Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 14-15/2023
Elias Bejjani/Summary of the war situation in Gaza/LCCC/October 15, 2023
The martyrs of October 13, 1990 and the betrayal of merchant and Iscariot leaders/Elias Bejjani/October 14/2023
Two civilians killed in Israel shelling of Lebanon: mayor
Elderly man and wife killed in Israeli shelling on Shebaa home
Lebanon protests to UN over journalist’s death in Israel border clash
Iran-backed Hizbollah trained Hamas in paragliding for terror attack on Israel
Adraee: The Lebanese government bears responsibility for any attack launched from Lebanon toward Israel
Iran's Foreign Minister: Resistance in strong position to confront Israel
Iran FM says Nasrallah 'pragmatic', threatens 'quake' response against Israel
We attacked Israeli surveillance and monitoring center in occupied Shebaa Farms: Hezbollah
Israeli army says 'very sorry' for journalist's death in Lebanon
Hezbollah attacks Israeli posts in occupied Shebaa Farms, Israel responds
Israel says drone killed militants trying to cross from Lebanon
Iran says not too late to prevent Israel-Hamas war widening
Martyr of truth: The story of Issam's dream and sacrifice
Lebanon files complaint with UN Security Council over killing of journalist Issam Abdallah by Israel
Hezbollah announces martyrdom of Ali Youssef Alaa al-Din "Jawad Ali" from town of Sohmor in Bekaa Valley
Hezbollah announces martyrdom of Ali Youssef Alaa al-Din "Jawad Ali" from town of Sohmor in Bekaa Valley
Netanyahu assures Israeli forces on Gaza border that war is continuing
Iran's foreign minister warns Israel from Beirut it could suffer 'a huge earthquake'
As Israel battles Hamas, all eyes are on Hezbollah, the wild card on its northern border
Gaza and the Beirut exit scenario/Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Al-Awsat/October 14, 2023
Lebanese must reject any involvement in war with Israel/Khaled Abou Zahr/arab news/October 14, 2023

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 14-15/2023
Link For A round table discussion fron the washington Institute/The New Middle East: Hamas Attack, Israel at War, and U.S. Policy/Robert Satloff, Ehud Yaari, Matthew Levitt, Neomi Neumann, Ghaith al-Omari/
A week into war, Gazans flee homes as Israeli ground offensive looms
Palestinians struggle to evacuate northern Gaza amid growing Israeli warnings of ground offensive
Palestinians in Gaza struggle to follow Israeli evacuation order, face dire water shortage
Red Cross ‘appalled’ by human misery of Israel-Hamas war
Israel admits intelligence 'mistakes' in failing to predict Hamas attacks
US working closely with Saudi Arabia to protect civilians in Gaza: Blinken
Palestinians flee northern Gaza after Israel orders 1 million to evacuate as ground attack looms
A Million Gazans Have Nowhere to Hide From Coming Israeli Troops
A week into the Israel-Hamas war, the EU continues to struggle with its messaging
More aid flights arrive in Egypt's Sinai, awaiting passage to Gaza
France urges Israel and Egypt to open humanitarian corridor out of Gaza
France to deploy 7,000 soldiers after stabbing attack
European Commission says it would triple humanitarian aid to Gaza, bringing it to about 75 million euros

Titles For The Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on October 14-15/2023
How the Biden Administration Helped Iran's Mullahs Try to Fulfill Their Dream of Annihilating Israel/Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute./October 14, 2023
The Hamas Apocalypse has crafted a New World Order/Peter Frankopan/The Telegraph/October 14, 2023
The Trust Biden Built with Israelis Doesn’t Come with a Blank Check/David Makovsky/The Washington Institute/October 14/2023
Deterring Escalation and Expansion of the Gaza War by Iran’s “Axis of Resistance”/Michael Eisenstadt, Michael Knights/The Washington Institute/Oct 14/2023
Gaza’s Urban Warfare Challenge: Lessons from Mosul and Raqqa/Michael Knights/The Washington Institute/October 14/2023
Link For A round table discussion fron the washington Institute/The New Middle East: Hamas Attack, Israel at War, and U.S. Policy/Robert Satloff, Ehud Yaari, Matthew Levitt, Neomi Neumann, Ghaith al-Omari/The Washington Institute/October 14/2023
Hamas Has Fractured the Arab World..America Must Help Prevent a Wider Conflict—in the West Bank and Beyond/Ghaith al-Omari/Foreign Affairs/October 14/ 2023

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 14-15/2023
Elias Bejjani/Summary of the war situation in Gaza
LCCC/October 15, 2023
The bloody and destructive war continues in the Gaza Strip, while Israel is determined to completely uproot the Hamas organization and kill or arrest its leaders. Therefore, its ground entry into the Strip has become imminent. Meanwhile, the deaths numbered in the hundreds, the wounded in the thousands, and the destruction devastating. On the other hand, it is becoming clear day after day that Iran and its terrorist proxies, in particular the Hezbollah, are carrying out Iran’s orders, which does not care about Palestine or the Palestinians, but rather its own interests. Here lies the disaster, as the decision on war and peace in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen is in its hands of Iran and not in the hands of the leaders of these countries.

The martyrs of October 13, 1990 and the betrayal of merchant and Iscariot leaders
Elias Bejjani/October 14/2023
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/112651/elias-bejjani-in-remembrance-of-the-october-13-1990-massacre/
For our fallen heroes who gave themselves in sacrifice at the altar of Lebanon on October 13/1990, we pray and make the pledge of living with our heads high, so that Lebanon remains the homeland of dignity and pride, the message of truth, the cradle of civility and giving, and the crucible of culture and civilizations. There is no shed of doubt, as we learn from our deeply rooted history, that the Patriotic and faithful Lebanese who has God by his side, whose weapon is the truth, and whose faith is like the rock, shall never be vanquished.
On October 13, 1990, the Barbarian Syrian Army, jointly with evil local armed mercenaries savagely attacked and occupied the Lebanese presidential palace, savagely invaded the last remaining free regions of Lebanon, killed and mutilated hundreds of Lebanese soldiers and innocent citizens in cold blooded murder, kidnapped tens of soldiers, officers, clergymen, politicians and citizens, and erected a subservient and puppet regime fully controlled by its security intelligence headquarters in Damascus.
It is worth mentioning that in year 2005 the Syrian Army was forced to withdraw from Lebanon in accordance with the UNSC Resolution 1559, but sadly since that date, the Iranian proxy, the terrorist Hezbollah armed militia has been occupying Lebanon, and by force controlling fully it governing decision making process.
The terrorist Hezbollah, by crime, wars, terrorism, impoverishment, dismantling all government and private institutions is hindering the Lebanese people from reclaiming their independence, freedom, sovereignty, and turning Lebanon into an Iranian battle field for Iranian evil schemes and wars.. The Terrorist Hezbollah Militia is the Syrian-Iranian spearhead of the axis of evil.
We must never forget that on October 13/1990 the Lebanese presidential Palace in Baabda and all the free regions were desecrated by the horde of Syrian Baathist gangs, Mafiosi, militias, and other corrupt mercenaries of Tamerlane invaders vintage.
The soldiers of our valiant army were tortured and butchered in the cities and villages of Bsous, Aley, Kahale, and other bastions of resistance. Lebanese most precious of possessions, their freedom, was raped in broad daylight, while the free world, and all the Arab countries at that time watched in silence.
Remembering the Massacre won’t pass without wiping the tears of sorrow and pain for those beloved ones, who left this world, and others who emigrated to its far-flung corners. Lifetime of hard work of many citizens was wiped out overnight, villages and towns were destroyed, factories closed, fields made lay fallow and dry and children lost their innocence.
Yet we, the patriotic and faithful Lebanese are a tough and hopeful people, and no matter the sacrifices and the pain, we are today even more determined with our strong faith to redeem our freedom, and bring to justice all those who accepted to be the dirty tools of the conspiracy that has been destroying, humiliating, and tormenting our country since 1976.
Meanwhile the lessons of October 13/1990, are many and they are all glorious. The free of our people, civilians and military, ordinary citizens and leaders, all stood tall and strong in turning back the aggression of the barbarians at the gate. They resisted valiantly and courageously, writing with their own blood long epics that will not be soon forgotten by their children and grandchildren, and other students of history. They refused to sign on an agreement of surrender and oppression, and spoke up against the shame of capitulation.
Today on the commemoration of the Syrian invasion to Lebanon’s free regions, we shall pray for the souls of all those Lebanese comrades who fell in the battles of confrontation, for all our citizens who are still arbitrarily detained in Syria’s notorious jails, for the safe and dignified return of our refugees from Israel, for the return of peace to the homeland, and for the repentance of Lebanon’s leaders and politicians who for personal gains have turned against their own people, negated their declared convictions, downtrodden their freedom and liberation slogans, sided with the Axis of evil (Syria, Iran) and forged an alliance with Hezbollah whose ultimate aim is to replicate the Iranian Mullahs’ regime in Lebanon.
But in spite of the Syrian military withdrawal from Lebanon in year 2005, old and new Syrian-made Lebanese puppets continue to trade demagogy and spread incitement, profiting from people’s economic needs and the absence of the state’s law and order. Thanks to the Iranian petro dollars, their consciences are numbed, and their bank accounts and pockets inflated. Sadly, among those is General Michele Aoun who after his return from exile to Lebanon in 2005 has bizarrely transformed from a staunched patriotic Lebanese leader and advocate for freedom and peace, into a Syrian-Iranian allay, and a loud mouthpiece for their axis of evil schemes and conspiracies.
General Aoun like the rest of the pro-Syrian-Iranian Lebanese politicians and leaders care only for his position, family members, personal interests, and greed.
In the eyes of the patriotic Lebanese, Aoun and the rest of those conscienceless creatures are nothing but robots and dirty instruments bent on Lebanon’s destabilization, blocking the return of peace and order to the country, aborting the mission of the international forces, and the UN security council (UNSC) resolutions, in particular resolutions 1559 and 1701.
They are hired by the axis of evil nations and organizations to keep our homeland, the land of the Holy Cedars, an arena and a backyard for “The Wars of the Others”, a base for chaos and a breeding culture for hatred, terrorism, hostility and fundamentalism.
Our martyrs, the living and dead alike, must be rolling in anger in their graves and in the Syrian Baath dungeons, as they witness these leaders today, especially General Michele Aoun, upon whom they laid their hope, fall into the gutter of cheap politics.
General Aoun reversed all his theses and slogans and joined the same powers that invaded the free Lebanon region on October 13, 1990. He selectively had forgotten who he is, and who his people are, and negated everything he advocated and lobbied for.
In this year’s commemoration, we proudly hail and remember the passing and disappearance of hundreds of our people, civilian, military, and religious personnel who gladly sacrificed themselves on Lebanon’s altar in defense of freedom, dignity and identity … We raise our prayers for the rest of their souls, and for the safe return of all our prisoners held arbitrarily in the dungeons of the Syrian Baath.
We ask for consolation to all their families, hoping that their grand sacrifices were not in vain, now that prominent leaders and politicians of that era changed sides and joined the killers after the liberation of the country. Those Pharisees were in positions of responsibility to safeguard the nation and its dignity, and were entrusted to defend the identity, the homeland and the beliefs.
What truly saddens us is the continuing suffering of our refugees in Israel since 2000, despite all the recent developments. This is due to the stark servitude of those Lebanese Leaders and politicians on whom we held our hopes for a courageous resolution to this humane problem. Instead, they shed their responsibilities and voided the cause from its humane content, and furthermore, in order to satisfy their alliances with fundamentalists and radicals, they betrayed their own people and the cause of Lebanon by agreeing to label our heroic southern refugees as criminals.
Our refugees in Israel are the ultimate Lebanese patriots who did no wrong, but who simply suffered for 30 years trying to defend their land, their homes, their children and their dignity against Syria and the hordes of Islamic fundamentalists, outlaw Palestinian militias, and even renegade battalions of the Lebanese Army itself that seceded from the government to fight alongside the outlaw organizations and militias against Lebanon, the Lebanese State and the Lebanese people.
God Bless the Souls Of Our Martyrs
Long Live Lebanon

Two civilians killed in Israel shelling of Lebanon: mayor
AFP/October 14, 2023
SHEBAA, Lebanon: Two Lebanese civilians were killed in Israeli shelling of the southern village of Shebaa on Saturday, its mayor told AFP, the latest casualties of cross-border tensions over Israel’s war with Hamas. Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah and Palestinian factions in Lebanon have exchanged cross-border fire with the Israeli army since a shock October 7 attack by Hamas killed more than 1,300 people in Israel. The Palestinian gunmen also seized an estimated 150 hostages while Israel’s retaliatory air and artillery bombardment has killed more than 2,200 people in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.
“A man and his wife have been killed in their home by Israeli shelling,” mayor Mohammad Saab told AFP, adding they were both in their forties. An AFP correspondent near Shebaa earlier reported heavy shelling in the area. Israel has traded fire with Hezbollah and allied Palestinian factions in Lebanon on a near-daily basis since Sunday, although the tit-for-tat attacks had so far remained limited. Earlier Saturday, Hezbollah said it shelled Israeli positions in the contested Shebaa Farms district of the border “with guided missiles and mortar shells” and later said it had again launched strikes in the same area.
The Israeli military said it retaliated by “striking the origin of the launches,” after earlier saying they had killed several “terrorists” trying to cross the border. Lebanon said on Saturday that Israel was behind cross-border fire that killed a Reuters journalist and wounded six others the previous day.
Israel’s military said it was looking into the circumstances of the deadly strike, which also wounded journalists from AFP, Reuters and Al Jazeera. Commenting on the Friday attack, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which acts as a buffer between Lebanon and Israel, said that Israel struck a position near the village of Alma Al-Shaab, where the group of journalists were located. Its peacekeepers also reported “gunfire and explosions afterwards.”“Based on what UNIFIL was able to observe, at this stage we cannot say with certainty how a group of journalists who were covering the events were hit,” the statement said.

Elderly man and wife killed in Israeli shelling on Shebaa home
Agence France Presse/October 14, 2023
Two Lebanese civilians were killed in Israeli shelling of the southern village of Shebaa on Saturday, its mayor told AFP, as border tensions rise over Israel's war with Hamas. "A man and his wife have been killed in their home by Israeli shelling," mayor Mohammad Harb told AFP. Lebanese media reports identified the victims as an elderly man and his wife. The Israeli shelling followed a Hezbollah operation against Israeli military posts in the occupied Shebaa Farms. Hezbollah and Palestinian factions in Lebanon have exchanged cross-border fire with Israel since Hamas' shock October 7 attack on Israel ignited a war that has reportedly killed more than 1,300 people in Israel. The Palestinian gunmen also seized an estimated 150 hostages while Israel's retaliatory air and artillery bombardment has killed more than 2,200 people in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip. An AFP correspondent near Shebaa earlier reported heavy shelling in the area. Israel has traded fire with Hezbollah and allied Palestinian factions in Lebanon on a near-daily basis since Sunday, although the tit-for-tat attacks had so far remained limited. Earlier Saturday, Hezbollah said it shelled Israeli positions in the contested Shebaa Farms district of the border and the Israeli military said it retaliated by "striking the origin of the launches."Hezbollah later said it had launched fresh strikes on Israeli targets in the disputed area.

Lebanon protests to UN over journalist’s death in Israel border clash
Arab News/October 14, 2023
BEIRUT: Lebanon on Saturday said it will file a complaint to the UN over the Israeli cross-border fire that killed Reuters journalist Issam Abdullah and wounded six others the previous day. The Foreign Ministry asked Beirut’s mission to the UN to raise concerns over what it described as a “flagrant violation and a crime against freedom of opinion and press.”Abdullah’s funeral in his hometown on Saturday was attended by hundreds of people. His body was draped in a Lebanese flag and carried from his family’s home to the local cemetery in the southern town of Khiam.
Dozens of journalists and MPs attended the funeral. Abdullah was killed on Friday evening near the village of Alma Al-Shaab in southern Lebanon when an Israeli shell landed on a group of international journalists covering an exchange of fire between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters along the border.
Lebanon’s Foreign Ministry criticized the killing of “unarmed journalists who are victims of their desire to convey the truth and defend it with their cameras and pens ... reporting on the series of repeated Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon.”
The complaint highlighted the “escalating Israeli provocations and attacks last week, and the damages they caused to lives and property, and the ongoing violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty and Resolution 1701, which Lebanon has affirmed its keenness to implement and abide by in all its aspects.”
The ministry said that Lebanon held Israel “responsible for the current escalation.”
It warned that “failing to end what (Israel) is doing will ignite the entire region and threaten international peace and security, and the interests of the entire world.”
Issam Abdullah was killed, while Eli Brakhia, Al Jazeera’s correspondent; Christina Assi, Agence France-Presse’s correspondent; Carmen Joukhadar, Al Jazeera’s correspondent; Iraqi journalist Maher Mohammed Abdul Latif from Reuters; Iraqi journalist Thaer Zuhair Kadhim from Reuters; and US journalist Dylan Collins were injured in the Israeli shelling.The first shell fell near the press group, while a second fell on the journalists’ car.The Lebanese army rushed to rescue the injured and asked other media personnel to leave the area. The wounded are still receiving hospital treatment.
AFP said that Christina Assi needed blood transfusions at the American University Medical Center in Beirut. Her colleague, Carmen Joukhadar, had surgery on a leg wound. In a statement on Saturday, the Lebanese army said that the Israeli shell had hit the civilian car, killing Abdullah and wounding others.
The army said that other areas in southern Lebanon at the time were targeted by an Israeli helicopter gunship and artillery, including the outskirts of the villages of Narwahin, Aita Al-Shaab, Kfar Shuba, Al-Adisa and the Marjayoun Plain.
Army command accused Israel of “directly targeting journalists.”UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti said: “At 5:20 p.m. on Friday, an intense exchange of fire took place between Lebanon and Israel in the vicinity of the towns of Alma Al-Shaab, Aita Al-Shaab, Al-Dhaira, Al-Adisa and Hula.
“We learned with great sadness that a Lebanese photojournalist was killed during the exchange of fire. There were also reports that other journalists were injured.”Israel did not deny Friday’s incident but instead pledged, through its representative to the UN, Gilad Erdan, to “open an investigation.”
Erdan said: “We always try to limit and avoid civilian casualties.“But we are in a war, and unfortunate things may happen. We will investigate the matter. It is too early now to know what happened there.”According to reports, the fire exchange began when a Palestinian group tried to cross into Israeli territory from Lebanon, and detonated an explosive device in the separation wall.However, the Israelis discovered the infiltrators, which resulted in a firefight and a Palestinian retreat. An Israeli airstrike of the area soon followed. Joseph Qasifi, head of the Syndicate of Press Editors, accused the Israeli “criminal machine” of “deliberately targeting journalists while they were carrying out their professional duty to convey the true picture of what is happening in southern Lebanon.”Qasifi expressed his disappointment that some international media outlets reported the news of the Israeli attack but failed to mention the responsible party.
He added that reports on the incident needed to reflect a sense of humanity and professional commitment. According to a source in the Press Syndicate, Reuters decided to “change the phrasing of its news after a wave of criticism on social media.”
However, the agency’s updated report was still criticized after it referred vaguely to “rocket fire from the direction of Israel.”On Saturday, Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee threatened Lebanon via X: “The Lebanese government bears responsibility for every attack launched from Lebanon toward our country. Anyone who tries to violate the borders toward our lands will be killed.”Throughout the night, Israeli forces fired flares into the sky of the southern region and several incendiary shells into the area surrounding the villages of the western sector, especially in the town of Alma Al-Shaab.

Iran-backed Hizbollah trained Hamas in paragliding for terror attack on Israel
James Crisp/The Telegraph/October 14/ 2023
Iran-backed Hizbollah trained Hamas in Syria and Lebanon, it was claimed on Friday, as the United States embarked on high-stakes shuttle diplomacy to prevent war in the Middle East. Hamas terrorists were trained in Syria to raid Israeli homes and take civilians hostage, while the men who carried out the paraglider attacks were trained in Lebanon, the New York Times reported.The claims by two Iranian sources highlight the scale of the challenge faced by Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, in treading a fine line between backing Israel and convincing Arab countries to show restraint.
Lebanon’s Hizbollah movement said on Friday it would be “fully prepared” to join its Palestinian ally Hamas in the war against Israel when the time was right. Mr Blinken has begun a tour of the US’s Arab allies, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, in the hope of stopping the region tipping into a wider conflict. The frantic diplomacy, which comes after calls from Joe Biden, the US president, is aimed at ensuring the Gulf states keep their domestic Islamist groups under control as Israel strikes Gaza. On Thursday in Tel Aviv, Mr Blinken urged Israel to ensure civilians in Gaza were protected before travelling to the six Arab nations. He said he wanted to convince them to use their “leverage” with Hamas to unconditionally and immediately free an estimated 150 Israeli hostages.
Swelling anger
In a bid to keep a lid on swelling Arab anger, Mr Blinken had discussed how to set up safe zones for citizens in Gaza after Israel told more than one million people to evacuate ahead of an expected ground invasion. “The Israelis are committed to it,” a US official told reporters on Mr Blinken’s plane. Earlier efforts to let Gazans flee to adjacent Egypt failed in the face of a lack of support. King Abdullah II of Jordan told Mr Blinken: “The crisis should not be spread to neighbouring countries.”The long-time US ally called for “humanitarian corridors” to bring relief into Gaza and de-escalate the situation. Abdullah, whose kingdom is home to two million Palestinian refugees, warned against another refugee crisis, this time from Gaza. Mr Blinken discussed “ways to address the humanitarian needs of civilians in Gaza while Israel conducts legitimate security operations to defend itself from terrorism,” a US spokesman said.
He also met with Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, in Amman, the capital of Jordan. Mr Abbas, 88, is a sworn foe of Hamas, whose control of the Gaza Strip has led to a 17-year Israeli blockade. Mr Blinken praised Mr Abbas for efforts to maintain calm in the West Bank over the past week
The Palestinian Authority enjoys small levels of autonomy in the West Bank but Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has long sought to sideline Mr Abbas.The US chief diplomat then headed to Qatar, which blamed Israel for the Hamas terror attack, He will later travel to Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. Momentum behind the US-led diplomacy to normalise relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel - a landmark step for the conservative kingdom that is guardian of Islam’s two holiest sites - is now feared to be lost. Saudi Arabia is historically a vital financial supporter of the Palestinian Authority but it has no links to Hamas, which is backed by its rival Iran. Washington is concerned Iran could try to capitalise on the current conflict by unleashing Hizbollah or using proxies from Gaza to Lebanon, Iraq and Syria to attack Gulf Arabs.
Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iran’s Foreign Minister, warned on Friday during a visit to Beirut that new fronts could open if Israel continues its “war crimes and humanitarian siege on Gaza”.
Iranian denial
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, has denied Tehran played a role in the terror attack. “We kiss the foreheads and arms of the resourceful and intelligent designers,” Mr. Khamenei said but added: “Those who say that the recent saga is the work of non-Palestinians have miscalculated.”That is unlikely to convince an enraged Israel. Yoav Gallant, its defence minister, said Hamas was part of an “axis of evil” with Iran. Asked at a press conference with Lloyd Austin, his US counterpart, if Tehran ordered the attack, he said: “It doesn’t matter ... the idea is an Iranian idea.”

Adraee: The Lebanese government bears responsibility for any attack launched from Lebanon toward Israel
LBCI/October 14, 2023
The spokesperson for the Israeli army, Avichay Adraee, emphasized that the Lebanese government bears responsibility for any attack from Lebanon toward Israeli sovereignty. He stated that anyone attempting to breach the borders into Israeli territory would be killed. He confirmed that the Israeli army targeted dozens of what he described as "Hamas elite unit saboteurs" Friday night. Adraee observed confusion within the Hamas leadership as they evacuated residents from their homes south of Gaza City due to their leaders hiding under civilian buildings. He stated that Israel had eliminated the leader Murad Abu Murad, who was responsible for Hamas's Air Force. He pointed out that Israel is focused on achieving the defeat of Hamas and eliminating the leaders of the group involved in the attack, considering that "this terrorist organization with ISIS-like tendencies" will not rule Gaza militarily or politically.

Iran's Foreign Minister: Resistance in strong position to confront Israel
LBCI/October 14, 2023
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian stated, "There must be an agreement to stop the war crimes committed by Israel against Gaza." During a press conference, he said, "During meetings with the leaders of the resistance in Beirut, I found the resistance in an excellent position and fully prepared to respond to Israel's criminal actions."He added, "The resistance is the one to decide to open new fronts or respond to any Israeli criminal acts, and the resistance can take any action it deems appropriate and declare the 'zero hour' in case of continued Israeli aggression. It's in the hands of the resistance as well." Abdollahian emphasized that "Lebanon's security is important for everyone, including Iran, and any possibility regarding opening a new front can be considered in line with the circumstances."He said, "I have been briefed by Nasrallah on the field developments of the resistance in Palestine and Lebanon, and any step Hezbollah takes will result in a major 'earthquake' against Israel."He called on the international community to condemn the killing of Palestinian civilians as it condemned the killing of Israelis. Abdollahian pointed out that "the Zionist entity is in its worst state, and the 'Al-Aqsa Flood' operation has proven that, and the American presence alongside Israel proves that it is on the verge of complete collapse, and Israel can achieve no accomplishments except killing children and civilians."He proposed holding an emergency meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation regarding the situation in Gaza.
He said, "We will take various necessary diplomatic measures to stop the war crimes and lift the blockade on Gaza through intensive political consultations and meetings at the foreign ministers' level and the level of regional leaders."The Iranian Foreign Minister considered that "if the international community and the United Nations, who support the instigation of Israeli wars, procrastinate, they will face the response that the resistance desires in the right place, and this response will change the map of the occupied territories."
He also mentioned that "Iran and Saudi Arabia have agreed to support Palestine and condemn war crimes." Abdollahian stressed that "during his meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, he learned that they will take responsible steps towards the Gaza issue."

Iran FM says Nasrallah 'pragmatic', threatens 'quake' response against Israel
Associated Press/October 14, 2023
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Saturday that anti-Israel militant groups in the region are “fully ready” to respond to any move by Israel. The minister spoke in Beirut at the end of a tour that took him to Syria, Iraq and Lebanon, where Iran enjoys wide influence and where tens of thousands of Iran-backed fighters are deployed. Abdollahian told reporters in Beirut Saturday that he met Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, adding that “the resistance (Hezbollah) is in excellent condition and in full readiness to respond to criminal acts by the Zionist entity.”He added that “the resistance will decide if the war will expand or new fronts are to be open.”“We will do all we can to stop the Zionist crimes in Gaza," Amirabdollahian said. Nasrallah is "a pragmatic man who has always played the biggest role in achieving security in Lebanon and the region," the Iranian minister added, warning that "any step that Hezbollah will take will lead to a big earthquake against the Zionist entity (Israel).""There is still a chance to launch a political and international initiative," Abdollahian added, noting that "Iran and Saudi Arabia agree on supporting Palestine and condemning the war crimes that are being committed by the Zionist entity."

We attacked Israeli surveillance and monitoring center in occupied Shebaa Farms: Hezbollah
LBCI/October 14, 2023
We attacked Israeli surveillance and monitoring center in occupied Shebaa Farms: Hezbollah. Hezbollah announced on Saturday that it attacked an Israeli monitoring and surveillance center in the occupied Lebanese Shebaa Farms, located in the town of Birket al-Naqar. The center was damaged, and a significant portion of its technical and technological equipment was destroyed.

Israeli army says 'very sorry' for journalist's death in Lebanon
Agence France Presse/October 14, 2023
The Israeli army said Saturday it was "very sorry" for the death of a Reuters journalist killed when Israel fired a missile, reportedly from an Apache helicopter, at a group of journalists who were covering the events on the Lebanese border. "We are very sorry for the journalist's death," military spokesman Richard Hecht told reporters when asked about the killing of Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah on Friday.The Israeli military did not acknowledge responsibility, however. "We are looking into it," Hecht said of the incident in which six other journalists were also injured.

Hezbollah attacks Israeli posts in occupied Shebaa Farms, Israel responds
Naharnet/October 14, 2023
Hezbollah on Saturday attacked four Israeli military posts in the occupied Shebaa Farms and Kfarshouba Hills. Israel immediately responded by shelling nearby border areas. Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire across the border on near-daily basis since the war erupted between Israel and Hamas last Saturday. Palestinian groups have also launched attacks on Israel from south Lebanon. Hezbollah's attack today follows Israeli shelling Friday that killed a Lebanese Reuters journalists and wounded several other journalists, among them Lebanese. Israel also said that it bombed a Hezbollah post overnight in response to an alleged aerial infiltration, possibly with a drone, from Lebanon.

Israel says drone killed militants trying to cross from Lebanon
Agence France Presse/October 14, 2023
Israeli forces on Saturday said they had killed several "terrorists" trying to cross from Lebanon amid heightened tensions and after repeated cross-border shelling. The military "identified a terrorist cell which attempted to infiltrate from Lebanon into Israeli territory," a military spokesman said, adding that a drone strike "targeted the terrorist cell and killed a number of the terrorists." An Israeli army spokesman said the Lebanese government will be held responsible for any attack from Lebanon against Israel. "Anyone who tries to penetrate the border towards our territory will be killed," the spokesman warned. Israel has been at war with the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas, which launched a major attack from Gaza on October 7 in which its gunmen reportedly killed at least 1,300 people in the worst ever attack on Israel. Israel has since launched a deadly and devastating bombing campaign on Hamas targets in the crowded territory of Gaza ahead of a likely ground invasion. Lebanon's Hezbollah said Friday it was "fully prepared" to join its Palestinian ally Hamas in the war against Israel when the time is right. Arab countries and the United Nations have urged Hezbollah to stay out of the growing conflict, but the Lebanese-based group's deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem said the movement would not be swayed. Amid the mounting tensions, Israel shelled two villages in south Lebanon near the border on Friday, Lebanese security sources said, following a blast on the border fence. That blast was reportedly part of a failed infiltration attempt by a Palestinian group. A Reuters journalist was killed and six others, from AFP, Reuters and Al Jazeera, were wounded in southern Lebanon on Friday when Israeli fired a missile at a group of journalists during cross-border shelling. On Monday, Hezbollah had said Israeli strikes had killed three of its members, while Palestinian fighters claimed a thwarted infiltration bid. On Tuesday, Israel said it hit Hezbollah observation posts and a day later, Hezbollah said it targeted an Israeli position near the Lebanese village of Dhayra. Retaliatory Israeli fire wounded three people.

Iran says not too late to prevent Israel-Hamas war widening
Agence France Presse/October 14, 2023
Iran Saturday said it was still possible to prevent a regional spillover of Israel's war with Islamist group Hamas but warned that time was quickly running out. Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian spoke from the Lebanese capital Beirut a week after hundreds of Hamas gunmen stormed from Gaza into Israel and reportedly killed at least 1,300 Israelis. Israel has since been pounding Hamas targets in Gaza, where authorities say more than 2,200 people have been killed in the retaliatory strikes. "There is still a political opportunity to prevent a widespread crisis in the region," Amir-Abdollahian told a press conference in Beirut after stops in Baghdad and Damascus. But "maybe, in the next few hours, it will be too late," he said, warning that pro-Iran militants "have designed all the scenarios and are prepared, and their finger is on the trigger to shoot."
Although Tehran has long backed Hamas -- which rules Gaza -- financially and militarily, Iran has denied involvement in the group's attack on Israel. During stops in Damascus and Baghdad in the last days, Amir-Abdollahian did not rule out the possibility of an escalation that could draw its regional allies into the Israeli-Hamas war. Israel has traded fire with Iran-backed Hezbollah and allied Palestinian factions in Lebanon on a near-daily basis since Sunday, although the tit-for-tat attacks have remained limited. On Monday, Hezbollah said three of its members were killed in Israeli strikes on south Lebanon after Palestinian militants tried to slip across the border.

Martyr of truth: The story of Issam's dream and sacrifice
LBCI/October 14, 2023
Issam Abdallah used to dream of having a small tent on the rooftop of his house in the countryside, overlooking the plains that distanced him from the city's working and living conditions. He was enthusiastic to invite all his friends to it so they could get to know the beauty of the South and prove that the South is more than just war and destruction. But just before he could realize this dream, the war broke out. A week ago, he had his last meeting with his family, after which he disappeared from his home, dedicating himself to field coverage as a photographer for Reuters.
From the place he cherished the most, the land, Issam posted his last stories on Instagram, specifically from where he was martyred. His sister Abir reposted his picture, writing, "Proud sister... God bless you," referencing the rising smoke.
But now, the proud sister has a broken heart. "Every time I express my pride in him, but I felt it differently this time. I was worried about him, especially when I saw the smoke behind him… and look what happened." Abir's fear may have been the same fear that Issam had. Just a few days ago, Issam reportedly told one of his friends that he didn't want to die in the South and have his death declared as that of a "journalist" without guilt. But this is what happened. His only guilt was that he was doing his job professionally, just like every time, in every coverage, to support his family, who had lost their support.
With the loss of Issam, it's not only the media community that lost a dedicated and professional colleague but also a brave, fun, positive, and morally beautiful human being.Every journalist doing his/ her duty of conveying the truth could have been a target for the occupation authorities, who brutally targeted Issam and his colleagues. And if Issam's martyrdom goes unnoticed, without accountability, it's possible to have other victims in any upcoming coverage.

Lebanon files complaint with UN Security Council over killing of journalist Issam Abdallah by Israel
LBCI/October 14, 2023
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has instructed the Permanent Mission of Lebanon to the United Nations in New York to file a complaint with the United Nations Security Council regarding Israel's deliberate killing of the Lebanese journalist, Issam Abdallah, who worked for Reuters, and the injury of other journalists from Agence France-Presse and Al Jazeera. It said that: "This constitutes a blatant assault and a heinous crime against freedom of expression, journalism, human rights, and international humanitarian law by callously killing innocent journalists who sought to convey the truth and defend it through their camera lenses and pens, and documenting their exposure to repeated Israeli aggressions in South Lebanon."The complaint includes "an explanation of the escalating Israeli provocations and aggressions over the past week, and the resulting loss of life and property, as well as ongoing violations of Lebanon's sovereignty and UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which affirmed Lebanon's commitment to its full implementation."It added: "Israel is held responsible for the escalating situation," and it warned that "failing to curb Israel's actions will ignite the entire region, threaten global peace and security, and jeopardize the interests of the world as a whole."

Hezbollah announces martyrdom of Ali Youssef Alaa al-Din "Jawad Ali" from town of Sohmor in Bekaa Valley
LBCI/October 14, 2023
Hezbollah announces martyrdom of Ali Youssef Alaa al-Din "Jawad Ali" from town of Sohmor in Bekaa Valley

Netanyahu assures Israeli forces on Gaza border that war is continuing
LBCI/October 14, 2023
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed on Saturday the continuation of the war in the Gaza Strip in a video distributed by his office. In the video, Netanyahu is seen speaking to soldiers deployed on the border with Gaza, saying to them, "Are you ready for what's coming? More will come."

Iran's foreign minister warns Israel from Beirut it could suffer 'a huge earthquake'
BEIRUT (AP)/October 14, 2023
Iran’s foreign minister on Saturday called on Israel to stop its attacks on Gaza, warning that the war might expand to other parts of the Middle East if Hezbollah joins the battle, and that would make Israel suffer “a huge earthquake.”
Hossein Amirabdollahian told reporters in Beirut that Lebanon’s Hezbollah group has taken all the scenarios of a war into consideration and Israel should stop its attacks on Gaza as soon as possible. Israel considers Hezbollah its most serious immediate threat, estimating it has some 150,000 rockets and missiles, including precision-guided missiles that can hit anywhere in Israel. The group, which has thousands of battle-hardened fighters who participated in Syria’s 12-year conflict, also has different types of military drones.
Hezbollah fighters have been on full alert along Lebanon’s borders with Israel following last Saturday’s attack by the militant Palestinian group Hamas that left hundreds of Israeli civilians and soldiers dead. On Saturday, the Israeli military said an Israeli drone strike along the border with Lebanon killed a “cell” that was trying to infiltrate into Israel. On Friday, Hezbollah said its fighters fired several rockets at four Israel positions along the border. On Saturday afternoon, Hezbollah fighters fired a barrage of rockets and shells at Israeli positions in the disputed Chebaa Farms. Israeli troops fired back on nearby areas in southern Lebanon. Amirabdollahian discussed during a meeting in Beirut Saturday the situation in Gaza and the region with the top Hamas official in exile, Saleh Arouri, and the leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, Ziad Nakhaleh, according to Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV.
Hamas officials have repeatedly said that last Saturday’s attack on southern Israel that killed over 1,300 civilians and troops was the work of the Palestinian group and Iran had nothing to do with it. Hamas officials did not respond to calls by The Associated Press to confirm and give details about the meeting. Amirabdollahian left Beirut Saturday afternoon following a tour that took him to Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, where Tehran enjoys wide influence. Amirabdollahian said he met Friday Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who briefed him on the group’s conditions in Lebanon. “I know about the scenarios that Hezbollah has put in place,” Amirabdollahian said. “Any step the resistance (Hezbollah) will take will cause a huge earthquake in the Zionist entity.”Amirabdollahian added: “I want to warn the war criminals and those who support this entity before it's too late to stop the crimes against civilians in Gaza, because it might be too late in few hours.”With an eye toward Hezbollah, U.S. President Joe Biden has warned other players in the Middle East not to join the conflict and has sent American warships to the region and vowed full support for Israel. The Iranian foreign minister said he will be contacting U.N. officials in the Middle East because “there is still an opportunity to work on an initiative (to end the war) but it might be too late tomorrow.”The possibility of a new front in Lebanon brings back bitter memories of a vicious monthlong war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006 that ended in a stalemate and a tense detente between the two sides.

As Israel battles Hamas, all eyes are on Hezbollah, the wild card on its northern border
BEIRUT (AP)/October 14, 2023
Will Lebanon's heavily armed Hezbollah militia join the Israel-Hamas war? The answer could well determine the direction of a battle that is bound to reshape the Middle East. Hezbollah, which like Hamas is supported by Iran, has so far been on the fence about joining the fighting between Israel and the Gaza Strip's Islamic militant rulers. For the past six days, Israel has besieged Gaza and hammered the enclave of 2.3 million Palestinians with hundreds of airstrikes in response to a deadly Hamas attack on southern Israel. Israel, which has vowed to crush Hamas, is now preparing for a possible ground offensive. While the country's political and military leaders weigh the next move, they are nervously watching Hezbollah on Israel's northern border and have sent troop reinforcements to the area. Hezbollah, with an arsenal of tens of thousands of rockets and missiles capable of hitting virtually anywhere in Israel, is viewed as a far more formidable foe than Hamas.
Israel is anxious that opening a new front in the country's north could change the tide of the war, with Hezbollah's military caliber far superior to that of Hamas. But the fighting could be equally devastating for Hezbollah and Lebanon. The possibility of a new front in Lebanon also brings back bitter memories of a vicious monthlong war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006 that ended in a stalemate and a tense detente between the two sides. Lebanon is in the fourth year of a crippling economic crisis and is bitterly divided between Hezbollah and its allies and opponents, paralyzing the political system.
Israel is especially worried about Hezbollah's precision-guided missiles, which are believed to be aimed at strategic targets like natural gas rigs and power stations. Hezbollah is also battle-hardened from years of fighting alongside President Bashar Assad's troops in neighboring Syria. At the same time, Hamas and Hezbollah have grown closer as Hamas leaders have moved to Beirut in recent years. While Hezbollah has largely remained on the sidelines, people close to the group say an Israeli ground offensive could be a possible trigger for it to fully enter the conflict with devastating consequences.
Qassim Qassir, a Lebanese analyst close to the group, said Hezbollah “will not allow Hamas’ destruction and won’t leave Gaza alone to face a ground incursion.”
“When the situation requires further escalation, then Hezbollah will do so,” he told The Associated Press. An official with a Lebanese group familiar with the situation, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said Hezbollah fighters have been placed on full alert. Hezbollah and Israel have targeted military outposts and positions in brief rocket and shelling exchanges on the border since the outbreak of the Gaza war. Three Hezbollah fighters were killed Monday, while Israeli officials said one Israeli soldier was killed in an anti-tank missile attack two days later.
Three Israeli soldiers were killed and five were wounded in a skirmish with Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants who crossed the southern Lebanese border into Israel. Hamas also claimed responsibility for firing several rockets into Israel from southern Lebanon.
Anthony Elghossain, a senior analyst with the Washington-based New Lines Institute, said that while neither Israel nor Hezbollah appears to want to enter “significant and sustained armed conflict,” there is a risk of escalation — even without a ground invasion of Gaza — if either side makes a miscalculation and oversteps the usual rules of engagement.
With an eye toward Hezbollah, U.S. President Joe Biden has warned other players in the Middle East not to join the conflict, sending American warships to the region and vowing full support for Israel.
"He’s backed up that warning with the deployment of our largest carrier group, the Gerald R. Ford, as well as again making sure that Israel has what it needs and that we also have appropriate assests in place," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday during a stop in Israel. While Hezbollah officials and legislators have threatened escalation, their leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has remained silent since Hamas' surprise weekend attack. The group in its public statements has said that they are continuing to monitor the situation. A spokesperson for Hezbollah did not respond to requests for comment.
An Israeli military spokesman, Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, said in a video briefing posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the situation is “relatively stable on the northern front.”“We are monitoring the situation so that it doesn’t change,” he said. “We are deployed in significant numbers, strength and capabilities … and we are very vigilant to any attempt by Hezbollah to escalate the situation.”
A Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said international governments have urged Lebanese authorities to keep the crisis-hit country away from a new war.
Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati called Thursday on all Lebanese groups to exercise self restraint and not to be pulled into “Israel’s plans," an apparent message to Hezbollah. He said Lebanon condemns “criminal acts committed by Israel” saying that it is “wiping out children and civilians” and called on the international community to work on ending hostilities. Israeli leaders have repeatedly warned that they would unleash vast destruction in southern Lebanon if war breaks out with Lebanon.
Israel in 2006 flattened large parts of villages, towns and cities in southern Lebanon and entire blocks in Beirut’s southern suburbs. Following the war, Lebanon received an influx of international funding, including from wealthy Gulf countries, for reconstruction.
However, as Hezbollah has gained power, Lebanon’s ties with Gulf monarchies have soured and the international community has grown frustrated with rampant corruption and mismanagement. On top of that, Lebanon’s government institutions are cash-strapped and dysfunctional. “If war were to start now, we would be looking at a much slower and more complicated reconstruction,” said Mona Fawaz, a professor of urban studies and planning at the American University of Beirut.

Gaza and the Beirut exit scenario
Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Al-Awsat/October 14, 2023
Hamas is not an exceptional organization in the history of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. If boasting about operations were the case, other Palestinian organizations have preceded it with operations that were no less significant. The difference was that the means of photography in those times were limited and the media outlets were closed. The “Fatah Revolutionary Council” group, known by the name of its leader “Abu Nidal,” killed about 2,000 people in 20 countries, hijacked aircraft and ships, and assassinated politicians. “The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine," another leftist group, whose leader was George Habash, carried out massive operations, including kidnapping oil ministers at an OPEC meeting in Vienna and taking them on a plane that ended up in Algeria. In another operation, it blew up three airliners at once at Amman airport.
“Abu Nidal” and the PFLP disappeared in Syria and Iraq, while the Fatah movement has persisted, and has established itself on Palestinian land. Its movement and armed activity are part of a national political project.
Hamas may not survive the major attacks of Oct. 7. I imagine that the movement’s leadership was aware of this when it adopted the attack project, and that is because the conflict is usually governed by the balance of losses. In the past, Hamas did not lack volunteers trained for combat; yet the individuals involved in the operation could be counted on the fingers of two hands. Balance was part of the calculations of the conflict that both parties had to bear and live with. Similarly, Israel, despite numerous minor skirmishes, rarely attacks Hezbollah, perhaps only once every decade, when Israel sees that its human and military capabilities have grown to what it considers a threat.
Armed militias do not settle the stages of conflict, and no matter how much their echoes reverberate in the world, they are quickly forgotten. The Palestinian Authority, when it was the “Palestine Liberation Organization,” led by “Fatah,” lived in exile and managed Palestinian affairs politically, militarily and socially. After being exiled from Beirut, it returned through the Madrid Conference, then was transformed into a legitimate authority through the Oslo Accords, and on its promised land, the West Bank. Today, it may be the hope for the Palestinian who wants both to improve his or her difficult daily living situation, and to establish an independent Palestinian state. The Israelis still refuse, claiming that the PA is incapable of assuming its responsibilities, and that its leadership — i.e. Mahmoud Abbas and his colleagues — has grown old, and is not as competent as the organization’s previous leadership.
On the other hand, we can say that Israel is now devoid of historical leaders such as Yitzhak Rabin. Benjamin Netanyahu, the current prime minister, is viewed by many Israelis as being corrupt and opportunistic, and that he has not been a partner in peace in any of the previous efforts. Indeed, in order to save himself from prison, he is engaged in a struggle with his rivals and colleagues in the party.
Hamas will not liberate Palestine with its gliders, and Netanyahu will not extinguish the Palestinians’ determination to establish their state.
The region is currently facing an extremely dangerous crisis that could grow and expand. In addition to Gaza, the destruction may extend to the West Bank; a war might break out in Lebanon, and the fires might spread further geographically, and for a longer indefinite period.
I see a resemblance between this war and the Beirut war of 1982, when Ariel Sharon invaded after an attempt to assassinate the Israeli ambassador in London. The irony is that the perpetrator was from the “Abu Nidal” group, and Damascus was accused of involvement. However, it was the PLO that paid the price; the Israelis forced it to leave for Tunisia, Sudan and Yemen. In practice, “Fatah” as an armed struggle movement came to an end. Israel’s operations and statements indicate that it intends to get rid of the Hamas organization and most of its militants, including expelling them from the Gaza Strip through Egypt.
In the north, Hezbollah is unlikely to get involved in the war because that would mean the Israeli army would return to southern Lebanon. It is aware that destroying its capabilities would weaken it in Syria, which has become more important to it militarily and politically, and that it might lose its complete dominance over Lebanon itself. We return to the question: Why did Hamas carry out this massive attack, or as some call it, the “Israeli 9/11”? Is it a mass suicide or a way to resolve the power balance dilemma? After its attacks, Al-Qaeda members shifted from an organization ruling the state of Afghanistan to living in caves, and ended up with Osama bin Laden hiding in Pakistan, and his children in Iran. But Al-Qaeda differs from Hamas in that its project was the Caliphate, a historical fantasy that has no place in the modern era, while the Palestinian project is real and holds great hope.
Nevertheless, we now face an opportunity, and as Winston Churchill said at the UN following the devastation of the Second World War: “Never let a good crisis go to waste.”
Hamas has chosen this path, and Israel has decided to change the reality in Gaza by force and put an end to Hamas. Neither party will settle the conflict the way it wants. Hamas will not liberate Palestine with its gliders, and Netanyahu will not extinguish the Palestinians’ determination to establish their state.

Lebanese must reject any involvement in war with Israel
Khaled Abou Zahr/arab news/October 14, 2023
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/123175/123175/
As the horrors of war unfold in Gaza following Hamas’ terror attack on Israeli civilians, the north of Israel and its border with Lebanon should not be forgotten. The main question here remains: will Iran’s proxy Hezbollah join the attack? No one has the answer on how this conflict will evolve. But there is a single certainty: Hezbollah will never play as second in command under Hamas. It will not get fully into this war unless it has leadership for operations on the ground and is the sole “negotiator.” This is the only symbolic status Hezbollah will accept, while it actually represents the mullahs’ interests.
In short — and while we all ignore the probability and the real determining factors that could lead to this line of events — this means that Hezbollah would need to be the voice of the so-called resistance. This would also mean a broader engagement, if not a direct one, for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. It would be more than a two-front war this time. This would certainly wreak havoc to Lebanon once again.
When looking at the world today, whether the war in Ukraine, the situation between Armenia and Azerbaijan or the north of Syria, we notice shifting geopolitical sand and volatile situations. And so, any action by Hezbollah to enter the conflict would make the 2006 war look like a dress rehearsal. Until now, the rocket launches from Hezbollah have been a sign of support to Hamas without any real intention of getting into the conflict. Most analysts expect this to continue until Israel goes into Gaza, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated to US President Joe Biden. Then, there will be greater opportunities for Hezbollah to open a second front.
Any action by Hezbollah to enter the conflict would make the 2006 war look like a dress rehearsal
If this changes, then we have the 2006 war as a case study for how the situation would unfold. At that time, Hassan Nasrallah clearly positioned himself and Hezbollah as the unified commander of the two fronts in Gaza and Lebanon — the one who speaks and the one to contact for the negotiations regarding hostages. This positioning prompted the Israeli response that destroyed Lebanon. Indeed, Israel refused to let one party take over these two files, especially not Iran. And so, until this day, Lebanon is paying the price for these actions.
For now, the war in Gaza is only having a direct impact on Lebanese domestic politics. Indeed, a few days ago, Hezbollah’s motorcycles went roaming into well-known Christian neighborhoods and everyone understood the message. These motorcycle convoys come as a warning to the many voices that are clearly stating that Hezbollah should not drag Lebanon into this conflict, just as they dragged Lebanon into the Syrian conflict. These voices are echoed throughout Lebanon and this is a big difference from 2006. Hezbollah has lost a lot of its local support.
The Lebanese do not want to be dragged into regional conflict, they want to live. More precisely, they just want to survive. Most Lebanese believe that the Arab Peace Initiative should have been the way forward and that this could have brought stability to the region. This is why they do not want to act as a proxy in this war. If Hezbollah opened a second front, it would definitely give the negotiating cards to Tehran, meaning Hezbollah would act in the interests of Iran, not Lebanon. But the price of the devastation of war would be paid by all the Lebanese. Today, it is the people of the Levant that pay the highest price for these proxy wars.
Will Lebanon be dragged into this war? Will the Lebanese suffer once again? This time, the Lebanese are not accepting it and are making their voices heard loud and clear. But this does not mean they do not feel compassion for the situation. In all transparency, Lebanese citizens should firmly reject serving as proxies in any foreign conflict, particularly on behalf of Iran, considering the profound historical context and current delicate geopolitical landscape. For too long, Lebanon has paid a heavy price.
Destruction is the only result achieved when we allow the country to be used as a proxy for foreign powers
Lebanon’s history has been marked by foreign interference and this has led to devastating wars in the interests of others. Without going back too far, the Lebanese Civil War had disastrous consequences. It is high time we stopped allowing any force to undermine the nation’s sovereignty and independence. Destruction is the only result achieved when we allow the country to be used as a proxy for foreign powers. There is no freedom fighting. There is no honor. There is only death and destruction. Iran knows it and Hezbollah does too.
Hence, the Lebanese must absolutely stand against such involvement, as we have suffered enough for others and paid the price in sectarian massacres, the crippling economic situation and horrifying humanitarian costs. We have barely healed our wounds. In fact, the wounds are still wide open. We need to clearly say “no” to Hezbollah engaging an entire nation in war.
It is time to put an end to the proxy game in this small country, as it is a clear and pressing danger to the future of Lebanon. Beyond dragging the country into conflict, Hezbollah has deepened sectarian divisions and hindered national unity. This is why the Lebanese should unite and reject any proxy group to safeguard the country’s security, sovereignty and economic stability.
• Khaled Abou Zahr is the founder of Barbicane, a space-focused investment syndication platform. He is CEO of EurabiaMedia and editor of Al-Watan Al-Arabi.

Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 14-15/2023
رابط فيديو حلقة نقاش بالإنكليزية من موقع معهد واشنطن عنوانها /الشرق الأوسط الجديد في ظل هجوم حماس. إسرائيل في حالة حرب ودور السياسة الأمريكية/الضيوف المتحدثين هم السادة روبرت ساتلوف، إيهود يعاري، ماثيو ليفيت، نيومي نيومان، غيث العمري/
Link For A round table discussion fron the washington Institute/The New Middle East: Hamas Attack, Israel at War, and U.S. Policy
Robert Satloff, Ehud Yaari, Matthew Levitt, Neomi Neumann, Ghaith al-Omari/
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/123182/123182/
The Washington Institute/October 14/2023

A week into war, Gazans flee homes as Israeli ground offensive looms
Agence France Presse/October 14, 2023
Thousands of Palestinians sought refuge Saturday after Israel warned them to evacuate the northern Gaza Strip ahead of an expected ground offensive against Hamas, one week after the deadliest attack in Israel's history. The group's militants are accused of killing more than 1,300 Israelis in an attack Israel has compared to 9/11 in the United States, sparking a massive retaliatory bombing campaign targeting Hamas that has killed over 2,200 in Gaza. Alarm has grown over the fate of Palestinian civilians in blockaded and besieged Gaza -- one of the world's most densely populated areas, home to 2.4 million people -- if it becomes the scene of intense urban combat and house-to-house fighting. "The situation in Gaza has reached a dangerous new low," said U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. "Even wars have rules," he added, stressing that "civilians must be protected and also never used as shields."Israel, which has vowed to destroy Hamas, has massed ground forces and tanks around Gaza, dropped leaflets in the north of the enclave telling civilians to flee, and staged "localized" raids "to cleanse the area of terrorists and weaponry," the army said. The raids have also sought to locate "missing persons" inside Gaza, the military said, as Hamas has been holding some 150 hostages whose families have watched the escalating war with growing terror. Israel has pounded Gaza targets with thousands of strikes in the past week, leaving at least 2,215 Gazans dead, including 724 children by Saturday, according to the health ministry in the Palestinian enclave. "We wake up to the killing and death under the bombs," said Mohamed Abu Ali, a resident of the territory. "We don't know where to go, where is safe. We have no food, water or electricity." In Geneva, the Red Cross said the unjustifiable "horrific" attacks on Israel could equally not justify "the limitless destruction of Gaza".
'Just the beginning' -
Israel has been reeling from the bloodiest ever attack on the country and mourned the 1,300 victims it recovered in southern towns and kibbutz communities, which soldiers have cleared in battles that left 1,500 Hamas militants dead. More than 100 people were killed in the community of Beeri alone, just outside Gaza, while around 270 mostly young people were shot dead or burned in their cars at the nearby Supernova music festival. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israel's bombardment so far was "just the beginning" of the campaign to crush Hamas, a group which seeks the destruction of Israel and which he has likened to the Islamic State group. In one strike, Israeli military "aircraft killed Ali Qadi, a company commander of the Hamas 'Nukhba' commando force" involved in the October 7 attack, a statement said Saturday. Army spokesman Jonathan Conricus said on Saturday that Israeli forces were now "in formation... all around the Gaza Strip, in the south, in the centre and in the north". "We will likely evolve into additional significant combat operations," he said. "When we do so, remember how this started... All of this is Hamas-made."With its evacuation order, Conricus said, Israel had "advertised our intentions in advance, not because it has any military logic -- it doesn't -- but because we want civilians not to be affected by the war... they are not our enemy." He accused Hamas of using Gaza civilians as "their human shields".
Fears for hostages -
Panic and fear reigned in the rubble-strewn streets of Gaza where hospitals have been overwhelmed with bloodied casualties and morgues have struggled to cope. More than 1,300 buildings in Gaza have been destroyed, the UN said on Saturday, as more explosions rocked the ground and plumes of smoke billowed over Gaza City. "What does the world want from us?" asked one Palestinian resident, Mohamed Khaled, 43. "I am a refugee in Gaza and they want to displace me yet again?" A looming Gaza ground invasion has only heightened fears for the 150 hostages Hamas is holding and has threatened to kill in response to any unannounced Israeli strikes on civilian targets. "I just want him back, to see him and to hug him," said Kanyarat Suriyasri, the wife of a Thai hostage taken by Hamas. "The rest is not important." The militant group said Friday that 13 hostages had died in Israeli strikes, but offered no evidence. US President Joe Biden spoke with the families of 14 Americans missing since the Hamas attack, telling CBS's "60 Minutes": "We're going to do everything in our power to find them."Israel's army has confirmed contacting the families of 120 civilian hostages so far. Egypt and Israel have meanwhile agreed to let US citizens leave the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing, said a US official accompanying Secretary of State Antony Blinken on a regional tour. The official said the United States did not yet have confirmation that the agreement was being implemented, "but the intention was to have it open".
Wave of protests -
The Hamas attack and the war it sparked -- Gaza's fifth in 15 years -- have upended Middle Eastern politics. Tensions have risen with angry protests in support of the Palestinians held Friday in Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and other many countries. Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh accused Israel of committing "genocide" in Gaza, while clashes in the occupied West Bank have killed 53 Palestinians in the past week. Netanyahu's spokeswoman Tal Heinrich told AFP: "Everything that happens in Gaza is Hamas's responsibility." Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said driving Gazans away will be "tantamount to a second Nakba" or "catastrophe", referring to the 760,000 Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes during the 1948 war that accompanied Israel's creation. The United States has voiced strong support for Israel and sent military aid, while Blinken has been on a regional tour aiming to keep calm in the Arab world. Israel faces the threat of a separate confrontation in the north, with the Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, after cross-border violence has repeatedly erupted for days. A Reuters video journalist was killed and six other reporters -- from AFP, Reuters and Al Jazeera -- were wounded in southern Lebanon close to Israel, caught up in cross-border shelling. Israeli forces said Saturday they had killed several "terrorists" trying to cross the border and also "struck a Hezbollah terror target in southern Lebanon" in response to a drone crossing the border.
- 'Forced transfer' -
The Israeli military on Friday dropped flyers warning residents of northern Gaza to flee "immediately" to areas south of Wadi Gaza, with arrows pointing south on a map of the 40 kilometre-long (25 mile-long), 10 kilometre-wide territory. There was confusion about the timeline for the mass evacuation order following reports of a 24-hour window. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said a plan to evacuate more than one million people in a single day was "utterly impossible to implement". The Israeli military stressed on Saturday that Gaza City residents must not delay their departure before an offensive starts, as roads out of the northern part of the territory were again jammed with people leaving.
Military spokesman Richard Hecht said there is a "window" for safe passage to south Gaza between 10:00 am and 4:00 pm, without saying how many days the window would remain. "We know this is going to take time but we recommend people not to delay," Hecht told reporters. Thousands of Gazans have been on the move in search of safety, carrying plastic bags of belongings, suitcases on their shoulders and children in their arms.Palestinians cannot leave the enclave blockaded by both Israel and Egypt, which has not opened its Rafah crossing with Gaza to refugees. Arab League chief Ahmed Abul Gheit said Israel's order is a "forced transfer" that constitutes "a crime". Concern for regional stability has prompted the United States to send additional munitions to Israel, and its largest aircraft carrier to the region. Biden has issued stern warnings for other regional powers not to get involved. Israel's arch foe Iran has long financially and militarily backed Hamas and praised its attack, but insists it was not involved. In a sign of the regional upheaval, Saudi Arabia "has decided to pause discussion on possible normalisation" of ties with Israel, a source familiar with the discussions told AFP.Biden's administration had been pushing efforts for Saudi Arabia and Israel to establish diplomatic ties, following similar deals with a few other Arab states including the United Arab Emirates.

Palestinians struggle to evacuate northern Gaza amid growing Israeli warnings of ground offensive
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP)/October 14, 2023
Palestinians struggled Saturday to flee from areas of Gaza targeted by the Israeli military while grappling with a growing water and medical supply shortage ahead of an expected land offensive a week after Hamas’ bloody, wide-ranging attack into Israel.
Israel renewed calls on social media and in leaflets dropped from the air for Gaza residents to move south, while Hamas urged people to stay in their homes. The U.N. and aid groups have said such a rapid exodus along with Israel’s siege of the territory would cause untold human suffering.
The evacuation directive covers an area of 1.1 million residents, or about half the territory’s population. The Israeli military said “hundreds of thousands” of Palestinians had heeded the warning and headed south. It gave Palestinians a six-hour window that ended Saturday afternoon to travel safely within Gaza along two main routes.A week after Hamas’ attack, Israel was still working to assess the full extent of the casualties. With special rabbinic approval, workers at a military base in central Israel continued the grueling task of identifying the bodies of the Israelis and foreign nationals who were killed, mostly civilians. Work is normally halted on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Beeri and Kfar Azza, two southern border communities where Hamas militants killed dozens of Israelis in their initial attack, to meet with soldiers and tour the ruins of homes where the killings happened. Netanyahu has faced criticism that his government has not done enough to meet with relatives of the victims.
Hundreds of relatives of the scores of people captured by Hamas and taken to Gaza gathered outside the Israeli Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, demanding the release of their loved ones. Protesters put up flyers with the faces and names of their relatives under the word KIDNAPPED.
“This is my cry out to the world: Please help bring (back) my family, my wife and three kids,” said Avihai Brodtz of Kfar Azza. Many expressed anger toward the government, saying they still have no information about their relatives.
At a news conference, relatives of hostages with medical conditions called on Hamas to allow a humanitarian corridor for the delivery of medicine to them. “My aunt suffers from Parkinson’s Disease. She’s 63,” said Yifat Zailer. “Every day without her medication is torture.”The military said it was preparing a coordinated offensive in Gaza using air, ground and naval forces. In a nationally broadcast address Saturday night, Israel’s chief military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, accused Hamas of trying to use civilians as human shields and issued a new appeal to Gaza residents to move south.
“We are going to attack Gaza City very broadly soon,” he said, without giving a timetable for the attack against the 40-kilometer (25-mile) long territory.
Hamas remained defiant. In a televised speech Saturday, Ismail Haniyeh, a top Hamas official, said that “all the massacres” will not break the Palestinian people.
Meanwhile, attacks continued, with Hamas launching rockets into Israel and Israel carrying out strikes in Gaza. An Israeli airstrike near the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza killed at least 27 people and wounded another 80, Gaza health authorities said. Most of the victims were woman and children, the authorities said. Doctors from Kamal Edwan Hospital shared chaotic footage of charred and disfigured bodies.
It was not clear how many Palestinians remained in northern Gaza by Saturday afternoon, said Juliette Touma, a spokesperson for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees. An estimated 1 million people have been displaced in Gaza in one week, she said.
Some 35,000 displaced civilians crammed into the grounds of Gaza City’s main hospital, sitting under trees as well as inside the building’s lobby and corridors, hoping to be protected from the fighting, medical officials said.
“People think this is the only safe space after their homes were destroyed and they were forced to flee,” said Dr. Medhat Abbas, a Health Ministry official.
Basic necessities like food, fuel and drinking water were running low because of a complete Israeli siege. Water has stopped coming out of taps across the territory. Amal Abu Yahia, a 25-year-old pregnant mother in the Jabaliya refugee camp, said she waited anxiously for the few minutes when contaminated water trickles from the pipes in her basement. She rations it, prioritizing her 5-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter. She said she is drinking so little herself, she only urinates every other day.
Near the coast, the only tap water is contaminated with Mediterranean Sea water because of the lack of sanitation facilities. Mohammed Ibrahim, 28, said his neighbors in Gaza City have taken to drinking the salt water. “Gaza has been out of water for almost three days, we have no power, no electricity,” said Inas Hamdan, a spokesperson for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees. “If there is no humanitarian corridor, consequences will be catastrophic.”
The Israeli military’s evacuation order demands the territory’s entire population cram into the southern half of Gaza as Israel continues strikes across the territory, including in the south. Rami Swailem said he and at least five families in his building decided to stay put in his apartment near Gaza City. “We are rooted in our lands,” he said. “We prefer to die in dignity and face our destiny.”Others were looking desperately for ways to evacuate. “We need a number for drivers from Gaza to the south, it is necessary #help,” read a post on social media. The U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians expressed concern for those who could not leave, “particularly pregnant women, children, older persons and persons with disabilities,” saying they must be protected. The agency also called for Israel to not target civilians, hospitals, schools, clinics and U.N. locations.
Al-Shifa hospital was receiving hundreds of wounded every hour and had used up 95% of its medical supplies, hospital director Mohammad Abu Selim said. Water is scarce and the fuel powering its generators is dwindling.
“The situation inside the hospital is miserable in every sense of the word,” he said. “The operating rooms don’t stop.”Patients and personnel from Al Awda Hospital in Gaza’s far north spent part of the night in the street “with bombs landing in close proximity,” the medical aid group Doctors Without Borders said.
An Israeli military spokesperson, Jonathan Conricus, said the evacuation was aimed at keeping civilians safe and preventing Hamas from using them as human shields. He urged people in the targeted areas to leave immediately and to return “only when we tell them that it is safe to do so.”“The Palestinian civilians in Gaza are not our enemies. We don’t assess them as such, and we don’t target them as such,” Conricus said. “We are trying to do the right thing.”Thousands of people crammed into U.N.-run schools across Gaza.
“I came here with my children. We slept on the ground. We don’t have a mattress, or clothes,” said Howeida al-Zaaneen, 63, from the northern town of Beit Hanoun. “I want to go back to my home, even if it is destroyed.”The Israeli military said its troops conducted temporary raids into Gaza on Friday to battle militants and hunted for traces of some 150 people — including men, women and children — who were abducted during Hamas’ shocking Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel. The Gaza Health Ministry said Saturday that over 2,200 people have been killed in the territory, including 724 children and 458 women. The Hamas communications office said Israel has “completely demolished” over 7,000 housing units so far. Hamas’ surprise attack killed more than 1,300 people on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, and roughly 1,500 Hamas militants died during the fighting, the Israeli government said. Egyptian officials said the country’s Rafah border crossing with Gaza would open Saturday to allow foreigners out. But by Saturday night there had been no movement. There were believed to be some 1,500 people in Gaza holding Western passports and others with passports from other parts of the world.
Palestinian militants have fired more than 5,500 rockets into Israel since the fighting erupted, the Israeli military said. Israel has called up some 360,000 military reserves and massed troops and tanks along the border with Gaza. A ground assault in densely populated Gaza would likely bring even higher casualties on both sides in brutal house-to-house fighting. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan in Riyadh on Saturday, and both called for Israel to protect civilians in Gaza. “As Israel pursues its legitimate right to defend its people and to trying to ensure that this never happens again, it is vitally important that all of us look out for civilians,” Blinken said. Hamas said Israel’s airstrikes killed 22 hostages, including foreigners. It did not provide their nationalities. The Israeli military denied the claim. Hamas and other Palestinian militants hope to trade the hostages for thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

Palestinians in Gaza struggle to follow Israeli evacuation order, face dire water shortage
AP/October 14, 2023
GAZA: Palestinians struggled Saturday to flee from areas of Gaza targeted by the Israeli military while grappling with a growing water and medical supply shortage ahead of an expected land offensive a week after Hamas’ bloody, wide-ranging attack into Israel.
Israel renewed calls on social media and in leaflets dropped from the air for Gaza residents to move south, while Hamas urged people to stay in their homes. The UN and aid groups have said such a rapid exodus would cause untold human suffering, especially for hospitalized patients, older adults and others unable to relocate. The Israeli military says it has prepared a “coordinated” offensive in the Gaza Strip involving air, ground and naval forces. In a statement on its website Saturday night, the army said it is “preparing to implement a wide range of offensive operative plans.”
Israel has ordered roughly half of Gaza’s population to evacuate their homes ahead of an expected ground offensive in response to a brutal cross-border Hamas attack.
Israel has not said when the offensive will begin. The evacuation directive covers an area of 1.1 million residents, or about half the territory’s population. The Israeli military said “hundreds of thousands” of Palestinians had already heeded the warning and headed south. It said Palestinians could travel within Gaza without being harmed along two main routes from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. local time. A week after Hamas’ attack, Israel was still working to assess the casualties. With special rabbinic approval, workers at a military base in central Israel continued the grueling task of identifying the bodies of the Israelis and foreign nationals who were killed, mostly civilians. Work is normally halted on Saturday, the Jewish sabbath.
It was not clear how many Palestinians remained in north Gaza by Saturday afternoon, said Juliette Touma, a spokesperson for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. “What we know is that hundreds of thousands of people have fled. And that 1 million people have been displaced in total in one week,” she said.
An estimated 35,000 displaced civilians have crammed into the grounds of Gaza City’s main hospital, sitting under trees in the empty grounds, as well as inside the building’s lobby and corridors, hoping they will be protected from the fighting, medical officials said.
“People think this is the only safe space after their homes were destroyed and they were forced to flee,” said Dr. Medhat Abbas, a Health Ministry official. “Gaza City is a frightening scene of devastation.”
Families in cars, trucks and donkey carts packed with possessions crowded a main road heading away from Gaza City as Israeli airstrikes continued to hammer the 40-kilometer (25-mile) long territory, where basic necessities like food, fuel and drinking water were running low because of a complete Israeli siege.
Water has stopped coming out of taps across the territory. Amal Abu Yahia, a 25-year-old pregnant mother in the Jabaliya refugee camp, said she waits anxiously for the few minutes each day or every other day when contaminated water trickles from the pipes in her basement. She then rations it, prioritizing her 5-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter. She said she is drinking so little herself, she only urinates every other day. Near the coast, the only tap water is contaminated with Mediterranean Sea water because of the lack of sanitation facilities. Mohammed Ibrahim, 28, said his neighbors in Gaza City have taken to drinking the salt water. The Israeli military’s evacuation would force the territory’s entire population to cram into the southern half of Gaza as Israel continues strikes across the territory, including in the south. Rami Swailem said he and at least five families in his building decided to stay put in his apartment near Gaza City. “We are rooted in our lands,” he said. “We prefer to die in dignity and face our destiny.”
Others were looking desperately for ways to evacuate. “We need a number for drivers from Gaza to the south, it is necessary #help,” read a post on social media. “We need a bus number, office, or any means of transport,” read another.
The UN refugee agency for Palestinians expressed concern for those who could not leave, “particularly pregnant women, children, older persons and persons with disabilities,” saying they must be protected. The agency also called for Israel to not target civilians, hospitals, schools, clinics and UN locations.
Al-Shifa hospital was receiving hundreds of wounded every hour and had used up 95 percent of its medical supplies, hospital director Mohammad Abu Selim said. Water is scarce and the fuel powering its generators is dwindling.
“The situation inside the hospital is miserable in every sense of the word,” he said. “The operating rooms don’t stop.”
Patients and personnel from the Al Awda Hospital in Gaza’s far north spent part of their night in the street “with bombs landing in close proximity,” the medical aid group Doctors Without Borders said.
An Israeli military spokesperson, Jonathan Conricus, said the evacuation was aimed at keeping civilians safe and preventing Hamas from using them as human shields. He urged people in the targeted areas to leave immediately and to return “only when we tell them that it is safe to do so.”
“The Palestinian civilians in Gaza are not our enemies. We don’t assess them as such, and we don’t target them as such,” Conricus said. “We are trying to do the right thing.”Thousands of people crammed into a UN-run school-turned-shelter in Deir Al-Balah, a farming town south of the evacuation zone. Many slept outside on the ground without mattresses, or in chairs pulled from classrooms. “I came here with my children. We slept on the ground. We don’t have a mattress, or clothes,” Howeida Al-Zaaneen, 63, who is from the northern town of Beit Hanoun, said. “I want to go back to my home, even if it is destroyed.” The Israeli military said its troops conducted temporary raids into Gaza on Friday to battle militants and hunted for traces of some 150 people — including men, women and children — who were abducted during Hamas’ shocking Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel. The Gaza Health Ministry said Saturday that over 2,200 people have been killed in the territory, including 724 children and 458 women. The Hamas communications office said that Israel has “completely demolished” over 7,000 housing units so far. Hamas’ surprise attack killed more than 1,300 people on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, and roughly 1,500 Hamas militants died during the fighting, the Israeli government said. Egyptian officials said the country’s Rafah border crossing with Gaza would open Saturday for the first time in days to allow foreigners out. One official said both Israel and Palestinian militant groups had agreed to facilitate the departures, but by Saturday evening there had been no movement.
There were believed to be some 1,500 people in Gaza holding Western passports and additional people with passports from other parts of the world. Fearing a mass exodus of Palestinians, Egyptian authorities erected “temporary” blast walls on Egypt’s side of the crossing, which has been closed for days because of Israeli airstrikes, two Egyptian officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media. Israel’s raids into Gaza on Friday were the first acknowledgment that Israeli troops had entered the territory since the military began its round-the-clock bombardment in retaliation for the Hamas massacre. Palestinian militants have fired more than 5,500 rockets into Israel since the fighting erupted, the Israeli military said.
Israel has called up some 360,000 military reserves and massed troops and tanks along the border with Gaza. A ground assault in densely populated Gaza would likely bring even higher casualties on both sides in brutal house-to-house fighting.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan in Riyadh on Saturday, and both called for Israel to protect civilians in Gaza. “As Israel pursues its legitimate right to defend its people and to trying to ensure that this never happens again, it is vitally important that all of us look out for for civilians, and we’re working together to do exactly that,” Blinken said. Hamas said Israel’s airstrikes killed 22 hostages, including foreigners. It did not provide their nationalities. The Israeli military denied the claim. Hamas and other Palestinian militants hope to trade the hostages for thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. In the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry says 53 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war, including 16 on Friday. The UN says attacks by Israeli settlers have surged there since the Hamas assault. The US and Israel’s other allies have pledged ironclad support for the war on Hamas. The European Union’s foreign policy chief, however, said Saturday that the Israeli military needed to give people more time to leave northern Gaza.“You cannot move such a volume of people in (a) short period of time,” Josep Borrell said.

Red Cross ‘appalled’ by human misery of Israel-Hamas war
AFP/October 14, 2023
GENEVA: The Red Cross said Saturday it was “appalled” by the human misery unleashed by the war between Hamas and Israel, saying its volunteers would not abandon those who needed them most. It called on both sides to abide by international humanitarian law, protect civilians and allow humanitarian organizations to alleviate the growing levels of suffering. “The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is appalled to see the human misery that has unfolded over the last week in Israel and Gaza,” with civilians paying the highest price, a statement said.
Thousands of Palestinians sought refuge Saturday after Israel warned them to evacuate the northern Gaza Strip ahead of an expected ground offensive against Hamas, one week after the deadliest attack in Israel’s history. “Nothing can justify the horrific loss of civilian lives in Israel last weekend... but such tragedy cannot in turn justify the limitless destruction of Gaza,” the Red Cross statement said. “We are deeply alarmed by the call for relocation in Gaza. Our volunteers refuse to leave and abandon those who need them most. They must be protected — so that they can protect others.”The joint statement was issued by the heads of both branches of the Red Cross Movement: Jagan Chapagain of the IFRC and Robert Mardini of the ICRC. Hamas militants killed more than 1,300 people in the attack on Israel, sparking a massive retaliatory bombing campaign, targeting the Islamist group, that has killed over 2,200 in Gaza.Alarm has grown over the fate of Palestinian civilians in blockaded and besieged Gaza if it becomes the scene of intense urban combat. The Red Cross chiefs said there was “devastating” human suffering on all sides, and in international humanitarian law, “there is no hierarchy in pain and suffering.”“These rules exist to help preserve humanity in the darkest moments, and they desperately need to be followed today. They are and should remain our compass to ensure that we put humanity first,” the statement said. “The Movement is committed to continuing to provide protection and life-saving relief to the people suffering the horrors of the ongoing violence. “The needs are staggering and will only continue to increase if the hostilities persist. We call on all parties to exercise restraint, to abide by their obligations under international humanitarian law, and to protect civilians.”

Israel admits intelligence 'mistakes' in failing to predict Hamas attacks
AFP/October 14, 2023
JERUSALEM: A senior Israeli official on Saturday admitted “mistakes” in intelligence assessments ahead of a brutal Hamas attack last weekend that took the country by surprise. Palestinian militants early October 7 launched a multi-pronged assault, breaching the Gaza border barrier and targeting southern Israeli communities and army bases. “It’s my mistake, and it reflects the mistakes of all those making (intelligence) assessments,” National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi told a press briefing when asked about his recent remarks predicting no Hamas aggression. “We really believed that Hamas learned the lesson from” its last major war with Israel in 2021, Hanegbi said. More than 1,300 civilians and security forces have been killed since the attack began, according to Israeli officials, and at least 120 have been seized by militants and believed to be held captive in Gaza.
Hanegbi rejected negotiations toward any prisoner swap deal with Hamas.“There’s no way to negotiate with an enemy we have sworn to obliterate,” he said. Relentless Israeli air strikes on the blockaded Palestinian enclave over the past week have killed upwards of 2,200 including at least 600 children, Hamas officials said.

US working closely with Saudi Arabia to protect civilians in Gaza: Blinken
Arab News/October 14, 2023
RIYADH: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said his country is working closely with Saudi Arabia to ensure the protection of civilians in the Gaza Strip amid Israel's military escalation. The remarks came during a meeting with Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan in Riyadh on Saturday to discuss the situation in the enclave. Both ministers said their countries are working together to ensure the protection of civilians, as well as on other issues of common interest, including bringing peace to the region. “Civilian populations on both sides are being affected and it's important I think that we all condemn the targeting of civilians in any form at any time by anyone,” the Saudi FM said. “We need to work together to find a way out of this cycle of violence, without a concerted effort to end this constant return to violence, it will always be civilians that suffer first, it will always be civilians on both sides that end up paying the price,” he added.Blinken described the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7 as “indescribable.” He added that aid must be allowed to reach civilians in Gaza, and safe areas should be established. Blinken also said the Palestinian armed group “does not represent the Palestinian people and their hopes.”Prince Faisal renewed the Kingdom’s calls for a collective effort to stop the cycle of violence amid the escalation in the Gaza Strip. A ceasefire must go into effect in Gaza to allow the entry of humanitarian aid, he said.

Palestinians flee northern Gaza after Israel orders 1 million to evacuate as ground attack looms
JERUSALEM (AP)/October 14/2023
Palestinians fled in a mass exodus Friday from northern Gaza after Israel’s military told some 1 million people to evacuate to the southern part of the besieged territory ahead of an expected ground invasion in retaliation for the surprise attack by the ruling Hamas militant group. The U.N. warned that evacuating almost half of crowded Gaza's population would be calamitous, and it urged Israel to reverse the unprecedented directive. As airstrikes hammered the territory throughout the day, families in cars, trucks and donkey carts packed with possessions streamed down a main road out of Gaza City.
Hamas’ media office said warplanes struck cars fleeing south, killing more than 70 people. The Israeli military said its troops conducted temporary raids into Gaza to battle militants and hunted for traces of some 150 people abducted in Hamas's assault on Israel nearly a week ago. In urging the evacuation, Israel’s military said it planned to target underground Hamas hideouts around Gaza City. But Palestinians and some Egyptian officials fear that Israel ultimately hopes to push Gaza’s people out through the southern border with Egypt.
Hamas told people to ignore the evacuation order, and families in Gaza faced what they saw as a no-win decision to leave or stay, with no safe ground anywhere. Hospital staff said they couldn’t abandon patients. Unrelenting Israeli strikes over the past week have leveled large swaths of neighborhoods, magnifying the suffering of Gaza, which has also been sealed off from food, water and medical supplies, and under a virtual total power blackout. “Forget about food, forget about electricity, forget about fuel. The only concern now is just if you’ll make it, if you’re going to live,” said Nebal Farsakh, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza City, as she broke into heaving sobs.
In the nearly week-old war, the Gaza Health Ministry said Friday that roughly 1,900 people have been killed in the territory — more than half of them under the age of 18, or women. The Hamas assault last Saturday killed more than 1,300 Israelis, most of whom were civilians, and roughly 1,500 Hamas militants were killed during the fighting, the Israeli government said.
ISRAELI TROOPS MAKE FORAY INTO GAZA
Israel's raid was the first word of troops entering Gaza since Israel launched its round-the-clock bombardment in retaliation for Hamas’ massacre of hundreds of civilians in southern Israel. A military spokesman said Israeli ground troops left after conducting the raids. The troop movements did not appear to be the beginning of an expected ground invasion.
The evacuation order was taken as a further signal of an expected Israeli ground offensive, although no such decision has been announced. Israel has been massing troops along the Gaza border. An assault into densely populated and impoverished Gaza would likely bring even higher casualties on both sides in brutal house-to-house fighting.
“We will destroy Hamas,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Friday night in a speech, adding, “This is only the beginning.”Hamas said Israel’s airstrikes killed 13 of the hostages in the past day. It said the dead included foreigners but did not give their nationalities. Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari denied the claim.
In Israel, the public remained in shock over the Hamas rampage and frightened by continual rocket fire out of Gaza. The public is overwhelmingly in favor of the military offensive, and Israeli TV stations have set up special broadcasts with slogans like “together we will win” and “strong together.” Their reports focus heavily on the aftermath of the Hamas attack and stories of heroism and national unity, and they make scant mention of the unfolding crisis in Gaza. In the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry reported 16 Palestinians killed Friday, bringing the total of Palestinians killed there since Hamas' rampage to 51. The U.N. says attacks by Israeli settlers have surged there since the Hamas assault.
ISRAEL URGES MASS EVACUATION OF GAZA CIVILIANS
The U.N. said the Israeli military's call for civilians to move south affects 1.1 million people. If carried out, that would mean the territory’s entire population would have to cram into the southern half of the 40-kilometer (25-mile) strip. An Israeli spokesperson, Jonathan Conricus, said the military would take “extensive efforts to avoid harming civilians” and that residents would be allowed to return when the war is over. Israel has long accused Hamas of using Palestinians as human shields. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel wanted to separate Hamas militants from the civilian population. “So those who want to save their life, please go south,” he said at a news conference with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said it would be impossible to stage such an evacuation without “devastating humanitarian consequences.” He called on Israel to rescind any such orders.
PALESTINIANS IN GAZA GRAPPLE WITH WHERE TO GO
Hamas’ media office said airstrikes hit cars in three locations as they headed south from Gaza City, killing 70 people. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the strike. Two witnesses reported a strike on fleeing cars near the town of Deir el-Balah, south of the evacuation zone and in the area Israel told people to flee to. Fayza Hamoudi said she and her family were driving from their home in the north when the strike hit some distance ahead on the road and two vehicles burst into flames. A witness from another car on the road gave a similar account. “Why should we trust that they’re trying to keep us safe?” Hamoudi said, her voice choking. “They are sick.”The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment on the strike. Hamas called the evacuation order “psychological warfare” aimed at breaking Palestinian solidarity and urged people to stay. But there was no sign of it preventing the flight. Gaza City resident Khaled Abu Sultan at first didn’t believe the evacuation order was real, and now isn’t sure whether to move his family to the south. “We don’t know if there are safe areas there,” he said. “We don’t know anything.”Many feared they would not be able to return or would be gradually displaced to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. More than half of the Palestinians in Gaza are the descendants of refugees from the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation, when hundreds of thousands fled or were expelled from what is now Israel. For many, the mass evacuation order dredged up fears of a second expulsion. Already, at least 423,000 people — nearly 1 in 5 Gazans — have been forced from their homes by Israeli airstrikes, the U.N. said Thursday. “Where is the sense of security in Gaza? Is this what Hamas is offering us?” said one resident, Tarek Mraish, standing by an avenue as vehicles flowed by. “What has Hamas done to us? It brought us catastrophe,” he said, using the same Arabic word “nakba” used for the 1948 displacement. The U.N. estimated that tens of thousands had fled homes in the north by Friday night.
HOSPITALS STRUGGLE WITH PATIENTS
Gaza’s Health Ministry said it was impossible to safely transport the many wounded from hospitals, which are already struggling with high numbers of dead and injured. “We cannot evacuate hospitals and leave the wounded and sick to die,” spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra said. Farsakh, of the Palestinian Red Crescent, said some medics refused to abandon patients and instead called colleagues to say goodbye. “We have wounded, we have elderly, we have children who are in hospitals,” she said. Al Awda Hospital was struggling to evacuate dozens of patients and staff after the military contacted it and told it to do so by Friday night, said the aid group Doctors Without Borders, known as MSF, which supports the facility. The military extended the deadline to Saturday morning, it said.
The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, said it would not evacuate its schools, where hundreds of thousands have taken shelter. But it relocated its headquarters to southern Gaza, according to spokesperson Juliette Touma.
“The scale and speed of the unfolding humanitarian crisis is bone-chilling. Gaza is fast becoming a hellhole and is on the brink of collapse,” said Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA’s commissioner general. Pressed by reporters on whether the army would protect hospitals, U.N. shelters and other civilian locations, Hagari, the Israeli military spokesperson, said the military would keep civilians safe “as much as we can.” But he warned: “It’s a war zone.”

A Million Gazans Have Nowhere to Hide From Coming Israeli Troops
(Bloomberg)/October 14, 2023
Mohammed Dawoud had already been sheltering in a UN-run school in Gaza City for days when news began to spread through the crowded classrooms that Israel had called for a broader evacuation to the south of the enclave.
Huddled in the playground because the building was full, he struggled to separate rumor from reality. Phone lines were patchy, the power was out and air strikes were thundering all around. In any case, the 31-year-old had two adult brothers with cerebral palsy to consider. The family had left their home with a few bags after a previous evacuation call and didn’t know where else to go. He decided to stay put.
“It’s dangerous to move south. It’s too far,” he said by telephone, voice listless, before the connection dropped.
The United Nations said Friday the Israeli military had told its staff on the ground that all residents of northern Gaza — roughly half the territory’s population of over 2 million — had until midnight to relocate south. It called the task “impossible.”
Israel’s military spokesman Jonathan Conricus said early Saturday that it had observed a “significant movement of Palestinians toward the south” following the warning.
A 140-square-mile sliver of land on the Mediterranean, Gaza is ruled by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, but its borders are controlled by Egypt and Israel, which has declared a full siege, cutting off electricity and water. Crossings used to transport food are closed and discussions for a humanitarian corridor through Egypt have yet to bear fruit.
Even before Israel called on civilians to leave Gaza City, the main population center, ahead of planned operations against Hamas, residents were running out of places to go.
Bombarded by thousands of Israeli aerial strikes since Hamas mounted its unprecedented attack on Israel nearly a week ago, more than 270,000 Palestinians had, like Dawoud, sought shelter in about 90 schools run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. With nearly a dozen mosques already destroyed, others had fled to hospitals and churches, or joined relatives living near the main UN compound in Gaza City, calculating it would be spared. UNRWA, which serves Palestinian refugees, said 13 of its employees had been killed as of Friday. It’s moved its international staff and central operations from Gaza City further south and urged Israel not to strike its facilities. Gaza health authorities said 1,900 people had been killed so far, including at least 40 Palestinians whose convoy was struck as they fled south. More than 423,000 people — almost 20% of Gaza’s population — were displaced before the evacuation order, according to the UN. It said tens of thousands had since moved further south and warned that “most people have no access to clean drinking water after supply.”“Gaza is fast becoming a hell hole and is on the brink of collapse,” UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement Friday. “The scale and speed of the unfolding humanitarian crisis is bone-chilling.”
‘Wipe Out’ Hamas
With Israel in shock after an assault that’s killed more than 1,200 people, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has vowed to “wipe Hamas off the face of the Earth.” Saturday’s multi-pronged attack saw rockets rain down on Israel and gunmen maraud through Israeli villages killing and kidnapping civilians and soldiers, and ambush party-goers at a music festival. As images emerged of children and elderly people being snatched from the streets, Israel formed a war cabinet to uproot the armed group altogether. It’s amassed 300,000 reservists, ready for a widely-expected ground offensive. More than 2,000 Palestinians were killed when Israel last invaded Gaza in 2014. This time, the fate of scores of hostages hangs in the balance and complicates Israel’s mission. Read more: Few Good Options as Israel Weighs Ground Assault on Gaza Strip
That’s raised the prospect that Israel’s vengeance for the Hamas attack will unleash a humanitarian catastrophe on the Palestinians. Read more: Brutal Attack Shifts Israel From Managing Hamas to Destroying It. Hamas, which is designated a terrorist organization by the US and European Union, rejected Israel’s calls for the people of Gaza to leave their homes. The group, which has governed the enclave for 16 years, often operates out of heavily-populated areas, making it virtually impossible to avoid civilian casualties, even with a 24-hour warning.
Reduced to Sand
Yousef Hammash, an advocacy officer at the Norwegian Refugee Council and a documentary-maker based in Gaza, said hundreds of families had rushed to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem compound which includes a church, convent and school, as well as the Arab Orthodox Social and Cultural Center. He fled himself to stay with relatives in the comparatively well-to-do Rimal neighborhood where the UN has its headquarters. But entire blocks of Rimal, Arabic for ‘sands’, have already been destroyed. “Sections of Rimal have been reduced to sand,” said Hammash. “People are literally running for their lives.”In the chaos, the Al-Shifa medical complex has emerged as a magnet for those who’ve found schools and churches too full to accommodate them.
Nowhere to Go
Ghassan Abu Habel said he initially fled from his home to his in-laws’ house in Al-Karama, north of Gaza City, thinking it would be safer. “But a rocket fell just outside the house; it was a phosphorus bomb. We extinguished the flames with sand. Then another artillery shell. We rushed inside the house as F-16 air strikes rocked the area, shattering windows and causing shrapnel injuries to my face,” he said, adding that he had 20 stitches.
Huddled with his wife, children, and in-laws, about 20 people in total, in the pitch-black house, they finally resolved to flee. However, it was still dark outside, and rockets continued to rain down. His wheelchair-bound father-in-law and elderly mother-in-law slowed their progress through a hellscape of rubble. They sought refuge in a neighbor’s house, resigned to perish together before ambulances arrived to rescue them from this “nightmare.” The UN-run schools were already full, so the ambulances proceeded to a small pediatric hospital, only to find it already overflowing.
The Hospital
Finally, the ambulances deposited the family at Al-Shifa Hospital, where hundreds of displaced people had already filled the premises, camping in the carpark and staking out patches of hallways and wards. Men loitered helplessly in the hospital’s grounds as incoming ambulances blared their sirens and the sound of explosions reverberated in the background. Inside the hospital, women and children filled corridor floors as doctors rushed back and forth to tend to wounded or lifeless bodies carried on stretchers or by wailing relatives. With beds occupied, many casualties were receiving care on the bare floor. But Al-Shifa Hospital is inside the area covered by Israel’s evacuation warning.
The director, Mohammed Abu Silmiya, who warned the hospital was running out of surgical and medical supplies and was down to two days worth of fuel to run its generators, said he could not abandon hundreds of patients dependent on ventilators, dialysis and intensive care. “I have nowhere to take the wounded, the children, the women and the dead,” he said. “We can’t vacate the hospital. Let them invade wherever they may.”

A week into the Israel-Hamas war, the EU continues to struggle with its messaging
Shona Murray/Euronews/October 14, 2023
It's been a particularly bad few days for the European Commission whose week started with a disastrous communication debacle over aid to Palestinians and ended with accusations of double standards over how it labels what is currently unfolding in the Middle East and the events of the past 600 days in Ukraine.
Comments by the institution's chief, Ursula von der Leyen, over how Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure "especially electricity" constitute "war crimes" have proved particularly contentious. "Cutting off men, women, children of water electricity and heating with winter coming is pure terror," she wrote on X, formerly Twitter, in October last year. "And we have to call it a such". Asked this week why the EU's executive was not similarly labeling Israel's decision to cut off electricity in the Gaza Strip a war crime, Commission spokesperson Eric Mamer argued the context was different so the comparison was not applicable. "You are discussing a comment made in one very, very specific context where there was an unprovoked attack by a country - furthermore a member of the UN Security Council - against a peaceful neighbour, and the situation we're experiencing now, where I remind you there are continuing to be attacks from Gaza towards Israel." "And where therefore Israel is in a situation where it is defending itself in an extremely complex theatre of operations. Therefore we here cannot judge what are the exact actions that need to be taken in order for Israel to fight the Hamas terrorists which have attacked its territory."Israel is 'not violating humanitarian law' in war on Hamas - Israeli ambassador to EU
Israel has right to self-defence, but some actions 'counter international law' - Borrell
'The right to self-defence'
The EU, which considers Hamas a terrorist outfit, was swift to condemn the attack by the organisation carried out last Saturday in which over 1,200 Israelis were murdered. Over 100, including babies, were also kidnapped with their fate as well as health and well-being still unknown as demands for their release have gone unanswered. The bloc has also strongly supported Israel's right to self-defense, adding that any retaliation had to be proportionate and in respect of international humanitarian law.
But actions by the Israeli military have escalated concerns for the two million people hemmed into a tiny exclave. Israel declared a "complete siege" saying electricity, food, fuel and water were being cut off. “The emphasis is on damage, and not on accuracy,” said Israeli government spokesperson, Daniel Hagari on Tuesday. Then on Friday, Israel gave 24 hours for inhabitants of Gaza to leave the north of the exclave before a wave of ferocious bombing is unleashed. Humanitarian organisations have been raising the alarm, including the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, who described himself as "deeply distressed" by Israel's siege. The situation in Gaza, he added, is "extremely dire" as a result of the Israeli blockade of Gaza before Hamas's attack, saying it will "only deteriorate exponentially."
UNICEF deplored the deaths of "hundreds and hundreds" of children and said "hospitals are utterly overwhelmed to treat "those with injuries" including "horrendous burns, mortar wounds, and lost limbs."
"The humanitarian situation has reached lethal lows, and yet all reports point to further attacks. Compassion – and international law – must prevail," a spokesperson added.
Norway also condemned the "unacceptable" siege of Gaza by the Israeli army, and announced additional humanitarian aid to the city's residents.
By Friday, the number of Palestinians killed by Israel had surpassed 1,700. Thousands more are injured.
'Civilians must be protected'
Accusations that the EU is not equating the lives of innocent Palestinian civilians with those of innocent Israeli citizens, regardless of the fact that all civilians - especially children, have special status under international humanitarian law - grew louder
In response, Mamer of the Commission said "protection of civilians is of utmost importance" and that Palestinian civilians "must be pre-warned and alerted" of incoming air strikes, thus allowing them to leave the area. He noted that Israel had done that.
He also said the bloc is "encouraging the creation of humanitarian corridors to allow deliveries of much needed humanitarian aid, including allowing access to food, water and medicines in accordance with international humanitarian war" and that von der Leyen had spoken to a number of regional leaders.
Iran or Hezbollah may seek to capitalise on Israel-Hamas conflict, says NATO chief
'I cannot condemn' Hamas attack in the current situation - deputy head of Palestine mission to EU
But a source close to the delegation who spoke to Euronews on condition of anonymity said the Commission President was "less interested" about talking to her Israeli partners about trying to limit civilian casualties while on a trip to Israel.
In footage shared of her trip, she can be heard saying that she is "very grateful that you said very clearly that Hamas are terrorists but that we have to care for the Palestinian people and humanitarian needs".
But she made no mention of civilians or of the responsibility of the Israeli government to spare their lives as much as possible in a statement delivered alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"Hamas' acts have nothing to do with the legitimate aspiration of the Palestinian people," she said. "On the contrary, the horror that Hamas has unleashed is only bringing more suffering upon innocent Palestinians. They are threatened, too. Hamas' despicable actions are the hallmark of terrorists. And I know that how Israel responds will show that it is a democracy."Her Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarčič, was however more explicit, writing on X shortly after her intervention from Israel that "civilians must be protected", and that "critical infrastructure must not be targeted".
It was the second time in a matter of days that the Slovenian official stepped in to unequivocally champion EU humanitarian support to Palestinians.
Earlier in the week, he was the first in the EU's executive to provide some clarification after Olivér Várhelyi, the Commissioner in charge of enlargement and neighbourhood, unilaterally announced the EU was suspending aid to Palestinians, triggering confusion as to whether this included humanitarian assistance too and creating a diplomatic row among member states. The Commission instead took more than five hours to release a statement in which it announced an "urgent review" of the hundreds of millions of euros in development aid it provides to Palestinians. It justified the move by the need to be particularly vigilant that none of that money could fall into the hands of Hamas.

More aid flights arrive in Egypt's Sinai, awaiting passage to Gaza
CAIRO (Reuters)/October 14, 2023
New aid flights arrived on Saturday in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula where relief materials are being held until safe delivery into the nearby Gaza Strip can be secured, an official from the Red Crescent and an aid volunteer said. Egypt says its side of the Rafah crossing that connects Sinai with the Gaza Strip remains open, though traffic has been halted for several days because of Israeli bombardments on the Palestinian side of the border. A senior U.S. State Department official said the United States had been working with Egypt, Israel and Qatar to open the crossing on Saturday. Washington had been in contact with Palestinian-Americans inside Gaza, some of whom expressed a wish to leave via Rafah, but it was unclear if Palestinian Islamist group Hamas would allow access to the crossing, the official said. Egyptian security forces have been reinforcing security on their side of the border, including moving concrete barriers, but reports that they were sealing off the crossing were incorrect, one Egyptian security source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The crossing is the main exit point for the Gaza Strip's 2.3 million residents that is not controlled by Israel. Israel and Egypt have upheld a blockade on the enclave, controlling the movement of goods and people since Hamas took control in 2007. Israel's military spokesperson said on Saturday that the border remains closed and any crossing to Egypt needed to be coordinated with Israel. Two aid flights, including one from Turkey, arrived at Sinai's Al Arish airport, about 45 km (28 miles) from the Gaza border, bringing the total number of planes that have arrived this week carrying humanitarian relief for Gaza to at least five, the Red Cross official and the aid volunteer said. The World Health Organization said a plane carrying trauma medicines and health supplies had landed. "Every hour these supplies remain on the Egyptian side of the border, more girls and boys, women and men, especially those vulnerable or disabled, will die," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement. There is alarm in Egypt over the prospect that residents in Gaza could be displaced by Israel's siege and bombardment of the territory, launched in retaliation for the devastating incursion by Hamas militants. Like other Arab states, it has said that Palestinians should stay on their lands as the war escalates, and that it is working to secure delivery of aid into the Gaza Strip.

France urges Israel and Egypt to open humanitarian corridor out of Gaza
LBCI/October 14, 2023
French President Emmanuel Macron intensified his calls with foreign leaders on Saturday and particularly urged Egypt and Israel to open a humanitarian corridor to Gaza through the Rafah crossing, according to the Élysée. The Élysée stated, "France is intensifying its contacts with all the active parties, including the Israeli and Egyptian authorities, in order to utilize the Rafah crossing for humanitarian operations in Gaza, especially for the evacuation of our citizens."The Presidency further noted that Macron spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

France to deploy 7,000 soldiers after stabbing attack
Agence France Presse/October 14, 2023
France will deploy 7,000 soldiers after a Chechen-origin man fatally stabbed a teacher and severely wounded three other adults at a school in the northeastern town of Arras, the Elysee presidential palace said Saturday. The attack on Friday was denounced by President Emmanuel Macron as an act of "Islamist terror" in Arras, which has large Jewish and Muslim populations. The deployment of the soldiers will be completed by Monday evening. France has raised its alert level to the highest position following a crunch security meeting chaired by Macron on Friday. Macron said a separate "attempted attack" in another region had been foiled by security forces. "This school was struck by the barbarity of Islamist terrorism," Macron said after visiting the school, saying the victim had "probably saved many lives" with his courage in seeking to block the attacker.
The suspected attacker, Mohammed Moguchkov, who is in his 20s, was arrested by police. Moguchkov is from Russia's mainly Muslim southern Caucasus region of Chechnya. He was already on a French national register known as "Fiche S" as a potential security threat, a police source told AFP, and under electronic and physical surveillance by France's domestic intelligence agency, the DGSI. Moguchkov cried the Arabic phrase "Allahu akbar!" (God is greatest), according to the preliminary elements of the investigation.

European Commission says it would triple humanitarian aid to Gaza, bringing it to about 75 million euros
LBCI./October 14, 2023
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced on Saturday an increase in the European Union's aid to the people of Gaza to three times the current amount, totaling 75 million euros. This comes as the region faces intensive Israeli airstrikes in response to Hamas's attack.
After holding talks with the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the President of the Commission stated, "The Commission will immediately increase the humanitarian aid package for Gaza by an amount of 50 million euros. This will raise the total to over 75 million euros."

Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on October 14-15/2023
How the Biden Administration Helped Iran's Mullahs Try to Fulfill Their Dream of Annihilating Israel
Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute./October 14, 2023
"Look, it's not even just this $6 billion, which clearly is going to further enrich Iran. It's closer to $60 billion. If you look at what the Biden administration has done to help this Islamic terrorist regime in Iran by [stopping enforcement of] sanctions, by lifting restrictions, by allowing Iranian oil to increase by 650% over the last year from 400,000 barrels of oil a day to 3 million barrels of oil a day – all of this has strengthened" the Iranian regime. — Former US Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, Fox News, October 9, 2023.
Iran provides roughly $100 million a year to Palestinian terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and $700 million a year to Hezbollah.
Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi, meanwhile, has already announced that his country will use the new $6 billion "wherever we need it."
"Our strategy is to erase Israel from the global political map." — Major General Hossein Salami, now commander-in-chief, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, MEMRI, February 4, 2019.
So far, the Biden administration, in a welcome about-face, has been superb about promising to help Israel defend itself. It is to be hoped that this policy will continue, in Ukraine as well.
Sadly, however, to the Biden administration, the glaringly central role of Iran, without which Hamas would be able to do nothing, remains nowhere in sight.
Iran provides roughly $100 million a year to Palestinian terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and $700 million a year to Hezbollah.
The Biden administration, despite knowing that the Islamic Republic of Iran is the largest funder of the terror group Hamas, nevertheless decided to relax sanctions on Iranian oil exports. In 2020, Iran's economy had a reported trade deficit of $3.45 billion; by 2023, according to former US Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe:
"Look, it's not even just this $6 billion, which clearly is going to further enrich Iran. It's closer to $60 billion. If you look at what the Biden administration has done to help this Islamic terrorist regime in Iran by [stopping enforcement of] sanctions, by lifting restrictions, by allowing Iranian oil to increase by 650% over the last year from 400,000 barrels of oil a day to 3 million barrels of oil a day – all of this has strengthened [the Iranian regime]"
Just weeks after the US gave Iran's ruling clerics a fungible $6 billion line-of-credit as an effective ransom for hostages, the Iran-backed Hamas on October 7 launched a massive attack on Israel, killing more than 1,300 Israelis, mostly civilians, and wounded thousands more. Iran's leadership and their Lebanese terror proxy Hezbollah have been praising Hamas's terrorist attack on Israel.
Iran provides roughly $100 million a year to Palestinian terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and $700 million a year to Hezbollah. Thanks to the Biden administration, the sudden influx of billions of dollars into the regime's treasury will help the regime to provide more funds, arms and rockets to its terrorist proxies, including Palestinian armed groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi, meanwhile, has already announced that his country will use the new $6 billion "wherever we need it."
This has caused outrage in the US House of Representatives and Senate. Senator Marsha Blackburn said in a statement:
"Just weeks ago, the Biden administration handed over $6 billion to Iran, and today, innocent Israelis were murdered by Iran-backed terrorists. We must continue to support our strongest ally in the Middle East and their right to defend themselves against these unprovoked, horrific attacks."
Senator Rick Scott, said:
"This is exactly why so many Americans and Israelis were disgusted to see President Biden give the Iranian regime $6 billion last month. Every dollar given to Iran funds terrorism in the Ayatollah's quest to destroy Israel. Iran is behind today's invasion and everyone must say that as we stand with our Israeli allies."
Brig. Gen. (res.) Amir Avivi, a former deputy commander of the Israel Defense Forces' Gaza Division, warned on July 24, 2023: "For the last year and a half, Iran stated clearly that its main strategy is to make the Samaria region another Gaza." The Iranians, he added , are "pouring money and smuggling weapons into the region. They are supporting Hamas and the PIJ [Palestinian Islamic Jihad] and other factions within the Palestinian Authority."
As the Iranian regime has been sponsoring, funding and arming terror groups on Israel's borders, the Biden Administration has been carefully looking the other way.
Iran's regime, since its Islamic Revolution of 1979, has repeatedly made its policy towards Israel clear: it wants Israel to be wiped off the map. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who enjoys the final say in all of Iran's domestic and foreign policies, proclaimed to the youths of Iran that they will soon witness the demise of both Israel and American civilization. This announcement was confirmed on Khamenei's official website:
"You young people should be assured that you will witness the demise of the enemies of humanity, meaning the degenerate American civilization, and the demise of Israel."
The current commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Major General Hossein Salami, also made the strategy of the Iranian government vehemently clear:
"Our strategy is to erase Israel from the global political map. And, it seems that, considering the evil that Israel is doing, it is bringing itself closer to that."
As a tirade Khamenei posted on Twitter straightforwardly said: "the Zionist regime will perish in the not so far future."
So far, the Biden administration, in a welcome about-face, has been superb about promising to help Israel defend itself. It is to be hoped that this policy will continue, in Ukraine as well.
Sadly, however, to the Biden administration, the glaringly central role of Iran, without which Hamas would be able to do nothing, remains nowhere in sight.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US Foreign Policy. He can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu
© 2023 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

The Hamas Apocalypse has crafted a New World Order
Peter Frankopan/The Telegraph/October 14, 2023
Peter Frankopan: ‘The attack on Israel will have serious ramifications, whose significance is hard to understate’
The start of the summer had been filled with hope. Burnley had just beaten Liverpool in the FA Cup final, thanks to a goal by England international Bert Freeman.
The weather was gorgeous, noted the poet Alice Meynell, with moon after moon “heavenly sweet” as the “silken harvest climbed the down”.
Abroad too, things looked peaceful, as one senior diplomat observed. “I have not seen such calm waters since I have been at the Foreign Office,” wrote Sir Arthur Nicolson, until recently ambassador to Russia, and now permanent under-secretary for foreign affairs. It was May 1914.
Within a few weeks, the idyllic days and calm waters had vanished following the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. The decisions made in the weeks that followed changed the world forever: soon, all of Europe was at war, spilling over into Asia and Africa not long after.
Within four years, millions were dead, with many more wounded; Russia was gripped by revolution and a spiral towards Communist authoritarianism; the curtain had been brought down on the age of European empires, even if for some – like the British – flickered on briefly. No one saw it coming.
No one saw the attacks on Israel coming last weekend either. Just over two weeks ago, Jake Sullivan, the US national security advisor, had talked with optimism about the changes in the Middle East and about his hopes – shared by many in the region – of stability and continuing integration.
“The Middle East region is quieter today than it has been in two decades,” he said at the Atlantic Festival on 29 September.
Eight days later, Hamas began an attack that resulted in the deaths of more Jews than on any day since the Holocaust. The horrors of those scenes are almost impossible to describe, from the festival-goers mown down in cold blood to the taking of hostages, many of whom are women, children and elderly.
Their lives are now likely to be traded or lost as Israel’s response to this crisis escalates.
The retaliatory measures being taken to hunt down those responsible are themselves haunting to watch, with multi-storey buildings crumbling after being flattened by missile strikes and detonations.
The siege and bombardment of Gaza by Israel’s military forces has now been followed by the order for more than a million people living north of Wadi Gaza to evacuate to the south.
How the young, the elderly or infirm are supposed to do so, or where they are to go or stay, what they are to eat and drink and how they are to remain safe is not clear.
All are to be forced into one half of what is already one of the most densely populated places on Earth. Borders with Egypt are closed, with the Egyptian government thus far refusing to open up corridors to allow civilians to leave.
Hamas has called for people to stay put and “to remain steadfast in your homes and stand firm”. Many fear what the coming hours, days and weeks will bring. We are watching a humanitarian catastrophe in the making.
For now, many believe that the disasters will be borne only by the populations of Israel and Gaza. But there are already signs of escalation. Some US intelligence officials had initially linked Iran with the attacks, with Sullivan claiming that “Iran is complicit in this attack in a broad sense because they have provided the lion’s share of the funding for the military wing of Hamas, they have provided training, they have provided capabilities, they have provided support, and they have had engagement and contact with Hamas over years and years”.
That assessment has shifted in the past two days, with multiple sources now seeming to indicate that Hamas’s attack took the Iranian military, security and political leadership by surprise.
If Tehran was not directly involved then, it is spoiling for a fight now. Israel’s actions against Palestinians represent “war crimes”, announced Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iran’s foreign minister, following a visit to Lebanon yesterday.
Israel’s actions and ultimatum in Gaza, he said, would “undoubtedly trigger a collective response from the resistance axis”. This was obviously intended to mean that Iran’s primary client in the region, Hizbollah, would wade in.
Naim Qassem, deputy leader of Hizbollah, made clear that he and his organisation would have no truck with calls for restraint. “The behind-the-scenes calls with us by great powers, Arab countries, envoys of the United Nations, directly and indirectly telling us not to interfere will have no effect,” he told supporters at a rally in southern Beirut. It is a question of when rather than if, that Hizbollah will engage. So much for peace and quiet in the Middle East.
The fact that we are facing the most serious crisis in the region since the Yom Kippur War – whose 50th anniversary fell last weekend – is itself a surprise, for there had been many signs of progress and peace, as Sullivan had rightly suggested.
The Abraham Accords, signed in 2020, had normalised relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Just last month, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman had given a rare interview in which he had suggested that Saudi Arabian recognition of Israel was “getting closer every day” – pending the creation of a viable Palestinian state.
“For us, the Palestinian issue is very important,” he said. “We need to solve that part. We hope that it will reach a place that it will ease the life of the Palestinians and get Israel as a player in the Middle East.”
The prospects of a realignment of the Middle East, of a two-state solution or of accommodation with Israel now no longer seem so much distant as inconceivable. The attack on Israel will have serious ramifications, whose significance is hard to understate.
For one thing, the shock felt by Israelis at the failure of the intelligence services to identify the threat and of the poorly coordinated performance of the military to counter it rapidly will reshape an already fragile political landscape in the country.
If reports are correct that Egyptian intelligence had warned its Israeli counterparts of an imminent attack three days earlier, then serious questions need to be asked not only about why this alert was not taken more seriously, but also about the direction of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, and the potential distraction posed by proposed reforms which have sparked what some analysts have called “the most serious constitutional and political crisis since [Israel’s] establishment 75 years ago”.
The shockwaves will fan out considerably further. The response by some was predictable. The Saudi Foreign Ministry put out a statement that did not mention the violence that saw festival-goers and families brutally murdered last weekend, instead noting that it had given “repeated warnings of the dangers of the explosion of the situation as a result of the continued occupation, the deprivation of the Palestinian people of their legitimate rights, and the repetition of systematic provocations against its sanctities”
It was hardly surprising, in other words, that some would seek to take matters into their own hands to draw attention to the problem and to galvanise support.
It may not be a surprise that Saudi would choose to push its potentially ground-breaking prospective links with Israel to one side and to show solidarity to Palestinians when faced with a crisis.
The decisions made by others further afield are more striking. The initial response of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing also said nothing about the deaths of 1,200 people in Israel, simply noting its concern “over the current escalation of tensions”, and calling “on relevant parties to remain calm, exercise restraint and immediately end the hostilities to protect civilians and avoid further deterioration of the situation”.
The most appropriate course of action, noted the ministry, lay in “implementing the two-state solution and establishing an independent state of Palestine”.
This equivocal response was criticised sharply by Yuval Waks, a senior diplomat based at the Israeli mission in China. Israel expected “stronger condemnation” of Hamas and its actions, he noted, going on to say that “when people are being murdered [and] slaughtered in the streets”, it was hardly “the time to call for a two-state solution”.
While Mao Ning, the foreign ministry spokeswoman, was more forthright in her condemnation the next day, China watchers have been quick to spot that Beijing’s reference to a two-state solution is a move from its usual position of non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs; moreover, given China’s long-standing and important trade connections with Israel, not least in the defence and hi-tech sectors, the shying away from a show of public support in the face of the traumas of last weekend has been interpreted as an indication of the significance of the Arab world and the oil-producing Gulf States in particular in Chinese strategic and economic thinking.
If Beijing is seeing the developments of the past week through the lens of a new world that is taking shape, then the same is the case for Moscow – that has its own interests in the diffusion of disruption both regionally and beyond.
While there is no evidence at all of any Russian involvement in the events of the past week nor of support for Hamas and its activities, Russia has over the past decade been heavily involved in Syria, and more recently building ties with Iran, not least to secure supplies of drones to use in Ukraine.
Nor has Vladimir Putin missed the opportunity to point the finger at what the Russian president claims was the cause for the attacks of last weekend. These, he said, did not stem from Israel’s oppression of Palestinians or of Hamas’s iron-grip on Gaza and its desire to create chaos; rather, “this is a vivid example of the failure of United States policy in the Middle East”.
That provides a narrative that will fall on fertile ground in many parts of the world at a time of political and economic fragmentation. For Putin, the crisis in the Middle East comes at an opportune time not only in terms of distracting from the war in Ukraine and of blaming the west for the sins of others, but also because of another side effect of the events of the past seven days.
Perhaps the most significant of these is the reinforcement of ideas held in many countries around the world, but especially in Europe and the US, that the world is in transition, that we are entering or already in an age of darkness, that threats lie around every corner – from the effects of new technologies to the worries about climate change, from concerns about mass migration to those about the polarisation of political life.
One rational way to deal with such pressures is to turn away from them: so one likely effect of the suffering of so many Israelis and Palestininas will be the push towards growing isolationism – something which will bring as many problems as it solves
As Kevin Rudd, the former prime Minister of Australia, has put it so presciently, we are “living in the decade of living dangerously”. Rudd was writing in 2021 about the context of rivalry between the US and China.
But the model applies to a whole new set of rivalries that have since intensified: not only ones between geopolitical blocs, such as the west on the one hand, and China and Russia on the other; but also new alliances, whether illusory or otherwise such as the BRICS grouping (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, which will expand in January to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Argentina.
As the events of the summer of 1914 unfolded, great powers, empires even, gambled on their ability to make good decisions, rather than rash ones.
As the vengeance for the horrors of the previous weekend takes centre stage in the coming days and likely intensifies with tragic consequences, we need to be mindful of some of the very worst lessons of history and to make sure they are not repeated.
**Peter Frankopan is professor of global history at the University of Oxford

The Trust Biden Built with Israelis Doesn’t Come with a Blank Check
David Makovsky/The Washington Institute/October 14/2023
The depth of the president’s commitment greatly impressed Israelis, though a protracted Gaza war could test sentiments on both sides.
This may have been one of the most devastating weeks in Israel’s history, but it also could mark a fundamental turning point in the Israeli public’s relationship with US President Joe Biden. Israel has had emotional moments of connection before with foreign leaders at times of great shock. One came when Jordan’s King Hussein kneeled before grieving Israeli families after a crazed Jordanian soldier killed seven Israeli schoolgirls. Another came when President Bill Clinton met with Israeli high school students after four suicide bombings, two of them on Tel Aviv buses, during a single nine-day period in 1996. These were not standard political meetings, but intimate encounters between a grieving society and a foreign leader who they came to see as a trusted friend for their words and actions. This week may be another.
Biden’s three sets of White House remarks—first over the weekend, then a forceful statement on Tuesday expanded upon in remarks to American Jewish leaders on Wednesday—were effective for different reasons. They had an extraordinary and immediate impact inside Israel. A commentator on Israel’s right-wing Channel 14 apologized to Biden on-air for questioning his commitment to Israel in the past, saying this was the “moment of truth.” Huge billboards sprung up on Tel Aviv’s Ayalon Highway declaring “Thank you, Mr. President” and quoting from his speech. Public reaction, judging from Israeli TV and social media, ranged from grateful to ecstatic.
First, Biden struck a clear and decisive moral stance. The President expressed genuine, palpable horror at the brutal Hamas terror attack and massacres in southern Israel. There was none of the usual diplomatic jargon calling on both sides to exercise mutual restraint. Rather, he said, Israel faces “sheer evil.” Never before had a US president equated Hamas with ISIS, going so far as to say the Hamas operation “in some cases exceeds the worst atrocities of ISIS.” Biden noted that the Israeli victims were “not just killed, slaughtered.” He took a moral position about Israel’s enemies, and wanted to be “crystal clear” that the US “stands with Israel.” Over the years, Israel has often felt—fairly or unfairly—its pain was being minimized on the altar of regional realpolitik, with morality replaced by diplomatic equivocation.
Second, Israelis could see Biden’s empathy on full display at a time of national trauma, with the president tearing up as he talked about the suffering of the victims. Moreover, his temperament is in sync with his commitments. Israelis like visceral leaders, who do not hide their passion. He immediately linked the horrors of the weekend to the history of atrocities against Jews, declaring that “this attack has brought to the surface painful memories and the scars left by millennia of antisemitism and genocide of the Jewish people.” This outpouring stands in sad and stark contrast to Israeli politicians, who are too often seen scoring political points against their adversaries even in times of adversity.
Third, the promise of genuine US wartime military assistance was the most vivid reminder that Israel is not alone in its moment of peril. It has become an article of faith in Israel that it will be left alone when it comes to Iran. Though sharp and important differences remain between the US and Israel regarding strategies in dealing with the Iranian nuclear program, suddenly Biden is warning Teheran and Hezbollah. He exhorted against exploiting this hour of grieving to start a regional war of missile-armed proxies with Israel with a single word: “don’t.”
The picture of the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier heading to the eastern Mediterranean was shown over and over again on television and Israelis immediately heard about the arrival of the first of many flights carrying military assistance. Biden says US aid includes ammunition, new Iron Dome interceptors and deployment of more fighter jets to the Mideast. For decades, Israelis have heard the slogans that American support for Israel was “unbreakable” and “unshakeable.” Yet actually seeing the commitment, not just hearing it, makes all the difference. For 75 years, Israel has been proud to be a country that defends itself by itself. Yet, having a US aircraft carrier show up in the region is like having the US cavalry right over the horizon.
Fourth, Israelis have been hearing for the last decade about the different wings of the Democratic party, particularly that the progressive wing is not supportive of Israel. Israelis believe Biden’s declarations of fealty to Israel could be politically costly for him, and yet he persists. Israelis can sense and appreciate a friend who stakes out a public position despite the political cost. Biden likes to remind people that he forestalled progressive calls to establish a ceasefire in Gaza at the UN Security Council in May 2021 before Israel was ready to do so. He pointedly refused. He didn’t want to moralize against Israel from the international diplomatic rostrum and was showered with criticism from his rival wing.
Fifth, Israelis see that Biden understands the DNA of Zionism. During his visit in July 2022, he arrived in Israel and declared one doesn’t have to be Jewish to be a Zionist. He declared, “the connection between the Israeli people and the American people is bone deep.” Biden has deepened his appreciation for Zionism’s meaning through 50 years of meetings with Israeli leaders. No Israeli leader today ever dealt with Golda Meir. His oft-told story that Meir told him Israel’s secret weapon is that “we have no place else to go” reflects his intuitive understanding of Jews’ historic isolation, and he understands the Jewish fear of abandonment due to age-old antisemitism. As he has often said, he takes his grandchildren at the age of 14 to Dachau as he wants them to realize that “silence is complicity” and “hate never goes away.”
He understands a meta-lesson of Jewish history: stateless Jews are defenseless Jews. He told American Jewish leaders this week, “I truly believe, were there no Israel, no Jew in the world would be ultimately safe. It’s the only ultimate guarantee.”
Yet all of the above should not be misunderstood: Biden will not offer any Israeli leader a blank check during the Gaza crisis. Biden’s refusal to see Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for most of this past year reflected his belief that when it came to the judicial overhaul, Netanyahu was not acting in Israel’s best interest, but rather his own. In other words, being pro-Israel meant giving some tough love to an Israeli prime minister whom Biden saw as steering Israel away from the shared values that have bound Washington and Jerusalem together for decades.
In two of his statements this week, Biden said he urged Netanyahu to approach Gaza in keeping with the “rules of war.” This will not be easy when Hamas is a terror group whose only rule is that there are no rules.
In his book The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden’s White House and the Struggle for America’s Future, Franklin Foer writes that Biden’s advisors believed the president realized that his friendship with Israel enabled him to accrue political capital: “the trust he had deposited in the bank” towards attaining a policy objective. This may seem calculating: that he was “hugging Bibi tight” so that when the time came he would have the credibility to say—if only privately—that it was time to end the May 2021 war in Gaza.
I see it differently: Biden believes his bond is with the people of Israel, and thus he has a reservoir of support to occasionally tell its leaders when he thinks their government is veering away from Israel’s self-interest as he defines it. This is exactly what we saw on the judicial overhaul.
The Israeli public, Netanyahu and Biden may all have very different definitions of Israel’s self-interest during this crisis, which could lead to profound disappointments all around. Yet, critically accumulating a lot of trust between the White House and the Israeli public is an asset for both.
This Gaza crisis is likely to frequently test the Biden-Netanyahu relationship in the coming weeks, especially if the war goes awry. It would be a mistake for Netanyahu to take Biden’s commitment for granted: not because the US president doesn’t care, but because he believes he has spent a life demonstrating that he truly does.
*David Makovsky is the Ziegler Distinguished Fellow at The Washington Institute and director of its Koret Project on Arab-Israel Relations. This article was originally published on the Times of Israel website.
https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/trust-biden-built-israelis-doesnt-come-blank-check

Deterring Escalation and Expansion of the Gaza War by Iran’s “Axis of Resistance”
Michael Eisenstadt, Michael Knights/The Washington Institute/Oct 14/2023
The United States must underscore the risks that such action would incur and incentivize Tehran to rein in its proxies and partners.
As Israel conducts its war against Hamas in Gaza, a major challenge for the United States will be preventing escalation via the participation of Hezbollah, pro-Iran Iraqi militias in Syria or Iraq, the Houthis in Yemen, and perhaps even Iran. Such a regionalization of the war could have catastrophic consequences for the security of Israel and other U.S. partners, for regional stability, and for American interests in the Middle East and beyond.
Accordingly, Washington should proactively try to shape the calculus of these actors by making clear, through words and deeds, that their participation in the conflict would elicit a strong U.S. response. The Biden administration has made a good start in this regard, signaling from the first day of the crisis that the dispatch of U.S. military assets toward the East Mediterranean was intended “to respond to any contingencies and minimize the risk of a wider spread conflict,” adding that the United States would be “deeply concerned about Hezbollah making the wrong decision and choosing to open a second front...” President Biden pointedly advised any states thinking of broadening the war: “Don’t.”
The U.S. admonition is bound to be tested. Lebanese Hezbollah has been probing Israel’s response threshold daily during the past week in a series of incidents along the border. These have included mortar and rocket fire, the launch of an antitank guided missile at vehicles, and perhaps cyber activities to cause false alerts in Israel’s rocket and drone early warning system. Reports have also emerged of Hezbollah fighters as well as Syrian and Iraqi militias being deployed to the Syrian Golan Heights. Mortar rounds have been fired from Syria to the Israeli side of the border. And in a recent parade, the Houthis in Yemen displayed a medium-range missile capable of reaching Israel.
To deter Hezbollah, Iran, and their proxies and partners from expanding the war, the United States needs to underscore the risks they would incur by doing so, and incentivize Tehran to rein in the members of its so-called axis of resistance.
Deterring Hezbollah and Iran
Hezbollah has more than 150,000 rockets, mortars, and missiles that could cause great damage to Israel’s population centers and critical infrastructure. The group’s entry into the war would be a profoundly destabilizing development, which makes deterring it a top priority—as reflected by the Biden administration’s clear messaging on the issue, backed by U.S. military deployments. So far, both Iran and Hezbollah seem intent—at least for now—on limiting the risks of major or unintended escalation that could harm their vital interests. Having perhaps succeeded in disrupting Saudi-Israel normalization (and perhaps the emergence of a U.S.-Saudi military alliance), and having drawn Israel into a destructive new Gaza war, they may not want to overplay their hand. Alternatively, they may be encouraged by success and visions of a triumphant “decisive battle” with Israel to do so.
Several events could alter Hezbollah or Iranian calculations. These include an Israeli military setback in Gaza, an accidental or incremental escalation that generates pressure on Hezbollah or Iran to respond, or a perceived diminution in U.S. or European support for Israel. This suggests that deterrent messaging to Hezbollah and Iran and the nature of U.S. support to Israel will need to be constantly adjusted. To this end, the United States should:
Direct aircraft from the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group (CSG), now in the East Mediterranean, to rehearse strike missions and conduct standoff reconnaissance flights off the coast of Lebanon, with news crews reporting from the carrier’s flight deck.
Quietly signal that U.S. F-35 stealth fighters are operating in the vicinity of Lebanese airspace.
Direct the destroyers and cruisers of the Ford CSG to rehearse joint procedures with Israel’s strategic missile defenses—which are not currently engaged—to send a deterrent message to Hezbollah and Iran.
Deploy heavy bombers to the Gulf region (including B-2 stealth bombers—which would be a first) to remind Tehran that its critical infrastructure—including its oil industry—could be struck if Hezbollah or Iran were to enter the war.
Announce that the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower CSG—which will be leaving for the Mediterranean in the coming days—will visit the Arabian Sea in the course of its deployment.
Although Iran had in the past become accustomed to the presence of carrier strike groups and the dispatch of bomber task forces to the Gulf region, the intensity of the current crisis and the strong, impassioned engagement of President Biden suggest that Iran may be more responsive this time.
Finally, Washington should build on its October 12 decision to deny Tehran access to a $6 billion fund created for the purchase of humanitarian supplies following the recent repatriation of five American hostages held by Iran. It should indicate that if Tehran fails to prevent the participation of Hezbollah and other proxies and partners in the Gaza war, the United States will likewise deny Iran access to an additional $10 billion in frozen funds for the purchase of humanitarian goods now held in Oman—consisting of the proceeds of Iranian gas and electricity sales to Iraq.
Deterring Proxies of Hezbollah and Iran
Hezbollah and Iran might also want to have their proxies and partners—namely, Syria-based militias, Iraqi Shia militias, and Yemen’s Houthis—open additional fronts with Israel and thereby complicate its military calculus. Israel would certainly face significant challenges striking targets in Iraq and Yemen, especially while engaged in operations in Gaza and along its northern border. This is where quiet U.S. messaging to Yemen’s Houthis, Iraqi militias, the Assad regime in Syria, and Iran may bolster Israel’s warnings. Media reports noting U.S. intelligence support for Israeli preparations to respond to a potential Houthi strike by hitting their missile and drone forces or leadership targets might help deter the Yemen-based group. And beyond the threat of a forceful U.S. military response to attacks on American personnel and interests in Syria and Iraq, the most useful way to keep Iraqi militias out of a war with Israel involves threats by the U.S. Treasury Department to prioritize and expedite the blacklisting of banks associated with such militias for abuses of the U.S. dollar.
*Michael Eisenstadt is the Kahn Fellow and director of the Military and Security Studies Program at The Washington Institute.
*Michael Knights is the Bernstein Fellow at the Institute and cofounder of its Militia Spotlight platform.
https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/deterring-escalation-and-expansion-gaza-war-irans-axis-resistance

Gaza’s Urban Warfare Challenge: Lessons from Mosul and Raqqa
Michael Knights/The Washington Institute/October 14/2023
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/123190/123190/
The differences and parallels between urban battlefield circumstances in Gaza, Iraq, and Syria give U.S. policymakers a sobering but clear view of what exactly they will be committing to in supporting Israel’s ground campaign.
On October 12, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) warned all residents of Gaza City to evacuate within twenty-four hours, signaling that a ground operation into the urban area is likely imminent. As Israel begins the ground phase of its campaign to destroy “the military and governing capabilities” of Hamas (as the Prime Minister’s Office put it), officials and observers would be wise to review the lessons of other recent urban battlefields.
Comparing the Gaza Battlefield and Opponent
Every urban battle is unique and shaped by the cityscape, human terrain, and forces, so comparing Gaza and its relevant forces with other urban battlefields and combatants is a useful first step. Although the Gaza Strip comprises 140 square miles overall, its numerous semi-urban and lower-density areas mean that the urban battlefield can more accurately be thought of as a network of four to six smaller zones, the largest being Gaza City, which covers about 20 square miles, plus a number of 5 square mile zones (e.g., Khan Yunis, Rafah). This makes it somewhat smaller than the past Iraqi urban battlefields of East Mosul and West Mosul (about 30 square miles each) and nearly the same surface area as Raqqa, Syria, the former “capital” of the Islamic State (IS). Yet Gaza’s population of approximately two million people is on par with all of Mosul’s circa 2014, when the city fell to IS. In other words, Gaza City is far more densely populated than other recent urban battle environments—though how much of the population will remain there following Israel’s evacuation order and the beginning of the battle itself is unclear.
Gaza is also an unusually complex urban battlefield, including in the third dimension. Gaza City has around sixty buildings that are six floors or taller, compared to almost none in the 2016-17 Battle of Mosul and 2017 Battle of Raqqa. Hamas has also invested huge effort in developing military tunnels under the Strip, expanding the potential battlespace to an unknown extent. Taken together, seizing all of Gaza’s conurbations would entail an operation equivalent to one West Mosul-size fight plus one or two Raqqa-size fights (whether these battles unfold sequentially or in parallel is uncertain).
Moreover, Hamas differs from the opponents in Mosul, Raqqa, and other smaller urban battles such as Kobane, Manbij, Ramadi, and Fallujah. It is certainly on par with IS in its ability to conduct suicide bombings, and probably superior in anti-armor warfare, drone operations, and air defense. And while IS had around two years to prepare Mosul and Raqqa’s defense, Hamas has had fifteen years to prepare a dense “defense in depth” that integrates subterranean, ground-level, and aboveground fortifications, communication tunnels, emplacements, and fighting positions, as well as potential minefields, improvised explosive devices, explosively formed penetrator anti-armor mines, and buildings rigged as explosive booby traps.
As important, Hamas is holding more than a hundred Israeli and foreign hostages by most accounts, including some Americans—an unprecedented complication. Earlier today, Hamas claimed that thirteen prisoners, “including foreigners,” had been killed by IDF airstrikes in the preceding twenty-four hours, a clear attempt to deter Israel’s use of airpower.
Moreover, the attitude of Gaza residents is uncertain. In Iraq and Syria, most urban residents actively sought to get away from IS defensive pockets but were prevented from doing so and exploited as human shields. Although Hamas may use the foreign hostages in much the same way, at least some of Gaza’s citizens may be inclined to remain in urban areas willingly and even support the group actively or passively—a potentially huge complication. Indeed, Hamas authorities urged residents to ignore the Israeli evacuation warning.
Another major difference may be the quality of the attacking forces and their appreciation of the environment. In the Iraqi and Syrian urban battles mentioned above, the ground attackers were almost always poorly equipped, semi-trained light infantry troops (with the exception of fights involving Iraq’s Special Operations Forces or certain units of the Syrian Democratic Forces). As such, they were inadequately prepared for the complexity and novelty of those urban environments. Even in the best case, when these forces were provided with U.S. intelligence gleaned from eight years of occupation and three years of intense surveillance, they were still probably not as well-informed as the IDF is about Gaza—a territory where Israel has conducted two previous wars and decades of nonstop surveillance. The IDF is also qualitatively different from America’s “by, with, and through” partners in Iraq and Syria. Exactly how different will be tested by the imminent fighting, but the IDF appears to be the most cohesive, well-equipped, and well-prepared force to fight major urban battles since the U.S. military itself fought the highly destructive second Battle of Fallujah in November 2004.
Lessons of Recent Urban Battles
Although the above differences underline the hazards of overreliance on historical comparisons, one can still glean many important lessons from recent urban battles in the Middle East:
Destruction of urban areas is almost unavoidable. The opening days of IDF strikes on Gaza suggest that Israel is willing to cause immense material damage in pursuit of its military objectives. Even if this changes at the outset of the ground phase, every urban battle eventually becomes a choice between saving the physical environment and saving the lives of friendly troops. Faced with such a decision, attackers generally choose the latter, especially once they become weary. In West Mosul—which humanitarian agencies consider an extraordinarily destructive battle—the UN certified that over 13,000 structures were demolished or made uninhabitable in about 180 days of battle. In the more concentrated Raqqa area, the figure was 11,000 (or 80 percent of the city’s structures) in 90 days. In Gaza, local authorities report that 535 structures are destroyed or uninhabitable after five days of war—which is probably not far off the mark judging by imagery from the estimated 2,000 airstrikes conducted thus far (rough tracking points to around 400 Israeli strikes each day in the conflict’s opening period, increasing to 750 on October 12). Destruction tends to accelerate when ground operations commence and troops require fire support, so the Gaza damage will likely wind up equaling or exceeding that of Mosul and Raqqa.
Tactics, timing, and troop quality matter. Urban battles are especially unforgiving of mistakes, lethargy, and low-quality or exhausted troops. In the Battle of Mosul, the mistiming of concentric attacks on the city allowed IS to muster its full strength against each piecemeal Iraqi thrust—a mistake that was not remedied until late in the battle. Gains and momentary opportunities to achieve breakthroughs were therefore not exploited; weaker formations contributed little, while higher-quality troops ended up taking the brunt of the fighting and being worn down and destroyed.
The enemy was often given a way out. In Manbij, Raqqa, Fallujah, and numerous other small battles, IS forces were typically left with an escape corridor. Although this sat uneasily with the U.S.-led coalition, which wanted to decisively eliminate the IS threat, it served as a useful splintering technique that saved lives, reduced damage, and shortened battles. In contrast, IS did not use opportunities to escape in battles such as Mosul, Hajin, and Baghuz; some fighters were consequently cornered, while others merged into the civilian populace.
The United States has supported long, destructive urban fights. In the war against IS, the United States supported 277 days of urban fighting in Mosul, 90 days in Raqqa, and 23 days in Manbij. In comparison, Washington and other international actors pressured Israel to shut down its December 2008 Gaza operation after 22 days and its 2014 operation after 49 days, even though they were less destructive than any of the three urban operations against IS.
Implications for U.S. Policy
Even if Israeli ground operations are initially successful, as tends to be the case with the first phase of urban warfare, U.S. officials should presume that the campaign will soon become slower, costlier, and deeply unpopular—not just in the Arab world, but also in Europe and eventually the United States. If America supports a ground operation and truly intends to “stand with Israel,” then it must fully own that decision for the duration of the campaign—unlike the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen, which Washington initially backed but then progressively disavowed as the outcry over civilian casualties increased. To expel the bulk of Hamas from Gaza—a worthwhile benefit for the entire international community, not just Israel—the IDF must be given the space and time to complete the mission. Otherwise, both sides will have paid the grave costs of a ground operation with little or nothing to show for it, and with future rounds of Hamas terrorism and warfare sure to follow.
Accordingly, if Washington supports the Gaza ground operation, then it will need to summon the same resolve it showed during the battles for Kobane, Ramadi, Manbij, Raqqa, and Mosul. The recent mass-casualty terrorist attacks in Israel have bared Hamas’s true nature for all to see, including its growing threats to regional stability and U.S. interests, its implacable opposition to Israeli-Palestinian coexistence, and its active role in advancing Iran’s interests. If Washington supports Israel’s elimination of the group’s military and governing capabilities in Gaza—much as the U.S.-led global coalition supported the elimination of IS territorial control in Iraq and Syria—then it needs to accept that this goal will not be achievable without significant harm to Gaza’s civilian population, even with the best of efforts. The sad truth is that the civilian death toll in Gaza—not to mention the risk to hostages and Israeli troops—could reach the levels seen during the Battle of Mosul (estimated at more than 9,000 killed), rivaling the high price that many innocent Iraqis paid to defeat IS.
*Michael Knights is the Bernstein Fellow at The Washington Institute and cofounder of its Militia Spotlight platform.
https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/gazas-urban-warfare-challenge-lessons-mosul-and-raqqa

رابط فيديو حلقة نقاش من موقع معهد واشنطن عنوانها /الشرق الأوسط الجديد في ظل هجوم حماس. إسرائيل في حالة حرب ودور السياسة الأمريكية/الضيوف المتحدثين هم السادة روبرت ساتلوف، إيهود يعاري، ماثيو ليفيت، نيومي نيومان، غيث العمري/
Link For A round table discussion fron the washington Institute/The New Middle East: Hamas Attack, Israel at War, and U.S. Policy
Robert Satloff, Ehud Yaari, Matthew Levitt, Neomi Neumann, Ghaith al-Omari/The Washington Institute/October 14/2023
https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/new-middle-east-hamas-attack-israel-war-and-us-policy
Veteran U.S., Palestinian, and Israeli experts and policy practitioners explore the broader strategic repercussions of the unfolding war, as well as the factors that enabled Hamas to reach its current level of malign regional influence.
On October 10, The Washington Institute held a virtual Policy Forum with Robert Satloff, Ehud Yaari, Matthew Levitt, Neomi Neumann, and Ghaith al-Omari. Satloff is the Institute’s Segal Executive Director. Yaari is a Lafer International Fellow at the Institute. Levitt is the Institute’s Fromer-Wexler Fellow and director of its Reinhard Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence. Neumann, a visiting fellow at the Institute, formerly served as head of the research unit at the Israel Security Agency. Omari is the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Senior Fellow at the Institute. The following is a rapporteur’s summary of their remarks. To read a full transcript of the event, download the PDF above.
Robert Satloff
This moment is an inflection point in the Middle East, the scale of which is analogous to the September 11 attacks. This will require a rethinking of the basic paradigm through which the United States approaches politics, society, and conflict in the region.
Yet the September 11 analogy is inadequate to comprehend the impact and meaning of these attacks in Israel, for several reasons. First, the October 7 attack inflicted a dramatically higher number of casualties proportionally speaking. Second, Israel is far smaller than the United States, so the proximity of every Israeli to someone harmed in the attacks or deployed in response is much closer. Third, the attacks involved many cases of individualized barbarity, including rape. Fourth, terrorists continued to operate on Israeli soil for days after the attacks. Fifth, for the first time in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a large number of hostages were taken across the border. Sixth, it appears that these attacks may be the first phase of a much larger conflict.
Analogies to the October 1973 war are inadequate as well. The Hamas attacks were certainly a surprise, and Israeli forces were not deployed properly in response. Yet Egyptian president Anwar Sadat launched the 1973 war to catalyze peace, leading to the Camp David Accords. Hamas certainly did not launch its attacks to make peace or advance a two-state solution—rather, it aimed to activate a multifront threat against Israel, fill a vacuum in Palestinian leadership, and stop progress toward regional peace, as exemplified by the potential Israeli-Saudi normalization agreement.
This is not just another phase of periodic conflict between Israel and Hamas, this is fundamentally different. Israel will seek to decapitate the group’s military leadership, destroy its residual military capability, re-instill public confidence in the Israeli government and military, and replace regional perceptions of Israeli vulnerability and weakness with images of power and invincibility.
These efforts will entail a substantial, extended military effort framed by the threat of wider conflict, including the Palestinian arena and, potentially, Lebanon, Syria, and Iran. U.S. and Israeli partners in the region will likewise have a vital role to play. Although Israel’s Arab partners were not directly targeted by Hamas, a weakened Israel leaves them more vulnerable. This was also the most significant act of terrorism against Americans outside U.S. soil since at least 2002; indeed, Hamas remains aligned with Iran in their shared fight against the United States and Israel.
Ehud Yaari
This is the darkest moment in the history of Israel since the 1948 War of Independence. Israel very likely had sufficient intelligence to anticipate a Hamas attack yet was still unprepared. On one hand, intelligence agencies did not expect a change from the type of violence Hamas has employed in previous conflicts. On the other hand, Israel’s technological superiority did not mean much in this case because the border fence around Gaza was improperly defended. Israeli guards were killed at their positions, and other forces took hours to intervene. In the Gaza envelope, where over twenty kibbutzim once stood, only one remains standing.
These attacks were most likely orchestrated by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in order to derail progress toward Israeli-Saudi normalization. Iran perceived such a deal as a direct threat to its security. Moreover, Yahya al-Sinwar, the Hamas leader in Gaza, has previously been unwilling to invade Israel without external support. Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah have very likely promised to open a northern front should Hamas’s military leadership appear to be in danger.
For now, Israeli leaders are still determining the time and manner of a major ground invasion amid ongoing airstrikes. The goal right now is to minimize Hamas’s ability to resist. The number of hostages held by the group is unknown.
Israel entered this situation with a government and prime minister discredited by more than half the population. Binyamin Netanyahu has taken days to determine whether to form a war cabinet with the opposition—while most Israelis are bridging the political divisions that were widened by the recent judicial overhaul, Netanyahu still appears bogged down in partisan politics
Matthew Levitt
There is a misconception that after Hamas took over Gaza by force in 2007, it moderated its commitment to jihadist activities and was coopted by governance. In fact, the group has gradually built an infrastructure unimaginable for most terrorist groups, including massive caches of small arms and rockets and a cadre of fighters to be used at a date of its choosing. Hamas fed this misconception, leading a disinformation campaign that convinced Israelis it could be deterred through economic incentives.
Hamas has now disproved the notion that governance would deter its terrorism; rather, it must be viewed as a group that can not only carry out standard terrorist attacks, but also deploy hundreds of fighters in coordinated attacks. Its goals are now undeniable as well: the group is not focused on ending Israeli occupation or achieving a two-state solution, but rather on destroying Israel and creating its vision of an Islamic state in all of historic Palestine.
Since the attack, the Israeli Air Force has focused on destroying as much of the group’s military capabilities as possible, including rockets, defensive elements, and tunnel systems. For its part, the United States will provide intelligence support to Israel, while the FBI’s extraterritorial squad will open cases for every American victimized by this attack. These efforts—along with regional shows of military strength such as naval redeployments—will probably be the limit of U.S. support. Domestically, law enforcement will focus on the potential for hate crimes in the United States.
Looking ahead, the risk of horizontal escalation may emerge via Hezbollah in Lebanon, Shia militias in Syria, and Yemeni Houthi rocket fire against southern Israel. Hamas perpetrated this attack with full knowledge that the Israeli response would be significant, so it very likely believes that Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies will open additional fronts if necessary.
Debates over Iran’s role in the attack miss the point, since Tehran’s decades-long support of Hamas makes it complicit under any circumstances. Even so, the nature and scope of the operation suggest that Iran and Hezbollah offered at least strategic guidance. In fact, this Hamas attack appears to come straight out of Hezbollah’s playbook—for years, the Israel Defense Forces Northern Command has trained to counter precisely this kind of cross-border operation. Whatever the case, Israel’s response will be fundamentally different from its responses to previous Hamas attacks given the number of victims, most of whom are civilians.
The attack also demonstrates why regional moderates must consider Iran and its proxies as serious threats. It is in their interests to coordinate with Israel.
Neomi Neumann
These attacks were a total surprise for Israel and necessitate a paradigm change in Gaza and perhaps the entire Palestinian arena. Israel’s immediate aim is to topple Hamas’s leadership, which will take a tremendous amount of time and effort and result in substantial Israeli casualties. At the same time, Israel must work with international partners to plan the reshaping of the Middle East and the Palestinian arena after Hamas is defeated.
When the group first took over Gaza in 2007, Israel responded by blockading the Strip. Yet this approach did not produce the intended result, instead jeopardizing Israel’s security and interests due to the looming threat of humanitarian crisis. Without a proper solution—and in light of the fact that neither Israel nor the Palestinian Authority (PA) wanted to return to Gaza—a temporary coexistence of sorts emerged between Israel and Hamas. The group’s pragmatic actions during this period were misunderstood as gradual moderation of its ideology. While Israel eased components of the blockade, Hamas built up its military capabilities in multiple arenas. Time and time again, when given the choice between the interests of Palestinian civilians and its own military interests, Hamas chose the latter.
A turning point for Hamas came during Israel’s 2021 Operation Guardian of the Walls. That round of conflict not only saw Hamas launching rockets from Gaza, but also included Palestinian communities in East Jerusalem and the West Bank carrying out unified anti-Israel actions of their own. This development showed Tehran and Hezbollah that cooperation with Hamas could weaken Israel and turn its focus away from Iran.
Indeed, Iran has long provided inspiration, support, funds, means, and expertise to Hamas. The group trained for this attack for a long time and likely saw recent developments in Israel as evidence of weakness. Moreover, the nature of its actions this week indicates that it remains a radical movement singularly focused on the destruction of Israel.
As for the “day after Hamas,” Israeli planning for that stage should begin right away in cooperation with the United States, international bodies, regional countries, and the PA. This will enable efforts to reshape the Palestinian arena and, to a large extent, the Middle East as well.
Ghaith al-Omari
Palestinian society, like all other Arab societies, has always had Islamist components. Historically, Islamists remained outside the “liberation struggle” in the Palestinian arena. This changed in 1987 during the first intifada, when the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood created Hamas. Back then, however, Hamas was little more than a violent irritant.
When the Oslo Accords emerged, however, Hamas distinguished itself from the Palestine Liberation Organization through its strong opposition to any form of accommodation with Israel and its commitment to violence. During the second intifada, Hamas rose to prominence by perpetrating terrorist attacks against Israel, and its reputation was further validated when Fatah adopted some of the same tactics.
By 2006, Hamas was exploiting the trauma of the second intifada to win parliamentary elections on a platform opposing PA corruption. After the civil war between Fatah and Hamas in 2007, the group took over Gaza and has been the governing authority in the Strip ever since.
Alongside its continued terrorist objectives, Hamas has used governance to legitimize itself in international discourse. The group receives support from Iran, of course, but also from Qatar and Turkey, both of whom advanced its rebranding. For example, some international actors commended Hamas’s 2017 “political document” stating it would accept a Palestinian state along the pre-1967 borders. Yet these voices ignored the fact that the document did not represent a formal amendment to Hamas’s charter, which continues to reject Israel’s existence.
Since then, Hamas has faced various governance challenges in Gaza. Like the PA, it has engaged in rampant corruption and is now unpopular and compelled to govern by force.
The group has also shifted significant focus to the West Bank, where it has three primary objectives: opening another front for terrorist attacks, mobilizing West Bankers toward a third intifada (which the PA has taken steps to prevent), and seeking the collapse of the PA itself. Although Israeli policy in recent years has certainly weakened the PA, Ramallah is largely at fault for its weakness due to corruption and poor governance. Today, most Palestinians view the PA as a liability.
Hamas also likely hoped that this week’s attacks would spark intercommunal violence between Arab and Jewish Israelis, perhaps fanned by members of the Israeli government. Instead, key Israeli politicians such as United Arab List chair Mansour Abbas have urged de-escalation.
No matter how this war ends, Hamas must not be permitted to demonstrate any success from the use of terrorism. One way to facilitate that goal is to include regional partners like Egypt, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates in any future mediation efforts—while excluding Hamas supporters like Qatar and Turkey from any talks besides hostage negotiations.
Finally, the PA would be incapable of immediately taking control of Gaza in the war’s aftermath, and this shortcoming cannot be solved through financial aid alone. PA institutions must be reformed and rebuilt in the West Bank first, and later in Gaza.
*This summary was prepared by David Patkin. The Policy Forum series is made possible through the generosity of the Florence and Robert Kaufman Family.

Hamas Has Fractured the Arab World..America Must Help Prevent a Wider Conflict—in the West Bank and Beyond
Ghaith al-Omari/Foreign Affairs/October 14/ 2023
In the days since Hamas launched its ferocious October 7 terrorist attack on Israel and Israel began its massive response in the Gaza Strip, Arab governments have been caught in a difficult bind. Several Arab countries had entered, or were in the process of making, historic normalization agreements with Israel, and Israel’s immediate neighbors and long-standing peace partners, Jordan and Egypt, have enjoyed mutually beneficial diplomatic and security relations that contributed to regional security. At the same time support for the Palestinian cause runs high among Arab populations, and amid a war that seems likely to cause massive destruction in Gaza, Arab leaders must walk a careful line to avoid triggering a domestic and diplomatic backlash. Meanwhile, the floundering Palestinian Authority, long in power in the West Bank, faces escalating challenges of its own. And with a months-long security breakdown, the PA now faces the real possibility that the West Bank could be drawn into Hamas’s war with Israel, as the fighting gets bloodier in Gaza.
As this explosive situation unfolds, sharp divisions have begun to emerge in the Arab world. Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, which have entered the Abraham Accords with Israel, have issued statements clearly condemning Hamas. In turn, Qatar, Hamas’s main Arab backer, has lashed out at Israel and adopted language very similar to Hamas’s. Jordan and Egypt, meanwhile, with the most at stake on the ground, have remained cautious, navigating between their own national security concerns and restive domestic audiences. And then there is Saudi Arabia, a U.S. ally and perhaps the most consequential regional player today. Saudi Arabia was making progress on historic, U.S.-brokered talks with Israel at the time of the attack, yet it also seeks to maintain or perhaps even bolster its leadership role in the Arab world and support for the Palestinians.
Confronted with this highly complex regional landscape, the United States must try to balance potentially conflicting objectives, including backing Israel in its response to Hamas’s unprecedented attack, preventing a wider war, stabilizing the West Bank, and managing its relations with its Arab partners. The Biden administration is already deeply engaged in such efforts. U.S. President Joe Biden has called the Israeli prime minister, European allies, and Arab leaders. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has visited Israel and the region. Throughout these efforts, the United States has been clear in its steadfast support for Israel politically, militarily and diplomatically while repeatedly urging Israel to respect the laws of war. The war is in its early stages. The competing pressures around the region will get worse as the conflict in Gaza intensifies and Palestinian casualties rapidly mount.
WHAT WILL THE NEIGHBORS THINK?
Like the rest of the world, Arab governments were caught off guard by the unprecedented scale and brutality of Hamas’s attack. They shared Israel’s assumption that Hamas was not currently interested in a major escalation but was instead busy with the demands of governing Gaza and deterred by Israel’s carrots and sticks. Before October 7, it seemed that Hamas’s strategy focused on destabilizing the West Bank while maintaining a measure of calm in Gaza.
Consider Israel’s close neighbors, Egypt and Jordan, both of whom reacted cautiously in the immediate aftermath of the attack. Egyptian officials refrained from condemning Hamas, called for de-escalation, and criticized Israeli policies toward the Palestinians. Jordan reacted similarly, expressing support for the Palestinian cause. Indeed, both Jordan and Egypt have populations that are highly supportive of the Palestinians and have immediate national security concerns to think about. And both governments are challenged domestically by Islamist opposition groups that are sympathetic to Hamas.
In fact, Israel’s offensive against Gaza has already provoked unrest in both countries: an Egyptian policeman murdered two Israeli tourists and their Egyptian tour guide in Alexandria on October 8, a day after Hamas conducted its attack, and thousands of Jordanians demonstrated in Amman against Israel. As a result, both countries are on heightened alert. Egypt has explicitly stated that it will not allow large refugee flows from Gaza into its territory. And Jordan banned demonstrations near its border with Israel.
The situation among the Arab Gulf states is similarly complex. Qatar, which backs Hamas and funds Gaza, has held Israel “solely responsible” for the escalation, mirroring Hamas’s rhetoric. Moreover, Al Jazeera’s Arabic language channel, a news station funded by Qatar that reaches tens of millions of people across the Arab world, has effectively served as a mouthpiece for Hamas.
Jordan banned demonstrations near its border with Israel.
By contrast, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates condemned Hamas, with the Emirati government calling the group’s actions a “serious and grave escalation” and declaring that it was “appalled” by the attacks on civilians. These statements come at a time when diplomatic relations between Israel and the two countries are delicate. Since joining the Abraham Accords both Bahrain and the UAE have taken significant steps to enhance economic and security ties with Israel. But diplomatic and political ties had come under pressure in recent months as a result of inflammatory comments and provocative actions by Israel’s far-right government concerning Palestinians in the West Bank and particularly Jerusalem.
Policymakers are watching Saudi Arabia especially closely. At the time of the Hamas attack, the Biden administration appeared to be making headway toward brokering a historic agreement between Saudi Arabia and Israel to normalize relations. In addition to anchoring Saudi Arabia firmly in a U.S. security umbrella at a time when Washington has been perceived as pivoting away from the Middle East, these negotiations also aimed at securing significant Israeli commitments regarding the Palestinian issue. But Saudi Arabia plays a leading role in the Islamic world as guardian of Islam’s holiest sites, and the Palestinian cause remains popular among Saudis. Moreover, talk of normalization with Israel has exposed the kingdom to accusations that it was abandoning the Palestinian issue. With the outbreak of war between Hamas and Israel, these talks have come to a halt. The Saudi government cannot appear to be cultivating ties with Israel at a time when the country is in an active conflict with the Palestinians. Indeed, it is likely that the Hamas attack was, at least in part, aimed at disrupting Israeli-Saudi rapprochement.
Following the attack, Riyadh issued a careful statement in support of Palestinians that neither approved of nor condemned Hamas’s actions. At the same time, Saudi Arabia has remained in close contact with the United States and key Arab countries. The Saudi crown prince even had a phone call with the president of Iran, the kingdom’s longtime rival and Hamas’s chief backer. Clearly, the Saudi government is trying to achieve two different objectives. On the one hand, Riyadh is seeking to maintain and bolster its leading role in regional diplomacy. Although traditionally cautious, the country has taken a far more proactive approach to foreign relations under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, its de facto leader. On the other hand, Saudi Arabia remains committed to its longtime goal of establishing a Palestinian state, even though it is aware that this is not possible in the short term. Saudi Arabia likely feels the need to burnish its pro-Palestinian credentials.
In the short term, for the duration of the fighting in Gaza and its immediate aftermath, a deal with Israel is out of the question. In the long term, however, it is unclear how a conflict between Hamas and Israel will change the basic interests that drove Saudi Arabia to seek relations with Israel. Both countries share larger security concerns in the region, including containing Iran and limiting Islamic extremism. And both countries seek to benefit from stronger economic ties, especially as Saudi Arabia proceeds with its Vision 2030 plan to diversify its economy.
POWDER KEG
Arab governments’ calculations about the Hamas-Israel war are made even more complicated by the situation in the West Bank. In launching its new war, Hamas has been trying to trigger a security breakdown in the West Bank as well, where the population has been restive.
For years now, a political and security vacuum has been emerging in the West Bank—a trend that has accelerated since Israel formed the most hardline government in its history last year. Along with the newly hostile Israeli leadership, Palestinians have faced growing settler violence, and relentless expansion of settlements. But this deterioration is not only a result of Israeli policies. The Palestinian leadership is aging, unpopular, and sclerotic. Widespread corruption, poor governance, and increasingly authoritarian tendencies have led a majority of Palestinians to lose faith in their leaders and governing structures. Today, 80 percent of Palestinians consider the PA to be corrupt, and most want its 89-year-old president, Mahmoud Abbas, to step down. As a result, the PA finds itself unable to exert control on the ground.
As it becomes even more lethal, the war between Israel and Hamas could push the West Bank over the edge. If an incident or terror attack emanating from the West Bank causes Israel to respond with large-scale force—or if settlers themselves attack Palestinians, as happened in the village of Hawara in February 2023—it could provoke fighting across the West Bank. The area is already showing warning signs of impending violence. Palestinians have been demonstrating against Israeli attacks in Gaza daily, though for now the protests remain small.
A political and security vacuum has been emerging in the West Bank.
Given such chaos, and its own weakness, the PA has few good options. It thinks it has little room to maneuver and must try to balance its desire for stability with its need to cater to highly inflamed public opinion—which will only become more difficult as the war in Gaza gets bloodier. So far, the PA has reacted by publicly blaming Israel for the escalation with Hamas. After coming under international pressure, the PA has condemned violence against civilians without explicitly mentioning Hamas. But it has also tried to maintain calm in the West Bank by using its security forces to keep demonstrators away from checkpoints and other areas where confrontations with Israeli forces are most likely to occur.
Yet riding the wave of anger against Israel comes with risks. In echoing Hamas’s messaging, the leadership in the West Bank will only inflame emotions, both among ordinary Palestinians but also within an already demoralized security establishment, whose members may refuse to show up for duty. Moreover, Abbas, who was already viewed negatively by many world leaders because of his poor governance of the West Bank and inflexible diplomatic approach, has further squandered what little international goodwill he had left by making antisemitic statements in September 2023. It is no coincidence that Biden has not yet called him, delegating that task to Blinken.
An escalation in the West Bank would have enormous repercussions across the region. Not only would the human toll be high, but given the PA’s fragility, fighting could cause the organization’s collapse. Many groups would welcome such a fall, including Hamas and terror organizations in the West Bank, such as the Lions’ Den. If the PA collapsed, the political vacuum in the West Bank would likely lead Israel to once again directly rule the territory, spill over to Jordan, and upend the broader regional and international diplomatic approach to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which has long treated the PA as the Palestinians’ representative in the efforts to create an eventual two-state solution. Given all that is at stake, preventing the war from spreading to the West Bank should be among the highest priorities in Washington and among its close Arab allies.
CALLING IN FAVORS
For the United States, handling these highly complex regional dynamics will not be easy. Washington will need to balance the political needs of its various Arab allies while maintaining its support for Israel and taking what steps it can to contain the humanitarian costs of the war in Gaza. Arab governments cannot ignore their own domestic political pressures, but they share Washington’s interest in keeping the war from spreading. The Biden administration will need different things from different Arab countries. Egypt will be crucial in brokering an eventual end to the Gaza war. Jordan enjoys unparalleled leverage vis-à-vis the PA. These countries may not share Washington’s public posture, but they have both proven to be reliable partners in the past.
Relations with Riyadh will be more complicated. Biden and MBS have suffered from strained ties. Yet the U.S. efforts to broker an agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia have created openings for the United States to explore ways in which Saudi Arabia can advance some of Washington’s positions. For example, Riyadh might use its religious standing to counter Hamas’s claims that its actions are religiously sanctioned.
As for other Gulf countries, the United States should publicly acknowledge the principled positions taken by the UAE and Bahrain. Conversely, Washington should explicitly call out Qatar for its support of Hamas. Once the fighting ends in Gaza, the United States should explore the role of Arab states in post-conflict reconstruction and, if Hamas is dislodged, in the management of Gaza. In addition, Washington should consider steps to stabilize the West Bank through urgent economic and security measures.
Ultimately, however, events on the ground in Gaza in the coming days and weeks will shape what is diplomatically possible. The United States needs to remain focused on its goal, as articulated by U.S. leaders, of ensuring that Hamas will never again be able to mount the kind of terror attack it did on October 7.
**GHAITH AL-OMARI is a Senior Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a former adviser to the Palestinian peace negotiation team.
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/israel/hamas-has-fractured-arab-world