Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on November 11-12/2023
Rising Violations by Hezbollah Against Journalists and Free Media in Lebanon/Elias Bejjani/November 10, 2023
Sayyed Nasrallah: Battlefield Has the Final Say, Our Drones Reach Israeli Depth Daily
Nasrallah says 'pressure' on Israel to continue from Lebanon front
Israel drone strikes deep into Lebanese territory: official media
Israeli airstrikes after 5 troops injured in Hezbollah drone and missile attacks
Israeli drone bombs vehicle 45 kms deep inside Lebanon
Hezbollah attacks Israeli posts near border amid Israeli airstrikes and shelling
UN official says Israel-Hamas war has caused significant damage in Lebanon
UNIFIL spokesperson to LBCI: Daily shelling raises wider conflict concerns, working to de-escalate tensions
Naval Patrol Thwarts Illegal Migration Attempt, Rescues 18 Syrian Nationals off Tripoli Coast
Lebanon's traffic authority to accept first-time driving license applications from November 15
Hezbollah targets Israeli Ramim Barracks with missile weapons
Franjieh receives "Hamas" representative in Lebanon, stresses on immediate cease of Israeli aggression against Gaza
Lebanese delegation, led by PM Mikati, participates in joint Islamic-Arab summit
Mikati: What southern Lebanon is witnessing is a result of Israel’s worsening attacks on national sovereignty, its continued violation of UN...

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 11-12/2023
Thousands gather In Canada for Remembrance Day ceremonies across the country
Text Of The Arab-Islamic summit Statement and resolution on Israeli-Gaza War
Saudi Crown Prince: We reject the brutal war in Gaza
Assad: If we do not have real tools for pressure, then any step we take or speech we give has no meaning
Kuwaiti Crown Prince: Israel’s crimes in Gaza portend negative repercussions on the security & stability of the region and the world
Iranian President: We want a historic and decisive decision regarding what is happening in the Palestinian territories
Emir of Qatar: The international community failed to take action to stop the massacres in Gaza
Abbas: Israel has begun an unparalleled war of extermination against the Palestinian people
Erdogan from the Riyadh Summit: Israel is the 'spoiled child' of the West
Abdullah II: The two-state solution is the only way to end the suffering of the Palestinian people
Iranian President meets with Saudi Crown Prince in Riyadh
Joint Arab-Islamic Summit Calls for Ceasefire in Gaza and International Peace Conference
Arab, Muslim leaders slam Israel at Saudi-hosted summit on Gaza
Syrian and Egyptian Presidents Discuss Gaza and Unity on the Sidelines of the Arab-Islamic Summit
Saudi Crown Prince and Iranian President Meet for the First Time Since Rapprochement
Children, patients dying as fuel runs out and Israel bombs Gaza's main hospital
Macron calls on Israel to stop bombing Gaza civilians
As fighting rages, Israel says ready to evacuate babies from Gaza's main hospital
UAE plans to maintain ties with Israel despite Gaza outcry, sources say
The IDF says its 401st Brigade 'eliminated' 150 Hamas militants in northern Gaza battle
Netanyahu says Israel opposes Palestinian Authority in Gaza after war
Pro-Palestinian protesters snarl Manhattan traffic and limit Grand Central access as they call for ceasefire Friday
Hamas chief ‘back from dead’ to lead attack
Israel is looking to World War II in its Gaza fight, and it risks taking lessons from the wrong war
Hospitals have special protection under the rules of war. Why are they in the crosshairs in Gaza?
Israel's war on Hamas homes in on Gaza hospitals
British PM condemns ‘wholly unacceptable’ violence of far-right and ‘Hamas sympathisers’
West Bank Palestinians face increasing restrictions and settler violence as Gaza war escalates
FBI Seizes Phones and Electronic Devices of New York Mayor in Campaign Finance Probe
Iran asks Muslim countries to designate Israeli army as terrorist organization

Titles For The Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 11-12/2023
It Is Time Biden Publicly Acknowledged This Is Iran's Mullahs' War Against Israel and the United States/Majid Rafizadeh/ Gatestone Institute./November 11, 2023
US is the big loser in Gaza/Maria Maalouf/Arab News/November 11, 2023
It is time to plan for the aftermath of war/Yossi Mekelberg/Arab News/November 11, 2023
AI regulation battle is only just beginning/Joseph Dana/Arab News/November 11, 2023
‘Double Dutch’ poll signals Europe’s changing political mood/Andrew Hammond/Arab News/November 11, 2023

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on November 11-12/2023
Rising Violations by Hezbollah Against Journalists and Free Media in Lebanon
Elias Bejjani/November 10, 2023
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/124119/124119/
From Diaspora, free and loving peace Lebanese expatriates closely follow with bitterness and deep pain the continued practices of repression, threats, fabrication of legal cases, defamation, incitement, and intimidation that targets journalists and free media in Lebanon, at the hands of the terrorist Hezbollah, its propagandists, Trumpets, cymbals, mouthpieces and Trojans. Lebanese free expatiates vehemently condemn and denounce such despicable acts that aim to restrain press freedom and human rights in occupied Lebanon.
Hezbollah, the Jihadist, terrorist, and Iranian proxy, occupies Lebanon, holds sway over its decision-making process, and enslaves the majority of its officials and politicians. In this subjugation realm it uses most media outlets as tools for disseminating misinformation and promoting hatred, a culture of violence, and the demonization of those who oppose and reject its Iranian nasty occupation.
Hezbollah's mouthpieces and Trojans work tirelessly to impose by force their fundamentalism, Jihadism concepts, violent culture and the Iranian Mullahs agenda on the majority of Lebanese media outlets. They spare no effort to distort and fabricate facts, assassinate, utter bold death threats, make false accusations, vilify and defame every free and sovereign Lebanese voice, terrifying journalists, activists, intellectuals, and even ordinary sovereign and free citizens, in an evil bid to subjugate, terrorize and tame them.
Recent examples of such intimidating practices includes prominent journalists and media figures like Layal Al-Ikhtiyar, Nadim Qteish, Dima Sadek, Rami Naaim, Charles Jabbour, and many others. These journalists have been threatened, insulted, subjected to arbitrary actions, vilified, intimidated, and morally assassinated because of their honest and professional coverage of events.
From the Diaspora countries, and on behalf of every expatriate Lebanese who shares our concepts of sovereignty, freedom, and Lebanese identity, we strongly condemn and denounce, all Hezbollah's and its mercenaries atrocities against media, journalists, activists, and citizens in Lebanon.
Meanwhile, what is actually worrisome, alarming, and fearful is that, most the Lebanese state institutions, especially the judiciary and security apparatus, have become tools of oppression and terrorism serving Hezbollah's agenda. They now represent a real threat to journalists, media professionals, sovereign activists, and free individuals. This misuse of the state manipulation, abuse and enslaving must stop immediately, allowing journalists and sovereign media to perform their professional duties freely and safely.
We call on the international communities, free Western nations, human rights organizations, the United Nations, and the Vatican, to act swiftly and effectively to protect press freedom and human rights in Lebanon, and to ensure accountability for those responsible for these serious violations.
A free and democratic society cannot tolerate such grave violations of basic human rights.

Sayyed Nasrallah: Battlefield Has the Final Say, Our Drones Reach Israeli Depth Daily
Marwa Haidar/Al-Manar English Website/November 11, 2023
Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah stressed on Saturday that in the Lebanese front, eyes should be on the battlefield, noting that the events taking place in the combat zone will dictate the course of the war against the Israeli enemy.
In a televised speech addressing a ceremony marking Hezbollah Martyr’s Day, Sayyed Nasrallah said that the front in Lebanon witnessed an escalation last week as the resistance used, for the first time, onslaught UAVs and Bukran missiles.
He revealed that the Lebanese resistance flies drones that reach Haifa and the Israeli depth daily. In this context, the Lebanese resistance leader noted that Hezbollah had warned the enemy via mediators that targeting civilians in Lebanon won’t be tolerated and will be harshly met. Sayyed Nasrallah lashed out the Israeli savagery in targeting civilians and hospitals in Gaza, emphasizing that such crimes represent the reality of the Israeli occupation. Meanwhile, his eminence lauded the “glorious and legendary” fight of the Palestinian resistance fighters who are defending their land against the Israeli invaders.
Sayyed Nasrallah also hailed the “magnificent resolution” of Gaza people who have been for weeks subjected to all forms of genocide. The Hezbollah S.G. vowed victory as he voiced hope that the current generations will witness the liberation of Al-Quds and will perform prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque.
About the Occasion
As in every address, Sayyed Nasrallah started his speech talking about the occasion. He recalled the heroic operation carried out by self-sacrifice martyr Ahmad Kassir at the headquarters of the Israeli military command in Tyre on Nov. 11, 1982.
“Martyr Ahmad Kassir’s blood defeated the sword of the US and the Zionist entity in our region. His operation is still the greatest and the most significant one in the resistance’s history,” his eminence said. “11/11 is the day of all those who have sacrificed their lives on the path of resistance since 1982 till today. We feel the sacrifices of our martyrs as we live in security and dignity.”“Our martyrs are those who shouldered their responsibilities towards the Ummah (nation) despite the high cost,” Sayyed Nasrallah stated, noting that this year’s Martyr Day coincides with significant events taking place in Palestine and Lebanon.
“Savage Aggression”
Sayyed Nasrallah lashed out at the Israeli occupation over the brutal aggression on Gaza, stressing that the “Zionist attacks expose the reality of this cruel enemy.”“The Israeli enemy is ramping up the brutal aggression on Gaza as the resistance fighters are heroically defending their land.”“The Israeli enemy flagrantly attacks Gaza hospitals and civilian targets before the eyes of the entire world.”He stated that one of the major aims behind the Israeli crimes is to subdue the people of the region, noting that “despite the Israeli atrocities throughout 75 years, the people of this region have been sticking to the choice of resistance.”In this context, Sayyed Nasrallah pointed to a shift in the international public opinion. “Time is running out for the Zionist entity as its savagery and cruelty are exposed in front of the international community.”
“Israeli Failure”
He stressed that the US is the side who runs the war and decides on the ceasefire in Gaza. “In the Zionist entity, there are only idiots who are just thinking about their personal political future.” Sayyed Nasrallah addressed the US by saying: “If you don’t want a regional war then stop the aggression in Gaza.” Meanwhile, he slammed the stance of the Arabs, wondering: “Can’t 57 states open the (Rafah) crossing in order to facilitate the delivery of aid and fuel to Gaza?” His eminence praised the resistance fighters in Gaza whom he said “despite horrible conditions are standing firm and defending their land.”
“The glorious and legendary battlefield in Gaza is the decisive factor in the course of the war.”Touching upon the Israeli performance, Sayyed Nasrallah described it as a failure.
“When Israel sends elite forces to Gaza then this is a failure. Israel failed to portray itself as the victorious power.”
“Axis of Resistance Backs Gaza”
The Lebanese resistance leader lauded the Yemeni and Iraqi resistance movements over their intervention against the Israeli enemy in support of Gaza. “Yemen’s leadership and people took a brave, bold, official and public stance and sent missiles and drones to Palestine. This had important effects, even if was right that the missiles and drones did not reach its targets as the Israelis claim.” “Attacks by the Iraqi resistance represent high courage in defiance of the US occupation forces stationed in the Arab country.”
Sayyed Nasrallah then revealed that the US pressed the resistance movements in the region in a bid to stop the attacks against its bases in Iraq and Syria. “The US has been futilely pressing the resistance in Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen via Western and Arab channels. The only way to halt the Iraqi and Syrian attacks is to stop the war on Gaza.”
His eminence hailed the unwavering Iranian support to the resistance movements across the region.
Lebanon Front
Sayyed Nasrallah said operations on the Lebanese front have been continuing since October 8 until today, and despite all preventive measures and the constant presence of armed Israeli drones. His eminence said that last week, the resistance in Lebanon ramped up operations against the Israeli enemy on both qualitative and quantitative levels
“Onslaught UAVs and Burkan missiles, which weighs 300 to 500 kgs, entered service last week,” Sayyed Nasrallah said. In this context, he revealed that Hezbollah has been flying drones over the occupied Palestinian territories. “Our reconnaissance drones fly daily over Safad, Acre, Haifa and sometimes to regions that are farther.”The resistance leader noted that the resistance in Lebanon retaliated instantly to the horrible crime that killed Lebanese women and her three granddaughters in Aynata last week.
“We’ve informed the Israeli enemy that we won’t be lenient regarding targeting civilians.”
His eminence, meanwhile, hailed the Lebanese political and popular stance in Lebanon which supports the resistance. Regarding the coming steps, Sayyed Nasrallah said he is “not the one who announce such moves.” “Our policy in the current battle is that the battlefield speaks louder than the words. In the Lebanese front eyes should be on the combat zone.”“We look forward to the victory of Palestine and to the Israeli defeat. The Victory is coming, our generations will witness the liberation of Al-Quds and will pray at Al-Aqsa,” Sayyed Nasrallah concluded his speech.

Nasrallah says 'pressure' on Israel to continue from Lebanon front
Naharnet/November 11, 2023
Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah noted Saturday that his group has escalated its attacks against Israel over the past week through introducing new weapons to the battle, noting that military “pressure” on Israeli will continue from Lebanon’s front as long as it is pressing on with its war on Gaza. “Over the past week, an escalation took place in terms of the number of operations and the type of the used weapons, seeing as for the first time we have used suicide drones and the Burkan rockets, which are rockets that weigh 300 to 500 kilograms each,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech marking Hezbollah’s Martyr Day. He also pointed out that Hezbollah used Katyusha rockets to respond to the killing of civilians in Ainata and the Israeli airstrike on Iqlim al-Tuffah. “Drones and Katyushas reached deeper regions inside the occupied territories and this was required by the nature of the battle,” Nasrallah said, quoting an Israeli report as saying that a single hospital in Israel’s Galilee had admitted more than 350 wounded soldiers and civilians since the beginning of confrontations. Nasrallah also revealed that Hezbollah has been sending “reconnaissance drones” into Israel on “daily basis.”“Some of them reached Haifa, Acre and Safed and sometimes they would go beyond the north (of Israel),” Nasrallah said. “Over the past days, we witnessed a new wave of Israeli threats against Lebanon due to the qualitative and quantitative escalation on this front. The general course on the south Lebanon front is continuing and it will remain a pressing front,” Nasrallah added. He also applauded Hezbollah’s “heroic jihadist fighters” and the popular “environment” that is “embracing” them in the border towns while bearing “the burden of displacement and material losses.”Nasrallah also hailed the political and popular stances in Lebanon that have been supportive of Gaza and Hezbollah in south Lebanon despite “a few rogue stances.”“Today the battle is different and it’s not me who declares the steps. Our policy in the current battle is that the battlefield is doing the actions and the word belongs to it. On Lebanon’s front, the eyes must remain on the battlefield and not on words,” he added. “We are in a battle of resilience, patience and accumulation of achievements and points,” Nasrallah went on to say. Time is not in favor of the enemy and all the factors, including the captives file, will pressure the enemy. We must continue the pressure and those bearing the most burden are the people of Gaza,” he concluded.

Israel drone strikes deep into Lebanese territory: official media
AFP/November 11, 2023
The frontier between the two countries has seen daily exchanges of fire
Beirut: An Israeli drone struck Saturday a vehicle deep in Lebanese territory, official media in Lebanon said, after weeks of skirmishes mainly limited to border areas since the Israel-Hamas war began. Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) said “an enemy drone targeted a pick-up truck” on a farmland in the Zahrani area on Lebanon’s coast, some 45 kilometers from the Israeli border, without reporting any casualties. The frontier between the two countries has seen daily exchanges of fire, mainly between Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement and Israel, since October 7 when attacks on Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas sparked war. Saturday’s was the deepest Israeli strike on Lebanese territory since the latest hostilities began. It also came hours before Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah was due to make a televised address at 3:00 p.m. (1300 GMT).
The Lebanese army prevented journalists from approaching the area, which is near the Zahrani power plant, one of Lebanon’s ailing energy facilities. The NNA reported Israeli attacks on areas near the border on Saturday, while an AFP correspondent in northern Israel reported apparent incoming rocket fire after air raid sirens sounded. Hezbollah said it carried out two cross-border attacks on Israeli troops on Saturday, claiming they caused casualties. The powerful Shiite Muslim movement said Friday that Israeli fire had killed seven of its fighters, without specifying where or when they died. It later released several statements claiming attacks on northern Israel near the border, including three drone assaults — one of them on an Israeli army barracks. Military spokesman Daniel Hagari said Israeli forces were “striking extensively in the north” in response to three drone “infiltrations.”At least 90 people have been killed on the Lebanese side in cross-border skirmishes since last month, according to an AFP tally, most of them Hezbollah combatants. Six soldiers and two civilians have been killed on the Israeli side.

Israeli airstrikes after 5 troops injured in Hezbollah drone and missile attacks
Naharnet /November 11, 2023
The Israeli army said it was carrying out airstrikes on “a series of Hezbollah targets” on Friday evening in response to Hezbollah attacks earlier in the day. “Three Israeli army soldiers were seriously wounded when an anti-tank missile was fired at a military post in the town of Manara,” Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a post on the X platform. “Another soldier was critically wounded and another was moderately injured when a hostile drone violated Israeli territory from Lebanon,” the spokesman added. Lebanese media reports said the Israeli airstrikes targeted the southern town of Majdal Zoun, which lies around 10 kilometers away from Israel’s border. The strikes also targeted al-Khraibeh and the outskirts of Aita al-Shaab, Kfar Hamam and Yater, amid artillery shelling on the outskirts of Aita al-Shaab and Yaroun. Hezbollah had earlier announced targeting two Israeli military posts with three attack drones. A Hezbollah statement said the attacks were “in support of our resilient Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and their valiant and honorable resistance.”A Hezbollah official and a Lebanese security source had earlier said that seven Hezbollah members were killed in an Israeli airstrike Friday morning in Syria’s Homs. Israel said that airstrike was carried out in retaliation to a drone strike on Israel’s Eilat. The Israeli army said the drone attack was carried out by an “organization” without mentioning its name. Hezbollah also attacked several Israeli military posts with anti-tank missiles on Friday.

Israeli drone bombs vehicle 45 kms deep inside Lebanon
Agence France Presse/November 11, 2023
An Israeli drone struck Saturday a pickup truck deep in Lebanese territory, official media in Lebanon said, after weeks of skirmishes mainly limited to border areas since the Israel-Hamas war began. Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA) said "an enemy drone targeted a pickup truck" on a farmland in the Zahrani area on Lebanon's coast, some 45 kilometers from the Israeli border, without reporting any casualties. Media reports said the pickup was targeted in a banana grove and that the driver escaped unharmed.
Israel's army meanwhile said that a drone had bombed a "launchpad" from which missiles were fired at an Israeli drone overnight, in possible reference to the Zahrani truck incident. A statement issued by banana farmers in the South meanwhile denied that the strike hit a military target, noting that the pickup was for transporting banana and decrying that the attack "will negatively affect agricultural activities in the area."
The frontier between Lebanon and Israel has seen daily exchanges of fire, mainly between Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel, since October 7 when attacks on Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas sparked war. Saturday's was the deepest Israeli strike on Lebanese territory since the latest hostilities began. It also came hours before Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was due to make a televised address at 3:00 pm (1300 GMT). The Lebanese Army prevented journalists from approaching the area, which is near the Zahrani power plant, one of Lebanon's ailing energy facilities.
The NNA reported Israeli attacks on areas near the border on Saturday, while an AFP correspondent in northern Israel reported apparent incoming rocket fire after air raid sirens sounded. Hezbollah said it carried out two cross-border attacks on Israeli troops on Saturday, claiming they caused casualties. At least 90 people have been killed on the Lebanese side in cross-border skirmishes since last month, according to an AFP tally, most of them Hezbollah combatants. Six soldiers and two civilians have been killed on the Israeli side.

Hezbollah attacks Israeli posts near border amid Israeli airstrikes and shelling
Naharnet/November 11, 2023
Hezbollah on Saturday said it attacked four Israeli military barracks and posts on and near Lebanon's border, shortly after Israel carried out a drone strike on a pickup truck 45 kilometers deep into Lebanon. In separate statements, Hezbollah identified the attacked posts as the Ramim barracks, the Hadb Yaroun area, the Hadb al-Bustan post and the al-Jirdah post. It also noted that the attack on Hadb Yaroun caused certain casualties after an Israeli armored infantry force was targeted. The correspondent of Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV meanwhile suggested that Hezbollah used a heavy-caliber rocket to target the Ramim barracks, citing the rocket’s sound and smoke, “which resembled those resulting from hostile warplane strikes.”“Its explosion activated alert sirens in Margaliot and even in Kiryat Shmona, whose defenders mistook its large shrapnel for drones!!” the reporter added. The Israeli army for its part said no drones had crossed into Israel but rather a rocket “that landed in an open area in the town of Margaliot,” adding that it was firing retaliatory artillery shelling at the sources of fire in Lebanon. Israeli warplanes meanwhile targeted the outskirts of the Lebanese border towns of Aita al-Shaab, Ramia and Marwahin, as Israeli artillery shelling pummeled the outskirts of Halta, al-Mari, Aitaroun, Maroun al-Ras, al-Labbouneh, Dhayra, Marwahin, Shanouh, Bastra and Kfarshouba.

UN official says Israel-Hamas war has caused significant damage in Lebanon
Associated Press/November 11, 2023
The United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Lebanon has said that the spillover of the Hamas-Israel war has already caused “significant damage” in Lebanon where Hezbollah and allied groups have been clashing with Israeli forces on the border for more than a month. Imran Riza said in a statement Friday that there have been “concerning signs of escalating tensions” along the border. Riza said there have been “alarming attacks killing and injuring civilians in South Lebanon, including women, children, and media personnel" and much damage to private property, public infrastructure and farmland which as forces more than 25,000 to be displaced. On Sunday, an Israeli airstrike hit a car driving between the towns of Ainata and Aitaroun and killed four civilians, including three children and their grandmother, and wounded the children’s mother. An Israeli military statement later said the car had been “identified as transporting terrorists” and that it was reviewing “allegations that there were civilians in the vehicle.”

UNIFIL spokesperson to LBCI: Daily shelling raises wider conflict concerns, working to de-escalate tensions
LBCI/November 11, 2023
The official spokesperson for UNIFIL, Andrea Tenenti, revealed to LBCI that the situation along the Blue Line stays tense, with daily exchanges of fire along the Blue Line and "sporadic intensification of shelling."Tenenti affirmed: "This remains our concern, as well as the potential for miscalculation that could potentially trigger a wider conflict."Adding: "Nevertheless, the vast majority of exchanges of fire have been localized along the Blue Line, and we continue to operate with all our peacekeepers on the ground as we have been doing since the beginning of the conflict."He affirmed that as UNIFIL Force Commander and Head of Mission Lieutenant General Lazaro said, "UNIFIL urges everyone to cease fire and stop any acts that may put civilians or UN personnel at risk – or bring this beautiful region into conflict."He confirmed that the Force Commander continues to stay fully engaged with the parties, working to de-escalate the situation, mainly through his direct dialogue, "to prevent dangerous misunderstandings that could increase the tensions."

Naval Patrol Thwarts Illegal Migration Attempt, Rescues 18 Syrian Nationals off Tripoli Coast
LBCI/November 11, 2023
A naval patrol of the army successfully thwarted a human trafficking operation off the coast of the northern town of Tripoli on 11/11/2023. They rescued 18 migrants, all of Syrian nationality, who were on board the boat attempting to cross the sea illegally.

Lebanon's traffic authority to accept first-time driving license applications from November 15
LBCI/November 11, 2023
The Traffic and Vehicles Management Authority announced that it will "start accepting applications from citizens wishing to obtain a driving license for the first time for private tourist cars (Category B) and motorbikes (Categories A1 and A) starting from Wednesday, November 15, 2023. A statement on Saturday said that this service will be available at the main center in Dekweneh and in other branches, namely, Tripoli, Zahle, Sidon, and Nabatieh. It emphasized that it will schedule the dates, locations, and procedures for the theoretical and practical exams, along with the required documents for the exam, on the authority's website: tmo.gov.lb.

Hezbollah targets Israeli Ramim Barracks with missile weapons
LBCI/November 11, 2023
Hezbollah said on Saturday: "We targeted the Israeli Ramim Barracks with missile weapons."Confirming that this resulted in "confirmed hits."

Franjieh receives "Hamas" representative in Lebanon, stresses on immediate cease of Israeli aggression against Gaza
NNA/November 11, 2023
Marada Movement Chief, Sleiman Franjieh, received today in his office in Bnachii, "Hamas" movement representative in Lebanon, Ahmed Abdel Hadi, in the presence of Marada political bureau official in Tripoli, Rafali Diab. According to a statement, the meeting included a review of "the latest military and humanitarian developments in the Gaza Strip, with emphasis on supporting the Palestinian resistance and the necessity of immediately stopping the Israeli aggression against occupied Palestine.”

Lebanese delegation, led by PM Mikati, participates in joint Islamic-Arab summit
LBCI/November 11, 2023
Lebanon's Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati arrived in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to participate in the extraordinary joint Islamic-Arab summit held Saturday in Riyadh. He was received at King Khalid International Airport by the Deputy Governor of Riyadh Region, Prince Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Abdulaziz, Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Walid Bukhari, and Lebanon's Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Fawzi Kabbara. The Lebanese delegation to the summit includes Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib, Agriculture Minister Abbas Al Haj Hassan, Lebanon's Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Fawzi Kabbara, and Lebanon's Ambassador to Egypt and the Arab League, Ali al-Halabi.

Mikati: What southern Lebanon is witnessing is a result of Israel’s worsening attacks on national sovereignty, its continued violation of UN...
NNA/November 11, 2023
In his delivered address at the extraordinary joint Arab-Islamic summit that opened this afternoon in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, Prime Minister Najib Mikati said that what is happening in the south of Lebanon is a result of Israel’s worsening attacks on national sovereignty and its continued violation of UN Resolution #1701. “Since the outbreak of the Gaza events, I have personally taken the initiative to launch public calls to preserve calm and restraint on the southern border, and I issued warnings against the expansion of the destructive war in Gaza to southern Lebanon and from there to the region,” he said. Mikati considered that today’s emergency summit in Saudi Arabia comes to affirm the centrality of the issue of Palestine, land and people, and the values it holds that everyone believes in. Referring to the tragic scenes of the bloodshed in the Gaza Strip, the premeditated slaughtering of childhood, the deadly Israeli attack on journalists and the three girls who were martyred with their grandmother due to Israeli treachery in southern Lebanon, and the continued systematic destruction, Mikati considered that all words of condemnation fail as time has proven that Israel has no weight for any words of denouncement nor is it deterred by international law or human conscience. “Therefore, at this moment that brings us together in the land of the Two Holy Mosques, we are called to solidarity and joint action to save Palestine and Gaza. We all reviewed the catastrophic situation, but we have to move to the decision box...We must work together to establish an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, open the crossings and bring aid to our brothers in Gaza, and launch a serious and effective political path that pushes towards a just, comprehensive and lasting solution to our central issue,” Mikati underscored.
He continued to stress that “in order to reach a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, the two-state solution remains the best path forward, and seeking to build a better future for all of us on the basis of the Arab Peace Initiative launched at the Beirut Summit in 2002.”
“Our choice in Lebanon has always been and still is peace, and our culture is a culture of peace based on truth and justice, international law, and international legitimacy resolutions,” Mikati underlined. However, he stressed that the Lebanese are a people who have not accepted, and will not accept, attacks on their sovereignty, national dignity, territorial integrity, and on their civilians, especially children and women. “Today we renew before you Lebanon’s commitment to international legitimacy - especially Resolution 1701 - and we stress the necessity of pressuring Israel to implement all of its provisions and oblige it to stop its provocations and aggression against our homeland,” the Prime Minister emphasized. Mikati said that Lebanon has always advocated the Palestinian cause and it has paid, and is still paying, the price of the Israeli aggression. “The apparent weakness of the structure of our state is only due to its falling on this seismic fault that caused it to be plunged into vacuum and void...But we are accustomed to your help, and I do not need to emphasize that all Lebanese, without exception, stand with Gaza and Palestine, and they hope that all Arabs will be their embrace and fortress to ward off collapse,” he concluded.

Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 11-12/2023
Thousands gather In Canada for Remembrance Day ceremonies across the country
The Canadian Press/November 11, 2023
Canadians gathered with heads bowed for sombre Remembrance Day ceremonies across the country on Saturday at a time when wars rage in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip and peace seems far off for many. Processions and wreath-layings in Atlantic Canada kicked off the country's events in the morning, with veterans, officials and politicians of all stripes gathering in cities including St. John's and Fredericton to honour those who served in the Armed Forces. In Ottawa, thousands flocked to the National War Memorial near Parliament Hill to pay tribute. Dignitaries including Gov.-Gen. Mary Simon, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Veterans Affairs Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor and defence chief Gen. Wayne Eyre joined soldiers and veterans, pipers and drummers. Retired Sgt. Aubrey St. Peter, 90, braved the November chill to take in the events with his adult granddaughter. He said Canadians should remember that losses are still mounting. "It's tremendous, the amount of people who've passed away, not only during the war but when they're retired and hanging around, like me," he said. In Fredericton, meanwhile, 92-year-old Rev. Bob Jones stopped by the city's Cenotaph to hear the names of fallen soldiers read aloud. Jones was a chaplain with the military for 20 years. The Second World War ended when he was 14, but his military career took him to Israel for six months. "When I was there it was relatively peaceful, although the thing was, you never knew what would happen," Jones said, adding that he regretted not visiting the Gaza War Cemetery while he was there. "If I had known what we know now, maybe I should have made a special effort to have gotten there."Remembrance Day in Canada began with news that doctors at Gaza's largest hospital said five patients died after the facility's last generator ran out of fuel.
More than 11,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's war in the Gaza Strip, including more than 4,500 children. An estimated 1,200 Israelis were killed in the Oct. 7 attacks by the militant group Hamas — which Canada classifies as a terrorist organization — that set off the current conflict. Meanwhile, Ukrainians are bracing for another winter of war as Russia's invasion continues. Gilles Thibeault served in the Canadian Armed Forces for 35 years and said he was honoured to attend the national ceremony in Ottawa, where he reflected both on the Canadians lost in past conflicts and the state of the world today.
"This is bad, this is really, really bad. All the destruction and all of the lives that are being lost for I don't know what reason," he said. In a Remembrance Day statement, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau encouraged Canadians to wear a poppy and take two minutes of silence to honour those who have fought, as well as troops who have taken part in peacekeeping missions and those who are training Ukrainian soldiers.
"Remembrance Day is an opportunity to recognize members of the Canadian Armed Forces who have courageously answered the call of duty. When it was needed most, they left behind their families and homes," Trudeau said. "Many returned with severe trauma — or didn’t return at all. Their sacrifice is a debt that we can never repay."The prime minister greeted veterans and people in the crowd along Ottawa's Wellington Street after the national ceremony ended. But mention of the ongoing wars in Ukraine and in Gaza were absent from the official program. Last year, in contrast, politicians and speakers all over the country asked Canadians to take note of the Ukraine war. "We need to remember that our security can be greatly impacted by events many places in the world," Eyre said in an interview ahead of this year's ceremony. "So with war in Europe, war in the Middle East, high tensions in Asia-Pacific, climate change — all stressors on our security environment — we have to be prepared."
The heavy rain that soaked Vancouver for much of Friday and overnight held off for the 99th annual Remembrance Day ceremony at Victory Square. "We have to remember what happened because history is slowly disappearing," said John Vink, who spent 34 years in the Canadian Air Force. Wes Bowers, who served in the Air Force for 20 years including during in the Gulf War, laid a wreath at the cenotaph. "Everyone should be thankful for all we have in this life, and this is one way of showing our thanks for those who served and those who died," he said. "Especially for the families. It left a legacy of trauma."
Back at the Fredericton cenotaph, where snowflakes speckled the grey skies, Michele Doran paid her respects. Her late father-in-law fought in the Korean War in the 1950s, and she brought her two-year-old grandson, Max, to the ceremony to teach him to honour veterans. "I think it's really important even for young children to be here," Doran said in an interview. "We wouldn't be here today without all these veterans." In Toronto, hundreds attended a ceremony outside Old City Hall, where Mayor Olivia Chow spoke to the crowd. For retired Cpl. Alan Roy, a third-generation Canadian military member, it was an emotional morning. "I don't know how I managed to be this lucky," Roy said. "Knowing how many of my family have served before me, it's an absolute incredible opportunity for me to be here." Roy served for just under 10 years, following in the footsteps of his father who served in the Second World War with the Royal Canadian Air Force. His grandfather served in both world wars. On Saturday he proudly wore a kilt representing Canada's tartan. "If you turn around and look at the leaves, I'm camouflaged today," he said, referring to the autumnal colours in his kilt. Melanie Stephens rode her vintage bike, fitted with two baskets, to Old City Hall. Now in her 70s, she doesn't attend every year anymore but felt she needed to be there on Saturday. Several of her relatives served in the First and Second World Wars, including an uncle who was a bomber. "He never spoke of the war, like so many," Stephens said. "They blocked it out. They went on with their lives or were damaged in some way, psychologically or emotionally- they suffered." Stephens said she wants people to also remember those who stayed home and took care of their families. "The wives, the mothers, the daughters who kept the home fires burning, who sacrificed themselves and worked two jobs … They pulled their weight and more. We don't talk about the women." Elsewhere, flocks of pigeons took flight from Montreal’s Place du Canada as the first cannon rang out during a 21-gun salute.
The event attracted hundreds of onlookers, the poppies on their coats forming a sea of red flowers around the downtown square.Quebec Premier François Legault, Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante and federal immigration minister Marc Miller were among those who placed wreaths at the base of the towering cenotaph at the centre of the square amid the solemn fanfare of trumpets, drums and bagpipes. Among those watching beneath the square’s brass-coloured tree canopy was Paul Hebert, a 56-year-old veteran who served for 33 years in the Armed Forces, first for the Canadian Grenadier Guards and then for the military police. He said he plans to attend Remembrance Day events every year for as long as he can."This is an annual event that should be done for forever in time where … we remember those who gave the ultimate sacrifice, those who served our country since 1867 to today," Hebert said. "This is why I’m here and I’ll be here every year for the rest of my time."

Text Of The Arab-Islamic summit Statement and resolution on Israeli-Gaza War
SPA/November 12, 2023
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/124213/124213/
RIYADH: The Joint Arab Islamic Extraordinary Summit, which concluded in Riyadh on Saturday, adopted the following resolution:
We, the leaders of the states and governments of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the League of Arab States, have decided to merge the two summits that the OIC and the Arab League had decided to hold. This came in response to the kind invitations of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (the chair of the two summits) and the State of Palestine. We express our joint stance in condemning the brutal Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank, including Al-Quds Al-Sharif. We affirm addressing together this aggression and the humanitarian catastrophe that it causes. We seek to stop and end all Israeli illegal practices that perpetuate the occupation and deprive the Palestinian people of their rights, especially their right to freedom and to have an independent sovereign State on all their national territory.
We express our thanks to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, King of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister, for their kind hospitality.
We reaffirm all resolutions of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Arab League regarding the Palestinian cause and all occupied Arab territories.
We recall all resolutions of the United Nations and other international organizations regarding the Palestinian cause, the crimes of the Israeli occupation and the right of the Palestinian people to freedom and independence in all its territories, which have been occupied since 1967 and constitute a sole geographical unit.
We welcome the UN General Assembly Resolution A/ES-10/L.25 adopted by the tenth emergency session on 26 October 2023.
We affirm the centrality of the Palestinian cause and our standing with all our powers and capabilities by the brotherly Palestinian people in their legitimate struggle to liberate all their occupied territories and to meet all their inalienable rights. This particularly includes their right to self-determination and to live in their independent and sovereign state on the borders of June 4th, 1967 with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.
We reaffirm that a just, lasting and comprehensive peace, which is a strategic option, is the only way to establish security and stability for all peoples of the region and protect them from cycles of violence and wars. This, we stress, will not be achieved without ending the Israeli occupation and resolving the Palestinian cause on the basis of the two-state solution.
We affirm that it is impossible to achieve regional peace while overlooking the Palestinian cause or attempting to ignore the rights of the Palestinian people. We stress that the Arab Peace Initiative, backed by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, is an essential reference to this end.
We hold Israel, the occupying force, responsible for the continuation and aggravation of the conflict, which is the result of its violation of the rights of the Palestinian people, and of the Islamic and Christian sanctities. This is also the result of its systematic aggressive policies and practices, its illegal unilateral steps that perpetuate the occupation, violate international law, and prevent the realization of a just and comprehensive peace.
We affirm that Israel, and all countries of the region, will not enjoy security and peace unless the Palestinians enjoy theirs and regain all their stolen rights. We stress that the continuation of the Israeli occupation is a threat to the security and stability of the region and to international security and peace.
We condemn all forms of hatred and discrimination, and all acts that perpetuate hatred and extremism.
We warn of the disastrous repercussions of the retaliatory aggression by Israel against the Gaza Strip, which amounts to a war crime, and the barbaric crimes committed also in the West Bank and Al-Quds Al-Sharif.
We warn of the real danger of the expansion of the war as a result of Israel’s refusal to stop its aggression and of the inability of the Security Council to enforce international law to end this aggression.
We decide to:
Condemn the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip and the war crimes as well as the barbaric, inhumane and brutal massacres being committed by the colonial occupation government against the strip and the Palestinian people in the occupied West Bank, including East Al-Quds. We demand ceasing this aggression immediately.
Reject describing this retaliatory war as self-defense or justifying it under any pretext.
Break the siege on Gaza and impose the immediate entry of Arab, Islamic and international humanitarian aid convoys, including food, medicine and fuel into the Gaza Strip. We call on international organizations to participate in this process, stressing the need for their entry to the strip and for protecting their teams to enable them to fully fulfill their role. We affirm the necessity of supporting the United Nations Relief and Works for Palestine Refugees Agency (UNRWA).
Support all steps taken by the Arab Republic of Egypt to confront the consequences of the brutal Israeli aggression on Gaza. We support its efforts to bring aid into the strip in an immediate, sustainable and adequate manner.
Call on the UN Security Council to take a decisive and binding decision that imposes a cessation of aggression and curbs the colonial occupation authority that violates international law, international humanitarian law, and international legitimacy resolutions, the latest of which is United Nations General Assembly Resolution No. A/ES-10/L.25 dated 26/10/2023. Inaction is considered a complicity that allows Israel to continue its brutal aggression that kills innocent people, children, the elderly, and women, and turns Gaza into ruin.
Call on all countries to stop exporting weapons and ammunition to the occupation authorities that are used by their army and terrorist settlers to kill the Palestinian people and destroy their homes, hospitals, schools, mosques, churches and all their capabilities.
Call on the Security Council to promptly pass a resolution condemning Israel’s barbaric destruction of hospitals in the Gaza Strip, the obstruction of medicine, food and fuel and the severing of crucial services like electricity, water, communication and internet access. These acts of collective punishment amount to war crimes under international law. We emphasize the need to impose this resolution on Israel, the occupying power, to ensure compliance with international laws and to immediately cease these barbaric and inhumane measures. We stress the necessity of lifting the blockade that Israel has imposed on the Gaza Strip for years.
Call on the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to complete the investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity being committed by Israel against the Palestinian people in all the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Al-Quds. We assign the General Secretariats of the OIC and the Arab League to follow up on the implementation of this investigation and establish two specialized legal monitoring units to document Israeli crimes committed in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023. The units will then prepare legal proceedings on all violations of international law and international humanitarian law committed by Israel, the occupying power, against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Al-Quds. Each unit shall submit its report 15 days after its formation to be presented to the Arab League Council at the level of foreign ministers and to the Council of Foreign Ministers of the OIC. Subsequently, monthly reports should be submitted thereafter.
Support legal and political initiatives for the State of Palestine to hold Israeli occupying authorities accountable for their crimes against the Palestinian people, including the advisory opinion process at the International Court of Justice, and allow the investigative committee established by the Human Rights Council resolution to investigate these crimes without obstruction.
Assign the two secretariats of to establish two media monitoring units to document all the crimes committed by the occupying authorities against the Palestinian people, alongside digital media platforms to publish and expose their illegitimate and inhumane practices.
Assign the Foreign Minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in its capacity as the presidency of the 32nd Arab and Islamic Summit, along with counterparts from Jordan, Egypt, Qatar, Türkiye, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Palestine, and any other interested countries, and the Secretary-General of both organisations to initiate immediate international action on behalf of all member states of the OIC and the Arab League to formulate an international move to halt the war in Gaza and to pressure for a real and serious political process to achieve permanent and comprehensive peace in accordance with established international references.
Call upon member states of the OIC and the Arab League to exert diplomatic, political, and legal pressures, and take any deterrent actions to halt the crimes committed by the colonial occupation authorities against humanity.
Condemn the double standards in applying international law; warn that this duality seriously undermines both the credibility of countries shielding Israel from international law and placing it above the law, as well as the credibility of multilateral action, exposing the selectivity in applying the system of humanitarian values; and emphasize that the positions of Arab and Islamic countries will be affected by such double standards that lead to a rift between civilizations and cultures.
Condemn the displacement of nearly one and a half million Palestinians from the northern to the southern areas of the Gaza Strip as a war crime under the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 and its 1977 Protocol; call on the parties to the Convention to collectively denounce and reject this action; call on all United Nations organizations to confront the attempt of the colonial occupation authorities to perpetuate this miserable inhuman reality; and stress the immediate necessity for the return of these displaced individuals to their homes and regions.
Fully and absolutely reject, along with collectively opposing, any attempts at individual or mass forced displacement, deportation, or exile of the Palestinian people whether within the Gaza Strip, the West Bank including Al-Quds (Jerusalem), or outside their territories to any destination, considering it a red line and a war crime.
Condemn the killing and targeting of civilians, as a principled stance based on our humanitarian values and in line with international law and humanitarian principles, and emphasize the immediate and swift steps the international community must take to cease the killing and targeting of Palestinian civilians, in a way that confirms the absolute equivalence of every single life, rejecting any discrimination based on nationality, race, or religion.
Emphasize the necessity of releasing all prisoners and civilians; condemn the heinous crimes committed by the colonial occupation authorities against thousands of Palestinian prisoners; and call on all concerned nations and international organizations to put pressure for the cessation of these crimes and the prosecution of those responsible.
Stop the occupation forces’ killing crimes and the settlers’ terrorism and crimes in the Palestinian villages, cities and refugee camps in the occupied West Bank and all assaults on the Al Aqsa Mosque and all Islamic and Christian sanctities.
Emphasize Israel's need to fulfil its obligations as the occupying power by ceasing all illegal actions that perpetuate the occupation, especially settlements' construction and expansion, land confiscation, and the forced displacement of Palestinians from their homes.
Condemn the military operations launched by occupying forces against Palestinian cities and camps; denounce settler terrorism; and urge the international community to list these groups and organizations on global terrorism lists, so that the Palestinian people can enjoy all the rights afforded to other nations, including human rights, the right to security, self-determination, the realization of their state's independence on their land, and the provision of international protection for them.
Condemn the Israeli assaults on Jerusalem’s Islamic and Christian holy sites and the Israeli illegitimate measures which violate freedom of worship; emphasize the importance of respecting the existing legal and historic status quo in the holy sites; emphasize that the Al Aqsa Mosque/ Al Haram Al Sharif, with its entire 144,000 square meters, is a place of worship solely for Muslims, with the Jordanian Awqaf and the Al-Aqsa Mosque Affairs Department being the exclusive sole legitimate authority responsible for managing, maintaining, and regulating access to Al Aqsa Mosque, within the framework of the historic Hashemite custodianship of Jerusalem’s Islamic and Christian holy sites; and support the roles of the Al-Quds Committee and its efforts in addressing the practices of the Israeli occupation authorities in the Holy City.
Condemn the extremist and racist hate speech and actions by ministers within the Israeli occupying government, including one minister’s threat to use nuclear weapons against the Palestinian people in Gaza, and considering them a serious threat to international peace and security, necessitating support for the conference aimed at establishing a nuclear-weapon-free zone and eliminating all other weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East, conducted within the framework of the United Nations and its goals to address this threat.
Condemn the killing of journalists, children, and women, the targeting of medics, and the use of internationally banned white phosphorus in the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip and Lebanon; denounce the repeated Israeli statements and threats to return Lebanon to the “Stone Age”; emphasize the importance of preventing the expansion of the conflict; and call on the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to investigate Israel’s use of chemical weapons.
Emphasize on that the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) is the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, and call on all Palestinian factions and parties to unite under its umbrella and shoulder their responsibilities under a PLO-led national partnership.
Emphasize commitment to peace as a strategic choice, aiming to end Israeli occupation and resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict in accordance with international law and relevant legitimate decisions, including UN Security Council Resolutions 242 (1967), 338 (1973), 497 (1981), 1515 (2003), and 2334 (2016); emphasizing adherence to the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002 in its entirety and priorities as the unified Arab consensus and the foundation for any peace revitalization efforts in the Middle East. The precondition for peace with Israel and the establishment of normal relations rests on ending its occupation of all Palestinian and Arab territories. It also includes establishing an independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state based on the June 4, 1967, borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, restoring the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including the right to self-determination, return, and compensation for Palestinian refugees, resolving their issue justly per UN General Assembly Resolution 194 of 1948.
Emphasize the immediate need for the international community to launch a serious peace process to establish a two-state solution that fulfils all legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, notably their right to realize an independent, sovereign state along the June 4, 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital to in security and peace alongside Israel, aligning with international legitimacy and the complete framework of the Arab Peace Initiative.
Emphasize that the failure to resolve the Palestinian cause over more than 75 years, the lack of response to the Israeli colonial occupation's crimes, its deliberate policies undermining the two-state solution through settlement building and expansion, alongside unconditional support to Israel and shielding it from accountability, as well as disregarding continual warnings about the dangers of ignoring these crimes and their serious implications on international security and peace, has led to a severe deterioration of the situation.
Reject any proposals that perpetuate the separation of Gaza from the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and emphasize that any future approach to Gaza must be within the framework of working towards a comprehensive solution ensuring the unity of Gaza and the West Bank as part of the Palestinian state, which must materialize as a free, independent, sovereign entity with its capital in East Jerusalem on the borders of June 4, 1967.
Call for convening an international peace conference, as soon as possible, through which a credible peace process will be launched based on international law, legitimate resolutions, and the principle of land for peace, within a defined timeframe and international guarantees, ultimately leading to the end of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories since 1967, including East Jerusalem, the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, the Shebaa Farms, the Kfar Shuba Hills, and the outskirts of the Lebanese village of al-Mari, and the implementation of a two-state solution.
Activate the Arab and Islamic Financial Safety Net in line with the decisions of the fourteenth session of the Islamic Summit Conference and the Arab Summit resolutions, to provide financial contributions and support — economic, financial, and humanitarian — to the government of the State of Palestine and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Emphasize the necessity of mobilizing international partners to reconstruct Gaza and alleviate the comprehensive destruction caused by the Israeli aggression immediately upon cessation.
Assign both the Secretary-General of the Arab League and the OIC to closely oversee the implementation of the resolution and present a report on it at the upcoming sessions of their respective councils.

Saudi Crown Prince: We reject the brutal war in Gaza
NNA/November 11, 2023
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman affirmed his country's categorical rejection of the "brutal war in Gaza," stressing the necessity of an immediate cessation of military operations, according to "Russia Today."
Bin Salman said during the opening of the extraordinary Arab-Islamic summit on Gaza in Riyadh: “Humanitarian corridors must be provided to provide relief to civilians and an immediate halt to military operations... We affirm our condemnation and categorical rejection of the barbaric war in Gaza.”He stressed the necessity of establishing a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, and the necessity of the Palestinian people obtaining their legitimate rights and establishing their independent state. He added that the continuation of the war in Gaza is a failure of the Security Council, and shows that there is double standards in applying international law, asserting that "Israel's flagrant violations of laws and customs must be put to an end."

Assad: If we do not have real tools for pressure, then any step we take or speech we give has no meaning
NNA/November 11, 2023
The official Syrian news agency, SANA, quoted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as saying, "The valiant Palestinian resistance imposed a new reality in our region, and with it we possessed the political tools that enable us to change the equations."
Al-Assad added during his speech at the emergency Arab-Islamic summit in Riyadh to discuss the situation in the Palestinian territories: “32 years of failed peace, the only result of which is that the entity has become more aggressive and the Palestinian situation has become more unjust, oppressive and miserable.”He continued: "Gaza was never an issue. Palestine is the issue, and Gaza is an embodiment of its essence and a blatant expression of the suffering of its people. If we do not have real tools for pressure, then any step we take or speech we give has no meaning."Al-Assad stressed that "more Arab meekness equals more Zionist ferocity and massacres against us, and the continuing criminality cannot be isolated from the way we, as Arab and Islamic countries, deal with recurring events in a partial manner regarding the Palestinian issue."

Kuwaiti Crown Prince: Israel’s crimes in Gaza portend negative repercussions on the security & stability of the region and the world
NNA/November 11, 2023
Kuwaiti Crown Prince Meshaal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah stressed at the Arab-Islamic emergency summit held in Riyadh today that “Israel’s crimes in Gaza portend negative repercussions on the security and stability of the region and the entire world,” according to "Russia Today" news agency. He considered that Israel practices collective punishment that cannot be justified in any way. "This tragedy is a result of the international community's failure to find a permanent solution to the Palestinian issue," he added. "We reject the forced displacement of the Palestinian people and welcome the call for a humanitarian truce in the Gaza Strip," the Kuwaiti Crown Prince went on, adding that "the first step to bringing peace to the region is to solve the Palestinian issue in a comprehensive and final manner.""The Palestinian issue tops Kuwait's foreign policy agenda. We demand a Palestinian state on the borders of June 4, 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital," he emphasized.

Iranian President: We want a historic and decisive decision regarding what is happening in the Palestinian territories
NNA/November 11, 2023
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi called for a historic and decisive decision regarding what is happening in the Palestinian territories, as reported by "Russia Today".In his delivered speech at the Arab-Islamic emergency summit in Riyadh devoted to discussing the situation in the Palestinian territories, Raisi considered that the Organization of Islamic Cooperation can perform a correct role that embodies the meanings of unity and harmony. "We gather today on behalf of the Islamic nation to help the Palestinian people. Today is a historic day for the defense of Al-Aqsa Mosque," he said, adding that "millions of demonstrations around the world confirm that defending Palestine is on the conscience of the people.""Gaza has become the largest prison in the world due to the siege it is subjected to," Raisi went on, stressing that Israel violates the rules of international rights with its total attack on Gaza. "Killing civilians and bombing hospitals are manifestations of Israeli crimes in Gaza," he underlined. "We have a responsibility before God for what is happening in Gaza. Everyone today must decide which side they stand on," Raisi said.

Emir of Qatar: The international community failed to take action to stop the massacres in Gaza
NNA/November 11, 2023
The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, said that the international community has failed to take action that would stop the massacres in Gaza and put an end to this aggressive war, according to "Russia Today" news agency.
In his delivered speech at the emergency Arab-Islamic summit in Riyadh on the situation in the Palestinian territories, the Qatari Emir said: “What is happening in Gaza poses a danger at all levels...How long will the international community continue to treat Israel as a state above international law?"He added, "Before the war, we noticed the increased immunity of some countries towards killing civilians and bombing hospitals and shelters. Who would have imagined that hospitals would be openly bombed in the twenty-first century? The international system failed itself before it failed us by allowing the bombing of hospitals, neighborhoods, and camps...""Our position is firm in supporting the steadfastness of the brotherly Palestinian people and their just cause. We demand that safe humanitarian crossings be opened permanently to deliver aid without obstacles or conditions...We hope to reach a humanitarian truce soon," Sheikh Tamim underlined. He pledged that his country shall continue to support all diplomatic efforts to reduce escalation, stop bloodshed, and protect civilians. "We condemn in the strongest terms the targeting of health facilities and justifying this with unproven allegations," he stressed, adding, "We call on the United Nations to send an international investigation team into the bombing of hospitals.""The only sustainable solution to this issue is the one that lays the foundations for peace in accordance with international resolutionsm," the Qatari Emir underlined, considered that Israel refuses to recognize the rights of the Palestinian people and only thinks about security arrangements.

Abbas: Israel has begun an unparalleled war of extermination against the Palestinian people
NNA/November 11, 2023
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that the Israeli enemy army waged an unparalleled war of extermination against the Palestinian people, stressing that it crossed all red lines, as repoted by “Russia Today.”He said that the occupation forces have killed and wounded more than 40,000 eople in Gaza, most of them children and women. "Our people in the West Bank are subjected to terrorist attacks at the hands of the occupation forces and terrorist settlers. The free people of the world will not accept double standards and our people remaining victims of genocidal war," he went on. "The occupation authorities and those who support them bear responsibility for the killing of every child and woman in this unjust war," Abbas asserted, adding that "the United States, with its full support for the occupation, bears responsibility for not reaching a political solution to the crisis.""We are facing a historic moment, and everyone must shoulder their responsibilities to establish peace. We will not accept military and security solutions after they have all failed. We categorically reject any efforts to displace our people from Gaza or the West Bank," the Palestinian President underscored.
"The Gaza Strip is an integral part of the State of Palestine and the political solution must be comprehensive. We call on the Security Council to approve the State of Palestine’s full membership. We want international protection and the adoption of a solution that is implemented in accordance with international legitimacy and the Arab initiative," he maintained. "We demand that the refugee issue be resolved with international guarantees and a timetable for implementation. We call for mobilizing international support to enable the institutions of the State of Palestine to carry out their duties, including the reconstruction of Gaza," Abbas went on, adding, "We are ready for general legislative and presidential elections that include the entire Palestinian nation, including Jerusalem."

Erdogan from the Riyadh Summit: Israel is the 'spoiled child' of the West
NNA/November 11, 2023
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Western countries did not even demand a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, stressing that “whoever remains silent about injustice is a full partner in it,” according to “Russia Today.”This came in Erdogan’s speech during his participation in the emergency Arab-Islamic summit in Riyadh this afternoon, in the presence of leaders of Arab and Islamic countries that focused on the situation in the Palestinian territories. "It is not possible to talk about normalization in the region without resolving the Palestinian issue. The solution must be the establishment of an independent State of Palestine on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital. It is possible that Turkey will play the role of guarantor state," Erdogan stated. "The nuclear weapons possessed by Israel must be exposed, and the International Atomic Energy Agency must follow up on this matter, as it must not go unnoticed," the turkish President went on, considered that "Israel is the West's spoiled child."He added that Gaza, deprived of humanitarian aid, resembles hell. "Israel's crimes must be examined by the Human Rights Council and the International Criminal Court. We must play an important role in protecting Al-Quds Al-Sharif, because Israel wants to fully implement what it wants there. We say that Jerusalem is a red line for us,” Erdogan asserted.

Abdullah II: The two-state solution is the only way to end the suffering of the Palestinian people
NNA/November 11, 2023
Jordanian King Abdullah II said that the two-state solution is the only way to end the suffering of the Palestinian people and resolve the decades-long crisis, according to "Russia Today" news agency. In his delivered speech during the emergency Arab-Islamic summit in Riyadh which kicked off this afternoon, the Jordanian King said: "It is not possible to remain silent about the catastrophic conditions facing the Gaza Strip that are suffocating life and preventing access to treatment. Rather, humanitarian aid must remain sustainable and safe, and it is not acceptable to prevent food, medicine, water and electricity for the people of Gaza, this behavior is a war crime that must be condemned by the world.” He stressed that Jordan will continue to carry out its duty in sending humanitarian aid to the Palestinian brothers by all possible means.
"The United Nations General Assembly's resolution on Gaza was a victory for human values, a bias towards the right to life and peace, and a global consensus to reject war. It is a decision that came from a joint Arab effort.," he went on.
The Jordanian Monarch underlined "the necessity of taking this decision as a first step in which Arab countries work in partnership with the international community to build a political alliance to stop the war and displacement immediately, and to begin a serious peace process in the Middle East and not allow it to be hindered under any circumstances. Otherwise, the alternative is extremism, hatred, and more tragedies."

Iranian President meets with Saudi Crown Prince in Riyadh
NNA/November 11, 2023
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on the sidelines of the extraordinary Arab Islamic Summit in Riyadh, according to "Russia Today" news agency. The Arab-Islamic Summit on Gaza began this Saturday afternoon in Riyadh, after the Saudi Foreign Ministry announced late Friday evening, the merging of the extraordinary Islamic and Arab summits so that they would be held as one summit, today.

Joint Arab-Islamic Summit Calls for Ceasefire in Gaza and International Peace Conference
LBCI/November 11, 2023
The concluding statement of the joint Arab-Islamic summit, held in Riyadh, emphasized the need for the cessation of the war in Gaza. The statement highlighted the imperative to break the siege on Gaza and facilitate the entry of humanitarian and medical aid.
It called on the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to continue investigating war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Israel against the Palestinian people in all occupied Palestinian territories. Furthermore, the concluding statement called for an international peace conference to be convened as soon as possible. The conference aims to initiate a credible peace process based on international law, legitimate international resolutions, and the land-for-peace principle.

Arab, Muslim leaders slam Israel at Saudi-hosted summit on Gaza
Agence France Presse/November 11, 2023
Arab leaders and Iran's president meeting in the Saudi capital Saturday roundly condemned Israel's actions in its war against Hamas in Gaza, as fears mount the conflict could draw in other countries. The emergency joint meeting of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) comes after Israel's aerial and ground offensive killed more than 11,000 people in Gaza, mostly civilians and children. The war started after Hamas militants stormed south Israel on October 7, attacks that Israeli officials say left about 1,200 people dead, mostly civilians, and 239 taken hostage.
Host Saudi Arabia "confirms that it holds the occupation (Israeli) authorities responsible for the crimes committed against the Palestinian people," Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Gulf kingdom's de facto ruler, said as Saturday's summit began. "We are certain that the only way to guarantee security, peace and stability in the region is to end the occupation, siege and the settlements," he said of Israel's actions in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, on his first trip to Saudi Arabia since the two countries mended ties in March, said Islamic countries should designate the Israeli army a "terrorist organization" for its conduct in Gaza. Israel says it is out to destroy Hamas and blames the Palestinian armed group for the high death toll, accusing it of using civilians as "human shields" -- a charge Hamas denies.
Regional divisions
The Arab League and the OIC, a 57-member bloc that includes Iran, were originally meant to meet separately. Arab diplomats told AFP the decision to merge the meetings came after Arab League delegations failed to reach an agreement on a final statement. Some countries, including Algeria and Lebanon, proposed responding to the devastation in Gaza by threatening to disrupt oil supplies to Israel and its allies as well as severing the economic and diplomatic ties that some Arab League nations have with Israel, the diplomats said. However, at least three countries -- including the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which normalized ties with Israel in 2020 -- rejected the proposal, according to the diplomats who spoke on condition on anonymity. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said a lack of concrete punitive measures against Israel would render the summit toothless. "If we do not have real tools for pressure, then any step we take or speech we give will have no meaning," said Assad, who was welcomed back into the Arab fold this year after an extended rift over his country's civil war. He said no Middle Eastern country should engage in any "political process" with Israel, including developing economic relations, until a lasting ceasefire is reached. Israel and its main backer the United States have so far rebuffed demands for a ceasefire, a position that drew heavy criticism on Saturday. "The U.S. has prevented the ceasefire in Gaza and is expanding the scope of the war," Raisi said before departing from Tehran. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the summit that "it is a shame that Western countries, which always talk about human rights and freedoms, remain silent in the face of the ongoing massacres in Palestine."Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Washington had "the greatest influence on Israel" and "bears responsibility for the absence of a political solution" to the conflict.
Iran president in Riyadh -
The roster of attendees on Saturday also included Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, who called for "deterrent steps to stop the ongoing war crime" in Gaza, without going into detail. Raisi is the first Iranian president to visit Saudi Arabia since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attended an OIC meeting in the kingdom in 2012. In addition to addressing the summit, he held a face-to-face meeting with Prince Mohammed, Saudi state media said on X, formerly Twitter. Iran backs Hamas as well as Lebanon's Hezbollah and Yemen's Huthi rebels, placing it at the center of concerns the war could expand. The conflict has already fuelled cross-border exchanges between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, and the Huthis have claimed responsibility for "ballistic missiles" the rebels said targeted southern Israel. Analysts say Saudi Arabia feels vulnerable to potential attacks because of its close ties with Washington and the fact that it was considering normalizing ties with Israel before the war broke out. Kim Ghattas, author of a book on the Iran-Saudi rivalry, said during a panel organized by the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington that "the Saudis are hoping that the fact they didn't normalize yet, and the fact that they have a channel to the Iranians, gives them some protection."

Syrian and Egyptian Presidents Discuss Gaza and Unity on the Sidelines of the Arab-Islamic Summit
LBCI/November 11, 2023
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi discussed the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories and the Israeli aggression on Gaza on the sidelines of the Arab-Islamic exceptional summit in Riyadh. They also discussed the situation in Syria. The two presidents emphasized joint efforts to support the people's resilience in Gaza, stressing that. Syria and Egypt stand against the Israeli policy of displacing the Palestinian people from Gaza, which the Israeli entity is working on. President Assad regarded the aggression on Gaza as a new Israeli attempt to settle the Palestinian Cause. For his part, President Sisi reiterated his country's rejection of attempts to displace the people in Gaza, reaffirming Egypt's support for Syria in its fight against terrorism and its commitment to the unity and sovereignty of Syria over its entire territory.

Saudi Crown Prince and Iranian President Meet for the First Time Since Rapprochement
AFP/November 11, 2023
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi met for the first time since the two countries reached a rapprochement agreement in March under Chinese mediation.This marks the first visit by an Iranian president to Saudi Arabia since former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attended an Organization of Islamic Cooperation summit in Jeddah in August 2012.It is the first meeting between an Iranian president and the Saudi royal family since that time.

Children, patients dying as fuel runs out and Israel bombs Gaza's main hospital
Associated Press/November 11, 2023
Israel's prime minister pushed back Saturday against calls from Western allies to do more to protect Palestinian civilians, as troops bombed and encircled Gaza's largest hospital where doctors said five patients died, including a premature baby, after the last generator ran out of fuel. Israel has portrayed Shifa Hospital as Hamas' main command post, saying militants were using civilians as human shields there and had set up elaborate bunkers underneath it -- claims Hamas and Shifa staff deny. In recent days, fighting near Shifa and other hospitals in the combat zone of northern Gaza has intensified and supplies have run out. "There is no electricity. Medical devices stopped. Patients, especially those in intensive care, started to die," said Mohammed Abu Selmia, the director of Shifa, speaking by phone over the sound of gunfire and explosions. Abu Selmia said Israeli troops were "shooting at anyone outside or inside the hospital," and prevented movement between the buildings in the compound. Asked about reports of troops firing into the Shifa courtyard, the Israeli military would only say that troops are engaged with fighting Hamas in the vicinity and take all feasible measures to prevent harm to civilians. It said soldiers have encountered hundreds of Hamas fighters in underground facilities, schools, mosques and clinics during fighting in Gaza. At Shifa, five patients died after the generator shut down, including a premature baby, said Medhat Abbas, a spokesman for the Health Ministry. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the responsibility for any harm to civilians lies with Hamas, repeating long-standing allegations that the militant group uses civilians in Gaza as human shields. He said that while Israel has urged civilians to leave combat zones, "Hamas is doing everything it can to prevent them from leaving." His statement came after French President Emmanuel Macron pushed for a cease-fire and urged other leaders to join his call, telling the BBC there was "no justification" for Israel's ongoing bombing. Following Hamas' deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel, in which at least 1,200 people were allegedly killed, Israel's allies have defended Israel's right to protect itself. But now into the second month of war, there are growing differences in how many feel Israel should conduct its fight. The U.S. has been pushing for temporary pauses that would allow for wider distribution of badly needed aid to civilians in the besieged territory where conditions are increasingly dire. However, Israel has so far only agreed to brief daily periods during which civilians are able to flee the area of ground combat in northern Gaza and head south on foot along the territory's main north-south artery.
Since these evacuation windows were first announced a week ago, more than 150,000 civilians have fled the north, according to U.N. monitors. On Saturday, the military announced a new evacuation window, saying civilians could use the central road and a coastal road. Tens of thousands more remain in northern Gaza, many sheltering at hospitals and overcrowded U.N. facilities. Palestinian civilians and rights advocates have pushed back against Israel's portrayal of the southern evacuation zones as "relatively safe," noting that Israeli bombardment has continued across Gaza, including airstrikes in the south that Israel says target Hamas leaders, but that have also killed women and children. The U.S. and Israel also have diverging views on what a post-war Gaza should look like. Netanyahu and military leaders have said this needs to be dictated solely by Israel's security needs, such as ensuring no threats emerge from the territory. Israel has said a key goal of the war is to crush Hamas, a militant group that has ruled Gaza for 16 years.U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking to reporters Friday during a tour of Asia, laid out what he said were fundamental principles for a post-war Gaza, some of which seemed to run counter to Israel's narrow approach.
Blinken said these principles include "no forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, no use of Gaza as a platform for launching terrorism or other attacks against Israel, no diminution in the territory of Gaza, and a commitment to Palestinian-led governance for Gaza and for the West Bank, and in a unified way." Saudi Arabia hosted Muslim and Arab leaders in Riyadh on Saturday with the aim of devising their own cohesive strategy on Gaza. Initially intended to be two separate gatherings, the country decided to merge them into one to expedite the process in response to the escalating violence, according to the Saudi Foreign Ministry. Concern has grown in recent days as fighting through the dense neighborhoods of Gaza City has come closer to hospitals, which Israel claims are being used by Hamas fighters. Thousands of civilians had been sheltering in the Shifa compound in recent weeks, but many fled Friday after several nearby strikes in which one person was killed and several were wounded. Abbas, the Health Ministry spokesman, told the satellite television channel Al Jazeera that there are still 1,500 patients at Shifa, along with 1,500 medical personnel and between 15,000 and 20,000 people seeking shelter. "The complex now lacks food, water and electricity," he said. "Intensive care units have stopped working."Thousands have fled Shifa and other hospitals that have come under attack, but physicians said it's impossible for everyone to get out. "We cannot evacuate ourselves and (leave) these people inside," a Doctors Without Borders surgeon at Shifa, Mohammed Obeid, was quoted as saying by the organization. "As a doctor, I swear to help the people who need help."The organization said other doctors reported that some staff had fled to save themselves and their families, and urged all hospitals be protected. More than 11,070 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and minors, have been killed since the war began, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza. About 2,700 people have been reported missing and are thought to be possibly trapped or dead under the rubble. The Hamas-run Interior Ministry said six people were killed early Saturday in a strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp that hit a house. The camp is located in the southern evacuation zone. At least 1,200 people have been allegedly killed in Israel, mainly in the initial Hamas attack, and 41 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the ground offensive began, Israeli officials say. Nearly 240 people abducted by Hamas from Israel remain captive. About 250,000 Israelis have been forced to evacuate from communities near Gaza and along the northern border with Lebanon, where Israeli forces and Hezbollah have traded fire repeatedly.

Macron calls on Israel to stop bombing Gaza civilians
Agence France Presse/November 11, 2023
French President Emmanuel Macron has called on Israel to stop bombing civilians in Gaza, saying there was "no justification" and the deaths were causing "resentment". In an interview with the BBC, Macron said Israel had the right to protect itself after the October 7 Hamas attacks, but he added: "These babies, these ladies, these old people are bombed and killed. "So there is no reason for that and no legitimacy. So we do urge Israel to stop."Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in response to Macron's comments that Hamas, not Israel, was to blame for the civilian deaths.
Netanyahu repeated that Israel was trying to avoid harming civilians but that Hamas was preventing them from moving to safe areas and using them as "human shields" -- a charge Hamas denies. Macron said France "clearly condemns" the unprecedented cross border attacks by the Palestinian militant groups that Israel says left 1,200 dead, mainly civilians, with 240 others taken hostage. The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says that more than 11,000 people, mainly civilians, have been killed in Israel's air and ground assault since. "We do share [Israel's] pain. And we do share their willingness to get rid of terrorism," Macron said in the interview on the fringes of an international peace forum in Paris. "We know what terrorism means in France." But he insisted there was "no justification" for the bombing of civilians. "It's extremely important for all of us because of our principles, because we are democracies. It's important for the mid-to-long run as well for the security of Israel itself, to recognize that all lives matter," he added. Macron said that all governments and aid agencies at a humanitarian aid conference in Paris on Thursday had agreed that a "humanitarian pause" followed by a "ceasefire" was the only way to protect Gaza's civilians. When asked whether Israel had breached international law, Macron replied: "I'm not a judge. I'm a head of state" who sought to be "a partner and a friend" to Israel. The French leader added that he disagreed that the best way for Israel to "protect [itself] is having a large bombing of Gaza".
This was creating "resentment and bad feelings" in the Middle East, he said. Macron is among western leaders who have visited Israel since the attacks to show solidarity.

As fighting rages, Israel says ready to evacuate babies from Gaza's main hospital
GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters)/November 11, 2023
Israel's military said it was ready to evacuate babies from Gaza's largest hospital on Sunday, where Palestinian officials said two newsborns died and dozens more were at risk after fuel ran out amid intense fighting in the area. As the humanitarian situation worsened, Gaza's border authority said the Rafah crossing into Egypt would reopen on Sunday for foreign passport holders after closing on Friday. Hamas said it had completely or partially destroyed more than 160 Israeli military targets in Gaza, including more than 25 vehicles in the past 48 hours. An Israeli military spokesperson said Hamas had lost control of northern Gaza. At a news conference late on Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the deaths of five more Israeli soldiers in Gaza. The Israeli military said 46 had been killed since its ground operations there began.
REPORTS OF POSSIBLE HOSTAGE DEAL
Israel's three major TV news channels, without citing named sources, said there was some progress toward a deal to free hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. Netanyahu said he would not discuss details of any possible deal, which according to N12 News would involve 50 to 100 women, children and elderly being released in stages during a three to five day pause in fighting. According to the reports, Israel would release women and minor Palestinian prisoners from its jails and consider letting fuel in to Gaza, while reserving the right to resume fighting after the deal. "When we have something concrete to say then we will update the families and bring it to the government," Netanyahu said. "Until then silence would be best." In Tel Aviv, thousands joined a rally to support families of the hostages. Gaza residents said Israeli troops, who went to war to eliminate Hamas after its bloody cross-border assault on Oct. 7, had been clashing with Hamas gunmen all night in and around Gaza City where the Al Shifa hospital, Gaza's largest, is located. Ashraf Al-Qidra, who represents the health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza, said the hospital suspended operations after fuel ran out. He said two babies had died in an incubator as a result. He said there were 45 babies in total. He said Israeli shelling killed a patient in intensive care and that Israeli snipers on rooftops fired into the medical complex from time to time, limiting people's ability to move. "We are besieged inside the Al Shifa Medical Complex, and the (Israeli) occupation has targeted most of the buildings inside," he told Reuters by phone. Colonel Moshe Tetro, head of coordination and liaison at COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body handling civil affairs in Gaza, said there had been clashes but added: "There is no shooting at the hospital and there is no siege."
ISRAEL SAYS IT WILL HELP EVACUATE BABIES
Israel's chief military spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said the Israeli military would help evacuate babies from the hospital. "The staff of the Shifa hospital has requested that tomorrow we help the babies in the pediatric department to get to a safer hospital. We will provide the assistance needed," he said. Israel has said doctors, patients and thousands of evacuees who have taken refuge at hospitals in northern Gaza must leave so it can tackle Hamas gunmen who it says have placed command centres under and around them. Hamas denies using hospitals this way. Medical staff say patients could die if they are moved and Palestinian officials say Israeli fire makes it dangerous for others to leave. Israeli Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter was asked by N12 about images of Gaza residents evacuating south and whether that was a goal of the war, or only temporary. He described the situation as being "Gaza's Nakba" - a reference to mass dispossessions of Palestinians after Israel was founded in 1948. "Operationally there's no way to conduct a war the way the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) wants to conduct it inside Gaza territories while the masses are between the tanks and soldiers," Dichter said. "I don't know how it will end."
'TOTALLY SCARY ATMOSPHERE'
Ahmed al-Mokhallalati, a senior plastic surgeon at Al Shifa, told Reuters there had been continuous bombardment for more than 24 hours. He said most hospital staff and people sheltering there had left, but 500 patients remained. "It's totally a war zone. It's a totally scary atmosphere here in the hospital," he said. The military wing of Hamas ally Islamic Jihad, the Al-Quds Brigades, said it was "engaged in violent clashes in the vicinity of Al Shifa Medical Complex, Al Nasr neighbourhood, and Al Shati camp in Gaza." Al Nasr is home to several major hospitals. Israel said earlier it had killed what it called a Hamas "terrorist" who it said had prevented the evacuation of another hospital in the north, which Palestinian officials have said is out of service and surrounded by tanks. It said Ahmed Siam was killed along with other militants while hiding in the Al Buraq school. Palestinian officials told Reuters on Friday at least 25 Palestinians had been killed in an Israeli strike at the school, which was packed with evacuees. Israel said rockets were still being fired from Gaza into southern Israel, where it has said about 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 taken hostage by Hamas last month. Palestinian officials said on Friday that 11,078 Gaza residents had been killed in air and artillery strikes since Oct. 7, around 40% of them children. Israel said it had increased the number of places in which it said it would stop firing for several hours at a time so Gazans could move south, and a military spokesperson said the last three days had seen the evacuation of at least 150,000 people.In London, at least 300,000 pro-Palestinian demonstratorsmarched and police arrested over 120 people as they sought to stop far-right counter-protesters ambushing the rally. Over 20,000 people joined a pro-Palestinian rally in Brussels.
Meeting in Saudi Arabia, Muslim and Arab countries called for an immediate end to military operations in Gaza, rejecting Israel's justification of self-defence.

UAE plans to maintain ties with Israel despite Gaza outcry, sources say
ABU DHABI (Reuters)/Alexander Cornwell/November 11, 2023
The United Arab Emirates plans to maintain diplomatic ties with Israel despite international outcry over the mounting toll of the war in Gaza and hopes to have some moderating influence over the Israeli campaign while safeguarding its own interests, according to four sources familiar with UAE government policy.
Abu Dhabi became the most prominent Arab nation to establish diplomatic ties with Israel in 30 years under the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords in 2020. That paved the way for other Arab states to forge their own ties with Israel by breaking a taboo on normalising relations without the creation of a Palestinian state. The mounting death toll from Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip – launched in retaliation for cross-border attacks on Oct. 7 by the Hamas militant group that governs the enclave – have stirred outrage in Arab capitals. UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan spoke last month with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. UAE officials have publicly condemned Israel's actions and repeatedly called for an end to the violence. In response to a request for comment for this story, an Emirati official said the UAE's immediate priority was to secure a ceasefire and to open up humanitarian corridors.
The Gulf Arab power, backed by its oil wealth, wields significant influence in regional affairs. It also serves as a security partner of the United States, hosting American forces. As well as speaking to Israel, the UAE has worked to moderate public positions taken by Arab states so that once the war ends there is the possibility of a return to a broad dialogue, said the four sources, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter. Sheikh Mohamed met in Abu Dhabi on Thursday with Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to discuss calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, amid Qatari-brokered talks for the release of a limited number of hostages in return for a break in the fighting. "The UAE and Qatar stand firm in urging the need to advance de-escalation efforts and secure a just, lasting, and comprehensive peace in the region," Sheikh Mohamed said on social media after their discussions.
Despite closer economic and security ties with Israel forged over the past three years, Abu Dhabi has had little apparent success in reining in the Gaza offensive, which has led to the death of more than 11,000 people, according to Palestinian officials. Hamas killed around 1,200 people in its surprise attack on Israel and some 240 hostages were taken, Israeli authorities have said. Amid the impasse, the UAE has grown increasingly frustrated with its most important security partner Washington, which it believes is not exerting enough pressure to end the war, the four sources said. Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, said this week that Washington needed to end the conflict swiftly and initiate a process to resolve the decades old Israeli-Palestinian issue by addressing refugees, borders and East Jerusalem. The UAE has publicly expressed concern that the war now risks igniting regional tensions and a new wave of extremism in the Middle East. Speaking on Oct. 18 at the UN Security Council, where the UAE holds a rotating seat, ambassador Lana Nusseibeh said that Abu Dhabi had sought via the Abraham Accords with Israel and the United States to deliver prosperity and security in a new Middle East through cooperation and peaceful co-existence. "The indiscriminate damage visited upon the people of Gaza in pursuit of Israel's security risks extinguishing that hope," she said. A senior European official told Reuters that Arab states had recognised now that it was not possible to build ties with Israel without addressing the Palestinian issue. Israel's foreign ministry declined to comment for this story.
NO BREAK IN TIES
The UAE continues to host an Israeli ambassador and there was no prospect of an end to diplomatic ties, which represented a longer-term strategic priority by Abu Dhabi, the sources said. The accord was motivated, in part, by shared concerns over the threat posed by Iran, as well as a broader economic-driven realignment of Abu Dhabi's foreign policy. The UAE sees Iran as a threat to regional security, although in recent years it has taken diplomatic steps to de-escalate tensions. Israel and the UAE have developed close economic and security ties in the three years since normalisation, including defence cooperation. Israel supplied the UAE with air defense systems after missile and drone attacks on Abu Dhabi in early 2022 by the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen. Bilateral trade has exceeded $6 billion since 2020, according to Israeli government data. Israeli tourists have thronged hotels, beaches and shopping centres in the UAE, which is an OPEC oil power and a regional business hub. "They (UAE) have gains that they don't want to lose," said one of the sources, a senior diplomat based in the Middle East. Even prior to the Oct. 7 attack, however, Abu Dhabi was concerned by the failure of Israel's right-wing government to curb expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and repeated visits by right-wing religious Israelis to the compound that houses the Al Aqsa mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam. The compound, revered by Jews as a vestige of their two ancient temples, has long been a flashpoint of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. None of four sources ruled out that the UAE could downgrade or sever its ties if the crisis escalated. Sources said that the displacement of the Palestinian population from the Gaza Strip or the West Bank into Egypt or Jordan was a red line for Abu Dhabi. James Dorsey, a senior fellow at the National University of Singapore, said the war in Gaza had discredited the notion that economic cooperation on its own could build a stable region. "The new Middle East was being built on very fragile ground," he told Reuters.
DISTANCED FROM HAMAS
Israel has rejected international calls for an immediate ceasefire: Netanyahu has said there would be no halt to its attack until hostages are returned. His government has pledged to destroy Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union. While criticising Israel's conduct of the war, Abu Dhabi has also condemned Hamas for its attack. The UAE sees the Palestinian militant group and other Islamists as a threat to the stability of the Middle East and beyond. "Hamas is not their favourite organisation," said one of the sources. "It is Muslim Brotherhood after all." The UAE has led the charge against Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, the oldest Islamist organisation in the Arab World. It helped Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi topple Mohammed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in a military takeover in 2013 that followed mass protests against his rule. The UAE provided Egypt with billions of dollars in support following Mursi's ouster. Abu Dhabi also abandoned Sudan's former Islamist president Omar Hassan al-Bashir in 2019, ultimately leading to the fall of the Muslim Brotherhood's grip on power there after it had dominated Sudanese politics for decades. The UAE had previously pumped billions of dollars into Sudan's coffers.

The IDF says its 401st Brigade 'eliminated' 150 Hamas militants in northern Gaza battle
Marta Biino/Insider/November 11, 2023
The IDF claimed that its forces killed 150 Hamas militants in northern Gaza.
It came as part of an offensive that targeted launching stations and an underground network. The IDF also said it had "gained control" of key Hamas posts in the region. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed that its 401st Brigade had "gained control" of key Hamas posts in northern Gaza and "eliminated" around 150 militants. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the IDF said that the brigade's targets had included "an arms production site, launching stations," and "an underground network."The IDF said in a press release that the 401st Brigade "also operated at the Blue Beach Hotel on the coastline in the northern Gaza Strip," from which around 30 Hamas militants had "fired several anti-tank missiles at IDF forces." It claimed that the militants "used the hotel rooms as shelter and for the benefit of planning attacks above and below ground." It added that its forces had taken control of 11 military posts belonging to Hamas since it began its ground offensive. Israel's naval forces also struck Hamas infrastructure targets in northern Gaza, including in the al-Shati refugee camp, the IDF said in an update. As the conflict continues to rage around Gaza, the city's largest hospital ran out of power, putting dozens of patients at risk. The Gazan health ministry said a newborn baby had died as a result of the power outage. Civilians are continuing to flee northern Gaza to avoid being caught in the carnage, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that "we will not have a ceasefire without the hostages back home."US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told BBC US that Israel would begin daily four-hour military pauses in parts of northern Gaza, adding that they would be "localized and specific for various purposes."

Netanyahu says Israel opposes Palestinian Authority in Gaza after war
Nick Robertson/The Hill/November 11, 2023
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday that Israel would not support a Palestinian Authority-led government in Gaza after it completes a war to eliminate Hamas in the territory, going against pressure from the U.S. The Biden administration has repeatedly emphasized that Israel must not “reoccupy” Gaza at the end of the conflict, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying this week that the Palestinian Authority — which operates the West Bank government — should take control. Netanyahu said Saturday that Israel will retain “overall security control” in Gaza “including the capacity to go in whenever we want to eliminate terrorists who may pop up again.” “I will tell you what there will not be. There will not be Hamas,” he said. “There will also not be a civil authority that educates its children to hate Israel, to kill Israelis, to eliminate the State of Israel. There cannot be an authority that pays the families of murderers [amounts] based on the number they murdered.” “There cannot be an authority whose leader still has not condemned the terrible massacre 30 days later,” he continued, referring to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. “That cannot be.”Netanyahu’s comments in recent days over an “indefinite” military control of Gaza post-war have raised concerns in Washington, as Americans fear a new occupation could destabilize the Middle East. Israel previously occupied Gaza from 1967 to 1996 and placed severe restrictions on the territory afterward through its borders, leading some academics to argue the occupation never ended. In a conversation with the Omani sultan on Friday, President Biden emphasized the importance of an independent Palestinian government and state, underscoring that outcome as an key part of the administration’s Middle East strategy. Netanyahu did not name a proposal for a new post-war government in Gaza, implying that Israeli control of the territory is a red line in U.S.-Israeli relations. “There needs to be something else there. But in any case, we must have security control,” he said. “I insist upon it. There may be pressure on this issue. I don’t intend to cave.” The Israeli military is in the midst of a ground invasion of northern Gaza amid its war with Hamas, and has surrounded Gaza City, the largest settlement. The war has killed an estimated 11,000 Palestinians, including over 4,000 children, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry.

Pro-Palestinian protesters snarl Manhattan traffic and limit Grand Central access as they call for ceasefire Friday
Aya Elamroussi and Rob Frehse, CNN
Sat, November 11, 2023 at 9:19 a.m. EST
Hundreds of pro-Palestinan protesters snarled Manhattan traffic and curtailed people’s access to Grand Central Terminal as they demonstrated in New York City on Friday night, in part demanding a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. Demonstrators, some waving Palestinian flags and holding signs with messages such as “Free Free Palestine” and “End the genocide,” gathered in Columbus Circle in the afternoon before marching to Manhattan’s east side, to the area around Times Square, and eventually to Grand Central. The demonstrations temporarily closed access to the terminal, one of the city’s largest transportation hubs, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Metro-North Railroad said online Friday night. Six people were arrested for disorderly conduct during mostly-peaceful demonstrations, according to a spokesperson for the New York Police Department. The spokesperson said the NYPD did not have information about whether those arrested were served with a summons and released. The NYPD estimates about 2,000 people attended the demonstrations. The Israel-Hamas war began last month after Hamas launched a series of attacks on Israeli communities and gatherings near Gaza on October 7 – attacks that Israel says it believes killed about 1,200 people. More than 11,000 Palestinians have died in subsequent Israeli attacks in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah, based on figures from Hamas-controlled Gaza. Amin Jaludi was one of the protesters who swarmed the streets Friday – the second straight day demonstrators in Manhattan called for an end to attacks on Gaza. “It’s important for us to stand up for equal rights for all humans, and right now, we see a double standard going on between the Palestinians and the Israelis,” Jaludi told CNN. “What happened on October 7th was terrible, but it doesn’t justify killing 10,000-plus Palestinians.”Jaludi and his children were born in the US and have no direct ties to the Palestinian territories, he said. “I really have no ties to Palestine other than just basic … standing up for human rights, which that is what America is all about,” he said. Video also showed police keeping demonstrators back from The New York Times building on Friday. One night earlier, several protesters occupied the building’s lobby, and some of them were arrested Thursday night, police said. By 10 p.m. Friday, many of the protesters had left the Grand Central Terminal area while police officers remained for security reasons.

Hamas chief ‘back from dead’ to lead attack
Melanie Swan/The Telegraph/November 11, 2023
A Hamas leader specialising in kidnappings and cross-border infiltration who was pronounced dead in 2014, is alive and masterminded the Oct 7 attacks, Israeli spies believe. Sources close to Israeli intelligence said Mohammed Sinwar, the younger brother of Yahya Sinwa, Hamas’s leader in Gaza and Israel’s most-wanted terrorist, has been living under a shroud of secrecy in the tunnels beneath the Strip for years. They say he was closely involved with the planning of the attack last month that killed 1,200 people, hoping that hundreds of people taken hostage could be used to secure the release of some 5,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails. “He was 100 per cent one of the core team who planned Oct 7,” a former Mossad counter-terror chief told the Telegraph, describing a group of three to four key figures behind the deadly attack. “In the military leadership he’s very important,” the source said. “He’s around number seven on the wanted list, alongside the likes of Mohammed Deif, Marwan Issa and Tawfiq Abu Naim. He’s an important figure and he’s still alive for sure.” The younger Sinwar, who helped free his brother from an Israeli jail in a landmark prisoner exchange in 2011, “is considered one of the main brains in planning the invasion, massacre and mass kidnapping of the Israelis from the surrounding settlements,” said Ronen Solomon, an independent intelligence analyst and author of the Intelli Times blog. “His speciality is border infiltration and kidnappings for [securing] the release of all prisoners,” said Mr Solomon, who has been following Mohammed for more than two decades, amassing an archive of documents, photographs and interviews that help to shine some light on the notoriously secretive figure. Such is the secrecy surrounding Mohammed, that even residents of Gaza no longer recognise him, he said. “He moved secretly and within a limited range, for fear of being exposed to an Israeli assassination,” said Mr Solomon. “During the last two decades, he survived six assassination attempts.”Israeli forces destroyed Mohammed’s family home on Oct 24 2004 after he went to ground following a failed assassination attempt in 2003.
Ten years later, at the height of the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas, the terrorist group pronounced him dead, releasing an image showing him lying on a blood-stained bed. Faking Mohammed’s death was part of a mission to protect one of Hamas’s three “shadow commanders,” said Mr Solomon.
Since then, he has never been seen in public, appearing only in silhouette in an interview with Al Jazeera Arabic in May last year. He did not even attend the funeral of his father in January 2022. But the Israeli military quietly revealed it was hunting him once again this week, when Mohammed’s picture appeared alongside that of his brother during a briefing by Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defence minister. He did not mention him by name or go into detail about his involvement in the October attack. Separately, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced that soldiers of the 7th Brigade had raided offices linked to Mohammed, where they found “documentation of military doctrine”. After Yahya Sinwar was released along with more than 1,000 other prisoners in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011, Mohammed remained in the shadows. The former Mossad counter-intelligence chief said he was instrumental in securing his brother’s release from prison and then orchestrated his rise to power in Gaza. “Mohammed was always more important than his brother. He was the person who initiated and held Gilad Shalit,” the source said. “He was the one who created the list of prisoners in Israel to be released and of course, Yahya, was number one.”Until that time, Yahya was not even considered a part of the Hamas leadership, the source said. When Mohammed created the list, many in Hamas objected to the fact that Yahya was put at the top.“Mohammed was not negotiating on that fact and said, if you object to my list, I’m going to take Shalit to the seashore, I will behead him and video it, so, they backed off and Yahya became the most important one.”This move would prove transformative for Yahya Sinwar, who would eventually take over from Ismail Haniyeh, now Hamas’s political leader in exile in Qatar, in 2017.
“He received a hero’s welcome when he returned to Gaza and very soon, he rose to become a prominent leader and succeeded Haniyeh.”But Mohammed remains a prominent figure in his own right. He was one of the first generation to join the ranks of Hamas since its inception on Dec 14, 1987, and took part in the first intifada. After rising through the ranks in various administrative positions, he was one of the first to join the military arm of Hamas, the Izz al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades. In 2005 he became the commander of the Khan Younis Brigade. Mohammed has long been a prime target for Israel’s military and intelligence agencies. On April 11, 2003, the Al-Qassam Brigades said that Mohammed had survived an assassination attempt using an explosive device planted in the wall of his house in the city of Khan Younis. But Israeli spies believe Mohammed has now been given the responsibility of protecting his brother, who Israel has described as a “dead man walking”.“It is believed that he is now also entrusted with ensuring the safety and escape of his brother Yahya through Rafah if required,” said Mr Solomon.

Israel is looking to World War II in its Gaza fight, and it risks taking lessons from the wrong war
Sam Fellman,Sonam Sheth/Business Insider/November 11, 2023
Israel faces long odds of ending Hamas, and even if it succeeds it's faced with a difficult dilemma: What comes next? The US invaded Iraq and Afghanistan but ran into trouble when it tried to rebuild their governments. "The Israelis have a similar problem here," a military expert with RAND told Insider. Israel's military is leveling the tiny Gaza enclave with the overwhelming force of a nation that, much like the US in 2001, vows never again to be blindsided by a massive terrorist attack.
Hamas, Israelis feel, must be destroyed.
But beyond the certainty many Israelis feel about ending Hamas, there lies an uncertain future and a political dilemma Israel has avoided addressing — a predicament that hamstrung a superior military power, the United States, in similar conflicts.
"The Achilles heel of the US operation in Iraq and Afghanistan was that we had the game plan for the invasion more or less worked reasonably smoothly," Raphel Cohen, the director of the Strategy and Doctrine Program of RAND Project AIR FORCE, told Insider. "The problem was what came next and that was where we ran into trouble. The Israelis have a similar problem here."Israel faces long odds of permanently ending Hamas. Even if it succeeds in doing so, its leaders have failed to clearly articulate what will replace it and why that represents a better future for Palestinians in Gaza. It's a critical question that will define whether Israel's war succeeds, experts on military strategy told Insider. "The more important lessons from 9/11 and the wars that followed are political: Who is going to provide security in Gaza once the fighting ends?" said retired US Army Col. Peter Mansoor, an Iraq veteran and leading counter-insurgency strategist. "Because without security, nothing else will last." In the month since Hamas carried out its terror attacks in Israel — killing at least 1,200 people, injuring thousands more, and seizing over 200 hostages, including children and seniors — Israel has unleashed an all-out war in Gaza echoing the destructive battles of World War II. Mosques toppled. Roads ruptured. Refugee centers reduced to rubble. Civilians struggling to find enough water while hospitals go dark. The Israel Defense Forces are taking out what they say are military targets in these civilian settings, often with overpowering force that has resulted in thousands of civilian casualties. Israel's air force has conducted nonstop bombing runs against the strip as ground forces prepare to clear Gaza's largest city of every Hamas fighter. Israeli military officials are clear that their aim is the total destruction of Hamas. What's less clear is who will lead Gaza afterward. "I think Israel will, for an indefinite period, will have the overall security responsibility because we've seen what happens when we don't have it," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told ABC News on Monday. Likewise, an Israeli cabinet minister would only tell reporters last weekend that "there's a lot of ideas that are out there" about what comes after Hamas. Netanyahu advisers suggest that Israeli troops will remain in Gaza at least until it is demilitarized, a process that will likely take months at best and during which they could face an insurgency supported by a radicalized population.
It remains unclear how long Israel will re-occupy the territory or if they would eventually transfer it to, for example, a peacekeeping force or another authority. The IDF declined to comment on whether it was taking lessons from the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan into consideration in its Hamas war. They've "ping-ponged around this question of what happens next," Cohen said. "So this is clearly a problem for Israel in that they haven't been able to articulate what their goals are."
'Mowing the grass'
Since Israel's withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, it has had four major clashes: 2008, 2014, 2021, and now. Israel's strategy towards Hamas-controlled Gaza has been described as "mowing the grass," which refers to Israel's policy of tolerating Hamas control until its attacks justify short campaigns to kill militants and reduce their capacity to threaten Israel from the impoverished enclave. This strategy "failed spectacularly" during the October 7 terror attacks, Cohen argued in a recent piece published by RAND, because it showed Israel couldn't contain Hamas and its periodic operations failed to deter them. And critics say that Israeli operations in service of this strategy often result in a disproportionate number of deaths compared to those caused by Hamas attacks. Cohen described "mowing the grass" as "strategic fatalism" in the RAND piece, adding that it "reflects a large measure of hubris." Cohen argued it has also failed to break the cycle of Palestinian radicalization that fuels the attacks. Israel's belief that it can hit Hamas just enough to stave off any attacks but not so hard that Gaza descends into chaos is a "hard if not impossible balance to strike year after year, especially as Gaza's internal pressures mount," he wrote. In the aftermath of the October 7 attacks, Israel has abandoned "mowing the grass" in favor of a much more far-reaching and deadly strategy. Israel's war with Hamas is still in its nascent stages, but modern urban battles already pale in comparison. The long, nine-month siege of Mosul, Iraq by the Iraqi government coalition, backed by the US, in its fight to uproot the Islamic State left up to 11,000 civilians dead. The US-led effort to clear insurgents from Fallujah, Iraq in 2004 killed roughly 800 civilians in six weeks. By contrast, in a month's time, the war in Gaza has already ended the lives of over 10,800 people, 41% of whom are children, according to the Hamas-led Ministry of Health in Gaza. Although this count does not differentiate between fighters and civilians, it is nonetheless a staggering figure. The vast majority of those deaths come from Israel's airstrikes, and the death toll will almost certainly keep climbing as Israeli troops move to strike the 30,000 Hamas militants lying in wait in Gaza city, believed to be home to hundreds of thousands of civilians. The sheer scale of the Israeli effort may trigger a dynamic that's known to US policy makers as the Pottery Barn rule — you break it, you buy it. This was how Secretary of State Colin Powell privately warned President George W. Bush about the consequences of invading Iraq. According to this axiom, Israel must be prepared to bear the costs of rebuilding Gaza and endure its dangers unless it finds another authority to intervene. As the war takes shape, the most apt comparison for a major urban battle involving a Western military may require looking much farther back, to the last days of World War II. In 1945, American G.I.s assaulted the capital of the Philippines to root out nearly 20,000 Japanese defenders. They liberated Manila after a month but at a huge cost.
It shattered the city and claimed 100,000 civilian lives.
It's telling that Israeli leaders have directly compared their Hamas fight to World War II, the conflict that the US waged with full-force, viewing it as necessary, even existential. Netanyahu has compared the October 7 terrorist attacks to the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor that pulled the US into WWII. The Israel-Hamas conflict is "not a war of choice for Israel," Cohen said. "The October 7 attacks made it essential that the Israelis take some sort of action to deny Hamas control of Gaza, if only to prevent another 10/7 attack."Hamas leaders have said the militant group will try to carry out more attacks until Israel is erased. "So Israel was in some ways forced into a policy of regime change in ways that we weren't necessarily forced into with Iraq," Cohen said. Israel faces geographical challenges with Gaza that the US did not with Iraq and Afghanistan. The US eventually withdrew from Iraq and Afghanistan, though it took years for American officials to make the decision, and about 2,500 US troops remain in Iraq. "The Israelis can't really withdraw here by reasons of geography," Cohen said. "Gaza will always be next door to them, so they're going to have to remain engaged in Gaza, whether they like it or not, for the foreseeable future."
Getting 'nowhere' Peter Mansoor was a newly retired Army colonel when he arrived in Tel Aviv in 2008. He had come to speak to Israeli officers about the success of the American troop plus-up and counter-insurgency effort, known as "the Surge," that reduced the violence roiling Iraq. As executive officer to Gen. David Petraeus, the effort's architect and leader of the Multi-National Force-Iraq, Mansoor brought unique insight to his Israeli counterparts. "The number one lesson I gave them is you gotta find willing partners among the other side," Mansoor — now a professor of military history at the Ohio State University and author of the book, "Surge: My Journey with General David Petraeus and the Remaking of the Iraq war" — recalled in a phone interview with Insider. "You don't reconcile with your friends, They're already your friends. You reconcile with people who have blood on their hands. And you've gotta find portions of the opposition that are just willing to put down their arms, at least temporarily, and give the political process a chance."  That is what US leaders sought in Iraq. Americans supported moderate Sunni tribal leaders and helped fund the militias that patrolled their communities in an effort to cut support for al Qaeda in Iraq, which was fueling violence and undermining the US-backed government. For a nation on the brink of a full blown civil war, the strategy worked.
After Mansoor's briefing, some Israeli officers came up to talk to him.
"The Israeli officers who were there back in 2008 told me, 'Well that's not possible with the Palestinians. So what else do you have for us?'" Mansoor recalled. "And I looked at them and said, 'If you ignore the first and most far-reaching lesson of the Surge, you're going to get nowhere.'"
In this war, Israeli leaders have used heated rhetoric while their forces maintain a deadly bombing campaign. Israel's president has said that the "entire nation" of Gaza is "responsible" for Hamas' terror attacks. One minister even spoke about the possibility of nuking it, though Netanyahu and the defense minister criticized his comments. Netanyahu has, however, used Western military actions in World War II to justify the killing of civilians if it results from strikes against military targets. In a late October address, he pointed to a British bombing operation near the end of the war in 1945 during which the Royal Air Force missed the intended target and struck a school.
"That is not a war crime," the prime minister said. The wholesale slaughter of civilian populations in World War II — 45 million by one estimate — led to the creation of a new Geneva convention specifically addressing protections for civilians in war zones. In the battle for Manila, or the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the US used overwhelming force and simply accepted the mass civilian death and suffering that came with it. Yet destruction on such a scale today, when social media and camera-equipped cell phones can capture war's costs and cruelty, risks a global backlash unlike any Israel has seen in its existence. And even then it may not succeed in its war against Hamas in the aftermath of the October 7 attacks. A RAND study of campaigns against terror groups over four decades found that only 7% were dismantled by military force. Should Israel beat those odds and destroy Hamas, that's still not the end of the road. The question persists: What next? For Mansoor, the counter-insurgency expert, the long-term success of Israel's war will be driven by its willingness to empower Palestinians looking to build a better future peacefully alongside Israel.
"You're going to have to be willing to give the Palestinians what they want. Not the destruction of Israel of course, but a state on the West Bank and in Gaza," Mansoor said. "If the Israelis are not willing to do that then we're looking at something like this happening again in the future."

Hospitals have special protection under the rules of war. Why are they in the crosshairs in Gaza?
JERUSALEM (AP)/November 11, 2023
he head of surgery at Gaza’s largest and most advanced hospital held up his phone Saturday to the hammering of gunfire and artillery shelling. “Listen,” said Dr. Marwan Abu Sada as fighting raged around Shifa Hospital. Shells hissed through the hospital courtyard and crashed into wards while Israeli soldiers and Hamas militants locked in close quarters combat. Doctors tried to help patients even as they ran for cover. Abu Sada described Shifa as a deathtrap for thousands of war-wounded, medical staff and displaced civilians sheltering there. The Israeli military denied it launched direct strikes or placed Shifa under siege. In this Israel-Hamas war, hospitals in the main combat zone of northern Gaza have increasingly ended up in the crosshairs as Israeli tanks crunch through the hollowed-out heart of Gaza City. They have also become flashpoints for warring narratives. Israel says Hamas militants are using hospitals as shields for fighters but hasn't provided evidence of that, while Palestinians and rights groups accuse Israel of recklessly harming civilians seeking shelter. The battles around Shifa on Saturday raised an urgent question: When do medical facilities lose special protection under international humanitarian law?
WHAT DOES ISRAEL SAY?
Israel claims that Hamas locates military assets under hospitals and other sensitive sites like schools and mosques. Bloodshed serves Hamas’ agenda, it says, winning international attention and sympathy for the Palestinian cause. Israel has singled out Shifa, claiming Hamas operates its command headquarters beneath the hospital complex. The Israeli military has released an illustrated map of Shifa marked with claimed locations of the underground militant installations, without offering further evidence. Hamas, and Shifa Hospital Director Mohammed Abu Selmia, deny this. Israel has said it will pursue Hamas fighters wherever they are, while trying to spare civilian lives. “If we see Hamas terrorists firing from hospitals, we’ll do what we need to do,” Israeli army spokesperson Lt. Col. Richard Hecht said. Last week Israel defended its bombing of an ambulance convoy evacuating wounded patients from Shifa, alleging that it was carrying Hamas fighters. That strike killed at least 12 bystanders, Abu Selmia said. Asked about Saturday's events at Shifa, the chief Israeli military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said the forces were not besieging Shifa Hospital but allowing a safe exit point on the hospital's eastern side. He said the army was in touch with hospital officials and would help to move babies being treated there to a different hospital Sunday. Israeli forces also battled Hamas militants in the rubble-filled streets outside Gaza's Rantisi Hospital for Children, humanitarian officials reported. The Israeli army alleged it identified Hamas militants embedded among civilians in Rantisi when swarming the area last week. Some militants fled after the army opened an evacuation corridor for civilians, it said. Rantisi Hospital shut down Friday after running out of fuel, said the World Health Organization, and it’s unclear how many people evacuated.
Amos Yadlin, former head of Israeli military intelligence, told Israel’s Channel 12 that the intensifying fight over Shifa and other hospitals creates moral and military dilemmas for commanders. “Despite that we intend to deal with these hospitals,” he added. “Today it’s clear to all that they are the key command centers of Hamas.”
WHAT DO PALESTINIANS SAY?
Throughout the war, Palestinian families fleeing bombed-out homes have taken refuge in medical compounds, believing them to be safer than other alternatives.
Kamal Najar, a 35-year-old who sheltered at Shifa with his toddler son and infant daughter this week, said he believed that the hospital would be “off-limits, even for Israel."“It was the thing we somehow told ourselves wouldn’t happen,” he said, speaking by phone from the central city of Deir al-Balah, where he arrived by foot Friday after escaping what he said were strikes on the hospital with tens of thousands of others. On Saturday, some 1,500 patients, along with 1,500 medical workers and some 15,000 displaced people were still stranded at Shifa, health authorities said. They said a blackout plunged Shifa Hospital into darkness and switched off life-saving equipment, killing several patients — including a newborn in an incubator. Palestinian medical workers accuse Israel of mounting an all-out attack on infrastructure to punish the population and force a surrender. “It’s to say, ‘Not only will we kill and wound you, we will ensure you have nowhere to go to be treated,’” said Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta, a British Palestinian surgeon working for Doctors Without Borders in Gaza City. Some 190 medical workers were among more than 11,000 Palestinians killed since the start of the war, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza. Ongoing Israeli bombardment has wrecked 31 ambulances and knocked 20 hospitals out of operation, the ministry said. The war was triggered by Hamas' brutal Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel in which about 1,200 people were killed. “Death always feels close,” said Naseem Hassan, a 48-year-old medic in the southern city of Khan Younis. Too many colleagues, he said, have left the hospital only to return hours later in body bags. He had a close call Thursday when two missiles landed just meters from his ambulance. “This is a war of all-out destruction and there is no protection anywhere,” he said. “Israel could be more precise but it's choosing not to be.”
Israel has said it targets Hamas fighters, not civilians. However, it has used powerful explosives in strikes on densely populated areas that have killed large numbers of women and children.
WHAT DOES INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW SAY?
The claims and counterclaims over Gaza's hospitals have raised pressing questions about what is allowed under international laws governing war. International humanitarian law lends hospitals special protections during war. But hospitals can lose their protections if combatants use them to hide fighters or store weapons, the International Committee of the Red Cross said. Nonetheless, there must be plenty of warning before attacks to allow for the safe evacuation of patients and medical workers, ICRC legal officer Cordula Droege said. Even if Israel succeeds in proving Shifa conceals a Hamas command center, the tenets of international law remain in place, said Jessica Wolfendale, expert in military ethics at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. "It doesn’t license an instant attack,” she said. “Steps need to be taken to protect the innocent as much as possible.”If the harm to civilians is disproportionate to the military objective, the attack is illegal under international law. In an editorial published Friday in Britain's The Guardian newspaper, International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan issued a warning to combatants that the burden of proof is on them if they claim hospitals, schools or houses of worship have lost their protected status because they are being used for military purposes. And the bar for evidence is very high. “If there is a doubt that a civilian object has lost its protective status, the attacker must assume that it is protected,” Khan wrote. "The burden of demonstrating that this protective status is lost rests with those who fire the gun, the missile, or the rocket in question.”

Israel's war on Hamas homes in on Gaza hospitals
GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters)/November 11, 2023
Palestinian officials said two babies had died and dozens more were at risk after fuel ran out at Gaza's largest hospital on Saturday, while Israel said it was ready to evacuate babies from the facility. As the humanitarian situation worsened, the Gaza's border authority announced that the Rafah land crossing into Egypt would reopen on Sunday for foreign passport holders after being closed on Friday. Amid continued fighting, Hamas said it had completely or partially destroyed more than 160 Israeli military targets in Gaza, including more than 25 vehicles in the past 48 hours. But an Israeli military spokesperson said Hamas had lost control of northern Gaza. The Israeli military will help evacuate babies trapped in Gaza's Al Shifa Hospital, chief military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said. "The staff of the Shifa hospital has requested that tomorrow we help the babies in the pediatric department to get to a safer hospital. We will provide the assistance needed," Hagari told a news conference. Israel said earlier that doctors, patients and thousands of evacuees who have taken refuge at hospitals in northern Gaza must leave so it can tackle Hamas gunmen who it says have placed command centres under and around them. Hamas denies using hospitals in this way. Medical staff say patients could die if they are moved and Palestinian officials say Israeli fire makes it dangerous for others to leave. "It's totally a war zone, it's a totally scary atmosphere here in the hospital," Ahmed al-Mokhallalati, a senior plastic surgeon at Al Shifa hospital, told Reuters. "It's continuous bombardment for more than 24 hours now." Most of the hospital staff and people sheltering at the hospital had left, he said, but 500 patients were still there. The Israeli military denied endangering the hospital. "There are clashes between IDF (Israel Defense Forces) troops and Hamas terrorist operatives around the hospital. There is no shooting at the hospital and there is no siege," said Colonel Moshe Tetro, head of coordination and liaison at COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body handling civil affairs in Gaza. A Palestinian health ministry spokesman said Israeli shelling had killed a patient in intensive care. Ashraf Al-Qidra, who represents the health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza, said Israeli army snipers on the rooftops of buildings near the hospital fired into the medical complex from time to time, limiting people's ability to move.
"We are besieged inside the Al Shifa Medical Complex, and the (Israeli) occupation has targeted most of the buildings inside," he told Reuters by phone. The hospital suspended operations after fuel ran out, Qidra said, adding that two babies had died in an incubator, where there were 45 babies in total.
CLASHES ALL NIGHT
Residents said Israeli troops, who went to war to eliminate Hamas after it staged a bloody cross-border assault on Oct. 7, had been clashing with Hamas gunmen all night in and around Gaza City where the hospital is located. The military wing of Hamas ally Islamic Jihad, the Al-Quds Brigades, posted on social media: "We are engaged in violent clashes in the vicinity of Al Shifa Medical Complex, Al-Nasr neighbourhood, and Al-Shati camp in Gaza." The Al-Nasr neighbourhood is home to several major hospitals.
An Israeli military spokesperson was asked at a briefing if troops planned to enter Gaza hospitals at some point. "The hospitals need to be evacuated in order to deal with Hamas," the spokesperson said. "We intend on dealing with Hamas who have turned hospitals into fortified positions." Hamas says it does not use hospitals for its military purposes. Israel said earlier it had killed what it called a Hamas "terrorist" who it said had prevented the evacuation of another hospital in the north, which Palestinian officials have said is out of service and surrounded by tanks. "(Ahmed) Siam held hostage approximately 1,000 Gazan residents at the Rantissi Hospital and prevented them from evacuating southwards for their safety," an Israeli military statement said.
It said Siam was killed along with other militants while hiding in the "al Buraq" school. Palestinian officials told Reuters on Friday at least 25 Palestinians had been killed in an Israeli strike at the school, which was packed with evacuees.
BABIES AT RISK IN HOSPITAL
Israel said rockets were still being fired from Gaza into southern Israel, where it has said about 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 taken hostage by Hamas militants last month. Palestinian officials said on Friday 11,078 Gaza residents had been killed in air and artillery strikes since Oct. 7, around 40% of them children. Israel said it had increased the number of places in which it said it would stop firing for several hours at a time so Gazans could move south and that many had done so. "We have over the last three days seen a mass evacuation of at least 150,000 people," a military spokesman said. "And we have seen more people evacuating today as the humanitarian pause in Jabalia area has been implemented." In London, at least 300,000 pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched through the city, with police arresting nearly 100 far-right counter-protesters to stop them ambushing the main rally. Some pro-Palestinian demonstrators were stopped and searched. More than 20,000 people joined a pro-Palestinian rally in Brussels. Meeting in Saudi Arabia, Muslim and Arab countries called for an immediate end to military operations in Gaza, rejecting Israel's justification of its actions against Palestinians as self-defence.

British PM condemns ‘wholly unacceptable’ violence of far-right and ‘Hamas sympathisers’
Sophie Wingate and Ben Mitchell, PA/PA Media: UK News/November 11, 2023
Rishi Sunak has condemned “wholly unacceptable” actions by both far-right groups and “Hamas sympathisers” on the pro-Palestinian march, and put pressure on police by saying “all criminality must be met with the full and swift force of the law”.
The Prime Minister said the ugly scenes in central London on Armistice Day “utterly disrespects” the spirit of remembrance as police confirmed 126 arrests with nine officers injured. Mr Sunak will meet Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley in the coming days to hold him “accountable” for the handling of the disturbances. Police detained and arrested scores of counter-protesters as hundreds of thousands of people took part in the biggest UK rally since the Israel-Hamas conflict began on October 7. A breakaway group of around 150 people from the march, who were firing fireworks and wearing face coverings, were later detained in Grosvenor Place, the Met said. Mr Sunak said in a statement: “I condemn the violent, wholly unacceptable scenes we have seen today from the EDL (English Defence League) and associated groups and Hamas sympathisers attending the National March for Palestine.
“The despicable actions of a minority of people undermine those who have chosen to express their views peacefully.”He said their actions do “not defend the honour of our Armed Forces, but utterly disrespects them”. “That is true for EDL thugs attacking police officers and trespassing on the Cenotaph, and it is true for those singing antisemitic chants and brandishing pro-Hamas signs and clothing on today’s protest.”He said he would be meeting the Met chief, adding: “All criminality must be met with the full and swift force of the law. That is what I told the Met Police Commissioner on Wednesday, that is what they are accountable for and that is what I expect.”Mr Sunak had vowed to hold the Scotland Yard boss “accountable” if there was any trouble on Saturday, after Sir Mark resisted pressure from senior Tories to ban the pro-Palestinian march as it coincided with the day commemorating the end of the First World War.Police said there were 300,000 people on the march but organisers said the latest estimate was “more than 800,000”.
Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist said: “The extreme violence from the right-wing protesters towards the police today was extraordinary and deeply concerning. “They arrived early, stating they were there to protect monuments, but some were already intoxicated, aggressive and clearly looking for confrontation.
“Abuse was directed at officers protecting the Cenotaph, including chants of ‘you’re not English any more’.“This group were largely football hooligans from across the UK and spent most of the day attacking or threatening officers who were seeking to prevent them being able to confront the main march. “Many in these groups were stopped and searched and weapons including a knife, a baton and knuckleduster were found – as well as class A drugs. “Thanks to the considerable efforts of our officers, who put themselves in harm’s way, nobody was able to reach the Cenotaph, which was protected at all times.” Mr Twist added that officers remained deployed into the night to respond to outbreaks of violence and to protect sites ahead of Remembrance Sunday events. Labour also denounced both “disgraceful scenes of far-right violence against police officers” and “appalling cases of antisemitic hate, intimidation, and support for terrorist groups like Hamas”. Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Both violence and hate crimes must face the full force of the law.”Mayor of London Sadiq Khan paid tribute to the Met police for dealing “with a very difficult day with exceptional professionalism”, as he supported the force in “taking a zero-tolerance approach against anyone found committing violent offences or spreading hate”. The overwhelming majority of people protested peacefully, he said, as he described as “unacceptable” scenes of “far-right thugs attacking the police and some who have used the pro-Palestinian protest to spread hate and racism, including antisemitism”.
A total of 82 people who police said were part of “large group” of counter-protesters who had “tried to reach the main protest march” were arrested in Tachbrook Street, Pimlico. Reports suggested that some people were detained and prevented from leaving the nearby White Swan pub with a heavy police presence outside, including officers on horseback. A further 10 arrests were made throughout the day for offences including possession of offensive weapons, affray and possession of drugs, police said. Scuffles broke out as police attempted to stop a crowd of people carrying St George’s flags marching along Embankment towards Whitehall, where the Cenotaph is located, shortly after 10am. The group, which had been chanting “England ’til I die”, pushed through the police barrier, with some shouting “let’s have them” as officers hit out with batons. Further clashes with police took place in Chinatown with counter-protesters chanting “you’re not English any more” towards officers. A group of about 100 people were later held near Westminster Bridge under police powers to prevent a disturbance. An Armistice Day service took place at the Cenotaph on Whitehall at 11am, which passed off peacefully with a two-minute silence being observed. The Met Police posted on X, formerly Twitter: “While the two minutes’ silence was marked respectfully and without incident on Whitehall, officers have faced aggression from counter-protesters who are in the area in significant numbers.”
The force added: “Officers have prevented those not involved in getting on to Whitehall so it can take place without disruption, as we committed. “They have faced unacceptable violence, including people throwing missiles and a metal barrier.”Tommy Robinson, founder and former leader of the far-right English Defence League, was seen among the crowds of counter-protesters. Thousands of people marched from Park Lane near Hyde Park to the US embassy in Vauxhall as part of the demonstration calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. The Met said it was “actively seeking” two men pictured on the march wearing headbands of the terrorist group Hamas over their balaclava and scarf-covered faces. The force posted on X: “Officers are actively looking for these individuals and will take proactive action when they are identified.”Also spotted in the crowds were signs with the slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” which the Home Secretary said has become “a staple of antisemitic discourse”.Another sign carried during the march shows the Jewish Star of David wrapped around a Nazi swastika with the slogan: “No British politician should be a ‘friend of Israel’.”
Others on the march had effigies of dead babies to highlight their demands for a ceasefire.
A Palestinian flag was also wrapped around a First World War memorial near London’s Wellington Arch, with protesters later seen climbing the statue. Senior Cabinet minister Michael Gove was seen in footage being mobbed by pro-Palestinian demonstrators at Victoria station, who chanted “shame on you”.
Other politicians condemned the crowding of Mr Gove, with SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn saying: “Those acting in this fashion damage their cause.”London Mayor Mr Khan criticised attempts to “intimidate politicians” as “unacceptable”. He also said: “The far right have clearly been encouraged and emboldened by what they have heard this week, including from senior politicians like the Home Secretary.” Mr Sunak has faced growing calls to sack Suella Braverman as Home Secretary as she has been accused of stoking tensions by branding pro-Palestinian demonstrators “hate marchers” and accusing the police of bias for letting the rally go ahead. Shadow home secretary Ms Cooper said: “Suella Braverman was warned repeatedly of the dangers of inflaming tensions and undermining the police. A Home Secretary that doesn’t take seriously the security of our streets is only allowed to remain in a government that has lost all sense of governing. Britain is better than Rishi Sunak and his Cabinet.”The events in London came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected growing international calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, saying his country’s battle to crush Hamas militants would continue with “full force”. A ceasefire would be possible only if all 239 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza were released, he said in a televised address. The Israeli leader also insisted that after the war, now entering its sixth week, Gaza would be demilitarised and Israel would retain security control there.

West Bank Palestinians face increasing restrictions and settler violence as Gaza war escalates
Ivana Kottasová and Adi Koplewitz, CNN/November 11, 2023
To be at work by 9 a.m., Joseph Handal gets up at 4:30 a.m., even though his workplace, a Franciscan church in the Old City of Jerusalem, is only a few miles from his home in Bethlehem. The journey should take 25 minutes by road. But this is the occupied West Bank. Nothing is ever simple here. “We wait for the bus and see if it comes. If it doesn’t come, the checkpoint is closed. Right now, it’s closed. But it may open later. Or maybe it won’t,” Handal told CNN, standing on the side of the road with a group of other workers. As a Palestinian resident of the West Bank, Handal needs a permit to enter Jerusalem. He does have one – but whether he can make it to work depends on his ability to get through at least two Israeli checkpoints. With Israel at war, he says this process has become a nightmare. After Hamas launched its terror attack on Israel on October 7, killing more than 1,400 people and kidnapping some 240 others, Israel stepped up its security measures and began severely restricting the freedom of movement of Palestinian residents of the West Bank. CNN has asked Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) for comment on the increased restrictions, but has not received a response.
Israel controls all entry and exit points to the West Bank through roadblocks and checkpoints which are staffed by soldiers and armed police. The security forces have always had the ability to close these checkpoints without warning but, since October 7, the closures have been more frequent and have lasted longer, residents and human rights watchdogs say.  For Handal and the tens of thousands of West Bank Palestinians who need to get to Jerusalem for work, school, to go to a doctor or to visit family, this means daily uncertainty. “It puts you in a position where you can’t even tell someone ‘I’ll meet you tomorrow,’ because you don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Mohammad Jamil, an Arabic teacher from a village near Hebron. Jamil told CNN his son Ibrahim had missed two days of school in the past two weeks because the so-called Tunnels Checkpoint near Bethlehem was closed. Ibrahim, who is attending an elementary school in Jerusalem, said he didn’t mind. School is boring, he said, laughing. But while Ibrahim might be relieved when he misses school, his father is growing more exasperated by the day.
“There is no future here. No solution,” he said.
Ibrahim is a resident of Jerusalem, where he lives with his mother, an Israeli citizen. But Jamil is a Palestinian from the West Bank, which means he can’t come to visit Ibrahim as often as he’d like to. He lives and works in the West Bank and has a family visit permit to enter Jerusalem to visit Ibrahim – but it onlyallows him to go five days every three months. Instead, Ibrahim comes to stay with him in the West Bank two days a week – an arrangement that Jamil says has become much more complicated since the war began. New restrictions on movement can come into effect suddenly and without explanation, so people who need to move around for work must be more flexible and always leave plenty of time to spare. “We are used to this. We live under occupation,” Handal said. Still, the complicated commute that can sometimes involve long waiting times, unexpected closures of the checkpoints and interrogation from Israeli security forces is well worth it to Handal. Average daily wages in Israel and Jerusalem are more than double what people can earn in the West Bank, according to the International Labour Organization. Israel has occupied the West Bank since seizing the territory from Jordanian military occupation in 1967. In the early 1990s, under the Oslo Accords peace agreements, the West Bank was divided into three distinct zones: A, B and C. Area C, which comprises about 60% of the West Bank, is fully Israeli-controlled and forms one continuous territory. Area B is under the joint control of Israel and the Palestinian Authority, while Area A is wholly within Palestinian control. Each make up about 20% of the West Bank. Cities and villages in areas B and A are often isolated from each other, which means Palestinians wishing to go from one to another may have to pass through areas that are fully controlled by Israel.
This can prove difficult or sometimes impossible.
An Israeli checkpoint on the road that connects Handal’s neighborhood in Bethlehem with the main road out of the city has been closed to cars for at least a month. To leave it, he needs to take a taxi or drive to the checkpoint, cross the barrier on foot and then continue his journey in a different vehicle. As part of the Oslo Accords, Israel agreed to gradually transfer control over the West Bank to the Palestinian Authority, but that has not happened. Instead, dozens of Israeli settlements have been built in the West Bank, encroaching into land that Palestinians, along with the international community, view as territory for a future Palestinian state. Approximately 500,000 Israeli Jewish settlers now live in the West Bank, according to Peace Now, an Israeli group that advocates for peace and monitors settlements. Many of these settlements are heavily guarded, fenced-off areas that are completely off limits to Palestinians.
Most of the world considers these settlements illegal under international law and Israel has been criticized for allowing their expansion – and, in some cases, supporting them with tax breaks and state-funded security. Israel views the West Bank as “disputed territory,” and contends its settlement policy is legal.
The areas around these settlements have always been prone to violence, but the situation has worsened in recent months. More than 170 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 7, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah. That’s more than were killed across the whole of 2022 by Israeli forces, according to UN figures. Most died during clashes with security forces and raids by the IDF. According to the IDF, some of them were Hamas and Jihad militants, while others engaged in clashes. At least eight Palestinians were killed by settlers, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The spiralling violence has prompted international outcry, including from Volker Turk, the UN high commissioner for human rights. “I appeal as a matter of urgency for Israeli authorities to take immediate measures to take steps to ensure the protection of Palestinians in the West Bank who are being on a daily basis subjected to violence from Israeli forces and settlers, ill treatment, arrests, evictions, intimidation and humiliation,” Turk said. According to the UN, since October 7, nearly 1,000 Palestinians from at least 15 herding communities have been forced from their homes by settlers. “In the context of the coercive environment they live in, the displacement of these communities may amount to the forcible transfer of the population, which is a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention,” Turk said, adding: “Continued, widespread impunity for such violations is unacceptable, dangerous and it is in clear violation of Israel’s obligation under international human rights law.” A group of 30 human rights and civil society organizations in Israel published a joint letter last month, alleging the settlers have been “exploiting the lack of public attention to the West Bank, as well as the general atmosphere of rage against Palestinians, to escalate their campaign of violent attacks in an attempt to forcibly transfer Palestinian communities.”US President Joe Biden also weighed in on the issue. A staunch supporter of Israel and its military response to the Hamas attacks, Biden nonetheless condemned “extremist settlers” from Israel attacking Palestinians in the West Bank. Speaking about the violence by settlers, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement on Wednesday, saying: “There is a tiny handful of people that do not represent this public and that take the law into their own hands. We are not prepared to tolerate this. We are not prepared to accept this. We will take all action against them.”At the same time, groups of Palestinians have regularly clashed with Israeli police at checkpoints and in other tense areas, often throwing stones and setting fires. The increased violence is forcing many West Bank residents to stay at home. Handal told CNN he had barely left home in the first two weeks of the war. Jamil said he always drives his son around and makes sure he gets onto the school bus safely, because settlers have on occasion come to the area and thrown rocks at passing cars. After a few long hours of waiting, checking with friends on updates and wondering what would happen, Handal managed to get to work on Monday. The bus never turned up, but he found a workaround. “I have a friend from Jerusalem who took me with him. At the border they asked for my ID and permit, and they let me in. I made it – by chance,” he said. Paid by the hour and with two young children at home, he said he couldn’t afford to sit a day out.

FBI Seizes Phones and Electronic Devices of New York Mayor in Campaign Finance Probe
AFP/November 11, 2023
Members from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have seized the phones and electronic devices of New York City Mayor Eric Adams as part of a federal investigation into the source of funding for his election campaign, according to one of his lawyers on Friday. These seized items will be used in an investigation aimed at determining whether Adams conspired with the Turkish government and Turkish citizens during his 2021 mayoral campaign. Boyd Johnson, the campaign's lawyer, stated in a statement sent to AFP on Monday evening, "The Federal Bureau of Investigation contacted the mayor following an event. The mayor immediately responded to the FBI's request and handed over electronic devices."

Iran asks Muslim countries to designate Israeli army as terrorist organization
Agence France Presse/November 11, 2023
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi called Saturday on Islamic governments to designate Israel's military a "terrorist organization," citing its current operations in the Gaza Strip.Speaking at a summit of Arab and Muslim leaders in the Saudi capital Riyadh, Raisi also urged nations that have ties with Israel to sever them and called for greater support for Palestinians.

Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 11-12/2023
It Is Time Biden Publicly Acknowledged This Is Iran's Mullahs' War Against Israel and the United States
Majid Rafizadeh/ Gatestone Institute./November 11, 2023
Sadly, the Biden administration has yet to come out and publicly acknowledge Iran's role in Hamas's October 7 invasion of Israel, in which the terrorist group murdered over 1,200 Israelis and at least 31 Americans, and wounded over 4,500 Israelis. Hamas also abducted more than 240 people and took them back to Gaza, where they are being held as hostages.
Iran provides roughly $100 million a year to Palestinian terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and $700 million a year to Hezbollah.
Iran and its proxies have clearly been waging a war against Israel, Jews and the United States. It is incumbent upon the Biden administration at least to publicly acknowledge this fact. Or is the US still hoping for some disastrous "nuclear deal" in which the Iranian regime would promise not to use its imminent nuclear weapons -- "on my watch" -- during just the Democrats' time in office?
Sadly, the Biden administration has yet to come out and publicly acknowledge Iran's role in Hamas's October 7 invasion of Israel, in which the terrorist group murdered over 1,200 Israelis and at least 31 Americans, and wounded over 4,500 Israelis. Pictured: Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei hosts Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, on June 21, 2023. (Image source: khamenei.ir)
The Biden administration continues to turn a blind eye to Iran's involvement in the war against Israel, the Jews and in fact all "infidels" -- not least of which is "the Great Satan," the United States.
In recent weeks, Iranian proxies have attacked not only Israel and the Jews, but also at least 41 strikes against US forces in Syria and Iraq, during which 46 US servicemen were wounded and one was killed by a drone; and with more than 83 attacks on US troops since Biden became president.
These assaults came in addition to an attempted assassination on US soil by the Iranian regime of a foreign diplomat in 2012, and threats to assassinate former US officials, complete with a $1 million bounty, in 2022.
The US responded to these attacks by cancelling sanctions on Iran, thereby enabling it to reap close to $60 billion by exporting its oil and gas – and comfortably to finance its terrorist proxy war on Israel and attacks on US forces in the Middle East.
The US also issued countless bland warnings and struck four unmanned weapons depots in Syria.
Sadly, the Biden administration has yet to come out and publicly acknowledge Iran's role in Hamas's October 7 invasion of Israel, in which the terrorist group murdered over 1,200 Israelis and at least 31 Americans, and wounded over 4,500 Israelis. Hamas also abducted more than 240 people and took them back to Gaza, where they are being held as hostages.
In a speech in June 2016, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah admitted that everything Iran's proxies possess or do is directed by the Iranian regime:
"We are open about the fact that Hezbollah's budget, its income, its expenses, everything it eats and drinks, its weapons and rockets, come from the Islamic Republic of Iran...As long as Iran has money, we have money... Just as we receive the rockets that we use to threaten Israel, we are receiving our money. No law will prevent us from receiving it..."
In addition to these acknowledgments, the Washington Post reported that, according to U.S. intelligence sources, Iran "provided military training and logistical help as well as tens of millions of dollars for weapons" to Hamas. The Wall Street Journal cited "senior members of Hamas and Hezbollah," admitting that that Iran helped Hamas plan its barbaric October 7 attack.
Iran provides roughly $100 million a year to Palestinian terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and $700 million a year to Hezbollah.
With all this evidence, what else does the Biden administration need to publicly acknowledge that this is the Iranian regime's war against Israel and Jews?
As US Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) noted:
"The idea that Iran read about this operation in the paper, or on television is laughable. 93% of Hezbollah and Hamas' money comes from Iran. They're the source of the problem. They're the great evil. So, if Hezbollah escalates against Israel, it will be because Iran told them to. Then Iran, you're in the crosshairs of the United States and Israel."
Another Iranian proxy also declared war on Israel: In a statement on October 31, Yemen's Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarei said:
"Our armed forces have launched a large batch of ballistic and cruise missiles and a large number of drones on various Israeli enemy targets."
The Houthi terror organization, removed from the US list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations just a few weeks after Biden took office, has in the past month indeed launched missiles and attack drones at Israel, from a distance of about 1,200 miles. The sophisticated weapons systems that the Houthis use, including the drones and missiles, come from Iran. The Houthi terrorist group, according to a Yemeni government intelligence report, also "works closely" with Al Qaeda and ISIS.
Even as the evidence — including a 2020 United Nations report — has shown that Iran supplies sophisticated weapons to the Houthis, the Biden administration suspended some of the anti-terrorism sanctions on the Houthis that the Trump administration had put in place. When, on February 12, 2021, the Biden administration revoked the designation of Yemen's Houthis as a terrorist group, the Houthis returned the favor by launching missiles and attack drones into the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia (here and here) .
Another of Iran's proxy terror groups, Lebanon's Hezbollah, has been launching cross-border attacks into Israel in a near-daily basis for the past month. On November 3, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah admitted:
"I am telling you, we have been engaged in this battle since October 8. The Islamic resistance in Lebanon started operation the very next day. What's taking place on our front is very important and significant... Yet I assure you this will not be the end. This will not be sufficient."
He also praised and thanked the "strong and brave Iraqi and Yemeni hands who are now involved in this holy war."
Iran and its proxies have clearly been waging a war against Israel, Jews and the United States. It is incumbent upon the Biden administration at least to publicly acknowledge this fact. Or is the US still hoping for some disastrous "nuclear deal" in which the Iranian regime would promise not to use its imminent nuclear weapons -- "on my watch" -- during just the Democrats' time in office?
**Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US Foreign Policy. He can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu
© 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.

US is the big loser in Gaza
Maria Maalouf/Arab News/November 11, 2023
The war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas represents a serious challenge to the US. It is a difficult test for the network of contacts Washington has been building throughout previous decades to ensure a balance in its interests between Arab countries and Israel.
Obviously the US is failing to achieve this strategic equilibrium in its relationship between the Arabs and the Israelis. There are many accusations by most of the nations of the world, especially Arab and Muslim states, that Washington is endorsing Israel’s attacks against civilians in Gaza. They point to the US supplying Israel with the weapons being used to kill Palestinians in Gaza. They also charge the US with giving $14 billion to Israel to carry on the war, and say that the sending of two aircraft carriers to the eastern Mediterranean shields Israel from any armed assault by any power.
Arab media outlets view the US as culpable in the Oct. 7 attack. They also perceive the US as responsible for the military conflagration that the Middle East is undergoing at present. Arab media platforms refuse to believe the US is serious about making peace in the Middle East, and say it is doing nothing to end the fighting between Israel and Hamas. Accordingly, Washington is not an honest broker for peace in the Middle East. Shamefully, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s shuttle diplomacy in the region has been unable to convince the Israeli government to accept a limited cease-fire to deliver urgent humanitarian assistance. There is also the increase in the number of attacks against US military bases in both Syria and Iraq. The potential is high that there will be more targeting of US military facilities in both countries if the war in Gaza continues. All Arab nations are worried that the Gaza war could escalate into a wider regional crisis. Arabs are hearing the voices coming from the US that perceive the war against Hamas as a war against Iran. The strategic rationale for the Arab nations is that extending the war by attacking Iran could push the whole Middle East into a state of turbulence and chaos, causing a great deal of instability. This will force many people to label the US as the real enemy of the Arabs and Muslims. Arab countries believe that Israel is acting in a brutal way and that the US is doing nothing to stop it. The Middle East is about to explode. The West is unethical in its attitudes toward the Middle East. It endorses Israel’s savagery against the Palestinians, while pretending it defends human rights and democracy. The Arabs assert that Western hypocrisy about freedom and liberty paved the way for their complicity in Israel’s barbarity toward the Palestinians.
All Arab nations are worried that the Gaza war could escalate into a wider crisis.
Against the backdrop of Arabs’ loss of faith in the US, Russia is gaining influence in the region. Moscow can tell the peoples of the Middle East that it renounces Israel’s killing of innocent Palestinians and, therefore, is a friend of Arabs and Muslims. Other countries, such as China, can also gain prestige in the Middle East as the US is denounced by the region’s Arab population.
The war in Gaza may revive the two-state solution. However, Arab nations doubt Washington’s sincerity in creating a Palestinian state. They were dismayed by the refusal of the US Congress to give aid to the Palestinians on the grounds that it would go to Hamas. This, of course, was not true.
On the other hand, war is an uncertain development. No war in history has an assured outcome. Hence, any substantial political outcomes must take into account not only US strategic objectives, which include the defense of Israel, but also the local conditions in which the strategy for achieving those objectives must play out. Considering the US failed to effectively define its goals separate from Israel, any analyst must focus on several strategic trends operating now in the Middle East.
First, Turkiye will try to make its role more significant. Ankara and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will express greater solidarity with Hamas. This will strain US-Turkish relations further. Second, the continuation of the Saudi-Iranian detente will be inevitable. The two countries will focus on Gaza and not on their regional rivalry. Third, the role of Qatar most likely will be enhanced. Washington so far has been unable to persuade Qatar to cease its relationship with at least the political wing of Hamas. Qatar will pressure the US to force Israel to stop the war in Gaza in return for its changing relations with the leaders of Hamas.
The war in Gaza has seriously undermined US credibility and deterrence.Fourth, a fair question is how successful and decisive will the Israeli ground offensive be? Israel has not declared victory. It pulled out of previous wars, including conflicts with Lebanese Hezbollah in 1996 and 2006, before finishing its military purposes, due to political and diplomatic factors. Hamas could be hoping for the same outcome. This suggests that the group could still be operating underground and maintaining parts of its military infrastructure when the war ends.
Fifth, how much damage could be caused by several statements by Israeli officials, such as the one attributed to Minister of Heritage Amichai Eliyahu, who said dropping an atomic bomb on Gaza was “a possibility”? This could quickly invite Moscow to affirm nuclear deterrence similar to what happened on Oct. 22-23, 1973 when the US and the Soviet Union raised their nuclear preparedness during the Ramadan War.
Certainly, Arab countries will endorse such a potential nuclear strategic move by the Kremlin. Sixth, how much dispute will occur if Israel takes actions to reoccupy and govern Gaza? This could cause friction between the US and Israel. Blinken played down these prospects. Yet, it seems that Israel is determined to remain in Gaza for a long time. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told ABC News that “for an indefinite period, Israel will have the overall security responsibility” for the enclave.
The war in Gaza has seriously undermined US credibility and deterrence. Washington cannot prevail on Israel to hold off the fight in Gaza even for a few hours. In conclusion, the US will not gain any political or strategic advantage from the Gaza war. It could even lose economically if the conflict goes on for a long time and the price of oil rises to a record high.
• Maria Maalouf is a Lebanese journalist, broadcaster, publisher, and writer.
X: @bilarakib

It is time to plan for the aftermath of war
Yossi Mekelberg/Arab News/November 11, 2023
One of the most difficult challenges for leaders in the midst of a raging war is to develop a vision of peace for its aftermath, when the bloodshed and destruction have ceased, and by that to avert their recurrence. Moreover, it is the task of political leaders to not only have a post-war plan, but also to bring on board their societies, which are by now traumatized and living in fear.
In the face of the horrors we have been witnessing since Oct. 7 on both sides of the border between Israel and Gaza, it might sound naive, almost outlandish, to talk about a comprehensive resolution of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, even beyond Gaza. But this is what responsible and courageous governments should do, and without delay.
For now, the message from Israel is that the war will not end until it has destroyed Hamas. A spokesperson for the Israeli military repeated that message this week, saying: “The mission (inside Gaza) is to engage with Hamas and simply to dismantle each and every Hamas stronghold that is buried. The directive is definitely to kill or capture all the leaders of Hamas.” Whether this is an achievable objective is a moot point; besides, what does it mean to destroy Hamas, since it is also a political movement, and more importantly an ideology, that can be defeated only by an alternative and more appealing one, which gives answers to their needs?
The reason there is already an urgent need to address the future of Gaza, and without losing sight of the bigger picture of Israeli–Palestinian relations, is that in the absence of any constructive plan, the conduct of the war threatens to be dictated by reactions to events and political pressure, and not by long-term strategic thinking. For instance, earlier this week Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not only ruled out a general ceasefire, which is a real worry considering the death toll among Gaza’s civilians, children in particular, but when asked who should govern the enclave at the end of the war, he also told America’s ABC News that “Israel will for an indefinite period … have the overall security responsibility (in Gaza), because we’ve seen what happens when we don’t have that security responsibility.”
A long-term Israeli occupation of Gaza could and should not be an option.
This is already a change to Israel’s war objectives as declared immediately after Hamas’s attack last month, but it is vague about exactly what “security responsibility” means. Was he seriously suggesting reoccupying the Gaza Strip, 18 years after Israel withdrew and dismantled its settlements there? This would be a folly that would only prolong the conflict, and increase friction between Israel and the people of Gaza, the rest of the Palestinians, and the region. It also follows another dangerous development in which a number of far-right politicians, including from Netanyahu’s coalition, have called for rebuilding the settlements there as a security guarantee.
Neither another occupation of Gaza nor a rebuilding of settlements is plausible, and such suggestions need to be nipped in the bud. Hence, not surprisingly, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was quick to reiterate while attending a meeting of G7 foreign ministers this week in Japan that Washington opposes both Hamas rule and an Israeli reoccupation of Gaza. He also warned against any future blockade or siege, as well as any plan to reduce its territory. One must hope that this message was heard clearly by Israel’s decision-makers.
By the time the last bullet in this war is shot and the inevitable and desperately needed cease-fire is called, two devastated and traumatized societies, mourning their dead, living in fear and having no trust in the other side, will be left to lick their wounds. Hardly an ideal situation in which to talk peace, but also one that underlines the need for new thinking about Israeli–Palestinian relations, and for a new leadership to emerge in both societies.
The spectacular, appalling and horrific collapse of the old order requires a departure from previous perceptions that occupation and blockade provided security. How, then, should the fundamentals of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict be resolved? What methods of resisting the occupation are legitimate, and which should be condemned outright? And who are the domestic and regional actors who could play a positive role in finding a peaceful settlement? Potential spoilers of such a settlement could be offset by including them in any future peace process.
There are no winners from letting this conflict fester, only losers.
A long-term Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip could and should not be an option. Certainly, Egypt cannot be expected to take sole control of Gaza, even on an interim basis, as Cairo has no desire to assume this role. In the long run, only the return of a Palestinian governing body that is elected by the Palestinian people, and unifies the West Bank and the Gaza Strip could be both sustainable and legitimate, and have the competency to negotiate a political settlement with Israel that will guarantee both peoples’ security and prosperity.
The previous combination of a blockade, sustaining Hamas, and a peculiar model of poverty and misery management has not worked, either for Israel and even less for the people of Gaza. The PA in its current state cannot march into Gaza supported by Israeli bayonets. As a consequence, there is a need for the international community to shoulder responsibility, at least in the interim period, with a strong regional presence, to ensure reconstruction of the territory, and to build political and municipal structures that will then merge with those in the West Bank, after 16 years of being run separately.
But it cannot stop there, and what will be needed is a future Israeli government that is capable of internalizing that good fences, even if they cost a billion dollars, do not necessarily make good neighbors, and that the only path to long-term peace, security and prosperity is one based on a two-state solution that ensures everyone’s rights, including that of self-determination.
To this end, the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative could still be a highly constructive basis. In one way or another it should be an inclusive peace process that allows the wider Middle East to become stakeholders and guarantors, and by that also marginalizes the persistent spoilers of such an agreement. The shocking carnage we have seen over the past month should also send a clear message that there are no winners from letting this conflict fester, only losers, and if left unresolved, it will spread like wildfire.
• Yossi Mekelberg is a professor of international relations and an associate fellow of the MENA Program at Chatham House.
X: @YMekelberg

AI regulation battle is only just beginning
Joseph Dana/Arab News/November 11, 2023
Given the pace of development in artificial intelligence in recent years, it is remarkable that the US has only just released clear regulations concerning the technology. At the end of October, President Joe Biden issued an executive order to ensure “safe, secure, and trustworthy artificial intelligence.” The directive sets out new standards for all matters of AI safety, including new privacy safeguards designed to protect consumers. While Congress has yet to enact comprehensive laws dictating the use and development of AI, the executive order is a much-needed step toward sensible regulation of this rapidly developing technology. Casual observers might be surprised to learn that the US did not already have any such AI protections on the books. A gathering of 28 governments for the AI Safety Summit in the UK last week revealed that the rest of the world is even further behind. Those attending the forum, which was held at the historic former spy base Bletchley Park, managed to agree to work together on safety research to avert the “catastrophic harm” that could come from AI. The declaration, whose signatories include the US, China, the EU, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, was a rare diplomatic coup for the UK, but light on detail. The US used the event to brandish its own new guardrails as something that the rest of the world should follow.
You do not need a degree in computing to understand that AI is a crucial part of one of the most profound technological shifts humanity has experienced. AI has the power to change how we think and educate ourselves. It can change how we work and make certain jobs redundant. AI systems require massive amounts of data generally collected on the open Internet to deliver these results. Chances are that some of your data is being fed into large language models that power AI platforms, such as ChatGPT.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. AI is being deployed in Israel’s operations in Gaza to help make decisions of life and death. Israel’s Military Intelligence Directorate said that the military is using AI and other “automated” tools to “produce reliable targets quickly and accurately.” One unnamed senior officer said the new AI-powered tools are being used for the “first time to immediately provide ground forces in the Gaza Strip with updated information on targets to strike.”
The challenge now will be securing buy-in from leading US tech companies.
This is a grave escalation in the use of AI, not just for Palestinians but also the international community. The technology being tested in Gaza will almost certainly be exported as part of Israel’s large and powerful weapons technology sector. Put simply, the AI algorithms used to attack Palestinian targets could soon crop up in other conflicts from Africa to South America.
Biden’s executive order specifically addresses issues related to AI safety, consumer protection, and privacy. The directive requires new safety assessments of new and existing AI platforms, equity and civil rights guidance, and research on AI’s impact on the labor market. Some AI companies will now be required to share safety test results with the US government. The Commerce Department has been directed to create guidance for AI watermarking and a cybersecurity program that can make AI tools that help identify flaws in critical software.
While the US and other Western countries have been slow to draft comprehensive AI regulations, there has been some movement in recent years. Earlier this year, the National Institute of Standards and Technology outlined a comprehensive AI risk management framework. The document became the basis for the Biden administration’s executive order. Critically, the administration has empowered the Commerce Department, which houses the NIST, to help implement aspects of the order.
The challenge now will be securing buy-in from leading US technology companies. Without their cooperation and a legal framework to punish companies that fail to follow the rules, Biden’s order will not amount to much.
Technology firms have largely been able to develop with little oversight.
There is still a lot of work to be done. Technology companies have largely been able to develop with little oversight over the past two decades. This is partially due to the interconnected world of tech, where firms have created new products or services outside the US. Amazon’s groundbreaking AWS cloud hosting technology, for example, was created and developed at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, far from the reach of US regulators.
With honest buy-in from leading companies, the Biden administration could seek more comprehensive laws and regulations. Direct government involvement in technology always runs the risk of stifling innovation. Yet, there is a clear opportunity for smaller countries with knowledge economies to step in. Countries such as Estonia and the UAE that have invested in their knowledge economies and have small populations — and regulatory environments — can follow Biden’s lead with AI safeguards. This would have a powerful effect in cities such as Dubai, where multinational tech companies have set up regional offices. Because there is less red tape in these smaller countries, AI regulations can be pushed through quickly and, perhaps more importantly, amended if they stifle development too aggressively.
Given the hyper-connected world of technology development, the international community cannot wait for larger countries or blocs such as the US and EU to push through legislation first. Instead, new markets that have their tech economies to consider should push ahead with regulations that work for their needs.
The development of AI technology is happening at a remarkable pace. Because it is so essential to the overall technology sector, we do not have the luxury of waiting for world leaders to act first. It is time to lead by example, and AI regulations are an ideal place to start.
• Joseph Dana is a writer based in South Africa and the Middle East. X: @ibnezra
© Syndication Bureau

‘Double Dutch’ poll signals Europe’s changing political mood
Andrew Hammond/Arab News/November 11, 2023
The phrase “double Dutch” is sometimes defined as language that is unintelligible. That phrase seems an apt description of the upcoming election in the Netherlands, the outcome of which is hugely difficult to decipher.
This matters given the stakes in play. For one, the Netherlands has the fifth-largest economy in the EU, and is an influential player on the world stage in wide-ranging policy debates. For instance, the Netherlands was the first non-G7 country to negotiate bilateral security commitments with Ukraine. It took the lead last summer, along with Denmark, in moving toward donating F16 aircraft to Kyiv, and setting up a training center in Romania.
The election is also important as it may well give a good indication of the bloc’s political mood going into next year’s big European Parliament election year. Other recent polls have shown a rightward drift across the continent, although last month’s Polish vote saw Donald Tusk’s centrist coalition potentially winning power. The Nov. 22 Dutch ballot is taking place in the aftermath of the collapse of the fourth coalition government of Prime Minister Mark Rutte, the EU’s second-longest serving leader after Hungary’s Viktor Orban. This is leaving a political vacuum, with Rutte potentially moving to a big international job, possibly as the next NATO secretary general.
The context, too, is the recent history of the rise of the far right in the Netherlands. Today, it is the Freedom Party of political maverick Geert Wilders that tends to get most media coverage on the political far right. It is plausible that Wilders could become a coalition kingmaker if there is a big swing to conservative and anti-establishment parties. While Wilders is the far-right man of the moment, others of a similar ilk have previously made their mark in the nation’s political discourse, including anti-immigrant populist Pim Fortuyn, who was assassinated in 2002.
In this context, there has been much Dutch political volatility in recent years, which was most recently showcased by the success of the populist Farmer-Citizen Movement, or BBB. Formed in 2020, the pro-farmer political party topped the Dutch provincial elections in March, yet its forecast vote share has since fallen from over 20 percent to well below 10 percent.
Driving this political turbulence is the collapse of the Dutch political center ground.
Driving this political turbulence is the collapse of the Dutch political center ground, as has been the case in several other European polities. Parties of the center-right and left have seen their vote share fall off a cliff to around 40 percent today from double that figure in the 1980s.
The latest signal of the volatility that this political vacuum has left is that a three-month-old party, the New Social Contract, has topped some recent opinion polls. The spectacular rise of the NSC reflects popular discontent with a series of government scandals.
NSC leader Pieter Omtzigt left Rutte’s last government in 2021 after helping expose a welfare scandal that brought down the administration. Tax authorities had wrongly denied child benefit payments to more than 20,000 families, incorrectly accusing them of fraud.
This anti-government sentiment has also helped turn the political agenda in a more populist direction. One example is fiscal policy.
The Dutch are traditionally known in Europe for their fiscal caution, yet the current Rutte coalition has overseen the most expansionary set of policies in the country’s modern history. Moreover, election manifesto plans of the key parties point to the likelihood of a continued expansionary fiscal policy that follows the trajectory of the outgoing coalition.
Within this cauldron of discontent, the outcome of the election is highly uncertain.
Another good example is the green transition, and who will pay for it, in a nation which is the world’s second-largest agricultural exporter. One specific issue that has surfaced during the campaign is over nitrogen emissions. Under a Dutch law introduced by Rutter, nitrogen emissions have to be reduced by 50 percent by 2035, a deadline the prime minister has proposed to bring forward to 2030.
Farmers, a powerful political bloc, as the BBB underlined earlier this year, have expressed concerns, as livestock manure and chemical fertilizers are big emitters. Transport and broader industry are also key emitters of nitrogen oxides.
The politics of this issue has forced even former European Commission Green Deal and climate chief Franz Timmermans onto the defensive. Currently leader of the green-left bloc ahead of the upcoming ballot, Timmermans has recently made a big U-turn on this question.
This is politically embarrassing for the former EU commissioner, who is campaigning on a pro-green agenda. His platform includes plans to reduce Dutch greenhouse gas emissions by 65 percent by 2030, significantly beyond the 55 percent EU target.
Within this cauldron of discontent, the outcome of the election is highly uncertain given the tightness of polls. Three main party blocs — the NSC; Rutte’s People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, now led by Dilan Yesilgoz-Zegerius; and Timmerman’s Green-Labour alliance, are seeking to make a polling breakthrough.
However, this is complicated by the Dutch proportional voting system, which means that the Netherlands has seen only coalition governments for over 100 years. No party may win more than 20 percent of the vote (or 30 of 150 seats) in the context of a splintering of smaller parties. About 20 parties have seats in the current legislature, and more than two dozen are running this time, with any party that wins 0.67 percent of the vote assured of winning a seat.
The other key consequence of this hyper-fragmentation is that the eventual coalition may take months to form. Rutte’s last coalition took a remarkable 271 days to establish, and this means he may have to remain caretaker prime minister well into next year.
All things considered, the Dutch election is one of the most unpredictable polls in the nation’s recent politically volatile history. One risk is that a weak government ultimately emerges that turns the traditionally outward-looking country more inwards at a time of growing geopolitical tension.
• Andrew Hammond is an Associate at LSE IDEAS at the London School of Economics.