Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on November 16-17/2023
UN 'fears the worst' if Gaza war expands to Lebanon
French FM Strongly Warns Iranian FM Against Expansion of Conflict in Lebanon
Germany's extensive police operation targets Hezbollah-linked Islamic Association
Hezbollah targets Israeli posts after 'preemptive' strikes on south
Over my dead body': Aoun reportedly intervenes to block army chief term extension
Mikati: The scenes of bloodshed and killing will not silence the truth
Sources to LBCI: Prime Minister requests postponement of debate on Army Commander's retirement, awaiting further deliberation
The government faces two options
Specter of war paralyzes Lebanon's hospitality sector
Parliament rejects committee formation to investigate deposit 'Loss’
Jumblat defends al-Rahi after attacks by pro-Hezbollah activists
Lebanon releases man on bail accused of killing Irish UN peacekeeper
Fear of War Expansion Empties Border Towns in Southern Lebanon
Russian FM: Iran, Lebanon Do Not Want to Expand the Scope of War
Lebanese army leadership doubts grow after talks fail
‘The Battlefield Speaks’... But What About Lebanon and The Lebanese/Hanna Saleh/Asharq Al Awsat/November 16/2023
On Going over the Lebanese Positions Regarding the War/Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al Awsat/November 16/2023

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 16-17/2023
Israel targets sites around Damascus with a missile attack
Canada's long-standing support of Israel at the UN faces pressure in Hamas war
Trudeau affirms support for Israel in call with war cabinet member Benny Gantz
UN Human Rights Chief Says Disease, Hunger Inevitable in Gaza
Hamas tunnel found at Gaza's Al Shifa hospital, says Israel; UN aid halted
Israel army says gains 'operational control' of Gaza port
Gunmen wound several in attack near Jerusalem
Israeli Army Discovers Body of Israeli Hostage near Al-Shifa Hospital
Macron faces rare diplomatic dissent over 'pro-Israeli bias'
Prisoner exchange deal: Israel's conditions intensify challenges in Gaza
Israeli soldier dies of his injury after Thursday's attack in the West Bank
IDF releases footage of weapons it says were found in Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital
2.2 million need food assistance as Gaza Strip risks ‘sliding into hunger hell,’ says WFP
Is Egypt Nearing a Breakthrough in Israel-Hamas Deal?
Israeli President Says Israel Cannot Leave a Vacuum in Gaza
Israeli Military Strikes House of Hamas Leader Haniyeh in Gaza
Israel Presses Gaza Hospital Raid
EU Chief to Visit Egypt, Jordan on Saturday
Blinken speaks with Egypt’s FM about Gaza humanitarian aid
US Former Defense chief says to eradicate Hamas, Iran must be confronted ‘once and for all’
Get out of Khan Younis, Israel tells Palestinian refugees from the north
Internet, phone networks collapse in Gaza, threatening to worsen humanitarian crisis
‘What were they thinking?’: Al Jazeera slammed for ‘insensitive’ interview with Israeli hostage mother alongside Hamas official
Iraq: Al-Halbousi Says Federal Government’s Decision to Terminate his Membership in Parliament is ‘Unconstitutional’

Titles For The Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 16-17/2023
The Biden Administration's Dangerous Solutions For Gaza/Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute./November 16, 2023
Iran Potentially Expanding Its Air Defense Axis in Lebanon and Syria/Farzin Nadimi/The Washington Institute/November 16, 2023
Israeli Offshore Gas Platform Near Gaza Resumes Production/Simon Henderson/The Washington Institute/November 16, 2023
A Resonating Message to Iran: Your Oil Exports Fuel Genocide. Stop Now or Face a Violent Oil Closure & Resultant Iranian Bankruptcy/Lawrence Kadish/Gatestone Institute./November 16, 2023
Children must be protected from the worst effects of war/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/November 16, 2023
Gaza war is taking a shocking toll on journalists/Kerry Boyd Anderson/Arab News/November 16, 2023

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on November 16-17/2023
UN 'fears the worst' if Gaza war expands to Lebanon
Agence France Presse/November 16-17/2023
The U.N. humanitarian chief has said that he and Iran's top diplomat had discussed fears of what an expansion of the Gaza war might entail, and had agreed it "would not be good". At a Geneva press briefing, United Nations humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths voiced deep concern Israel's war against Hamas could expand beyond Gaza, "into the north". "If there is to be a war in the north with Hezbollah and Israel, then I fear the worst," Griffiths said. "We can easily imagine the worst because it will be a war that makes even Gaza with its awful horrors of daily struggle look like just a beginning."
He said he had discussed these concerns with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, whose country supports Hamas and Hezbollah militants in neighboring Lebanon who have been involved in growing hostile exchanges with Israel. "Naturally, the worry about expansion was the topic I discussed mainly with him," Griffiths said. "And of course, he agreed with me that such expansion would not be a good thing." "It would be a regional war, which would affect so many parts," Griffiths said, pointing out that impacts have already been seen in Syria and Yemen. Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas in response to its attacks on October 7, which reportedly killed an estimated 1,200 people and saw 240 hostages taken to Gaza. Israel's ensuing aerial bombardment and ground offensive has killed 11,320 people, mostly civilians, including thousands of children. During Wednesday's meeting, Amir-Abdollahian had called on the U.N. to do more to get desperately needed aid into war-battered Gaza. Griffiths insisted the U.N. had 460 aid trucks ready to go, calling for more border crossings to be opened and appealing for cooperation from all parties to ensure the aid can get in and be distributed throughout Gaza.

French FM Strongly Warns Iranian FM Against Expansion of Conflict in Lebanon
AFP/November 16-17/2023
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna announced that she had "strongly warned" her Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, on Thursday "against any escalation or expansion of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," especially in Lebanon. Colonna stated in a post on the X platform that "contact today with my Iranian counterpart in the form of a warning: expanding the ongoing conflict in Gaza will benefit no one, and Iran will bear a significant responsibility."

Germany's extensive police operation targets Hezbollah-linked Islamic Association
AFP/November 16-17/2023
The German police executed widespread search operations in seven regions of the country, targeting an Islamic association suspected of having ties to the Lebanese Hezbollah, as announced by the Ministry of Interior on Thursday. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser stated, "At a time when many Jews feel threatened, Germany will not tolerate Islamic propaganda or anti-Semitic and anti-Israel incitement." She pointed out that the search operations targeted the “Islamic Center in Hamburg" and five affiliated groups.

Hezbollah targets Israeli posts after 'preemptive' strikes on south
Naharnet/November 16-17/2023
Israeli warplanes and artillery bombed Thursday morning several border towns including al-Khiyam, al-Naqoura, al-Labbouneh, Aita al-Shaab, and Marjeyoun's plain, in strikes described as preemtive. Israel later shelled Kfarkela, Ramia, Odeisseh, Markaba, Beit Leef, Dhaira, Alma al-Shaab, Houla, Mays al-Jabal, Mhaibib, Aitaroun and other border towns after Hezbollah targeted several Israeli posts including al-Assi, Miskav Am, al-Marj, al-Bayyad, Metulla, and the Yiftah barracks. The Israeli army said its fighter jets attacked Hezbollah military positions and a fighter who was operating in Lebanese territory near Shlomi.

Over my dead body': Aoun reportedly intervenes to block army chief term extension
Naharnet/November 16-17/2023
Ex-president Michel Aoun “personally intervened” overnight to block a possible extension of Army chief Joseph Aoun’s term in Thursday’s Cabinet session, MTV quoted sources as saying. “Over my dead body,” the former president reportedly told close associates.“He made phone calls with the relevant parties, especially with Hezbollah,” the sources added. Governmental sources meanwhile told MTV that “Hezbollah is still taking its time regarding the extension of Army chief General Joseph Aoun’s term, not due to the presence of reservations over General Aoun as a person, but in order not to completely destroy the relation with the Free Patriotic Movement.”

Mikati: The scenes of bloodshed and killing will not silence the truth
LBCI/November 16-17/2023
In a statement during a cabinet session at the Grand Serail, Prime Minister Najib Mikati emphasized the collective responsibility of addressing the ongoing crisis, facilitating public affairs, protecting the country, and fortifying its institutions. Addressing the recent events in Gaza, he declared, "The scenes of bloodshed and killing will not silence the truth."Mikati appealed to all Lebanese citizens to unite in order to prevent fatal collapses in Lebanon and collaborate wholeheartedly to protect the country's unity and defend human dignity. Highlighting the discussions at the Arab and Islamic summits, where Gaza and Israeli attacks in the south were central topics, Mikati stated, "All the kings and presidents were responsive, acknowledging the risks and developments of the situation." He underscored the need for deeper introspection and consideration of Lebanon's internal situation in the face of various challenges and dangers. Stressing the urgency of electing a president, he said, "We must work together to complete the institutional framework and collectively strive to make Lebanon stronger and more resilient." Mikati assured that, through his international meetings, he observed a genuine concern for Lebanon. He reiterated Lebanon's Arab relevance and cultural necessity, emphasizing the duty to protect the nation through unity and avoidance of fragmentation. Regarding the Israeli aggression in Gaza, he noted, "The global public opinion is beginning to understand the humanitarian aspect and the dimensions of the Israeli aggression targeting civilians, hospitals, and the destruction of all aspects of life."He welcomed the recent UN Security Council decision as a starting point for a ceasefire and the earnest pursuit of exchanging civilian prisoners, paving the way for a final cessation of hostilities. Mikati also addressed attempts to involve the government in divisive debates of a constitutional and political nature, stating, "We are determined to continue our work, steering clear of sterile debates that have plagued the Lebanese. The government operates according to what it deems appropriate, not according to agendas some try to impose on fundamental milestones at this critical juncture."He affirmed that any decision the government makes regarding significant issues will prioritize the nation's interest and the imperative of fortifying institutions in this crucial period. Mikati emphasized that the government will not be a battleground for settling personal scores or individual disputes at the expense of the public good.

Sources to LBCI: Prime Minister requests postponement of debate on Army Commander's retirement, awaiting further deliberation
LBCI/November 16-17/2023
According to LBCI sources, the Prime Minister has requested a delay in the discussion regarding the postponement of the retirement of the army commander, pending more thorough examination, especially concerning the legal study being prepared by the Secretary-General of the Council of Ministers.

The government faces two options
LBCI/November 16-17/2023
The tense situation in the south and its repercussions on the local scene have reflected a sense of urgency in the domestic political landscape to expedite the process of filling vacancies in the military institution. This article was originally published in, translated from online newspaper Al Anbaa.
This comes as Army Commander General Joseph Aoun is approaching the retirement age on January 10, and the country is entering the holiday season starting mid-December. In the past few hours, there have been contacts involving key headquarters in Ain El-Tineh, the Grand Serail, Baabda Palace, Dar al-Fatwa, and the Parliament, and the purpose was to advocate for the protection of the military institution by preventing a vacuum in the leadership of the army. So far, two obstacles have hindered this: first, the Free Patriotic Movement's rejection of the idea of extension, insisting on an appointment exclusively, and second, demands from some MPs and Sunni figures to consider the position of the Director-General of the Internal Security Forces in such a settlement.

Specter of war paralyzes Lebanon's hospitality sector
Agence France Presse/November 16-17/2023
Bartender Richard Alam has poured hardly any drinks at his pub in Lebanon's seaside city of Byblos, where once-busy streets have emptied of customers scared by border tensions during the Israel-Hamas war. "I opened this whiskey bottle two weeks ago and it still isn't empty," said Alam, 19, standing behind his empty bar in the coastal city, home to a World Heritage site north of Beirut. "Before, we would go through a bottle every day or every other day," he told AFP. Four years into an economic meltdown, Lebanon's restaurants, cafes, hotels and shops face yet another challenge: keeping afloat during the Israel-Hamas war and related hostilities on the Lebanon-Israel border. Gaza-based Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, triggering retaliatory Israeli bombing and a ground offensive in Gaza. Since then, Lebanon's southern border has seen deadly escalating skirmishes, mainly between Israel and Hamas ally Hezbollah. The fighting has so far been limited to the south, but some Western and Arab countries have advised their citizens to leave Lebanon, fearing a broader conflict. Byblos, on Lebanon's northern coast, "relies on tourists," Alam said, wearing a bow tie and a suit. "Our work has gone down from at least 40 to 50 tables a day to... seven at most." Nearby, customers are also scarce at Mona Mujahed's souvenir shop, usually bustling with tourists and locals alike. But there has been "no work, no money", Mujahed, 60, said, sipping coffee in front of her shop where souvenirs sit untouched on the shelves.
'War ruined everything' -
Many domestic visitors fearful of war have also cut back on expenses, hitting restaurants, cafes, bars and shops hard. Since 2019 Lebanese have suffered from a financial crisis branded by the World Bank as one of the planet's worst since the 1850s. It pushed most of the population into poverty, and forced half of all restaurants, cafes, pubs and nightclubs to close down, said Tony Ramy, who heads an industry syndicate. Ramy said the sector was just recently beginning to recover, after expatriate visitors flocked back to Lebanon over the summer following the coronavirus pandemic, the economic collapse and a catastrophic explosion at Beirut's port in 2020. "We had just turned the page on four difficult years with renewed momentum, but unfortunately the war ruined everything," said Ramy, of the restaurant, cafe, nightclub and pastry shop owners' syndicate. "Since October 7 we have seen a dramatic decrease in clientele... (dropping) by up to 80 percent on weekdays and 30 to 50 percent on the weekend," he said. "No one knows if the situation in the south will deteriorate and no one can plan for anything," he said, warning of the potential for "huge losses". Cross-border skirmishes have killed at least 88 people in Lebanon, mostly Hezbollah combatants but also 10 civilians, according to an AFP tally. In northern Israel, nine people including six soldiers have been killed, according to official figures. Lebanon's national carrier Middle East Airlines (MEA) has slashed flights, and passenger numbers from the region to Beirut have dropped by 54 percent compared to last year, said the airline's spokesperson Rima Makkawi. MEA passengers from Europe have also dropped by 30 percent compared to the same period last year, she added.
Optimism born of tragedy
In Beirut's once-bustling and vibrant Hamra area, the four-star Hotel Cavalier has seen hundreds of cancellations. "From the first week (of hostilities), cancellations soared dramatically," manager Ayman Nasser El Dine, 41, said in the deserted lobby.
"We had zero new reservations... This would be catastrophic if it lasts," he said. More than half of the hotel's 65 rooms were pre-booked for November, but now staff barely welcome a dozen guests per day, he said. The Cavalier was also overbooked for December and hotels had been looking forward to the Christmas holiday rush, he added. But that was before the war. Pierre Ashkar, who heads the hotel owners' syndicate, said room occupancy had plummeted from about 45 percent to between zero and seven percent. "Reservations have been cancelled for the next two or three months" as countries advised their citizens against travelling to Lebanon, he said. Even if the Hamas-Israel war ends tomorrow, Ashkar said "we need another month or two until countries change their travel advice so we can return to business as usual". But he expressed optimism that hotels in Lebanon, which saw civil war from 1975-1990, a 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, and the 2020 port explosion, would rebound once calm returned. "We are a strong-willed people, born and bred during times of war," Ashkar said. "If we didn't have a long experience in crisis management, the sector would have long gone bankrupt."

Parliament rejects committee formation to investigate deposit 'Loss’
LBCI/November 16-17/2023
Financial sources have confirmed that the recent visit of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission to Lebanon in September included discussions with Speaker of the Parliament Nabih Berri and several MPs regarding the issue of deposits and how they pose a stumbling block to the implementation of the agreement signed by Lebanon with the IMF in April 2022.
This article was originally published in and translated from Lebanese newspaper Nidaa Al-Watan.
Sources revealed to Nidaa Al-Watan that there had been a hidden request, lingering for months, suggesting that the head of the mission proposed the formation of a parliamentary fact-finding committee to investigate how these deposits were spent.
Based on the results, responsibility for repayment would be determined between the banks and the state, either fully or partially. However, this request was met with parliamentary rejection, surprising the mission members. The continuous denial of the extent of the losses, humorously referred to as a "gap," also surprised them.The sources pointed out that the Parliament formed a committee in 2020 to investigate the reality of financial sector losses. Still, it now refuses to repeat the "great experiment" in the issue of the deposit, which has sparked widespread controversy in the country and hindered any notable progress in the long-awaited financial and economic reform program for nearly four years. Furthermore, the sources believe that the Parliament is evading its role, attributing blame solely to the government, even though there is a draft law in the Parliament to regulate withdrawals and transfers (capital control) that cannot find its way to approval due to alleged disagreements. Although the Parliament amended the banking secrecy law twice, it remains without the ambition sought by the IMF, which has renewed its request for its amendment. Parliament also has a profound disagreement over a draft law aimed at rebalancing the financial system. The sources stated, "This is a small part of the Lebanese Parliament's reluctance to play its role, whether at the committee level or in the absence of the convening of the general assembly in the absence of the President." The sources added, "The tax reform demanded by the IMF is a contentious issue and finds no receptive ears in the government and Parliament. Those calling for an assessment of the banks' situation ignore that this evaluation exists in the Banking Control Commission, and the government and Parliament can request it to make decisions based on the findings, away from casting accusations of negligence."It is worth noting that the preliminary agreement with the IMF stipulates limiting the use of public assets and revenues to cover losses and repay deposits. However, some MPs are trying to place full responsibility on the state, insisting it restructures the old debt, commits to repaying it, and embarks on a new public debt, increasing social spending on a population where 80% live below multiple dimensions of poverty lines. Moreover, the state is expected to invest in a crumbling infrastructure. Above all, it must bear primary responsibility for deposit repayment. The sources deemed this equation nearly impossible. In conclusion, the sources stressed, "If the Lebanese can come up with a miracle, the IMF will be very happy and will learn from the experience if it succeeds. But forcing it into an attempt now confirms that its success is among the impossible."

Jumblat defends al-Rahi after attacks by pro-Hezbollah activists
Naharnet/November 16-17/2023
Druze leader Walid Jumblat on Thursday defended Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi after he was attacked on social media by pro-Hezbollah journalists and activists. “We condemn any domestic inflammatory remarks, especially against Patriarch al-Rahi, during this extraordinarily dangerous period in the history of Lebanon and the region,” Jumblat said in a post on the X platform, formerly Twitter. “Internal unity is above any consideration,” he added. Al-Rahi had on Wednesday said: “Our people in the South are leaving their homes and this means further poverty, that’s why we have asked our parishioners to offer sums of money and to present Sundays’ trays (of donations) to our people who are coming from the southern towns.” Since October 8, thousands of residents have fled the southern border towns amid daily clashes between Israel and Hezbollah against the backdrop of the war in Gaza. Al-Rahi’s remarks infuriated some pro-Hezbollah activists, including al-Manar reporter Ali Shoaib and al-Mayadeen reporter Ali Murtada, who launched vehement attacks and insults against al-Rahi on their social media accounts.

Lebanon releases man on bail accused of killing Irish UN peacekeeper
Associated Press/November 16-17/2023
Lebanon's military tribunal has released a man accused of killing an Irish United Nations peacekeeper almost a year ago on bail, security and judicial officials said. The development comes as UNIFIL, the U.N.'s peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, monitors ongoing clashes along the border between Hezbollah and Israeli troops. Lebanon's military tribunal in June charged Mohamad Ayyad and four others with the killing of Pvt. Seán Rooney, 24, of Newtown Cunningham, Ireland, following a half-year probe. Rooney was killed on Dec. 14, 2022. Ayyad was detained in December 2022. The four others facing charges — Ali Khalifeh, Ali Salman, Hussein Salman, and Mustafa Salman — remain at large. All five are allegedly linked with Hezbollah. Hezbollah has repeatedly denied any role in the killing. UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti said he was aware of reports about Ayyad's release due to his "deteriorating health" and that UNIFIL is "working to confirm this information with the military court.""The Government of Lebanon has on several occasions stated its commitment to bring the perpetrators to justice," Tenenti told The Associated Press. Last June, Tenenti said the indictment was an "important step towards justice.""We continue to urge that all perpetrators be held accountable, and for justice for Private Rooney and his family," he said. Two Lebanese officials confirmed that Ayyad was released on bail, which one of them said was in an amount of 1.2 billion Lebanese pounds (approximately $13,377). The official said the Ayyad had cancer and his lawyer had provided the necessary medical documents, adding that the trial is still ongoing and that Ayyad would go to jail should he be convicted and sentenced. Both officials spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. On the fatal night, Rooney and several other Irish soldiers from UNIFIL were on their way from their base in southern Lebanon to the Beirut airport. Two U.N. vehicles apparently took a detour through al-Aqbiyeh, which is not part of the area under the peacekeepers' mandate. Initial reports said angry residents confronted the peacekeepers, but the indictment concluded that the shooting was a targeted attack. The U.N. peacekeeper vehicle reportedly took a wrong turn and was surrounded by vehicles and armed men as they tried to make their way back to the main road. The Lebanese Army on Dec. 27 arrested a suspect but did not disclose their name. The Irish military did not immediately comment on the development. UNIFIL was created to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon after Israel's 1978 invasion. The U.N. expanded its mission following the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, allowing peacekeepers to deploy along the Israeli border to help the Lebanese military extend its authority into the country's south for the first time in decades. Hezbollah supporters in Lebanon frequently accuse the U.N. mission of collusion with Israel, while Israel has accused the peacekeepers of turning a blind eye to Hezbollah's military activities in southern Lebanon.

Fear of War Expansion Empties Border Towns in Southern Lebanon
Beirut: Nazeer Rida/Asharq Al Awsat/November 16/2023
Ahmed, a 38-year-old resident of Khiam in southern Lebanon, left his home on Oct. 8 and has not returned since. “There is no prospect of return as long as the war persists,” he tells Asharq Al-Awsat, citing the high risks of targeting, especially after the Saturday evening strike on a civilian house in the town square. Additionally, the living conditions in the town have deteriorated with shortages of goods and companies refraining from delivering to the area. The border region in southern Lebanon appears almost deserted, according to visitors in the past week. Daily shelling continues to impact various towns along the more than 110-kilometer border area, reaching depths of 5 to 8 kilometers. Visitors describe sudden clashes and the constant sound of artillery, with Israeli drones dominating the area. Most residents of Lebanon’s southern region left their homes in the first week of the war. Those with homes in Beirut moved there, while others who could afford to rent in Beirut, Nabatieh, or Sidon also relocated.Only those who have never left their homes throughout their lives or those forced by their work to stay, such as farmers and livestock breeders, remain. Residents now lack the “security” they experienced for 17 years.
Many residents in Beirut refrain from visiting their villages and homes during the weekend, and few dare to visit their villages for olive harvesting this season. Thousands of residents evacuated in the first week, fearing the expansion of the conflict into a full-scale war. Approximately 38 towns and villages along the border from Shabaa in the east to Naqoura in the west have been evacuated. Estimates suggest that more than 40,000 displaced people from southern Lebanon are spread across various regions, including Tyre, Sidon, the southern suburbs of Beirut, and the southern Mount Lebanon districts of Shouf and Aley.

Russian FM: Iran, Lebanon Do Not Want to Expand the Scope of War
Moscow: Raed Jaber/Asharq Al Awsat/November 16/2023
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned of the consequences of prolonged escalation in the Gaza war, cautioning that the US may want to widen the conflict beyond the regional borders. Lavrov stressed in a press interview published Wednesday that Iran and Lebanon do not want to get involved in the current conflict, but he warned of the danger of Tel Aviv treating this restraint "as weakness, and as a green light to do anything in Gaza, this would be a huge mistake."Lavrov strongly criticized the United States, saying, "Washington doesn't want to tie Israel's hands," reiterating his belief that it may want to extend the Gaza crisis outside the scope of the Middle East region.Regarding the United States war policy, Lavrov saw that the US administration was unprepared for anything other than a humanitarian truce without commitments.
He recalled that Washington rejected a resolution calling for a humanitarian ceasefire and was only ready to say "a humanitarian pause" without any promise to continue these efforts. Russia presented two resolutions calling for a ceasefire in the conflict in the Gaza Strip, but Washington still considers "anything coming from Russia is taken as a hostile act, hostile initiative." Lavrov asserted that the creation of the Palestinian state is "unavoidable," explaining that "in historical terms, in sustainable settlement terms, the second aspect of this problem, which is much more important, the creation of the Palestinian state is unavoidable." Most of the discussions related to the future of the Gaza Strip do not currently address the establishment of a Palestinian state adjacent to Israel, said Lavrov, recalling that President Vladimir Putin had previously stressed the necessity of returning to a political path based on the establishment of a Palestinian state within the framework of the two-state solution.

Lebanese army leadership doubts grow after talks fail
Arab News/November 16, 2023
BEIRUT: An emergency meeting by the Lebanese caretaker Cabinet on Thursday failed to extend the term of Lebanese Armed Forces Commander Joseph Aoun, whose mandate ends in 55 days. Aoun is also a possible presidential candidate. A fresh political statement is expected to be released as the military situation remains tense on Lebanon’s southern border with Israel. Hezbollah has targeted Israeli sites, including the Misgav Am, Bayad Blida, Metula, Asi, and Harmon areas, as well as the Yiftah barracks. The group also targeted an Israeli ground force gathering on Karantina hill near the Hadab Yaron site with “appropriate weapons and achieved direct hits.”Israeli forces responded with aerial bombardment of Lebanese border villages, towns, plains and forests using phosphorus missiles. The proposal to extend Aoun’s term suggested delaying the dismissal age by either one year, six months or until the election of a new president. Acting Information Minister Abbas Halabi said the cabinet decided that the extension terms required additional discussion so that a solution could be reached by all parties. It was also agreed that military leadership should not be left vacant and that the “mission of the army commander must continue,” he added.
Political analysts said that the year-long presidential vacuum in Lebanon is likely to hinder the appointment of a new army commander, which technically requires an elected president and cabinet. The Lebanese ruling class is seeking solutions to the problem that resolve differences between the country’s political parties.The vacuum in military leadership is the latest setback to affect Lebanon, with the country also lacking a central bank governor and president. Maronite Christians have traditionally held all three positions. Lebanese security, judicial work and diplomacy has slowed amid the lack of leadership. Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati warned that “internal unity” must be protected amid the escalation on Lebanon’s southern border and “the repercussions of the Gaza war.” Unity is needed to “avoid fatal collapses in Lebanon,” he added.
Mikati criticized “some people’s attempt to drag the Cabinet again into discussions that are constitutional and political on the outside, but disruptive and vengeful on the inside.”
He said: “We are keen on moving forward with our work. The Cabinet works based on what it deems convenient, not according to the agendas some try to impose to overshadow major electoral events in this critical phase.” Mikati added: “Any decision we will make regarding any looming electoral event will stem primarily from the country’s interest and the priority to protect the institutions in this critical stage. “The cabinet will certainly not be a field used by those who want to settle personal scores and individual disputes at the expense of public interest.”
One political observer told Arab News that removing Aoun’s proposed extension from discussion aimed to prevent immediate rifts within the cabinet, after Christian members failed to reach a consensus. But calls have grown in recent days to end the military leadership vacuum before holidays begin. The Free Patriotic Movement has rejected the Aoun extension proposal, insisting on exclusive appointments. And several Sunni MPs and personalities have demanded to choose a new Internal Security Forces chief — a position that will be left vacant after Maj. Gen. Imad Othman retires. Representatives of the National Moderation bloc proposed a law a few days ago to postpone the retirement of Lebanon’s security chiefs by one year. The law is also supported by the Lebanese Forces and Progressive Socialist blocs. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri — an ally of Hezbollah — said he was ready to cooperate and hold a legislative session next month “to ensure the institutional vacuum is avoided.”The Political Council of the Free Patriotic Movement — headed by MP Gebran Bassil — described efforts to extend Aoun’s term as “a programmed, intimidating political and media campaign with political goals.”It claimed there was “no possibility” of a vacuum occurring in military leadership. The FPM council said: “The right to command according to the rank is what rules, even during war. So, why resort to unconstitutional and illegal solutions that would lead to appeal?” Bassil strongly opposes Aoun’s nomination for Lebanon’s presidency. Meanwhile, Hezbollah has remained silent over the military leadership vacancy despite its political alliance with the Free Patriotic Movement. Extending Aoun’s term requires securing a quorum for cabinet or a quorum for parliament, meaning the support of Hezbollah, the Amal Movement and its allies is necessary for the proposal to be approved.

‘The Battlefield Speaks’... But What About Lebanon and The Lebanese
Hanna Saleh/Asharq Al Awsat/November 16/2023
More than ever, Lebanese citizens, especially those in the south, want to see United Nations Resolution 1701 implemented. They want to see it respected and complied with, rather than the government trying to be shrewd and taking face-saving measures.
They are alarmed by the escalation in the missile and artillery exchanges across the Blue Line, the onset of drone warfare, and the air raids in Iqlim al-Tuffah and Jezzine, both of which are north of the Litani River. After Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants encroached into the border region, joining the ally Hezbollah, the significance of UN Resolution 1701 has become clear to the Lebanese citizens. Thanks to the resolution, along with the presence of UNIFIL and the limited deployment of the army, the south had been stable since the 2006 war, giving its people a sense of security that allowed for development and prosperity, and crucially, allowed them to remain on their land. The Lebanese, who have been plundered and impoverished, are suffering from the unfair financial and economic measures taken by an obsolete political class. They had not expected those who have hijacked the state and its decision-making to so lightly add a new burden that their shoulders cannot bear and risk turning Lebanon into “a second Gaza.” The republic's decapitated state looks the other way, with the executive and parliament unable to make decisions, public institutions have been eroding and state bodies are doing nothing to help residents who need medicine and food. Watching the horrors of the destruction in Gaza, and the systematic effort to uproot the people of Gazans through this genocide, terrifying scenes from the July War are brought to mind: the southern suburbs and entire towns turned to rubble, hundreds of thousands were displaced, the destruction of bridges cut regions off from one another, along Lebanon was cut off from the world.
To their surprise, they then see Hassan Nasrallah announce that “the battlefield will do the talking.” But what of Lebanon, its interests, and the rights of the Lebanese? How can the frailty of the situation and the social collapse of the country be ignored? Everyone, including those who live in Hezbollah’s “strongholds,” has been left to fend for themselves as the country collapses and famine looms.
Does Hezbollah, which unilaterally decides matters of war and peace after marginalizing the country’s already weak and perpetually dependent authorities, want to say that an absolute mandate has been granted to those bearing arms, that they can act as they see fit? That is an insult to the intelligence of the country’s citizens, and it trivializes the country’s interests, as well as disregarding the risk of miscalculations that could precipitate a devastating war. It is terrifying to see Hezbollah ignore warnings from Lebanon's allies, as well as the threats and actions of the enemy, especially given the Zionist military’s intention to launch a devastating attack on Lebanon in an effort to regain prestige and deterrence, after the surprise attack from Gaza undermined it. It is concerning to see the government looking the other way and disregarding its duties and responsibilities. The same could be said of Parliament and its Speaker, as Tehran declares that “the war has expanded, and Lebanon has entered the conflict” There is also the question of whether Hezbollah can overlook the deployment of significant US military assets in the Eastern Mediterranean and the region. Can it merely dismiss the pressure Washington is exerting to prevent escalation in this war? As part of this effort, the US has deterred Israel from launching a preemptive strike against Lebanon. The most recent example of this was the exchange between US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant, with the former publicly warning against escalation. Is it not time to take responsibility, especially since at least 50 percent of residents have abandoned their villages south of the Litani?
That begs the question of how consequential “distracting” the enemy from its northern front really is. It has deployed soldiers there, but how significant is this deployment when it would not be feasible to deploy the entire Israeli army to fight in the limited space of the Gaza Strip?
How will the “battlefield” add to the 'party's' achievements as so many young Lebanese men perish, to say nothing about the civilians who are often overlooked, especially as the skirmishes remain limited and Lebanon has not yet been pushed into the furnace of total war? The enemy threatens us with the Gaza model, that is, with the implementation of the “Dahiyah Doctrine,” a strategy of collective punishment that seeks to cause extensive damage and destruction. Ultimately, Hezbollah, as well as the authorities covering its hijacking of the country's decision-making, will be held accountable for how lightly war was instigated, and their disregard for people’s lives, security, stability, and their right to a safe future.
Moreover, as the world watches live coverage of the genocide that has turned Gaza's hospitals into mass graves, as well as the heroic actions of Gazans, a fundamental shift in the international agenda has been imposed as Zionist brutality exacerbates. People around the world realize that the conflict is not being fought to ensure security, and many have spoken to call for ending the occupation and recognized that this is the only way to allow the region and the world a way out of this impasse.
As the lies about the events of October 7 are debunked, the London protests forced the resignation of the Home Secretary. In the US, hundreds of journalists held newsrooms responsible for inhumane rhetoric that “justifies the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.” An internal memorandum signed by 100 officials in the US State Department accused President Biden of spreading “misinformation” about the war in Gaza, making him complicit in genocide. A diplomatic rebellion has been launched against President Macron's biased position in favor of Israel.
As the world boils, the joint Arab-Islamic Summit in Riyadh, which brought together 57 countries representing over one and a half billion people, is a significant milestone. It is difficult to ignore the summit's declaration that occupation led to 'October 7' and its assertion that Israel's actions amount to genocide, meaning that the perpetrators must be held accountable. The summit also affirmed that the alternative to occupation is a comprehensive political solution: a two-state solution that gives rise to a viable Palestinian state. Given these developments, nothing should be prioritized above the need to safeguard the lives of Lebanese citizens and to defend them by keeping Lebanon out of the “stomping ground.” Simultaneously, we must unite around the legitimate demands of the Palestinian people for a fully sovereign and independent state.

On Going over the Lebanese Positions Regarding the War
Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al Awsat/November 16/2023
The Lebanese have divergent opinions on what “intervention” is apt in Gaza amid the calamities that Israel’s brutality is giving rise to. At least on social media, some of the opinions from across the spectrum seem to reflect the sectarian backgrounds of those voicing them and their political and intellectual experiences. One segment, for example, believes that what happens outside our borders should be of absolutely no concern to us; another has the opposite opinion, calling for full and immediate engagement in the war taking place there. A third segment has gone beyond expressing support for Gaza and also supports Hamas, but nonetheless does not want Lebanon to become entangled in this war.
And, of course, there is a segment that wants “whatever the Sayyed wants,” meaning Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, who is, according to them, the only person who knows what should and should not be done; and all we have to do is act on that knowledge.
Those saying that the “matter is of absolutely no concern to us” are clearly driven to take this stance by the civil strife that the country has seen since the 1970s and their fears of becoming entangled in a new open-ended conflict. Nonetheless, their crass rhetoric demonstrates an insensitivity to others’ pain. These claims are made lightly, as the outcomes of this war will clearly have repercussions for Lebanon, as well as the broader region.
As for those pushing for total and immediate engagement in the war, they pay no mind to anything but entering the fight: they pay no mind to the history of the country and its conflicts, the current state of relations between its communities and their future, Lebanon’s military and economic weakness, or the notion that it should be run by a sovereign elected state that makes this dangerous decision... Regardless of whether they are Lebanese or reside in Lebanon, to them, the country is nothing more than a pathway for fighting Israel.
However, the least coherent argument is that of those who share Hamas’s goal of wiping out the Jewish state and liberating all of Palestine, but do not want to see Lebanon entangled in the conflict. Indeed, for Hamas’s goals to be achieved, the entire region, including Lebanon of course, must enter the fray. If, that is, those making this argument mean what they are saying.
These opinions and examining them is made more important by the fact that “stumbling” into this war is a real possibility, be it through a conscious decision or as a result of the “contained” military operations going beyond their bounds, especially since state paralysis has rendered UN Resolution 1701 expendable.
The fact is that the vast majority of Lebanese (even if their public statements do not always suggest it) are deeply sympathetic to the suffering of the people in Gaza and are convinced that establishing a Palestinian state is a pressing need; however, they are even more convinced that the country must avoid any involvement in the fighting. This view - even if not all those who advocate it affirm this fact - is an extension of a Lebanese tradition that had allowed the country to avoid involvement in the wars of 1967 and 1973, as well as allowing it to avoid falling into the grip of military rule, while also granting the Palestinian cause an important platform from which it could be defended and brought closer to the outside world.
The truth is that this opinion is made far more compelling by the tribulations Lebanon has endured over the past two decades, which have left it poorer and widened the schisms between its communities, to say nothing about the fact that the destruction that would ensue from any involvement in the war would surpass, by a very wide margin, the damage Hezbollah could inflict on Israel by joining the conflict. It seems that going over these positions is also important for another reason tied to the future of the Lebanese and their ability to continue living together as the common ground they share shrinks. The scale of the sectarian cleavages apparent on social media, within the front that claims to be united and is supposedly behind the resistance and wants to join the fight regardless of the costs, has been quite telling. In many instances, these schisms have taken the form of scouring through contested histories, be they recent, like the revolution and civil war in Syria, or distant, like early Islamic history. While what has been called the “ambiguous” position of Hezbollah regarding its engagement in the war gave rise to clashes on social media, fears are growing that we could see a strengthening of the inclination to impose a single view and position on the pluralism of Lebanon. The continuation of the Israeli war and its brutality are valid reasons for such fears, as is the fact that the climate of conflict with Israel does not suffice to unite the un-unitable; usually, that kind of climate pushes matters in the opposite direction, reinforcing divisions and fueling tensions.
This discovery, which we are seeing with our own eyes for the thousandth time, undercuts a theory dear to the hearts of those who called for open-ended conflicts that “unite us.” The more apparent it becomes that this “unity” is actually an illusion, the stronger fears become that “unity” will be imposed on society, if not on its thoughts, then on its expression. This, in turn, has been an inveterate aspect of our experience, and we have a long history of circumventing our actual problems by opening the floodgates to slander and accusations of treachery.

Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 16-17/2023
Israel targets sites around Damascus with a missile attack
Damascus/dpa”/November 16/2023
Early today, Friday, air defenses responded to an Israeli missile attack that targeted a number of points around Damascus. A military source stated in a statement to the Syrian regime’s news agency, SANA, that “at approximately 25:02 AM today - Friday - (2325 PM Thursday GMT) the Israeli enemy carried out an air attack from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting a number of points.” In the vicinity of Damascus.” The source added, “Our air defense means responded to the aggression’s missiles and shot down most of them, indicating that the aggression led to some material losses.”

Canada's long-standing support of Israel at the UN faces pressure in Hamas war
The Canadian Press /November 16, 2023
OTTAWA — Canada's long-standing support of Israel in votes at the United Nations has come under renewed scrutiny during the latest Israel-Hamas war. On Oct. 27, Canada abstained on a motion calling for a sustained humanitarian truce in the Gaza Strip, and last week, it joined Israel and the U.S. in voting down a motion about Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Canada was also among only four states that rejected a different motion last week calling on Israel to stop impeding the work of the UN agency that conducts humanitarian efforts for Palestinians, and it also rejected a motion affirming the property rights of Arabs inside Israel.Here's how Ottawa has approached these votes over time, and what experts say it could mean for Canada's relationship with developing countries.
A LONG-STANDING POLICY
Israel is regularly subject to motions at the United Nations condemning its treatment of Palestinians. Many Arab countries argue that Israeli officials are violating international law. Israel rebuffs those claims, arguing it receives disproportionate scrutiny animated by antisemitism. Kerry Buck, a former Canadian ambassador to NATO, said in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that Ottawa has generally taken pro-Israel positions since the time of Paul Martin's Liberal government, which was in power from 2004 until 2006. That's a trend that increased under Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper and that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has largely kept in place, said Buck. "Any minor shift is significant," she added in an email. Votes by Canada's mission to the UN have received more attention since Israel declared a war against Hamas last month, following its militants' brazen Oct. 7 attacks that killed an estimated 1,200 people in Israel. The Israeli military's assault on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip has local officials saying that more than 11,470 Palestinians have been killed. Canada's delegation has taken the unusual step of putting out a statement clarifying its approach. "We would like to underscore our long-standing concern that there are still too many resolutions related to the Arab-Israeli conflict being put forward at the UN General Assembly every year. And too many of these also unfairly single out Israel," the mission wrote on Nov. 9. "Canada reiterates the importance of a fair-minded approach at the United Nations and will continue to vote 'no' on resolutions that do not address the complexities of the issues or seek to address the actions and responsibilities of all parties, including the destructive role of terrorist organizations like Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah." David Carment, a Carleton University international-affairs professor who is editor of the Canadian Foreign Policy Journal, noted that the Liberals had faced intense scrutiny in November 2020 when Canada, which advocates a two-state solution to the protracted conflict, voted in favour of a motion supporting Palestinian self-determination.
RECENT VOTES AT THE UN
On Oct. 27, less than three weeks into the war, Canada abstained on a motion calling for an "immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce" in Gaza.
Canada's lead ambassador to the UN, Bob Rae, moved an amendment to acknowledge that Israel's tactics were the result of terrorist attacks by Hamas. When that motion failed, Rae abstained from supporting the motion. "We consider it essential that the international community speak clearly in condemning this terrorism by Hamas," Global Affairs Canada wrote in a statement. Last week, Canada joined Israel, the U.S., Hungary and three small island states in voting down a motion about Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The motion called for an end to settlements that violate international law and sought accountability for Israel violating the UN charter. Ferry de Kerckhove, a former high-ranking Canadian diplomat, said despite that voting decision, the motion fell squarely in line with Canada's long-standing policy on the Middle East, which notes: "Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The settlements also constitute a serious obstacle to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace."Also last week, Canada was among just four states — along with Israel, the U.S. and Micronesia — that rejected a motion calling on Israel to stop impeding the work of the UN agency that undertakes development and humanitarian work for Palestinians, known as UNRWA, and to ensure the safety of its personnel. Canada, Israel, the U.S. and three small island states rejected a motion affirming the property rights of Arabs inside Israel.
REACTION TO CANADA'S VOTING DECISIONS
Canada's votes at the United Nations tend to get attention, and prompt strong opinions, from those who closely follow policy toward the Middle East. But former Canadian diplomats are also now joining the list of people who have been questioning the votes.
Louise Blais, a former second-in-command at Canada's United Nations mission, called the vote on settlements a "devastating decision for Canada's standing in the world" that comes with "an enormous cost." She wrote on the platform X that in her experience, the United States would not have asked Ottawa to take such a line. Rosemary McCarney, another former ambassador to the UN, replied to that post by saying that "for the average Canadian, this vote implies Canadians support the illegal settlements and the continuing policy to do so."
CANADA'S HISTORY WITH UNWRA
Canada's approach to the UN agency serving Palestinians has its own history.
Jewish groups and past Canadian governments have taken UNRWA to task over social-media statements by the agency's staff that they argue don't uphold neutrality. They also voice concerns that the UN aid could be diverted to Hamas, which Canada and others consider a terrorist organization.The Harper government cut off Canadian funding for UNRWA in 2010, amid allegations it was too closely tied to Hamas. But the Nov. 9 vote came the same day that Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly praised UNRWA for providing the essentials of life in Gaza, noting it's "the only organization able to concretely do this" and that Canada is "a significant donor" to the agency. In a rare public statement, Canada's mission at the UN laid out its thinking for the vote following Joly's comments. It said that Canada's funding is in part "to identify, monitor and follow up on neutrality violations" and boost "transparency and accountability of UNRWA's approach to humanitarian principles."The United Nations says the recent Gaza conflict has killed more than 100 of its aid workers, the most such workers killed in any conflict in UN history.
THE IMPLICATIONS OF CANADA'S STANCE
Former diplomats and academics argue Canada's UN votes risk putting Ottawa offside with developing countries in the Global South, while undercutting its own stance on the Middle East. "It's very difficult to say anything positive about our government's position on the Middle East peace process, on the settlements, on all of these issues, because we no longer have the moral fibre to actually at least recognize some of the horrors that are being meted out on the Palestinians," de Kerckhove said. He says Canada is losing the relevancy it would need in the campaign it launched in May to gain a seat on the UN Human Rights Council. "Twice we presented our candidacy to the Security Council and we brilliantly failed," he said, referencing Canada's loss in 2020 and 2010 at the UN's highest body. "We're no longer the country that has the moral rectitude to actually be convincing."Buck said the vote on settlements was unsurprising. She co-authored a report last month for an advisory panel on Canada's role at the UN, published by Carleton University. The report argued that pro-Israel votes isolate Ottawa in some forums. "The government has positioned itself as (an) outlier on some key UN debates, at times favouring domestic political positioning at the expense of its broader UN objectives. Canada's stances on (UN Security Council) reform and Middle East issues, for instance, have alienated key UN members," the report reads. Carment said Canada is undercutting its connections with the Global South, just weeks after Joly spoke in a keynote speech about the need for Canada to acknowledge that developing countries feel global institutions uphold double standards."Canada is an outlier here (in) the court of public opinion," he said. "Most of the world doesn't see the conflict (in) the way that it's been framed."

Trudeau affirms support for Israel in call with war cabinet member Benny Gantz
The Canadian Press/November 16, 2023
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke with Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz to affirm Canada's support for Israel "and its right to defend itself in accordance with international law," Trudeau's office said Thursday. In a summary of the Wednesday evening call, the Prime Minister's Office said Trudeau strongly emphasized "the importance of taking all possible measures to protect civilians and to minimize casualties" in the Israel-Hamas war. Gantz released a summary of his own on X, the social-media platform formerly known as Twitter, on Thursday morning. He said Trudeau "conveyed to me his long-standing support for the state of Israel and Israel's right to self-defence.""We discussed the war’s development in Gaza, the atrocious Hamas terror attack and the efforts to release the hostages held in Gaza immediately," Gantz said. Both statements also noted that the pair discussed their concerns about rising antisemitism and spoke about Hamas, which Canada recognizes as a terrorist organization, using civilians as human shields in the Gaza Strip. "Prime Minister Trudeau reiterated Canada’s support for the right of Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace, dignity, and security, and he reaffirmed Canada's enduring support for a two-state solution," the Prime Minister's Office said. The conversation with Gantz came after Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly reacted to strongly worded comments from Trudeau urging Israel to use "maximum restraint" in preserving civilian life.
"I have been clear that the price of justice cannot be the continued suffering of all Palestinian civilians. Even wars have rules," Trudeau said Tuesday in Vancouver. "The world is witnessing this. The killing of women and children, of babies." In response, Netanyahu posted on X to say, "While Israel is doing everything to keep civilians out of harm's way, Hamas is doing everything to keep them in harm's way. "It is Hamas, not Israel, that should be held accountable for committing a double war crime — targeting civilians while hiding behind civilians."
The current conflict began on Oct. 7 when Hamas militants killed 1,200 Israelis in brutal surprise attacks. The attackers also took about 240 people hostage, bringing them into the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. In response, Israel declared war on Hamas, began an airstrike campaign and cut off food, fuel, water and supplies to Gaza, which is home to 2.3 million Palestinians. The territory's health officials say more than 11,470 people have been killed, two-thirds of them women and children. Another 2,700 people are reported missing, believed to be buried under rubble created by airstrikes. The official count does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths, and Israel says it has killed thousands of militants. Foreign nationals have been trying to flee the besieged territory through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt. But none of the 386 people connected to Canada who are trying to leave were able to cross into Egypt Thursday. The General Authority for Crossings and Borders published the latest list of approved people on its Facebook page early in the morning and it did not include any Canadians. Global Affairs Canada said Thursday that 367 Canadian citizens, permanent residents and family members have been able to get out so far, including nine people who left without the government's help. Two people were able to leave on Wednesday, and 10 made the trip on Monday. The Canadian government said it cannot determine how many people can cross each day. Internet and telephone services collapsed across the Gaza Strip on Thursday for lack of fuel, the main Palestinian provider said. "Even if there is an outage of communications, we continue to try to contact Canadian citizens, permanent residents and their eligible family members through all available channels and will also continue to be in touch with their loved ones in Canada," Global Affairs said Thursday. Meanwhile, Israel signalled that its offensive against Hamas could next target the south of the territory, where most of the population has taken refuge. If the assault moves into the south, it is not clear where people would go, as Egypt refuses to allow a mass transfer onto its soil. The international community — even Israel's closest ally, the United States — has expressed rising concern about the civilian death toll. The U.S. has not told Israel to wrap up the war, but it has warned the Israelis that international criticism will grow the longer the war lasts. On Thursday, for a second day, Israeli troops were searching Shifa Hospital in the territory's north for traces of Hamas. They displayed guns they said were hidden in one building, but had yet to release any evidence of a central Hamas command centre that Israel had said is concealed beneath the complex. Hamas and staff at the hospital, Gaza's largest, deny the allegations.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 16, 2023.

UN Human Rights Chief Says Disease, Hunger Inevitable in Gaza
Asharq Al Awsat/16 November 2023
The United Nations human rights chief said on Thursday outbreaks of disease and hunger seemed "inevitable" in Gaza after weeks of Israeli assault on the densely populated Palestinian enclave. Speaking at an informal briefing to states at the United Nations in Geneva after visiting the Middle East, Volker Turk said the depletion of fuel would be "catastrophic" across Gaza, leading to the collapse of sewage systems, healthcare and ending the scarce humanitarian aid being supplied. "Massive outbreaks of infectious disease, and hunger, seem inevitable," Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said. The World Health Organization has warned of "worrying trends" in disease spread in Gaza, saying there had been an unusually large number of cases of diarrheal disease in the enclave, where bombardments and a ground operation have disrupted the health system, access to clean water and caused people to crowd into shelters. Turk, who described the bombardment by Israel as "of an intensity rarely experienced in this century," also expressed concern about increasing violence and discrimination against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
"In my view, this creates a potentially explosive situation, and I want to be clear: we are well beyond the level of early warning," Turk said. "I am ringing the loudest possible alarm bell about the occupied West Bank."

Hamas tunnel found at Gaza's Al Shifa hospital, says Israel; UN aid halted
Nidal al-Mughrabi and Ari Rabinovitch/Reuters/ Novvember 17/2023
Israeli soldiers found a tunnel shaft used by Hamas militants at Gaza's Al Shifa hospital, the army said, while the U.N. voiced concern no aid would be delivered to Palestinians on Friday via the Rafah crossing with Egypt. The army released a video it said showed a tunnel entrance in an outdoor area of Al Shifa, Gaza's biggest hospital. The video, which Reuters could not immediately verify, showed a deep hole in the ground, littered with and surrounded by concrete and wood rubble and sand. It appeared the area had been excavated; a bulldozer appeared in the background.
The army said its troops also found a vehicle in the hospital containing a large number of weapons. Hamas said in a statement late on Thursday that claims by the Pentagon and U.S. State Department that the group uses Al Shifa for military purposes "is a repetition of a blatantly false narrative, demonstrated by the weak and ridiculous performances of the occupation army spokesman." The United States is confident in an assessment from its own intelligence agencies on Hamas activities in Al Shifa hospital and will neither share nor elaborate on it, White House spokesperson John Kirby said on Thursday. The two telecoms companies in Gaza said all energy sources supplying the network had run out and therefore all services in the territory were down. Israel refuses fuel imports, saying Hamas could use them for military purposes. With communications out and in the absence of fuel, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said it was impossible to coordinate humanitarian aid truck convoys. "If the fuel does not come in, people will start to die because of the lack of fuel. Exactly as from when, I don’t know. But it will be sooner rather than later," said UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini. As of late Thursday night, there was no further word from the companies, Paltel and Jawwal, whose internet, mobile phone and landline networks remained inoperable. Palestinian civilians have borne the brunt of Israel's weeks-long military campaign in retaliation for an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that Israel says killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Gaza health authorities deemed reliable by the United Nations say at least 11,500 people have been confirmed killed in an Israeli bombardment and ground invasion - more than 4,700 of them children. The Israeli military's chief of staff said Israel was close to destroying Hamas' military system in the northern Gaza Strip and there were signs the army was taking its campaign to other parts of the enclave of 2.3 million people. Israel distributed pamphlets telling civilians to leave four towns in southern Gaza, areas Gazans had been previously told would be safe.
GAZA HOSPITALS AT CRUX OF GLOBAL DEBATE
Israeli officials said Hamas held some of the 240 hostages taken by gunmen on Oct. 7 in the hospital complex. The body of a woman hostage was recovered by troops in a building near Al Shifa on Thursday, the army said. Military equipment including Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenades were also found in the building, it said. Human Rights Watch said hospitals have special protections under international humanitarian law. "Hospitals only lose those protections if it can be shown that harmful acts have been carried out from the premises," the watchdog's U.N. Director Louis Charbonneau said. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, on his first visit to Israel since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, called on Israel to do more to protect civilians in Gaza. "I understand your rage but let me ask you not to be consumed by rage," Borrell said. Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said Hamas was to blame not only for the Oct. 7 attack but also for the current plight of Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel army says gains 'operational control' of Gaza port
Agence France Presse/November 16, 2023
The Israeli army said Thursday its troops had taken "operational control" of Gaza port, a key piece of infrastructure in the Palestinian territory where Israel is waging war with Hamas militants. "In the past few days, in a joint operation, soldiers... took operational control of the Gaza harbour, which was controlled by the Hamas terrorist organization," the Israeli army said in a statement. "All buildings in the harbour area were cleared."

Gunmen wound several in attack near Jerusalem
Agence France Presse/November 16, 2023
Three gunmen attacked a checkpoint near Jerusalem on Thursday, Israeli police said, wounding several people before the attackers were "neutralized". Four people were wounded, one of them critically, the Magen David Adom emergency medical services said in a statement. The attack came on the 41st day of the Israeli war on Gaza.

Israeli Army Discovers Body of Israeli Hostage near Al-Shifa Hospital
AFP/November 16, 2023
The Israeli army announced on Thursday the discovery of the body of an Israeli hostage near Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, who was abducted by Hamas during the October 7th attack. A statement from the army explained that the body of this woman, kidnapped from Kibbutz Be'eri, "was retrieved by the Israeli army from a building adjacent to Al-Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip and transported to Israeli territory."

Macron faces rare diplomatic dissent over 'pro-Israeli bias'
Agence France Presse/November 16, 2023
A group of French diplomats are concerned that France would lose its influence in Lebanon and other Middle East countries because of its sometimes controversial statements over the conflict between Israel and Hamas. The diplomats penned a highly unusual joint memorandum deploring what they allege is a pro-Israeli bias from President Emmanuel Macron. French daily newspaper Le Figaro said on Monday that around a dozen French ambassadors accredited to the Middle East and North Africa countries signed the confidential note, calling it an "unprecedented gesture in the recent history of French diplomacy in the Arab world."The exact content of the cable has not been revealed, although diplomats and sources, who spoke to AFP, confirmed its existence. The diplomatic missive, sent as an official but confidential "note" to the foreign ministry, reflects the unease of certain officials at the Quai d'Orsay over Macron's policies on the war sparked by the unprecedented October 7 attack by Hamas against Israel that was followed by relentless Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip. "It is an internal note of a professional nature which is unusual in its form since it is collective," Denis Bauchard, a former French ambassador to Jordan, told AFP.
Every day French embassies and consulates send dozens or more diplomatic cables to the foreign ministry in Paris, but they are supposed to remain confidential. A Paris-based diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the leaking of the existence of the note was "not accidental."
- 'Expression of concern' -
Bauchard, who is also former director for North Africa and the Middle East at the French foreign ministry, described the memo as "a genuine initiative by the ambassadors who are making the same observation."The identities of the high-ranking diplomats behind the note have not been revealed. "It's an expression of concern that France is losing influence, including in countries with which it has traditionally enjoyed good relations, such as Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt," Bauchard said. French foreign ministry spokeswoman Anne-Claire Legendre said Paris would not comment on diplomatic correspondence of a confidential nature. "Diplomacy is not a matter of individual opinions expressed in the press," she said. Yves Aubin de la Messuziere, a former envoy to Iraq and Tunisia, said the note appeared because of the "incomprehension" that Macron's policies on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict aroused among some ambassadors. "We have the impression," he said, "of ill-considered or totally improvised initiatives or proposals." He singled out Macron's recent call for Palestinian militants Hamas to be added to the targets of an international coalition against the Islamic State group. That proposal was "useless and ineffective", he said, noting that many Arab countries would not join such an initiative. He said that Macron's policies made France's foreign policy "illegible", complicating the job of diplomats on the ground.
Aubin de la Messuziere said that the Israeli-Palestinian question was "a structuring element of France's foreign policy" for many decades, from the reign of General Charles de Gaulle to the presidency of Jacques Chirac. He lamented that in recent years the Israeli-Palestinian conflict had lost its "centrality" for France, noting that Macron did not mention the decades-old problem in his speech to ambassadors last August.
"The situation is very serious, because it is a matter of losing influence in the region", he added.
'Lost credibility in Arab world' -
Some worry that France has lost the image of a country seeking a balanced approach to addressing the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. "There is a growing perception in Arab countries that France is aligned with the United States and gives almost unconditional support to Israel", said Bauchard. An adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said that Macron's statements, particularly during his visit to Israel, did not go unnoticed. "The French president has lost his credibility in the Arab world and his reputation," the adviser told AFP in early November, speaking on condition of anonymity. Both Bauchard and Aubin de la Messuziere said that French diplomats were also concerned the Elysee's diplomatic team sidelined the foreign ministry under Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, who was previously France's ambassador to London. "The president is obviously not obliged to follow the advice given to him by diplomats, whether at the Elysee or the Quai d'Orsay, but the feeling is too often, rightly or wrongly, one of intuitive improvisation", Bauchard said. Legendre, the French foreign ministry spokeswoman, insisted that the ministry was keeping its sway. "Each international situation is the subject of numerous contributions from our diplomatic posts," she said.

Prisoner exchange deal: Israel's conditions intensify challenges in Gaza
LBCI/November 16, 2023
Israel continues its threat to escalate operations deep into the Gaza Strip until the release of all hostages and the elimination of Hamas, despite warnings about the potential repercussions of the prisoner exchange deal. Israeli inflexibility was evident in talks with President Biden's Middle East advisor, Brett McGurk, who also discussed Gaza's future on the first day post-war. Despite Washington's public opposition to Israel establishing a buffer zone and shrinking the territory, Tel Aviv decided to ensure the establishment of this area, deploying international forces instead of the Palestinian Authority throughout the sector.
Simultaneously, disagreements persisted in the Israeli War Cabinet over the prisoners' file, with insiders ruling out execution within three days.
So, what hinders the deal?
Hamas wants the release of 50 women and children, while Israel demands the release of all women and children, rejecting Hamas' claim that different organizations hold other prisoners. Israel insists that the deal includes the children of released mothers. On the other hand, Hamas demands a ceasefire before initiating the hostages release, continuing until the last captive is released, totaling 50 prisoners. While Tel Aviv insists on completing the deal in daily installments, interspersed only with a ceasefire, Israeli conditions could delay the deal's implementation.However, the bigger issue revolves around the families' cries, insisting on the "all for all" slogan. If Israel succumbs to this, it could lead to a halt in operations, a scenario undesirable for both political and security officials.

Israeli soldier dies of his injury after Thursday's attack in the West Bank
AFP/November 16, 2023
The Israeli army announced in a statement the death of a soldier who died because of hi injuries after a shooting attack on Thursday morning in the occupied West Bank.
Abraham Fatina, 20, was seriously wounded during an exchange of gunfire near a military checkpoint between the West Bank and Jerusalem, according to the Israeli police. The police further stated that the three Palestinian attackers were shot and killed.

IDF releases footage of weapons it says were found in Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital
Arab News/November 16, 2023
LONDON: The Israel Defense Forces has claimed that weapons were found at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City after its troops began a ground operation at the site on Wednesday. The Times of Israel reported that an IDF spokesperson told Agence France-Presse that equipment was found after room-to-room sweeps of the facility, which Israel claims is used as a base by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, concealing subterranean military infrastructure and using doctors and patients as human shields. The IDF also published footage and still images claiming to show weapons found inside Gaza’s largest medical facility. The video included assault rifles, grenades and Hamas uniforms, which the IDF said were found in an MRI unit. “In the hospital, we found weapons, intelligence materials, and military technology and equipment,” military spokesman Daniel Hagari told reporters. “We also found an operational headquarters with comms equipment … belonging to Hamas,” he added. “These findings unequivocally prove that the hospital was used for terror, in complete violation of international law.”In the video, Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, another IDF spokesman, said the finds were “just the tip of the iceberg,” adding: “These weapons have absolutely no business being inside a hospital.”As yet, the IDF has not released evidence of tunnels, bases or any other weapons caches, but the US government on Tuesday backed Israel’s claim that Al-Shifa is used by Hamas and other groups “to conceal and to support their military operations and to hold hostages.”On Wednesday, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters that Al-Shifa is “an active legitimate hospital … We want their patients to be as protected as possible.”But he added: “What Hamas is doing … It is a violation of the law of war to headquarter yourself in a hospital.” The IDF operation drew condemnation from parts of the international community, including the UN, which said at least 2,300 patients, staff and other displaced Palestinians were inside the hospital as Israeli forces reached it.
Tens of thousands previously being treated or seeking shelter were forced to flee as the IDF approached, the UN added. Both the World Health Organization and the International Committee of the Red Cross have voiced their concern for patients and staff still inside the hospital, while the raid was also condemned by the Jordanian government and the Palestinian Authority. Neither Hamas nor the IDF reported that any fighting had broken out inside Al-Shifa, though the IDF said it had killed five Hamas militants as it approached the facility. Hospitals, though protected under international law, can lose their protected status if combatants use them for military purposes as long as civilians inside are given sufficient time to flee and any attack is found to be proportionate to the military objective. The Times of Israel also reported that the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry questioned the footage released by Israel, saying the IDF “did not find any equipment or weapons in the hospital.”On Wednesday, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met a US delegation headed by senior diplomats Brett McGurk and Barbara Leaf. The Times of Israel reported that in the meeting, Netanyahu said the IDF operation was to “free” the hospital “from the control of the Hamas terror group.” The issue of freeing Israeli and foreign hostages held by Hamas in Gaza was also discussed.

2.2 million need food assistance as Gaza Strip risks ‘sliding into hunger hell,’ says WFP
Arab News/November 16, 2023
NEW YORK CITY: Almost the entire population of Gaza risks “sliding into hunger hell” unless fuel deliveries are allowed to resume and there is a rapid increase in food supplies, an official from the UN’s World Food Program warned on Thursday. It came as the UN said 2.2 million Palestinians in the territory now need food aid to survive. The WFP said that with “winter fast approaching and unsafe and overcrowded shelters that lack clean water, people are facing the immediate possibility of starvation.” Abeer Etefa, the WFP’s senior regional communications officer for the Middle East and North Africa region, said: “The collapse of food supply chains is a catastrophic turning point in an already very dire situation. Gaza was not an easy place to live in before Oct. 7, and if the situation was better before this conflict, it’s now disastrous.”Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are growing increasingly desperate in their attempts to obtain bread and other essential food supplies, and cases of dehydration and malnutrition are rapidly increasing “by the day,” she added. People are lucky if they have one meal a day and their options are mostly limited to canned food, said Etefa, “if it is actually available.”Although aid trucks are “trickling into Gaza,” it is proving difficult to get the small amounts of food and water that cross the border to those in need because roads have been damaged by the war and fuel is in very short supply as a result of the Israeli blockade.“The existing food systems in Gaza are collapsing,” Etefa said. “Food production has come to an almost complete halt. Markets have collapsed, fishermen cannot access the sea, farmers cannot reach their farms and the last bakery that the WFP has been working with has closed its doors because of the shortage of fuel. “Shops have run out of food supplies. The bakeries are unable to operate because of the fuel and clean water shortages, or because they have sustained damage. The last remaining mill has also been hit and stopped operating.”There were 130 bakeries in Gaza before the war. Eleven of them are known to have been been hit by airstrikes. Others closed after running out of fuel. As a result, supplies of bread, a staple food for Gazans, have dried up. The WFP was also forced to shut down a local program that since the start of the war had been providing fresh bread for 200,000 Palestinians living in shelters.
With gas and electricity in desperately short supply, Etefa said people have been burning wood to cook or bake. Perishable food is “not really an option at all” because there is no power for refrigerators.
Local markets have shut down completely, only about 25 percent of shops in Gaza remain open and those that do have very limited stock, she added. Small quantities of food can sometimes be found but it is sold “at alarmingly inflated prices” and is of little use without fuel and gas to provide the power to cook it.
“That’s forcing people to survive on maybe one meal a day, if they are lucky to find this meal,” said Etefa. “And for the lucky ones, this meal will include maybe canned food. Some people have actually resorted to consuming raw onions, uncooked eggplant, whatever they can get their hands on.”
The trickle of humanitarian aid that is arriving in Gaza does not come close to making up for the lack of commercial food imports, she added. Of the 1,129 trucks that have entered Gaza since the Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt reopened on Oct. 21, only 447 were carrying food supplies.
Before the war, more than 400 trucks a day arrived in Gaza carrying supplies essential to the survival of the population. That number has fallen to fewer than 100 a day, and the food that they carry meets only about 7 percent of the population’s daily minimum caloric needs. Etefa called for an increase in the number of trucks carrying food to Gaza, the opening of additional border crossings, safe routes for humanitarian workers to distribute aid, and deliveries of fuel to bakeries so that they can resume production of bread. Juliette Touma of the Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East said the absence of fuel to power generators is also causing a communications blackout in Gaza, as a result of which there would be no cross-border aid operation at the Rafah crossing on Friday. “It has been almost six weeks (of) total disregard for international humanitarian law,” she said. “Today, Gaza looks like it’s been hit by an earthquake, except it’s man-made and it could have been totally avoided. “We have just witnessed in the past week the largest displacement of Palestinians since 1948. This was an exodus, under our watch, of people being forced to flee their homes. Some were forced to relive the unlivable traumas from the past, mostly unhealed.”Touma added that “the dignity of people has been stripped overnight. Children in the shelters are pleading for a sip of water and a piece of bread. People are telling us they must queue for two-to-three hours just to go to the toilet. They share one toilet with hundreds of others. All of this brings us back to the medieval age.” A ceasefire is required “now, if we want to save whatever is left of our humanity. In fact it’s long overdue,” she said. She also pleaded for fuel to be delivered “without any conditions or delays” so that humanitarian operations across the Gaza Strip can continue. “Anything less than our minimum needs would be cruel,” said Touma. “Without it, 2 million people will be deprived of services and humanitarian assistance. The siege on Gaza must be lifted.”

Is Egypt Nearing a Breakthrough in Israel-Hamas Deal?
Asharq Al Awsat/16 November 2023
Egypt is intensifying its efforts towards brokering a deal between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, encompassing “the announcement of a ceasefire and a partial exchange of prisoners between the two sides.” According to informed sources speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, the situation is “moving towards reaching a ceasefire,” indicating that recent meetings in Cairo have made the situation “more flexible and less rigid than before.”Ronen Bar, the director of the Israeli Security Agency (Shin Bet), visited Egypt on Tuesday, where he met with senior Egyptian officials. The visit focused on “implementing a humanitarian ceasefire and the file of the exchange of prisoners.”The Israeli official’s visit came five days after a meeting in Cairo between the head of the Egyptian intelligence agency, Abbas Kamel, and a delegation from Hamas led by Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the political bureau, and members Khaled Meshaal and Khalil al-Hayya. “There is no comprehensive framework for a solution due to the intransigence of the Israeli government and its desire to complete the military plan to destroy the resistance strongholds in Gaza, and its reluctance to commit to any broad agreement,” an informed source, who requested anonymity, told Asharq Al-Awsat. “However, there is flexibility that has recently emerged, promising partial solutions,” the source added, pointing out that Israel has allowed the entry of the first Egyptian fuel truck into Gaza since Oct. 7. Efforts by Egypt are underway to broker a deal for the release of prisoners from both sides and a cessation of hostilities in Gaza, in coordination with the state of Qatar. An official briefed on the progress of the negotiations disclosed to Reuters that Qatari mediators are attempting to negotiate an agreement between Hamas and Israel. This agreement would involve the release of approximately 50 civilian detainees from Gaza in exchange for a declaration of a three-day ceasefire.

Israeli President Says Israel Cannot Leave a Vacuum in Gaza
Asharq Al Awsat/November 16/2023
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Israel cannot leave a vacuum in Gaza and would have to maintain a strong force there for the near future to prevent Hamas from re-emerging in the Palestinian enclave, the Financial Times reported on Thursday. "If we pull back, then who will take over? We can't leave a vacuum. We have to think about what will be the mechanism; there are many ideas that are thrown in the air," Herzog said in an interview with the FT. "But no one will want to turn this place, Gaza, into a terror base again", he added. Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told ABC News that Israel will "for an indefinite period" have security responsibility of the enclave after the war but the United States pushed back saying Palestinians should govern Gaza once Israel ends its war against Hamas, reported Reuters. Herzog told FT that Israel's government was discussing many ideas about how Gaza would be run once the war between Israel and Hamas ends and added that he assumed that the United States and "our neighbors in the region" would have some involvement in the post-conflict order. US President Joe Biden on Wednesday said that he had made it clear to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that a two-state solution was the only answer to resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict and that occupying Gaza would be "a big mistake." Israel began its campaign against the Islamist group that rules Gaza after militants rampaged through southern Israel on Oct. 7. Israel says 1,200 people were killed and some 240 people taken hostage in the deadliest day of its 75-year-old history. Israel has put Gaza's population of 2.3 million under siege and carried out an aerial bombardment. Gaza health officials, considered reliable by the United Nations, say about 11,500 Palestinians are confirmed killed, around 40% of them children, and more are buried under the rubble.

Israeli Military Strikes House of Hamas Leader Haniyeh in Gaza
Asharq Al Awsat/16 November 2023
Israeli fighter jets have struck the house of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza, the Israeli military said on Thursday. Haniyeh's house was "used as terrorist infrastructure and often served as a meeting point for Hamas' senior leaders to direct terror attacks against Israeli civilians and Israeli army soldiers," the military said. Israel launched its Gaza offensive in retaliation for Hamas's brutal October 7 attacks, which killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians. With Hamas-controlled authorities claiming the death toll from the offensive has now topped 11,500, including thousands of children, calls for a truce are mounting. The UN Security Council on Wednesday set aside deep divisions over the conflict and passed a resolution calling for "urgent and extended humanitarian pauses" in fighting. The resolution called on Hamas and Israel to protect civilians, "especially children." The World Health Organization says 22 of 36 hospitals in Gaza are not functional due to a lack of generator fuel, damage or combat.

Israel Presses Gaza Hospital Raid
Asharq Al Awsat/16 November 2023
Israel renewed its operation at Gaza's largest hospital Thursday, targeting what it maintains is a Hamas command center concealed in a complex sheltering more than 2,000 civilians. "Tonight we conducted a targeted operation into Shifa hospital. We continue to move forward," Major General Yaron Finkelman, the head of Israeli military operations in Gaza, said in a social media post. Gaza's health ministry, which is controlled by Hamas, said Thursday that Israeli bulldozers had "destroyed parts of the southern entrance" of the hospital. Both Israel and its top ally the United States say Hamas have a command center below the Al-Shifa complex, which has become a focal point in the 40-day-old war. The Palestinian group and directors at the hospital have denied the charge. Before Israeli forces first stormed the hospital complex on Wednesday, UN agencies estimated that 2,300 patients, staff and displaced civilians were sheltering at Al-Shifa. "The protection of newborns, patients, medical staff and all civilians must override all other concerns," UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said. "Hospitals are not battlegrounds."But Israel's army claimed the initial raid had uncovered military equipment, weapons and what spokesman Daniel Hagari described as "an operational headquarters with comms equipment."A journalist in contact with AFP, trapped inside Al-Shifa, said that Israeli soldiers, some wearing face masks, shot in the air and ordered young men to surrender when they first burst into the facility.
About 1,000 male Palestinians, hands above their heads, were in the courtyard, some of them stripped naked by Israeli soldiers checking them for weapons or explosives, the journalist said. US President Joe Biden on Thursday said he had told Israel to be "incredibly careful" in the Al-Shifa operation, but insisted Hamas had placed its "headquarters, weapons, materiel" at the hospital. Witnesses have described conditions inside the hospital as horrific, with medical procedures performed without anesthetic, families with scant food or water living in corridors, and the stench of decomposing corpses filling the air.
'Urgent' pauses
Israel launched its Gaza offensive in retaliation for Hamas's brutal October 7 attacks, which killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians. With Hamas-controlled authorities claiming the death toll from the offensive has now topped 11,500, including thousands of children, calls for a truce are mounting. The UN Security Council on Wednesday set aside deep divisions over the conflict and passed a resolution calling for "urgent and extended humanitarian pauses" in fighting. The resolution -- which passed thanks to abstentions from the United States, Britain and Russia -- called on Hamas and Israel to protect civilians, "especially children." The situation in Gaza's other hospitals is also dire, with the World Health Organization saying 22 of 36 are not functional due to a lack of generator fuel, damage or combat. Jordan's government said an "Israeli bombing" close to its field hospital in north Gaza had injured seven staff. Amman's foreign ministry said it would investigate and "take the necessary legal and political steps against this heinous crime".
Home front -
Israel has agreed to temporary localized pauses in fighting but has rejected international calls for a broader ceasefire. Polls in Israel show widespread public support for military action against Hamas following the October 7 attacks -- the worst in the country's history. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday boasted there was no safe place for the Hamas militants and "no place in Gaza" the army would not reach. "They told us we wouldn't reach the outskirts of Gaza City and we did, they told us we wouldn't enter Al-Shifa and we did," he said. But Netanyahu, who has led Israel on-and-off for 16 years, is under intense domestic pressure to account for political and security failings that may have led to the worst attack in his country's history. Protesters have taken to the streets demanding more be done to release the estimated 240 hostages taken by Hamas on October 7.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Biden said he was "mildly hopeful" there would be a deal to free the hostages. In Israel, once the war in Gaza has concluded, a political reckoning is expected. Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid on Wednesday called for that reckoning to come even sooner, demanding that Netanyahu step down. "Netanyahu should leave immediately," he told Israel's N12 channel. "We need change, Netanyahu cannot remain prime minister." "We cannot allow ourselves to carry out a long campaign under a Prime Minister who has lost the people's trust."

EU Chief to Visit Egypt, Jordan on Saturday
Asharq Al Awsat/16 November 2023
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will visit Egypt and Jordan, her spokesman said Wednesday, amid fighting between Israel and Hamas that has raged for more than five weeks. The EU chief will on Saturday meet with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi before travelling to Sinai, near the border with Israel, for the arrival of an EU humanitarian convoy, Eric Mamer said. She will then meet King Abdullah II in Jordan, he wrote on X, formerly Twitter, AFP reported. In Gaza, more than 11,500 people, also mostly civilians, have been killed in the ensuing aerial bombardment and ground offensive, health officials in the Hamas-run territory have said. In a speech to EU diplomats at the beginning of November, von der Leyen said the 27-member bloc -- the biggest donor to the Palestinian territories -- would increase its humanitarian aid for Gaza by 25 million euros ($27 million).

Blinken speaks with Egypt’s FM about Gaza humanitarian aid
Reuters/November 17, 2023
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry about efforts to increase humanitarian aid to Palestinians in urgent need, the State Department said on Thursday. Blinken reaffirmed the importance of concrete steps to minimize harm to Palestinian civilians in all of Gaza and reaffirmed Washington’s rejection of the forced displacement of Palestinians, the department said in a statement.

US Former Defense chief says to eradicate Hamas, Iran must be confronted ‘once and for all’
Tara Suter/The Hill/November 16, 2023
Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper said to defeat the militant Palestinian group Hamas fully, Iran must be confronted “once and for all.”“[T]o ultimately defeat Hamas, in the extent that we understand it [in] military terms, you have to prevent their ability to reconstitute their military forces,” Esper said in a Thursday interview on CBS. “To do that, that means you have to deal with Iran once and for all,” Esper continued. “You have to cut off the supply of arms and money and other support. And that’s the bigger issue that we’re not facing.”At the beginning of last month, U.S. deputy national security adviser Jonathan Finer said Iran was “broadly complicit” in the attack by Hamas that began its current war with Israel. He noted the U.S. rival’s efforts to train and provide Hamas with arms. “In terms of broad complicity, we are very clear about a role for Iran,” Finer told CBS. “What we have not seen yet at this moment, although we are continuing to look at it very closely, is any sort of direct involvement in the immediate attacks.” Esper’s comments came on the same day White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said the U.S. is involved in “intense negotiations” to try to secure the release of hostages taken by Hamas amid its conflict with Israel. “We are in some intense negotiations; hopefully they’ll come out the right way and we’ll have good news to talk about with multiple hostages getting free,” he said. “But we don’t have a deal right now, and until we do, the less said the better.”

Get out of Khan Younis, Israel tells Palestinian refugees from the north
Arab News/November 16, 2023
JEDDAH: Israel on Thursday ordered Palestinians to leave four towns near Khan Younis in southern Gaza, a month after telling them to move there to avoid the bombardment of the north. Leaflets dropped from aircraft told civilians to leave the towns of Bani Shuhaila, Khuzaa, Abassan and Qarara. More than 100,000 people usually live there, but the towns now shelter tens of thousands more who fled other areas further north.The warning has raised fears that Israel plans a major military operation in southern Gaza, having reduced most of the north to rubble in its attempt to root out Hamas militants who killed about 1,200 Israelis and took more than 240 hostages in a cross-border raid on Oct. 7. The UN says about two thirds of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been made homeless, most of them sheltering in towns in the south, since Israel began its retaliation for the Hamas rampage. Meanwhile Palestinian medical staff said they were increasingly afraid for the lives of hundreds of patients and staff at Gaza’s biggest hospital, which has been cut off from all links to the outside world for more than a day after Israeli forces stormed it. Israel said its troops were still searching through Al-Shifa hospital for evidence of a Hamas presence. “The operation is shaped by our understanding that there is well-hidden terrorist infrastructure in the complex,” anunidentified Israeli official said. Israel has released pictures of what it says were rifles and flak jackets found in the hospital, but no evidence of the vast underground Hamas command headquarters it said was operating in tunnels beneath it. Kenneth Roth, a former head of Human Rights Watch and now a professor at Princeton, said: “Israel will have to come up with a lot more than a handful of ‘grab and go’ rifles to justify shutting down northern Gaza’s hospitals with its enormous cost for a civilian population with urgent medical needs.”Hospitals have special protections under international humanitarian law. “They lose those protections only if it can be shown that harmful acts have been carried out from the premises,” the rights group’s UN director Louis Charbonneau said. “The Israeli government hasn’t provided any evidence of that.” Al-Shifa director Muhammad Abu Salamiya said the hospital had been “under occupation authority for 48 hours and every minute that passes more patients will die. We are waiting for slow death.”

Internet, phone networks collapse in Gaza, threatening to worsen humanitarian crisis
AP/November 17, 2023
KHAN YOUNIS: Internet and telephone services collapsed across the Gaza Strip on Thursday for lack of fuel, the main Palestinian provider said, bringing a potentially long-term blackout of communications as Israel signaled its offensive against Hamas could next target the south, where most of the population has taken refuge. Israeli troops for a second day searched Shifa Hospital in the north for traces of Hamas. They displayed what they said were a tunnel entrance and weapons found in a truck inside the compound. But the military has yet to release evidence of a central Hamas command center that Israel has said is concealed beneath the complex. Hamas and staff at the hospital, Gaza’s largest, deny the allegations. The military said it found the body of one of the hostages abducted by Hamas, 65-year-old Yehudit Weiss, in a building adjacent to Shifa, where it said it also found assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. It did not give the cause of her death. The communications breakdown largely cuts off Gaza’s 2.3 million people from each other and the outside world, worsening the severe humanitarian crisis in southern Gaza, even as Israeli airstrikes continue there. The UN’s World Food Program warned of “the immediate possibility of starvation” in Gaza as the food supply has broken down under Israel’s seal and too little is coming from Egypt. The war, now in its sixth week, was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel in which the militants killed over 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and captured some 240 men, women and children. Weiss, the woman whose body was found Thursday, is the third hostage confirmed dead, while four others have been freed and one rescued. Israel responded to the attack with a weekslong air campaign and a ground invasion of northern Gaza, vowing to remove Hamas from power and crush its military capabilities. More than 11,470 Palestinians have been killed, two-thirds of them women and minors, according to Palestinian health authorities. Another 2,700 have been reported missing, believed buried under rubble. The official count does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths, and Israel says it has killed thousands of militants. The war has inflamed tensions elsewhere. In the occupied West Bank, Palestinian gunmen opened fire at a checkpoint on the main road linking Jerusalem to Israeli settlements, killing a soldier and wounding three people. The three attackers were killed, according to police, who said the assailants had assault rifles, handguns and hatchets, and were preparing an attack in Jerusalem. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.
SOME GUNS, BUT SO FAR NO TUNNELS
A day after storming into Shifa, Gaza’s largest hospital, Israeli troops continued searching the complex. Gaza’s Health Ministry said the troops searched underground levels of the hospital Thursday and detained technicians who run its equipment.
The hospital has not had electricity for nearly a week, and staff say they have been struggling to keep alive 36 premature babies and 45 dialysis patients without functional equipment. One dialysis patient died Thursday, Shifa’s director, Mohamed Abu Selmia, told Al Jazeera, adding that 650 wounded patients and 5,000 displaced people are in the hospital. Israel said its soldiers brought medical teams with incubators and other supplies, though Shifa staff said incubators were useless without fuel. Gaza’s Health Ministry said 40 patients, including three babies, died before the raid after the emergency generator ran out of fuel Saturday. During previous days of fighting in the nearby streets, there was no report of Hamas fighters firing from inside Shifa, and no fighting when Israeli troops entered Wednesday. Israel faces pressure to prove its claim that Hamas set up its main command center in and under the hospital, which has multiple buildings over an area of several city blocks. So far, it has mainly shown several caches of weapons. On Thursday, the military released video of a hole in the hospital courtyard it said was a tunnel entrance. It also showed several assault rifles and RPGs, grenades, ammunition clips and utility vests laid out on a blanket that it said were found in a pickup truck in the courtyard. The Associated Press could not independently verify the Israeli claims. In recent weeks, Israel depicted the hospital as the site of a major Hamas headquarters. It released satellite maps that specified particular buildings as a command center or as housing underground complexes. It released a computer animation portraying a subterranean network of passageways and rooms filled with weapons and fuel barrels. The US said it has intelligence to support Israeli claims.
The allegations are part of Israel’s broader accusation that Hamas uses Palestinians as human shields across the Gaza Strip — which Israeli officials say is the reason for the large numbers of civilian casualties during weeks of bombardment.
LOOKING SOUTH
The military says it has largely consolidated its control of the north, though fighting continues there. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Wednesday the ground operation will eventually “include both the north and south. We will strike Hamas wherever it is.” He did not give a time frame.
Israeli forces dropped leaflets Thursday telling Palestinians in areas east of the southern town of Khan Younis to evacuate. Similar leaflets were dropped over northern Gaza for weeks ahead of the ground invasion. Strikes continued in the south Thursday. In the city of Deir Al-Balah, a funeral was held for 28 people killed in an overnight bomb that leveled several buildings. Most of Gaza’s population is crowded into southern Gaza, including hundreds of thousands who heeded Israel’s calls to evacuate to the north to get out of the way of its ground offensive. Some 1.5 million people driven from their homes have packed into UN shelters or houses with other families. If the assault moves into the south, it is not clear where they would go, as Egypt refuses to allow a mass transfer onto its soil. The Israeli military has called on people to move to a “safe zone” in Mawasi, a town on the Mediterranean coast a few square kilometers (square miles) in size, where humanitarian aid could be delivered. The heads of 18 UN agencies and international charities on Thursday rejected the creation of a safe zone, saying that concentrating civilians in one area while hostilities continue was too dangerous. They called for a ceasefire and unimpeded entry of humanitarian aid and fuel for Gaza’s population. Israel has sealed off Gaza since the start of the war, allowing only a trickle of aid from Egypt. It also bars delivery of fuel, saying it will be diverted to Hamas — though it allowed a small amount this week for UN trucks to use in delivering aid.
The World Food Program said the 447 trucks that have brought food into Gaza from Egypt — out of 1,129 relief trucks total since Oct. 21 — provide less than 7 percent of the population’s daily caloric needs. Bread is “scarce or non-existent” after fuel shortages shut down most bakeries, and food supply chains have collapsed, it said. “With winter fast approaching, unsafe and overcrowded shelters and the lack of clean water, civilians are facing the immediate possibility of starvation,” said WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain. Lack of fuel also brought down the Internet and phone network, and it can’t be restarted unless Israel lets in fuel, said Palnet, the main Palestinian telecoms provider. That raises the potential for a long-term communications blackout, after three earlier shutdowns that Gaza authorities were able to repair. The previous blackouts traumatized Palestinians, leaving them unable to call ambulances or reach family members to ensure they are alive. Aid workers say the shutdowns wreak havoc on humanitarian operations and hospitals. Some Palestinians manage to keep up communications using satellite phones or SIM cards that reach Israeli or Egyptian networks.

‘What were they thinking?’: Al Jazeera slammed for ‘insensitive’ interview with Israeli hostage mother alongside Hamas official
Arab News/November 16, 2023
LONDON: Al Jazeera was on Wednesday criticized after the mother of a captured Israeli appeared on screen alongside Zaher Jabareen, the Hamas official in charge of the hostages. The move drew heavy criticism on social media, especially when presenter Ahmed Taha asked political questions which some commentators described as “irrelevant” and “provocative.” In a post on X, Financial Times journalist Samer Al-Atrush said: “Jazeera has done important on-the-ground coverage from Gaza. But hosting the mother of an Israeli hostage, while bringing on a Hamas official, and peppering her with political questions? What were they thinking?”Another X user said: “What a strange host, thinking he delivered a fatal blow when, in fact, it is her (the guest) who delivered it. She is discussing her kidnapped daughter while he (Taha) talks about the occupation of (Palestinian) lands.”
Several commentators expressed sympathy with the mother, whose daughter was taken hostage by Hamas during the militant group’s attack on Israel on Oct. 7. X user Yazan said: “This question is irrelevant. You should focus on the hostages. She (the mother) cannot be blamed for her government’s actions.”
Criticizing the presenter, another online user said: “Could you not find another guest to discuss politics?”Taha asked the Haifa-based guest, Merhaf, if she thought the Israeli government should now withdraw from occupied Palestinian lands and end the siege on Gaza. Merhaf replied that “as a mother,” all she wanted was for her “daughter to return home today. That’s enough,” she said. Speaking over his guest, Taha expressed his sympathies but insisted he was asking a fundamental question. “My daughter has been held hostage for six weeks. She is wounded. I want her to return. I want for all hostages to return,” Merhaf added, asking the presenter to stop asking her questions about the Israeli administration and occupation. Taha said: “Answer my question, please. You are occupying part of the Palestinian territories. This lies at the core of the (hostages) issue.”

Iraq: Al-Halbousi Says Federal Government’s Decision to Terminate his Membership in Parliament is ‘Unconstitutional’
Baghdad: Hamza Mustafar/Asharq Al Awsat/November 16/2023
Speaker of the Iraqi Parliament Mohammed al-Halbousi said the Federal Supreme Court’s decision to terminate his membership in the House of Representatives was “unconstitutional”. The Iraqi Federal Supreme Court on Tuesday terminated Halbousi’s tenure, state media said, in a shock decision that upends the career of Iraq’s most powerful Sunni politician and sets the stage for a fight over succession.Al-Halbousi met on Wednesday with Prime Minister Mohammad Shia Al-Sudani to discuss the latest political developments and efforts to maintain political stability, according to a statement by the Iraqi prime minister.
The statement added that Al-Sudani underlined the importance of resorting to dialogue between the different political forces to resolve all emerging problems. In a press conference later on Wednesday, Al-Halbousi said that based on the constitution, the MP’s membership ends in the event of death, resignation, felony, or illness. He continued: “The Federal Court did not take into account all the conditions for terminating my membership in the House of Representatives... The Court, with its decision, violated the Constitution, and this is a dangerous matter...”An informed source told Asharq Al-Awsat that the forces of the Shiite Coordination Framework and the State Administration Coalition began meetings on Wednesday evening, to discuss two main points, namely the termination of the membership of the Speaker of Parliament and the announcement of the leader of the Sadrist movement to boycott the local elections next month. “If the Sunnis do not participate in the meeting as the third pillar of the pro-government ruling coalition, the fate of this coalition will be at stake for the first time a year after the formation of the current government headed by Mohammad Shiaa Al-Sudani,” the source remarked. According to the same source, “the Kurds, who constitute the other important pillar of the coalition, will have a political stance on Al-Halbousi’s dismissal.”He noted that the Kurdistan Democratic Party, led by Masoud Barzani, will declare its respect for the judiciary’s decision despite its previous problems with the Federal Court, which had excluded Barzani’s candidate for the presidency, former Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari. The source believes that the ball is now in the court of the Shiite Coordination Framework, which must provide reassurances to the Kurds in the first place, and to the rest of the parties within the Sunni component.

Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 16-17/2023
The Biden Administration's Dangerous Solutions For Gaza
Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute./November 16, 2023
If Abbas cannot and does not want to fight Hamas in the West Bank, there is no reason to believe that he will do otherwise in the Gaza Strip, where terrorist groups enjoy widespread support...
The assumption that the Palestinian Authority would fight terrorism in the Gaza Strip is completely incorrect and terribly dangerous. As he has already proven in the West Bank, Abbas has no intention of disarming any Palestinian armed group or arresting any terrorist. His preferred policy has always been to try and win over Hamas and other terrorist groups by offering them jobs and handouts as part of a reconciliation agreement that would result in the formation of a Palestinian unity government -- in addition to being a perfect reason to ask the international community for money.
If Abbas is allowed to return to the Gaza Strip, he will undoubtedly continue with his policy of appeasement toward Hamas. He is not going to order his security forces to crack down on Hamas: he knows that his people would condemn him to death as a traitor who collaborates with Israel, just as they did with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, who was assassinated in 1981.
The Biden administration should think very carefully before floating dangerous ideas. Before talking about the day after the Israel-Hamas war, the administration should first allow Israel to finish the job of eradicating Hamas and other terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian Authority, which pays salaries to terrorists who murder Jews and engages in anti-Israel incitement day-in and day-out, cannot be entrusted with any role in the Gaza Strip.
The assumption that the Palestinian Authority would fight terrorism in the Gaza Strip is completely incorrect and terribly dangerous. As he has already proven in the West Bank, Mahmoud Abbas has no intention of disarming any Palestinian armed group or arresting any terrorist. Pictured: Gunmen from a number of terrorist groups, including the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Izaddin al-Qassam Brigades, Al-Quds Brigades, and Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, hold what they called a "joint press conference" in Jenin refugee camp on February 25, 2023. (Photo by Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP via Getty Images)
Biden administration officials believe that the Palestinian Authority (PA), headed by Mahmoud Abbas, should be brought back to the Gaza Strip after the Iran-backed Hamas terrorist group is removed from power.
The officials, including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, appear convinced that the Gaza Strip and the West Bank should be unified in the post-Hamas era. On November 9, Blinken was quoted as saying that after the current Israel-Hamas war, the solution must "include Palestinian-led governance and Gaza unified with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority."
Days later, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan also floated the idea that the Gaza Strip and West Bank be unified under the control of the PA:
"Secretary Blinken also said that ultimately, we do want to see the reconnection, the reunification of control between the West Bank and Gaza under Palestinian leadership.
"The Palestinian Authority is the current leadership on the West Bank. But ultimately, it's gonna [sic] be up to the Palestinian people to decide their future, who governs them, and the United States will support a process."
These two ideas – reinstating the PA in the Gaza Strip and unifying the Gaza Strip and the West Bank – show that the Biden administration is utterly clueless about the reality on the ground and equally oblivious to the security threats facing Israel.
The Palestinian Authority was in control of large parts of the Gaza Strip between 1994 and 2007.
In 2005, Israel withdrew from the entire Gaza Strip after evacuating thousands of Jews from their homes and destroying more than 25 Jewish communities there. The Israeli pullout, known as the "Gaza disengagement," saw Israel go back to the 1949 armistice line, leaving the entire Gaza Strip under the full security and civilian control of Abbas's PA. Less than two years later, Hamas staged a coup against the PA and seized control of the Gaza Strip. The PA security forces were unable to prevent the coup and many of its officers quickly surrendered.
During the years that it ruled the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Authority, first under Yasser Arafat and Abbas later, failed to stop Hamas and other Palestinian groups from carrying out terrorist attacks against Israelis. These attacks included a wave of suicide bombings and firing rockets and mortars at Israeli civilians and soldiers.
There were times when the PA, under pressure from the US and Western donors, did crack down on Hamas members in the Gaza Strip. That, however, was not done out of concern for Israel's security, but because the PA viewed Hamas as a threat to its own rule over the Gaza Strip. Additionally, the crackdown was aimed at showing American and European donors that the PA was fighting terrorism.
Both Arafat and Abbas employed the revolving door policy: shortly after arresting terrorists, they would release them. An example of the revolving door policy can be seen in a document seized by Israeli security forces in 2002 and analyzed by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, in a bulletin entitled "The Release of 27 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad Detainees." The bulletin deals with the release of terrorist operatives who were detained by the Palestinian Authority, including those who were involved in bombing attacks and the manufacture of explosive devices and rockets. An examination of the names of the released operatives showed that some of them returned to terrorist activities and were involved in the planning, direction and carrying out of mass-casualty terrorist attacks.
In December 2001, after a wave of terrorist attacks against Israelis, then White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer and State Department Deputy Spokesman Philip Reeker commented on Arafat's failure to take measures against the terrorists. Fleischer said:
"The President thinks that this is the chance now for Yasser Arafat to demonstrate real leadership that is lasting, that is enduring, that puts people responsible for this away and does so in such a way that they cannot get out again and commit more terror. The President thinks it is very important that the Palestinian jails not only have bars on the front, but no longer have revolving doors at the back."
Reeker, for his part, said that "there has to be sustained action by the Palestinian Authority against those individuals," referring to suicide attacks in Jerusalem and Haifa.
"They need to bring them to justice, but they also need to take action against the infrastructure of those groups that support those individuals. And there's absolutely no excuse for failure to take immediate and thorough action."
Nearly two decades later, the US is still talking about the need for the Palestinian Authority and its current leader, Abbas, to take measures against terrorists – this time in the areas controlled by Abbas's security forces in the West Bank.
Needless to say, Abbas has done almost nothing to disarm the many terrorist groups active in areas controlled by his security forces in the West Bank. Abbas even rejected an American security plan to combat terrorism that was prepared by US Army Lieutenant General Michael Fenzel, who coordinates between the US administration and the PA security forces. Fenzel planned to establish a special force of several thousand PA security personnel who would be stationed in the cities of Nablus and Jenin to fight against the armed terrorist groups and allow the PA to regain security control. Abbas tried to convince the Biden administration that he has a better way to combat terrorism: luring the terrorists with promises of amnesty, salaries and vehicles in exchange for them laying down their weapons.
The Palestinian Authority's refusal for the past two years to go after the numerous terrorist groups operating under its nose in the West Bank has led to a massive upsurge in terrorist attacks against Israelis, and was probably one reason Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu got re-elected: to deal with it.
Instead of combating terrorism, Abbas chose to suspend security coordination with Israel. The security coordination is not only important to Israel, but it is what has kept Abbas and the PA in power in the West Bank. Were it not for the security coordination and Israel's presence in the West Bank, the PA would have collapsed long ago and Hamas -- as it did with Gaza -- and would have seized control of Palestinian cities, including Ramallah, the de facto capital of the Palestinians.
The assumption that the Palestinian Authority would fight terrorism in the Gaza Strip is completely incorrect and terribly dangerous. As he has already proven in the West Bank, Abbas has no intention of disarming any Palestinian armed group or arresting any terrorist. His preferred policy has always been to try and win over Hamas and other terrorist groups by offering them jobs and handouts as part of a reconciliation agreement that would result in the formation of a Palestinian unity government -- in addition to being a perfect reason to ask the international community for money.
Abbas's latest attempt to win over Hamas was in late June, when he invited the terrorist group to a "national unity" conference in Cairo, Egypt. If Abbas is allowed to return to the Gaza Strip, he will undoubtedly continue with his policy of appeasement toward Hamas. He is not going to order his security forces to crack down on Hamas: he knows that his people would condemn him to death as a traitor who collaborates with Israel, just as they did with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, who was assassinated in 1981.
If Abbas cannot and does not want to fight Hamas in the West Bank, there is no reason to believe that he will do otherwise in the Gaza Strip, where terrorist groups enjoy widespread support. It is important to remember that it was under both Abbas and Arafat that Hamas flourished and amassed weapons. The two Palestinian leaders never used the thousands of security officers on their payroll to wipe out the terrorists. Abbas and Arafat had the security forces to accomplish this, but chose not to do so.
The idea of unifying the Gaza Strip with the West Bank is every bit as dangerous as the idea of relying on the Palestinian Authority to combat terrorism. Reconnecting the two areas would mean allowing thousands of terrorists and their supporters in the Gaza Strip to move to the West Bank, including the hilltops overlooking Tel Aviv and Ben Gurion International Airport. It would also mean jeopardizing the lives of hundreds of thousands of Israelis living in different parts of the West Bank. Unifying the two areas would pave the way for Iran and its proxies, including Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah, to turn the West Bank into another base for Jihad (holy war) against Israel.
Has anyone asked the Palestinians in the West Bank whether they would like to see tens of thousands of impoverished Gazans flood into their cities and villages? First, there is not enough room in the West Bank to absorb a large number of Gazans. Second, such a move would be an unbearable burden on the Palestinian economy.
The Biden administration should think very carefully before floating dangerous ideas. Before talking about the day after the Israel-Hamas war, the administration should first allow Israel to finish the job of eradicating Hamas and other terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip. Because of the extreme care that Israel is taking to limit harm to civilians, this mission will probably take months to accomplish. Only then can the question of Gaza's governance be properly discussed.
What is certain is that the Palestinian Authority, which pays salaries to terrorists who murder Jews and engages in anti-Israel incitement day-in and day-out, cannot be entrusted with any role in the Gaza Strip.
*Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East.
© 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.

Iran Potentially Expanding Its Air Defense Axis in Lebanon and Syria
Farzin Nadimi/The Washington Institute/November 16, 2023
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/124367/farzin-nadimi-the-washington-institute-iran-potentially-expanding-its-air-defense-axis-in-lebanon-and-syria%d9%81%d8%b1%d8%b2%d9%8a%d9%86-%d9%86%d8%af%d9%8a%d9%85%d9%8a-%d9%85%d8%b9%d9%87%d8%af/
Tehran is seemingly redoubling its efforts to equip Hezbollah and other regional allies with advanced air defense systems, potentially affecting Israeli and U.S. calculations in the Gaza war and beyond.
Reports out of Syria’s Deir al-Zour province suggest that militias may be actively training to use Iran’s 15th of Khordad (Khordad-15) advanced medium-to-high-altitude air defense missile system, which is similar to the U.S. military’s Patriot system. The presence of Khordad-15 units inside Syria has not been confirmed, and their ultimate destination is unknown if they have in fact been transferred there. Yet Damascus and Tehran reportedly reached a deal in July 2020 to supply the Assad regime with a number of Iranian air defense systems, including the Khordad-15, which can reportedly engage up to six fighter-jet-size targets simultaneously from a range of 120 kilometers.
That deal was also presumably intended to benefit Hezbollah, Tehran’s chief regional proxy and long an active player in covertly transferring advanced weapons through Syria into Lebanon. The prospect of a sophisticated system like the Khordad-15 being introduced in south Lebanon or southwest Syria is particularly alarming in the current context of Israel’s war with Hamas, its widening border clashes with Hezbollah, and the U.S. military’s attempts to counter increased strikes by Syrian and Iraqi militias. On paper, the Khordad-15 would significantly improve proxy efforts to counter Israeli air operations along border areas or deeper inside Lebanon and Syria—especially if paired with a point-defense system like the Pantsir, which Russia’s Wagner Group reportedly plans to deliver to Hezbollah.
Boosting Air Defenses for Hezbollah and Other Proxies
Hezbollah’s ability to engage aerial targets is currently limited to short-range antiaircraft guns, man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS) such as the Russian-made Strella-3 and Igla-1 and the Iranian Misagh (a copy of the Chinese QW-1), and so-called “Item 358” air defense cruise missiles (see below). The group has reportedly fired some of these weapons at Israeli drones in recent days, and even its limited capabilities seemingly influenced the scope of Israel’s air operations well before the current regional crisis. In general, however, Hezbollah's capabilities are no match for Israel’s advanced airpower and ability to conduct standoff strikes using long-range precision munitions.
This capability gap, coupled with continuing Israeli airstrikes on Iranian military targets in Syria, prompted Tehran to accelerate its push for a regional “air defense axis” as early as 2019. Through planned or attempted weapons transfers to Iraq and Syria, the regime has sought to complicate enemy air operations in a wide area stretching from its western border all the way into Lebanon. Evidently, it has also been transferring “Item 358” air defense cruise missiles since at least 2018—not just to Hezbollah, but also to Iraqi militias and even the Yemeni Houthis. This unique jet-powered weapon was likely used during a November 8 incident in which the Houthis claimed to shoot down an American MQ-9 reconnaissance drone over Yemeni waters.
So far, Israel seems to have thwarted most attempts to transfer Iranian and Russian medium-range air defense systems from Syria to Lebanon, including the 9K33 Osa (aka SA-8) and Buk-M2 (aka SA-17). This April, Israel struck an operational Iranian Matla-ul-Fajr early warning radar (500 km range) near Homs. But the Khordad-15 represents a different class of air defense and could lessen this vulnerability. First unveiled in 2019, it reportedly entered service in Iran the following year. The system is road-mobile, and its components can be transported in an Il-76 cargo plane. Its engagement radar and control station are integrated on one truck, making the system quickly redeployable.
Of course, even a highly mobile system would be vulnerable to determined enemy suppression efforts, especially if deployed near the Israeli border in a theater antiaccess/area denial (A2AD) role. Protecting the Khordad-15 with the aforementioned Pantsir system (20 km engagement range) could alleviate this vulnerability somewhat. Alternatively, Khordads could be deployed deeper inside Lebanese or Syrian territory to better defend Damascus airport, Beirut (including Hezbollah’s stronghold in the Dahiya neighborhood), and the strategic highway connecting the two capitals. Theoretically, both countries could even extend their air defense bubbles further than the Khordad-15’s current 120 km limit if Iran configures the system to fire longer-range missiles (e.g., up to 200 km) or sends more advanced systems from its domestic arsenal.
View the full table
Iranian air defense systems are generally designed with ease of operation in mind, and the Khordad-15 is unlikely to be an exception—a combination of Iranian, Hezbollah, Syrian, and probably Iraqi crews and technical advisors should be able to operate it effectively in the near term. Yet the system may not have reached its full operational capability even after being in service for three years, and Iran’s production rate for such systems is believed to be slow. Therefore, urgently supplying militias or Syrian military forces with the Khordad-15 would likely require Iran to draw from its domestic inventory of these systems and use personnel from the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Defense Force (IRIADF) to help man and maintain them.
Air Defense as “the First Priority”
In 2008, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei issued a decree putting air defense on par with the regime’s all-important ballistic missile program and establishing a unified air defense force. By 2019, the IRIADF had become an independent branch of the national armed forces, overseen by a new air defense headquarters that included elements of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) air defense command.
The regime has been particularly active in developing an integrated domestic air defense network—an objective that required a specialized indigenous industrial base capable of producing numerous types of radars, communications nodes, and mixed-range missile batteries without major foreign help (though obviously incorporating many designs, electronics, and subsystems from Russia, China, and Western countries). Iran’s native capabilities have been further boosted by its acquisition of the Russian Tor-M1 surface-to-air missile (SAM) system in 2006 and the S-300 in 2016.
Tehran has also been keen to export its homemade arms, especially now that the relevant restrictions in UN Security Council Resolution 2231 have formally expired. Prior to the new Khordad-15 reports from Syria, however, there was little evidence that the regime had actually succeeded in transferring any such systems, aside from a single Sayyad-2C missile round caught by Saudi Arabia before it reached the Houthis in 2018 (probably intended for reverse engineering).
Conclusion
Iran and its “axis of resistance” proxies have long relied on asymmetric means to disrupt their two perceived archenemies, Israel and the United States. Toward that end, they have continuously expanded their rocket and missile arsenals as a means of compensating for their inability to pose any challenge in the air—an effort that further evolved with the advent of more effective Israeli counter-missile systems (e.g., Iron Dome) and Iran’s development of modern air defense systems. Going forward, Tehran can be expected to continue exploring all available options to both improve the air defense capabilities of its proxies and constrain the air operations of its enemies via innovative A2AD strategies.
Currently, no UN sanctions preclude Iran from selling and transporting air defense systems to its allies unless the recipient is itself under sanctions. And with Russia and China sitting on the Security Council, there is zero chance of imposing any new UN-sponsored measure against Iranian weapons exports. Accordingly, Washington will need to keep a close eye on Tehran’s air defense transactions with the help of U.S. partners in the Middle East, if necessary using its regional leverage and other tools to prevent or disrupt transfers of key systems by land or sea.
*Farzin Nadimi is a senior fellow with The Washington Institute, specializing in the military and security affairs of the Persian Gulf region.

Israeli Offshore Gas Platform Near Gaza Resumes Production
Simon Henderson/The Washington Institute/November 16, 2023
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/124371/124371/
The post-attack shutdown of the Tamar gas field had highlighted the vulnerability of Israel’s energy infrastructure.
On November 9, Israel’s Ministry of Energy instructed Chevron to resume production at the Tamar gas field after having ordered the field’s operator to halt production on October 7, following Hamas’s attack against Israel.
The Tamar platform stands in water more than five hundred feet deep about thirteen miles off the Israeli coast south of the city of Ashkelon—and a similar distance from Gaza. The installation provides initial processing of gas from the Tamar offshore field much further north, about seventy miles offshore of the northern Haifa port. From the platform, the gas is piped to shore just north of the Port of Ashdod for further processing before entering Israel’s gas trunk pipeline system.
The Tamar platform and nearby Mari-B platform, the latter of which is no longer operating, are both vulnerable to rocket fire from Gaza as well as seaborne assault, so even in normal times they are protected by heavily armed security personnel and patrolling high-speed boats. Additionally, larger naval craft equipped with the anti-rocket Iron Dome system can be quickly deployed from their base in Ashdod.
These days, most of Israel’s domestic gas demand is met by the offshore Leviathan field, which lies west of the Tamar field. Leviathan gas is piped to a larger platform standing five or so miles off the northern city of Hadera, where tall chimneys from its power station have for years demonstrated Israel’s previous reliance on imported (and environmentally dirty) coal for electricity generation. Leviathan gas also supplies much of neighboring Jordan’s electricity demand.
The impact of the Tamar gas cutoff was not officially explained but likely affected several industrial plants with supply contracts, including two Jordanian facilities at the southern end of the Dead Sea used to recover potash and other minerals. But the main impact would have been on exports to Egypt, where Israeli gas helps meet the country’s apparently insatiable domestic demand for electricity. Supply volumes have now reportedly recovered but are still less than pre–October 7 volumes.
Some of the Egypt-bound gas appears to be flowing via Jordan to its southern Port of Aqaba, from where it is piped the short distance on the seabed to Egypt, then northward to al-Arish on Sinai’s Mediterranean coast. Previously, the gas would have flowed through the much shorter East Mediterranean Gas (EMG) pipeline on the seabed from Israel to al-Arish. It appears that this pipeline, running parallel to the Gaza coast, has reopened.
While redundancy in Israel’s gas infrastructure diminished the impact of the Tamar shutdown, the country’s vulnerability remains high. Amid continuing tensions on the northern border with Lebanon, the danger persists that despite the 2022 Israel-Lebanon maritime border agreement, Hezbollah could threaten the Leviathan platform or the activities of the floating gas recovery installation operating in the northern Karish offshore field.
Tamar’s return to production will reestablish the revenue flow for the companies owning the license, particularly Chevron, as well as tax revenue for the Israeli government. That will also be good news for the companies—among them BP and the State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan—that were awarded licenses on October 30 to explore for gas off Israel’s coast.
*Simon Henderson is the Baker Fellow and director of the Bernstein Program on Gulf and Energy Policy at The Washington Institute.

A Resonating Message to Iran: Your Oil Exports Fuel Genocide. Stop Now or Face a Violent Oil Closure & Resultant Iranian Bankruptcy
Lawrence Kadish/Gatestone Institute./November 16, 2023
As Imperial Japan of 1940 pursued a strategy of aggression and murderous destruction in China, the United States sought to confront Tokyo with a strategy of economic restrictions, trade embargoes, and the threat of frozen financial assets.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) said at the time it was not his intent to bring Japan to its knees but to its senses.
There are lessons from policies and strategies forged nearly 85 years ago that need to be learned and applied as it becomes evident to those even in deliberate denial that Iran remains the malevolent force in the Middle East, masterminding the recent carnage inflicted by Hamas on Israel.
Under FDR, the Commerce Department created a task force of specialists that identified key commodities they believed were vital to Japan functioning as a society and important to their military. From rubber and petroleum to chromium and silk, Japan's imports and exports were analyzed within the context of their war-making capabilities. The U.S. Treasury would also deploy their analysts to track Japan's cash reserves, including their tens of millions of dollars that, even then, was a crucial global currency for international trade.
Today, the United States is facing an Iran that has used diplomatic guile, terrorist surrogates, and hidden cryptocurrency transfers to handle everything from paying for imports to funding those who will do their bidding in Gaza and Syria. They are a sophisticated and ruthless enemy. Yet they are strategically vulnerable if America and her allies are prepared to use that most potent of weapons: economic sanctions.
Analysts report that Iranian oil exports have significantly increased over the past three years as U.S. sanctions eased. To no surprise, China has taken advantage of the opportunity to literally fuel their economy with Tehran's "liquid gold." But that is a minor sideshow compared to how Iran has used its surging oil profits to instigate a conflict that has catastrophically harmed the ability of the Middle East to find peace. Tragically, it has been the misguided policies of the current White House that allowed these events to unfold.
Some may argue that with militants in Syria attacking American forces at the direction of Iran, we have the right to respond by mining the waters off Iran's oil terminals. That escalation would surely have unintended consequences, but our failure to enforce and sustain crippling economic sanctions requires us to understand the forces of evil we have allowed to be unleashed.
At the very least, the United States should return to a policy that seeks to bring Iran "to its senses" if not its knees. It's time to return and enforce strict economic sanctions immediately.
*Lawrence Kadish serves on the Board of Governors of Gatestone Institute.
© 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.

Children must be protected from the worst effects of war
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/November 16, 2023
As next Monday is Universal Children’s Day, which is also known as World Children’s Day, it is important to reassert the rights of children around the world. The international community must ensure all children’s well-being and development. We must also recognize the fact that investing in our future requires investing in our children.
At the end of the First World War, Eglantyne Jebb founded the Save the Children organization. She drafted a clear document in which she stressed the rights of children and the duty of the international community to protect them and ensure and prioritize their rights. Her document was adopted by the League of Nations in 1924. This development was important because it was considered to be the first document related to human rights adopted by an intergovernmental organization. Later, it became the Declaration of the Rights of the Child.
The UN General Assembly subsequently selected Nov. 20 as Universal Children’s Day, the same date that it adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1959. Three decades later, the UN adopted an expanded version of the document, which is now known as the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The importance of this convention is that it includes a wide range of human rights, ranging from social, cultural, educational, political and civil rights to economic rights.
Children’s rights include having access to essentials such as food, shelter, healthcare, education and clean water
Children’s rights include having access to essentials such as food, shelter, healthcare, education and clean water, as well as safety from any form of exploitation and protection from physical and emotional harm.
Children must also be able to express their opinions and be treated with respect for their perspectives and views. Three critical pillars of the Convention on the Rights of the Child are the protection of children from any type of discrimination, prioritization of the best interests of the child and ensuring the rights of children to life, development and survival. Nevertheless, nearly a century after Jebb’s draft document on children’s rights was adopted, the international community seems to be failing to fully protect children, particularly in times of war. For example, Gaza is today becoming a “graveyard for children,” according to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Children are the ones that bear much of the brunt of war. “Children ... have started to develop serious trauma symptoms such as convulsions, bed-wetting, fear, aggressive behavior, nervousness, and not leaving their parents’ sides,” stated Gaza psychiatrist Fadel Abu Heen last month.
Even before the latest round of violence in Gaza erupted, Human Rights Watch released a report titled “West Bank: Spike in Israeli Killings of Palestinian Children.” The August report warned that last year was “the deadliest year for Palestinian children in the West Bank in 15 years, and 2023 is on track to meet or exceed 2022 levels.”
The international community seems to be failing to fully protect children, particularly in times of war
One of the most critical problems is the UN’s inability to implement an immediate ceasefire to end the relentless bombardment of Gaza by Israel. The implementation of a ceasefire is supported by a majority of UN Security Council members, but the US, Israel’s staunchest ally, has blocked a resolution calling for one. Nearly 100 UN member states have also called for a ceasefire, but the organization is paralyzed and unable to take action. It is fundamentally undemocratic when a single member can prevent the UNSC from calling for a ceasefire to protect children and allow the entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza. Guterres has already expressed his frustration at the UN’s inability to act. This situation highlights why it is critical for the UN’s structure to be reformed so that one member cannot overrule the will of the majority. Instead of a ceasefire, the UNSC on Wednesday passed a resolution that calls for “urgent extended humanitarian pauses” in Gaza and asks that “all parties comply with their obligations under international law, notably with regard to the protection of civilians, especially children.” This was a step in the right direction that was led by Malta’s ambassador to the UN, Vanessa Frazier. Children in Sudan are also bearing the brunt of a war that has been going on for seven months.
Millions of children are being exposed to violence, abuse and exploitation, and more than 1,000 children under the age of five have died in nine camps in the country. Another tragedy is that the recruitment of children as soldiers has been seen in Sudan. “The recruitment of children by armed groups for any form of exploitation — including in combat roles — is a gross violation of human rights, a serious crime and a violation of international humanitarian law,” said Siobhan Mullally, the UN special rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children.
Unfortunately, during conflicts and times of instability, some armed groups implement various tactics to recruit foreign children. They often prey on children and families who are vulnerable. Some are kidnapped and coerced, while other families are offered financial incentives to give up their children to fight in conflicts. In addition, many of these children come from lower socioeconomic classes and the recruiters exploit their poverty. In a nutshell, it is the duty of the international community to put children’s safety, as well as their social, economic, political and civil rights, at the top of its agenda. If we want to invest in the future, we must start with investing in our children.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist. X: @Dr_Rafizadeh

Gaza war is taking a shocking toll on journalists
Kerry Boyd Anderson/Arab News/November 16, 2023
The recent eruption of violence in Israel and Gaza has created a huge spike in the number of journalists killed globally, highlighting the dangers that many journalists — and especially those operating in Gaza — face. The Committee to Protect Journalists recently reported that the “Israel-Gaza war has become the deadliest month for journalists covering conflict” since the organization started investigating and recording journalist fatalities in 1992. As of Tuesday, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 42 journalists and media workers had been confirmed killed since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, including 37 Palestinians, four Israelis and one Lebanese. Other sources suggest that the toll might be even higher. Since the committee has been tracking the deaths of journalists who were confirmed to be killed due to their work (classified as murdered, killed in crossfire or combat or killed during a dangerous assignment), the deadliest year was 2009, when 76 journalists were killed. The year 2023 might set a new record if the last month’s trend continues.
The four Israeli journalists and media workers known to have been killed so far died during the Hamas attack on their communities and a music festival. The families of two of them were also killed in the attack.
Similarly, though in greater numbers, many Palestinian journalists have died alongside their families in the last few weeks. Their deaths demonstrate that simply existing in Gaza right now is risky, as many of them died in Israeli airstrikes that also killed their families, friends and colleagues. Some of the Palestinian journalists, as well as the Lebanese journalist, were killed specifically while reporting on the war.
Journalists in Gaza play a crucial role in ensuring that Palestinians’ voices and experiences are heard outside of the Strip
Journalists in Gaza play a crucial role in ensuring that Palestinians’ voices and experiences are heard outside of the Strip. While many Israeli and foreign journalists reported from inside Israel on the Hamas attack, Egypt and Israel have blocked foreign journalists from entering Gaza — except for a few that are embedded with the Israeli military. The inability of foreign journalists to report on the ground in Gaza makes the work of local Palestinian journalists all the more important.
Yet, journalists in Gaza face immense challenges. As the large number of those killed demonstrates, they face significant risks of death or injury. They also have to cope with internet outages, extreme transportation difficulties and insufficient water and food. They face potential repression from Hamas as well as Israeli efforts to undermine their credibility. They are exhausted and traumatized.
While those challenges often exist for journalists in war zones, journalists in Gaza must deal with a less common challenge for journalists covering wars: their own families and communities are caught up in the conflict that they are covering. Multiple journalists have reported as airstrikes slam into buildings around them, sometimes as they comfort their own children while broadcasting. In addition to finding food, water and rest for themselves, they struggle to meet their family’s most basic needs.
As journalists in Gaza visit hospitals and other sites, they are afraid to find loved ones in the rubble or among the dead and injured. They fear that, while they are out doing their work, their families will die at home. For several Palestinian journalists, these fears have become reality.
As journalists in Gaza visit hospitals and other sites, they are afraid to find loved ones in the rubble or among the dead
Perhaps the most well-known case was the tragic experience of Al Jazeera bureau chief Wael Al-Dahdouh, who was reporting on air on Oct. 25 when he learned that a strike had hit the building where his family was staying after fleeing northern Gaza. On live TV, Al-Dahdouh learned that his wife, teenage son, young daughter and baby grandson had been killed. Video footage showed him arriving at the site of the strike and then mourning over their bodies at the hospital. Showing his mettle as a dedicated journalist, Al-Dahdouh shared his personal tragedy with the world and continued reporting on the war.
The current war in Gaza has led to a massive spike in journalist deaths, but the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has long been a dangerous assignment. The Committee to Protect Journalists issued a report in May that found that there had been “at least 20 journalist killings by members of the Israel Defense Forces” over the last 22 years, adding that “no one has ever been charged or held responsible for these deaths.” Of those, about 10 percent were foreign journalists and the other 90 percent were Palestinian.
The extreme danger and difficulty for journalists in Gaza today highlights the wider, ongoing dangers that journalists face in different parts of the world. Syria has been a very deadly place for journalists in recent years. The record high number of journalist deaths in 2009 was largely due to 33 journalists being killed in the Philippines. Countries such as Somalia, Ukraine, Mexico, Iraq, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan have also been especially dangerous places for journalists in recent years. Warfare is a major contributor to journalist fatalities, but gang violence, corruption and government repression also play important roles.
Journalists play a vital role in ensuring that the voices of those suffering from war or oppression are heard, as well as providing information that governments and other leaders might want to stifle. Many journalists bravely confront risks in order to bring information and people’s stories to the world. Today, journalists in Gaza need support and encouragement as they do vital work in the most difficult of circumstances.
**Kerry Boyd Anderson is a professional analyst of international security issues and Middle East political and business risk. X: @KBAresearch
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