Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 23-24/2023
The 40th Anniversary of the Tragedy of the Bombing of American and French Forces' Headquarters in Beirut in 1983/Elias Bejjani/October 23, 2023
The Beatification of Maronite Patriarch Estephan Douaihy... A Testament of Faith for Lebanon/Elias Bajani, October 22, 2023
U.S. Embassy in Lebanon marked the 40th anniversary of the October 23, 1983, bombing of the U.S. Marine Corps Barracks in Beirut
40 years after the Beirut barracks bombing, the US military is again at risk of clashing with the same forces behind it
Almost 20,000 Displaced in Lebanon as Clashes on Israel Border Escalate'
Hezbollah Backs New Armed Groups to Garner ‘Sunni Support’ for War with Israel
Four Goals in Hezbollah’s Strategy to Deal with Gaza War
Netanyahu spokesman threatens Lebanon with 'very dangerous consequences'
Shea: We reject the threats of some to drag Lebanon into a new war
Israel targets 'militants' in Arqoob, missiles fired from Lebanon
Bassil meets Mikati, Jumblat as part of tour aimed at 'protecting Lebanon'
Berri stresses Lebanon's 'legitimate right' to defend itself
Two Resistance Brigades members killed by Israeli shelling
Hezbollah, Israel exchange fire amid warnings of widened war
US amps up military posture in Mideast, warns against 'escalation'
Fleeing Israeli strikes, south Lebanon families move into schools
Bassil contacts Nasrallah to agree on maintaining consultations that serve the interests of Lebanon and all its citizens
Al-Halabi: Schools To Close in Southern Border Areas on Tuesday
A look back at the July 2006 war: Destruction and death toll tragedy
High-Level Talks Between Lebanese and Italian Defense Ministers Address Bilateral Relations and Regional Developments
Mikati: International contacts ongoing to stop Israeli provocations in south Lebanon

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 23-24/2023
Live Updates on the Gaza war: Hamas releases 2 Israeli hostages
Day 17: Death toll hits 5,000 including 2,055 children in Gaza
Israeli media reports confidence crisis between Netanyahu, army
Hamas releases two more hostages as Israel ramps up Gaza strikes
Israel expects 'prolonged' Gaza ground war, targets Hamas commandos, bases
Israel Ramps up Strikes on Gaza as US Advises Delaying Ground Offensive to Allow Talks on Captives
Canadian in Gaza says Israeli air strikes now relentless ahead of ground invasion
Blair expected to face questions about Canada's evidence on Gaza hospital strike
Israel welcomes Canada's conclusion that Israel didn't strike hospital in Gaza
Politicians condemn protest at Jewish-owned business as police monitor demonstrations
Israeli families fleeing the border find refuge in a unique Jerusalem hotel
Israel and Egypt both blockaded Gaza after Hamas took over.
Dispute between Iraqi military and Kurdish Peshmerga turns deadly, killing 3
Turkey's president submits protocol for Sweden's admission into NATO to parliament for ratification
Azerbaijan holds first joint drills with Turkey since Karabakh victory
France to boost Armenia's air defences with radars, missiles - minister
Intelligence shows Iranian-backed militias are ready to ramp up their attacks against US forces in the Middle East
Israeli president says Hamas operative had instructions for cyanide chemical weapon
Canada/NDP kicks Hamilton MPP Sarah Jama from caucus, saying her actions have 'broken the trust' of colleagues

Titles For The Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on October 23-24/2023
The left has really let us down.' Why many American Jews feel abandoned/Jaweed Kaleem/LA Times/October 23, 2023
Apocalypse Two: The Wars In 2006 And 2023/Amb. Alberto M. Fernandez*/MEMRI/October 23/2023
Eying Gaza mediator role, Turkey cools Hamas ties, Erdogan restrains rhetoric/Fehim Tastekin/Al-Monitor/October 23, 2023
How might Iran respond to an Israeli ground incursion into Gaza?/A correspondent in Tehran/Al-Monitor/October 23, 2023
Decisions on the Edge of the Abyss//October 23, 2023/Ghassan Charbel/Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper
Bankrupt Iran: Close Their Oil Cash Cow/Lawrence Kadish/Gatestone Institute./October 23, 2023
Canceled: How Islam ‘Erased’ Christianity from the Middle East/Raymond Ibrahim/October 23, 2023
Who Says Hamas Does Not Represent The Palestinians?/Bassam Tawil/ Gatestone Institute/October 23, 2023

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 23-24/2023
The 40th Anniversary of the Tragedy of the Bombing of American and French Forces' Headquarters in Beirut in 1983
Elias Bejjani/October 23, 2023
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/123452/123452/
Today, with sorrow, sadness, and prayers, we remember the 40th anniversary of the tragic bombings carried out by Iranian-backed extremist groups, affiliated with what is known as "Hezbollah," at the headquarters of the American and French forces in Beirut in 1983.
October 23, 1983, was a somber day in the history of Lebanon and the United States, in what concerns our dedicated efforts as Lebanese and free, sovereign Americans towards peace in the Middle East.
On that dad morning, suicide bombers ideologically recruited and backed by the Iranian regime, operating under the banner of "Hezbollah," carried out twin terrorist attacks on the American and French military headquarters in Beirut. The attacks resulted in the deaths of 241 American and 56 French soldiers, as well as a significant number of Lebanese civilians.
As we remember that tragic event, we must shed light on the criminal and terrorist role of the Iranian regime, not only in the Middle East, but also in all free nations around the world. We should not forget the real and dire threats to peace and stability that Hezbollah represents in our region in general, and specifically in our beleaguered and occupied Lebanon.
The responsibility of the Iranian regime for the 1983 bombings was never in doubt, given the compelling evidence that condemns its leadership and holds them accountable for that horrendous act of terrorism. This bloody and terrorist regime founded Hezbollah in 1982. It funds and trains its fighters, and exercises complete control over its decision making process. The 1983 terrorist bombing also reminds us of Iran's use of its militias and terrorist proxies, particularly Hezbollah, to achieve its ideological, expansionist, and criminal goals in all free nations around the world.
The heinous bombings by the Iranian regime in Beirut in 1983 exposes its disregard for human life and universal values, as well as its absolute refusal to adhere to international standards and laws in a bid to promote its disruptive agenda and its scheme in undermining peace and stability.
We must remember that Hezbollah, the military proxy of Iran, occupies Lebanon and controls its governance and decision-making process since 2005. It is an extremist, militia-style terrorist organization with a long history of murder, criminal activities, money laundering, assassinations, and illicit trade. The 1983 bombings were not isolated incidents, but part of Hezbollah's ongoing pattern of terrorism in service to Iran's agenda.
We must also note that all aggressive actions by the Iranian regime, directly or through Hezbollah, or its other military proxies in Syria, Gaza, Yemen, and Iraq, destabilize peace and stability in the entire Middle East, while innocent citizens in these countries suffer the consequences of its expansionist, authoritarian, and sectarian schemes.
Meanwhile, The Iranian regime's pursuit of nuclear capabilities, support for armed terrorist groups, and interference in the internal affairs of neighboring countries, poses serious and significant threats to the region's stability and peace.
In conclusion, the Middle East in particular, and the world in general, will not know peace and stability until the criminal and terrorist Iranian regime is toppled, in a bid to allow the peace-loving Iranian people to govern themselves through democratic means.
On the 40th anniversary of the Bombing of American and French Forces' Headquarters in Beirut in 1983, we offer our heartily felt prayers for the souls of American and French soldiers, and  for the souls of all the innocent Lebanese citizens who lost their lives in the bombing.

The Beatification of Maronite Patriarch Estephan Douaihy... A Testament of Faith for Lebanon
Elias Bajani, October 22, 2023
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/123408/123408/
We thank the Lord for His spiritual gifts and blessings bestowed upon the Maronite believers, represented by the clergy and monks. We joyfully and reverently thank Him for the grace of beatifying Maronite Patriarch Douaihy in the Vatican on the past Thursday, October 19, 2023, adding him to the ranks of the saints in our Maronite Church. These saints include:
Saint Maron, the Father of the Maronite Church
Saint John Maron, the first Patriarch of the Maronite Church
Saint Jacob, a disciple of Saint Maron
Saint Simeon Stylites the Elder, a disciple of Saint Maron
Saints Cyra and Marana, disciples of Saint Maron
Saint Domnina, a disciple of Saint Maron
The 350 Maronite Saints
Saint Marina of Qannoubine
Saint Sharbel Makhlouf, the Lebanese Maronite monk
Saint Rafqa Al Rayess, the Lebanese Maronite nun
Saint Nimatullah Kassab, the Lebanese Maronite monk
Blessed Maronite Martyrs Francis, Abd El-Moati, and Raphael
Saint Charbel Makhlouf
Saint Thérèse
Saint Maroun
And many more.
The beatification of Patriarch Douaihy is a significant historical moment for our Church, our people, and our faith values. It symbolically affirms the sanctity of his life and his contribution to the Church and society, prompting the Maronite people to return to the wellsprings of faith and emulate the lives of the saints.
To understand the importance of beatification, one must recognize the role of saints in Christian teachings and traditions. Saints are individuals who lived exemplary Christian lives, and their sanctification is a recognition of their virtuous deeds and the examples they set for Christians. Our Church believes that saints act as intermediaries between people and God, responding to prayers and requests made to them. We witness the wonders of Saint Charbel, which are countless in Lebanon and most parts of the world.
As a brief historical reminder, the Maronites trace their origins back to the 5th century when they separated from the Eastern Church and became an independent Church. The Maronite Patriarchate and the Maronites are integral to the fabric of Lebanese identity and heritage.
While the Maronite Church is a part of the Western Catholic Church, it retains its distinct traditions and rituals.
In conclusion, the beatification of Maronite Patriarch Douaihy is a tribute to the Maronite Church, a reflection of the rich history of the Maronites deeply rooted in the land of Lebanon, a testament to holiness and the saints.
Patriarch Douaihy's beatification elevates the status of the Maronite community and underscores the deep devotion of its followers. It is a moment of admiration and respect for every believer, emphasizing the importance of reevaluating Maronite Christian history, identity, and faith.
The beatification of Maronite Patriarch Douaihy brings hope, renewal, and a sense of purpose to the Maronites and all Lebanese, reminding them of the significance of dedicated service to faith, Christian values, Lebanon's essence, identity, history, and sanctity.

U.S. Embassy in Lebanon marked the 40th anniversary of the October 23, 1983, bombing of the U.S. Marine Corps Barracks in Beirut
U.S. EMBASSY BEIRUT
OCTOBER 23, 2023
Today, U.S. Embassy Beirut marked the 40th anniversary of the October 23, 1983, bombing of the U.S. Marine Corps Barracks in Beirut, in which a suicide bomber killed 241 U.S. servicemembers. U.S. Ambassador Dorothy Shea, Deputy Chief of Mission Amanda Pilz, and the Embassy community honored and paid tribute to those who lost their lives in this attack.
Ambassador Shea and French Ambassador Hervé Magro laid a wreath at the U.S. Embassy memorial adorned with the phrase, “They Came in Peace.” Members of the U.S. Embassy’s Marine Security Guard detachment read the names of each victim, remembered their service, and honored their sacrifice.   
In her remarks, Ambassador Shea emphasized that the United States’ commitment to the people of Lebanon is “so much stronger than any cowardly act of violence or terrorism.” She continued, “The motto of the U.S. Marine Corps is semper fidelis, always faithful. Today, 40 years after the Marine Corps Barracks bombing, we are forever faithful to the memory of those 241 servicemen and all those – Americans, Lebanese, and others – who have given their lives in support of peace.”
Following are Ambassador Shea’s complete remarks:
Remarks by U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy C. Shea 40th Anniversary of the Bombing of the U.S. Marine Corps Barracks October 23, 2023, 9:30 AM
Good morning. Thank you, all of you, for joining us here today. Thank you, Your Excellency Hervé Magro, defense attaché, and other colleagues from our French embassy counterparts. Thank you, all of you, for being here with us amid difficult circumstances to pay our respects to those lost and injured 40 years ago today.
Forty years ago, the Lebanese people were midway through a horrific civil war that killed tens of thousands and drove almost a million Lebanese to flee their homes. At the request of the Lebanese government, the United States – alongside our French, Italian, and UK allies – formed a new multinational force to help the Lebanese government regain full sovereignty over Beirut and the entire country. Or, as President Ronald Reagan said at the time, to ensure that “the Lebanese people are allowed to chart their own future.” That is an aspiration we still hold.
And so in 1982, roughly 800 U.S. Marines landed in Beirut. Along with their fellow French, UK, and Italian soldiers, they came in peace to help ensure the safety of the Lebanese people and bring an end to the tragic violence.
These Marines were young men with bright futures ahead of them, and with a deep commitment to serving their country and the values we hold dear as Americans and Lebanese. Colleagues, I would invite you to view the exhibit in our consular waiting room, which includes some photographs depicting the daily lives of these Marines when they were here in Beirut. These photos capture some of their simple pleasures, like a pick-up soccer match or getting a haircut or playing with Lebanese children in the area around the Marine Corps Barracks.
October 23, 1983, should have been one of those days. It was a Sunday, so the compound would have been quiet.
At 6:22 a.m., just a few moments before the morning reveille was scheduled to sound, their bright futures were cut short in a matter of seconds. A suicide bomber drove a truck filled with explosives into the barracks and detonated it, in an attack conducted with Iran’s support. This building was reduced to rubble. 241 U.S. servicemen were killed that day. One more would die in the coming days due to injuries he sustained during the attack.
In a matter of seconds, a cowardly act of terrorism robbed these American servicemen of their bright futures. Families were left forever grieving an unimaginable loss, and an entire nation was left in shock.
A few minutes later, a second suicide bomber struck the French barracks, the Drakkar, and killed 58 French paratroopers. Again, I would like to recognize his Excellency Ambassador Hervé Magro, who is with us here today, and salute the memory of those French paratroopers, whose futures were taken away from them far too soon. Que leurs âmes reposent en paix.
We are here, today, 40 years later, to honor the memories of those who came in peace. We remember, and we honor them.
We are also here to say unequivocally that our commitment to the Lebanese people is so much stronger than any cowardly act of violence or terrorism.
Today, we reject, and the Lebanese people reject, the threats of some to drag Lebanon into a new war. We continue to renounce any attempts to shape the region’s future through intimidation, violence, and terrorism – and here I am talking about not just Iran and Hizballah, but also Hamas and others, who falsely paint themselves as a noble “resistance,” and who most certainly do not represent the aspirations – or the values – of the Palestinian people, while they try to rob Lebanon and its people of their bright future.
The motto of the U.S. Marine Corps is semper fidelis, always faithful. Today, 40 years after the Marine Corps Barracks bombing, we are forever faithful to the memory of those 241 servicemen and all those – Americans, Lebanese, and others – who have given their lives in support of peace.
We are also forever faithful to our values and principles, the very same ones that brought the U.S. Marines here in the 1980s, and the ones that I know we as Americans and Lebanese share today. Those of us who are serving here today continue to work every day to promote those values and to be a positive force for Lebanon’s peace, stability, and national unity – and today in particular, we do so in memory of those who paid the ultimate price.

40 years after the Beirut barracks bombing, the US military is again at risk of clashing with the same forces behind it
Jake Epstein/Business Insider/October 23, 2023
On October 23, 1983, 241 US service members were killed in the Beirut barracks bombings. Then President Ronald Reagan at the time described the Middle East as a "powder keg." Forty years later, the Israel-Hamas war is sparking fears that the Middle East may erupt in conflict. In the wake of the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing, which took the lives of 241 US service members, then-President Ronald Reagan described the Middle East as a "powder keg." Exactly 40 years later, with Israel's war against Hamas teetering on the edge of exploding into a regional conflict that could pull the US into a fight with Iran or its proxies, his words once again appear to ring true. At 6:22 a.m. local time on October 23, 1983, a suicide bomber drove a truck packed with explosives into barracks housing US troops at the international airport in Beirut, Lebanon's capital city. The detonation and ensuing blast reduced the entire building to rubble, killing 220 Marines, 18 sailors, and three soldiers, The deadly blast marked the largest single-day loss of life for the Corps since the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II. An accompanying attack just a few minutes later on French forces — who, along with the Americans, British, and Italians, had deployed to Lebanon the year prior at the request of the government amid a brutal civil war — killed 58 troops and six civilians. In a televised address after the dual explosions, President Reagan said the barracks attack was the latest assault against US forces stationed in Lebanon and that he had made efforts to speak with the loved ones of those killed.
"Sometimes, there were questions, and now many of you are asking: 'Why should our young men be dying in Lebanon? Why is Lebanon important to us?'" the former president said at the time. "Well it's true," he continued, "Lebanon is a small country more than five and a half thousand miles from our shores, on the edge of what we call the Middle East. But every president who has occupied this office in recent years has recognized that peace in the Middle East is a vital concern to our nation and, indeed, to our allies in Western Europe and Japan." "We've been concerned because the Middle East is a powder keg. Four times in the last 30 years, the Arabs and Israelis have gone to war," Reagan added. "And each time, the world has teetered near the edge of catastrophe." Forty years later, his remarks appear to have come full circle. The Beirut suicide bomber was found to have links to Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group that's since been designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the US, and a 2003 court case revealed that Tehran gave the orders. Now there are warning signs that these two entities could jump into the latest spurt of violence to plague the Middle East, where American forces are in position to defend and deter. Israel and Hamas have been at war for more than two weeks, after the militant group killed at least 1,400 Israelis and injured nearly 5,000 more during a shocking and ruthless massacre earlier this month. The ongoing retaliatory Israeli airstrikes against targets in the Gaza Strip — which appears to be the precursor to a ground invasion of the enclave — have left at least 4,500 Palestinians dead and over 14,000 others injured, according to the latest United Nations figures.
As things stand, the fighting is still largely contained to Israel and Hamas, but there are fears that the conflict could expand into a larger regional war with moments of escalation from Iran-backed groups becoming more frequent and dangerous.
Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon have been regularly exchanging fire lately, with officials warning that a second front could open up there. Last week, a US Navy destroyer operating in the Red Sea shot down cruise missiles and drones fired by Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen, with a Pentagon spokesperson saying the threats were "potentially" traveling toward targets in Israel. Additionally, US forces in Iraq and Syria have come under frequent drone attacks — activity that's historically been tied to Tehran-supported groups in those two countries.
Furthermore, the Middle East has been roiling in unrest in the wake of a deadly explosion at a hospital in Gaza last week, with protests throughout the region fueled by anger toward Israel — which, with US backing, denied responsibility for the incident and blamed the tragedy on a failed Palestinian rocket. Israel presented evidence to support its claims while the US conducted an independent analysis of the situation. Anger, however, remains in the aftermath. With tensions boiling, Washington is warning Americans throughout the Middle East to exercise caution and remain vigilant. The US embassy in Lebanon said on Sunday that citizens who want to depart the country "should leave now, due to the unpredictable security situation." In a bid to deter the Israel-Hamas war from expanding and send a message to Iran and its proxies that they should stay away from the conflict, the US military has moved a large amount of combat power to the region over the past two weeks, including to the eastern Mediterranean in waters near Lebanon. This increased American footprint includes aircraft carriers, warships, fighter jets, air-defense capabilities, and personnel. "Today, we reject, and the Lebanese people reject, the threats of some to drag Lebanon into a new war," US Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea said in comments marking the barracks bombing anniversary on Monday. "We continue to renounce any attempts to shape the region's future through intimidation, violence, and terrorism — and here I am talking about not just Iran and Hizballah," she said, using the alternate spelling of Hezbollah, "but also Hamas and others, who falsely paint themselves as a noble 'resistance,' and who most certainly do not represent the aspirations — or the values — of the Palestinian people, while they try to rob Lebanon and its people of their bright future."

Almost 20,000 Displaced in Lebanon as Clashes on Israel Border Escalate
Asharq Al-Awsat/October 23/2023
Almost 20,000 people have been internally displaced in south Lebanon and elsewhere since early October, a UN agency said on Monday, as violence escalates on the Lebanese-Israeli border following the eruption of the Gaza war. The International Organization for Migration said 19,646 people had been displaced inside Lebanon since it began tracking movements on Oct. 8, the day after an assault on Israel by Hamas militants and an Israeli counteroffensive on Gaza. It said the movements were mostly by those fleeing the south although some departures were also reported elsewhere. The Israeli authorities have also been evacuating dozens of towns and communities from the north of Israel. Lebanon's heavily armed Hezbollah group and Israel have been exchanging fire on an increasingly frequent basis all along the border, the worst escalation since the two sides fought a war in 2006. Hezbollah says 27 of its fighters have been killed in the clashes since Oct. 7, while Lebanese security sources say 11 fighters from Palestinian groups in Lebanon, which are allied to Hezbollah, have also died. Israel's military says seven troops have been killed along the frontier area.

Hezbollah Backs New Armed Groups to Garner ‘Sunni Support’ for War with Israel
Beirut: Youssef Diab/Asharq Al-Awsat/October 23/2023
The Lebanese people’s fear that their country would be dragged into a war with Israel are being compounded with the announcement of armed groups, besides Hezbollah, that they had launched rockets from southern Lebanon at Israeli settlements.
Some of these groups are well-known, such as Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, while others are new, like the Fajr (Dawn) Forces that are affiliated with the Jamaa al-Islamiya, the Lebanese branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Forces announced that they have joined the “resistance axis” that is led by Iran-backed Hezbollah. This marks the first time that these groups have carried out operations in the South, a Hezbollah stronghold. Some observers believe that they are operating with the blessing of Shiite Hezbollah that is seeking to mobilize as many armed groups to the southern front “in search of Sunni cover” for its role in a potential war. The timing of the emergence of the Fajr Forces has raised questions, especially since the Jamaa al-Islamiya is - in theory - a rival of Hezbollah. In reality, it is impossible for the group to operate militarily in the South without Hezbollah’s approval and cover.
Head of the Jamaa al-Islamiya's political office Ali Abou Yassine said the Fajr Forces’ announcement of operations in the South does not mean that it is aligning itself with a foreign axis. He said the announcement is “natural” as the forces “have not stopped and are continuing their jihadist work.”
“They will do everything they can towards their people, land, nation and residents of Gaza,” he added. The Jamaa al-Islamiya first emerged five decades ago. A leading member of the group told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Fajr Forces are the military wing of the group that was formed in 1975. It took part in operations against Israel during its invasion of Lebanon in 1982, he added. Three of its members were martyred in the southern city of Sidon at the time. On the Fajr Forces’ recent operation in the South, he said resistance against Israel cannot be monopolized by one party – Hezbollah.
Director of the MENA Geopolitics Center Naufal Daou was not surprised by the announcement of the formation of the Fajr Forces, especially since the Jamaa al-Islamiya views itself as an affiliate of the Palestinian Hamas movement. He told Asharq Al-Awsat that there are concerns that Hezbollah would embroil it in military operations and that it would even receive backing from Sunnis. This means that the Hezbollah would not be the sole party to blame should Lebanon be dragged to war with Israel. Daou warned that Lebanon is experiencing a critical and extraordinary phase that may lead to war, seeing as western countries have been quick to evacuate their national from the country. These countries have had difficult experiences in the past with Hamas, which had kidnapped several of their nationals in Israel. They fear that they may also fall victim to it in Lebanon should the crisis deepen, significantly since these countries openly support Israel, he noted. Military and strategic expert Khalil al-Helo said the operations between Hezbollah and Israel in the South are still contained. The party is firing rockets with a range of no more than 3 kilometers into Israel, while the latter is retaliating within a limited geographic area. Hezbollah is worried, however, that Israel could exploit the international support it is enjoying to deal the party debilitating blows, he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Four Goals in Hezbollah’s Strategy to Deal with Gaza War
Asharq Al-Awsat/October 23/2023
Field indicators in South Lebanon highlight at least four military and political goals, which constitute Hezbollah’s strategy in dealing with the Gaza war. They include sending messages of readiness to engage in the war, stressing commitment to the decisions of UN Security Council resolution 1701, establishing a five-kilometer buffer zone on the Israeli front, and paving the way for violations carried out by Palestinian organizations along the borders. Hezbollah began its military operations 24 hours after the start of the Gaza war on October 7, targeting military sites in the Shebaa Farms area and the Kfar Shouba Hills, which Lebanon says are occupied by Israel. Head of the Middle East Center for Studies and Public Relations Dr. Hisham Jaber said this appeared to be a strike that falls “within the rules of engagement,” before it developed into an exchange of bombing and shooting, after the killing of two members of the Islamic Jihad group who had crossed the border and clashed with the Israeli army. Israel responded by bombing a Hezbollah position, killing three of its members, on Oct. 9, prompting counter attacks and forcing civilians to escape from border villages. Israeli settlements were also evacuated to a depth of 7 kilometers from the northern frontier with Lebanon. Jaber, a retired army brigadier general, said during the course of the bombing, the party wants to avoid expanding the clash, as long as it achieves its goals, which include occupying three Israeli military divisions, boasting more than 30,000 soldiers, who are deployed on the border with Lebanon, instead of engaging in the Gaza war. He added that Hezbollah “will not initiate a battle, for reasons related to its internal front, and to prevent igniting a regional war.”In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, Jaber said the party is trying to send a political message that it is committed to resolution 1701, as evidenced by the fact that it did not use medium- or short-range missiles, and targeted only Israeli military positions. Field developments indicate that the Iran-backed party, which used Kornet missiles (with a range of 5 kilometers) extensively to attack Israeli armored vehicles, soldiers, and equipment, was able to create a buffer zone on the Israeli front, approximately five kilometers from the Lebanese border. “The party is suggesting that the borders are open for Palestinians to attack Israel, while it adheres to the rules of engagement and carries out strikes within Lebanese areas or in the area separating the international border and the Blue Line,” Jaber remarked.

Netanyahu spokesman threatens Lebanon with 'very dangerous consequences'
Naharnet/October 23, 2023
Lebanon will face “very dangerous consequences” should attacks continue against Israel from Lebanese territory, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
“We are capable of fighting a multi-front confrontation,” the spokesman told Al-Arabiya television.

Shea: We reject the threats of some to drag Lebanon into a new war
Naharnet/October 23, 2023
U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea said Monday that Washington and “the Lebanese people” reject “the threats of some to drag Lebanon into a new war,” in an apparent reference to Hezbollah’s attacks against Israeli forces on Lebanon’s border.
”We are … here to say unequivocally that our commitment to the Lebanese people is so much stronger than any cowardly act of violence or terrorism,” Shea said at a ceremony marking the 40th anniversary of the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine Corps Barracks in Beirut, in which a suicide bomber killed 241 U.S. servicemembers. “Today, we reject, and the Lebanese people reject, the threats of some to drag Lebanon into a new war,” she added. “We continue to renounce any attempts to shape the region’s future through intimidation, violence, and terrorism – and here I am talking about not just Iran and Hezbollah, but also Hamas and others, who falsely paint themselves as a noble resistance, and who most certainly do not represent the aspirations – or the values – of the Palestinian people, while they try to rob Lebanon and its people of their bright future,” the ambassador went on to say.

Israel targets 'militants' in Arqoob, missiles fired from Lebanon
Naharnet/October 23, 2023
The Israeli army shelled Monday the outskirts of the southern Lebanese town of Rmeish, after it claimed having intercepted 2 drones that entered from Lebanon. Soon afterwards, two anti-tank missiles were fired at an Israeli post in the Galilee, triggering alert sirens in Kiryat Shmona on the border with Lebanon. Israeli media reported three injuries. The Israeli army also said al-Marj military post, which faces the Lebanese town of Markaba, was attacked. Earlier on Monday, Israel fired medium-caliber machineguns at the Ruwaisat al-Alam in Kfarshouba, and said it had targeted with drones militants who were trying to fire missiles at the occupied Shebaa Farms from the outskirts of the town of Kfar Hamam in the Arqoob region. The army also said its Iron Dome air defense system shot down a drone that entered Israeli airspace from Lebanon toward Israel. The drone entered from Lebanon via the sea and was intercepted over Ein Hamifratz, south of Akka. Rocket sirens had sounded in Ein Hamifratz and Kfar Masaryk before residents reported hearing a large explosion. There were no reports of injuries. The area is 17 kilometers from the Lebanese border, and 160 kilometers from the Gaza border. Earlier today, the Israeli army said it intercepted another drone launched from Lebanon toward Israel, triggering sirens in northern Israel.

Bassil meets Mikati, Jumblat as part of tour aimed at 'protecting Lebanon'
Naharnet/October 23, 2023
Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil met Monday with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati at the Grand Serail as part of a tour over the military developments in south Lebanon and Gaza. An FPM statement said Bassil’s tour is aimed at “protecting Lebanon and national unity” in light of the “threats and challenges that Lebanon is facing.”The FPM chief later met with former Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat at 5pm in Clemenceau. MTV meanwhile reported that “so far, Bassil has not requested to meet with Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea and Kataeb Party leader Sami Gemayel.”“Bassil has requested to meet with a delegation that represents the opposition, without specifying a place and time for this meeting,” MTV added.
Media reports later said that Bassil will meet Speaker Nabih Berri on Tuesday.

Berri stresses Lebanon's 'legitimate right' to defend itself
Naharnet/October 23, 2023
Lebanon has the right to defend itself against Israel, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said Monday, a few minutes after the Lebanese Red Cross said it has transferred a dead body from the Arqoub region, rising the death toll in Lebanon to 33. The Red Cross transferred four injured fighters and one dead body from the border town of Kfarhamam in the Arqoub region to the Marjaayoun Governmental Hospital. 26 of Hezbollah militants and 2 members of the Resistance brigades have been announced killed so far since Hamas' Oct. 7 rampage in southern Israel. At least six militants from Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and at least four civilians have also been killed in the near-daily hostilities, including Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah. "Lebanon abides by international legitimacy and it is practicing its legitimate right to defend itself in the face of the Israeli aggression," Berri told Brazilian ambassador Tarcísio Costa. Israeli soldiers and Hezbollah fighters have traded fire across the border since Israel's war with the Palestinian group Hamas began, but the launches so far have targeted limited areas. On a relatively calm Monday, the Israeli army said it intercepted a drone launched from Lebanon toward Israel, and which triggered sirens in northern Israel. Hezbollah has vowed to escalate if Israel begins a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip and Israel said it would aggressively retaliate.

Two Resistance Brigades members killed by Israeli shelling
Naharnet/October 23, 2023
The Hezbollah-linked Resistance Brigades, also known as Saraya al-Moqawama, announced Monday the death of two of its members "as they performed their national duties." The Resistance Brigades was created in 1997 by Hezbollah's leadership. The group comprised Lebanese young men from various sects who wanted to fight the Israeli occupation of south Lebanon without having to officially join Hezbollah. The group was not disbanded after Israel's withdrawal from the South in 2000. Ali Kamal Abdel-Al and Hussein Hassan Abdel-Al are the first militants announced dead by the Resistance Brigades, since Oct.7. The two were trying to retrieve the body of a third person killed in Israeli strikes over the southern border town of Halta in the Arqoub region. The Lebanese Army, in coordination with the UNIFIL, retrieved the bodies of the three from the outskirts of Kfarshouba. They were transferred from Halta by the Lebanese Red Cross. Hezbollah had announced Sunday the deaths of seven more militants as clashes along the Lebanon-Israel border intensified. 26 of Hezbollah militants have been killed since Hamas' Oct. 7 rampage in southern Israel. At least six militants from Hamas and another militant group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and at least four civilians have died in the near-daily hostilities, including Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah. The toll rose Monday to 32 Lebanese, after the Resistance Brigades' statement, and six Palestinian militants.Israel has announced the death of three soldiers and one civilian since Oct.7, although Hezbollah has been attacking Israeli troops, inflicting casualties. The Israeli army said Monday that it intercepted a drone launched from Lebanon toward Israel. Israeli soldiers and Hezbollah militants have traded fire across the border since Israel's war with the Palestinian group Hamas began, but the launches so far have targeted limited areas. Hezbollah has vowed to escalate if Israel begins a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, which is likely, and Israel said it would aggressively retaliate.

Hezbollah, Israel exchange fire amid warnings of widened war
Associated Press/October 23, 2023
Hezbollah announced the deaths of seven more militants as clashes along the Lebanon-Israel border intensified and the Israeli prime minister warned Lebanon on Sunday not to let itself get dragged into a new war. Israeli soldiers and Hezbollah militants have traded fire across the border since Israel's war with the Palestinian group Hamas began, but the launches so far have targeted limited areas. Hezbollah has reported the deaths of 26 of its militants since Hamas' Oct. 7 rampage in southern Israel. At least six militants from Hamas and another militant group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and at least four civilians have died in the near-daily hostilities. Hezbollah has vowed to escalate if Israel begins a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, which is likely, and Israel said it would aggressively retaliate. "If Hezbollah decides to enter the war, it will miss the Second Lebanon War. It will make the mistake of its life," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday as he visited troops stationed near the border with Lebanon. "We will cripple it with a force it cannot even imagine, and the consequences for it and the Lebanese state are devastating." Hezbollah and Israel fought a monthlong war in 2006 that ended in a tense stalemate. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported that small arms fire was heard along the tense border coming from near the Lebanese village of Aitaroun toward the northern Israeli town of Avivim where key military barracks are located. Meanwhile, Israel shelled areas near the southeastern Lebanese town of Blida. Israel sees Iran-backed Hezbollah as its most serious threat, estimating it has some 150,000 rockets and missiles aimed at Israel. Israeli military spokesman Jonathan Conricus accused the group early Sunday of "escalating the situation steadily." He said the recent cross-border skirmishes had produced both Israeli troop and civilian casualties but did not provide additional details. Hezbollah on Sunday posted a video of what it said was a Friday attack targeting the Biranit barracks near the Lebanon-Israel border, the command center of the Israeli military's northern division. Footage shared by the group showed an overhead view of a strike on what it described as a gathering of soldiers. During a video briefing, Conricus said the group has especially attacked military positions in Mount Dov in recent days, a disputed territory known as Shebaa Farms in Lebanon, where the borders of Lebanon, Syria, and Israel meet. "Bottom line is … Hezbollah is playing a very, very dangerous game," he said. "(It is) extremely important for everybody in Lebanon to ask themselves the question of the price. Is the Lebanese state really willing to jeopardize what is left of Lebanese prosperity and Lebanese sovereignty for the sake of terrorists in Gaza?"The international community and Lebanese authorities have been scrambling to ensure the cash-strapped country does not find itself in a new war. Hezbollah's leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, has yet to comment on the latest Hamas-Israel war, though other officials have. Hezbollah legislator Hassan Fadlallah said Sunday that Nasrallah's silence was part of a strategy to deter Israel from Lebanon and to "prevent the enemy from reaching its goal in Gaza." "When the time comes for His Eminence (Nasrallah) to appear in the media, should managing this battle require so, everyone will see that he will reflect public opinion," Fadlallah said.

US amps up military posture in Mideast, warns against 'escalation'
Agence France Presse/October 23, 2023
The United States warned Iran or its allies against any "escalation" in the wake of Israel's war with Hamas, two top U.S. officials said, hours after the Pentagon moved to step up military readiness in the region. With tensions mounting, Washington also announced Sunday it had ordered non-emergency staff to leave its embassy in Iraq. "We are concerned at the possibility of Iranian proxies escalating their attacks against our own personnel, our own people," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on CBS News. "We expect there is a likelihood of escalation." "No one should take advantage of this moment to escalate to further attacks on Israel or, for that matter, attacks on us on our personnel." Blinken said the United States, which has sent two carrier groups to the eastern Mediterranean, was "taking every measure to make sure that we can defend them. And if necessary, respond decisively." His words doubled down on an earlier message from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who warned of a "prospect of significant escalation of attacks on our troops" in the region. Their comments came amid growing fears that Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon, or other groups supported by Tehran, might take advantage of the tense situation over Gaza to enlarge the conflict and further stretch Israel's military. But Austin, speaking to ABC News, issued a stern warning: "If any group or any country is looking to widen this conflict and take advantage of this very unfortunate situation that we see, our advice is: don't.""We maintain the right to defend ourselves and we won't hesitate to take the appropriate action," he added. The comments from the two senior members of President Joe Biden's cabinet came hours after the Pentagon said it was upping readiness in the region in response to "recent escalations by Iran and its proxy forces."Austin ordered the activation of air defense systems and notified additional forces that they may be deployed soon. The steps continued the Biden administration's response since Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip stormed Israel on October 7, taking more than 200 hostages and killing at least 1,400 people, according to Israeli officials.
Tensions rising -
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, and says around 1,500 of the group's fighters were killed in clashes before its army regained control of the area initially under attack. Austin said he had activated deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery and additional Patriot battalions "throughout the region.""Finally, I have placed an additional number of forces on prepare-to-deploy orders as part of prudent contingency planning, to increase their readiness and ability to quickly respond as required," Austin said. The State Department announced it had given a directive on Friday for non-emergency staff and eligible family members to leave its embassy in Baghdad and its consulate in the Iraqi Kurdish city of Arbil, "due to increased security threats against U.S. personnel and interests." It also announced an updated version of its travel advisory, warning U.S. citizens not to travel to Iraq. Armed factions close to Iran have threatened to attack U.S. interests in Iraq over Washington's support for Israel. Multiple Iraqi bases used by U.S.-led coalition troops have been targeted in attacks in recent days. And along Israel's northern border with Lebanon, the Israeli army traded fire with Hezbollah amid fears of a new front opening. The United States had authorized non-essential embassy personnel and their families to leave the embassy in Lebanon last week. Israel's military has said it would intensify strikes on Hamas-controlled Gaza ahead of a planned ground invasion. The military has pounded Gaza with relentless strikes in response to Hamas's October 7 attack, killing more than 4,650 Palestinians, mainly civilians, and reduced swaths of the densely populated territory to ruins.

Fleeing Israeli strikes, south Lebanon families move into schools
Agence France Presse/October 23, 2023
Shocked by images of dead children in Gaza, Mustafa al-Sayyid quickly whisked his family to the closest shelter when Israeli strikes began near his village in southern Lebanon this week. "What we are seeing on television -- the massacres happening in Gaza, the children -- it cuts your heart to pieces," said the 53-year-old from Beit Leef, barely six kilometers from the Israeli border. "If I wasn't afraid this would happen to us, I wouldn't have left my home," said Sayyid, who has two wives and 11 children, around half of whom are under 10. The family is among nearly 4,000 people who have fled flashpoint areas near the Israeli frontier and flocked to the southern city of Tyre, according to local officials. Around half are staying in three public schools that have been converted into makeshift shelters, while the rest hunker down with relatives or friends. The scale of displacement has gradually swelled since the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a massive October 7 assault on southern Israel in the deadliest attack in Israel's history. Since then, some 4,385 Palestinians, mainly civilians, have been killed in relentless Israeli bombardments, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry. The tensions have spread to the Lebanese-Israeli border, where near-daily tit-for-tat attacks have emptied out entire villages. At least 22 people, including four civilians, have been killed on the Lebanese side, according to an AFP tally. And at least three soldiers and one civilian have died in Israel. Sayyid, whose brother was killed in the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, said he wants to avoid any more family deaths. "All my children are young. If the apocalypse comes, how will I get them all out in one go?" he wondered inside a classroom stripped of desks and dotted with thin mattresses.
"So I thought, better to leave now."
'Shelters at full capacity' -
Fears of a spillover loom large in Lebanon's border villages, which were occupied by Israeli forces for 22 years before their withdrawal in 2000. A steady stream of families, mostly from the pummelled village of Aita al-Shaab, queued at the Tyre municipality this week to secure a spot in one of the classrooms. "We have reached full capacity in all of our shelters," said Tyre mayor Hassan Dbouk. "Now we are looking for a place to open a fourth center." In the border village of Dhayra, farms and olive groves have been abandoned at the height of the harvest season. Farmers already crushed by a four-year-long economic crisis in Lebanon are bracing for an uncertain fate -- even if the fighting abruptly stops. "Everyone in Dhayra relies on farming. We have nothing but God and agriculture," said Moussa Suwaid, 47, speaking outside the Tyre shelter where he has been staying for a week. "I have five sheep, each worth around $500. I left them without food and ran away," he added. He also was forced to leave behind his 88-year-old father and his cow. "He told me he would rather die than abandon the cow and his home," Suwaid said.
'Sadness underneath' -
Ravaged by an economic crisis that has been widely blamed on official corruption and ineptitude, Lebanon has not implemented an evacuation plan. Instead, the villagers have left under their own steam, strapping bags to motorcycles or hitching rides with neighbors.
Yulla Suwaid, unrelated to Moussa, said she waited for two hours in a pool of her own blood before her brother came to save her during an Israeli bombardment that destroyed their Dhayra home last Wednesday. The 43-year-old school teacher was running down the stairs when the strike sent part of the wall crashing down on her legs, leaving her badly wounded. "If I had completely lost my legs, what would I have done? Who would have taken care of me?" she asked at a shelter in Tyre, both legs fully bandaged after surgery. In a nearby school, Ahmad from Beit Leef said he had planned to get married this month. Instead, the 26-year-old buried his father, who died of cancer, as the Israelis shelled nearby. He then fled to Tyre with his fiancee's family. Declining to provide his surname due to security concerns, Ahmad fought back tears as he recalled one of his father's last actions. "I made him go to my fiancee's family to ask for her hand in marriage," he told AFP. "I smile, but there is a lot of sadness underneath."

Bassil contacts Nasrallah to agree on maintaining consultations that serve the interests of Lebanon and all its citizens
LBCI/October 23, 2023
In a secure phone call, Hezbollah's Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah received a call from Gebran Bassil, the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) leader. The conversation focused on several critical issues, particularly the recent developments in Lebanon and the region. These discussions aimed at protecting Lebanon and strengthening national unity. Both leaders agreed to maintain ongoing consultations that serve the interests of Lebanon and all its citizens.

Al-Halabi: Schools To Close in Southern Border Areas on Tuesday
LBCI/October 23, 2023
Caretaker Minister of Education Abbas Halabi said on Monday in a statement that "the decision to close schools, secondary schools, institutes, and official and private schools located in the southern border areas will be implemented tomorrow, Tuesday, October 24, 2023. As for those adjacent to the international border areas, the decision to close them or not will be left to the discretion of each school director. Meanwhile, schools located in all Lebanese regions will continue to operate normally."
He emphasized the "right of every student to enroll in the official school close to their new place of residence," confirming the right of members of the educational staff who have moved to other locations to enroll in the schools where they have relocated, with educational areas being informed of these developments. He urged citizens to follow the ministry's statements daily to keep abreast of developments and maintain the start of the academic year.

A look back at the July 2006 war: Destruction and death toll tragedy
LBCI/October 23, 2023
The July 2006 war witnessed a war much like the ongoing situation in Gaza today, where Israel's actions did not discriminate between human lives and inanimate objects within the Lebanese borders. The war, later known as the Second Lebanon War, began when Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers who were subsequently killed in the kidnapping operation. It destroyed Lebanon and cost it dearly in terms of its infrastructure, transportation network, primary sectors, and the closure of all its air, sea, and land ports.
However, the human losses were also high at the civilian and military levels. Israel's response involved airstrikes across various Lebanese territories, while simultaneously launching a ground offensive in the south. Villages, towns, and buildings were targeted under the pretext of harboring Hezbollah members.
One of the tragic events of this war was the Qana massacre, which took place on July 30, 2006, claiming the lives of 55 people, including 27 children, in a three-story building. Israel's indiscriminate and destructive bombardment destroyed homes inhabited by children, women, and the elderly. The war, which lasted for 33 days, ultimately claimed 1,149 lives in Lebanon, a toll that became clear only at the end of the war. The High Relief Committee reported 1,040 civilian deaths, along with 35 Lebanese Army and Internal Security Forces (ISF) personnel. Hezbollah acknowledged the death of 61 fighters, while the Amal Movement reported seven casualties, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command reported one death. Additionally, four UN observers were killed in an Israeli airstrike on their post in the town of Khiam, along with one member of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). The number of wounded individuals reached around 3,600. The human losses were not confined to Lebanon. The Israeli military ground incursion in the south and Hezbollah's missile attacks on Israeli settlements, together with other factors, resulted in 156 Israeli deaths, comprising 115 military personnel and 41 civilians. Over 5,000 individuals, military and civilian, were injured during the war. The 2006 Lebanon-Israel War also witnessed unprecedented battlefield developments. Most notably, Hezbollah lived up to the slogan "What Comes After Haifa," successfully launching long-range rockets, four times more powerful and far-reaching than its traditional Katyusha rockets, deep into Israeli territory. The group also targeted the Israeli Navy in regional waters and engaged in urban warfare on the border strip. This new form of warfare led to significant Israeli losses at the time. This type of war, which dealt heavy blows to the Israeli army, is believed to pose a more significant threat to Israel if it were to recur in southern Lebanon today, given Hezbollah's accumulated experience and capabilities over the past years.

High-Level Talks Between Lebanese and Italian Defense Ministers Address Bilateral Relations and Regional Developments
LBCI/October 23, 2023
Caretaker Defense Minister Maurice Slim met on Monday with his Italian counterpart, Guido Crosetto, and the accompanying delegation at his office in Yarzeh this afternoon in the presence of the Italian Ambassador, Nicoletta Bombardieri. During the meeting, discussions revolved around bilateral relations and the developments in southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. Crosetto affirmed that "Italy is in contact with the international community and regional countries to discuss the situation in Gaza," emphasizing "the importance of joint efforts to alleviate the impact of the conflict and prevent the involvement of other parties, to avoid the situation from escalating." He also emphasized the "necessity of providing protection to innocent civilians."He spoke about the ongoing cooperation between UNIFIL and the Lebanese army, confirming Italy's full readiness to provide more support to the Lebanese army. In turn, Slim emphasized Lebanon's commitment to the safety of UNIFIL and the continued fulfillment of its assigned tasks, noting that the army has been and will remain eager to cooperate to the fullest extent with UNIFIL. He discussed "the crimes committed by the Israeli entity against innocent civilians, targeting vital and residential facilities in Gaza, which constitutes a blatant violation of international humanitarian law."He warned of "the danger of Palestinians leaving their land, which increases the escalation of the conflict and its expansion."

Mikati: International contacts ongoing to stop Israeli provocations in south Lebanon
LBCI/October 23, 2023
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Monday that there are international contacts to stop the Israeli provocations occurring in south Lebanon. He added that he is in communication with internal parties to stop the rocket launches from the south. In an interview with LBCI, he indicated that there is no reassurance regarding the outbreak of war in Lebanon unless the gunfire stops in Gaza. He clarified that the current atmosphere in the region suggests concerns about the outbreak of war internally. As for Lebanon not being invited to the Cairo summit for peace, Mikati announced that Egypt considers Lebanon a country among the confrontational ones. He informed those concerned that Lebanon should not be absent from any conference, saying: "I conveyed this position to the Egyptian side, and the Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri called me and explained to me the details of this matter. I believe the matter is settled, and I say that there may have been some mistake in not extending the invitation to Lebanon."He praised the awareness of internal parties in preventing Lebanon from war.

Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 23-24/2023
Live Updates on the Gaza war: Hamas releases 2 Israeli hostages
Al-Monitor Staff/October 23/2023
Two Israeli hostages were released on Monday from Hamas captivity following Egyptian and Qatari mediation, Al-Monitor has learned. Israel’s official broadcaster KAN confirmed that the hostages arrived at the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt and that Israeli representatives are on their way to meet them.
Hamas said that the two released hostages are Nurit Cooper, 79, and Yocheved Lifshitz, 85. Both were abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, and both their husbands remain in captivity.
Speaking on behalf of the Lifshitz family, Daniel, the grandson of Yocheved Lifshitz, said the family had spoken to her and that she should soon cross into Israel.
Last week, Hamas released two hostages, a mother and daughter who hold US citizenship.
A third convoy of aid trucks has entered the Gaza Strip, following 34 others over the weekend, as hostage talks gain momentum and Israel downs drones coming from the Lebanon border.
After an Israeli army source told the New York Times that talks between the United States, Qatar and Hamas could soon lead to the release of 50 hostages of foreign nationalities, a senior Israeli source told Haaretz that negotiations were complex and had not “matured” yet.
The United States government has pressed Israel to delay its ground invasion to allow time to release the hostages, the New York Times and CNN reported. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was still committed on Sunday to launching a ground war that could last months with the goal of "eliminating" Hamas. World leaders including US President Joe Biden are still urging Israel to delay for both hostage negotiations and humanitarian activities.
The UN refugee agency in Gaza said on Sunday that 13 more staff members have been killed since the conflict began, bringing the total to 29, while a further 17 have been injured. Agency head Philippe Lazzarani warned on Sunday that UNRWA’s fuel supply will run out in three days, putting the humanitarian response in Gaza at risk.
Rafah food aid
Palestinian children receive food at a UN-run school in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Oct. 23, 2023. (Credit: MOHAMMED ABED/AFP via Getty Images)
As fears of a wider conflagration mount, Iran warned the region could spiral "out of control" and the Pentagon moved to bolster its forces in the Middle East.
The move comes following drone attacks targeting US forces in Iraq and Syria. Washington warned its citizens against travel to Iraq.
In a summit in Cairo attended by the United States, key European partners, Egypt, Jordan and Palestinians, Jordan's King Abdullah said in his opening speech on Saturday that the forced or internal displacement of Palestinians “is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law. It is a war crime.”
The death toll stands above 5,000 in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, and at 1,400 in Israel.
Al-Monitor’s Rina Bassist, Adam Lucente, Ezgi Akin, Elizabeth Hagedorn, Jack Dutton, Beatrice Farhat, Jared Szuba, Ben Caspit and Al-Monitor’s contributors on the ground in Gaza contributed to this blog.
Live updates (all times EDT):
Monday, Oct. 23, 2023
5:00 pm: Is Hezbollah heading towards open conflict with Israel?
Cross-border exchanges between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah have been gaining pace as Israel battles Hamas militants in Gaza. But does the powerful Lebanese movement really seek to enter open conflict with Israel? Read more.
2:25 pm: Two Israeli hostages released by Hamas
Two Israeli hostages were released on Monday from Hamas captivity as a result of Qatar's mediation efforts, Al-Monitor has learned. Israel’s official broadcaster KAN confirmed that the hostages arrived at the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt and that Israeli representatives are on their way to meet them. Elizabeth Hagedorn reports.
1:01 pm: Bank of Israel leaves interest rates unchanged, citing Hamas war
Israel’s central bank kept interest rates unchanged on Monday as the war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip continues, creating economic uncertainty in the country, Adam Lucente reports. The Bank of Israel decided to keep interest rates at 4.75%, citing the effects of the war.
12:50 pm: Israeli army says it intercepted two drones from Lebanon
The Israeli army said on Monday that it intercepted two drones launched from Lebanon across its border, in first such incident since the conflict started on Oct. 7. The Israeli army reported that a projectile was fired from Lebanon toward a military post near Misgav Am, setting off sirens in the northern city of Kiryat Shmona. Later, it said it carried out strikes targeting missile launchers in southern Lebanon.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported Israeli strikes against several towns in southern Lebanon, including Kfarchouba.
12:30 pm: Israeli official says Hamas might release 50 hostages
Hamas might release some hostages today, a senior Israeli source told Haaretz. However, the source added that negotiations are complex and that the deal has not “matured” yet. This comes after an IDF source told the New York Times that talks between the United States, Qatar and Hamas could soon lead to the release of 50 hostages of foreign nationalities.
12:00 pm: Turkey says it didn’t 'order' Hamas’ Haniyeh to leave country
A Turkish official said Monday that Ankara did not “order” Hamas’ political head Ismail Haniyeh and his entourage to leave Turkey. The statement came in reaction to Al-Monitor’s Fehim Tastekin reporting Sunday that Haniyeh and Hamas members with him were in Turkey during the militant group’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, and that an annoyed Ankara “kindly asked” them to leave the country. Footage had circulated on social media showing Haniyeh and others prostrating themselves in a “prayer of gratitude” while watching news of the incursion on television. Read the full article here.
11:00 am: Israel prepares for ‘prolonged’ invasion of Gaza
Israel expects a “prolonged” Gaza ground war that would target Hamas commandos and bases. The operation will go deep into Hama’s underground tunnel infrastructure on an undecided timeline. Lilach Shoval writes from Israel.
5:50 am: Third convoy enters Gaza via Rafah crossing
A third convoy of aid trucks has crossed the Rafah border crossing into Gaza, which is under intense Israeli bombardment, Reuters reported. A total of 34 aid trucks entered the besieged enclave on Saturday and Sunday, the first delivery of much needed humanitarian assistance since the escalation erupted two weeks ago.
5:44 am: Israeli army intercepts suspicious aircraft coming from Lebanon
The Israeli army said in a post on X that it downed a suspicious target that crossed into Israeli airspace from southern Lebanon. There has been no comment from the Lebanese side yet. The Iran-backed Hezbollah has been engaged in intense cross-border fire with Israel since Oct. 7.
1:38 am: Israel strikes over 320 Hamas/Islamic Jihad targets in last 24 hours
The Israeli army has struck and destroyed over 320 Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror targets in the last 24 hours, the IDF and Shin Bet said in a joint statement. Targets included Hamas tunnels, headquarters where Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad assailants were hiding and mortar and anti-tank launchers. IDF spokesperson Jonathan Cornicus said that absent the surrender of Hamas and return of all the hostages, Israel will have to enter the Gaza Strip.
The Thai Foreign Ministry updated its counts to 30 of its nationals killed by Hamas and 19 kidnapped.
Sunday, Oct. 22, 2023
8:22 pm: Israel strikes Hezbollah targets in south Lebanon
The Israeli military struck two cells of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement in southern Lebanon. The airstrikes hit a cell in the southern Lebanese village of Aitaroun and another in the disputed Shebaa Farms area. The IDF reported that they were planning to launch rocket attacks toward Israel.
Earlier, the Israeli army said a military compound and an observation post of Iran-backed Hezbollah near the border area were also targeted.
Hezbollah said overnight that one of its fighters was killed without giving details.
8:00 pm: US reportedly asks Israel to delay ground invasion of Gaza
The US government urged Israel on Sunday to delay its Gaza ground invasion to allow time for negotiations to free Hamas-held hostages.
CNN, The New York Times and Bloomberg reported the news on Sunday. US defense chief Lloyd Austin reportedly made the request to his counterpart Yoav Gallant.
“American officials also want more time to prepare for attacks on US interests in the region from Iran-backed groups, which officials said are likely to intensify once Israel moves its forces fully into Gaza,” The New York Times reported.
2:00 pm: Israel says Gaza war may take 'months'
Israel’s defense chief Yoav Gallant said the looming ground offensive in the Gaza Strip could take months to eliminate Hamas.
“This needs to be the last [ground campaign] maneuver in Gaza, for the simple reason that after it there will be no Hamas. It will take a month, two months, three, but in the end, there will be no Hamas,” Gallant said on Sunday.
“Before the enemy meets the armored and infantry forces, it will meet the bombs of the air force,” he added. Israel has carried out three incursions into Gaza since Hamas took over in 2007.
12:20 pm: UNRWA running out of fuel, 29 staffers killed
The UN refugee agency in Gaza said on Sunday that 13 more staff members have been killed since the conflict began, bringing the total to 29, while a further 17 have been injured. Agency head Philippe Lazzarani warned on Sunday that UNRWA’s fuel supply will run out in three days, putting the humanitarian response in Gaza at risk.
12:10 pm: US advises citizens against travel to Iraq
The US State Department updated its travel advisory on Sunday, urging citizens to avoid travel to Iraq. The warning follows the ordered departure of eligible family members and non-emergency personnel from the embassy in Baghdad and the consulate in Erbil.
12:05 pm: Israel fires on Egyptian post by mistake
The Israeli army said one of its tanks accidentally fired and hit an Egyptian position near the border crossing in the Kerem Shalom area on Sunday. The incident is being investigated and Israel “regrets” it, the statement read.
11:50 am: Hamas confirms senior commander killed
Hamas-affiliated news agency Safa confirmed on Sunday that Talal al-Hindi, a field commander in the group’s military wing, Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, was killed with his wife and members of his family in an Israeli airstrike on their house overnight. The Israeli army first announced the news on Sunday morning as the death toll in Gaza now exceeds 4,400.
9:30 am: Germany's Scholz vows support for Jews at synagogue opening
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz vowed to stamp out antisemitism at the opening of a new synagogue on Sunday amid a spike in anti-Jewish incidents in the wake of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
"There must be zero tolerance for antisemitism in Germany," Scholz said at the synagogue in the eastern city of Dessau.
8:00 am: Second convoy of 17 trucks enters Gaza
Egyptian news outlets reported a new convoy of 17 trucks with aid for the Palestinians crossed into Gaza. On Saturday, 20 trucks were allowed in but humanitarian organizations called it a drop in the bucket, given the extent of the crisis in Gaza.
6:00 am: IDF-Hezbollah clashes spike
Israel struck more targets inside south Lebanon as the Hezbollah militant group continued to fire artillery and rockets in the direction of Israel. The IDF struck a cell within Lebanese territory that was preparing to launch anti-tank missiles toward the Avivim area near the border, said spokesperson Daniel Hagarith.
The renewed fighting has eroded the deterrence formula established in 2006 between Hezbollah and Israel.
1:00 am: Additional 14 communities in northern Israel to be evacuated
After evacuating most of the residents of 28 towns and villages close to the border with Lebanon, Israel is evacuating 14 more communities, said the Defense Ministry.
Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023
10:00 pm: US sends THAAD battery and Patriot battalions to Middle East
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the Pentagon is sending a THAAD battery and additional Patriot battalions to the Middle East to protect US forces.
9:30 pm: Israeli army says it disrupted 'terrorist infrastructure' in Jenin
Israel announced late on Saturday that it hit “underground terrorist infrastructure" in a mosque in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank. It added that the operation disrupted a cell for Hamas and Islamic Jihad that was planning an imminent attack.
9:00 pm: US-led troops in Iraq reportedly targeted by suicide drone
A suicide drone hit an air base in Iraq hosting US troops on Saturday, Iraqi security sources said. The Pentagon said it could not confirm that such an attack took place.
3:50 pm: Israeli army says it will enter Gaza
IDF Chief of Staff Herzl Halevi said on Saturday that Israel will enter Gaza.
“We will enter the Strip for an operational, professional mission to destroy Hamas operatives and infrastructure,” Halevi said without specifying a timeline for the operation. A ground invasion has been considered imminent for the past 10 days, but the hostage situation and pressure from Washington have reportedly delayed the operation.
3:30 pm: Erdogan calls Hamas leader Haniyeh
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed Gaza in a phone call with the leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, on Saturday, Reuters reported.
Erdogan told him about Ankara's efforts for a cease-fire, for humanitarian aid to reach Gaza and possible treatment of the wounded in Turkey. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan called Haniyeh on Monday.
3:00 pm: UN to send second aid convoy to Gaza on Sunday
The United Nations is hoping to send a second convoy of trucks with humanitarian aid into the southern Gaza Strip after a first convoy of 20 trucks entered the area on Saturday, said UN aid chief Martin Griffiths.
1:30 pm: How will Iran respond to Gaza war?
The Islamic Republic appears uninterested in a direct confrontation with Israel amid the latter's war with Tehran-backed militants in Gaza, but has warned that its proxies remain ready to pull the trigger and "re-map" Israel, Al-Monitor’s correspondent in Tehran reports.
1:20 pm: Cairo conference ends without consensus
The Gaza conference in Cairo ended without an agreed-upon statement after Arab countries refused to include a condemnation of Hamas and recognition of Israel’s right to self-defense. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulidis, both participants in the Cairo conference, headed to Israel after the meeting.
12:30 pm: Casualties on Lebanon border
Casualties were reported along the Israel-Lebanon border on Saturday as the army traded fire with Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah amid fears of a new front opening as Israel battles Hamas.
Israel already ordered the evacuation of Kiryat Shmona, a border town that is home to some 25,000 people, as the border area has come under fire from Hezbollah and allied Palestinian factions.
In Lebanon, Hezbollah said one of its fighters had been killed while in Israel two Thai farm workers were wounded, Haaretz reported.
10:30 am: Jordan’s King Abdullah calls displacement of Palestinians war crime
Jordan's King Abdullah said in his opening speech at the Cairo Peace Summit on Saturday that the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza would be a war crime.
He also warned against the double standard in treating Palestinians. “Palestinian lives matter less than Israeli ones. Our lives matter less than other lives. The application of international law is optional. And human rights have boundaries,” he said.
8:36 am: Israel threatens Hezbollah
Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant sent a strong warning to the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah that it will pay for the escalation. “Hezbollah has decided to join the combat and is paying a price for it, and we must prepare for any possibility. Great challenges lie ahead," said Gallant during a visit to Israel’s northern border.
Reuters reported on Friday that war insurers have given notice to cancel cover for some airlines domiciled in Israel and Lebanon, with some cancellations already taking effect. The US Embassy in Lebanon has evacuated non-emergency staff and is urging citizens to leave the country.
8:30 am: West Bank seethes
With at least 81 Palestinians killed by Israeli troops or settlers since the Gaza conflict erupted Oct. 7, the occupied West Bank is threatening to explode. Palestinians in the West Bank are enraged by the bombardment of Gaza and the weakness of the Palestinian Authority along with the silence of the Arab states, Ahmad Melhem reports from Ramallah.
8:00 am: 20 aid trucks enter Gaza
The first of 20 trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered the war-torn and besieged Gaza Strip on Saturday through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.
UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said he was "confident that this delivery will be the start of a sustainable effort to provide essential supplies … to the people of Gaza," and warned that "this first convoy must not be the last."
The border crossing was closed again after the passage of the trucks from the Egyptian Red Crescent, which is responsible for delivering the aid including food and medical supplies from various UN agencies.
3:19 am: Rafah crossing open for humanitarian aid
The first 20 Red Crescent trucks with humanitarian aid are making their way through Egypt's Rafah crossing into the south of the Gaza Strip carrying food, medicine and medical equipment, reported CNN. The US Embassy in Israel noted earlier in the morning, "If the border is opened, we do not know how long it will remain open for foreign citizens to depart Gaza."

Day 17: Death toll hits 5,000 including 2,055 children in Gaza
Associated Press/October 23, 2023
Israeli warplanes are striking Gaza ahead of an expected ground offensive in the besieged territory. Fears of a widening war have grown as Israel struck targets in the occupied West Bank, Syria and Lebanon and traded fire with Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group.
Two aid convoys arrived in the Gaza Strip over the weekend through the Rafah crossing from Egypt. Israel said the trucks carried food, water and medical supplies. Israel has not allowed in fuel, which is critically needed for water and sanitation systems and hospitals.
The war, in its 17th day Monday, is the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides. The Palestinian Health Ministry said Sunday that at least 4,651 people have been killed and 14,254 wounded in the territory. In the occupied West Bank, 96 Palestinians have been killed and 1,650 wounded in violence and Israeli raids since Oct. 7.
More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed in the initial Hamas rampage into southern Israel. In addition, 222 people including foreigners were believed captured by Hamas during the incursion and taken into Gaza, Israel's military has said. Two of those have been released.
Currently:
1. Premature babies hooked up to incubators are at risk of dying because of dwindling fuel in the Gaza Strip
2. Biden walks tightrope with support for Israel as allies and the left push for restraint
3. A second convoy of trucks carrying desperately needed aid reaches Gaza
4. Blinken and Austin say the U.S. is ready to protect American forces should the war escalate
Here's what's happening in the latest Israel-Hamas war:
ATTACKS IN RAFAH CITY LEAVE CASUALTIES
Gaza’s Interior Ministry said at least 18 people were killed in Israeli attacks on neighborhoods in Rafah city on Monday. It said scores of Palestinians were also wounded.
An airstrike hit a residential building about 200 meters from the U.N. headquarters in Rafah on Monday, killing and wounding several people, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene, underscoring the perils of humanitarian operations.
Videos released by the Israeli military showed airstrikes decimating buildings in the Gaza Strip. The military said the videos showed attacks on Hamas infrastructure but did not specify the locations.
Flashes of yellow light were followed by an explosion sending gray smoke and debris shooting upward as multistory buildings collapsed or toppled over.
The explosions could be seen from Israel.
GAZA HEALTH MINISTRY SAYS MORE THAN 5,000 HAVE DIED IN GAZA
The death toll in Gaza has climbed to at least 5,087 Palestinians since the war between Israel and Palestinian militant groups broke out on Oct. 7, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said Monday.
Ashraf al-Qidra, a spokesperson for the ministry in Gaza, said the fatalities included 2,055 children and 1,119 women.
More than 15,270 others were wounded, he said.
The tally includes the disputed toll from a hospital explosion last week, which the two sides have traded blame for.
More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed — mostly civilians slain during the initial Hamas attack. At least 222 people were captured and dragged back to Gaza, including foreigners.
GAZA'S HEALTH MINISTRY APPEALS FOR BLOOD DONATIONS AS SHORTAGES WORSEN
As conditions rapidly worsen, Gaza's Health Ministry appealed on Monday for blood donations for hospitals in the besieged territory that are suffering from dire shortages of blood and medical supplies.
The ministry urged residents to rush to hospitals and blood banks across Gaza for blood donations and called for the International Committee of the Red Cross to bring blood to the territory.
IRELAND CALLS FOR AN IMMEDIATE CEASE-FIRE
Ireland is calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza so that civilians can get access to desperately needed aid and supplies.
Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said “this is a matter of the utmost urgency. The loss of life is enormous, is at a scale that has to be stopped.”
Speaking Monday in Luxembourg at a meeting of European Union foreign ministers, Martin called for food, water and medical supplies to be allowed into Gaza at an “accelerated and comprehensive scale.”
“We understand Israel’s need to deal with Hamas, because it was an appalling attack. But the degree of suffering now -– the innocent civilians in Gaza suffering -– is just not acceptable at all,” he said.
EUROPE MINISTERS DISCUSSING GETTING AID INTO GAZA
European Union foreign ministers are meeting Monday to discuss ways to help vital aid get into Gaza, particularly fuel, after two convoys entered over the weekend.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that "in normal times, without war, 100 trucks enter into Gaza every day. So it's clear that 20 is not enough."
Borrell said the emphasis must be on getting power and water-providing desalination plants running again. "Without water and electricity, the hospitals can barely work," he told reporters in Luxembourg, where the meeting is taking place.
He said the ministers will also look at ways to resolve the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians longer term. "The great powers have forgotten about the Palestinian issue, thinking it was going to be solved alone, or it doesn't matter. Yes, it matters," Borrell said.
WORLD LEADERS CALL FOR ADHERENCE TO HUMANITARIAN LAW
Several world leaders on Sunday spoke about the war between Israel and Hamas, reiterating their support for Israel and its right to defend itself against terrorism and called for adherence to humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians. U.S. President Joe Biden, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, President Emmanuel Macron of France, Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of the United Kingdom also welcomed the release of two hostages and called for the immediate release of all remaining hostages.
They committed to close coordination to support their nationals in the region, in particular those wishing to leave Gaza. The leaders welcomed the announcement of the first humanitarian convoys to reach Palestinians in need in Gaza and committed to continue coordinating with partners in the region to ensure sustained and safe access to food, water, medical care and other assistance required to meet humanitarian needs.
They also said they would continue close diplomatic coordination, including with key partners in the region, to prevent the conflict from spreading, preserve stability in the Middle East, and work toward a political solution and durable peace.
ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER WARNS HEZBOLLAH TO STAY OUT OF WAR
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited troops stationed near the border with Lebanon, where the Israeli army and Hezbollah militants also have traded fire during the Hamas-Israel war. Speaking to troops in the north on Sunday, Netanyahu said Israel would react more fiercely than it did during its short 2006 war with Hezbollah.
"If Hezbollah decides to enter the war, it will miss the Second Lebanon War. It will make the mistake of its life. We will cripple it with a force it cannot even imagine and the consequences for it and the Lebanese state are devastating," the Israeli leader said.
ISRAEL SAYS 2ND BATCH OF HUMANITARIAN AID ENTERED GAZA
Israel says Sunday that a second batch of humanitarian aid was allowed into Gaza, at the request of the U.S. and according to instructions from other political officials.
On Saturday, 20 trucks entered in the first shipment into the territory since Israel imposed a complete siege two weeks ago. Sunday's batch included only water, food, and medical equipment, with no fuel, Israel said. U.S. President Joe Biden and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel "affirmed that there will now be continued flow of this critical assistance into Gaza," the White House said in a statement after a phone call between the leaders. The Israeli military said the humanitarian situation in Gaza was "under control," even as the U.N. called for 100 trucks a day to enter. Hospitals say they are scrounging for generator fuel in order to keep operating life-saving medical equipment and incubators for premature babies. On Sunday, Associated Press journalists saw seven fuel trucks head into Gaza. Juliette Touma, spokeswoman for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, and the Israeli military said those trucks were taking fuel that had been stored on the Gaza side of the crossing deeper into the territory, and that no fuel had entered from Egypt.
UNRWA SAYS THERE WILL BE NO HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE WITHOUT FUEL
The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees says it will run out of fuel in Gaza in three days.
"Without fuel, there will be no water, no functioning hospitals and bakeries. Without fuel, aid will not reach many civilians in desperate need. Without fuel, there will be no humanitarian assistance," Philippe Lazzarini, the UNRWA Commissioner General, said in a statement Sunday. A first delivery of aid that was allowed to cross into Gaza from Egypt on Saturday did not include any fuel. "Without fuel, we will fail the people of Gaza whose needs are growing by the hour, under our watch. This cannot and should not happen," Lazzarini said. He called on "all parties and those with influence" to allow fuel into Gaza immediately, while ensuring that it is only used for humanitarian purposes.
IRAQ SAYS IT WILL PURSUE MILITANTS WHO ATTACKED BASES HOUSING US TROOPS
Iraq's army spokesperson says the state will go after militants who have carried out attacks against army bases housing U.S. troops in the country. Maj. Gen. Yahya Rasoul said in a statement Monday that military advisers from the U.S.-led coalition are in the country "at the invitation of the government" and their mission is to train Iraqi forces. Rasoul said the prime minister has ordered the country's security agencies to go after those who carried out attacks and prevent any attempt to harm Iraq's national security. Over the past week, several bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq came under rocket and drone attacks that were believed to have been carried out by Iran-backed groups. There are about 2,500 U.S. troops in Iraq, whose main mission to train Iraqi forces and prevent a resurgence of the Islamic State group.

Israeli media reports confidence crisis between Netanyahu, army
Naharnet/October 23, 2023
There is a confidence crisis between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the leadership of his army while his relation with Defense Minister Yoav Galant is tense, which is hindering cooperation between them, an Israeli media report said. Moreover, at least three ministers in the Israeli emergency government are considering resigning to force Netanyahu to bear responsibility for the security failure, Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahraonot said Monday. The report also stated that 75% of Israelis hold Netanyahu responsible for the security failure to protect the towns surrounding the Gaza Strip that were attacked by Hamas during the Oct.7 Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. Likewise, over 70% saw Defense Minister Gallant as responsible. Among respondents, 66% felt that Netanyahu should resign when the conflict is over. Even in Netanyahu’s own Likud party, over half believe he should go, the report said. A recent survey by Nimrod Nir, a political psychologist at the Hebrew University who sampled the opinions of 1,443 Jewish Israelis over several days since the war broke out, showed that only 20.5% of Jewish Israelis have trust in the Israeli government, the lowest number recorded in 20 years.
The newspaper also said that there are disagreements between Netanyahu and senior army officials regarding assessments, plans and decisions. The Yedioth Ahronoth report attributed to Israeli political and military sources saying that Netanyahu is angry with senior officials in the army, that he is dealing with little patience with the opinions and assessments expressed by military leaders and that he is slow in adopting their plans. The newspaper also noted that an Israeli army spokesman had publicly announced Saturday that the Israeli army was waiting for the political leadership’s approval for a ground operation. “This is the way for senior Israeli army officers to throw the ball in the government’s court, especially the prime minister,” Yedioth Ahraonot said, adding that the confidence crisis is not limited to Netanyahu and the army but is also present within the government’s ministers. On Sunday, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Netanyahu is setting up the military to take the fall for the failure to foresee Hamas’ attack two weeks ago. It quoted one source as saying they'd heard he was defaming officers. Defense sources told the daily, that Netanyahu is taking steps such as appointing a new spokesman in his office to liaise with military correspondents just four days into the war. Several sources reportedly described the appointment as unusual, especially during wartime when the defense minister and chief of staff typically maintain continuous communication with military correspondents. Haaretz quoted an unidentified military official who said "Netanyahu is orchestrating a campaign, collecting evidence against the army, and privately explaining why he should not be held responsible. He keeps reiterating that he did not receive the intelligence information."On Monday, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir demanded that Netanyahu add a minister to the three-person war cabinet, accusing those already on the panel overseeing the war against Hamas of having harbored misconceptions that enabled the group to carry out its devastating attack on October 7, Times of Israel said.

Hamas releases two more hostages as Israel ramps up Gaza strikes
CNN/October 23, 2023
Hamas has released two more hostages following Qatari and Egyptian mediation, two Israeli officials and two other sources briefed on the matter told CNN Monday. One source briefed on the matter said the hostages were Israeli citizens. Though details around the identities of the two hostages were not immediately clear, an Israeli official said both hostages are women. The Gaza-based militant group captured over 200 people during its brutal terror attack on Israel on October 7, when Hamas fighters killed more than 1,400 people, according to the Israel Defense Forces. In response, Israel has bombarded Gaza, killing more than 5,000 people and injured more than 15,000 in just over two weeks, according to the Gaza health ministry. The blasts have leveled entire neighborhoods, including schools and mosques, and devastated the already insufficient health care system.
Hamas confirmed two hostages were released in a statement Monday. “[We] released the two detainees [ ] bearing in mind that the enemy has refused since last Friday to receive them,” Hamas spokesperson Abu Obaida said. “We have decided to release them for compelling humanitarian and health reasons.”
CNN reached out to the Israeli military, which declined to comment on the statement. The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office also said they have no comment. The hostages were released to the Red Cross, according to one of the sources. One of the Israeli officials said they were not in Israel yet. The development comes after Hamas released two American hostages — Judith Tai Raanan and her 17-year-old daughter Natalie Raanan – last week. A Hamas spokesperson at the time claimed that the two US hostages had been released “for humanitarian reasons” and to “prove to the American people and the world” that claims made by the United States government “are false and baseless.”h
In the past days, Israel widened its offensive against Hamas and its regional enemies, intensifying its bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip, striking Hezbollah cells in Lebanon and targeting the occupied West Bank. Hundreds were killed in Gaza after sustained aerial assaults on Monday morning, according to the health ministry in the isolated enclave, which is controlled by Hamas. The ministry said that 436 people, including 182 children, were killed in strikes overnight, and that most of those killed were from the southern part of Gaza. A small number of relief aid trucks have been allowed to cross from Egypt into Gaza since the weekend, but relief agencies warn that the current rate of delivery will do little to address the needs of 2 million people living in the enclave. Israeli strikes appear to be ramping up; overnight blasts on Sunday were among the most sustained bombardments of northern Gaza in the past two weeks, according to a CNN team on the ground in southern Israel. They came as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) prepares for a potential ground operation in the besieged territory. Huge numbers of troops and tanks have already massed at the border. Israel is preparing for a “multilateral operation” on Hamas from the “air, ground and sea,” Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant said Monday. After touring the Ashdod Navy base, Gallant released a video statement instructing Israel’s soldiers to “get ready.” CNN previously reported that the Biden administration has pressed Israel to delay its imminent invasion of Gaza to allow for the release of more Hamas hostages and aid into the enclave. Amid efforts to free the hostages held by Hamas, a senior Israeli official told CNN Sunday there will be “no ceasefire” in Gaza.
Aid trickles into the enclave
A total of 34 trucks filled with desperately needed aid traveled into Gaza from Egypt over the weekend. But none carried fuel supplies, which is vital for running hospitals and treating water in the isolated territory. Israel has said fuel would be purloined by Hamas. A further 20 trucks crossed Rafah into Gaza on Monday, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). But UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric warned that the current aid provisions reaching Gaza were “a drop in the bucket.”“No fuel means no functioning water desalination. No fuel also means that humanitarian partners will have to focus almost their entire aid delivery operation on transporting water. It also means no bakeries and no hospitals,” the OCHA statement declared. Aid workers and international leaders warned that the supplies were insufficient to combat the “catastrophic” humanitarian situation in Gaza, while the Palestine Red Crescent Society said it is a “drop in the ocean” of what is needed. The territory normally receives 455 aid trucks per day, according to the United Nations. That means that with the weekend deliveries, Gaza is more than 7,200 truckloads of aid short of what would normally have been received between October 7 and October 22, CNN calculations suggest. That’s half of 1% – or one two-hundredth – of the amount of aid it ordinarily gets. As the situation in the strip gets increasingly dire, doctors in Gaza hospitals are being forced to operate without morphine or painkillers due to shortages, according to Leo Cans from Doctors Without Borders.
“We currently have people being operated on without having morphine. It just happened to two kids,” said the head of mission in Jerusalem for the group also known as Médecins Sans Frontières.
“We have a lot of kids that are unfortunately among the wounded, and I was discussing with one of our surgeons, who received a 10-year-old yesterday, burnt on 60% of the body surface, and he didn’t end up having painkillers,” Cans continued.
“There is no justification at all to block these essential medicines to reach the population.”Cans also acknowledged CNN’s reporting on parents who have resorted to writing their childrens’ names on their limbs in the event that either they or the children are killed. Medical professionals have also described “catastrophic” conditions at one central Gazan hospital as electricity and fuel supplies run out and crippled medical facilities rapidly become overwhelmed with casualties. Dr. Iyad Issa Abu Zaher, director general of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Gaza, described a “bloody day” for his staff to CNN on Sunday, saying the hospital had received up to 166 bodies and more than 300 injured people. “It’s impossible for any hospital in the world to admit this number of injured,” he said. People gather as medics transport injured people into Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in
Videos obtained by CNN showed the hospital receiving more than a dozen bodies wrapped in shrouds, while grieving family members tried to identify them. At another Gaza hospital, doctors have warned that most of the critically ill infants relying on ventilators in the neonatal unit will die if the electricity supply is interrupted. “If the electricity is stopped, there will be catastrophic events inside this unit,” said Dr. Fu’ad al-Bulbul, head of the neonatal department Unit at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, in a video released by the Health Ministry in Gaza. “We can save only one [or] two babies but, we cannot save all babies.”
Gaza residents: Nowhere is safe
Over the weekend, Israel called once again for civilians to leave northern parts of the strip – a warning that was condemned by the World Health Organization and which the Palestinian Red Crescent said amounted to a “death penalty for patients.”Residents who chose to remain behind told CNN that no place was safe in the Gaza Strip amid Israel’s heavy bombardment. At least 26 people were killed in Israeli strikes on the Jabalia refugee camp – one of the largest in Gaza – the director of the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza, Atef Al Kahlout told CNN. In the southern city of Rafah, 29 people were killed after four houses were struck, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza spokesperson Ashraf Al Qidra. Large plumes of smoke were seen rising from the Gaza skyline after Israeli airstrikes on the strip, a live feed on Al-Jazeera showed. Reuters showed a large smoke cloud rising from Gaza and seen from southern Israel.
The bombs hit buildings in Rafah, Khan Younis, central Gaza and Gaza City, including homes, the Palestinian Interior Ministry in Gaza said. The IDF said on Monday that it struck 320 “terror targets” in Gaza, including tunnels and “dozens of operational command centers” belonging to Hamas and Islamic Jihad. “They want us all dead, they are whipping Gaza, this has nothing to do with a war against Hamas,” one resident of Jabalia, Mahmoud, said. “My mother is paralyzed, she refuses to evacuate and says there is no safe place,” he said. Another resident of Jabalia, Mohammad Salama, said he lost 18 family members in a strike on Monday morning, mostly women and children. “There are no terrorists here, I swear on all my family members that I lost today, it’s only innocent civilians,” Salama said. On Sunday, Hamas and Israeli forces engaged in limited clashes inside Gaza – in what is believed to be one of the first significant skirmishes on the ground inside the strip since the Islamist militants’ October 7 attack on Israel that killed more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians. An IDF soldier was killed and three others were wounded during an operation in the area of Kibbutz Kissufim near Gaza on Sunday, according to IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari. Earlier, Hamas said its fighters had destroyed two Israeli military bulldozers and a tank in an ambush near the Gazan city of Khan Younis, forcing Israeli troops to retreat without their vehicles.
‘No ceasefire’
The United States and its allies have urged Israel to be strategic and clear about its goals during any ground operation in Gaza, warning against a prolonged occupation and placing an emphasis on avoiding civilian casualties, although the past two weeks have seen more people killed in Gaza than during any previous conflict with Israel. The mounting death toll has sparked growing protests across the Middle East and further afield as social media fills with imagery of the devastation Gazans are living through. On Sunday, US President Joe Biden made a flurry of calls to world leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, about the ongoing conflict and amid efforts by US officials seeking to keep it from widening. The White House said Netanyahu and Biden “affirmed there will now be a continued flow” of humanitarian assistance to Gaza during their call.
Wider conflict
As Israel readies its troops around Gaza, its military has also been engaged in flare-ups elsewhere, with increasing violence in the occupied West Bank and on its northern border with Lebanon. The IDF has launched a series of raids and arrested dozens of alleged Hamas members in the West Bank since the attack on Israel earlier this month. Two Palestinians were killed after Israeli forces raided the Jalazoun refugee camp near Ramallah on Monday, according to a statement by the Palestinian Ministry of Health. The Monday raid brings the total of those killed since October 7 in the occupied West Bank by both the IDF and Israeli settlers to 95, the ministry said. The IDF told CNN that 15 wanted suspects were apprehended in the raid, 10 of whom it claimed were Hamas operatives, and that weapons and ammunition had been found. On Sunday, the IDF launched an airstrike on the Al-Ansar mosque in the West Bank refugee camp of Jenin, which it said was being used by militant groups to plan for “an imminent terror attack.”It would not say whether the strike came from a jet, in what would be the first fighter jet strike in the West Bank in nearly two decades.
Meanwhile, late Sunday and into Monday, the IDF said it struck cells belonging to the Lebanon-based Hezbollah, an Iran-backed paramilitary movement, on the Lebanese side of the border, which it said had planned to launch attacks on Israel. Netanyahu warned Sunday that if Hezbollah decides to enter the war, it will be crippled “with a force [it] cannot even imagine.”
*CNN’s Mostafa Salem, Matthew Chance, Nic Robertson, Florence Davey-Attlee, Evan John, Chloe Liu, Pierre Meilhan, Tamar Michaelis, Alex Marquardt, Priscilla Alvarez, Manveena Suri, Sarah Dean, Clarissa Ward, Jennifer Hansler, Kaitlan Collins and Zeena Saifi contributed reporting.

Israel expects 'prolonged' Gaza ground war, targets Hamas commandos, bases
Lilach Shoval/October 23, 2023/Al-Monitor/October 23, 2023
SDEROT, Israel — Two weeks have passed since the Hamas attack Oct. 7, and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are completing preparations for the next phase of the fighting that will include an extensive ground incursion into the Gaza Strip. Over the years, the IDF has had contingency plans for an extensive attack on Gaza, but even the worst-case scenario did not entail having to occupy Gaza in order to oust Hamas. In recent days, the Israeli air force attacked dozens of high-rise buildings in the northern Gaza Strip in preparation for the ground operation, including buildings that may be used by Hamas as observation posts or as sniper positions. In parallel, special IDF forces and armor troops continue raids in Gaza, in the area near the border, in search of bodies of Israelis who are considered missing, said the IDF. Evidently, the Israeli leadership won’t divulge when the ground operation will be launched, nor its modalities. The IDF said last Saturday that it continues preparing for the expected ground offensive, with “plans for the expansion of the fighting” being approved in recent days. Tens of thousands of troops have been deployed so far to the Gaza border.
Israel still hopes for 'surprise' operation
That being said, many Israelis have been wondering why the IDF has not yet begun its operation, arguing that the delay indicates hesitation, stagnation and incompetence. However, several considerations dictated postponement of the ground maneuver, including the visit of US President Joe Biden, as well as operational considerations, and weather conditions. While Hamas knows that the ground maneuver is imminent, the IDF hopes to find the right timing for a tactical and operational surprise.  The IDF’s Intelligence Directorate and the Israel Security Agency are trying to extract as much intelligence as possible from the Hamas Nukhba commando assailants taken prisoner after infiltrating Israeli territory Oct. 7. The air force is prepared to assist ground forces as needed, and the navy is deployed along the coastline and in defense of strategic sites in Israel. The ground operation, the IDF says, will be aggressive, long and complex. By comparison, Operation Defensive Shield against Palestinian organizations in the West Bank in 2002 initially lasted two months, but took two years to fully complete.  The army understands that Hamas took an Israeli ground incursion into account when it launched its Oct. 7 operation. Many Hamas assailants are believed to be sheltering in underground tunnels that they have dug for themselves over the years, and are also believed to have booby-trapped houses and prepared other surprises for the Israeli forces. This means that after eliminating threats on the ground, the IDF will have to tackle the issue of the Gaza "metro," as the tunnel infrastructure is referred to in Israel.
Prolonged operation
As of Saturday, about 700,000 Palestinians had heeded Israel’s calls and evacuated their homes in the northern Gaza Strip, but about 350,000 residents have remained. Israeli officials say Hamas is trying to prevent thousands of Gazan civilians from leaving the north so that it can use them as human shields, going as far as to warn hospital directors not to evacuate their patients to a safer place.  The forces are preparing for a prolonged operation in the Gaza Strip, but at the same time the IDF is maintaining an extensive presence in the north. The army still hopes that the border incidents in northern Israel will not escalate into an all-out war, even as Hezbollah steps up its operations, firing anti-tank missiles and mortar shells at Israeli territory and trying to penetrate the border fence. Seven Israelis — six soldiers and one civilian — have been killed on the northern border in the past two weeks, and the IDF does not rule out the possibility that Hezbollah will engage in more significant provocations once the ground operation begins in Gaza. Israel hopes the American warnings and the deployment of two aircraft carriers in the region will deter Hezbollah and Iran, but the military is still preparing for the possibility that the northern front will become a main arena of war that will divert the IDF's attention from the Gaza Strip.

Israel Ramps up Strikes on Gaza as US Advises Delaying Ground Offensive to Allow Talks on Captives
Asharq Al Awsat/October 23/2023
Israel ramped up its airstrikes Monday in Gaza, where the death toll was rising rapidly, and the United States advised Israel to delay an expected ground invasion to allow more time to negotiate the release of hostages taken by Hamas militants.
A third small aid convoy from Egypt entered Gaza, where the population of 2.3 million has been running out of food, water and medicine under Israel's two-week seal. Israel was still barring the entry of fuel, and Gaza hospitals say they are struggling to keep generators running to power life-saving medical equipment and incubators for premature babies. Heavy airstrikes demolished buildings across Gaza, including in areas where Palestinians have been told to seek refuge, killing hundreds and sending new waves of wounded into already packed hospitals, according to Palestinian officials and witnesses.
After a strike in Gaza City, a woman with blood on her face wept as she clasped the hand of a dead relative. At least three bodies were sprawled on the street, one lying in a gray stream of water.
Israel is widely expected to launch a ground offensive in Gaza following Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 rampage into southern Israeli communities. That is raising fears of the war spreading beyond Gaza and Israel, as Iranian-backed fighters in the region are warning of possible escalation, including targeting US forces deployed in the Mideast.
The US has urged Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon and other groups not to join the fight. Israel has frequently traded fire with Hezbollah, which is armed with tens of thousands of rockets. Israeli warplanes have struck targets in the occupied West Bank, Syria and Lebanon in recent days.
The US has advised Israeli officials that delaying the expected ground offensive would give Washington more time to work with regional mediators on securing the release of people captured by Hamas during its deadly incursion, according to a US official.
The official, who requested anonymity to discuss the private discussions, said it was unclear how much the argument will “move the needle” on Israeli thinking. Hamas released an American woman and her teenage daughter last week in what it said was a humanitarian gesture mediated by Qatar.
Tanks and troops have been massed at the Gaza border, and Israel says it has stepped up airstrikes in order to reduce the risk to troops in the next stages. A ground excursion is likely to dramatically increase casualties in what is already the deadliest by far of five wars fought between Israel and Hamas in less than 15 years. More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed — mostly civilians slain during the initial Hamas attack. At least 222 people were captured and dragged back to Gaza, including foreigners, the military said Monday, updating a previous figure.
More than 5,000 Palestinians, including some 2,000 minors and around 1,100 women, have been killed, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said Monday. That includes the disputed toll from an explosion at a hospital last week. The toll has climbed rapidly in recent days, with the ministry reporting 436 additional deaths in just the last 24 hours.
Israel said it had struck 320 militant targets throughout Gaza over the last 24 hours in preparation for “a maneuver,” an apparent reference to a ground operation. The military says it does not target civilians, and that Palestinian militants have fired over 7,000 rockets at Israel since the start of the war.
The Israeli military released footage showing what it said were attacks on Hamas infrastructure. Flashes of yellow light were followed by an explosion that sent gray smoke and debris shooting upward as multi-story buildings collapsed or toppled over.
Israel carried out limited ground forays into Gaza, and on Sunday, Hamas said it had destroyed an Israeli tank and two armored bulldozers inside the territory it has ruled since 2007. The Israeli military said a soldier was killed and three others were wounded by an anti-tank missile during a raid inside Gaza.
The military said the raid was part of efforts to rescue hostages abducted in the Oct. 7 attack. Hamas hopes to trade the captives for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
On Monday the Palestinian Red Crescent said 20 trucks entered Gaza carrying food, water, medicine and medical supplies, through the Rafah crossing with Egypt, the only way into Gaza not controlled by Israel. It was the third delivery in as many days, each around the same size. An airstrike hit a residential building some 200 meters (yards) from the UN headquarters in Rafah on Monday, killing and wounding several people, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene, underscoring the perils of humanitarian operations.
Abu Youssef Al-Najjar Hospital, in Rafah, registered 61 deaths since Monday morning, the hospital’s spokesperson said, following a day of intense airstrikes in southern Gaza. With no room in the morgue for the bodies, “more than half of them are lying on the (hospital) ground,” spokesperson Talaat Barghout said. In a Sunday phone call, Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden “affirmed that there will now be continued flow of this critical assistance into Gaza,” the White House said in a statement. Relief workers said far more aid was needed to address the spiraling humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Much of the population is drinking dirty water; the lack of fuel has crippled water and sanitation systems. The UN humanitarian agency said 20 trucks amounts to 4% of an average day’s imports before the war.
More than half the territory’s population have fled their homes, and hundreds of thousands are sheltering in UN-run schools and tent camps. The World Health Organization said seven hospitals in northern Gaza have been forced to shut down due to damage from strikes, lack of power and supplies, or Israeli evacuation orders. Israel repeated its calls for people to leave northern Gaza, including by dropping leaflets from the air. It estimated 700,000 have already fled. But hundreds of thousands remain. That would raise the risk of mass civilian casualties in any ground offensive.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Israel “can't go back to the status quo” in which Hamas controls Gaza and is able to threaten it, but that Israel has “absolutely no intent” to govern Gaza itself. Speaking to NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, he said the question of how Gaza will be governed needs to be worked out "even as Israel is dealing with the current threat.”Israel captured Gaza, along with the West Bank and east Jerusalem, in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three territories for a future state. Israel withdrew troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005, but Israel has imposed a blockade of varying degrees since Hamas seized power from rival Palestinian forces in 2007.

Canadian in Gaza says Israeli air strikes now relentless ahead of ground invasion
The Canadian Press/October 23, 2023
Mansour Shouman said he used to hear Israel airstrikes in Gaza roughly every hour but those bombardments now come every few minutes as the Israel-Hamas war escalates. The 39-year-old Canadian who has been living in Gaza said Israel's bombardment of the Palestinian territory has grown relentless recently, and even locations where civilians were previously advised to take refuge are not safe. "It's still going ... Every few minutes," he said of the airstrikes during a video call Monday as the sound of explosions could be heard in the background. "Gaza is a very congested place so everything you can think of has been hit." Israel is expected to launch a ground offensive in Gaza and said it has stepped up airstrikes in order to reduce the risk to troops in the next stages. Shouman – who was born in Gaza, later moved to Calgary and then moved with his family back to Gaza in 2006 – said he narrowly escaped an airstrike on Monday morning near a hospital complex where he has been taking shelter. "At the entrance of the hospital a bomb fell," he said while sitting under a tent in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis, pointing at the entrance metres away from him.Shouman said people he knew at the hospital had lost loved ones in recent days and many around him lacked essential supplies. "I have here a couple of colleagues whose homes were bombed," he said. "They went and put (their family) in the graves and came back to work." Small shipments of aid – which the UN has said were a small fraction of the usual supplies Gaza receives – were twice allowed into Gaza over the weekend and once on Monday but have barely made a dent in the massive need for essentials, Shouman said. "People are malnourished," he said. "How can it get it better? There is no replenishment of stuff." Israel has still not allowed any fuel to enter Gaza, where there has been a power blackout for nearly two weeks since Hamas' Oct. 7 rampage into southern Israeli communities. Hamas has said the attack was retribution for worsening conditions Palestinians face. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told troops near Gaza to keep preparing for an offensive "because it will come.'' He said it will be a combined offensive from air, land and sea but did not give a timeframe. A ground excursion is likely to dramatically increase casualties in what is already the deadliest by far of five wars fought between Israel and Hamas in less than 15 years.
More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed – mostly civilians slain during the initial Hamas attack. At least 222 people were captured and taken to Gaza, including foreigners, the military said Monday, updating a previous figure. More than 5,000 Palestinians, including some 2,000 minors and around 1,100 women, have been killed, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said Monday. That includes the disputed toll from an explosion at a hospital last week. Canadian officials are still working to try and find a way to get upwards of 400 Canadians and their families out of the Gaza Strip, which is blockaded at its two land borders with Israel and Egypt. In Gaza, Shouman said he hasn't heard from the Canadian embassy in days. He said his family is taking shelter elsewhere while he tries to help at the hospital complex. He said he was angry at the suffering he was seeing and wanted to raise awareness of the humanitarian toll the war is taking. "I'm channeling all my anger into action," Shouman said, just before the Muslim call to prayer could be heard from a nearby mosque and he went to pray. "Trying to help in any way I can."

Blair expected to face questions about Canada's evidence on Gaza hospital strike
The Canadian Press/October 23, 2023
OTTAWA — Defence Minister Bill Blair is expected to face further questions today about the evidence Canada has gathered to determine a rocket blast at a hospital in Gaza City did not originate in Israel. blair made the statement Saturday night, five days after the attack at the al-Ahli Arab hospital.
The blast came nine days after a renewed conflict in the region following an assault by Hamas militants in Israel and retaliation by Israel in the Gaza Strip. Blair says the Canadian Forces Intelligence Command did its own analysis of evidence and reached a conclusion that aligns with findings of the United States and France. Israel has said satellite evidence and intercepted communications show the rocket was fired by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and French authorities say the size of the rocket itself points to Palestinian not Israeli sources. The Department of National Defence in Canada says it is basing its determination on an analysis of the blast damage at the hospital, including adjacent buildings, as well as the incoming munition's flight pattern. Following the release of Canada's conclusion on the source of the blast, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke Sunday with Israeli President Isaac Herzog. Trudeau also spoke Sunday with leaders from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy. Both calls discussed the need for all remaining hostages to be released and for the protection of civilians. A weekend conference in Egypt seeking a route to peace left more questions than answers about what may happen next in the latest Israel-Hamas war, with 1,400 Israelis killed in the initial Hamas attack and at least 4,600 Palestinians in the subsequent Israeli airstrikes. Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly was in attendance at the conference in Cairo and her office said she may be able to speak to reporters about the event today. Canada has been calling for Israel and Egypt to do more to ensure needed humanitarian aid gets into Gaza. An initial small shipment of food, medical supplies and fuel was made over the weekend but the need is high. Joly herself last week called Gaza the worst place in the world to live right now.
Egypt and Jordan both made clear at the summit that they will not allow Israel to push 2.3 million Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip, while Israel has made clear it intends to continue its military action until Hamas has been rooted out. The latest conflict began on Oct. 7 when Hamas militants attacked Israel with rockets and a ground assault across the border with the Gaza Strip border, hitting a music festival and several agricultural co-operatives known as kibbutzim. The attack killed 1,400 people, including at least six Canadians, injured several thousand others and saw Hamas take more than 200 people hostage, including children. Israel responded with force, firing rockets into Gaza, and the fighting has since killed an estimated 4,600 Palestinians. Hamas is a militant organization that took control in the Gaza Strip in 2007. Canada has labelled Hamas a terrorist organization since 2002

Israel welcomes Canada's conclusion that Israel didn't strike hospital in Gaza
The Canadian Press/OTTAWA/October 23, 2023
Israel is "pleased" that Canada has joined the United States and France in believing that an explosion at a Gaza City hospital last week was fired by an errant rocket from within the Gaza Strip, the Israeli ambassador in Ottawa said Sunday. But intelligence and foreign affairs experts say the latest assertions will do little to calm tensions in the region or among supporters of Israel and Palestinians abroad. On Saturday Canada became the third western ally to back Israel's assertion that it was not responsible for the rocket blast at the al-Ahli Arab hospital on Oct. 17. “Analysis conducted independently by the Canadian Forces Intelligence Command indicates with a high degree of confidence that Israel did not strike the hospital on October 17, 2023," Defence Minister Bill Blair said in a statement published late Saturday.
"The more likely scenario is that the strike was caused by an errant rocket fired from Gaza. We will continue to provide updates as new information becomes available.”
That followed similar conclusions reached by the United States on Oct. 18 and France on Oct. 20. Israel's Canadian ambassador, Iddo Moed, said Sunday he welcomed Canada's conclusion. “The loss of life at the al-Ahli Arab hospital was a tragedy that should horrify any human being and it is a reminder of the double war crimes against Palestinians and Israelis that are committed by Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza,” Moed said.
But the National Council of Canadian Muslims said Sunday they had reached out to Blair to get more information about what led Canada to draw the conclusion it did.
A statement issued by the council Sunday evening said there are many outstanding questions and also called on Canada to recognize the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court to do an independent ground assessment.
The council also said this is just one hospital that has been hit since the "siege on Gaza" began, along with churches and schools.
"Thus, we are focused around the need for immediate ceasefire," the council said.
The blast became a new flashpoint in the latest conflict that began more than two weeks ago when hundreds of Hamas militants launched a multi-pronged attack on Israel. Hamas, a group which Canada has labelled a terrorist organization since 2002, launched rocket fire and a ground assault on several sites including at a music festival and at several agricultural collective communities known as kibbutzim.
At least 1,400 Israelis were killed, several thousand injured and more than 200 people — including children — were taken hostage by Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza Strip for 16 years. Six Canadians died in the attack, and it's believed two remain missing.
Israel responded to the attack with force, cutting off power and supplies to the Gaza Strip and launching its own rocket attacks into the area. It is preparing for a ground assault as well. As of Sunday, estimates suggest about 4,600 Palestinians have lost their lives in the latest conflict, and the humanitarian impact of Israel's response is having harsh consequences on the nearly two million people who call Gaza home.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been unequivocal that Canada supports Israel's right to defend itself but that all sides must follow the law and civilians must be protected.
Canada has called for Hamas to release all hostages and for Israel and Egypt to facilitate aid deliveries to Gaza. Trudeau repeated those positions Sunday in a phone call with Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
Small amounts of food, fuel and medical supplies were delivered over the weekend, though the suffering in the Gaza Strip remains immense. Residents have reported surviving off dirty water and witnessing fights break out over scarce supplies, while packed hospitals have warned of critical fuel shortages.
The hospital blast upended an already tense situation and furthered the distance between western and Arab countries. Trudeau faced pressure shortly after the hospital blast to assign blame for it. When asked by a reporter in French about the "Israeli strike" on the hospital, before Israel denied responsibility, Trudeau called the attack "horrific" and "unacceptable."A few hours later, after Israel said the rocket wasn't theirs, Trudeau called for international law to be upheld, but did not point fingers.
"Together, we must determine what happened," he said. "There must be accountability."
That same day he tasked Blair with having the military undertake a review and analysis of available evidence so Canada could draw its own conclusions.
On Thursday, a day after U.S. President Joe Biden laid the blame on a rocket from inside Gaza, Trudeau said Canada had seen some preliminary evidence but needed more time to reach "a firm and final conclusion."The initial Canadian analysis was completed on Oct. 21, and after Blair was brought up to speed he briefed Trudeau and then released the general finding publicly just before 10 p.m. Canada has not specified what evidence led to its conclusion. Peter Jones, a professor of public and international affairs at the University of Ottawa, said it’s "fairly normal" for Canada to independently analyze incidents of interest overseas, but that it is less common to put out a statement on its findings.
“Given the enormous media attention and public interest, I guess the government of Canada just felt it couldn't remain silent," Jones said in an interview.
“The government was under a certain amount of pressure to declare one way or the other … other allied governments are doing the same thing.”
Jones spent seven years working in intelligence analysis and has himself analyzed incidents of interest to Canada to determine if it agreed with its allies on a particular issue.
“In most events of significance around the world where the Canadian government wants to have its own perspective on what happened and not rely on the analysis of others, Canada’s intelligence community will produce its own analysis," Jones said.
But Jones said the findings are unlikely to change the minds of those who already believed Israel was at fault. "In many countries in the Middle East, in many Arab countries, people have already formed their opinion and it’s based upon what Hamas has said and their own anger at what’s been going on and all the rest of it," said Jones. Colin Robertson, a former Canadian diplomat and senior fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, said the facts may support Canada's conclusion but in the current world, facts don't always matter. "Alas, we live in a world where feelings trump facts so it won't change much," he said. "We also live in a world where people don't always know whose facts to believe."Evidence from Israel includes satellite images and intercepted conversations between militants. French authorities said an Israeli explosive is much bigger and would have caused a bigger crater. They said this explosive was about five kilograms, which is closer to the type used by Palestinian militants. It's also not yet clear how many people were killed when the rocket hit. The Palestinian Health Authority said nearly 500 people died, while U.S. intelligence sources have been cited saying the number is somewhere between 100 and 300. Israel has pointed the finger at the Palestinian Islamic Jihad for being the source of the rocket. The PIJ is the second-largest armed group in Gaza, whose sole objective is a military victory over Israel to establish an Islamic State across all of Israel, along with the West Bank and Gaza. American officials told the New York Times their preliminary evidence also pointed to the PIJ. But Canada has not yet specified who it thinks fired the rocket. “As Canada provides further updates, Israel is assured that other findings uncovered by the Israeli Defense Forces, including the culpability of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, will be identified by Canada as the source of this war crime," Moed said.

Politicians condemn protest at Jewish-owned business as police monitor demonstrations
OTTAWA/The Canadian Press/October 23, 2023
Toronto police say they are aware of a demonstration that happened this weekend in front of a Jewish-owned business, but no one has filed a report with them. Footage shared on social media shows a group of pro-Palestinian protesters gathered in front of a restaurant in Toronto, with some members of the crowd calling it a "Zionist café" and calling for a boycott. There has been widespread condemnation of the chant from political leaders including Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow, who said in a statement that "targeting a business in this way is wrong." University of Ottawa criminology professor Michael Kempa says it is ultimately up to police to decide what behaviour crosses a line into criminality when it comes to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly. Police services across Canada say they are dealing with heightened fears from both Jewish and Muslim groups since the Israel-Hamas war broke out more than two weeks ago. Many have increased their presence near places of worship and are sending officers to monitor protests. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has condemned Hamas since it attacked Israel on Oct. 7, saying the group is a listed terrorist entity and its militants are not "freedom fighters."

Israeli families fleeing the border find refuge in a unique Jerusalem hotel
CNN/October 23, 2023
Over 100,000 displaced people in Israel have had to evacuate their communities along the southern and northern borders amidst missile attacks and military fighting. About 1,200 of them are being housed and fed by a ministry of Messianic Jews and Christian Arabs. CNN’s Rafael Romo meets with some of these families in Jerusalem.

Iraq orders pursuit of perpetrators of attacks on military bases
Ahmed Rasheed/BAGHDAD (Reuters)/October 23, 2023
Iraq's prime minister has ordered security forces to pursue the perpetrators of attacks on military bases hosting international coalition advisers, a government military spokesman said on Monday. The announcement came after a recent spike in rocket and drone attacks against Iraq military bases which host U.S. and other international forces. "Attacks that target Iraqi bases that houses advisers from the international coalition in Iraq are unacceptable. They are here based on the invitation of the government," said a spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister and commander-in-chief of the armed forces Mohammed al-Sudani.
Three military bases were attacked by Katyusha rockets and drones in less than a week, including Ain al-Asad in western Iraq, a military base near Baghdad's international airport and Harir in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil. Iraqi security officials say the prime minister has ordered the stepping up "preemptive security measures" to prevent further attacks on the three Iraqi military bases hosting U.S. and other international forces. Iraqi armed groups aligned with Iran threatened to target U.S. interests with missiles and drones if Washington intervened to support Israel against Hamas in Gaza. There has been an increase in attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria since the start of the conflict between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza. The U.S. State Department said on Sunday U.S. citizens should not travel to Iraq after recent attacks on American troops and personnel in the region. The United States has 2,500 troops in Iraq, and 900 more in neighbouring Syria, on a mission to advise and assist local forces in combating Islamic State, which in 2014 seized swathes of territory in both countries.

Israel and Egypt both blockaded Gaza after Hamas took over.
AP - Ariel Schalit/Mon, October 23, 2023
On the eve of French President Emmanuel Macron's visit to Israel, over19,000 people are reported displaced in Lebanon. This as Hamas continues to fire drones and rockets as Israel steps up the shelling of Gaza. Following EU and US leaders, Macron is to visit Israel on Tuesday. Diplomatic activity has so far prevented a massive ground assoult by the Israeli ground forces, but Jerusalem is not letting down on air strikes, while engaging combattants in skirmishes in Gaza's border areas. Fighting has raged for more than two weeks after Hamas gunmen stormed into Israel on October 7, killing at least 1,400 people, according to Israeli officials. More than 5,000 Palestinians, mainly civilians, have been killed across Gaza in relentless Israeli bombardments in retaliation for the attacks, the Hamas-run health ministry said on Monday. Hezbollah. Sporadic fighting between Israel and Hamas's Lebanese ally Hezbollah has also been taking place along Israel's northern border. More than 19,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon amid an uptick in tensions between Israel and Hezbollah at the country's southern border, figures released Monday by a United Nations agency showed. "An increase in cross-border incidents" has resulted in the displacement of 19,646 people in Lebanon, "both within the south and elsewhere within the country", said the International Organization for Migration.

Dispute between Iraqi military and Kurdish Peshmerga turns deadly, killing 3
BAGHDAD (AP)/October 23, 2023
The Iraqi military and Kurdish Peshmerga forces briefly clashed Sunday in a dispute over control of a strategic military post, killing three, Iraq's military spokesperson said. The dispute was over who controls three vacated posts previously in the hands of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants. It marked further tension in a fragile alliance between the Iraqi military and Kurdish Peshmerga forces of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region inside federal Iraq. Iraqi military spokesman Yahya Rasool did not specify the identities of the three killed, adding that seven others in the dispute were wounded.
On Thursday, the PKK announced they were vacating the positions, citing what they said was the declining threat of the extremist Islamic State group in the area. They had held the military position since 2014, during the global war on the group. Turkey often launches strikes against targets in Syria and Iraq that it believes to be affiliated with the PKK, a Kurdish separatist group that has waged an insurgency against Turkey since the 1980s. Meanwhile, security agencies in Iraq continue to crack down on Islamic State group sleeper cells. Rasool said Iraq’s prime minister ordered the formation of a high-level committee to investigate the incident. Two security officials said the posts are located in Mount Qarah Dagh within the Makhmour district, a strategic location that borders Erbil and Nineveh, between the two regions. The Peshmerga claimed that the posts were within their territory, because the mountain has historically represented the dividing line between Iraqi security forces and Peshmerga.

Turkey's president submits protocol for Sweden's admission into NATO to parliament for ratification
ANKARA, Turkey (AP)/October 23, 2023
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has submitted a protocol for Sweden’s admission into NATO to Turkey’s parliament for ratification, his office said Monday. Erdogan had been delaying ratification of Sweden’s membership, accusing Stockholm of being too soft on Kurdish militants and other groups he considers to be security threats. Turkey also was angered by a series of Quran-burning protests in Sweden. All 31 NATO allies must endorse Sweden’s membership. Turkey and Hungary are the only two allies that have yet to ratify it. A brief statement from the presidential communications directorate said Erdogan had signed the protocol on Sweden's NATO accession, which was then submitted to the Turkish Grand National Assembly.It was not immediately known when Sweden’s membership would come to the floor. Sweden welcomed the move. “Glad to hear that Turkish President Erdoğan has now handed over the ratification documents to the Turkish Parliament," Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. "Now it remains for Parliament to deal with the issue. We look forward to becoming a member of NATO.” Sweden and its neighbor Finland abandoned decades of military nonalignment after President Vladimir Putin ordered Russia troops to invade Ukraine in February 2022, seeking protection under NATO’s security umbrella. Finland joined the military alliance in April. Earlier this month, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg urged Turkey to quickly ratify Sweden’s membership in the military organization. “Many allies would like to see speedy progress on this ratification,” Stoltenberg told The Associated Press after chairing a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels. “Sweden has delivered on what they promised, and now we need the ratification of Swedish membership.”

Azerbaijan holds first joint drills with Turkey since Karabakh victory
(Reuters)/October 23, 2023
Azerbaijan said on Monday it had begun a series of joint military exercises with close ally Turkey, the first since Baku retook the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh last month, prompting most of the territory's ethnic Armenians to flee. Azerbaijan's defence ministry said in a statement that up to 3,000 military personnel were participating in exercises named for the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. It said the drills were being held across Azerbaijan, including in Baku, the Nakhichevan exclave which borders Turkey, and in what the ministry called the "liberated territories" of Karabakh.
Turkey has close linguistic and cultural links to Azerbaijan, and offered Baku military and political support during its three decade-long conflict with Armenia, with which Ankara has no formal diplomatic relations. Armenia and Azerbaijan have recently signalled willingness to sign a peace treaty formally ending their conflict following Azerbaijan's victory in Karabakh and the exodus of almost all the region's 120,000 ethnic Armenians. The foreign ministers of the two countries, along with those of Turkey, Iran and Russia, were due to hold talks hosted by Tehran on Monday on progress towards a peace agreement.
However, Baku this month accused Yerevan of undermining the peace process with "aggressive rhetoric". Armenia describes the Karabakh Armenians' flight as ethnic cleansing driven by the threat of violence after a nine-month blockade of essential supplies, the latest chapter in a conflict between Christian Armenians and Turkic Muslim Azeris that goes back more than a century. Azerbaijan says the Karabakh Armenian civilians were welcome to stay and be integrated in Azerbaijani society, but left voluntarily.

France to boost Armenia's air defences with radars, missiles - minister
PARIS (Reuters)/October 23, 2023
France is helping Armenia to improve its air defence capacity with the sale of three radars and an agreement on the future delivery of Mistral anti-air missiles, Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu said on Monday. The move comes weeks after Armenia's arch regional foe Azerbaijan retook the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh in a lightning offensive, prompting the exodus of most of the territory's 120,000 ethnic Armenian residents. Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev said this month that France's decision to send military aid to Armenia could trigger a new conflict in the South Caucasus.
"The protection of the sky is something that's absolutely key," Lecornu said during a joint news conference with Armenia's Defence Minister Suren Papikyan in Paris. The two ministers signed off on the sale of three Thales-made GM 200 radars, which France has also provided to Ukraine, and signed a memorandum of understanding on the future delivery of France's Mistral short-range air defence system. France will also help Armenia train ground defence forces and support the country's efforts to reform and modernise its military, Lecornu said. It was Papikyan's second visit to France since Azerbaijani forces on Sept. 20 captured Nagorno-Karabakh, which is internationally viewed as part of Azerbaijan but had been run by ethnic Armenians since the collapse of the Soviet Union. France hosts one of the world's largest Armenian diasporas and seeks to present itself as an ally and diplomatic backer, especially as Yerevan's relations with its traditional ally Russia have soured in recent months. "We stand by our defence relationship (with Armenia), even though we're not part of the same military and political alliances. It is based on the simple principle that you need to be able to defend yourself," Lecornu said. Papkiyan's visit to Paris coincided with talks in Tehran between the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan, aimed at making progress towards a peace agreement between them. The foreign ministers of Iran, Russia and Baku's ally Turkey also attended the talks.

Intelligence shows Iranian-backed militias are ready to ramp up their attacks against US forces in the Middle East
Natasha Bertrand, Katie Bo Lillis, Zachary Cohen and Jennifer Hansler, CNN/October 23, 2023
The US has intelligence that Iranian-backed militia groups are planning to ramp up attacks against US forces in the Middle East, as Iran seeks to capitalize on the backlash in the region to US support for Israel, according to multiple US officials.
The militia groups have already launched multiple drone attacks on US forces in Iraq and Syria. But the US now has specific intelligence that those same groups could escalate even further as the war between Israel and Hamas continues.
There are “red lights flashing everywhere,” a US official in the region told CNN. Officials said that at this point, Iran appears to be encouraging the groups rather than explicitly directing them. One official said Iran is providing guidance to the militia groups that they will not be punished – by not getting resupplied with weaponry, for example – if they continue to attack US or Israeli targets. On Monday, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said there is “a very direct connection between these groups” and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, and he said the US is “deeply concerned about the potential of any significant escalation of these attacks in the days ahead.”Iran supports a number of proxy militia groups in countries across the region through the IRGC-Quds Force, and Tehran does not always exert perfect command and control over these groups. How willing those groups are to act independently is a “persistent intelligence gap,” noted one source. But, Kirby said, “we know that Iran is closely monitoring these events and in some cases, actively facilitating attacks and spurring on others who may want to exploit the conflict for their own good,” he said. “Iran’s goal is to maintain some plausible deniability here, but we are not going to allow them to do that.”Asked by CNN on Monday whether Iran is directing the groups, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said, “Whether they’re directing them or they’re not, these are militias that they have sponsored and they’re responsible for.”
A senior State Department official separately told CNN that the US and its partners are “all on the same page that sending a clear message to Iran – that it should not seek to take advantage of the situation and groups that are under its control or influence should not seek to take advantage of this either,” and if Tehran does so, “that could have very escalatory and dire consequences.” “It’s not just a US message; it’s a shared message,” the official said.
Qatar has been a key intermediary between the US and its allies and Iran, multiple officials told CNN. In the case of the recent drone attacks on bases housing US forces, “Iran is certainly more culpable than in the case of the Hamas attack in Israel,” said another person familiar with the intelligence. CNN previously reported that Iranian government officials appeared caught off guard by the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7. Iranian proxy forces have attacked bases housing US troops in the past, and the US has responded with airstrikes against the groups’ infrastructure, including as recently as March. But another source said that right now, the Iranians’ “appetite for expanding [the conflict] is high. Their risk tolerance is high.”The US, meanwhile, is actively bolstering its defenses in light of the heightened threats. The US has around 2,500 troops in Iraq and around 900 in Syria as part of the anti-ISIS coalition, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said in a statement over the weekend that he was deploying additional air defense systems to the region in response to “recent escalations by Iran and its proxy forces” across the Middle East.
Two drones targeting US forces in Syria were shot down on Monday, and troops in Iraq and Syria faced three separate drone attacks last week from suspected Iranian proxy groups, the Pentagon confirmed. Last Thursday, a US Navy warship operating off the coast of Yemen intercepted multiple missiles fired by Iranian-backed Houthi militants that appeared to be heading toward Israel. In Tehran, there does not appear to be a clear consensus about what approach to take to the war between Israel and Hamas. “I am sure there are different voices in their system advocating different things,” the senior State Department official said. Another official said that while it is unlikely that Iran would be willing to engage in direct fighting with Israel or the US, directing proxies to attack US assets in the Middle East allows Iran to maintain their influence and reputation while managing escalation risks.
In a news conference with his South African counterpart Naledi Pandor in Tehran on Sunday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said that the Middle East is like a “powder keg,” according to quotes published by state-aligned Tasnim news.
“Any miscalculation in continuing genocide and forced displacement can have serious and bitter consequences, both in the region and for the warmongers,” Abdollahian said, referring to the US and Israel. The Iranian foreign minister also warned the US and Israel that “if crimes against humanity do not stop immediately, there is the possibility at any moment that the region will go out of control.” “We’re concerned about potential escalation,” Austin said on ABC’s “This Week.” “In fact, what we’re seeing is a – is a prospect of a significant escalation of attacks on our troops and our people throughout the region, and because of that, we’re going to do what’s necessary to make sure that our troops are in the right – in a good position, and they’re protected, and that we have the ability to respond.”

Israeli president says Hamas operative had instructions for cyanide chemical weapon
Miranda Nazzaro/The Hill/October 23, 2023
A Hamas operative killed in the militant group’s conflict with Israel was found carrying instructions on how to make a cyanide chemical weapon, said Israel President Isaac Herzog.
In an interview on Sunday with Sky News, Herzog showed the British media outlet a series of documents with diagrams that were found on a USB key on the body of a Hamas operative killed in Kibbutz Be’eri in Israel.The documents included “precise instructions for preparing a device for dispersing cyanide agents,” the Israeli government’s office said in a statement following the interview. “This is how shocking the situation is where we’re looking at the instructions that are given on how to operate and how to create a kind of non-professional chemical weapon with cyanide,” Herzog told Sky News.
Sky News said it was unable to independently verify Herzog’s claims, but noted the source of the documents is from a 2003 al Qaeda manual and included the ingredients needed to make a chemical bomb. Alistair Bunkar, a Middle East correspondent for Sky News, said the media outlet sent the documents to a British chemical weapons expert, who said the documents show ingredients that could build a credible chemical weapon. “Al Qaeda spent a lot of time and effort developing a chemical weapon based on cyanide,” Hamish de Bretton Gordon, former head of the UK military’s Chemical, Biological and Nuclear Weapons regiment, told Sky News. Herzog and the statement from the government claimed the document indicates a link between al Qaeda and Hamas, though Sky News noted the manual does not prove such a connection. Nothing the methodology may be similar, Bunker said a direct link between Hamas and al Qaeda is “unlikely” to be “strong, if at all,” given the current strength of the Islamic State. When Sky News asked Michael Epstein, a major general in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) about Herzog’s claims, Epstein said, “On the capabilities that you ask about, the chemicals … we are still looking for evidence about whether they had it or not.” “But the orders were there, as our President Herzog mentioned yesterday, orders were there on how to kill, how many to kill, how many to take as hostages,” Epstein continued. Chemical weaponry would escalate the already deadly conflict that has killed over 6,400 lives on both sides. Fighting entered its 17th day on Monday following Hamas’s bloody massacre on Israel, which began on Oct. 7 and has killed 1,400 Israelis — including hundreds of civilians in their homes, at a bus stop and at a music festival. Israel responded with a bombardment of Gaza, launching hundreds of air strikes into the region. An estimated 5,087 people in Gaza have been killed in the conflict, including 2,055 children, 1,119 women and 217 elderly, Gaza’s health ministry reported Monday. There also have been warnings of a humanitarian catastrophe. An additional 15,273 individuals have been wounded, per the ministry, as hospitals and humanitarian agencies warn of dwindling medicine and medical supplies, along with limited access to food, fuel and water. While Israel has yet to launch an expected ground offensive into Gaza, it has issued repeated orders for over 1 million Palestinians to flee their neighborhoods in the north and head south. The United States has largely supported Israel’s pledge to eliminate Hamas in response to the attacks, drawing a parallel to America’s war on terror after the 9/11 attacks. During a visit to Tel Aviv last week, President Biden announced an agreement to allow for a small shipment of aid to enter Gaza. Two aid convoys carrying food, water and medical supplies were allowed to enter Gaza over the weekend using the Rafah crossing with Egypt, though humanitarian leaders have stressed more aid is needed.

Canada/NDP kicks Hamilton MPP Sarah Jama from caucus, saying her actions have 'broken the trust' of colleagues
CBC/October 23, 2023
Ontario New Democrats have kicked Hamilton Centre MPP Sarah Jama out of caucus, nearly two weeks after she posted a controversial statement in support of Palestinians. NDP Leader Marit Stiles said in a statement Monday that while the caucus allows different viewpoints, some of Jama's actions since making her comments "have contributed to unsafe work environments for staff." "Ms. Jama and I had reached an agreement to keep her in the NDP caucus, which included working together in good faith with no surprises. Our caucus and staff have made significant efforts to support her during an undoubtedly difficult time," Stiles said. "Since then, she has undertaken a number of unilateral actions that have undermined our collective work and broken the trust of her colleagues."By midday Monday, Jama was listed with the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as an Independent.
The news comes after a tumultuous couple of weeks for the first-time MPP following her statement Oct. 10 in support of the people of Gaza in the Hamas-Israeli conflict. The statement prompted Premier Doug Ford to call for Jama's resignation and he accused her of antisemitism.
Jama's office served a cease and desist letter to Ford last Thursday, according to her lawyer, Stephen Ellis, and the Legal Centre for Palestine. The letter said if Ford did not remove his social media post and publicly apologize, Jama would pursue legal action for defamation.
"Ms. Jama maintains the post was reckless and malicious," the statement said. "Ms. Jama will not tolerate Premier Ford's attempts to tarnish her reputation in such a public manner."Stiles responded to the legal notice last week, calling the premier's accusations of Jama "inflammatory" and saying the Ford government was "repeatedly and cynically fanning the flames of division during such a painful time."Jama also said on X, formerly Twitter, on Friday that her Hamilton Centre office staff were directed to work remotely because they had "received a number of concerning calls and emails that have made us question the safety of remaining open for walk-ins."
NDP will still vote against censuring Jama
The Progressive Conservatives have also tabled a motion to censure Jama in the House. In Stiles's statement Monday that announced Jama's removal from caucus, she said the Ontario NDP will still vote against the "extreme motion." "We do not believe the government should use its majority to strip a member of their right to speak and vote," Stiles said. "This is an extreme step that will disenfranchise the voters of Hamilton Centre." Ontario Premier Doug Ford, centre, responds to questions as members of Provincial Parliament returned to Queen’s Park for the fall session of the Ontario Legislature at Queen’s Park in Toronto on Monday, September 25, 2023. Premier Doug Ford's government has put forward a motion to censure Jama in the House. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press) Jama's original statement posted to X called for an immediate ceasefire as well as an "end to all occupation of Palestinian land."
She focused largely on the Palestinian territories, saying "violence and retaliation rooted in settler colonialism have taken the lives of far too many innocent people." She did not directly mention the Hamas attacks. The statement prompted both anger and support.
'I hope even more of you will speak out': Jama
Shortly before Stiles's announcement, Jama spoke in the House on Monday. She reaffirmed her support for Palestinians in Gaza and opposition to Israel's military action in retaliation to the Hamas attacks. "I restate my call for an immediate ceasefire by Israeli forces, and for the immediate restoration of food, water, fuel, and electricity to Gaza," Jama said. "I applaud the many elected officials in Canada who have joined this call in recent days, and I hope even more of you will speak out." She described Israel's historical and continued actions as "domination and occupation of Palestinian land."
"Governments and institutions in Canada are trying to use their weight to silence us, to silence workers, students, educators, and peace-loving people who dare to support Palestine," Jama said. "To every person taking risks to speak up for Palestinian dignity and safety, I see you, I hear you, and I am with you."
Booting Jama from caucus draws criticism and praise
The decision to boot Jama from caucus led to condemnation and praise online. The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs posted to X, saying it was "pleased" to see the move. "Ms. Jama's remarks were inappropriate, egregious, and hurtful to Jewish and Israeli Canadians," the centre wrote.
Michael Levitt, president and chief executive officer of Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, echoed similar sentiments, saying it was "important to see" Stiles take the "necessary steps." "Jama's abhorrent and reckless words and actions have caused repeated hurt and harm to the Jewish community in her riding of Hamilton Centre and far beyond," he wrote on X. Meanwhile, union leaders expressed disappointment in the decision. Fred Hahn, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, called it a "sad, sad day," adding that Jama is a "necessary and strongly supported voice."
"This is a deeply troubling and massively dangerous move," he said on X. "What my party the [Ontario NDP] must understand is that [first] this move doesn't change that support, and [second] they just handed the right a gift."
Anthony Marco, president of the Hamilton and District Labour Council, said the NDP could consider his membership card "revoked.""While I cannot predict [the labour council's] continued relationship with the party, I can say they voted to support Sarah!" he posted to X.
Deanna Allain, chair of Hamilton's women and gender equity committee, said it was "absolutely shameful" to see Jama kicked out of caucus. "Politicians who continue to choose to stay silent, know you'll be campaigning without a lot of the support that got you those seats in the first place," she wrote on X.

Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on October 23-24/2023
'The left has really let us down.' Why many American Jews feel abandoned
Jaweed Kaleem/LA Times/October 23, 2023
Like many American Jews, Jonah Goldman sides politically with the left, including its push for the rights of Palestinians. During college, he was active in J Street, the liberal Jewish advocacy group that opposes the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and lobbies for a two-state solution.
But in the aftermath of Hamas' gruesome raid on Israel this month, Goldman has never felt so isolated from people he long considered his allies.He was shocked by how quickly friends mobilized for the Palestinian cause while failing to condemn the attack. The militants killed more than 1,400 people, most of them civilians — slaughtering families, including children — and taking about 200 more hostage. Good people he never considered antisemitic suddenly seemed "supportive of Jewish genocide," he said. On social media and college campuses as well as at pro-Palestinian rallies — the sort of protests Goldman once would have joined — the assault has been portrayed as a form of resistance. He wondered why there was so little mourning for dead Jews. "The left in America has really let us down," said Goldman, 31, who lives in the Washington area and considers himself a Democrat and a socialist. His political identity crisis is shared by numerous Jewish activists, scholars and rabbis who have long seen Israel as an oppressor of Palestinians and want a halt to its retaliatory bombardment of the Gaza Strip. The Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas, said Israel has killed more than 4,300 people, including more than 1,400 children. Israel maintains that it targets militants.
"I have long been of the view that the occupation is terrible, that Palestinian lives matter," said Shira Klein, a 41-year-old Israeli American history professor at Chapman University in Orange County who served in Gaza for the Israeli military before it pulled out of the territory in 2005. "You see people at pro-Palestinian rallies say 'resistance is justified if Palestine is occupied,'" she said. "On most days, I agree with that. But when there's a massacre of children and families, I do not." She decried a similar lack of nuanced thinking by those who believe that the Hamas attack justifies unrestrained retribution by Israel.
"It has become so black-and-white," she said. "On the pro-Israeli side, it is all Israeli flags and dehumanization of Palestinians, that 'we stand with Israel forever' kind of mentality."Klein helped organize an open letter signed by more than 900 Jews, nearly all them university scholars, condemning Hamas militants as "terrorists" — but notably not the organization, despite its designation as such by the U.S. government and European Union — and calling for a cease-fire while maintaining that Israel "has every right to defend itself."
The vast majority of the professors have tenure, she said, explaining that those without it feared signing would lead to repercussions from students and administrators. When it comes to the war, those who signed are in largely in sync with the mainstream left represented by the Democratic Party. Even the more leftist members of Congress condemned the attack by Hamas, whose founding charter called for the killing of Jews. But in other quarters of the far left, significant airtime has been given to the view that Israel is a colonizing force and therefore violence against it is justified.
These activists deny that they are antisemitic and say the fact that most Israelis are Jews is immaterial. Some have adopted the Hamas position that all Israelis are legitimate targets by virtue of being on land where Palestinians lived before Israeli statehood in 1948.
"What did y'all think decolonizing meant? vibes? papers? essays?" one freelance writer said in a tweet that garnered 100,000 "likes" and 23,000 retweets before the account was locked. A day after the attack, 35 student groups at Harvard released a statement saying that they "hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence." Some groups disavowed it after a major law firm and a hedge fund vowed to not hire students associated with the groups and conservative activists broadcast their names.
The Democratic Socialists of America posted similar language on Instagram, saying the Hamas attack "was not unprovoked," while also condemning the "killing of all civilians."And the paraglider — used by some Hamas militants to cross from Gaza into Israel — has become a prominent symbol of solidarity with Palestinians. The president of Cal State Long Beach condemned a student group for an Instagram post of a paraglider flying over people holding "Resistance is our right" signs. Such displays have been especially disconcerting for many American Jews given their own deep involvement in the quest for social justice. Jews were key allies of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, and many joined the demonstrations for racial justice in the summer of 2020 after Minneapolis police murdered George Floyd. Jews have also been among the biggest targets for hate crimes in America, most prominently the 2018 massacre of 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. Antisemitic crimes were second only to anti-Black ones in 2022, a pattern frequently seen in Federal Bureau of Investigation data going back 31 years.
But as a minority group that is by and large white, American Jews — who number 7.6 million, or 2.3% of the U.S. population — have also struggled to find their place in the new hierarchy of identity politics, where racial categories have become shorthand for the oppressed and the oppressor.
The most contentious issue is the state of Israel, which was created as a safe haven for Jews after the Holocaust. Its right to exist is sacrosanct for many Jews, who see it as an ancestral homeland where Jewish people have lived for millenniums. As memories of World War II fade and sympathy for the plight of millions of displaced Palestinians has grown as a political cause, support for Israel has waned among younger generations in the United States. When the Pew Research Center asked Jewish American adults whether they had an emotional attachment to Israel, 48% of those younger than 30 said yes in 2020 — down from 60% in 2013. In both years, those figures were significantly higher for people 50 and older. Younger Jews are more likely to consider themselves anti-Zionist — against the creation of Israel or at least the way statehood was granted — a stance that the Anti-Defamation League, a prominent Jewish civil rights organization, considers antisemitic. "Antisemitism is very real, but I feel a lot of solidarity among Jews who are anti-Zionist like me," said Benjamin Toby, 22, a social worker who recently graduated from New York University and calls himself a "socialist, progressive leftist."
The Hamas attack did not change his position. He even posted a screenshot of the viral decolonization tweet to his Instagram account. "The Palestinian people have exhausted all other options except for violence," Toby said. "I do not want to support Hamas because I do not know enough about it, but I do support violence as an answer to settler colonialism against oppressed people." Toby attended a pro-Palestinian rally on Saturday in Bay Ridge, a Brooklyn neighborhood nicknamed "Little Palestine." He described its themes as "ending the occupation, stopping bombing and ending the colonization of Palestine."
"I think there's a lot of fearmongering among Jews right now," he said. "Antisemitism is less of a concern to me and other Jews than Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian sentiment." That view was common among the hundreds of Jews who attended a sit-in Wednesday at a congressional office building near the U.S. Capitol in support of a cease-fire. It was organized by the leftist group Jewish Voice for Peace, which put out a statement after the Hamas attack saying: "Israeli apartheid and occupation — and United States complicity in that oppression — are the source of all this violence."
Jewish demonstrators gather for a rally inside the Cannon House Office Building in Washington on Oct. 18, 2023. (Amanda Andrade-Rhoades / Associated Press)
"The pushback that American Jews might feel for speaking up for Palestinians is a fraction of what Palestinians whose families are being bombed right now feel," said Eliza Klein, a 26-year-old organizer for the group who was arrested at the demonstration. "As Jews, we need to speak up when genocide is carried out, the way we wish people did when this was happening to our ancestors." But for many other Jews who support Palestinian rights, it has been impossible to stomach the idea that Hamas' victims were legitimate targets. Jennie Kogan, a 32-year-old social worker in New York, said she was saddened to learn that people tore down posters that had been put up in New York, Philadelphia, Miami and other cities showing the faces of American Jews who had been taken hostage by Hamas.
"What is the point of that?" she said. She has been a pro-Palestinian activist since 2014, a path that was inspired by her involvement with the Black Lives Matter movement and has included an educational exchange in Israel and the West Bank.
But Kogan has avoided pro-Palestinian rallies since the Hamas attack, instead attending a vigil to mourn lives lost in Israel and in Gaza, a Jewish-led demonstration in support of a cease-fire and an interfaith march calling on legislators to support de-escalation — something she has been praying for.
"Even though I nearly completely agree with a lot of the pro-Palestinian perspectives at rallies, I've felt less comfortable going to them as an American Jew," she said. "I almost feel bad for saying I like being Jewish. In some progressive spaces, there is a level of condemnation for Jewish people who do not immediately say they are anti-Zionist or who have spent time in Israel." She believes that Israelis and Palestinians deserve to exist side-by-side with peace and equal rights and said she would support a "two-state solution if it achieved that." That desire is not uncommon among American Jews of all backgrounds. The 2020 Pew poll found that more than 6 in 10 U.S. Jews said they believed "a way can be found for Israel and an independent Palestinian state to coexist peacefully."It's a position long held by Karen Siegel, a Democrat who lives in Miami, but one she has now started to question.
"This Hamas terrorism was so bad and indiscriminate, killing completely innocent people, and the response in the U.S. among liberals has completely lacked nuance," said Siegel, 33. "Is there ever a chance for peace? I don't see Hamas or American protesters helping."
"Sure, I have questions about the Israeli government, but I have more questions right now about people in my own country," she said. Amid the anger and grief, activists and rabbis on different sides of the debate have urged fellow Jews to maintain a moral compass.
Rabbi Sharon Brous, a progressive leader of the IKAR congregation in Los Angeles who is known for her public criticism of the Israeli government, summed up the views of many. “The clear message from many in the world, especially from our world — those who claim to care the most about justice and human dignity — is that these Israeli victims somehow deserved this terrible fate," she said during a recent sermon that was posted online and went viral. Antisemitism is so "embedded" in society, she said, that "people cannot even see it."
Speaking of the Hamas attack, she said it was impossible to hear of the deaths of more than 1,400 people without thinking of "our multi-generational Holocaust trauma.""Our human ask is that people give a damn when we die," she said.
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Apocalypse Two: The Wars In 2006 And 2023
Amb. Alberto M. Fernandez*/MEMRI/October 23/2023
Palestine | MEMRI Daily Brief No. 534
The Arab street was mesmerized by this steadfastness against Israel, by the new weapons and tactics, by the unexpected losses among the Israelis. The Arab masses cheered the heroes and the martyrs as a wave of enthusiasm and popularity engulfed the "Resistance" fighters. Many authoritarian Arab regimes were frightened by this outpouring of passion in their streets and sought to appease or divert popular feeling. But this was not October 2023 but rather July 2006. As the New York Times reported at the time, "Tide of Arab Opinion Turns to Support for Hezbollah."
Israel and Hamas have clashed many times in and around the Gaza Strip but in many ways, the current Hamas War with Israel, launched on October 7, 2023, by a murderous invasion of the 1948 internationally recognized Israeli border may resemble more the 2006 Hezbollah conflict than previous Gaza conflicts.
Both wars came years after Israel had withdrawn from Arab territories, from Lebanon in 2000 and Gaza in 2005. Both of them began with cross border raids, by Hezbollah and Hamas, aimed at killing Israelis and taking hostages.
Both situations are – so far – eerily similar. An initial terrorist strike provokes an Israeli response which grows in intensity over time, reports of innocents being killed by Israelis soon dominate Arab public opinion which sways from early exultation at striking Israel to anger at Arab casualties. Western support, initially leaning toward Israel, deteriorates over time. In both situations, Qatar's Al-Jazeera plays a key role, cheerleading for Hezbollah then and Hamas now. Having struck first and drawn blood, both Arab terrorist groups call for a ceasefire before Israel's response is complete.
In the 2006 War, Hezbollah fired what was at the time an unprecedented 4,228 rockets, more than 100 a day in the 34-day war, raining down on many Israeli cities, especially in the northern part of the country. Hezbollah was well prepared for an Israeli ground offensive inside Lebanon and used tunnels in its counter-attacks and was well equipped with night-vision goggles, flak jackets, and modern anti-armor weapons. At the time, it was clear that Hezbollah was much more "advanced" and better equipped than Hamas.
In 2006, Israel did not have the Iron Done air defense system which only came into service in 2011. Hamas has also upgraded in the intervening years become, militarily, more like Hezbollah. It has its own extensive tunnel system and has planned for Israeli ground attacks into Gaza. It is far better equipped than it was in the past. In 2006, rockets were laboriously smuggled in from Iran into Gaza. Today, smuggling is supplemented by a local arms industry in Gaza which includes homegrown rocket and drone factories copying Iranian models.
The 2006 Hezbollah War was, at best, a draw which was not a good result for Israel. Hezbollah would be feted by the (mostly Sunni) Arab masses for years until its halo would be tarnished when it intervened decisively on behalf of Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad, mass murderer of Sunni Muslims, in that country's civil war.
Much is similar in the two conflicts but the differences are massive in four important ways.
Firstly, and most important of all for Israel, the damage already inflicted on Israelis, especially in the murdering of civilians, is far worse than in 2006. In that war, 44 civilians were killed (19 of them were Israeli Arabs) by Hamas. As of October 20, 2023 most of the 1,400 Israelis killed, an unprecedented number, have been civilians. Ten times as many Israelis have already been killed in the Hamas War than in the entirety of the Hezbollah War and many of them killed with a savagery never seen before by Israelis outside of an ISIS video. A sense of Israeli invulnerability and longstanding faith in an Israeli intelligence and security establishment has been seemingly shattered.
Secondly, because of the sheer carnage, it would be a disaster for Israel if the 2023 War would end as the 2006 War finished, with the adversary still in power, bloodied but unbowed and enjoying the adulation of the howling mob. While no doubt many Israelis consider that the world changed on October 7 in many grim and bitter ways, Israel is now presented with an existential dilemma it may have wished to avoid under different circumstances. It must prevail and has to be seen to prevail in Gaza if it is to avoid even worse consequences in short order from a gloating regime in Iran.
Thirdly, in contrast to 2006, Iran's network of militias, terror groups, and death squads is far more developed than it was in the past. In 2006, the Houthis did not rule Yemen, Assad wanted a peaceful border with Syria, and Iranian-backed militias in Iraq were far smaller and less well-equipped than today. Now all these groups, all with their own Iranian-supplied missiles and drones, have a much more favorable position in their own countries and are better coordinated. And while Lebanon as a country has collapsed compared to 17 years ago, Hezbollah is better armed and has many more rockets, more precise and modern, than the Katyushas of 2006. The neighborhood today is far deadlier and less forgiving of weakness. This does not mean that the other parts of Iran's network, especially Hezbollah, will definitely intervene in the Hamas War but the temptation to actually use this network to advance Iran's interests and "rescue" Hamas will be very real.
Finally, a major difference in comparison to 2006 is the development of a pro-Hamas Fifth Column in the West. Arab enthusiasm toward anti-Israeli champions is nothing new. Remember the pro-Saddam Hussein frenzy in 1991 when he fired SCUD missiles at Israel. The Arab masses rallying around an anti-Israel strongman or group – Nasser, Arafat, Saddam, Nasrallah, and now Hamas – is nothing new. What is new is the rapid growth and influence of the anti-colonialist left in the West, combining the old radicals with the new – leftist race warriors in academia and culture and the far-left of the social democratic part of the political spectrum marching in sync with Islamist and Global South migrant activism. This Red-Green alliance not only wants an immediate ceasefire but actually blesses Hamas's bloody actions as legitimate. Despite the Jewish State's actual diversity on the ground, Israel is, for the Leftist-Islamist clique, too Western, too white, too much like the United States (the main villain). This is a burgeoning challenge as much for Israel's Western allies as it is for Israel.
History can illuminate but is not a perfect guide for the future. The beginnings of the 2006 Hezbollah War and 2023 Hamas War are striking in their similarity. But for Israel to not just survive but to prevail, the ending has to be very different.
*Alberto M. Fernandez is Vice President of MEMRI.
https://www.memri.org/reports/apocalypse-two-wars-2006-and-2023?fbclid=IwAR09JPVYlphi-IqWyvVoZWcl27Q2LCHuzKPn44ey2bZ0pOFLXzb4uXBMIhE

Eying Gaza mediator role, Turkey cools Hamas ties, Erdogan restrains rhetoric
Fehim Tastekin/Al-Monitor/October 23, 2023
Turkey has been trying to carefully calibrate its stance in the face of the war that Hamas launched against Israel on Oct. 7, maintaining its advocacy of the Palestinian cause while cooling ties with Hamas and seeking to avoid a fresh fallout with Israel.
The crisis hit at a time when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is pursuing normalization with regional powers including Israel. After years of bilateral spats, Erdogan met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York last month and invited him to visit Ankara.
At first glance, one could suggest that the Erdogan government’s close relations with Hamas have now driven it into a corner. Moreover, one could expect growing US pressure on Ankara to sever ties with Hamas after the dust settles.
Nevertheless, for the West, Turkey at present represents a partner who can talk to Hamas, and this serves as a sort of lightning rod for Erdogan’s government. The calls made to Ankara requesting its mediation for the release of foreign hostages held by Hamas have given Erdogan the opportunity to play the role he was hoping for.
Unlike his vitriolic outbursts against Israel in the past, Erdogan has restrained his language this time, careful not to jeopardize the new chapter that he had just opened with Israel. He may have toughened his tone against Israel a bit over the mounting casualties in Gaza, but he has withheld the support that would please Hamas.
'Dissatisfaction with Turkey'
Acknowledging the disappointment on the Palestinian side, a Palestinian source in Ankara told Al-Monitor, “The Palestinian groups, including Hamas, have been dissatisfied with Turkey’s stance. Its statements are viewed as inadequate. They did not even summon the Israeli ambassador to the Foreign Ministry.”
Hamas' political head Ismail Haniyeh, who lives in voluntary exile in Qatar and Turkey, was in Istanbul when Hamas breached the Israeli walls. Haniyeh was politely sent away after footage circulated on social media showing him and other Hamas members prostrating themselves in a “prayer of gratitude” while watching news of the incursion on television, two different sources told Al-Monitor. Ankara was annoyed also by remarks that Saleh al-Arouri, Haniyeh’s deputy, made to Al Jazeera that day. Arouri bragged that Hamas had captured enough Israeli soldiers to force Israel to free all Palestinian prisoners in its jails and would continue to fight. According to the two sources, Ankara politely asked Haniyeh and his entourage to leave Turkey, unwilling to appear to be protecting Hamas after the group’s killing of Israeli civilians.
On Monday, a Turkish official denied claims that the government had ordered Haniyeh and the other senior officials to leave Turkey.
In an interview with Turkey’s Haberturk TV last week, Khaled Meshaal, another senior Hamas figure, implied that the group expected stronger support from Ankara. “I have great respect for Turkey. Turkey should say ‘stop’ to … Israel,” he said.
Still, Ankara may not be seeing the current cooling of ties as irreversible, and Hamas leaders may not make an issue of it in the hope that Turkey’s door remains open to them.
However, Ankara is unlikely to toughen its stance on Hamas as much as its Western partners would like. Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan seemed to preclude a drastic shift in Ankara’s position when he underlined Tuesday that the perspectives of the West and Turkey differ. "Since the Westerners define Hamas as a terrorist organization, they appraise all its activities in the framework of terrorism. We, for our part, say that no party should target civilians,” he said.
At the behest of Erdogan, Turkish intelligence and Foreign Ministry officials have held contacts with Hamas but have allegedly failed to get a positive response to mediation offers. Some seem to take this as a sign that Ankara lacks influence, but in the initial stage of the conflict, Hamas has not been open to proposals from Qatar and Egypt either.
According to the Palestinian source, the pressure on Ankara to cut ties with Hamas is coming mostly from the United States rather than Israel.
As for the mediation efforts, the source said that Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other resistance groups in Gaza are unwilling to discuss any mediation at present. All proposals have called for the release of the hostages in return for halting Israeli air raids, the resumption of water and power supplies to Gaza, and the opening of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt — but the groups in Gaza insist that the bombings should stop before any discussions can take place, the source explained. “If the parties become ready for a cease-fire, Egypt would not leave the mediation to anyone. Qatar and Turkey could play side roles,” he added.
A source close to the Turkish government said the contacts with Hamas had shifted mostly to Qatar, with Egypt retaining its traditional role, while Turkey was more active in contacts with Iran and Lebanon in a bid to prevent the risk of Hezbollah opening a new front in the conflict. The source acknowledged a cooling in Ankara’s ties with Hamas, even though contacts continued. Turkey’s president and foreign minister have spoken with their Iranian counterparts over the phone, and Fidan held talks in Lebanon on Tuesday.
Erdogan discussed Gaza in a phone call with the leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, on Saturday, Reuters reported. Erdogan told Haniyeh about Ankara's efforts for a ceasefire, for humanitarian aid to reach Gaza and possible treatment of the wounded in Turkey.
Restrain and caution
As in previous Palestinian-Israeli conflicts, Egypt, which ruled Gaza for nearly two decades after the creation of Israel in 1948 and continues to control the Rafah crossing, is seen as the actor that is the likeliest to set up a negotiating table, while Turkey’s role remains limited. Egypt has kept its distance from Hamas, being an enemy of the Muslim Brotherhood, and wields more influence over Palestinian groups in general as it is seen as a more reliable mediator by Israel.
Regardless of what Ankara’s mediation efforts achieve, they increase Erdogan’s regional activism. Whenever Turkey has raised its diplomatic profile, as in the war against Ukraine and the grain corridor crisis, Erdogan has skillfully used that to project an image as a sought-after leader in the international arena.
Fidan’s efforts, including phone calls with numerous counterparts and visits to Cairo and Beirut, seem to focus on the release of the hostages, the prevention of a deeper humanitarian crisis and the regionalization of the conflict, and the revival of the two-state solution process. Speaking to journalists earlier this week, he said Ankara was proposing a system of guarantors in an eventual Israeli-Palestinian settlement, with Turkey among the guarantors of the Palestinian side.
The restraint and caution marking the Erdogan government’s new stance could be attributed to several factors. First, the usage value of the Palestinian cause in domestic politics has been decreasing. With the conflicts in Syria and Iraq, popular sentiment against Islamist groups has grown, eroding tolerance for the use of violence by Palestinian groups.
Second, the energy equilibrium in the Eastern Mediterranean dictates good relations with Israel. Turkey’s interventionist posture in Arab countries was a major factor behind the deterioration of its ties with Gulf heavyweights. Erdogan’s reconciliation drive in the past couple of years has been underlain by big economic interests, and he now feels the need to step on the brakes on the Palestinian issue.
Third, the strategic decision to mend fences also with the United States and the European Union requires Turkey to readjust its posture in the Middle East.
Whether it can pull it off this time remains unclear, but Ankara has learned well from the Ukraine war that it makes gains by playing the role of a mediator.

How might Iran respond to an Israeli ground incursion into Gaza?
A correspondent in Tehran/Al-Monitor/October 23, 2023
The Islamic Republic appears uninterested in a direct confrontation with Israel amid the latter's war with Tehran-backed militants in Gaza, but has warned that its proxies remain ready to pull the trigger and "re-map" Israel.
TEHRAN — Since the outbreak of the war between Israel and Gaza militants, Iran — as a major regional player and a key ally of the Hamas movement — has been pursuing an active diplomatic campaign to isolate Israel. At the same time, it has attempted to project disinterest in a spillover of the conflict.
How will the Islamic Republic react, however, if its sworn enemy goes ahead with its promised ground offensive into the besieged Gaza Strip?
Support for the Palestinian cause has been an ideological principle of Iran's Shiite theocracy since its inception, following the 1979 revolution. Shunning international pressure, Iran has over the past four decades nurtured, funded, armed and expanded a network of proxies around the Middle East to "export the revolution" and cement regional influence, a policy viewed by its Western adversaries as "adventurism" and sponsorship of terror.
The Palestinian cause, a pillar of the republic's establishment
"The path to al-Quds [Jerusalem] passes through Karbala" is a telling motto in the Islamic Republic's rhetoric, bolstering Tehran's efforts — from Iraq, Syria and Yemen to Lebanon and the occupied territories — to indirectly fight Israel and target US interests.
In the wake of the ongoing Israeli airstrikes on Gaza triggered by the surprise Hamas onslaught on southern Israeli communities on Oct. 7, Iran has now warned that a regional conflict could be just around the corner.
"No one will be able to stop the forces of resistance if the Zionist regime refuses to halt its attacks," said Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, in a speech on Tuesday. The cleric, who calls the shots in Iran's foreign policy and military affairs, was referring to Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and the Popular Mobilization Units in Iraq, among other Shiite militia groups, hailed by Iran as the "axis of resistance."
With Hezbollah's missile capabilities believed to have been significantly bolstered by Tehran in recent years, the Lebanese militia currently poses the biggest threat to Israel. Following a meeting last week with the group's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian spoke with particular confidence in an interview on state TV. "I was told assertively by the resistance forces that they are prepared for any direct confrontation with the Zionist regime," Amir-Abdollahian said. According to him, should Israel go ahead with its planned Gaza offensive, it would prompt Iran-backed proxies to action and eventually lead to Israel being "re-mapped," ceding territory.
Keeping the enemy at bay through battles beyond Iran's borders has been a crucial doctrine in Tehran's security and foreign policy agenda, promoted and pursued in particular by Qasem Soleimani, head of the Quds Forces, a branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), who was killed in a US airstrike in early 2020.
Locating that policy within the context of the ongoing war, the Iranian foreign minister said, "If we fail to defend Gaza today, we will then have to face bombs being dropped on children's hospitals in our own towns."
A 'three-front battle' and the oil card
Iranian state TV, whose coverage of sensitive military developments falls editorially under the authority of the IRGC, ran a report on Wednesday, outlining in detail how Iranian proxies could swarm Israel from three different directions.
According to that scenario, Hezbollah from the north, Yemen's Houthis from the south and militias based in Iraq and Syria from the east could shower Israel with barrages of Iran-made missiles and rockets. "The trigger could be pulled in the coming days," the report said. Nonetheless, a review of Iranian officials' public statements suggest their own meticulous choice of words. They continue to speak of "independent resistance groups" and avoid any talk of a direct Iranian confrontation with Israel, which at least on paper, appears to be militarily superior.
Despite the typically incendiary anti-Israeli and anti-American rhetoric in times of regional escalations, the Iranian leadership has in most cases overcome any temptation to rush into conflict. The series of assassinations of Iranian nuclear and missile scientists and sabotage attacks on nuclear facilities attributed to Israel over the past decade never once drew Iran into military conflict with it.
Similarly and more notably, the Islamic Republic narrowly dodged a full-blown war with the United States after the killing of Soleimani, an incident that had pundits on the edge of their seats with the potential of regional conflict.
In the event of an expanded war, Iran may also be counting on a degree of support from Russia and China, key allies that have refused to publicly condemn Hamas for killing hundreds of Israeli civilians. The two have been increasingly boosting military cooperation with the Islamic Republic, including joint drills in international waters.
While refusing to directly confront Israel and the United States, Tehran has long threatened to use the oil card in the Persian Gulf, where the IRGC has been flexing its muscles by seizing international vessels and threatening US naval forces.
Amid the Israel-Hamas escalation, Iranian hardliners are once again renewing the threat, suggesting the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the world's most important and strategic route for crude oil transport and vital to international trade.
Iran is looking to push its agenda and gain the upper hand in any regional conflict with Israel by taking advantage of its proximity to the strait. Officials believe that any closure of the critical waterway — sending oil prices skyrocketing and jitters through global markets — could tremendously affect the endgame.

Decisions on the Edge of the Abyss//October 23, 2023
Ghassan Charbel/Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper
Before the Rafah border crossing stood a man called Antonio Guterres, the United Nations Secretary General. He has modest demands: that the crossing be opened for a first batch of aid to be delivered. Food and fuel to ease the suffering of those living in the hell that is Gaza.
Of course, he would have wanted to demand an immediate ceasefire and for politics to take its path and end the war in this long and bitter conflict. However, more than anybody, he knows how weak the international organization is at this time. It is incapable of taking the decisions, whose goals are the very purpose for which it was established.
How can the Security Council end the conflict in Gaza when it stood helpless before the horrors of the Russian war in Ukraine? A Ukraine that the Kremlin believes is not even a country, where Russian soldiers are killed by American weapons that Washington is pumping into Ukraine.
The Security Council failed in acting like the safety valve. The war is effectively taking place between the permanent members of the Council even though the West has avoided sending forces to the battle. There is no need for evidence to prove the weakness of the international community.
Guterres also knows the fragility of the Middle East and its endless wars. The UN was incapable of making the concerned parties respect its resolutions over the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. It was also incapable of preventing the United States from invading Iraq and of finding a solution to the tensions over Iran’s nuclear file.
Guterres is aware that the Middle East is living without a safety valve. It can slide into the abyss at any moment. The region is rife with oppression, spite, hatred, deep wounds and frayed nerves. Moreover, it is rife with alarmed armies and roaming militias and drones. Guterres does not have the power to prevent the region from slipping into the abyss. So, he opted for the other role of the UN, that of facilitating the delivery of food, tents, blankets and bandages.
Just a few years ago, Benjamin Netanyahu surveyed the region and was reassured. Lebanon is fragmented and enduring a crippling economic crisis that would make it difficult for Hezbollah to launch a costly confrontation with Israel. Syria is divided between international and regional armies and militias and appears incapable of joining this war.
The understanding with Vladimir Putin allows Israel to wage a long-term, lowkey war against Iran’s attempts to continue to deploy its rockets against the Jewish state. Iraq continues to treat its wounds as it deals with one internal crisis after another. The divide between the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza continues to deepen. The Palestinian Authority has its hand tied and is being weakened and Hamas appeared to be in rush to become embroiled in a new confrontation.
The October 7 operation took place amid this backdrop. It was not a limited attack that demanded a limited and restrained response. The gravity, scale and bloodiness of the operation was apparent from its beginning with the number of victims and hostages it claimed. It exposed the fragility of the Israeli fortress, the weakness of its security agency and the sluggishness of its army in dealing with the surprise.
It revealed that the country, which is armed to the teeth, needed the US president himself to support Israel with his warships and allow it to catch its breath after the image of its deterrence force was shattered and after several settlers were taken hostage and led to Gaza. This is no ordinary test. The Israeli army views this battle as an existential one and the West agrees.
It was evident that the Gaza shock had dimensions beyond the coastal enclave itself. Israel formed a war cabinet to mercilessly retaliate to the attack. The October 7 operation was unprecedented in the history of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the destructive Israeli response was just as unprecedented.
Amid the open war on Gaza, it appears that the confrontation may spill over into the region. Limited clashes have taken place along the Lebanese-Israeli border. Amercian bases in the region have come under attack. Houthi rockets have been intercepted by American warships. Israel’s repeated strikes against Damascus and Aleppo airports are Israeli warnings to Iran.
It is evident that the region is standing at a crossroads. It cannot tolerate a larger conflict that will have catastrophic human and economic tolls regardless of its outcome. It will be very difficult for the region to coexist with the horrific humanitarian images pouring out of Gaza and for it to stand idly by.
Clearly, Israel is in no mood to ease the tensions or heed calls for a ceasefire. Its political, military and security institutions have been blunt: they want Hamas to pay the price of the shock that it created. They have even threatened to annihilate the group or at least deal it a debilitating blow.
During his tour of the border with Lebanon, Netanyahu made dangerous statements and warnings. He said the Gaza conflict is a “matter of life or death” for Israel. “We will not back down, and we are working on eliminating Hamas,” he added. Moreover, he stated: “If Hezbollah decides to join the war, then it will bring unimaginable destruction to itself and Lebanon.” His remarks reveal that his government is in no way prepared to back down from its decision to wage a land invasion of Gaza with the aim of taking Hamas out of the equation.
The price of Netanyahu carrying out his threats will be costly. It will be costly for Hamas, the civilians and the Israelis. But this Israeli position raises other questions. Will Hezbollah join the war if it sensed that Hamas was really going to be eliminated? Will it take such a decision in spite of the catastrophic situation in Lebanon that will only get worse during a war?
Will rockets be fired from the Syrian front and will the depleted Syrian army be capable of confronting possible Israeli strikes? What about Iran? What will it do if Israel managed to eliminate the Sunni player from the resistance axis? What about the American forces in the region? What will they do if they are attacked or if the war expands? Of course, one has to wonder if Netanyahu would be tempted to attack the Iranian nuclear program itself if the war spills over into the region.
International and regional safety valves are nonexistent. The region is sitting on the edge of the abyss. The decisions that will be taken in the coming days will be difficult and costly. They will determine whether it was too late to prevent the plunge into the abyss.

Bankrupt Iran: Close Their Oil Cash Cow
Lawrence Kadish/Gatestone Institute./October 23, 2023
History is filled with the terrible retribution inflicted on America's foes when those enemies underestimate the United States.
Consider Imperial Japan, which totally underestimated the United States. Hitler thought we could manufacture cars but never have the ability to produce tanks, an air force, a two-ocean navy and the willpower to fight and win. The Soviets told the West: "We will bury you." And Osama Bin Laden's ashes will never be found.
So when US Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) warns Iran that their role in supporting the terrorist murder of some 1,400 Israelis by Hamas has the potential to result in immensely serious "consequences," he is attempting to ensure that Tehran does not make the fatal mistake of underestimating the United States.
Looking on the surface, it might be easy to do so. Japan saw that the U.S. Congress debated and delayed for months before finally instituting a military draft in 1940. Hitler saw the American-based Nazi Bund convene a rally at Madison Square Garden. We currently have a president whose ability and political will have openly been questioned. The House of Representatives is in disarray. We are facing a multi-trillion dollar debt. Surely we must be distracted and incapable of action.
All the more reason that Graham's warning, which included "tak[ing] down an oil refinery" for every hostage killed. "The only way you're gonna keep this war from escalating is to hold Iran accountable," Graham recently stated.
On October 22, Graham said: "We're here today to tell Iran: We're watching you. If this war grows, it's coming to your backyard." And to make a point, he made that statement from Tel Aviv, as part of a delegation of ten U.S. Senators. "There won't be two fronts, there'll be three," he added, allowing the recipient of that message to ponder what and where that third military front would be.
Such a comment would be empty were it not for the fact that two U.S. Navy carrier strike groups are steaming on patrol in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Defense analysts say they are there gathering intelligence and patrolling the region, projecting American military power.
With two U.S. aircraft carrier strike groups operating in unison, there are 12,000 American sailors not far from the current conflict, and they come armed with the latest in weaponry. Somewhere, someone in Tehran has a memory: Iran's regime must be considering the actions of President Ronald Reagan in 1986, and of President Donald Trump in 2020, when his administration eliminated Qasem Soleimani, who was commander of the Qods Force of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, by a drone strike. Many commentators then predicted that the region would "explode." It did not. Quite the contrary. Iran, seeing that the U.S. "meant business" -- not by words but by actions -- backed down immediately.
Reagan, for his part, in 1986 ordered an aerial attack on Libya in retaliation for that country's agents bombing a West Berlin nightclub, killing three people, including a U.S. serviceman, and injuring almost 300 people. Reagan had the evidence dead to rights. Libya had sponsored multiple terrorist attacks, and while Reagan's decision to act did not constitute an act of war, he had the support of a functioning Congress. U.S. military aircraft engaged in a twelve-minute operation over Libya that targeted areas near Tripoli and Benghazi, and focused on military targets as well as Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's residential compound. It sent a clear message that there were lines you do not cross when dealing with the United States.
Over time that line has become blurred and too often ignored. Lindsey Graham has reminded the world, and ourselves: never underestimate an America roused to anger.
*Lawrence Kadish serves on the Board of Governors of Gatestone Institute.

Canceled: How Islam ‘Erased’ Christianity from the Middle East
Raymond Ibrahim/October 23, 2023
While Muslims continue to “purge” all physical vestiges of Christianity’s ancient history and heritage—most recently in Armenia—lesser known is that Christianity’s historical role and presence in Muslim nations is also being expunged from memory.
Consider the following words recently spoken by a young Palestinian Christian:
In view of the economic hardships and political instability, the occupation and rising [Islamic] fundamentalism, where we Christians face extreme difficulties and feel unwelcome, why not pack our bags and return to Europe?
“Return”? Is this Christian man unaware that he is already living in the birthplace of Christianity and that history’s earliest Christians originated from the Middle East, not Europe? How could such well-known facts escape him of all people?
Responding to such ignorance, Joseph Hazboun, Regional Director of CNEWA in Jerusalem, said:
This is due to misinformation in the Palestinian curriculum, which cites that Palestinian history begins with the Arab conquest of Palestine, without any indication of the first seven centuries of Christianity in the Holy Land. The religious instruction in Palestinian Christian schools and in local parishes focuses on faith-building rather than Christian history in Palestine. This has led to a lack of awareness among many Palestinian Christians on the history of Christianity and the first Christian communities of the Holy Land in the 1st century AD.
Nor is such “misinformation” limited to Palestinian curriculum. Christian minorities all throughout the Middle East have long maintained that the history taught in public classrooms suppresses the region’s Christian heritage while magnifying (including by whitewashing) Islam.
During a 2016 conference in Amman, Jordan, hosted by the Jerusalem Center for Political Studies, Dr. Hena al-Kaldani, said that “there is a complete cancelation of Arab Christian history in the pre-Islamic era,” “many historical mistakes,” and “unjustifiable historic leaps in our Jordanian curriculum…. Tenth grade textbooks omit any mention of any Christian or church history in the region.” Wherever Christianity is mentioned, omissions and mischaracterizations proliferate, including the portrayal of Christianity as a Western (that is, “foreign”) source of colonization, said al-Kaldani.
Such revisionism is not only designed to make indigenous Christians feel “foreign” on their own land. It is designed to make Muslims view the Christians in their midst with suspicion and worse. “It sounds absurd,” said Kamal Mougheeth, a retired teacher in Egypt, “but Muslims more or less know nothing about Christians, even though they make up a large part of the population and are in fact the original Egyptians… Egypt was Christian for six or seven centuries [before the Muslim invasion around 640]. The sad thing is that for many years the history books skipped from Cleopatra [30 BC] to the Muslim conquest of Egypt [640 AD]. The Christian era was gone. Disappeared. An enormous black whole.”
A very recent report agrees:
[T]he education program [in Egyptian public schools] is devoid of any lesson, text, or mention of other faiths or religions, with a total omission of Egyptian Christian or Jewish historical figures, or major non-Muslim religious holidays. The same goes for Coptic history, despite the fact that the Coptic Church played a prominent role…
All this confirms what I recall my parents, Christians from Egypt, telling me of their classroom experiences in the (much more “tolerant”) 1940s-50s: there was virtually no mention of Hellenism, Christianity, or the Coptic Church—one thousand years of Egypt’s pre-Islamic history. History essentially began with the indigenous pharaohs before jumping to the seventh century when Muslims from Arabia “opened” Egypt. (Wherever Muslims conquer non-Muslim territories, Islamic hagiography euphemistically refers to the event as an “opening,” fath, never a “conquest.”)
According to Sharara Yousif Zara, an influential politician involved in the Iraqi Ministry of Education: “It’s the same situation in Iraq. There’s almost nothing about us [Christians] in our history books, and what there is, is totally wrong. There’s nothing about us being here before Islam. The only Christians mentioned are from the West. Many Iraqis believe we moved here. From the West. That we are guests in this country.”
Similar ignorance and historical revisionism predominates in the West. Although Christians are in fact the most indigenous inhabitants of what is today called the “Arab world,” I am often asked, by educated people, why Christians “choose” to go and live in the Middle East among Muslims, if the latter treat them badly. At any rate, such revisionism has not only successfully indoctrinated Muslims to suspect and hate Christianity—which is seen as a non-organic parasitic remnant left by Western colonialists—but it has even gotten some indigenous Christians, such as the aforementioned Palestinian who thinks it’s time to “return to Europe,” to believe the same. This phenomenon is also connected to some bitter ironies: the ancestors of those Muslims who today persecute Mideast Christians were themselves persecuted Christians who converted to Islam to end their own suffering. Thus, Muslim descendants of persecuted Christians are persecuting their Christian cousins. One of the main reasons Christians are seen as “foreign traitors” is precisely because Muslims are kept in the dark about their own Christian ancestry.
In the end, of course, the Muslim world’s pseudo-historical approach to Christianity should be familiar. After all, doesn’t the West engage in the same chicanery? In both instances, Christianity is demonized and its history distorted by those two unlikely bedfellows: the “Left” in the West, Islam in the Middle East.

Who Says Hamas Does Not Represent The Palestinians?
Bassam Tawil/ Gatestone Institute/October 23, 2023
The Biden administration's assertion that Hamas is an insignificant group of terrorists that does not enjoy the support of many Palestinians is not only false; it is dangerously so. This assertion contradicts the reality, which proves that Hamas actually does represent a significant portion of the Palestinians.
This inconvenient reality is based on public opinion polls conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) and the results of elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council and university student councils and professional unions. It is also based on mass demonstrations and rallies in support of Hamas before and after the October 7 carnage in which Hamas terrorists murdered more than 1,400 Israelis and wounded more than 4,000.
The most recent PSR poll, published last month, showed that if new presidential elections were held today, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh would win 58% of the vote, while Mahmoud Abbas would only receive 37%. Hamas's "armed struggle" (terrorism) against Israel was supported by 58% of the Palestinian public, the poll showed...
This means that a majority of Palestinians share Hamas's desire to eliminate Israel as expressed in the terror group's 1988 charter. The poll also showed that 71% of the Palestinians support the formation of armed groups to murder Israelis.
In the past few months, Hamas-affiliated students won elections at two major Palestinian universities in the West Bank.
"The [university] elections are considered the bellwether of West Bank politics... With no general Palestinian elections on the horizon, student polls are seen as a 'test for measuring public opinion'..." — Middle East Eye, May 25, 2023.
In 2021, Abbas cancelled elections he had called for the Palestinian Authority presidency and parliament after realizing that his Fatah faction was poised to lose to Hamas, as took place in the 2006 parliamentary election.
If, according to Biden and Blinken, Hamas does not represent the Palestinians, how do they explain the fact that... hundreds of Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip joined the Hamas terrorists who attacked the Israeli communities near the border with the Gaza Strip?
The Biden administration is presenting a false claim according to which most Palestinians are opposed to Hamas and that Abbas's Palestinian Authority, which rewards terrorists who murder Jews with monthly stipends, is a "peace partner" for Israel. This is a complete distortion of reality and does not represent the truth. Recently, Abbas reminded everyone that he is an antisemite and a Holocaust denier.
When will Biden and Blinken grasp that there is no difference between the murderous Hamas leaders and Abbas the antisemite? Surely, Biden and Blinken are aware that Abbas has not condemned the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7. Abbas's silence is a rambunctious approval of the cold-blooded massacre of hundreds upon hundreds of Israelis. Let there be no mistake about it: both Hamas and Abbas represent a majority of Palestinians whose goal is to murder Jews and destroy Israel.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has not condemned the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7. Abbas's silence is a rambunctious approval of the cold-blooded massacre of hundreds upon hundreds of Israelis. Let there be no mistake about it: both Hamas and Abbas represent a majority of Palestinians whose goal is to murder Jews and destroy Israel. Pictured: Abbas (right) and Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal meet on November 24, 2011 in Cairo, Egypt, in one "reconciliation" attempt. (Photo by Mohammed al-Hams/Khaled Mashaal's Office via Getty Images)
In a number of statements since Hamas's October 7 massacre in Israel, US President Joe Biden stated that Hamas does not represent all the Palestinian people. "I think Israel understands that a significant portion of Palestinian people do not share the views of Hamas and Hezbollah," Biden said in an interview with CBS.
Biden's claim was repeated by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who told Jordan's King Abdullah and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people. In a phone call with Abbas, Blinken "expressed continuing US support for the Palestinian people, stressing that Hamas terrorists do not represent Palestinians or their legitimate aspirations for self-determination and equal measures of dignity, freedom, security, and justice," according to a State Department readout.
The Biden administration's assertion that Hamas is an insignificant group of terrorists that does not enjoy the support of many Palestinians is not only false; it is dangerously so. This assertion contradicts the reality, which proves that Hamas actually does represent a significant portion of the Palestinians.
This inconvenient reality is based on public opinion polls conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) and the results of elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council and university student councils and professional unions. It is also based on mass demonstrations and rallies in support of Hamas before and after the October 7 carnage in which Hamas terrorists murdered more than 1,400 Israelis and wounded more than 4,000.
The most recent PSR poll, published last month, showed that if new presidential elections were held today, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh would win 58% of the vote, while Mahmoud Abbas would only receive 37%. Hamas's "armed struggle" (terrorism) against Israel was supported by 58% of the Palestinian public, the poll showed. A little over a quarter (27%) of Palestinians believe that Hamas is the most deserving of representing and leading the Palestinian people today, while 24% believe that Abbas's Fatah faction (which rules the West Bank) is more deserving; 44% believe both are unworthy of representation and leadership.
Another PSR poll, published last June, found that 66% of Palestinians believe that Israel will not celebrate its 100thanniversary and 51% believe that the Palestinian people will be able to "recover Palestine in the future" (i.e., destroy Israel). This means that a majority of Palestinians share Hamas's desire to eliminate Israel as expressed in the terror group's 1988 charter. The poll also showed that 71% of the Palestinians support the formation of armed groups to murder Israelis.
In the past few months, Hamas-affiliated students won elections at two major Palestinian universities in the West Bank. At An-Najah University in Nablus, Hamas's Islamic Bloc won a majority of 40 seats of the student council, while Abbas/Fatah loyalists secured 38 seats. At Birzeit University, near Ramallah, the de facto capital of the Palestinians, the Hamas-affiliated Islamic Wafa Bloc won 25 seats out of the student council's 51 seats. A Hamas student bloc also won the majority of seats at Palestine Polytechnic University in Hebron earlier this year. According to Middle East Eye:
"The Birzeit and An-Najah elections are considered the bellwether of West Bank politics. The results of these elections are read as a reflection of wider Palestinian society, its position on the PA, and voters' orientations in any broader elections that may be held in the future. With no general Palestinian elections on the horizon, student polls are seen as a 'test for measuring public opinion'..."
In 2021, Abbas cancelled elections he had called for the Palestinian Authority presidency and parliament after realizing that his Fatah faction was poised to lose to Hamas, as took place in the 2006 parliamentary election. "The decision to cancel the elections stemmed from substantive concerns by all the Fatah factions over losing to Hamas," said Dr. Ido Zelkovitz, head of the Middle East Studies department at Israel's Jezreel Valley Academic College.
"The divisions within Fatah and the personal rivalries within its factions contrasted with the united front Hamas presented ahead of the scheduled elections. To avoid embarrassment, Abbas chose to delay the elections, pointing an accusing finger at Israel for [allegedly] preventing the voting by refusing to allow the participation of East Jerusalem residents."
In 2006, Hamas scored a major victory when its representatives won the parliamentary election. Of the 132 seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council, Hamas won 76-43 seats went to Fatah.
Unlike Biden and Blinken, Abbas knows that Hamas does indeed represent many Palestinians, and unlike Biden and Blinken, Abbas has seen the pro-Hamas demonstrations in the West Bank, including ones that took place a few miles away from his office in Ramallah, in the aftermath of the October 7 massacre of Israelis, including women, children, and the elderly. Unlike Biden and Blinken, Abbas has also seen the numerous Hamas-affiliated terror groups that emerged in the West Bank over the past two years. These groups, such as Jenin Battalion and Lions' Den, are responsible for murdering and wounding dozens of Israelis since the beginning of this year.
Abbas and his officials fully understand that Hamas is not an alien group that landed from Mars. "Hamas is an integral part of the Palestinian people," he said in 2014. Former PLO official Hanan Ashrawi also acknowledged the significance of Hamas in Palestinian society:
"Hamas is an integral part of the [Palestinian] people and it is one of the people's national and societal components."
If, according to Biden and Blinken, Hamas does not represent the Palestinians, how do they explain the fact that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians participated last year in the group's rally to commemorate the 35th anniversary of its founding? Also, how do they explain the fact that hundreds of Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip joined the Hamas terrorists who attacked the Israeli communities near the border with the Gaza Strip?
By stating that Hamas does not represent the Palestinians, Biden and Blinken are implying that Abbas and the Palestinian Authority are the genuine and legitimate representatives of the Palestinians. It is worth reminding the US President and his Secretary of State that Abbas is now in the 18th year of his four-year term in office. Abbas was elected in 2005, and since then the Palestinians have not held presidential elections. Notably, the last PSR poll showed that 78% of the Palestinians do not have faith in Abbas and want him to resign.
The Biden administration is presenting a false claim according to which most Palestinians are opposed to Hamas and that Abbas's Palestinian Authority, which rewards terrorists who murder Jews with monthly stipends, is a "peace partner" for Israel. This is a complete distortion of reality and does not represent the truth. Recently, Abbas reminded everyone that he is an antisemite and a Holocaust-denier. Speaking on August 24 at a Fatah meeting in Ramallah, Abbas said:
"They say that Hitler killed the Jews because they were Jews and that Europe hated the Jews because they were Jews. Not true. It was clearly explained that [the Europeans] fought [the Jews] because of their social role, and not their religion. The [Europeans] fought against these people because of their social role in society, which had to do with usury, money and so on and so forth."
When will Biden and Blinken grasp that there is no difference between the murderous Hamas leaders and Abbas the antisemite? Surely, Biden and Blinken are aware that Abbas has not condemned the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7. Abbas's silence is a rambunctious approval of the cold-blooded massacre of hundreds upon hundreds of Israelis. Let there be no mistake about it: both Hamas and Abbas represent a majority of Palestinians whose goal is to murder Jews and destroy Israel.
*Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East.
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