Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on December 11-12/2023
Israeli army chief warns of 'strike and war' on Hezbollah
Gallant says open to Hezbollah agreement as report says deal may be imminent
Israeli minister warns Hezbollah that it 'might be next'
2 Hezbollah fighters among 4 killed in Israeli strikes near Damascus
Israel-Hezbollah border skirmishes: Latest developments
Challenges surround the extension of the Army Commander's term
Israeli strike kills Lebanese local official
Safieddine says Hezbollah doesn't want bigger war with Israel
Berri says personally seeking to prevent war expansion
Lebanon on strike in solidarity with Gaza
Should Army Commander's term extension be Parliament's or Government's decision?
Challenges surround the extension of the Army Commander's term
Complaint in Switzerland accuses Iran President of committing ‘crimes against humanity’
White House 'concerned' at reports Israel used white phosphorus in Lebanon attack
Man Filmed HQ of London-Based TV Channel Critical of Iran, Prosecutors Say
Israeli Air Strikes in South Lebanon Evokes Memories of 2006 House Bombings
Violence Escalates between Israel, Lebanon’s Hezbollah
Hamas Creates New Terrorist Group to Destroy Lebanon/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/December 11, 2023

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 11-12/2023
Israel Carries Out Strikes Near Damascus
Heavy fighting in Gaza's main cities amid severe shortages of food and water
Israel Battles Militants in Gaza’s Main Cities, with Civilians Trapped in the Fighting
‘I’m Destroyed’: UN Envoys Meet Victims of Gaza War
Why Palestinian displacement in Gaza war alarms the UN and Arabs
Palestinians starve as Gaza war rages amid fears of exodus into Egypt
Russia demands release of hostages in talks with Palestinians
Israel must comply with laws of war under US weapons assistance policy
'Worst Christmas ever' in birthplace of Jesus as impact of war empties Bethlehem
Netanyahu demands Moscow sever ties with Tehran
Gaza health system is 'completely collapsing,' international organizations say
GCC Secretary-General Urges Immediate Gaza Ceasefire
US expects every country it provides weapons to, including Israel, to comply with laws of war
Israeli Defense Minister: Israel has no intention of staying permanently in Gaza
Prominent Gaza professor and writer killed in airstrike, weeks after telling CNN he and his family had ‘nowhere else to go’
Iran Accuses European Diplomat of ‘Cooperating with Israel’
Iran Unveils Drones Armed with Air-to-air Missiles
Houthis' Escalating Threat to Shipping Lines Signals Red Sea Militarization
Russia Targets Kyiv with Ballistic Missiles. Ukraine Says It Intercepted All of Them
Iraq scrambles to contain fighting between US troops and Iran-backed groups

Titles For The Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 11-12/2023
Why Have Coptic Churches Suddenly Become ‘Fire Hazards’?/Raymond Ibrahim/Coptic Solidarity/December 11/2023
On Current War and Containing Massive Disaster's Repercussions!/Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al-Awsat/December 11/2023
The Sufferings of the ‘Next Day/Ghassan Charbel/Asharq Al-Awsat/December 11/2023
Humiliation, terrorism and mass displacement in Palestine’s other war/Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/December 11, 2023
Iran again faces disastrous consequences of financial corruption/Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami/Arab News/December 11, 2023

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on December 11-12/2023
Israeli army chief warns of 'strike and war' on Hezbollah
Agence France Presse/December 11/2023
Israel's army chief Herzi Halevi has visited his forces near the northern border with Lebanon, where he spoke of the need "to kill Hezbollah operatives, to demonstrate our superiority". "It can also come in the form of a strike and war," he said Sunday.
In northern Israel, residents fear a wider conflict emerging along the border with Lebanon. Since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, the frontier between Lebanon and Israel has seen intensifying exchanges of fire, mainly between Israel and Hezbollah, but also Palestinian groups, raising fears of a broader conflagration.More than 120 people have been killed on the Lebanese side, mostly Hezbollah fighters and more than a dozen civilians, according to an AFP tally, since fighting began in October. On the Israeli side, six soldiers and four civilians have been killed, according to Israeli authorities.

Gallant says open to Hezbollah agreement as report says deal may be imminent
Naharnet/December 11/2023
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday said that Israel is open to reaching an agreement with Hezbollah if it includes a “safe zone” along the border and security guarantees. Al-Arabiya TV and its Al-Hadath channel meanwhile quoted unnamed sources as saying that an agreement between Israel and Hezbollah might be “imminent.”“Israel has agreed that Hezbollah would keep some monitoring sites that would be shared with the Lebanese Army and French forces in south Lebanon, specifically south of the Litani River,” the sources said. “Israel has stressed that the Lebanese Army should deploy on all points on Lebanon’s border along with French forces,” the sources added. “Weapons should only be in the hands of the Lebanese Army in the area south of the Litani River,” the sources quoted Israel as saying. “International mediators have been informed that there would be a U.S. guarantee that Israel would not carry out any operation or attack against south Lebanon, amid a suggestion that U.S. forces would deploy on the Israeli side of the border,” the sources said, adding that the implementation of the agreement would begin when the war in Gaza ends. Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz meanwhile told U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a phone call that “Israel wants to change the current situation on the border with Lebanon.” “Lebanon’s government must be pressed to stop Hezbollah’s Iran-backed attacks and to keep it away from the border,” Gantz added. Since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, the frontier between Lebanon and Israel has seen intensifying exchanges of fire, mainly between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, raising fears of a broader conflagration. More than 120 people have been killed on the Lebanese side since October, mostly Hezbollah fighters but also including more than a dozen civilians, according to an AFP tally.

Israeli minister warns Hezbollah that it 'might be next'
Naharnet/December 11/2023  
An Israeli minister on Monday issued a fresh threat against Hezbollah, which has been engaged in daily border skirmishes with Israel since the eruption of the Israel-Hamas war in October. “Hezbollah understands well that if it dares (to expand its attacks), it will be the next (after Hamas) and that we will flatten Beirut and Lebanon,” Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich of the far-right said. Several Israeli officials have repeatedly warned Hezbollah since the beginning of the confrontations. More than 120 people have been killed on the Lebanese side since October, mostly Hezbollah fighters but also including more than a dozen civilians, according to an AFP tally. Israel says six of its soldiers and four Israeli civilians have been killed in the area, and Lebanon lost its first soldier in the exchanges on Tuesday.

2 Hezbollah fighters among 4 killed in Israeli strikes near Damascus
Agence France Presse/December 11/2023
Israeli strikes overnight near Damascus killed two Hezbollah fighters and two Syrians working with the Lebanese group, a war monitor said Monday. "Two Lebanese Hezbollah fighters and two Syrian guards" working at one of the Iran-backed movement's sites were killed, while three other fighters and three civilians were wounded, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Israel had carried out air strikes near Syria's capital Damascus late Sunday, Syrian state news agency SANA said. "At around 23:05 (2105 GMT) the Israeli enemy carried out an air assault... targeting various points on the outskirts of Damascus," a security source told the agency. "Our anti-aircraft defenses shot down some missiles while others caused limited material damage." An AFP correspondent reported strong explosions in the suburbs of Damascus, which have been previously targeted by strikes that Syrian authorities have blamed on Israel. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the strikes had targeted "Hezbollah sites" in the Sayeda Zeinab district and near Damascus airport. The Israeli army declined to comment on the incident, but said separately that shots had been fired from Lebanon towards northern Israel on Sunday evening. "The army retaliated by targeting the source of the fire. Earlier in the day, we had struck a Hezbollah terrorist cell," it said in a statement. Israel's army chief Herzi Halevi visited his forces near the northern border with Lebanon on Sunday, where he spoke of the need "to kill Hezbollah operatives, to demonstrate our superiority"."It can also come in the form of a strike and war," he said. Israel rarely comments on individual strikes targeting Syria, but it has repeatedly said it will not allow arch-foe Iran, which backs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, to expand its presence there. Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on its northern neighbour since Syria's civil war began in 2011, primarily targeting Iran-backed forces including Hezbollah fighters, as well as Syrian army positions. But it has intensified attacks since its war with Hamas began in October. Hamas last year said it had restored relations with Syria's government. Three Hezbollah fighters and a Syrian were killed on Friday in an Israeli drone strike on their car in the south of Syria, the war monitor said.

Israel-Hezbollah border skirmishes: Latest developments
Naharnet/December 11/2023  
Israel shelled Monday the outskirts of the southern Lebanese border towns of Fardis, Rashaya al-Fokhar, Aitaroun, Yarine, Merwahine, al-Jebbayn, Shihine and al-Naqoura. Hezbollah, for its part, targeted a group of soldiers in al-Semmaqa in the occupied Shebaa Farms. The attack was a direct hit and inflicted casualties, Hezbollah said. Earlier on Monday, Hezbollah announced in a statement the death of two of its fighters likely killed in Israeli strikes overnight near Damascus. "Two Lebanese Hezbollah fighters and two Syrian guards" working with the Lebanese group were killed, while three other fighters and three civilians were wounded in air strikes near Syria's capital Damascus late Sunday, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Israel had shelled overnight the border town of Mays al-Jabal with artillery shells and flares. Hezbollah says it entered the fray in support of Hamas on October 8, the day after the Palestinian militants launched their unprecedented attack on south Israel. More than 120 people have been killed on the Lebanese side of the border since October 7, mostly Hezbollah fighters and more than a dozen civilians, according to an AFP tally. Israel says six of its soldiers and four Israeli civilians have been killed in the area, and Lebanon lost its first soldier in the exchanges on Tuesday. On Sunday, Several Israeli soldiers were wounded in the Western Galilee region when Hezbollah launched a drone attack from Lebanon.

Challenges surround the extension of the Army Commander's term
LBCI/December 11/2023
Sources from "Al Akhbar" reveal that pressure on MPs regarding the extension of the Army Commander's term and attendance at the extension session in the Parliament also extend to the judges. Like any law issued by the Parliament, the approval of the extension law remains subject to appeal before the Parliament. This implies the concerned individual will stop working until the Constitutional Council issues a decision. This article is originally published in, translated from Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar. There are also concerns that the caretaker Defense Minister, Maurice Sleem, might issue a decision appointing the highest-ranking officer to assume command responsibilities, potentially resulting in two Army Commanders.

Israeli strike kills Lebanese local official
Agence France Presse
Israeli bombardment killed a mukhtar (local official) in south Lebanon on Monday, the state-run National News Agency said, amid cross-border exchanges of fire mainly between the Israeli army and Hezbollah. The Lebanese news agency reported the death of Hussein Mansour, 80, a local official from Taybeh near the border, "in an Israeli enemy attack" on the village. "The shell that targeted (Mansour's) house did not explode" but struck the local official and killed him, the NNA said, adding that eight other people were on a balcony with him at the time. Since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, the frontier between Lebanon and Israel has seen intensifying exchanges of fire, mainly between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, raising fears of a broader conflagration. More than 120 people have been killed on the Lebanese side since October, mostly Hezbollah fighters but also including 17 civilians, according to an AFP tally. Israel says six soldiers and four Israeli civilians have been killed in the country's north. The NNA reported Israeli shelling and raids in various parts of south Lebanon on Monday, while Hezbollah claimed responsibility for a series of attacks against Israeli troops and positions near the border.

Safieddine says Hezbollah doesn't want bigger war with Israel
Naharnet/December 11/2023  
The head of Hezbollah’s executive council, Sayyed Hashem Safieddine, on Monday hinted that his powerful Iran-backed group does not want to expand the current border confrontations with Israel. “Some ask whether there will be a broad war or not, coming to us with threats, advices, analyses and interpretations. These questions have persisted until now, a delegation comes and a delegation goes, but when throughout the past decades have we launched a broad war against the (Israeli) entity, though this entity deserves it,” Safieddine asked. “Wars have always been launched by the Israeli enemy and its bizarre that some Lebanese who are supposed to be smart … are acting foolishly and want to hold us responsible for the issue of expanding the war, regardless of the nature of our participation,” the Hezbollah official added. “The question should be what does America want and what does Israel want. They are the ones who take the decisions of a broad war on Lebanon and on our region,” Safieddine said. He also noted that any sign of weakness in the face of Israel would “tempt it and increase its desire to wage a broad war.”“When you tells the Americans and Israelis that we do not fear their threats, that we are strong on the frontier and that we are prepared to confront them and do not care for their threats, only then they will be frightened. This is what prevents, fends off and deters and nothing else is of any use,” Safieddine added. Since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, the frontier between Lebanon and Israel has seen intensifying exchanges of fire, mainly between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, raising fears of a broader conflagration. More than 120 people have been killed on the Lebanese side since October, mostly Hezbollah fighters but also including more than a dozen civilians, according to an AFP tally.

Berri says personally seeking to prevent war expansion
Naharnet/December 11/2023  
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has noted that his Amal Movement is not involved in the ongoing confrontations in south Lebanon and that he is “personally seeking to prevent an expansion of the war.” “There is communication between us and Hezbollah over maintaining the rules of engagement, knowing that since the beginning of the war Hezbollah has not breached the rules of engagement in its operations against the enemy’s army,” Berri said, in an interview with al-Joumhouria newspaper published Monday. “It is exclusively focusing its attacks on the military posts and we support it in this, whereas Israel is the one violating the rules on daily basis through the expansion of its attacks and its recurrent targeting of civilians,” the Speaker added. “We have no intention to expand the war, but if Israel begins a war and wages an aggression against Lebanon, things will become different then and we will confront it and make it see the wrath of God,” Berri went on to say. As for the recent visits of several French envoys to Lebanon, the Speaker noted that “no one mentioned Resolution 1701 other than the Lebanese media.” “Prior to the arrival of the envoys, I read about it several times in newspapers and the press and thought that they would raise it with me when they would meet with me, but French envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian came and was followed by French external intelligence chief Bernard Emie, and none of them mentioned this issue in any way whatsoever,” Berri pointed out.

Lebanon on strike in solidarity with Gaza
Naharnet/December 11/2023  
Public institutions were closed Monday in Lebanon amid a general strike in solidarity with Gaza and south Lebanon. Banks including the central bank, public and private schools, universities, and archaeological sites were also closed. Meanwhile in Palestine, shops were shuttered in east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank. Pro-Palestinian activists had called for a global day of boycotts and strikes to demand a ceasefire in Gaza, as Israel faces international outrage for its military offensive which has killed more than 17,700 Palestinians in Gaza, around two-thirds of them women and children. About 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced within the besieged territory, where U.N. agencies say there is no safe place to flee. The United States has provided vital support to Israel in recent days by vetoing a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a cease-fire and pushing through an emergency sale of over $100 million worth of tank ammunition to Israel. The U.N. General Assembly plans to vote Tuesday on a similar resolution.

Should Army Commander's term extension be Parliament's or Government's decision?
LBCI/December 11/2023
The political consensus is the sole guarantor for placing the repeated proposals for expedited laws related to extending the retirement age for the rank of General and the rank of Brigadier on the agenda of the general session of the Parliament, expected on Thursday. This matter will be discussed during the meeting of the Parliament's Bureau on Monday. Some sources indicated that the debate is still ongoing about whether the term extension for the Army Commander, General Joseph Aoun, should be decided in the government or in the Parliament. However, Speaker Nabih Berri still prefers the matter to be settled in the government, while Hezbollah prefers it to be decided in the Parliament. At this time, legal studies are still being undertaken regarding the term extension for the Army Commander and the General Director of the Internal Security Forces, General Imad Othman. The latest study addressed the impact of these extensions on the service period of all officers from the rank of First Lieutenant and above. Sources also mentioned opposition from some ministerial and non-ministerial entities to the term extension for General Othman. Furthermore, contacts are reportedly underway with some MPs to ensure their opposition to this extension.

Challenges surround the extension of the Army Commander's term
LBCI/December 11/2023
Sources from "Al Akhbar" reveal that pressure on MPs regarding the extension of the Army Commander's term and attendance at the extension session in the Parliament also extend to the judges. Like any law issued by the Parliament, the approval of the extension law remains subject to appeal before the Parliament. This implies the concerned individual will stop working until the Constitutional Council issues a decision. This article is originally published in, translated from Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar. There are also concerns that the caretaker Defense Minister, Maurice Sleem, might issue a decision appointing the highest-ranking officer to assume command responsibilities, potentially resulting in two Army Commanders.

Complaint in Switzerland accuses Iran President of committing ‘crimes against humanity’
AFP/December 11/2023
On Monday, a legal complaint was filed urging Swiss authorities to arrest Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi during his planned visit to the country and to charge him with committing crimes against humanity in connection with the 1988 campaign against the opposition. The complaint calls on the Swiss Federal Public Prosecutor, Andreas Muller, to ensure the arrest and prosecution of Raisi judicially for his "participation in acts of genocide, torture, extrajudicial executions, and other crimes against humanity."Raisi was supposed to participate in the "Global Refugee Forum" organized by the United Nations, scheduled in Geneva on Wednesday. However, the United Nations announced Monday evening that Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian would lead the Iranian delegation, indicating that Raisi might not attend. The Office of the Federal Prosecutor still needs to confirm receipt of the dated complaint on Monday, as Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported. The complaint was filed by three people suspected of being victims of the Iranian security campaign against the opposition in the 1980s. The complainants on Monday asserted that they could personally identify Raisi as he was part of a committee that referred thousands of imprisoned dissidents to execution during the security campaign. The complaint stated that he held the position of Deputy Public Prosecutor in Tehran at that time and distinguished himself in the committee for his eagerness to issue death sentences for prisoners. The other two complainants, imprisoned in Iran in 1988, claimed to recognize Raisi as a "member of the death committee," according to the complaint. Simultaneously with the legal complaint, an international campaign was launched expressing outrage at Raisi's participation in the UN forum and demanding his judicial prosecution for "his involvement in past and ongoing crimes under international law."The petition stated that "Raisi was one of the key perpetrators of the 1988 massacre that targeted thousands of political prisoners. His presence at the UN forum contradicts the core values advocated by the United Nations." In addition, the petition has gathered over two hundred signatures from prominent figures, including Nobel laureates, judges, former ministers, parliamentarians, academics, and human rights experts at the United Nations.

White House 'concerned' at reports Israel used white phosphorus in Lebanon attack
Reuters/December 11/2023
The United States is concerned about reports Israel used U.S.-supplied white phosphorus munitions in an October attack in southern Lebanon, White House spokesperson John Kirby said on Monday. "We've seen the reports. Certainly concerned about that. We'll be asking questions to try to learn a little bit more," Kirby told reporters on Air Force One. Kirby said white phosphorus has a "legitimate military utility" for illumination and producing smoke to conceal movements. "Obviously any time that we provide items like white phosphorous to another military, it is with the full expectation that it will be used in keeping with those legitimate purposes ... and in keeping with the law of armed conflict," he said. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, asked about the report that Israel used white phosphorus in Lebanon, said: "The IDF and the entire security establishment acts according to international law. That is how we have acted and how we will act."

Man Filmed HQ of London-Based TV Channel Critical of Iran, Prosecutors Say
Reuters/December 11/2023
An Austrian man carried out "hostile reconnaissance" against a London-based television station critical of Iran's government to collect information which could have been used in an attack on the channel, prosecutors told a London court on Monday. Just hours after flying in from Austria in February, Magomed-Husejn Dovtaev is said to have tried to record the security arrangements of the Persian-language Iran International channel's headquarters in west London, the court heard. Dovtaev, 31, is charged with a single count of attempting to collect information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism. He has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutor Nicholas de la Poer told London's Old Bailey on Monday that Iran International became a target for reprisals following its reporting on the death in custody of Mahsa Amini in Iran last year and subsequent protests in the country. Iran's minister of intelligence later declared Iran International a terrorist organization, de la Poer said, which meant its employees "became targets for violent reprisals". "The prosecution does not suggest that (Dovtaev's) purpose on Feb. 11 was to carry out such an attack or that it was intended that he would participate in an attack on a further date," de la Poer said. But de la Poer added, Dovtaev went to Iran International's headquarters, "no doubt acting on the instructions of others", in order to gather information about its security arrangements. He told the jury this information would be useful to anyone planning a terrorist attack against Iran International. Dovtaev's visit "demonstrates that planning by others was already under way", de la Poer said, saying that videos pre-dating Feb. 11 of Iran International's headquarters and security protection had been saved to his phone. The trial, which is expected to conclude next week, continues.

Israeli Air Strikes in South Lebanon Evokes Memories of 2006 House Bombings
Asharq Al Awsat/December 11/2023
The recent Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon have reignited memories of the intense battles experienced in the south during the 2006 war. The escalation, the most severe in two months, coincides with Hezbollah's use of a drone carrying explosives that detonated at an Israeli command post two kilometers from the border. Israeli aircraft were spotted flying over Beirut and northern Lebanon. The border region had not experienced such intense air bombardment since the war began on October 8. Explosions rocked the border area, particularly between the towns of Yaroun, Kounine, and Bint Jbeil. Social media activists shared videos of approximately six simultaneous airstrikes targeting densely forested areas. Less than two hours later, airstrikes targeted a residential neighborhood in Aitaroun, destroying several homes, damaging others, and completely leveling a residential block. Ambulance crews rushed to the scene, where they rescued four injured individuals, as Israeli fighter jets flew at medium and high altitudes over Beirut, its southern suburbs, and Mount Lebanon, all the way to the north. Sources in south Lebanon told Asharq Al-Awsat that the airstrikes were the most intense since the war began. They indicated that in the ten days of intensified bombardment, the Israeli forces relied on artillery and drone strikes, while extensive airstrikes were sporadic and geographically dispersed. The sources highlighted that Sunday's escalation was particularly intense in the central sector, with Israel primarily relying on airstrikes, reminiscent of the 2006 war, where air raids heavily targeted homes and residential areas in the south and Beirut suburbs. It appeared that the Israeli military expanded its fire range, especially in the central sector, where Hezbollah's military operations against Israeli positions have been relentless. The shift from targeting open areas to residential neighborhoods was evident, with recent days witnessing repeated airstrikes on populated locations, including a residential area in Aitaroun, three days after a similar attack in Aita al-Shaab. The National News Agency (NNA) reported that the strikes in Aitaroun destroyed a neighborhood, with many homes razed and others damaged.
Hezbollah Expands its Targets
In response, Hezbollah expanded its range of targets, announcing drone attacks on a newly established Israeli military headquarters in the western sector. Hezbollah's Military Media said in a statement that its fighters "launched an aerial attack with assault drones on a newly established command headquarters of the Israeli occupation army in the western sector south of the Ya'ara barracks."The Israeli military, for its part, reported that "suspicious aerial targets" crossed from Lebanon, intercepting two targets. It also mentioned that two Israeli soldiers suffered moderate injuries, while others were slightly wounded from shrapnel and smoke inhalation. Media sources close to Hezbollah stated that the group distracted the occupation at several points before the drone attack on the barracks to disable its air defenses in the western sector before launching the drones. Ya'ara barracks, 2 km from the Lebanese border and targeted for the first time, signals Hezbollah's updated intelligence from inside Israel. Hezbollah separately announced military operations against Israeli targets in the eastern and western sectors, while the Iron Dome was activated in an attempt to intercept the rockets fired towards Israel on the western border. The group ramped up the strikes, carrying out three simultaneous attacks targeting a fortified military structure at the al-Abbad site, a gathering of Israeli soldiers at the Hounin Castle, and the Birkat Risha site. The statement affirmed that the strikes caused direct hits and losses upon occupation forces. Israeli artillery continued throughout Sunday, targeting the Lebanese border towns of Blida, Ayta al-Shaab, Aytaroun, Al-Khiam, Kfar Kila, Yaroun, and Rmeish. Journalists in Rmeich reported that five shells fell in forests near a hotel housing reporters in the area. The airstrikes broke windows of houses, shops, and a school in Rmeich, Toni Elias, a priest in Rmeich, told Reuters by phone. A drone also launched a missile near a mosque in Marouhine. The NNA reported that debris fell from an Israeli interceptor missile near the UNIFIL watchtower in Naqoura.
Hezbollah Rejects Israeli Demands
Hezbollah rejected international discussions and messages reaching Lebanon, demanding the group's removal from the border area north of the Litani River and the implementation of Resolution 1701. A senior Hezbollah official, Sheikh Ali Daamoush, asserted that the Israeli enemy is not in a position to impose its will on Lebanon. Daamoush said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war minister issued "empty threats," saying the enemy is well aware that Lebanon is undeterred by intimidation. He emphasized that "the resistance will continue to exhaust the enemy and will not stop unless the aggression on Gaza and Lebanon ceases."The enemy's air raids and drones' attacks on villages and towns will not go unanswered, he asserted, adding that the resistance's response is strong, precise, and painful, leaving no safe military location for the enemy along the Lebanese-Palestinian border. The official asserted that the resistance is achieving victories, forcing the enemy to pay heavy prices, and will not allow infringements on Lebanese sovereignty or any gains for Israel at the expense of the national authority. Hezbollah parliamentary bloc member Hassan Fadlallah echoed the stance during a Sunday tour of the border area.
Fadlallah asserted that the enemy is deluded, adding that the occupation forces are witnessing significant failure in the field, whether in Gaza or south Lebanon. The MP asserted that Israeli Forces have been hit hard, and all its leaders' talk is an additional indication of its transformation into a false propaganda machine, exposed by daily military losses.

Violence Escalates between Israel, Lebanon’s Hezbollah
AFP/December 11 2023
Violence escalated at Lebanon's border with Israel on Sunday as Hezbollah launched explosive drones and powerful missiles at Israeli positions and Israeli air strikes rocked several towns and villages in south Lebanon. Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah have been trading fire since the war in Gaza erupted two months ago, in their worst hostilities since a 2006 conflict. The violence has largely been contained to the border area. Israeli attacks in south Lebanon included air strikes on the town of Aitaroun which destroyed and damaged numerous houses, Lebanon's National News Agency said. It did not say if there were any casualties. The Israeli army did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Senior Hezbollah politician Hassan Fadlallah, in a statement sent to Reuters, said Israeli air strikes were a "new escalation" to which the group was responding with new types of attacks, be it "in the nature of the weapons (used) or the targeted sites". The Israeli army earlier said "suspicious aerial targets" had crossed from Lebanon and two were intercepted. Two Israeli soldiers were moderately wounded and a number of others lightly injured from shrapnel and smoke inhalation, it said.
Israeli fighter jets carried out "an extensive series of strikes on Hezbollah terror targets in Lebanese territory", it said. Sirens sounded in Israel at several locations at the border. In Beirut, residents saw what appeared to be two warplanes streaking across a clear blue sky, leaving vapor trails behind them. Hezbollah statements say its attacks aim to support Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Senior Hezbollah official Sheikh Ali Damoush said in a speech on Sunday the group would continue in its effort to "exhaust the enemy, and will not stop unless the aggression against Gaza and Lebanon stops".
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that Beirut would be turned "into Gaza" if Hezbollah started an all-out war. In one of several attacks announced by Hezbollah on Sunday, the group said it had launched the explosive drones at an Israeli command position near Ya'ara. In another, Hezbollah said it had fired Burkan (Volcano) missiles, which carry hundreds of kilograms of explosives. Israeli air strikes were also reported on the outskirts of the Lebanese village of Yaroun, not far from the location of another of the Israeli positions Hezbollah said it had targeted on Sunday.
Those air strikes broke windows of houses, shops and a school in the nearby village of Rmeich, Toni Elias, a priest in Rmeich, told Reuters by phone. Violence at the border has killed more than 120 people in Lebanon, including 85 Hezbollah fighters and 16 civilians. In Israel, the hostilities have killed seven soldiers and four civilians.

Hamas Creates New Terrorist Group to Destroy Lebanon
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/December 11, 2023
On December 4, the Iran-backed Palestinian terror group Hamas announced the establishment of a new terrorist group in Lebanon....
Hamas, in short, is saying that it is planning a similar invasion of Israel, but this time from Lebanon.
Lebanese journalist Tony Bouloss warned that Hamas's intention is to establish a new terror group in Lebanon that could... turn it into "Hamas Land." "Hezbollah wants to turn Lebanon into a new Afghanistan, attracting all terrorist organizations in the world so that Lebanon becomes an alternative homeland for rogue groups." – Tony Bouloss, X (Twitter), December 4, 2023.
According to reports, Hezbollah recently permitted the deployment of 400 Palestinians affiliated with Hamas along the border with Israel. The coordination between the two terror groups is taking place under the direct supervision of their masters in Iran....
Ultimately, the war Israel is currently waging against Hamas will weaken the Iran-led axis of evil in the Middle East; embolden Arabs to speak out against Hamas, Hezbollah and other terror groups, and finally hugely improve the lives of all the Arabs and Palestinians in the region by working toward peace with Israel.
Many Lebanese fear that the Palestinian terror group Hamas and its patrons in Tehran are seeking to drag Lebanon into a destructive war with Israel. The Lebanese see how Hamas has brought devastation down on the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as a result of their attack on Israel. They fear the same consequence in Lebanon. Pictured: Smoke billows from sites near the village of Aita al-Shaab, Lebanon, hit by an Israeli airstrike in retaliation for a volley of missiles launched by Hezbollah into Israel shortly before, on December 8, 2023. (Photo by Jalaa Marey/AFP via Getty Images)
On December 4, the Iran-backed Palestinian terror group Hamas announced the establishment of a new terrorist group in Lebanon with the goal of "liberating Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque." In the past two months, Hamas terrorists in Lebanon have carried out rocket attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians in northern Israel.
Hamas has called on the Palestinians living in Lebanon to join the group, "Vanguards of the Al-Aqsa Flood," the name it chose for its barbaric invasion of Israeli communities near the border with the Gaza Strip on October 7, when it massacred 1,200 Israelis and abducted 240 others to the Gaza Strip.
Hamas, in short, is saying that it is planning a similar invasion of Israel, but this time from Lebanon.
The announcement has drawn sharp criticism from many Lebanese, who fear that the Palestinian terror group and its patrons in Tehran are seeking to drag Lebanon into a destructive war with Israel. The Lebanese see how Hamas has brought devastation down on the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as a result of their attack on Israel. They fear the same consequence in Lebanon.
"This [Hamas] statement is unacceptable, neither in form nor in content," said Samir Geagea, head of the Lebanese Forces Party. "It harms Lebanese sovereignty and is again trying to harm the relationship between the Lebanese and Palestinians."
Geagea pointed out that the Hamas decision to establish the new terror group in Lebanon could not have been taken without the approval of Iran's Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah. "It is well-established that Hamas and other organizations in Lebanon are subject to the command and decision of Hezbollah," he said. "It is next to impossible for them to carry out any military action without the knowledge and approval of the party [Hezbollah]. There is no possibility for Hamas to issue such a statement had it not been for Hezbollah's actual signature on it."
Lebanese parliament member Ashraf Rifi, a former general director of the Lebanese Internal Security Forces, denounced Hamas's decision as a "serious mistake" and called for its reversal. "Lebanon is not an arena for resistance [against Israel] or those who are deceived," Rifi warned. "We reject this announcement. My advice to you [Hamas]: 'Do not sink into the shifting Lebanese sands, otherwise the loss with be great.'"
Former Lebanese Foreign Minister Gibran Bassil, who also serves as president of the Free Patriotic Movement, wrote: "We categorically reject the announcement by the Hamas movement in Lebanon. We also consider that any armed action from Lebanese territory [against Israel] is an assault on our national sovereignty."
Lebanese businessman and politician Fouad Makhzoumi also rejected Hamas's announcement: "I call on the Hamas movement to stop making flimsy plans. I ask the [Lebanese] government about its role in this context and I demand that its president act immediately and take the necessary measures because this matter harms Lebanon's sovereignty and security."
Lebanese journalist Tony Bouloss warned that Hamas's intention is to establish a new terror group in Lebanon that could plunge the country into a civil war and turn it into "Hamas Land."
Bouloss called on the Lebanese authorities to expel the leaders of Hamas from Lebanon "and protect the Lebanese people from bringing Israeli destruction into our country." He added: "Hezbollah wants to turn Lebanon into a new Afghanistan, attracting all terrorist organizations in the world so that Lebanon becomes an alternative homeland for rogue groups."
This is not the first time that the Lebanese people voice concern over plans Iran and its proxies to turn Lebanon into a launching pad for attacking Israel. Over decades, Hezbollah has accumulated approximately 150,000 rockets and missiles, many of them precision-guided, hidden among the homes of civilians along its 75 mile (120 km) border with Israel.
A poll conducted in Lebanon between October 13 and 17 showed that 73% of Lebanese oppose Lebanon's entry into the current Israel-Hamas war.
Since Hamas's invasion of Israel on October 7, many Lebanese have been appealing to Hezbollah not to involve Lebanon in the fighting for fear that Israel would destroy their country. "People are exhausted – they can't take much more," Ramad Boukallil, a Lebanese businessman, told Politico. "Lebanon is reeling – we have had four harsh years with the economic crisis, people are skipping meals and can hardly get by. Please God we're not hit with another war."
It is worth noting that in recent years, several senior Hamas leaders, including Saleh al-Arouri, have moved to Lebanon. Al-Arouri and his friends are in charge of coordination between Hamas and Hezbollah. According to some reports, Hezbollah recently permitted the deployment of 400 Palestinians affiliated with Hamas along the border with Israel. The coordination between the two terror groups is taking place under the direct supervision of their masters in Iran, whose leaders want to destroy Israel and consider the US the "Big Satan."
Lebanese opposition to attempts by Hamas and Hezbollah to drag Lebanon into a catastrophic war with Israel serves as a reminder that there are Arabs in the Middle East who are wary of Iran's intention to use them as cannon fodder in the Jihad (holy war) against Israel. This opposition is also a sign that a growing number of Arabs (including Palestinians) are fully against engaging in war with Israel.
The Lebanese and these Arabs are saying that they will not allow Hamas and the rest of the Palestinians to drag them into war with Israel. This refreshing approach is largely why the Arabs states have largely refrained from joining the Iran-led war on Israel. Once Hamas is removed from power and its military capabilities destroyed, we are likely to see more Arabs stand up against Iran and its proxies.
Ultimately, the war Israel is currently waging against Hamas will weaken the Iran-led axis of evil in the Middle East; embolden Arabs to speak out against Hamas, Hezbollah and other terror groups, and finally hugely improve the lives of all the Arabs and Palestinians in the region by working toward peace with Israel.
*Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.
© 2023 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20214/hamas-lebanon

Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 11-12/2023
Israel Carries Out Strikes Near Damascus
Asharq Al Awsat/December 11/2023
Israel carried out air strikes near Syria's capital Damascus late Sunday, Syrian state news agency SANA said. "At around 23:05 (2105 GMT) the Israeli enemy carried out an air assault... targeting various points on the outskirts of Damascus," a security source told the agency, AFP reported. "Our anti-aircraft defences shot down some missiles while others caused limited material damage." An AFP correspondent reported strong explosions in the suburbs of Damascus, which have been previously targeted by strikes that Syrian authorities have blamed on Israel. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the strikes had targeted "Hezbollah sites" in the Sayeda Zeinab district and near Damascus airport. The Israeli army declined to comment on the incident, but said separately that shots had been fired from Lebanon towards northern Israel on Sunday evening. "The army retaliated by targeting the source of the fire. Earlier in the day, we had struck a Hezbollah terrorist cell," it said in a statement. Israel's army chief Herzi Halevi visited his forces near the northern border with Lebanon on Sunday, where he spoke of the need "to kill Hezbollah operatives, to demonstrate our superiority". "It can also come in the form of a strike and war," he said.

Heavy fighting in Gaza's main cities amid severe shortages of food and water
Associated Press/December 11/2023
Israel said it is prepared to fight for months or longer to defeat Gaza's Hamas rulers, as its ground offense intensifies with more airstrikes and artillery fire. Qatar, which has played a key mediating role, says efforts to stop the war and have all hostages released will continue, but a willingness to discuss a cease-fire is fading. Israel faces international outrage after its military offensive has killed more than 17,700 Palestinians in Gaza, around two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry. About 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced within the besieged territory, where U.N. agencies say there is no safe place to flee. The United States has provided vital support to Israel in recent days by vetoing a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a cease-fire and pushing through an emergency sale of over $100 million worth of tank ammunition to Israel. The U.N. General Assembly plans to vote Tuesday on a similar resolution. Israel says 97 of its soldiers have died in its ground offensive. With only a trickle of humanitarian aid reaching a small portion of Gaza, residents face severe shortages of food, water and other basic goods. Some observers worry that Palestinians will be forced out of Gaza altogether.
HEAVY FIGHTING IN GAZA'S MAIN CITIES
Residents said there was heavy fighting in and around the southern city of Khan Younis, where Israeli ground forces opened a new line of attack last week, and battles were still underway in parts of Gaza City and the built-up Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, where large areas have been reduced to rubble. “The situation is extremely difficult,” said Hussein al-Sayyed, who is staying with relatives in Khan Younis after fleeing Gaza City earlier in the war. “I have children and I don’t know where to go. No place is safe.”He and his three daughters are staying in a three-story home with around 70 others, most of whom have fled from the north, and said they have been rationing food for days. “Over many days, I have eaten just one meal a day to save food for the girls. They are still young,” he said. Another Khan Younis resident, Radwa Abu Frayeh, witnessed heavy Israeli strikes around the European Hospital, where the U.N. humanitarian office says tens of thousands of people have sought shelter. She said a strike hit a home close to hers late Sunday. “The building shook,” she said. “We thought it was the end and we would die.”
FEARS OF PERMANENT DISPLACEMENT
With very little aid allowed in, Palestinians face severe shortages of food, water and other basic goods. Some observers openly worry that Palestinians will be forced out of Gaza altogether in a repeat of the mass exodus from what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding its creation. "Expect public order to completely break down soon, and an even worse situation could unfold including epidemic diseases and increased pressure for mass displacement into Egypt,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told a forum in Qatar, a key intermediary, on Sunday.
Eylon Levy, an Israeli government spokesman, called allegations that Israeli intends mass displacement from Gaza “outrageous and false.” But other Israeli officials have discussed such a scenario, raising alarm in Egypt and other friendly Arab countries that refuse to accept any refugees. At the same time, it's not clear when or if Palestinians would be allowed to return to Gaza City and much of the north — home to some 1.2 million before the war — where entire neighborhoods have been flattened. The fighting in and around Khan Younis threatens to bring similar destruction to the south, and has already pushed tens of thousands toward the town of Rafah and other areas along the border with Egypt. It has also hindered the delivery of humanitarian aid to most of Gaza, putting even more pressure on people to head south.
HARSH CONDITIONS IN THE SOUTH
Israel says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames their deaths on Hamas, saying it endangers residents by fighting in dense areas and positioning military infrastructure — including weapons, tunnels and rocket launchers — in or near civilian buildings. The military said Sunday that troops killed armed men as they left a clinic, and that forces operating in Jabaliya found a truck full of long-range rockets near a school. In a home in Jabaliya, soldiers found a rifle, two rocket-propelled grenade launchers and explosives, it said. Israel has urged people to flee to what it says are safe areas in the south but has continued to strike alleged militant targets throughout the territory. Associated Press reporters saw nine bodies brought to a local hospital on Monday after an airstrike hit a home in Rafah overnight. The aid group Doctors Without Borders said people in the south are also falling ill as they pack into crowded shelters or sleep in tents in open areas. Nicholas Papachrysostomou, MSF emergency coordinator in Gaza, said “every other patient” at a clinic in Rafah has a respiratory infection after prolonged exposure to cold and rain. “In some shelters, 600 people share a single toilet. We are already seeing many cases of diarrhea. Often children are the worst affected,” he said.
With the war in its third month, the Palestinian death toll in Gaza has surpassed 17,900, the majority women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths. Some 1,200 people have been killed on the Israeli side, mostly civilians killed during the Oct. 7 attack, in which Hamas and other militants also captured more than 240 people, including babies, women and older adults. More than 100 captives were released during a weeklong cease-fire late last month in exchanges for women and minors held in Israeli prisons. Israel says Hamas still has 117 hostages and the remains of 20 people killed in captivity or during the Oct. 7 attack. Most remaining hostages are soldiers and civilian men, and the militants hope to exchange them for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
The military says 101 Israeli soldiers have died since the start of the Gaza ground offensive. Palestinian militants have continued firing rockets at Israel, though the vast majority have been intercepted or landed in open areas without causing casualties or damage.

Israel Battles Militants in Gaza’s Main Cities, with Civilians Trapped in the Fighting
Asharq Al Awsat/December 11/2023
Palestinians dug under crushed buildings Monday to recover the bodies of families killed in strikes around Gaza as Israeli forces battled militants in the territory’s two largest cities, where many thousands of civilians are still trapped by the fighting.
Residents said battles went on in and around the southern city of Khan Younis, where Israeli ground forces opened a new line of attack last week. Battles were also still underway in parts of Gaza City and the urban Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, where large areas have been reduced to rubble. Israel has pledged to keep fighting until it removes Hamas from power, dismantles its military capabilities and gets back all of the hostages taken by militants during Hamas’ Oct. 7 surprise attack into Israel that ignited the war. The Israeli campaign has killed thousands of Palestinian civilians and driven nearly 85% of the territory’s 2.3 million people from their homes.
In central Gaza, an Israeli airstrike overnight flattened a residential building where some 80 people were staying in the Maghazi refugee camp, residents said. Ahmed al-Qarah, a neighbor who was digging through the rubble for survivors, said he knew of only six people who made it out. “The rest are under the building,” he said. At a nearby hospital, family members sobbed over the bodies of several of the dead from the strike. In Khan Younis, Radwa Abu Frayeh saw heavy Israeli strikes overnight around the European Hospital, where the UN humanitarian office says tens of thousands of people have sought shelter. She said one hit a home close to hers late Sunday. “The building shook,” she said. “We thought it was the end and we would die.” Hussein al-Sayyed, who fled Gaza City earlier in the war with his three daughters, is staying in a three-story home in the city with around 70 others. He said they have been rationing food for days. “I don’t know where to go,” he said. “No place is safe.”
Hamas on Monday fired a barrage of rockets that set off sirens in Tel Aviv. One person was lightly wounded, according to the Magen David Adom rescue service. Israel's Channel 12 television broadcast footage of a cratered road and damage to cars and buildings in a suburb.
FIERCE FIGHTING In northern Gaza, Israeli forces and militants have been fighting in the refugee camp of Jabaliya and the Gaza City district of Shijaiya.
Large swaths of Gaza City and other parts of the north have been obliterated by weeks of bombardment and fighting, but tens of thousands of people are believed to remain, huddled in homes, UN shelters and hospitals. The UN humanitarian office, known as OCHA, described a harrowing journey through the battle zone by a UN and Red Crescent convoy over the weekend that made the first delivery of medical supplies to the north in more than a week. It said an ambulance and UN truck were hit by gunfire on the way to Al-Ahly Hospital to drop off the supplies. The convoy then evacuated 19 patients but was delayed for inspections by Israeli forces on the way south. OCHA said one patient died, and a paramedic was detained for hours, interrogated and reportedly beaten. The fighting in Jabaliya has trapped hundreds of staff, patients and displaced people inside a number of hospitals, most of them unable to function. Two staff members were killed over the weekend by clashes outside Al-Awda Hospital, OCHA said. Shelling and live ammunition hit Al-Yemen Al-Saeed Hospital, killing an unknown number of displaced people sheltering inside, it said. It did not say which side was behind the fire. Israel says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames their deaths on Hamas, saying it endangers residents by fighting in dense areas and positioning weapons, tunnels and rocket launchers in or near civilian buildings. The military said five soldiers were killed Sunday in a battle in southern Gaza after militants fired at them from a school and set off an explosive device. Military officials said the troops, backed by aircraft and tanks, returned fire and killed the militants.
HARSH CONDITIONS IN THE SOUTH With Israel allowing little aid into Gaza and the UN largely unable to distribute it amid the fighting, Palestinians face severe shortages of food, water and other basic goods. Israel has urged people to flee to what it says are safe areas in the south. The fighting in and around Khan Younis has pushed tens of thousands toward the town of Rafah and other areas along the border with Egypt. Still, airstrikes have continued even in areas to which Palestinians are told to flee. A strike in Rafah early Monday heavily damaged a residential building, killing at least nine people, all but one of them women, according to Associated Press reporters who saw the bodies at the hospital. The aid group Doctors Without Borders said people in the south are also falling ill as they pack into crowded shelters or sleep in tents in open areas. Nicholas Papachrysostomou, the group's emergency coordinator in Gaza, said “every other patient” at a clinic in Rafah has a respiratory infection after prolonged exposure to cold and rain. “In some shelters, 600 people share a single toilet. We are already seeing many cases of diarrhea. Often children are the worst affected,” he said.
With almost all of Gaza’s 2.3 million people crowded in the south, some worry that Palestinians will be forced out of the territory altogether in a repeat of the mass exodus from what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding its creation.
“Expect public order to completely break down soon, and an even worse situation could unfold, including epidemic diseases and increased pressure for mass displacement into Egypt,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told a forum in Qatar on Sunday.
Eylon Levy, an Israeli government spokesman, called allegations that Israeli intends to drive people from Gaza “outrageous and false.” But other Israeli officials have discussed such a scenario, raising alarm in Egypt and other Arab countries that refuse to accept any refugees. Palestinians in Lebanon and the Israeli-occupied West Bank observed a general strike Monday called by activists to demand a ceasefire, after the US vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for one on Friday. A similar, nonbinding vote is planned in the General Assembly on Tuesday.
The US has provided unwavering diplomatic and military support for the campaign, even as it has urged Israel to minimize civilian casualties and further mass displacement.
With the war in its third month, the Palestinian death toll in Gaza has surpassed 17,900, most of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths.Some 1,300 people have died on the Israeli side, mostly civilians killed during the Oct. 7 attack. The toll also includes 104 soldiers who have been killed in the Gaza ground offensive since late October. During the Oct. 7 attack, militants took more than 240 people captive. After exchanges during a weeklong ceasefire last month. Israel says Hamas still has 117 hostages and the remains of 20 people who died in captivity or during the initial attack.

‘I’m Destroyed’: UN Envoys Meet Victims of Gaza War
EPA/December 2023 11/
UN Security Council ambassadors traveled to Egypt Monday to meet Gazan victims of the war between Israel and Hamas, days after the United States blocked a ceasefire resolution. The informal one-day trip organized by the United Arab Emirates and Egypt came amid a spiraling humanitarian crisis in war-torn Gaza, described as a "graveyard" by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Around a dozen ambassadors took part from countries including Russia and Britain. But the US, which vetoed the Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire on Friday, did not send a representative and neither did France. The envoys visited a hospital in El-Arish near the Rafah border crossing with Gaza, treating people who had been evacuated from the conflict. Among the people they met was Wafaa Asaad, a 27-year-old from Gaza who was heavily pregnant when her house was hit by an Israeli strike, killing her husband and injuring her two daughters. She was evacuated to Egypt for medical treatment and had an arm and leg amputated, but miraculously managed to give birth just hours after crossing the border, her sister Alaa told AFP."Our message to the UN is we want the war to stop," Alaa said, her newborn niece laying on a bed beside her. Ecuador's envoy Jose de la Gasca told AFP he was "destroyed" by the visit to the hospital. "I just met a young mother who lost a kid and has another little girl who is wounded," he said. "I don't ever want to see again what I have just seen. It's horrible."
The diplomats were later due to visit the Rafah crossing, the only gateway into Gaza. Departures via the crossing are tightly controlled, with only foreign nationals and severely wounded people allowed to leave Gaza in most circumstances.
'Lack absolutely everything'
Speaking at the start of the trip, UAE envoy Lana Nusseibeh said the trip was not official Security Council work, and members were taking part on their own "national and personal" initiatives. Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN's Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, briefed the envoys on the humanitarian situation before he headed to Gaza for his third visit since the start of the war in October. There is "deep frustration, disappointment and some outrage... (that) we can't even reach a consensus for a ceasefire," Lazzarini said. "There is no real safe place in the Gaza Strip. Even the UN premises currently hosting more than one million people have been hit," he added. "Hunger is prevailing in Gaza. More and more people haven't eaten for one day, two days, three days... people lack absolutely everything." The war was triggered when Hamas, the Palestinian group that runs Gaza, carried out the deadliest-ever attack on Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people, according to Israeli figures, and taking about 240 hostages back to Gaza. Israel has responded with a military offensive that has reduced much of Gaza to rubble and killed at least 17,997 people, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Why Palestinian displacement in Gaza war alarms the UN and Arabs
BEIRUT/JERUSALEM (Reuters)/Mon, December 11, 2023
Israel's orders to Gaza's residents to move ever further south towards the Egyptian border during its offensive and the dire humanitarian situation have sparked Arab and U.N. concerns that Palestinians may eventually be driven over the border.
Israel denies having any plans to push Palestinians into Egypt's Sinai Peninsula as it pursues its goal of destroying Hamas following the group's devastating Oct. 7 attack on Israeli soil. It says it has told Gazans to move for their own safety.
WHAT IS BEHIND THE CONCERNS?
Palestinians have long been haunted by what they call the "Nakba", or catastrophe, when 700,000 of them were dispossessed from their homes when Israel was created in 1948. Many were driven out or fled to neighbouring Arab states, including to Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, where many of them or their descendants still live in refugee camps. Some went to Gaza. Israel disputes the account that they were forced out. The latest conflict has seen an unprecedented Israeli bombardment and land offensive in Gaza, devastating urban areas throughout the enclave. Palestinians and U.N. officials say there are no longer any safe areas inside Gaza to seek shelter.
WHAT HAS HAPPENED DURING THIS CONFLICT?
Before Israel launched its ground offensive in Gaza, it initially told Palestinians in north Gaza to move to what it said were safe areas in the south. As the offensive expanded, Israel told them to head further south towards Rafah, located next to Egypt, the only country apart from Israel to share a border with the enclave, which is only 40 km (24.85 miles) long and a few kilometres wide. According to U.N. estimates, up to 85% of the 2.3 million people in Gaza - one of the most densely populated areas of the world - have already been displaced from their homes and are now crammed in an ever smaller area near the border.
WHAT HAS HAPPENED DURING PREVIOUS GAZA BORDER INCIDENTS?
There has been no precedent for people fleeing en masse from Gaza during conflicts and flare ups with Israel in recent years, although no previous war has been this fierce. However, there have been incidents when Gaza's border with Egypt was breached, although those crossing numbered hundreds or thousands, and those people were not seeking shelter or to stay. Following Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005, Palestinians breached the fence, with some clambering over with make-shift ramps and using ropes. At one place, Palestinian militants rammed a concrete barrier to break a hole. Hamas breached the frontier again in 2008, challenging a blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt after the group seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007 from the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority. The border remained breached for about 10 days before Egypt resealed it.
COULD A MAJOR DISPLACEMENT HAPPEN IN THIS CONFLICT?
Many Palestinians inside Gaza have said they would not leave even if they could because they fear it might lead to another permanent displacement in a repeat of 1948. Egypt, meanwhile, has kept the border firmly closed except to let a few thousand foreigners, dual nationals and a handful of others leave Gaza. Egypt and other Arabs strongly oppose any attempt to push Palestinians over the border. Yet, the scale of this conflict eclipses other Gaza crises or flare up in past decades, and the humanitarian disaster deepens for Palestinians by the day, leaving them without enough food or water, while few hospitals still function.
WHAT ARE ARAB STATES AND THE U.N. SAYING?
From the earliest days of the conflict, Arab governments, particularly Israel's neighbours Egypt and Jordan, have said Palestinians must not be driven from land where they want to make a future state, which would include the West Bank and Gaza.
Like Palestinians, they fear any mass movement across the border would further undermine prospects for a "two-state solution" - the idea of creating a state of Palestine next to Israel - and leave Arab nations dealing with the consequences.
As the humanitarian crisis has worsened, top U.N. officials have added their voices to concerns about a mass displacement. "I expect public order to completely break down soon and an even worse situation could unfold including epidemic diseases and increased pressure for mass displacement into Egypt," U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Dec. 10. Philippe Lazzarini, head of the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, wrote in the Los Angeles Times on Dec. 9 that "developments we are witnessing point to attempts to move Palestinians into Egypt, regardless of whether they stay there or are resettled elsewhere."
WHAT HAVE ISRAEL'S GOVERNMENT AND ITS POLITICIANS SAID?
The Israeli government says it is only telling Palestinians to leave their homes temporarily for their safety but comments by some Israeli politicians - including some close to the government - have stoked Palestinian and Arab fears of a new Nakba.
Asked about the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) offensive and the displacement of Gazans, Israeli Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter told Israel's Channel 12 on Nov. 11: "This is Gaza's Nakba, operationally there's no way to conduct a war the way the IDF wants to conduct it inside Gaza territories while the masses are between the tanks and soldiers."Dichter is a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party and is also a minister in the security cabinet. After Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said on Dec. 10 that Israel's offensive was "a systematic effort to empty Gaza of its people," Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy called those comments "outrageous and false accusations."

Palestinians starve as Gaza war rages amid fears of exodus into Egypt
GAZA/CAIRO (Reuters)/December 11, 2023
Israel on Monday denied it intended to push Palestinians seeking refuge from its bombardment of Gaza over the border into Egypt as international relief agencies said hunger was spreading among the besieged enclave's civilian population.
Amid the worsening humanitarian crisis, Hamas fighters and Israeli troops fought across the territory, with the militants trying to block Israeli tanks from advancing through the shattered streets. The Gaza health ministry said 18,205 people had now been killed and 49,645 wounded in Israeli strikes on Gaza in just over two months of warfare - hundreds of them since the United States vetoed a proposal for a ceasefire at the United Nations Security Council on Friday. Most of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes and residents say it is impossible to find refuge or food in the densely populated coastal enclave. One Palestinian told Reuters he had not eaten for three days and had to beg for bread for his children. "I pretend to be strong but I am afraid I will collapse in front of them at any moment," he said by telephone, declining to be named for fear of reprisals. UNRWA, the U.N. body responsible for Palestinian refugees, said some people were arriving at its health centres and shelters carrying their dead children. "We are on the verge of collapse," it said on X. Aid agencies have also warned of a breakdown in social order as the situation worsens. Over the weekend U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he feared a mass displacement into Egypt and UNRWA commissioner general Philippe Lazzarini said that pushing Gazans closer to the border pointed to attempts to move them over it. Jordan also accused Israel of seeking "to empty Gaza of its people". The Israeli government on Monday denied this was its aim. Spokesperson Eylon Levy called the accusation "outrageous and false". Levy said his country was defending itself from the "monsters" who had attacked Israel in a cross-border attack on Oct. 7. In that raid, the deadliest in Israel's history, Hamas gunmen killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 240 hostage, according to Israeli tallies. About 100 have since been freed. The Hamas attack triggered an Israeli retaliatory assault and brought the bloodiest period of warfare of the decades-long Israel-Palestinian conflict.The border with Egypt is the only way out of Gaza at present, but Cairo has warned it will not allow Gazans into its territory, fearing they would not be able to return.
'ENOUGH IS ENOUGH'
U.N. officials say 1.9 million people - 85% of Gaza's population - are displaced and describe the conditions in the southern areas where they have concentrated as hellish. Gazans said people forced to flee repeatedly were dying of hunger and cold as well as the bombardments, describing looting of aid trucks and sky high prices. The U.N. World Food Programme has said half of the population is starving. Israel says its instructions to people to move areas are among measures to protect the population. U.N. Security Council envoys spoke of unimaginable suffering and urged an end to the war when they visited the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing on Monday. Asked by reporters if he had a message to nations that opposed a ceasefire in Gaza, China's United Nations envoy Zhang Jun said simply: "Enough is enough."Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Monday Israel had no intention of staying permanently in the Gaza Strip and it was open to discussing alternatives about who would control the territory, as long as it was not a group hostile to Israel. "Israel will take any measures in order to destroy Hamas, but we have no intention to stay permanently in the Gaza Strip. We only take care of our security and the security of our citizens alongside the border with Gaza," Gallant told reporters. Hamas has ruled Gaza since 2007 and is sworn to the Jewish state's destruction. Israel accuses Hamas of using civilians as human shields and stealing humanitarian aid, which Hamas denies. Israel has prevented most aid from moving into Gaza, saying it fears it will just fuel Hamas attacks. Government spokesman Levy said Israel was working to open the Kerem Shalom crossing which processed most aid before the war. He blamed international agencies for holdups at the crossing from Egypt. After the collapse of a week-long ceasefire on Dec. 1, Israel began a ground offensive in the south and has since pushed from the east into the heart of Khan Younis city, with warplanes attacking an area to the west.
CLASHES IN NORTHERN GAZA
On Monday, militants and residents said fighters were preventing Israeli tanks moving farther west and clashing with Israeli forces in northern Gaza, where Israel had said its mission was largely complete. Israel said dozens of Hamas fighters had surrendered and urged others to join them. The armed wing of Hamas said it had fired rockets towards Tel Aviv, where Israelis fled to shelters. The Gaza health ministry said 32 Palestinians were killed in Khan Younis overnight. Hamas said its fighters had hit two Israeli tanks with rockets and fired mortars at Israeli forces. Militants and residents said fighting was also fierce in Shejaia, east of the centre of Gaza City, the northwestern Sheikh Radwan district and Jabalia farther north. In central Gaza, where Israel told people to move on Monday towards shelters in the Deir al-Balah area, health officials said the Shuhada Al-Aqsa hospital had received 40 dead. Medics also said an Israeli air strike killed four in a house in Rafah, one of two places near Egypt where Israel says Palestinians should take refuge. In another flashpoint area, an Israeli shell on Monday killed the mayor of the Lebanese village of Taybeh a few kilometres (miles) from the border with Israel, a relative and Lebanon's National News Agency said. Hostilities between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah have been reignited by the war in Gaza, raising international concern that a wider conflict could get out of hand. Defence Minister Gallant said Israel was open to possibly reaching an agreement with the Iran-backed Hezbollah, on condition it included a safe zone along the border and proper guarantees.

Russia demands release of hostages in talks with Palestinians
MOSCOW (Reuters)/December 11, 2023
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov demanded the release of hostages held in Gaza in telephone calls on Sunday and Monday with Hamas and other Palestinian factions, the Russian foreign ministry said. The statement followed a series of meetings and calls between President Vladimir Putin and Middle East leaders in the past week. The ministry said Bogdanov's conversations highlighted the military and humanitarian situation in Gaza, where Russia "confirmed its principled position on the need to cease hostilities and urgently resolve all humanitarian problems that have arisen, including the release of hostages". The statement did not make clear whether Russia sought the release of all hostages seized by Hamas during its Oct. 7 rampage into southern Israel or just the release of any Russian nationals among them. The minister spoke to senior figures in the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), the Palestinian Democratic Union, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and Hamas. Bogdanov stressed the need to restore Palestinian unity "in the framework of the PLO" and reaffirmed Moscow's support for a Palestinian state to co-exist alongside Israel, the statement said. Russia called on Sunday for an international monitoring mission to go to Gaza to assess the humanitarian situation. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow strongly condemned the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, but it was unacceptable for Israel to use that as justification for "the collective punishment of millions of Palestinian people with indiscriminate shelling". Analysts say the Gaza war has proved helpful to Russia by distracting the world's attention from its war in Ukraine and making it harder for Kyiv to compete for Washington's attention and military aid. Putin has also used it as an opportunity to criticise the failings of U.S. diplomacy in the Middle East and raise Russia's own profile as a regional player with ties to all the main actors. Putin has stepped up his own contacts in the past week, though the aim of his latest diplomatic flurry is not yet clear. He spoke to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Saturday and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyuhu on Sunday, having last week met the leaders of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Iran.

Israel must comply with laws of war under US weapons assistance policy
WASHINGTON (Reuters)/December 11, 2023
Israel is no exception to U.S. policy that any country receiving its weapons must comply with the laws of war, the State Department said on Monday after Washington sold about 14,000 tank shells to Israel without congressional review. The Biden administration on Friday used emergency authority under the Arms Export Control Act to allow the $106.5 million sale, the Pentagon said on Saturday. The U.S. expects every country receiving its military assistance to use it "in full compliance with international humanitarian law and the laws of war, and Israel is no exception," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told a news briefing on Monday. Miller was asked if Washington has assessed whether Israel has complied the Biden administration's February 2023 Conventional Arms Transfers (CAP) policy. That requires the State Department to determine arms are unlikely to be used to for genocide, crimes against humanity, breaches of the Geneva conventions or serious violations of international law. Miller said the State Department had not made such a determination and reiterated the U.S. stance that Israel can do more in the Gaza conflict to minimize civilian harm. When asked if the United States was collecting any information on whether any war crimes were committed, Miller said: "We are monitoring everything that happens in this conflict. We are engaged in conversations with the Israeli government." As the war intensified, how and where exactly the U.S. weapons are used in the conflict has come under more scrutiny, even though U.S. officials say there are no plans to put conditions on military aid to Israel or to consider withholding some of it. The Gaza health ministry said 18,205 people had died and in Gaza in just over two months of warfare. The death toll and desperate conditions for civilians in Gaza have sparked international calls for a humanitarian ceasefire.

'Worst Christmas ever' in birthplace of Jesus as impact of war empties Bethlehem
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (Reuters)/December 11, 2023
Bethlehem is normally at its busiest at Christmas but this year war has scared away tourists and pilgrims from the Palestinian town in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, leaving hotels, restaurants and souvenir shops deserted. With global headlines dominated since Oct. 7 by news of the Hamas attacks in southern Israel, followed by Israel's military assault on Gaza and a rise in violence in the West Bank, business owners in Bethlehem said no one was coming. "We have no guests. Not one," said Joey Canavati, owner of the Alexander Hotel, whose family has lived and worked in Bethlehem for four generations. "This is the worst Christmas ever. Bethlehem is shut down for Christmas. No Christmas tree, no joy, no Christmas spirit," he said. Located just south of Jerusalem, Bethlehem is heavily reliant for income and jobs on visitors from all over the world who come to see the Church of the Nativity, believed by Christians to stand on the site where Jesus was born. Canavati said that before Oct. 7, his hotel was fully booked for Christmas, to the point that he was l Since the war started, everyone cancelled, including bookings for next year. "All we get on the email is cancellation after cancellation after cancellation," said Canavati.
He took Reuters TV on a tour of the hotel, opening doors to empty rooms and showing the silent dining room. "We had at least 120 people having dinner here every night and it was packed. The noise, the people. Empty. No Christmas breakfast, no Christmas dinner, no Christmas buffet," he said.
SURGE IN ATTACKS
Since the 1967 war between Israel and neighbouring Arab countries, Israel has occupied the West Bank, which Palestinians want as the core of a future independent state. Israel has built Jewish settlements, deemed illegal by most countries, across the territory. Israel disputes this, citing historical and biblical ties to the land. Several of its ministers live in settlements and favour their expansion. Since Oct. 7, the West Bank has experienced a rise in attacks by Jewish settlers on Palestinians, which were already at a 15-year high this year before the Hamas attack. Bethlehem's Manger Square, a large paved space in front of the Church of the Nativity that usually serves as a focal point for Christmas celebrations, was quiet and almost empty, as were nearby streets where most souvenir shops were shuttered. Rony Tabash, who sells crucifixes, statuettes of the Virgin Mary and other religious trinkets in his family's store, was tidying shelves and merchandise to pass the time. "We are almost two months without any pilgrim, any tourist," he said, adding that he was keeping the store open as a way to stave off hopelessness. "We want to feel that everything will be back, like to normal life," he said.Ala'a Salameh, owner of falafel restaurant Afteem, said his business was operating at 10% or 15% of capacity, catering for local Palestinian families rather than the usual influx of foreign visitors. He said he was keeping the restaurant open because his staff needed the work. "I have workers, so from where I can give them money to take and to feed their families, their kids?" he said. "We are praying for peace. For peace. You know, Bethlehem is the city where peace was born, so it should be the messenger for peace to be spread all over the world."

Netanyahu demands Moscow sever ties with Tehran
The New Voice of Ukraine/Mon, December 11, 2023
Israel has demanded that Russia cut ties with Iran, as Jerusalem holds Tehran responsible for most of the terrorist activity in the Middle East, the Israeli government said in a message on its website on Dec. 10. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has demanded that Russia stop allying itself with Iran, in a phone call with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. “The Prime Minister expressed his dissatisfaction with the positions expressed against Israel by Russian representatives at the UN and in other forums,” the message reads. “Prime Minister Netanyahu expressed sharp criticism of the dangerous cooperation between Russia and Iran.”"These ties, unfortunately, are strengthening and allow the Iranian leadership not only to continue to express their aggressive intentions towards Israel, but also to continue to threaten our country with extermination," said Ariel Bulshtein, a spokesman for the Israeli Prime Minister's Office. Addressing the international community, Bulshtein said that Israel does not intend to stop in its mission to destroy Hamas and condemns all attempts to save “terrorists” from just retribution by international organizations and foreign governments. "It would be tantamount to someone suggesting in early 1945 that the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition stop their military operations and stop persecuting the Nazi regime," Bulshtein stated. "This would have meant, in practice, saving that regime. Similarly, today, those who call on Israel to cease fire forget that our country did not attack anyone. It was the victim of an unprovoked barbaric attack on Oct. 7, which resulted in enormous casualties. In this situation, calling for a ceasefire is like saving the terrorists from an inevitable collapse. This will not happen. Israel will bring the military action to its conclusion, to the realization of all its goals." We’re bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Gaza health system is 'completely collapsing,' international organizations say
ABC News/December 11, 2023
The health care system in Gaza is "completely collapsing" with overcrowded hospitals and few medical supplies amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, according to the World Health Organization and Doctors Without Borders. Doctors Without Borders, or Médecins sans Frontières (MSF), was forced to stop providing support to Shuhada al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza and Beni Suhaila clinics in southern Gaza more than a week ago due to evacuation orders from Israeli forces, it said in a statement Sunday. Since then, MSF said its workers have seen "the complete collapse of health care services in the area, along with the rest of the health care system in Gaza." The organization also said that in Rafah, a city in southern Gaza that borders Egypt, there have been limited health services. On Saturday, an MSF team started providing support to the Al-Shaboura clinic, where more than 130 patients were treated on the first day, the organization said. "Every other patient in the clinic has a respiratory tract infection due to prolonged exposure to cold and rain," Nicholas Papachrysostomou, MSF emergency coordinator in Gaza, said in the release. "People are living in extremely poor hygiene conditions. In some shelters, 600 people share a single toilet. We are already seeing many cases of diarrhea. Often children are the worst affected."
The WHO said over the weekend that it and its partners were able to deliver essential and surgical supplies to al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, enough to cover the needs of 1,500 people. They were also able to transfer 19 critical patients, the WHO said, but it's unclear to where. The mission was very high-risk due to intense fighting in the area, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. "The hospital itself has been substantially damaged, and in acute need of oxygen and essential medical supplies, water, food and fuel," he wrote Sunday. "Critically, the hospital needs additional health personnel. We cannot wait any longer for a sustained ceasefire and a safe, scaled-up humanitarian response."During a special session Sunday of the WHO Executive Board on the health situation in Gaza, Tedros described the overall deterioration of Gaza's health system since the conflict began. He said of 36 hospitals in Gaza, only 14 are operating, and those are only partially functioning. Out of the 3,500 beds the hospitals used to provide, only 1,400 are now available, and they are all full, Tedros said. "Gaza's health system is on its knees and collapsing," he said during his opening remarks. "Two major hospitals in southern Gaza are operating at three times their bed capacity, running out of supplies and sheltering thousands of displaced people.""In summary, health needs have increased dramatically, and the capacity of the health system has been reduced to one third of what it was," he continued. Tedros added that it has become difficult to resupply health facilities due to heavy fighting and "inadequate resupply" from outside Gaza. The United Nations General Assembly scheduled an emergency meeting for Tuesday to vote on a draft resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza. Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the U.N., told The Associated Press that the draft resolution to be voted on is similar to the Security Council resolution the United States vetoed on Friday. A temporary cease-fire between the Hamas terrorist organization and Israel ended early on Dec. 1, and Israel resumed its bombardment of Gaza. The end of the cease-fire came after Hamas freed over 100 of the more than 200 people its militants took hostage during the Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israel. In exchange, Israel released more than 200 Palestinians from Israeli prisons. Meanwhile, in northern Gaza, just five doctors remain at Kamal Adwam Hospital, a pediatric clinic, according to MedGlobal, a nonprofit that provides medical services to refugees and displaced people. The group's last physician at the hospital, Dr. Hussam Abu Safyia, said it can no longer function due to bombing and depleted medical supplies, and he called for a safe, full evacuation of patients, staff and refugees inside the hospital in a statement on Monday. "It had been a long nightmare. I've seen many colleagues die, and countless children lose their lives needlessly," Abu Safyia said in an "SOS" message, according to MedGlobal. "The team at Kamal Adwan is exhausted. We have done all we can for our patients and community for as long as we could. Evacuation is the only way right now."Since the Hamas terrorist group's surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7, more than 18,000 have been killed in Gaza and over 49,000 others injured, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry and Government Media Office. In Israel, at least 1,200 people have been killed and 6,900 others have been injured, according to the Israeli prime minister's office. Israeli officials say 433 Israel Defense Forces soldiers have been killed, including 104 since the ground operations began. ABC News' Will Gretsky and Joseph Simonetti contributed to this report. Gaza health system is 'completely collapsing,' international organizations say originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

GCC Secretary-General Urges Immediate Gaza Ceasefire
Asharq Al Awsat/December 11/2023
Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Jasem Mohammed Albudaiwi emphasized the imperative to escalate humanitarian efforts and provide increased support to the Palestinian people. This affirmation was made during a meeting in Doha between the GCC Secretary-General and Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, Daniel Benaim, held on the sidelines of his participation in the 21st edition of the Doha Forum. The GCC Secretary-General also reiterated the unwavering commitment of GCC countries to exert every possible effort to alleviate the suffering in Gaza. He emphasized the urgent necessity for a ceasefire to facilitate the entry and improvement of relief and humanitarian assistance, SPA reported. He also underscored the significance of adhering to international humanitarian standards and holding those accountable for the heinous Israeli crimes during this crisis. Moreover, he emphasized the negative repercussions these crimes have caused on all aspects in the Gaza Strip and the wider region.

US expects every country it provides weapons to, including Israel, to comply with laws of war
Reuters/December 11, 2023
The spokesperson for the US State Department, Matthew Miller, said that the United States expects every country supplying it with weapons to use them following the laws of war, and Israel is no exception. This comes after Washington announced on Saturday that it had allowed the sale of about 14,000 tank shells to Israel. Miller added to reporters on Monday that US Special Envoy David Satterfield held meetings earlier this week with the Israelis and asked them to exert more effort regarding the humanitarian situation in Gaza. The Ministry of Health reported that 18,205 people have been killed so far, and 49,645 have been injured in Israeli strikes on the Palestinian territory since the start of the war about two months ago.

Israeli Defense Minister: Israel has no intention of staying permanently in Gaza
Reuters/December 11, 2023
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Monday that Israel does not intend to stay permanently in the Gaza Strip and is open to discussing alternatives regarding who will control the Strip, as long as it is not hostile to Israel.Gallant added that Israel is also open to the possibility of reaching an agreement with Hezbollah, supported by Iran, provided that this agreement includes a secure zone on the borders and proper guarantees.

Prominent Gaza professor and writer killed in airstrike, weeks after telling CNN he and his family had ‘nowhere else to go’
CNN/December 11, 2023
Editor’s Note: A version of this story appears in CNN’s Meanwhile in the Middle East newsletter, a three-times-a-week look inside the region’s biggest stories. Sign up here.
In October, Refaat Alareer was deliberating whether to stay at his home in the heart of Gaza City, or flee further south with his wife and six children. As Israeli warplanes bombarded northern Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told civilians to evacuate their homes immediately and go south. Civilians like Alareer were confronted with an impossible predicament. Stay home and risk being killed, or try to flee without protection. At the time, the 44-year-old writer and academic told CNN he and his family had no choice but to remain in the north, because they “have nowhere else to go.”“It’s an archetypal Palestinian image of a discussion, a debate on should we stay in one room, so if we die, we die together, or should we stay in separate rooms, so at least somebody can live?” he said. A professor of comparative literature at the Islamic University of Gaza, Alareer was famed for his role in chronicling Gazan experiences. He was instrumental in nurturing young Palestinian writers and helped them tell their stories in English, according to friends and colleagues. Alareer spoke to CNN from Gaza City, on October 12 and October 13. He gave consent in written messages to share the recording in the event of his death. Weeks later, on December 7, Alareer was killed by a strike in Shajaiya, in northern Gaza, his friend and colleague, Jehad Abusalim, confirmed to CNN. He was staying with his brother, his sister, and her four children, who were also killed, according to Abusalim, a writer, 35, based in Washington, DC. He left behind his wife, and children aged 7 to 21. CNN has been unable to reach members of Alareer’s family. In 2014, Alareer edited “Gaza Writes Back,” a collection of short stories by young writers documenting their lives under Israeli blockade. He was also co-editor of “Gaza Unsilenced,” a collection of essays, photos and poetry published in 2015 that documented the pain, loss and faith of Palestinians under Israeli siege. He also contributed to “Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire,” an anthology published in 2022. A native of Gaza City, he studied at University College London and SOAS, in London.
He was a co-founder of “We Are Not Numbers” – a non-profit organization that aims to amplify the voices of Palestinian youth living in Gaza and the refugee camps. “We have the faith, we have the belief that we have a fair cause, a just cause, to struggle to fight back for freedom, for basic human rights. We’ve been stripped out of this,” he told CNN. Israel launched its military operation in Gaza with the stated aim of eliminating Hamas and rescuing the more than 240 hostages taken during the militant group’s October 7 attack, which killed more than 1,200 people in Israel.
Israeli strikes have so far killed about 17,700 Palestinians in Gaza from October 7 through December 9, according to a report published by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah on Sunday. The report cites medical sources from the Hamas-controlled enclave. At least 70% of those killed in Gaza were women, children and the elderly, the report said. CNN cannot independently confirm the number of dead and wounded in Gaza, but on Sunday the Israel Defense Forces said it had struck more than 22,000 targets in Gaza since October 7. The IDF says it is trying to minimize civilian casualties, and accuses Hamas of embedding itself in civilian infrastructure. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has warned there is “no effective protection of civilians” in Gaza. Human rights groups have said that Israel’s attacks on civilians amount to a war crime, as does their forcible evacuation. During his interview with CNN, Alareer called on the international community to see the “humanity” in Palestinian people, adding: “Feel their pain. Put yourself in their shoes.” He had written a poem anticipating that he might be killed, titled “If I must die.” Following Alareer’s death, people in New York and London held vigils to honor his memory. While Alareer’s death is being mourned among Palestinians, some of his comments have caused offense. In a BBC interview he described the October 7 attacks as “a pre-emptive attack by Palestinian resistance” that was “legitimate and moral.”
Memories of war
Gazan civilians are no strangers to the threat of death, having lived through years under siege. Alareer said that recent Israeli strikes on the Palestinian enclave triggered his early memories of war. Born in Shajaiya, in the eastern part of Gaza City, he said his family was forced to relocate to the Tel-al-Hawa area of Gaza City, after their home was destroyed by Israeli bombardment during the 2014 war that also claimed his younger brother Hamada, who was 27 when he was killed. “It’s something we don’t talk about. We don’t even want to think about how these kids, the homes, the lives (that) get destroyed again and again every few years,” he recalled. The sounds of strikes hitting a building feel as though “the whole earth reverberates,” he said. “Even the slamming of a door sometimes brings you these memories,” he said “That’s why we usually say there is no post-war trauma for Palestinians. It’s nonstop.”
Nine years on, Alareer said he and many other Gazan parents felt “helplessness and despair” because they have no way to protect themselves, or their children, from Israel’s persistent strikes. He described the emotional and physical trauma sustained by Palestinian children under bombardment. “The way things usually start is complete fear in the first couple of days,” he said. “This turns into numbness later on, complete indifference, complete submission. “If you want to pray, you cut it short because there’s bombing around. If you want to eat, you stop eating because there’s bombing around. “You want to hug your kids like you usually do, or tell them stories or pat them on the head,” he said. “But you don’t want to do it because you don’t want to feel, or make them feel, that this is like a farewell hug. “We count the years by how many wars our kids survive.” He had been a vocal critic of Israel and a source of comments that caused offense to people outside Gaza, willing to be interviewed by many news outlets for Palestinian rights. In his BBC interview as well defending the October 7 attacks, Alareer compared them to the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, which represented the largest Jewish resistance effort during the Holocaust. Following the comments, a BBC spokesperson said his comments “were offensive and we don’t intend to use him again (as a commentator).”He later accused Israel of fabricating evidence of sexual assault by Hamas on October 7. CNN reported on survivors saying they either directly witnessed sexual violence or saw clear evidence of it.
‘Towering figure in Palestinian society’
Alareer began teaching literature, creative writing, poetry, translation and Shakespeare at the Islamic University of Gaza in 2007. He described himself as a writer and educator. His death on Thursday sparked tributes from friends, colleagues and students across the globe. Ra Page, 51, is a publisher and founder of Comma Press, in Manchester, England. He worked with Alareer on numerous literary projects and workshops over the years. They met in person in Gaza City, in August 2022. “My fondest memories are of jumping into his hilariously small car – definitely the smallest, quirkiest, possibly oldest car in Gaza and driving around listening to audiobooks and podcasts with him. He loved audio literature,” Page told CNN on Friday. “To describe him; he was generous, above all. Gracious, gentle, patient, funny. He had a wicked sense of humor,” he added. “He always championed others, ahead of himself. He was a great writer but his mission was to platform and support other writers.”Alareer was a “towering figure in Palestinian society,” said Abusalim, the writer and friend based in Washington, DC. “Refaat’s life was not without its challenges. Despite personal tragedies and the harsh realities of life in Gaza, he remained unwavering, using his pen and his voice to fight back, to write back,” he told CNN. “His teaching wasn’t just about imparting knowledge; it was about empowerment, about using language as a weapon against oppression,” Abusalim added. Laila El-Haddad, a Gazan journalist and author based in Maryland, said Alareer “raised an entire generation of Palestinian writers in Gaza.”He taught them “how to use English, the language of the countries that have been responsible for and complicit in their dispossession, genocide and blockade, to narrate their own stories,” added El-Haddad, 45. Rawan Yaghi, who was taught by Alareer and is now a 30-year-old writer based in Canada, said he was a “leader of literary resistance.” “His love for storytelling was infectious. He was a force for good, for perseverance, love, camaraderie,” she told CNN. “We remember and carry on Refaat’s legacy. Refaat the storyteller, father, husband, son, teacher, and friend.”

Iran Accuses European Diplomat of ‘Cooperating with Israel’
Brussels : Asharq Al Awsat Tehran: Asharq Al Awsat/December 11/2023
Iranian authorities have accused a Swedish EU diplomat, held in a Tehran prison for more than 600 days, of conspiring with Iran's arch-enemy Israel, the judiciary said Sunday. “Johan Floderus is accused of extensive measures against the security of the country, extensive intelligence cooperation with the Zionist regime and corruption on earth,” the judiciary's Mizan Online news agency said, according to AFP. Corruption on earth is one of Iran's most serious offenses and carries a maximum penalty of death. Floderus, 33, was arrested on April 17, 2022, at Tehran airport as he was returning to Iran from a trip with friends. The Swede, who works for the European Union diplomatic service, is being held in Tehran's Evin prison. Sweden’s foreign minister, Tobias Billström said: “There is no basis whatsoever for keeping Johan Floderus in detention, let alone bringing him to trial.”
The EU’s foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, called for his immediate release, saying: “There are absolutely no grounds for keeping Johan Floderus in detention.”The prosecution claimed Floderus had gathered information on Iran's “nuclear and enrichment programs,” carried out “subversive projects” for the benefit of Israel and established a network of “agents of the Swedish intelligence service.” It further claimed he was involved in “intelligence cooperation and communication with the European Union” and exiled opposition group, the People's Mujahedin (MEK), according to Mizan. Floderus’s case was not revealed publicly at first while the Swedish government and the EU worked quietly behind the scenes for his release. In September, the Floderus family broke the silence and called for intensified efforts to secure his release. At the time, Iran’s judiciary said Floderus had “committed crimes” in the country and an investigation into his case was being finalized. An EU official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP in September that they had not received “a clear answer” as to why Floderus had been detained. And 600 days after Floderus was detained by Iranian authorities, Human Rights Watch called for his immediate release adding that Swedish authorities should do more to ensure that happens. “The immediate and unconditional release of Floderus and others arbitrary detained should be a top priority for Sweden as well as for the EU in relations with Iran,” it said. Iran has long used detained foreign nationals as bargaining chips to secure the release of its citizens or frozen funds held abroad. Floderus's arrest came after an Iranian citizen received a life jail term in Sweden for his role in the Iranian regime's 1988 mass executions of thousands of opponents. EU relations with Iran have also been battered by Tehran's deliveries of weaponry to Russia and a crackdown on protests over the death of Mahsa Amini. The 27-nation EU has placed repeated rounds of sanctions on Iran over the weapons supplies and the repression of demonstrators.

Iran Unveils Drones Armed with Air-to-air Missiles
Asharq Al Awsat/December 11/2023
Iran said it has reinforced its air defense capabilities by adding combat drones equipped with air-to-air missiles to its arsenal, state media reported on Sunday. "Dozens of Karrar drones armed with air-to-air missiles have been added for air defense in all border areas of the country," the official IRNA news agency said. The drones, with an operational range of up to 1,000 kilometres (620 miles), were exhibited Sunday morning during a televised ceremony organized at a military academy in Tehran. "The enemies will now have to rethink their strategies" because the Iranian forces have "become more powerful", IRNA quoted the commander-in-chief of Iran's army, General Abdolrahim Mousavi, as saying. The Karrar interceptor drone, the first version of which was unveiled in 2010, has been equipped with a "Majid" thermal missile with a range of eight kilometres (five miles) "made entirely in Iran", added the agency. It "succeeded in its operational tests" during military exercises held in October, Mousavi said.

Houthis' Escalating Threat to Shipping Lines Signals Red Sea Militarization
Aden: Ali Rabih/Asharq Al Awsat/December 11/2023
Fears among Yemenis are mounting over the militarization of the Red Sea as the French, US, and British navies join forces to counter Houthi attacks in one of the world's most vital trade routes. On Sunday, the French navy announced the destruction of two Houthi drones in the Red Sea that were heading towards the frigate "Languedoc" operating in the Red Sea. "The interception and destruction of these two identified threats" were carried out late Saturday by the frigate Languedoc, which operates in the Red Sea, the general staff said in a press release. Amid the Gaza conflict, the Houthi group saw an opportunity to divert attention from its internal crisis, recently escalating threats to target all international ships in the Red Sea heading to Israel. The group, which the Yemeni government accuses of being an Iranian proxy, seized the Galaxy Leader vessel last month and transported it to the Hodeidah coast. Yemeni politicians are skeptical about the effectiveness of the latest US sanctions. They doubt Washington will engage in a decisive military confrontation with the group and are skeptical the Houthis would launch a significant attack that would pose a real threat to US or international forces in the Red Sea. Washington recently announced sanctions against 13 individuals and entities. It accused them of providing tens of millions of dollars from the sale and shipment of Iranian goods to support the Houthis, with assistance from Iran's al-Quds Force.
- Intervention serves Houthis
Yemeni journalist Abdullah al-Sunami believes that France's involvement in the military action against the Houthis in the Red Sea could inadvertently benefit the group.
Sunami explained to Asharq Al-Awsat that defensive military actions in the Red Sea would further inflame the situation because any military operation in the international shipping lane affects it. He noted that Houthis will then benefit from the situation and claim the West supports Israel. According to the journalist, the gradual and successive Houthi escalation, including the announcement of targeting any ships to and from Israel, will usher the conflict in the region into a new phase, which is expected based on the geopolitical conflict history over Yemen's geography. The complexities of global events, such as the conflict in Ukraine, the situation in China, the US debt issue, and the conflict in Palestine, all hinder any effective action against the Houthis, said Sunami. He believes the situation may remain as it is, which will not have a significant impact, as long as Bab al-Mandab is relatively far from the Houthis. He does not rule out the possibility of a military conflict over Bab al-Mandab, a Houthi strategic target. The conflict in Yemen is approaching the "important" stage of controlling the shipping lane in the Red Sea. Sunami believes that peace efforts will be significantly affected by the events. However, given the intertwining of interests and goals, it is a false cover for what each party wants.
- International threat
Yemeni political analyst and journalist Ramah al-Jabri believes that the French presence in the Red Sea confirmed that the international community is sensing the danger of the Houthi group. Jabri remarked that throughout the years of conflict in Yemen, particularly under the stewardship of UN Envoy Martin Griffiths and, subsequently, the Biden administration, the Houthis were afforded numerous incentives that fueled their ambitions for governance in Yemen. He told Asharq Al-Awsat that it began with acknowledging them as a political entity and a de facto authority, along with the revocation of their classification as a terrorist organization. The group enjoyed international leniency despite perpetrating ongoing war crimes and acts against humanity, he noted, adding that the clemency persists even as the group hinders global peace initiatives. Jabri remarked that the international community will pay the price for its misguided policy in dealing with the Houthi group, and Yemenis will pay an additional price as the Yemeni coasts and territorial waters may become a battlefield for global conflict. Jabri believes that if the Houthi threat becomes strong enough to endanger the interests of major countries, the international community will be forced to engage in a military operation in Yemen. They could aim to liberate Hodeidah and the west coast up to the port of Midi in Hajjah to protect maritime navigation and international trade. According to Jabri's assessment, the scenario may not align with the current regional reluctance to return to war.Yemeni parties may currently reach an agreement and a prolonged truce, which would primarily benefit the Houthis, said Jabri.
- Deterrent Measures
Yemen's Undersecretary Minister of Information Fayyad al-Numan emphasized the need for deterrent measures against what he calls "Houthi terrorism," threatening Yemen, the region, and the world. Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, Numan called for adopting a system of deterrent measures by influential countries in the region. Actions should not be limited to sanctions against Houthi figures and their supporters, he said, adding that the group should be stopped according to international law, preventing threats to national security and maritime navigation in the Red Sea. Numan also called on concerned countries to counter the Houthi threat and boost international and regional cooperation to protect vital maritime routes from terrorist acts. The Yemeni official noted that the Yemeni crisis is a significant card in the regional portfolio, and the Houthi practices have a substantial impact on efforts to revive the UN-sponsored peace process. While Houthis may have ignited the Yemeni war, Numan asserted that they could not be a party in achieving a comprehensive peace.

Russia Targets Kyiv with Ballistic Missiles. Ukraine Says It Intercepted All of Them
Asharq Al Awsat/December 11/2023
Russia fired eight ballistic missiles at Kyiv early Monday, all of which were shot down, Ukraine’s Air Force said. The thwarted attack still left one person injured by shrapnel and three more suffered severe stress reactions, officials said. A series of loud explosions rang out in Ukraine's capital just after 4 a.m., as the city was under its nightly curfew, followed by air raid sirens. Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said that in Darnytskyi district of eastern Kyiv the debris of an intercepted missile fell without catching fire, and elsewhere in the capital the explosive wave damaged the windows of a house.
Kyiv is routinely targeted by Russian drone and missile attacks. Just over two weeks ago, Kyiv came under what Ukrainian officials said was the most intense drone attack since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 75 Iranian-made Shahed drones against the capital, of which 74 were destroyed by air defenses. Monday’s attack on the capital happened as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was in Argentina, where he attended the swearing-in of the country’s new president, Javier Milei. It was the Ukrainian leader’s first official trip to Latin America as Kyiv continues to court support among developing nations for its 21-month-old fight against Russia’s invading forces. Zelenskyy met with Milei as well as with the presidents of Uruguay, Paraguay and Ecuador. During the inauguration ceremony, Zelenskyy could be seen exchanging words with Hungarian leader Viktor Orban, widely considered one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest allies in Europe and one of the few European leaders who hasn’t sided with Ukraine in the war. In his nightly video address, Zelenskyy said he had a “highly straightforward conversation” with Orban, “focused on our European affairs.”
He said he also spoke by phone with French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen “about joint work at the EU level and about the joint defense of Europe.” EU leaders are meeting later this week in Brussels. Orban has demanded that EU membership talks with Ukraine and billions of euros in funding meant for Kyiv be taken off the agenda. Zelenskyy was due to travel to Washington for meetings Tuesday with President Joe Biden and other US officials. “Volodymyr Zelenskyy will focus on ensuring unity among the United States, Europe and the world in supporting Ukraine’s defense against Russian terror and strengthening the international order based on rules and respect for the sovereignty of each nation,” his office said in a statement. Biden has asked Congress for a $110 billion ($61.4 billion) package of wartime funding for Ukraine and Israel, along with other national security priorities. But the request is caught up in a debate over US immigration policy and border security. Elsewhere in Ukraine on Monday, Russia fired 18 drones overnight, and the Air Force intercepted all of them, mostly over the southern Mykolaiv region.

Iraq scrambles to contain fighting between US troops and Iran-backed groups
Associated Press/December 11/2023
Dozens of attacks on U.S. military facilities by Iran-backed factions in Iraq over the past two months have forced the government in Baghdad to perform a balancing act that is becoming more difficult by the day. A rocket attack on the sprawling U.S. Embassy in Baghdad on Friday marked a further escalation as Iraqi officials scramble to contain the ripple effects of the Israel-Hamas war. Iran holds considerable sway in Iraq and a coalition of Iran-backed groups brought Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani to power in October 2022. But at the same time, there are some 2,000 U.S. forces stationed in Iraq under an agreement with Baghdad, mainly to counter the extremist Islamic State group. Baghdad also relies heavily on Washington's sanctions waivers to buy electricity from Iran, and since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, Iraq's foreign currency reserves have been housed at the U.S. Federal Reserve, giving the Americans significant control over Iraq's supply of dollars. Al-Sudani's predecessors also had to walk a delicate line between Tehran and Washington, but the Israel-Hamas war has considerably upped the stakes. Since the onset of the war on Oct. 7, at least 84 attacks on U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria have been claimed by an umbrella group of Iran-backed Iraqi militants dubbed the Islamic Resistance in Iraq. The militants say their attacks are in retaliation for Washington's backing of Israel and its military presence in Iraq and Syria. Al-Sudani has condemned the attacks and U.S. counter-strikes as a violation of his country's sovereignty. He also ordered authorities to pursue militants involved in the attacks, most of which did not cause injuries or major damage. His office declined further comment. Washington has sent messages that its patience is wearing thin. After the embassy attack, the Pentagon said that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin "made clear (to al-Sudani) that attacks against U.S. forces must stop."U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told al-Sudani that Washington expects Iraqi officials to take more action to prevent such attacks, and believes they have the capability to do so, a U.S. official told The Associated Press.During a recent trip to the region, CIA Director William Burns warned al-Sudani of "harsh consequences" if Iraq does not act to stop the attacks, an Iraqi official said. The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with briefing regulations.
In a call with the Iraqi premier earlier this month, Blinken said that the Americans would take matters into their own hands, arguing that Baghdad had not done enough to pursue the perpetrators, according to two Iraqi officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly. Two days later, a U.S. strike on a drone launch site near the Iraqi city of Kirkuk killed five militants. The U.S. and much of the international community have scrambled to prevent the war in the besieged Gaza Strip from expanding across the region.
Analyst Renad Mansour said he believes Iran is making sure the attacks remain below a threshold that would provoke a major U.S. response.
"Both Iran and Iraq have maintained thus far a clear line that, at the moment, Iraq cannot turn into a playground that could destabilize the Sudani government," said Mansour, a senior research fellow at the Chatham House think tank.
He said that's partially due to Iraq's role of passing messages between Washington and Tehran. Sometimes the messenger is al-Sudani. In early November, Blinken met with al-Sudani in Baghdad a day before the Iraqi prime minister was set to visit Tehran. Al-Sudani had won a specific promise from the militias that no attacks would be launched during Blinken's visit, according to an Iraqi official and a member of the Kataib Hezbollah militia. Following the visit, al-Sudani carried a message from Blinken to Iran to restrain the militias.
Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly. A week after the Iraqi premier's diplomatic efforts, the United States extended Iraq's sanctions waiver by four months to purchase Iranian electricity. Iran-hawks in Washington criticized the move, saying it would shore up revenue for Tehran while its proxies are at war with Israel. Mansour says the U.S. has used the sanctions waiver as "one of its cards" in economy-centered efforts to pressure Iran and Iraq.
Unlike Lebanon's Hezbollah group, seen as Iran's most powerful proxy in the region, Iraq's militias have so far only played a limited role in the conflict. For now, only small number of militiamen from Iraq are in southern Lebanon, near Israel's northern border, said the official from the Kataib Hezbollah group. He said the Iraqis are working on "battle management" alongside Hezbollah and representatives of Hamas, the militant group that has ruled Gaza for 16 years and is currently battling Israel. He said the Iran-backed groups in Iraq do not want the conflict to spread across the region, but are prepared to respond with force to any attacks. Should Iran and allies choose to escalate, al-Sudani's government will likely be unable to rein them in or prevent consequences on Iraqi soil, said Iyad al-Anbar, a political science professor at Baghdad University. "And this is why all al-Sudani has been able to do is try to bring some calm through statements," said al-Anbar.

Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 11-12/2023
Why Have Coptic Churches Suddenly Become ‘Fire Hazards’?
Raymond Ibrahim/Coptic Solidarity/December 11/2023
Another Coptic Christian church recently “caught fire”—this time, not in Egypt, but Australia. On Nov. 4, 2023, around 7:30 am, a fire broke out in the rear of the Church of the Virgin Mary and Martyr Marina, located in Penrith, just west of Sydney, Australia. According to the report, “it is possible that a lit candle near one of the pictures caused the fire to ignite.” Although no one was hurt, the inferno caused “massive damage to the church and its contents.” The “irony” here is that, of late, there have been so many instances of churches—and sometimes even of Christians—“accidentally catching fire” in the Middle East in general, Egypt in particular. To the casual observer, surely it must seem that Mideast Christians—especially the Copts—are walking fire hazards, significantly more prone to carelessly causing fires than the average human.
Either that or something else is afoot. Interestingly, whereas Muslim uprisings and the torching of Coptic churches in Egypt—which was common a few years ago—has waned, Coptic churches randomly “catching fire” has increased in recent years. During just one month last year, 11 of them “accidentally” burned.
And in every instance, Egyptian authorities immediately concluded, without any time passing for a real investigation, that the fires were products of faulty wires, leaky gas bottles, and, just as in this most recent example from Australia—lit candles.
Thus, on Sunday, Feb. 19, 2023, a fire broke out in and “devoured” a Coptic church in the Giza Governorate of Egypt. Authorities blamed it on a small candle atop a votary stand. However, images from the church’s surveillance cameras clearly showed that “the candle ignited suddenly and in an unusual way.”
There is, for the time being, no indication that the recent fire in Australia was caused by arson. Could it, however, be possible that some of these fires are part of a new strategy for church-haters—to deviously start fires that are made to appear accidental and not arsonist, including by slipping in “trick candles” near votaries, which are open to the public? Either that, or one must conclude that Coptic Christians have, for some inexplicable reason, become so much more prone to causing fires inside their churches than all other peoples combined—even though, in reality, they are especially careful with their churches, precisely because they are so few and widely suppressed in Egypt. Incidentally, if the recent torching of the Church of the Virgin Mary and Martyr Marina in Australia was arsonist, it would hardly be the first time a Coptic church is targeted for burning in the West.

On Current War and Containing Massive Disaster's Repercussions!
Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al-Awsat/December 11/2023
The brutal Israeli assault which Gaza has been - and continues to be - subjected to, goes beyond our wildest imagination, and on many occasions it has exposed the inadequacy of words for articulating reality. On the other hand, however, it is not understandable for engagement with this calamity to be limited to this understandable pain and anger. Using rational analysis to perceive what has happened and is happening is also necessary. While Israel may be the instrument implementing the actions that have led us to our current state, it is not the only factor that should be considered in developing a full picture. In the same sense, to limit ourselves to polemics against Israel, without addressing other parallel fronts, is to preach to the faithful, especially when the polemics are written in Arabic and for Arab readers whose reservoir of hatred for Israel does not need an additional insult or two.
Pain does not justify ignoring its many causes. Rather, it is a reason to refer back to those causes time and again and to contemplate them. The urgency of responding to this need in the Palestinian context is amplified by what is now a long history of aggravating pain.
There is no escaping the need to consider the root of the matter that many want to shroud in silence: the structural weakness of the Palestinian cause’s negotiating position, which Israel has been extensively and ruthlessly exploiting. The result of Palestinians fighting Israel from within, given the immense military and technological superiority of the Jewish state, is a foregone conclusion. As for fighting from outside, as the Palestinians did between the late 1960s and the early 1980s, it leaves them face to face with states, communities, inclinations, and interests that have largely taken form and stabilized. Talk of “unity in battle,” “unified fronts,” and the “Arabness of the cause” will probably yield no more fruit today than it had during the civil wars in Jordan and Lebanon. Most recently, we saw how Hamas merely announcing the formation of what it called “The Vanguard of Al-Aqsa's Flood” in Lebanon caused an uproar and forced Hamas itself to walk back on its announcement.
No one understood these two lessons better than the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, at least from the 1980s onwards. Arafat’s grasp of the situation led him to opt for the only option through which the Palestinian question could circumvent its structural weakness: he chose the route of politics, exploiting its contradictions, and playing the Arab and international political cards that are available. The First Intifada of 1987, which was peaceful, reinforced this choice, as it led to the Madrid Conference of 1991 and the Oslo Accords two years later.
However, the Syrian and Iranian regimes’ efforts to shut the door of politics to Arafat might be the most overlooked aspect of this conflict’s history, and it must be referred to and emphasized time and again. They did so on many occasions, thwarting the Palestinian-Jordanian agreement of the mid-1980s and drowning it in blood, after having prohibited Arafat from joining the Egyptian-Israeli Camp David Accords, and then actively seeking to undermine the Oslo process and the junctures that followed it.
These political attempts can be criticized, several flaws can be identified, and it would be very fair to call them unsatisfactory or compartmental. However, they alone could pave the way for a settlement with the potential to evolve and improve, besides being the only pathway to saving the Palestinians from two violent paths that lead to a dead end: confronting Israel with violence from within and confronting it with violence from without. After all, do we need to add that the worst political “capitulation” remains incomparably better than what Gaza is currently facing?
Today, if repudiating Israel’s claims by stressing that the conflict did not begin on October 7th is valid, it is equally valid to assert that closing political horizons and the accompanying stagnation and frustration explain much of the events that led to October 7th and the rabid retaliatory Israeli strikes that followed.
Arafat realized that the path of politics was obstructed by Hafez al-Assad’s seizure of Palestinians’ “independent national decision.” However, in the end, victory only belonged to those who had closed the path of politics and made it impossible for the Palestinians to have their “independent national decision.” Through the diligent efforts of radical Islamic forces and the deranged sentiments with deep roots in our political culture of those who believe that we are two steps away from “liberating Palestine,” the cause has become religiously charged in a way that makes a political resolution impossible. Politics, by definition, cannot solve problems of religion and theology. Thus, only the need to understand can generate the caution required to avoid other catastrophic projects. However, it also creates a bulwark against the fantasies proliferating around us, which only aggravates the disastrousness of war by undermining our comprehension of it.

The Sufferings of the ‘Next Day’
Ghassan Charbel/Asharq Al-Awsat/December 11/2023
The “next day” is an expression that has been haunting us for weeks. While it is still general and ambiguous, its features will most likely consist of a number of elements. Those will be determined by the questions raised by the Al-Aqsa Flood operation launched by Hamas on October 7th; by the results of the Iron Swords that Israel unleashed in response to the unprecedented attack in the history of confrontations between Israel and the Palestinian organizations; and by the conclusions that the major powers have drawn from this war, which is taking place on the verge of a widespread regional collapse.
The expression is ambiguous because the war is still open; because expanding the killing for additional weeks may change its current features or consolidate them. The Arab ministers have so far refused to talk about the “next day”, considering that the priority must be an immediate cessation of the war. This does not negate the fact that the phrase is raised in official meetings and repeated in diplomatic corridors. The “next day” is coming, no matter how late.
Washington is trying to chart the features of that day. It intervened to prevent the Gaza war from turning into a regional war. It provided Israel with unlimited military support. It also offered it political and diplomatic backing, reaching a provocative position by thwarting a draft ceasefire resolution in the Security Council despite the massacre of civilians and children. Washington is moving to revive the two-state solution and exclude Hamas from the scene of the “next day.”Positions and remarks showed that no one has a detailed and clear vision of the stage that will follow the cessation of the war in Gaza. There are those who believe that the phrase clearly means another Gaza, in which Hamas is neither armed nor in leadership position. But the expression becomes more ambiguous when talking about alternatives.
Will Israel return to occupying the Gaza Strip and installing a civil administration there? It is an option that the major powers oppose and consider a kind of return to experimenting with what has been tried. In addition, the position of President Mahmoud Abbas is clear and categorical: the Palestinian Authority will neither intervene on board Israeli tanks, nor will it assume any role in a scenario that separates the fate of Gaza from that of the West Bank, without a practical mechanism for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
The Palestinian Authority is unwilling to play an incomplete and dangerous role, and is also incapable of it. Moreover, it is clear that there is no room for an Arab role on the land of Gaza the “next day”, unless in the context of the establishment of an independent state. As for resorting to an international force to administer Gaza, Israel will reject it in light of its experience in South Lebanon.
Among the informed diplomats are those who believe that the “next day” will begin with disappointments and bitterness. Israel’s success in destroying Gaza will not exempt it from the painful hour of obligations. Successive Israeli governments conducted a series of wars to assassinate the project of an independent Palestinian state before it was born. It contributed to the marginalization of the Authority and the launching of settlements to devour Palestinian land.
Israel acted on the basis that the Palestinian state was like a massive explosive device that would be planted in its side. Today, it is evident that Washington, which supports Israel in shaping the features of the next phase, requires opening the political horizon by supporting the option of an independent Palestinian state. This option necessitates an Israeli partner, who does not resemble Netanyahu and his government. This means that the “next day” will inevitably see a change in Israel that goes beyond names and parties to strategic choices. But can new Israeli elections produce a government capable of drinking the poison of an independent Palestinian state away from the greed of confiscating lands in what Israel calls “Judea and Samaria”? The rifts that “the next day” will raise in Israeli street will also be acutely felt in Palestinian society, especially in Gaza. In 2017, Hamas agreed to the principle of establishing an independent Palestinian state on the lands of 1967, but refrained from recognizing the other state.
Anyone who observes international positions will easily conclude that the establishment of a Palestinian state will certainly be conditional on its recognition of the State of Israel and its abandonment of anything that could constitute a threat to the Hebrew state, that is, weapons or some of their types.
Can Hamas, in light of its nature and ideologies, accept a state with these conditions? Did the group unleash the Al-Aqsa Flood in order to later disappear from the scene? What about its solid nucleus? What about its allies?
Some people believe that Hamas will find itself facing painful choices the next day. One diplomat reminded me of what happened in 2009 after one of Israel’s rounds of destruction in Gaza. The late Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak held an international conference in Sharm El-Sheikh to rebuild what was destroyed. Billions of dollars were promised at the conference. The diplomat said that the billions did not arrive because Hamas stipulated that it maintain its presence at the Gaza crossings and supervise the reconstruction process. He added: “The reconstruction of Gaza will be impossible the next day if Hamas remains the dominant force in the Strip.”
The next day will raise big questions. Can Israel be a normal state with final borders away from old claims? Can it live near an independent Palestinian state? Political blindness prompted Israeli governments to assassinate two opportunities for a settlement. The first is the Oslo Accords, and the second, the Arab Peace Initiative. This political blindness has encircled Israel with an explosive belt that is beginning to explode here and there. “The next day” will pose difficult questions for the Palestinians themselves. One day, the late great poet Mahmoud Darwish was recalling his sorrows in Paris. I asked him about Oslo, and he replied that the settlement “is like descending from the tree of dreams into the coldness of reality and the balance of power.” “It also means less dreams and less land.” He added: “We offered the other to accept him and share the country, but he insists on expelling us from it.”
How difficult it is to compromise when it comes to dreams and land! For this reason, the “next day” journey will not be easy, but rather burdened with pain and tears. That day will reveal the horror of the massacre committed on the land of Gaza. The expression remains ambiguous, and the war is still open.

Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/December 11, 2023
A war is ongoing in the Occupied Territories. But this war is far from Gaza — and it started long before Oct. 7. In acts of flagrant terrorism, extremist settlers have waged increasingly aggressive assaults against rural West Bank populations, beating-up Palestinian farmers, terrorizing families, burning villages and crops, stealing livestock and murdering those who fall in their path. They seek to conquer the entire West Bank, compelling agricultural communities to abandon their ancestral farmlands.
The settler movement’s state-sponsored war of encroachment, displacement and ethnic cleansing goes back decades, despite its illegality under international law. However, under Benjamin Netanyahu’s premiership and Donald Trump’s presidency, all pretense of efforts to curtail wholescale settlement expansion evaporated. By late 2022, Netanyahu had a Cabinet composed of a cohort of extreme-right stablemates with pedigrees of championing the forced displacement of Palestinians to neighboring countries and the seizure of the land in its entirety. As Simcha Rotman, a Religious Zionist party lawmaker, told the BBC: “You cannot occupy your own land. Israel is not an occupier in Israel because that’s the land of Israel.”
With fascist provocateur Itamar Ben-Gvir as national security minister responsible for West Bank policing, extremist settlers were unleashed to embark upon all-out war against Palestinian neighbors. This included large-scale invasions of Palestinian towns by paramilitary “hilltop youth.” In February, hundreds of settlers stormed Huwara and villages near Nablus, torching dozens of homes and vehicles and attacking residents.
In October, Shin Bet director Ronen Bar warned Netanyahu’s war Cabinet that settler attacks could trigger an explosion in West Bank violence, in parallel with the Gaza bloodshed. Yet government measures have thrown further gasoline on the fire. Official policy envisages doubling settler numbers, including large budget increases for house, road and infrastructure construction.
Settlers were drafted into the security forces as reservists under the recent emergency call-up, unsurprisingly abusing the power accruing from government-issued uniforms and automatic weapons. Palestinians report that nighttime attacks on their homes frequently include armed thugs in reservist uniforms.
After Netanyahu’s Oct. 7 security failures, Israeli gun ownership is predicted to exponentially increase, with Ben-Gvir lobbying for the relaxation of firearms licensing laws. The US State Department has voiced concern that an Israeli request for 24,000 assault rifles could pass directly into settlers’ hands. If automatic weapons enter circulation among settlers, the mass murder may be just getting started. It also bodes ill within Israel’s highly polarized society if the radical camp arms itself to the teeth.
There has been a dangerously rapid security deterioration in the West Bank, with a large increase in settler attacks since Oct. 7 — at least 308 recorded incidents in two months. Since Oct. 7, more than 266 West Bank Palestinians have been killed and 3,365 injured by Israeli forces and settlers, with a further 7,800 detained, along with the bulldozing and destruction of infrastructure and property.
Settler violence goes unpunished, as security personnel facilitate the attacks. In one October incident near Hebron, a settler shot an unarmed Palestinian at point-blank range while soldiers idly observed. According to the Israeli Yesh Din nongovernmental organization, of nearly 1,600 settler violence investigations since 2005, 93 percent were closed without legal action being taken.
In their inexorable efforts to monopolize the West Bank, this latest settler war seeks control of the entirety of Area C, the rural areas under Israeli security control. By carving out extensive belts of territory, they aim to displace Palestinians into ever smaller bubbles of land, rendering the vision of a contiguous Palestinian state an impossibility.
Settlers have seized about 10 percent of Area C in five years — including 110 sq. km in just the past year — an astonishing rate, given that all formal Israeli settlement zones seized since 1967 encompass 80 sq. km. According to UN statistics, 43 percent of all settler-related evictions since January 2022 have occurred since Oct. 7. In lightly populated agricultural areas, the loss of about 2,000 people represents the depopulation of entire villages.
Khirbet Zanuta is just one village abandoned after settlers threatened to murder those who stayed. One former resident testified that “settlers attacked us, destroying our homes, water tanks, solar panels, and cars … I made the hardest decision in my life: to leave Zanuta and leave everything behind, as memories. I did this to protect my children.”
Legal measures have furthermore been taken against moderate Israelis who advocate coexistence, often labeled as “traitors” and “seditionists.” There have been comparable witch hunts in the US, with the presidents of Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania hauled before Congress and accused of being apologists for Hamas “terrorism” and “genocide” — compelling Pennsylvania’s president to resign.
The West has a long history of paying lip service to settlers’ peace-defeating exterminatory agendas. In a rare symbolic move, the US last week announced the imposition of travel bans on settlers implicated in attacks. Former State Department official Aaron David Miller categorized the measure as “necessary but not sufficient,” while James Zogby from the Arab American Institute dismissed the move as “cosmetic and not indicative of a serious effort to stem settler violence.”
The common threads running through the violence in Gaza and the West Bank are systematic humiliation and state terrorism.
Belgium’s prime minister last week commendably announced that “extremist settlers in the West Bank will be banned from entering Belgium.” He added that “violence against civilians will have consequences … We will push the European Union to follow suit.” The EU has indeed been discussing such measures, with foreign relations chief Josep Borrell remarking that he was “shocked” at Israel’s latest allocation of funds to build “new illegal settlements.”
The common threads running through the violence in Gaza and the West Bank are systematic humiliation and state terrorism. While West Bank farmers are terrorized and their livelihoods destroyed, Gaza citizens are bombed, displaced and orphaned. Citizens who refused to abandon their homes were last week paraded half-naked in humiliating footage, reminiscent of US atrocities at Abu Ghraib prison.
Hamas’ Oct. 7 killing of civilians was indeed an act of terrorism. Yet the killing, displacement and brutalization of West Bank citizens is equally a state-sponsored, systematic act of terror, explicitly committed toward the goal of a Palestinian genocide.
With the Biden administration expediting the sale of $106.5 million of tank ammunition and related equipment to Israel, the US and its allies must be compelled to recognize that, through billions of dollars of aid, weapons and political support, they are complicit in decades of enabling terrorism, occupation, apartheid, ethnic cleansing and flagrant violations of international law. Then, perhaps, initial steps can be taken toward justice, accountability and restitution for these historic crimes.
*Baria Alamuddin is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster in the Middle East and the UK. She is editor of the Media Services Syndicate and has interviewed numerous heads of state.

Iran again faces disastrous consequences of financial corruption
Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami/Arab News/December 11, 2023
A new $2 billion graft case has surfaced in Iran related to tea imports. The current Iranian government introduces itself as the one that exposed this case — rather than being the cause of it — perhaps hinting that the former reformist government is the one to blame. Indeed, the tea imports graft case is just one in a long list of corrupt financial transactions worth billions of dollars to have been conducted over the decades of the Islamic Republic’s tenure.
For example, there were graft cases reported during the reign of the former hard-line, populist President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad involving commissions worth billions of dollars that went to businessman Babak Zanjani. This is in addition to the Padideh Shandiz real estate corruption case and the growing Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps involvement in customs and trade duty evasion, to the point that Ahmadinejad described them as “smuggler brothers” amid their control over sensitive ports and airports in the country.
And then there was the astronomical salaries case reported during the reign of Hassan Rouhani, among many other cases. All these cases have negatively impacted the private business environment and investments in Iran, thus leading the country to incur massive economic losses.
As regards the recent tea imports graft case, the Debsh Tea company imports tea from abroad, hence involving itself in the $2 billion fraud. The company was involved in currency misuse, receiving foreign currency from the government at prices lower than the black market. Instead of allocating these subsidized dollars for the import of Indian tea — scarce on the local market — the company sold a big portion of them on the black market, thereby reaping huge benefits, while importing low-quality Kenyan tea with the rest of the money.
The company has reportedly been involved in these transactions since 2018. The total currency the company obtained between 2019 and 2022 was $2.37 billion. In addition to monopolizing this important product — which is one of the most popular items, along with coffee, that is responsible for boosting the mood of the Iranian people — the company has obtained nearly 80 percent of the subsidized currency allocated for tea imports in Iran. According to Iranian newspaper reports, the company’s allocations over the past two years are equivalent to those allocated to the imports of medicine and baby formula. This has raised questions about the identity of the backers and beneficiaries.
Officials close to the government of former President Rouhani have raised questions as to why 80 percent of imported tea subsidies have been allocated to this company in particular, preferring it over dozens of others working in the same field. Pedram Soltani, a former member of the Iranian Chamber of Commerce, told Radio Farda: “Such a huge sum of money cannot be allocated without widespread coordination and collaboration, special permits, approval from high-ranking officials, a large complicit network for facilitating the sale of the currencies on the free market.” These remarks are indicative of the fact that the case is bigger than merely importing tea from abroad.
Corruption has had massive costs for the economy and for the living conditions of the Iranian people
It is clear that financial corruption has had massive costs for the economy and for the living conditions of the Iranian people over the past few decades. These costs include the flight of foreign investment, local investment and capital, a lack of free competition, an inclination to liquidate productive assets and a preference for swift profits and speculation over investment and production. Over recent years, there has been a surge in capital flight from the Iranian market, with investments being redirected to neighboring states and the real estate sector in Turkiye.
It is no surprise that foreign direct investment in Iran fell to $1.5 billion in 2022 compared to $5 billion in 2017, according to the UN Conference on Trade and Development. Even the 2017 figure — which came after the signing of the 2015 nuclear deal — was remarkably low, accounting for only 0.5 percent of the overall foreign investment flows between countries. It is also worth noting that a single sector such as oil needs investments of $2 billion, let alone the other sectors damaged due to the sanctions imposed on Iran since 2018, such as the automobile, civil aviation and agriculture sectors.
Financial corruption deprives the state treasury and development allocations in Iran of massive funds, whether in customs, taxes or subsidy allocations. This is in addition to concentrating wealth in the hands of a small clique of people who are privileged and close to the circles of power. The majority of the people, meanwhile, are compelled to pay bribes to have their very basic interests and needs met.
Mehdi Nasiri, the former editor-in-chief of Kayhan newspaper, pointed the finger of blame at “supreme entities” in relation to the recent tea imports corruption case. On his Telegram channel, he said: “The recent massive corruption case related to the tea imports wouldn’t have occurred without the huge intervention, pressure and influence, be it direct or indirect, by the intelligence and judicial institutions — either appointed by or affiliated with the supreme leadership, which possesses all the powers in this institution.”
What makes this perception likely is the report released by Transparency International earlier this year. In it, Iran occupied a low ranking on the Corruption Perceptions Index, placing 147th out of 180, just ahead of Afghanistan but lower than Uganda. Two decades ago, the country’s ranking was much better, with it occupying 78th place.
It is worth noting that moving ahead with the majority of investments and major projects hinges on the IRGC and its massive economic conglomerates, which operate in sectors such as oil, gas, petrochemicals, automobiles, contracting, foreign trade and mining. This places a genuine impediment on the development of the private sector in Iran and the free operation of foreign investors in case sanctions are lifted in the future.
• Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami is the founder and president of the International Institute for Iranian Studies (Rasanah). X: @mohalsulami