phases, the first of which envisages release of Israeli civilians in exchange for Palestinian prisoners throughout some six weeks. Upon potential success, this would lead to two more phases of swap that would include male Israeli troops.

Responding to the proposal, however, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas said in a statement that any agreement had to feature a “comprehensive and complete ceasefire.” Such a deal also had to ensure implementation of relief operations, provision of shelter for the displaced Gazans, enablement of the territory’s reconstruction, lifting of a siege that the Israeli regime has been simultaneously enforcing against the coastal sliver, and completion of prisoner exchange, the group added.

Hamas, meanwhile, vowed that Gaza’s resistance groups would “continue to defend our people, on the path to ending the [Israeli] occupation, and achieving their (the Palestinian people’s) legitimate national rights to their land and sanctities.”

Mahmoud Mardawi, a senior Hamas’ official, similarly affirmed that the group sought “a comprehensive ceasefire.” “We will not move to another phase until our goals and demands are achieved,” he said, adding, “Our people do not want a truce only to go back to their homes and then be bombed by the occupation.”

Mohammed al-Hindi, deputy secretary-general of the Islamic Jihad, Hamas’ fellow Gaza-based resistance group, likewise, laid emphasis on the need for the Israeli aggression to stop, the regime’s forces to withdraw from the territory, and efforts to be made towards enabling reconstruction of the war-hit coastal sliver.

“Our response to the framework agreement was in essence consistent with our constants, with minor modifications to the wording,” he said.

Ihsan Ataya, member of the Islamic Jihad’s Political Bureau, separately asserted that any agreement had to feature opening of Gaza’s crossings to humanitarian aid.

He also noted that the Israeli regime and the United States — Tel Aviv’s biggest supporter — had realized that they could not determine Gaza’s future, and that “nothing can change politically in Gaza.”

Around 27,600 Palestinians, mostly women, children, and adolescents, have died in the war that the Israeli regime began waging last October following Operation al-Aqsa Storm by the resistance movements, during which hundreds were taken captive.

A first truce took effect between the two sides last November, which saw the release of 105 Israeli captives held in Gaza and 240 Palestinian prisoners held by the Israeli regime. The deal also allowed some humanitarian aid into Gaza, but the aid supplies were far below what was needed amid the all-out Israeli siege.

February 6, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , | Leave a comment

Hamas fighting with Israeli-made weapons: Report

The Cradle | January 29, 2024

Much of the arsenal used by Hamas during Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on 7 October was originally Israeli weapons, the New York Times (NYT) reported on 28 January. 

“Israeli military and intelligence officials have concluded that a significant number of weapons used by Hamas in the Oct. 7 attacks and in the war in Gaza came from an unlikely source: the Israeli military itself,” the NYT wrote on Sunday. 

According to recent intelligence, a large number of Hamas’ explosive weapons were recycled from undetonated Israeli bombs dropped on Gaza and repurposed for the resistance group’s use. 

“Unexploded ordnance is a main source of explosives for Hamas,” Michael Cardash, former deputy head of the Israeli National Police Bomb Disposal Division, said. 

“Hamas has been able to build many of its rockets and anti-tank weaponry out of the thousands of munitions that failed to detonate when Israel lobbed them into Gaza,” the NYT cites weapons experts, as well as US and Israeli intelligence officials, as saying. 

The report also highlights that Hamas fighters are armed with weapons that have been stolen from Israeli military bases. 

“Intelligence gathered during months of fighting revealed that, just as the Israeli authorities misjudged Hamas’s intentions before Oct. 7, they also underestimated its ability to obtain arms.”

On 9 October, Iranian news outlet Tasnim cited an unnamed Palestinian source as saying that elements of the Israeli army who had been collaborating with Hamas provided the resistance group with “crucial” intelligence that aided in the successful launching of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. 

According to the official, this cooperation was ongoing for some time and explicitly related to the increase over the years of weapons theft from Israeli bases.

“Robbers often easily breach security and steal military equipment, bullets, rifles, generators, and even military vehicles,” the Tasnim report said.

In 2012, Haaretz reported that $14 million worth of equipment had been stolen from Israeli military bases. In May 2019, Maariv newspaper reported the disappearance of nearly 50 M16 rifles, many of which were never recovered.

Many instances of theft from Israeli bases have been reported since.

An investigation by The Cradle revealed last year that resistance groups in the occupied West Bank have mainly been relying on weapons stolen from Israeli army bases, as well as some which are smuggled in via Iraq, Syria, and Jordan.

January 29, 2024 Posted by | Aletho News | , , | Leave a comment

Iraqi resistance is quietly but effectively hitting the Israeli regime where it hurts

By Wesam Bahrani | Press TV | January 2024

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq announced a drone attack on Sunday deep inside the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, marking another significant development amid the Israeli genocide in Gaza.

What makes it a major development is the location of the target. The Israeli Zevulun naval facility near Haifa Port was struck as part of a “new phase” of operations against the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine as well as the illegal American occupation of Iraq and Syria.

A pattern is emerging of the Iraqi resistance attacking Zionist targets in the Mediterranean while the Yemeni military continues its operations against Zionist and US targets in the Red and Arabian seas.

In a statement on Sunday, the Iraqi resistance said it struck “four enemy targets”, which included three illegal American bases in Syria and “the Israeli Zevulun naval facility”.

In a sign of how quickly these operations are occurring, by Sunday afternoon the Iraqi resistance published another statement announcing an attack on another illegal US base in Erbil, northern Iraq.

The attack by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq near Haifa followed a successful operation against the Israeli port of Ashdod just two days before that, which followed two other operations against Haifa itself as well as drone attacks on the Israeli Karish gas rig.

All these military operations against the Zionist entity have one thing in common: strategically all these targets sit on the Mediterranean Sea.

Last month, the Iraqi resistance pledged a new phase in its operations against the Zionist entity and its American patrons, declaring that “more is to come” and in “solidarity with “our people in Gaza”.

The commander of Kataib Sayyed al-Shuhada, Abu Ala’a al-Walai, one of the senior officials in the Hashd al-Sha’abi (Popular Mobilization Units), recently spoke about the beginning of a new phase and said “This stage includes preventing Zionist shipping in the Mediterranean Sea and disabling the ports of the Zionist regime”.

In response to the now almost daily attacks on the illegal US bases in Iraq and Syria by the Iraqi resistance‌ as well as targeting vital Israeli targets, America’s military response has seen deadly airstrikes on buildings belonging to Harakat al-Nujaba and Kataib Hezbollah.

These are the two prominent anti-terror groups belonging to the Hashd al-Sha’abi, which is an integral part of the Iraqi National Armed Forces.

The Commander of the Hashd al-Sha’abi for the Central Euphrates Operations in Iraq, Major General Ali al-Hamdani on Sunday declared that “The Americans only understand the language of the force and will not leave Iraq through dialogue”.

As Washington continues to violate Iraqi sovereignty by attacking and killing members of its armed forces and continues to violate Yemeni sovereignty by attacking Yemeni military positions (as the US claims) or redecorating the sand in the desert, one thing is clear: both parties targeted are undeterred.

American and British warships are trying their best to prevent Ansarullah from attacking Israeli vessels or ships heading to the occupied Palestinian territories, but it is simply not working.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq is now seeking to target the other side of the Israeli occupation’s waters in the Mediterranean, which explains the strikes on Haifa, Ashdod and the Israeli regime’s natural reserves in the Mediterranean Sea.

Ansarullah-led Yemeni military and Iraq’s Hashd al-Sha’abi are with surgical precision targeting the Zionist entity’s naval and maritime interests, which the Israeli regime depends on for a significant amount of its trade.

Haifa Port itself (on the Mediterranean) is believed to handle up to 90 percent of vital commodities entering the occupied Palestinian territories.

These operations are causing notable damage to the Israeli economy amid a sizeable drop in shipping activity in the regime’s ports with Israeli officials speaking about workers being furloughed.

The threat posed to the regime’s economy, at the moment, is bigger in the port of Eilat (on the Red Sea), which has been targeted on various occasions by the Yemeni military in recent weeks, who have also imposed an embargo on ships docking at the Israeli occupied Palestinian ports.

As much as the US and its now “poodle” vassal, Britain, insist that the resistance operations from Yemen and Iraq have nothing to do with the Israeli genocidal war on Gaza, the writing is on the wall.

Every statement put out by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq or the Yemeni armed forces mentions “our brothers in Gaza” and “our occupied land in Palestine”.

These resistance operations in solidarity with the oppressed people of Gaza, targeting the infrastructure of the illegitimate Zionist entity and American military assets in the region will continue unless three conditions are met.

An unconditional ceasefire in Gaza, humanitarian aid entering the besieged territory and the withdrawal of the Israeli military from the blockaded strip where the death toll now tops 26,500.

There is no coordination between the Yemeni military (Ansarullah) and the Hashd al-Sha’abi, this is simply strategic thinking by both sides, something Washington and Tel Aviv are lacking.

On October 8, when the Palestinian resistance launched an unprecedented operation, the United States lacked a coherent strategy for West Asia, choosing to focus on Russia and China instead.

More than 115 days later, as the ripple effects of the faith, determination, and power of the Axis of Resistance is slowly being digested in the White House, Washington’s strategy remains incoherent.

It has and can only resort to “precision strikes” as putting boots on the ground in Yemen or allowing those boots to leave their bases in Iraq will rubber stamp the end of Biden’s presidency.

It would be like Vietnam and Afghanistan put together but on steroids.

The attacks by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq against the Israeli occupation and the American occupation will not only persist but expand as the genocidal war on Gaza rages on.

The Zionists will feel this in their ports, vital naval sites and trade in the Mediterranean for as long as their indiscriminate attacks against the women and children of Gaza continue.

Does Hamas need help in defending Gaza?

The Palestinian resistance doesn’t have the air defense systems to protect Palestinian women and children from Israeli attacks. But still, Hamas and other Palestinian resistance groups have been inflicting heavy losses on the regime’s military on ground zero.

Up to 80 percent of Hamas tunnels in Gaza are still intact despite months of Israeli attacks aimed at destroying them, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal, citing Israeli officials.

All that the Zionist regime has done is kill civilians and allow 2.3 million people to starve while the West, with the US in particular, has looked the other way.

That has prompted the resistance groups in the region to step up and help the oppressed Palestinians.

For Iraq’s Hashd al-Sha’abi, Yemen’s Ansarullah, Lebanon’s Hezbollah or the Islamic Republic of Iran, support for Gaza and the people of Gaza is not a matter of public relations or goodwill. They consider it a moral and religious duty.

Wesam Bahrani is an Iraqi journalist and commentator.

January 29, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Wars for Israel | , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

From stones to missiles, Palestinian resistance’s phenomenal military rise

By Ivan Kesic | Press TV | January 24, 2024

The Al-Aqsa Storm Operation has irreversibly redefined the battlefield dynamics, especially with the Palestinian resistance stunning the military pundits in the West with its preparedness and the ability to inflict heavy and irreparable blows on the occupying regime.

The past fifteen weeks have been marked by the Palestinian resistance against the Israeli genocidal aggression on the Gaza Strip, with the armed wing of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas surprising all and sundry with its massive weapons arsenal, all of them locally manufactured.

Toward the end of 2023, the Martyr Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, published a video, showing its missile arsenal that is able to reach every nook and corner of the occupied territories.

Even today, more than three months after the regime launched its aggression followed by extensive operations by the resistance groups against the occupation forces, this arsenal remains intact.

Military experts in the West acknowledge that the Israeli regime, with all its advanced and sophisticated weapons systems imported from the United States and Europe, has been unable to match up to the armed wings of the Palestinian resistance groups and their fighters.

Despite the Israeli regime dropping 67,000 tons of bombs on Gaza since October 7, the resistance continues to grow and inflict heavy blows on the structure of the Zionist occupation.

The story of the Palestinian missile program is a story of decades of sacrifice, ingenuity, dedicated work and successful management, and above all, the defiant spirit of resistance.

This long and difficult path of resistance against the apartheid regime began with Palestinian stone-throwing at Israeli armored vehicles during two intifadas, and ended with the capability to launch 5,000 rockets in one day and a rocket arsenal sufficient for months of warfare.

The missile capabilities and scope of operations displayed by the Hamas and other Palestinian groups surprised all international observers, even the Israeli intelligence services.

What is particularly intriguing are the conditions in which the operation was carried out.

Pertinently, the Gaza Strip was under Israeli occupation from 1967 to 2005, and ever since has been under a fierce land, sea and air blockade that prevents the import of not only weapons but also materials for their production, as well as basic goods.

The Israeli regime tried everything to weaken the resistance and retain the military technological advantage so that it could easily eliminate the groups that have been fighting for the liberation of Palestine.

An example that illustrates this disparity is the Gaza Massacre of 15 years ago when hundreds of Palestinian civilians were killed by Israeli bombs, hundreds of Israeli civilians, the so-called “war tourists”, gathered on the nearby hills and cheered triumphantly.

However, times have changed since that gruesome bloodthirsty cheering by the Zionist settlers that was followed by the iconic photo of a Palestinian boy throwing a rock at an Israeli tank.

The Palestinian resistance initially relied on rudimentary weapons, smuggled or domestically produced, intended for close combat and countering invading forces on their own soil.

After years of usage of assault rifles and explosives, a simple Qassam rocket appeared in 2001, with a range of a handful of kilometers and low destructive power, which for the first time made possible a retaliatory strike against the Israeli occupation.

Over time, the efficiency of the Qassam models increased and the first Israeli military bases and occupied cities came within range in the 2010s, which caused the phenomenon of “war tourists” on the borders of Gaza to fall into oblivion suddenly.

The Israeli regime made an effort to stop the effectiveness of these rocket attacks by developing a warning system. It invested a staggering amount of money in the development of Iron Dome, a military system that turned out to be a miserable failure on October 7.

It also boasted about assassinating the Hamas rocket engineers responsible for the Qassam development, thinking it might cripple the Palestinian “brain trust” or deter new generations from engaging in development, which proved to be a blowback assessment.

Today, the Palestinian resistance has rockets with a range of hundreds of kilometers and warheads with a payload of hundreds of kilograms, capable of reaching any point in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Due to their size, it is not possible to smuggle these rockets from abroad into the Gaza Strip, especially not in such huge quantities, which proves that they are the result of local production.

Industrial production, in conditions of scarcity of necessary materials and exposure to Israeli airstrikes, is an impressive feat in itself. Production facilities are scattered underground and well hidden, which requires exceptional logistical skills.

The same applies to the supply of materials, which mainly comes from recycling raw materials such as old water pipes, anchors of destroyed buildings, streetlight poles and so on.

In an astonishing feat from 2020, Hamas naval commandos managed to salvage large 170-kilogram naval shells from a British warship that sunk offshore more than 100 years ago during the First World War and made them reusable for new missiles.

The rocket engines and guidance systems are the product of cooperation and military knowledge imparted by experts in the region, especially Iran.

The missiles revealed in the new video include the Maqadma and Jabari rocket family, both with a range of 90 km and 50 kg warheads, put into service in the early 2010s.

Development in the middle of the same decade witnessed the creation of the Attar rocket family with a range of 90 km and 50 kg warhead, as well as of the Rantisi rocket family with a range of 170 km and 100 kg warhead.

Finally, at the end of 2010s, the Ayyash rocket family was put into service, with a range of 250 km and a payload of 250 kg, the most powerful rocket in the Palestinian arsenal, used for strikes on Safed and Eilat during the Al-Aqsa Flood operation.

At the same time, the Sijjil rocket family with a range of 55 km and 50 kg warhead was also introduced, followed by the Shamala rocket family with a range of 80 km and 150 kg warhead.

Except for the Sijjil rocket series, which is named after a Quranic verse, all others are named after Palestinian martyrs, namely Ibrahim al-Maqadma, Ahmed al-Jabari, Raed al-Attar, Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi, Mohammed Abu Shamala and Yahya Ayyash.

For three decades, the Israeli regime thought that these assassinations would break the spirit of resistance and their technological development, which backfired in a way it could not have imagined.

The martyrs and the missiles named after them are today giving sleepless nights to the regime leaders.

January 24, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Solidarity and Activism | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Israeli military’s blunders, brazen lies, failures sum up 110 days of war on Gaza

By Shabbir Rizvi | Press TV | January 23, 2024

Since the beginning of the Israeli regime’s ground operation against Gaza in late October, the regime forces have been met with fierce resistance by Palestinian fighters, prompting military experts to predict that Israeli troops would not find it easy to meet any of their objectives.

Nearly three months into the ground assault, these military analysts have been proven correct.

In the latest, at least 24 Israeli troops were declared killed in less than 24 hours on Tuesday, laying bare the fragility of what many have described as the “TikTok occupation army.”

The Israeli regime has not met a single objective. Instead, it has attempted to cover up its losses, committed egregious war crimes resulting in a genocide case against it at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and spent nearly $246 million per day on sustaining its genocidal war on Gaza.

The Tel Aviv regime, which has launched a Western-focused campaign to have the hundred-some Israeli captives held by Hamas released, has not been able to secure the release of any of them so far.

In fact, the one opportunity Israeli forces had to secure their release, they instead shot them. Coupled with this embarrassment was the retreat of Israeli troops, including the infamous Golani brigade.

Facing pressure from the inevitability of military, political, and economic disaster, Zionist officials have been contradicting each other at every corner, smacking of frustration from their losses.

For example, an Israeli war minister admits that “Hamas is far from being defeated in Gaza,” while another spokesperson says that Hamas has been completely dismantled in the north.

These contradictory statements usher in more public distrust as to what is really happening on the battlefield. They also expose the dilemma the regime is facing in the face of indomitable resistance.

The Israeli regime is notorious for brazenly lying and covering up its losses while inflating its “successes.” So in order to find the truth, we must observe the battlefield itself.

Just over a week after Israeli forces announced the “dismantlement” of Hamas in the north, a barrage of 50 rockets launched from northern Gaza by the movement’s armed wing Qassam Brigades hit buildings in surrounding settlements in the occupied Gaza envelope.

The operations of Qassam Brigades are giving jitters to Israeli settlers still in the area, as Zionist forces again failed to ensure their safety, especially after downplaying the existence of threats in north Gaza.

Furthermore, thousands of Zionist settlers from the Gaza Envelope who flocked out of the occupied territories in the wake of the Al-Aqsa Storm (Al-Aqsa Flood) operation have yet to return home.

As one former settler told Israel’s Channel 13 recently, it is “not only due to the threat of rockets … no one knows if the Palestinians from Gaza can reach us. No one knows where their tunnels extend to.”

“I have been living in Sderot for years, and I cannot count the times they told us that Hamas is deterred,” he was quoted as saying, laying bare the hollow rhetoric of the Israeli military.

Meanwhile, the Al-Qassam Brigades and other resistance factions remain strong. This is through demonstrable proof – over 100 days after the start of Operation Al-Aqsa Storm (Al-Aqsa Flood), the resistance groups are able to launch rockets as far as Tel Aviv at will.

Al-Qassam Brigades routinely (nearly daily) upload videos of their fighters confronting Zionist tanks and personnel head-on and at point-blank range, posting the destruction of Israeli forces for the world to see.

Where just a few days ago Israeli military officials announced the withdrawal of Israeli forces to give them time to lick their wounds and regroup, the political pressure amassed on the Netanyahu regime has now forced some brigades from the Israeli regime back into Northern Gaza, where they continue to be met with fierce resistance.

Clearly, the claim of Hamas’ dismantlement has been proven false.

Hamas’ leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, says that Al Qassam is “smashing the Israeli army and will continue to do so,” and that Hamas “will not submit to the conditions of the occupation.”

Israel now faces the same resistance but with worn-out soldiers and less numbers.

Though thousands of soldiers still fight in Gaza, it is nowhere near as much quantity as it was just under a month ago. Thousands have backed out under “strategic withdrawal” while thousands more suffer injury and permanent disability.

To dilute the success of Palestinian resistance, the Israeli occupation has ordered hospitals not to cover the losses from Gaza. A spokesman declares that the order violates “press freedom, but claims that the logic behind the new procedure is the desire to maintain the dignity of the injured and their families.”

To date, Hamas has claimed the destruction of thousands of troops and over one thousand vehicles

The same battlefield ferocity cannot be said of Israeli forces. Resorting to aerial bombardments that only slaughter innocent civilians, the Israeli military has yet to claim a categorical battlefield win, instead filming themselves bullying and assaulting civilians and destroying their homes and neighborhoods.

The statements and videos from Al Qassam are not just demonstrations of Hamas’ battlefield skills. They also serve as a weapon against the Zionist entity itself, forcing Israeli settlers to reckon with the fact that the Israeli military cannot protect them, as they cannot even protect themselves.

Tamer Eidam, a settler and “head of the Sdot Negev regional council” has reported that the Netanyahu regime is going as far as bribing settlers to return to the Gaza envelope, without “removing the security threat.” The feelings among settlers are also the same in north-occupied Palestine, fearing Hezbollah strikes and lack of Israeli military protection.

Netanyahu insists on the return of settlers to the Gaza envelope while simultaneously asserting that the aggression on Gaza could last until 2025, as Western media and Israeli outlets report.

Meanwhile, sirens ring nearly daily due to incoming rockets from the besieged Gaza Strip.

Here lies the turbulent political landscape. Netanyahu and his officials are in direct contradiction with the assessment of the military, and within themselves, resulting in no certainty for their troops or their settlers.

Where Netanyahu promises safety and security, Al Qassam responds with barrages of rockets. And where the regime’s military affairs minister Yoav Gallant promises the elimination of Hamas, worn-out Israeli troops are met with ambushes and fierce resistance.

The scenes and reports of Israeli military withdrawal in Gaza succinctly underscore the fate of the Netanyahu regime.

The regime, which was already unpopular amongst settlers and routinely being protested against, now faces more heat from its own settlers, as facts surface from October 7 proving the usage of the infamous “Hannibal Directive.”

The directive was created to ensure civilians and soldiers are not captured by enemy fighters in order to force the Israeli regime into hostage negotiations. The directive purportedly says the capturing of any civilians or soldiers should be stopped by any means necessary – including killing them.

New details have emerged that Israeli forces not only deliberately opened fire on settlers and their own soldiers at the “Nova Festival,” but also within Israeli settlements, indiscriminately killing hundreds of Israelis.

The Tel Aviv regime lays the blame for these deaths on Hamas while destroying evidence that would tie the deaths to its own forces.

This directive comes into direct contradiction with the public occupation demand to free Israeli captives

Culminating failures of the security apparatuses of the occupation have resulted in heated war cabinet meetings that have resulted in further division within Israeli leadership, to the point of Netanyahu even demanding lie detector tests.

Zionist reports say that ministers have stormed out of meetings, or even turned meetings into nasty shouting matches where little “progress” was made.

The regime is torn between two demands: first, the demand for the return of Israeli captives with the restoration of settlements, and second, the destruction of Palestinian resistance.

Pursuing the latter risks the failure of the former as Israeli bombs have killed captives, and pursuing the former concedes defeat to the day one objective of “eliminating Hamas.”

The Zionist regime believes it can save face by conducting a flagrant genocide in front of the world. But this is a severe miscalculation. It has only brought them to the ICJ in the Hague and launched a worldwide campaign in support of Palestinian resistance. Through this horrific crime, they have crossed the point of no return.

Furthermore, other allies of the Palestinian cause – including Yemen, Hezbollah, and Iraqi resistance groups, now exert pressure on American forces in the region, with the potential to escalate into a regional war.

Hamas and the Palestinian resistance have put the Israeli occupation into a box. The very stability of the occupation is falling apart, as public distrust of the Netanyahu regime and the occupation forces itself flourishes.

While protests grow and ministers argue amongst themselves, Al Qassam taunts the occupation with rockets and videos of destroyed Merkava tanks.

Hence, the Zionist regime must reckon with the inevitability of its crushing defeat.

Shabbir Rizvi is a Chicago-based political analyst with a focus on US internal security and foreign policy.

January 23, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , | 5 Comments

Israel loses control of its borders

By Khalil Harb | The Cradle | January 23, 2024

Israel once reigned supreme on the back of some immovable narratives: widely spun myths of a “promised land,” a “land without a people,” the “only democracy in the Middle East,” and the “only secure place for Jews in the world.” Today, those lofty soundbites lie in tatters, with the occupation state reeling from an unprecedented blow to its foundational ideas.

This transformation has unfolded with unexpected intensity since the 7 October Al-Aqsa Flood resistance operation and Israel’s devastating, genocidal war on Gaza.

But it is not just the challenge of narratives that has Israel on its back feet. For the first time in its 76-year history, Israel’s entire security calculations have been turned upside down: the occupation state is today grappling with buffer zones inside Israel. In past wars, it was Tel Aviv that established these “security zones” inside enemy territory — advancing Israel’s strategic geography, evacuating Arab populations near their state border areas, and fortifying its own borders.

This shift can be attributed to various factors, including vulnerabilities within the so-called “Arab Ring States” (Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon). Throughout its history, Israel has consistently exerted military and political dominance, enforcing security measures on neighboring states, with the unconditional backing of allies like the US and Britain.

Israel’s new border realities 

But in this current war, Tel Aviv is slowly understanding that the equations and calculations of military confrontation have fundamentally changed — a process that began in 2000 when the Lebanese resistance, Hezbollah, forced Israel to withdraw from most occupied territories in southern Lebanon.

Today, Israel is horrified to find itself retreating from direct confrontation lines with its arch-enemies in Gaza and Lebanon. The formidable capabilities of the resistance now include drones, rockets, targeted projectiles, tunnels, and spanking new shock tactics, casting doubt on the feasibility of Israeli settlers remaining safe in any of Israel’s border perimeters.

There is now one common refrain among settlers in the north and south of occupied Palestine: “We will not return unless security is restored on the border.”

But prospects for their return appear elusive at present. The Israeli Defense Ministry, which pledged a swift and decisive war to safeguard its settlers over 100 days ago, is now actively devising plans to shelter approximately 100,000 people along the northern border, deeper inside its territory. This measure could involve evacuating settlements that may come under fire during any future military escalation with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

This situation implies three critical outcomes: any immediate return of settlers remains unlikely, additional evacuations are anticipated, and numerous Israeli families – in the interim – may establish permanent settlements in other, more secure locations at a much further distance from the borders with southern Lebanon and the Gaza envelope.

Failed objectives and the northern front 

Preliminary reports from settler councils in the north assessed settler “displacement” to be around 70,000 in the initial weeks of the conflict. Subsequent reports, however, suggest a vastly higher figure of approximately 230,000.

Against this backdrop, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah emphasized a crucial point in his 3 January speech. He referenced Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s concern that Israelis are not only reluctant to reside in the border regions, but that their apprehension about remaining in any part of Israel will also likely rise if Tel Aviv’s war fails to achieve its stated objectives.

Indeed, since 7 October, a significant toll has been exacted on Israeli forces, with 13,572 “soldiers and civilians” wounded in the battles in Gaza and along the northern border with Lebanon, as reported by Yedioth Ahronoth.

One suspects those numbers may be underreported. Skepticism has recently grown over the accuracy of the Israeli Ministry of Health’s data, with various experts, independent sources, and media investigations suggesting a considerably higher casualty count. The IDF Handicapped Organization, for example, estimates that approximately 20,000 individuals have been disabled in the ongoing war — a number much higher than the health ministry’s findings.

The secrecy surrounding Israeli casualties is particularly evident on the Lebanese war front, where data is virtually nonexistent, and Tel Aviv’s military censorship tightly controls all information flows. This leads to a critical question regarding Israel’s ability to establish strategic “border” equations as a compensatory measure for what appears to be a military and political setback in achieving its stated war goals — which include the elimination of Hamas and the release of all captives.

Moreover, doubts arise about Israel’s capacity to wage a major war in the north given its clear shortcomings in its southern military campaign, in which it faced heavily besieged adversaries with multiple vulnerabilities. The Lebanese resistance, in comparison to its Gazan counterparts, boasts considerable and many unknown military capabilities, which it can exercise from within a sovereign state that is neither besieged nor landlocked. Furthermore, Hezbollah, which singlehandedly routed Israel from its territories in both 2000 and 2006 — makes it plain that it has thus far revealed and utilized only a fraction of its new military capabilities.

Decolonization in progress 

In November, Hezbollah’s introduction of the Burkan missile, a domestically-made weapon with a range of up to 10 kilometers and destructive power of 500 kilograms of explosives, adds a potent dimension to the confrontation.

While Hezbollah has primarily targeted Israeli military barracks and troop gatherings with the Burkan, hundreds of guided missiles such as Kornet and Katyusha rockets have been employed with precision against specific targets within empty residential settlements, extending up to 10 kilometers in geographic depth from Lebanon’s border.

As of the onset of 2024, Hezbollah has conducted over 670 military operations against all 48 Israeli outposts, spanning from Naqoura in the west to the occupied-Shebaa Farms in the east, along with 11 rear military positions.

This is a major advancement in the Lebanese resistance’s border strategy. For 15 years — from 1985 to 2000 — Israel struggled to defend its “border strip” in southern Lebanon. Today, it faces many hundreds of attacks on its positions in northern Palestine, but fears opening a second war front that could complicate its already militarily draining Gaza campaign.

The so-called “defense” line along the border with Lebanon is now heavily compromised. Deemed insufficient for safeguarding the hundreds of thousands of Israeli settlers in the north, the recently displaced residents are demanding assurances about the future safety of that zone and their ability to return.

In December, the head of the Upper Galilee Regional Council revealed that the Israeli government had effectively created a buffer zone approximately 10 kilometers wide by evacuating towns in the north. This area, stretching from Mount Hermon in occupied Syria to Ras al-Naqoura, is reported to be nearly devoid of residents, with Israeli forces predominantly present.

At the so-called Kibbutz Manara border, a settler told Hebrew Radio North that 86 of the settlement’s 155 homes had been completely destroyed by Hezbollah rocket fire, raising the question of whether settlers would even have homes to return to.

Even if Israel dares to launch a full-scale aggression against Lebanon, just as it has faltered in besieged Gaza for 17 years, it will not be able to guarantee its success in achieving its objectives on the Lebanese front.

A land of false promises 

The days when Israel could impose security arrangements on its Arab neighbors through military force and political machinations are gone.

Previously, Israel attempted to establish a security strip inside southern Lebanon through operations like the 1978 “Litani Operation.” This vision ultimately collapsed in 2000, with the occupation state’s humiliating withdrawal from Lebanon.

Israel now seems to be revisiting this approach — via American intermediaries — aiming to clear the southern Litani of resistance factions by brandishing the threat of war against all of Lebanon. This is a perilous strategy, particularly given the precarious position of its army in Gaza.

Israel’s tactics of bulldozing and bombing entire residential areas in the northern and eastern parts of the Gaza Strip, ostensibly to create a security strip with a depth of up to 2 kilometers, have hit a hard wall. Even its US ally has raised objections about the territorial delineation from Gaza, and the military efficacy of such measures. But more importantly, the Lebanese and Palestinian resistance appear prepped to mirror Tel Aviv’s ploys by eliminating Israeli habitation in the Gaza envelope and northern Palestine.

‘Destroy our neighborhoods, and we will destroy yours.’ This is surely not a response expected by Israel, whose military and political leadership are unaccustomed to repercussions for their aggressions. This new tit-for-tat that the occupation state appears unequipped to counter only further highlights Israel’s fragility and irreversible decline.

January 23, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Nasrallah: October 7 foreshadows the Liberation of all Palestine

RESISTANCE NEWS | JANUARY 19, 2024

Speech by Hezbollah Secretary General, Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, on January 3, 2024, on the commemoration of the 4th anniversary of the assassinations of Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis:

[…] I now come to the third part of my remarks, devoted to Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood”. This operation was launched on October 7 by our brothers from the Izz al-Dine al-Qassam Brigades (Hamas’ armed wing), and our brothers from Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian factions joined them. The causes which led to this operation were recalled by the leaders of our brothers of Hamas, (Islamic) Jihad and other factions of the Resistance, and I myself spoke about it in detail in a previous speech, namely everything concerning the oppression of the Palestinian people for 75 years, the issue of the prisoners oppressed and persecuted in Zionist prisons, the attacks and threats against the Al-Aqsa mosque, the dangers of deportation of Palestinians from the West Bank, the state of continued siege against Gaza and the desire to push for an internal struggle, the ultimate goal of which was, as we now see, the deportation of the inhabitants of Gaza, but via internal struggles and economic and social strangulation. The causes and objectives of the Al-Aqsa Flood were therefore clear and well known.

On October 8, Hezbollah entered battle on the northern border of occupied Palestine, which is the southern border of Lebanon, in a front line more than 100 kilometers long. Then, our brothers from the Islamic Resistance in Iraq also entered the battle by striking the bases of the US occupation in Iraq and Syria, and with direct strikes against the usurping entity with drones, against Eilat and other targets. Then our brothers in Yemen also entered the scene, with drone and missile strikes against the usurping entity, and with the qualitative, huge, grandiose and greatly influential initiative that is the challenge in the Red Sea. In every sense of the word, (banning Israeli and Israel-bound ships to navigate) is truly a courageous, wise, epic and effective action, to the highest degree.

The course of events is well known to you, and therefore I am not going to repeat things that you follow regularly, every day and every hour. What has been happening for 3 months and to this day is on the one hand a scene of sacrifices, martyrs, wounded, houses destroyed, families massively displaced inside Gaza, in the West Bank to a certain extent, and even in the south of Lebanon: it is the scene of the price to pay, of the dangers incurred. But alongside this scene, we have on the other hand the scene of endurance, determination, steadfastness, courage, combat, resistance, challenges, considerable losses inflicted on the enemy, an indomitable character and refusal to surrender. And the first example, the first frontline and the most grandiose is of course Gaza. And the rest of the Axis of Resistance is at its image.

In the light of these two scenes, there are (concrete) results. Sometimes we get lost in such or such detail, but in this section of my speech, I want to step back and look at the situation in general. When we see the scale of the results obtained, their importance and the considerable nature of the accomplishments achieved so far, and when we add to this what can be achieved subsequently, we become fully aware of the fact that this operation was necessary and bore fruit, and we accept more willingly and with satisfaction the scale of the sacrifices made, whether in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Iran and on all terrains and battlefields of (the Axis of) Resistance.

Allow me to quickly and succinctly cite the various achievements already obtained, even if each of them deserves to be devoted to an hour-long presentation, but we will only point them out briefly. And in truth, these are not my own statements, as I have only compiled some of them, and not all, because time does not allow me to mention everything. What I am going to tell you is what the Israelis themselves say, whether they are generals, former or current officials, analysts, experts and strategists from America or the Arab-Muslim world, and certain statements by Imam Khamenei, and many elites in the (Arab-Muslim) Community and in the world.

What I want to show you are some of the results that all this blood and sacrifice has achieved so far, results that will have a great influence on the future of Palestine, of the Palestinian cause, Lebanon and the entire region, but in particular Palestine and Lebanon, and generally for the entire Middle East.

I will list the points one by one quickly.

1/ The return of the Palestinian cause to the forefront and with force, after it had been almost forgotten and erased, which once again imposes the search for a solution everywhere in the world. This is why they come back to talk to us about the two-state solution, etc. Because before the Al-Aqsa Flood, the Palestinian cause was on the verge of being forgotten by everyone, except the Resistance (Axis) movements, with their stances, the annual commemorations of Al-Quds Day, etc.

2/ The failed Israeli calculations which counted on the fatigue of the Palestinians, their despair and the abandonment of their cause. The Al-Aqsa Flood demonstrated that these people, whose Resistance took the initiative to launch this operation, and which was followed by the endurance, determination and sacrifices of all the people of Gaza, all of this demonstrated that this Israeli calculation could not be more erroneous and illusory. The idea that the Palestinians will get tired, abandon their territories and forget their cause, and that the new generation, which is that of the Internet and social networks, will turn the page, is over. It was ended in the West Bank, by the Intifadas and the martyrdom operations, but the Al-Aqsa Flood came to deal it the fatal blow and bury it definitively. Today, Israel has clearly understood that it is facing a people who can never forget his land, his history, his present, his future and his holy places, and Israel’s elites express this with regret. Israel is mortified in the face of this ineradicable people after 75 years, and despite 75 years of repression, torture, imprisonment, deportation, refugee camps, and severe and very difficult living conditions.

3/ The increase in the level of support for the Resistance and the choice of the Resistance within the Palestinian people and the entire Arab-Muslim Community, despite the massacres and the attempts of some people to blame the massacres in Gaza on the victims, on the worthy men, on  the Resistance (Hamas) shamefully deemed responsible of Israel’s actions, and to exonerate the criminal, the bloodthirsty assassin, namely Israel. And it also has a huge influence on the future of the Palestinian cause. After everything that happened in Palestine, they thought that this annihilation of the Gaza Strip, these mass murders and these massacres would make the Palestinians regret having launched the October 7 operation, and that the people of Gaza would abandon the Resistance and turn against Hamas, Islamic Jihad, other factions and fighters, but polls clearly show that the level of support for the Resistance, the Resistance movements and in particular Hamas, which is most blamed in the Al-Aqsa Flood and its consequences, has never been higher in the history of Palestine, the Palestinian people and the Resistance movements in Palestine. This has a considerable influence on the future of this struggle.

4/ The decline of Israel and its image in the eyes of the whole world, despite all the efforts made over the last 20 years by the American and Western media, unfortunately assisted in this by part of the official Arab media which have also worked to beautify the image of Israel, and to present it as a state of law, a democratic state respectful of human rights. With Operation Al-Aqsa Flood and what followed, and what is happening today on all frontlines, Israel’s decline is total, whether in terms of morality, humanity or respect for the rule of law. Today, in the eyes of the whole world, Israel is a murderer of children, a murderer of women, a destroyer of homes, guilty of deportation of populations, expelling them from their homes, their neighborhoods and their land, a starver of peoples, a terrible oppressor and a terrorist for civilians, author of the greatest mass extermination of the century. The image of Israel is broken into a thousand pieces and will not recover. And this will also have a great influence on the conflict and on the equations of struggle in our region.

O my brothers and sisters, recently, polls have been published in the United States, questioning American youth, these American people who do not follow our media, and are fed from birth to death by the American media which are controlled by Zionists or groups that support Zionism. But in the face of the atrocious carnage taking place in Gaza, we see the influence of the blood of children, of women and of the enormous oppression inflicted on Palestinians, and the benefits of social networks, which they designed to destroy Islam, our values and the Resistance, but the spell has turned against the sorcerer, and we see the story of Pharaoh and the sorcerers (defeated by) Moses (and giving allegiance to him) repeating itself again. Faced with the current situation, more than 50% of American youth support not only the idea of granting their rights to the Palestinians, but they support the dismantling of the State of Israel and the attribution of all the (historical) land of Palestine to the Palestinian people. How could such a change have happened (without the Al-Aqsa Flood)? Who could have imagined such an upheaval in US public opinion? Of course, we must continue to act on it and develop it further, and this will have enormous and considerable influences in the United States.

5/ What happened during these 3 months dealt a fatal blow to the path of normalization (of the relations of Arab countries with Israel), which aimed to envelop the Palestinian people (with normalizing countries), to make Israel a normal country and to make us forget Palestine.

6/ It has become clear to the world… In Lebanon, we continually hear this refrain about (the necessary) respect for the international community and international resolutions. The United States regularly lectures us on international resolutions, and will continue to do so, as do the Europeans and the West [reminding us in particular of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1559 calling for the disarmament of the Lebanese militias, which targets Hezbollah], as well as certain Americanized and Westernized Lebanese, accusing us of being the only ones who don’t respect the resolutions of the international community and international law. The Al-Aqsa Flood has established more clearly than ever before the eyes of the whole world, although it is not something new, the identity of those who truly defy the will of the international community. What is the international community? When all 193 countries in the world, including large, important and powerful countries, demand a complete ceasefire in Gaza, except for only 10 countries, namely the United States, Israel, the United Kingdom and others, and Israel trashes this resolution and couldn’t care less about it, who really respects the will of the international community and the UN resolutions? How many UN resolutions has Israel respected so far? From the first resolution (taken on the subject of occupied Palestine) to this day, until resolution 1701 (voted in 2006), as one of the leaders of a UN body devoted to human rights said, only during the last two months, the usurping entity has trampled on all existing international laws & resolutions. Israel spared nothing. And of course, the United States stands with Israel in brazenly disregarding and confiscating the will of the international community.

7/ If we consider Israel directly, let’s look at the very important results that have been achieved, and in light of which we must develop our stance. Israel’s strategic deterrence was shattered, even as they pinned their hopes on it and worked to restore it. Let us remember all the speeches made before the Al-Aqsa Flood, and all the debate about Israel’s deterrence capacity. The (regular) attacks against Gaza aimed to restore this deterrence. The power of Israel is a power of dissuasion, that is, it frightens and terrorizes neighboring countries and their peoples, in order to keep them at bay, to push them to surrender, to concessions, to submission, to renunciation of their rights and abandonment (of Palestine and other occupied territories). This is the history of Israel, which rests entirely on this deterrent force. It is a power of terror and intimidation, and that is its only strength. This deterrent capacity began to erode in 2000 (with the Liberation of South Lebanon), then again in 2005 (with the Liberation of Gaza), and further with Lebanon’s divine victory in 2006. And after 2006, they declared that they must restore this deterrence capability. But after the Al-Aqsa Flood, whether in Gaza, or after the opening of the front in Lebanon and elsewhere, especially in Yemen, this Israeli deterrence capacity collapsed. Why is it collapsing?

When Hamas and other Resistance factions launched Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7, they were in no way deterred, frightened or terrorized. They knew very well the consequences of their actions, and anticipated Israel’s (murderous) reaction, but the cause deserved this level of initiative, and they were in no way deterred. When the Lebanese Resistance opened a front on October 8, it was in no way deterred, and indeed has never been deterred by Israel in its entire history; and today, Hezbollah is even bolder, and more ready than ever for confrontation and initiative. When Yemen took the initiative (attacking Israeli territory with missile and drone strikes and targeting its economic interests in the Red Sea and Arabian Sea), it was neither frightened nor deterred. Yemen gave no consideration to Israel. And in this regard, even the US deterrence capacity is greatly eroding. The Israeli deterrence capacity was not sufficient, and they called for help the US deterrence capacity, with its aircraft carriers, but even the US deterrence capacity was not enough, neither in the face of the Iraqi Resistance (which strikes US bases in Iraq and Syria and targets in Israel on a daily basis), nor the Lebanese Resistance (which has caused thousands of occupation soldiers to be killed and wounded since October 8), nor the men of God in Yemen (which are ready to enter into open war against the United States and its allies), nor anyone. And that is why American aircraft carriers are starting to leave the region, without having achieved any results. Thus, Israel’s strategic deterrence capacity is eroding, breaking and collapsing.

8/ The end of the (myth of the) superiority of Israeli intelligence. We have always been told, wrongly so, about the omniscience of Israel, its capacity to know everything, but this is not true. The Al-Aqsa Flood clearly demonstrated this.

9/ After the 2006 war, Israel launched the Winograd Commission, investigative committees and numerous studies, and reconsidered many of its strategies and postulates, correcting and amending its flaws, but since I don’t have time to address the subject in detail, I will only recall a sentence that they declared, namely that from now on, if Israel enters the war, it must be done on the basis of a “quick, clear, decisive and unequivocal victory”. This is what Ehud Barak and all the defense ministers and chiefs of staff who came after him said. Well, after 3 months, if we only talk about Gaza, there is no victory in sight, and even less a decisive, rapid, clear and unequivocal victory. Worse still, there is no one within the Zionist entity who claims to see any prospect of victory in Gaza. With their operation last night, they are trying to present an image of victory in the treacherous assassination of Sheikh Salah (al-Arouri in Beirut). But on the battlefield of Gaza, where is the quick, clear, decisive and final victory?

10/ The failure of the air force to achieve victory, even in a narrow area like the Gaza Strip. Of course, this is very important for us in Hezbollah, and for everyone who will think about national defense strategies.

11/ This is the most important and dangerous point (for Israel) regarding the results of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood and everything that is happening in the adjacent axes and battlefields: the absence of trust of the people of the Zionist entity in the Israeli army, security services and political leaders. This goes to the heart, the very foundations of Israel’s existence and perpetuation. Today there are people who… I don’t want to use inappropriate terms, but I hope that their capacity of understanding will understand this idea. When some people hear Hamas, our brothers in Islamic Jihad or other leaders of the Palestinian Resistance factions declare that the Al-Aqsa Flood truly lays the foundation for the demise of the State of Israel and places this entity on the road to extinction, they laugh and mock these predictions, because they lack lucidity. But fundamentally, and I will read you a text which shows this, if Israel loses security, it cannot survive. Its people, its inhabitants will not stay there, because their link with the land is a false, artificial, hypocritical link, which has absolutely no authentic basis. You all know that in the original project of the Zionist movement, at the time of (Theodore) Herzl, 4 countries were envisaged to bring together the Jews: Argentina, Uganda, a European country and Palestine, which was just one choice among others. It was the British who brought them to Palestine.

In all the countries of the region, which are authentic countries, when for example a civil war breaks out in Lebanon for 30 years, Lebanon and the Lebanese people remain. When disaster and world war strike Syria, Syria and the Syrian people remain. When Iraq suffers siege and wars, Iraq and its people remain. The same goes for Yemen and other countries. But when it comes to Israel, things are very different. Israel is an artificial entity. Israel is a patchwork people, made from scratch out of people gathered from all corners of the world. Every Israeli has a dual nationality, and their suitcases are always ready (to flee Palestine in case of danger). The Israeli connection with the lands of Palestine is based on security, and on the idea that it is “the land flowing with milk and honey” (Torah). When the milk and honey stop flowing and they lose security, it’s over! Why did I talk about a liberation of Palestine in stages? The scene that we can already glimpse for the future of Israel is these Zionists who pack up and leave, via airports, ports, borders, crossing points. This is the scene that will (inevitably) happen.

Al-Aqsa Flood powerfully laid, or completed, the foundations of this scene. Do you want proof? Alright. I will read to you a statement from the current Israeli Minister of War, [Yoav] Galant. Many Israelis say the same thing, but I will relate his words to you. He declared: “Without the achievement of the announced objectives of the war…”, namely the liquidation of Hamas, the release of prisoners alive and without negotiation, these are the announced objectives, and security, political or administrative control over the strip of Gaza, which is one of the unannounced objectives, “Without the achievement of the announced objectives of the war, we will be in a situation where the problem will be that the (Israeli) citizens will not be willing to live…” not only around Gaza, not just in the North, on the border with Lebanon. Galant says the problem will not only be those displaced from the area around Gaza, and the border with Lebanon, but that “(Israeli) citizens will not be willing to live in this country.” Why is that? “Because we don’t know how to protect them.” What does that mean ? He states that if Israel does not achieve the aims of the war, they will have lost the fundamental pillar on which the survival of the State of Israel rests. And I declare to him that with the grace of God, you will not be able to achieve the objectives of the war. You will not be able to achieve the objectives of the war.

The Al-Aqsa Flood also ended the myth of Palestine as the world’s only safe haven for Jews. The conception of Zionism is that Jews were not safe anywhere in the world except in occupied Palestine, in the Israeli entity. The Al-Aqsa Flood and what is happening on all fronts, yes, what is happening on all fronts, even though the main battlefield is Gaza, what is happening in Gaza first and foremost, and also in the West Bank, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen and the region has shaken this foundation, and will collapse the concept and idea of safe haven on which the emigration of millions of Jews (to Palestine) was based. And the reverse migration began. Reverse migration has already begun. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis have left occupied Palestine (since October 7), most of them elites, wealthy people, etc.

12/ The image of Israel’s power has been shattered. This Israel which presents itself to such or such Arab country that I will not name, promising that it will protect and defend them, will send them its air force and its Iron Dome, that it represents security, infallible intelligence services and advanced technologies, this image of a powerful and capable Israel has collapsed. And Israel is now in a position of needing to be defended. So imagine what Israel’s situation would be if the Americans and their aircraft carriers had not come to the Mediterranean. Israel needed such intervention from the United States from the very first days.

13/ The extent of direct losses at more than one level, to an unprecedented degree (in the history of the Zionist entity). Human losses, killed, injured and disabled: the figures communicated by Israel are much lower than reality. On our Lebanese front, in the north of occupied Palestine, Israel does not recognize any killed or wounded, but they number in the thousands. I will talk about it in detail in my speech scheduled for this Friday (January 5), with the grace of God. The (very large) number of vehicles and tanks whose destruction is announced every day (by the Resistance factions), the psychological situation…

The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reports that as a result of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood and its aftermath, so far, 300,000 new people have requested psychiatric care. 300,000 people requested psychiatric care! Will they stay here (in occupied Palestine)? That’s very unlikely! There are dangers, fear, worry, there is no security, and a difficult psychological situation. Do you want to live in peace? Let those who have a US passport return to the United States, let the British return to Great Britain, the French to France, etc. This is the only future available to you, O Israelis. And the land of Palestine, from the (Jordan) River to the (Mediterranean) Sea, belongs only and exclusively to the noble, fighting, enduring and patient Palestinian people, and to no one else!

Israel therefore has a (very worrying) psychological situation, reverse migration, hundreds of thousands of displaced people, even if they conceal the real figures. A few days ago they declared that in the north (on the Lebanese border) there were only 60 to 70,000 displaced people, in order to diminish the importance of this front, but Netanyahu made a slip of the tongue one day and said there were 100,000. And a few days ago, a US newspaper reported Israeli officials saying there were 230,000 displaced people in the north of occupied Palestine. All these displaced people represent a burden for the enemy government (which had to rehouse them, provide for their needs, etc.). Not to mention the economy, which has been slowing down or even is at a standstill for 3 months: there is no tourism, no agriculture, no industry. And what is Israel without an economy? The cost amounts to tens of billions of dollars, and US aid will not succeed in filling this financial gap. Of course, in this regard, the action of our brothers in Yemen in the Red Sea has a huge influence on the Israeli economy.

14/ The Israeli’s unability and failure to achieve even the slightest of its objectives. Israel has not achieved the slightest of its (military) objectives (announced in Gaza). Do not imagine that if today the United States is asking Israel to withdraw from the cities (of Gaza), it is out of fear for (the lives of) the Palestinians: it is for the Israelis that they fear! It is possible that our brothers in the Palestinian Resistance ardently wish that the Israeli (soldiers) remain where they are, in the cities, to continue to eliminate them morning and evening, by the destruction of their tanks and vehicles, sniper operations, direct targeting, etc. Israel has not achieved any goals. They were unable to free any prisoners alive. They have not been able until now, and will never be able to impose their political will on the Gaza Strip, nor on the future form of the administration of Gaza.

15/ Another very important result obtained which will accelerate the death of this entity is the (unprecedented) scale of internal divisions. Just wait until the war stops. All (Israeli political and military leaders) without exception, even within the same party, hold a dagger hidden behind their back, and as soon as the war ends, and the questions, demands, commissions of inquiry and trials begin, we will see which Israel will emerge from the Al-Aqsa Flood (they are united today because it is wartime, but as soon as it is over, everyone will tear each other apart).

16/ The fact that the United States has been unmasked in the eyes of the whole world. After the neo-conservatives and the atrocious massacres perpetrated (by the Bush administration) in Afghanistan and Iraq, they gave us Obama, a Black man whose father was called Hussein, with African and Muslim roots, and whatnot. They have thus worked to restore their image in the Arab-Muslim world. And this deception worked to a certain extent. Then came the sedition of the Arab Spring, the sedition of ISIS – it was the Americans who created ISIS and they then presented themselves as the protectors of the Iraqi people against ISIS – and therefore tried to improve their image. One of the most important results of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood is that it shattered the image of the United States, exposing it to its most abject realities. The most abject realities of the United States have been revealed (to the whole world, and to the Arab-Muslim world in particular). Because today, those who kill in Gaza are the United States, US decisions, US policies, US missiles and US shells. Those who are preventing the end of the war against Gaza are the United States.

Those who veto the UN Security Council are the United States. And the brazenness of the United States has reached the point where its spokespersons claim that Israel does not deliberately target civilians. 22,000 civilian martyrs, the vast majority of them women and children, but Israel does not deliberately target civilians, this is a mistake my dear friends, it is only “collateral damage”. Israel does not deliberately kill civilians or journalists. It clearly appears that it is the United States which is outside the international community, international law, international resolutions, human rights and humanist and humanitarian values (and which opposes them and constantly flout).

17/ And the last point that I submit to you before arriving at the last part of my speech, which will not be long, is that in what is happening in Gaza, there is a lesson for all of us: it is clearly established that international institutions, international organizations, the international community and international law are incapable of protecting any people whatsoever. They are incapable of protecting anyone. Remember this lesson, O Lebanese! There are still people in our country who, until today, despite 22,000 martyrs in Gaza, nearly 60,000 wounded, (despite this mass massacre which is taking place) under the helpless eyes of the international community, there are still those in Lebanon who tell Hezbollah to disarm, because the international community and international resolutions would be enough to protect Lebanon (in the event of an Israeli aggression). I’m sorry to say it, but it’s no longer a question of divergent points of view, where everyone has their own perspective and everyone’s opinions should be respected. Not at all. These people are blindly stubborn. The hearts, eyes and lucidity (of these people) are completely blind. “Truly it is not their eyes that are blind but their hearts which are in their breasts. » (Quran, 22, 46) Is this not the undeniable truth today?

What does this experience teach us? And here I enter the last part of my remarks. This experience teaches that if we are weak, the world will not give us any credit, will not protect us, will not defend us and will not even shed a tear over our fate! Even tears, we will be deprived of them! What protects us is our strength, our courage, our grip, our weapons, our missiles and our presence on the battlefield! If we are strong, we can make the world respect us! Despite the severe blockade strangling Gaza, despite the enormous oppression inflicted on Gaza, if Gaza had fallen in the first days, everything would be over, and no one in the world would have mourned it. It is the enormous moral force, and the limited material force of the Gaza Resistance, of the people of Gaza, of the men, women and children of Gaza, which are a form of force, which were able to impose themselves on the world. This is why the whole world is changing its mind, reconsidering things, looking for solutions. Why? Because there is a show of strength in Gaza, despite the unspeakable oppression (suffered by its people).

All these results, which are only some of the achievements of the Al-Aqsa Flood, for there are still many others, and still others to come, I assure you that what happened since October 7 until today, and what will happen subsequently, has weakened Israel, shaken the whole entity, and shaken its very foundations and pillars. And yes, as our Palestinian brothers rightly say, all this has placed Israel on the path to annihilation, and all of us will witness with our own eyes the disappearance of the usurping entity, with the grace of God! And (when it happens), no one will be able to protect it. No one will be able to defend it. As for the Arab thrones (normalizing countries and allies of Israel), let them start by protecting themselves (because they are also shaking). […]

Source: Al-Manar

Translation: Resistance News

January 21, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Timeless or most popular | , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Settlers refuse return to Gaza envelope: ‘Hamas not yet deterred’

The Cradle | January 19, 2024

Hebrew media reported on 19 January that tens of thousands of evacuated settlers from the Gaza envelope are refusing to return to their homes. 

A former resident of the Sderot settlement, located less than a mile from Gaza, told Israel’s Channel 13 in an interview that settlers “will not return to Sderot in the current situation.”

This is “not only due to the threat of rockets … no one knows if the Palestinians from Gaza can reach us. No one knows where their tunnels extend to,” the settler said. 

“I have been living in Sderot for years, and I cannot count the times they told us that Hamas is deterred.” 

Sderot is one of the Gaza envelope settlements that was stormed by resistance fighters during the outbreak of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on 7 October. Rockets struck the settlement at the onset of the attack, as Palestinian fighters made their way in. 

The Hamas fighters seized the Sderot police station, taking around 30 of its force as captives. The fighters then waged a 20-hour battle with Israeli troops in which all of the policemen were killed. The Israeli military then destroyed the station, bringing it down on top of those inside.

Since being evacuated in October, Sderot and other Gaza envelope settlements have continued to be hit by rocket attacks launched by the Palestinian resistance in Gaza. 

According to Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, the Israeli government is facing great difficulty in convincing the residents of the Gaza envelope settlements to return to their homes. 

Last month, Israeli public broadcaster KAN reported that Tel Aviv was offering financial grants to those willing to return to the settlements located between four and seven kilometers from the Gaza border. 

A meeting was held between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the council chiefs of the Gaza envelope settlements on 16 January, according to a Channel 12 report. 

The council chiefs reportedly demanded that “the process of returning … be delayed or extended until the summer and the start of the new school year, and for the state to continue to fund their stay in temporary accommodation until then,” The Times of Israel said. 

Netanyahu also reportedly told the council chiefs during the meeting that the war could potentially continue until 2025. 

“Netanyahu said he accepted their request, promised that financial assistance to residents would be applicable then as well, and instructed the relevant officials to draw up the necessary framework.” 

Meanwhile, Hamas’ Qassam Brigades and other groups in Gaza are nowhere near defeat, continuing to engage the Israeli army in fierce clashes and deadly ambushes across the entirety of the Gaza Strip, including in north Gaza, where Israel has announced a scale-back of operations. 

The scale-back came as Israeli officials were boasting that Hamas has been “dismantled” in the north. Despite this, the fighters have been able to fire large rocket barrages at Israel from northern Gaza.

Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, reporting on 19 January, cited sources in the Palestinian resistance who said that the Israeli ground operation has achieved nothing – particularly in the north. The report added that in the north, Hamas has been able to replenish its supplies and rebuild its ranks. 

And just as the Israeli settlers of the Gaza envelope refuse to return to their homes, so too do the settlers of northern Israel, where hundreds of thousands have also been displaced by Hezbollah’s operations on the Lebanese border. 

January 19, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation | , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Hamas denies Qatari initiative including departure of its leaders from Gaza

MEMO | January 11, 2024

The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement has denied that a Qatari initiative will include the departure of Hamas leaders from the Gaza Strip. This was confirmed by senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan during a press conference in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, on Wednesday.

According to Israel’s Channel 13, “A new proposal has been delivered to Israel from Qatar, to release all the captured individuals [Israeli hostages in Gaza] in several stages, most of which will come near the end of the deal and after the Israeli army withdraws from the Strip.” The channel added that the proposal includes the departure of Hamas leaders from the Gaza Strip, although this has not been confirmed officially by either Israel or Qatar.

“There is no initiative of this nature,” insisted Hamdan. “The people did not leave their land, so how will the resistance that defends the people do so? Talk about the resistance leaving the land is a delusion, as is the idea of disarming the resistance, which is naive and does not reflect an understanding of the facts of the matter.”

He described the talk by the Israeli media about this initiative as “a deception and misinformation” to calm angry Israeli citizens, “especially the families of the hostages who are watching them being killed at the hands of the occupation forces without [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu caring about them.”

Hamdan reiterated his movement’s assertion that it will not accept any prisoner exchange initiative unless it is based on a complete end to Israel’s “aggression” against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

“So far, there is no talk about any initiatives,” he added. “We are committed to our position and presented a clear vision to the mediators, and this vision is the basis for any ideas or initiatives in this context.”

Channel 13 said that the Qatari proposal will be presented to the Israeli War Cabinet and the Political and Security Ministerial Council, which will meet tonight to discuss the “day after” the war ends in Gaza.

Qatar’s Foreign Minister Mohammed Bin Abdul Rahman Al-Thani said on Sunday that the ceasefire negotiations in Gaza “are ongoing and are going through challenges… and the killing of a senior leader of the Palestinian Hamas movement [Saleh Al-Arouri] could affect them.”

He pointed out that discussion “with all parties” are ongoing. “We are trying to reach an agreement as soon as possible that leads to a ceasefire in Gaza, an increase in aid and the release of hostages and [Palestinian] prisoners.”

Egypt and Qatar, along with the US, are sponsoring efforts to reach a second temporary truce in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas launched Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on 7 October against Israeli military bases and settlements in the vicinity of Gaza, during which 1,139 Israeli soldiers and civilians were killed, many of them by the Israel Defence Forces, it has since been revealed. The operation was in response to “daily Israeli attacks against the Palestinian people and their sanctities,” said Hamas, notably Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem. Around 240 Israelis were captured during the operation, 110 of whom have already been exchanged for some of the thousands of Palestinians held by Israel.

Almost 23,500 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air and artillery strikes since 7 October, most of them children and women. Just under 60,000 have been wounded. Israeli bombs have laid much of the occupied Palestinian territory to waste. Thousands more Palestinians are buried under the rubble of their homes and other civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, schools and places of worship. Nearly all of the enclave’s 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes, many several times, and they are engulfed by a humanitarian catastrophe with acute shortages of food, water and medical supplies.

January 11, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Fake News, Mainstream Media, Warmongering | , , , , | Leave a comment

‘We want normalization with Israel after Gaza war:’ Saudi official

The Cradle | January 10, 2024

The Saudi Ambassador to the UK, Prince Khalid bin Bandar Al Saud, told the BBC on 9 January that Saudi Arabia wants to continue normalization plans with Israel after their brutal aggression on the Palestinian people in Gaza ends. 

“Saudi Arabia wants to normalize its relations with Israel after the war in Gaza,” the Saudi ambassador told the British public service broadcaster, noting that “the two countries were about to reach an agreement before the 7 October war.”

Bandar made sure to note that normalization with Israel will only be possible if Palestine is granted its own state. 

“Saudi Arabia still believes in establishing relations with Israel despite the unfortunate figures of the dead in Gaza,” he added, continuing: “But this cannot be at the expense of the Palestinian people, and it requires thinking about the issue of integrating Hamas into the future Palestinian state.”

The death toll in Gaza from Israeli aggressions is at least 23,210, with at least 59,167 Palestinians who have been wounded. 

Israeli media has reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is holding “secret talks” with the White House regarding the resumption of normalization discussions with Saudi Arabia. 

“A message was conveyed that Israel will not take steps that conflict with the vision of the US and that it will be prepared to discuss what was requested by Saudi Arabia relating to the Palestinian issue,” Hebrew news outlet Channel 12 reported on 9 January, adding that Saudi Arabia is “very interested” in reaching the normalization deal with Israel that will grant the kingdom the long-sought “megadeal” from the US. 

Israel’s Channel 12 also noted that “for the US, the agreement that was appropriate before 6 October may be more appropriate now, in light of the war [in Gaza], as one of the goals Hamas had was to thwart the agreement.” The Israeli news outlet added that if normalization is achieved between Riyadh and Tel Aviv, it may prevent the escalation of a regional war and provide Saudi Arabia with the funding to help rebuild Gaza.

Riyadh’s desire for normalization comes in stark contrast to the feelings of 96 percent of the kingdom’s population, who believe that Arab states should swiftly sever diplomatic relations with Israel, according to a recent poll conducted by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

January 10, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Haneyya: Israel failed to achieve its war goals in Gaza

Palestine Information Center – January 9, 2024

DOHA – Head of Hamas’s political bureau Ismail Haneyya has affirmed that the Israeli occupation regime failed to achieve any goal of its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip despite the massacres and destruction, stressing that the only way for the return of the Israeli captives to their homes alive is to release all the Palestinian prisoners.

“The declared goals of the war on Gaza are to eliminate the Hamas Movement, have their captives back and carry out the displacement plan, but I’d like to tell you that the enemy, despite the destruction and massacres, has failed to achieve any of its war goals,” Haneyya said in a conference on Gaza held by the International Union of Muslim Scholars in Doha.

Haneyya underlined that the Hamas Movement exists across the homeland and abroad as well as in the conscience of the Ummah and the world’s free people, so “it cannot be eliminated.”

Haneyya expressed his belief that the occupation state “only succeeded in exposing its bloodthirsty and murderous face to the whole world after committing all these massacres.”

The Hamas leader stressed that after about 100 days, the Israeli intelligence, its spy drones and its Western ally (US) failed to liberate a single captive from Gaza, adding that “the only way for the Israeli detainees to leave Gaza alive is when all the Palestinian prisoners are released from Israeli jails.”

He described the Israeli occupation’s escalation of its aggression in the West Bank as “dangerous and massive,” affirming that 350 West Bankers had been martyred since Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood” started.

He also said that the Israeli regime imposed martial law on the Palestinian citizens in 1948 occupied Palestine.

The Hamas leader hailed the resistance front in Gaza as “strong, cohesive and promising,” asserting that it can fight a long battle against the occupation.

January 9, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Israel about to engage in two-front war

By Lucas Leiroz | January 9, 2024

In recent days there has been a major escalation in the Middle Eastern conflict. Israel has launched a series of attacks against targets outside Palestine, including Lebanon, resulting in the deaths of key members of anti-Zionist organizations. Israel’s targeted assassinations have been seen as an affront to Lebanese national sovereignty, increasing the risks of an open war between the Zionist state and Hezbollah.

Israel has been bombing its neighboring countries since the war began in October. However, the frequency and brutality of these raids has grown significantly in recent weeks. Lebanon has become one of the main targets of Israeli attacks, especially in strikes targeting strategic public figures. In one of these operations, Wissam al-Tawil, deputy head of the Radwan group, a special unit of the Shiite militia, was murdered. Al-Tawil was a high-ranking member of Hezbollah, which means there will certainly be a retaliation.

A few days earlier, a brutal Israeli attack in Beirut had left six high-ranking Hamas members dead, including the Palestinian organization’s deputy head, Saleh al-Arouri. At the time members of Hezbollah were not targeted, and the strike was aimed at killing Hamas militants gathered in Beirut. However, the fact that the attack was carried out on Lebanese soil obviously generated outrage among members of the Shiite militia, who promised retaliation for the violation of Lebanese sovereignty.

Hassan Nasrallah, general secretary of Hezbollah, made two statements about these events. According to him, Hezbollah is already fighting Israel, but is using only a small percentage of its combat potential. The militia’s involvement is “limited”, being focused on neutralizing Israeli intelligence targets on the border. For now, the objectives of these operations are, according to Nasrallah, to generate military pressure against Israel and help the Palestinians by eliminating IDF’s resources. However, Nasrallah made it clear that if Israel continues to violate Lebanese sovereignty, the group will launch a “war without restrictions”, using full power against Zionist troops.

Apparently, Israel is not interested in de-escalation. The attacks on Lebanon have continued even after Nasrallah’s warnings – and more targeted killings of Hezbollah members could happen at any time. In fact, Tel Aviv is currently in a complicated military situation. The war in Gaza has become “unwinnable”, as the debris from the bombings have severely damaged the IDF itself, preventing the flow of armored vehicles and creating a network of hiding places and barricades that favor Hamas.

There is currently a guerrilla war in Gaza, with members of the Palestinian Resistance having the advantage, as they know the terrain better and are skilled at carrying out surprise attacks and hiding among the debris of buildings and tunnel networks. Although Israel has managed to destroy the physical structure of Gaza, the consequences of its attacks have mainly affected civilian people and have not been extremely effective in neutralizing Hamas and other Palestinian militias. The result is an uncomfortable situation, with Israel involved in a permanent war of attrition.

Given this, Israel is betting on the internationalization of the conflict as a way of “winning” the war. Since it is not being successful in Gaza, the Israeli government hopes to generate new outbreaks of hostilities by launching attacks against Lebanon and Syria. The aim is to bring new actors into the war, creating a situation of total regional conflict that makes intervention by Israel’s Western partners “inevitable”.

The main problem with this Israeli “strategy” is that the consequences could be devastating. It will not be easy to garner Western support and justify an intervention in the conflict, as global public opinion is outraged by Israeli genocidal actions in Gaza. Furthermore, Hezbollah is showing patience and strategic mentality by avoiding symmetrical responses to Israeli attacks. The group is trying not to engage in an all-out war, as the IDF is already in a delicate situation and there is no need to open a new front. Hezbollah’s focus appears to be to launch surgical strikes across the border, delaying more involvement as long as possible.

To get a strong reaction from Hezbollah, Israel will have to further increase the brutality of its raids against Lebanon. And this will be a serious problem in the Zionist strategy, since by doing this Tel Aviv will be justifying Hezbollah’s reactions, and there will therefore be no legal arguments for the West to mobilize collectively to support Israel. In fact, without full Western support, Israel will not be able to fight a two-front war, being a real catastrophe for the IDF itself.

This is further evidence of how Israel took wrong actions at the beginning of the conflict. Instead of only responding to Hamas’ “Operation Al Aqsa Flood”, Tel Aviv chose to launch a campaign of genocide and territorial expansion, sinking into a prolonged war that will not be won so easily.

Lucas Leiroz is a journalist, researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, geopolitical consultant.

You can follow Lucas on X (former Twitter) and Telegram.

January 9, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Wars for Israel | , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment