Why Israel withdrew troops from Gaza?

Stunning appears to be the only appropriate word for Israel’s withdrawal of troops from Khan Yunis in southern Gaza on Sunday. Some political and defense officials tried to offer apologetics for how it was hinted to, or consistent with Israel’s strategy to date – but it simply was not.

The clock is running out on Hamas’s potential return, invading Rafah, and the fate of the hostages.

For months, Israel’s consistent strategy was that the only way the IDF could convince Hamas to return more hostages would be to pressure it in its hometown of Khan Yunis.

Hamas Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar and military chief Muhammad Deif are both from Khan Yunis; it would be personal for them.

The best Hamas fighters were from Khan Yunis – losing them would be unspeakably demoralizing.

An intricate tunnel network, which puts the northern Gaza tunnels to shame, was in Khan Yunis. Overtaking them after millions of dollars and years were invested in them by Hamas would take the air out of the terrorists’ sails once and for all.

This is especially true after witnessing the fall of Gaza City in northern Gaza, Hamas’s capital.

Over the last two months, the line has been that as long as the IDF kept its forces in Khan Yunis, it acted like a stranglehold on Hamas, and at any moment, the terrorist group would gasp for air badly enough to agree to a deal.

The withdrawal of forces from Khan Yunis on Sunday, then, ends this strategy, and is an admission of failure.

But, this doesn’t mean the hostages will not come home. The IDF did defeat Hamas in both northern and southern Gaza, destroyed much of its tunnel network, and killed many senior officials.

Leaving Khan Yunis now does not negate those tremendous gains, gains that have set Hamas back years in terms of military capabilities.

Now, Israel will either need a new strategy or make bigger concessions to Hamas to get back more hostages, including opening up the north of the enclave.

A new strategy could be the hope that invading Rafah will bring Hamas to its knees. By this logic, once the IDF closes in on Rafah – something Hamas believes Israel is afraid to do – Hamas will finally crack and agree to a more reasonable deal. It could even work.

There is no specific reason why Israel cannot send its forces into Rafah.

If the IDF has no presence in Khan Yunis, large numbers of Palestinian civilians may voluntarily leave Rafah and go back there without needing to be formally evacuated.

This may alleviate America’s concerns about whether Israel can successfully evacuate 1.4 million Palestinian civilians.

The IDF could lure Hamas into a false sense of security and pull off a Shifa Hospital-style clean-up operation, just as soon as the terrorist group concentrates too many of its forces in one place.

The problem with this line of thinking is that even if it is true, there was no hint to it until US President Joe Biden dropped the hammer on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday.

Netanyahu opened Erez Crossing for transferring humanitarian aid, which was never going to open again after Hamas destroyed it on October 07.

He had also opened the port of Ashdod for transferring humanitarian aid, another action he had vowed never to take.

By Friday, the IDF had fired or dismissed several very senior officers under pressure from the US and the international community for killing seven aid workers. And on Sunday, the military suddenly pulled out of southern Gaza.

Even if this truly is a new strategy and even if it might work, there is very little credible way to argue that a significant cause for the radical shift was US pressure and that the shift is an admission that the old strategy of a bunch of months has failed.

There is also an outside shot that it was part of some unofficial Cuban Missile Crisis-style secret informal deal, where if the IDF withdraws from southern Gaza, Hamas will be able to claim enough victory to make concessions to the IDF regarding the hostages and northern Gaza.

The big question now is whether this shift will be sufficient to maintain at least lukewarm US support for invading Rafah or whether America may already have decided to force Israel into a hostage deal, even if it potentially undermines finishing off Hamas.

Washington supported Jerusalem for almost six months and through 33,000 dead Palestinians, but finally hit its breaking point.

While people wait for that question to be answered, Hamas will at minimum be able to restore some of its governance in southern Gaza simply because Israel never decided to allow anyone else in to take over.

 

Why Pelosi remained silent for six months?

Representative Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the House of Representatives and a key ally of Joe Biden, signed a letter on Friday from dozens of congressional Democrats to the president and Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging a halt to weapons transfers to Israel.

The letter by Pelosi and 36 other Democrats came after Israel on April 01 killed seven aid workers of World Central Kitchen (WCK) in Gaza. Most probably if six of the aid workers had not been citizens of the US and its allies, Pelosi and other Democrats would not have objected to the shipment of arms to Israel.

The death of the six WCK staff who bravely defied all risks to deliver food to the starved people in northern Gazans is an unfortunate and unforgettable event.

The question is why no official voice came from Pelosi during six months of Israel’s genocide against the defenseless Palestinian citizens in Gaza.

She raised objections to sending arms to Israel after a dual American-Canadian national, three Brits, an Australian, and a Pole were killed in the Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza, where starvation and famine are more rampant.

"In light of the recent strike against aid workers and the ever-worsening humanitarian crisis, we believe it is unjustifiable to approve these weapons transfers," the letter said.

Pelosi is well aware that since October 07 Israel has killed over 33,000 people, which shows that on average 183 Palestinians have been massacred per day. This is without counting thousands of bodies buried under rubble and those who have lost limbs or got paralyzed for life.

There is a question how Pelosi as a mother has been feeling about Palestinian mothers who are seeing their children go without food and water and being dismembered and massacred by the US-supplied fighter jets.

How many more children and women should have been killed by mostly American-made weapons until Pelosi and 36 fellow Democrats talk about the ever-worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza?

It is highly unlikely that Biden and his inner circle would listen to Pelosi and other co-signers of the letter on weapons transfers to Israel because Biden has been boasting that he is a Zionist and If there were not an Israel, we'd have to invent one. 

The Biden administration is not backing calls for an independent, third-party investigation into the Israeli strike that killed the WCK aid workers.

As House speaker Pelosi stood strong against Donald Trump’s reckless foreign policy and rash behavior when he was president but she reacted too late to the hell that Israel has created in Gaza and only when six aid workers of the US-based WCK were killed in the besieged coastal enclave.

 

Protesters demand Netanyahu’s resignation

Protesters once again took to the streets of Tel Aviv, Caesarea and Haifa on Saturday, demanding resignation of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and early elections. The situation underlines fears that the war in Gaza could spread into a broader regional conflict.

Demonstrators also called for the release of all Israeli hostages held in Gaza ahead of the six-month mark of hostilities.

Many people waved Israeli flags and held up signs with images of hostages, calling on the government to bring them home alive.

In Tel Aviv, protesters were heard chanting: “We are not afraid; you destroyed the country, and we will fix it. We want them (hostages) back alive and not in coffins.”

Other protesters were seen by a CNN team on the ground holding flags and banners, with one reading, “The government that destroyed the country and tore the nation apart.”

Another banner called for the “division of religion and state,” and one stated that “Netanyahu is dangerous to Israel.”

Protesters in Haifa called the government a failure, saying Netanyahu is “guilty, guilty, guilty.”

“Elections now!” read one banner held by a protester.

Meanwhile, a protester was arrested for punching and injuring a police officer during an anti-government rally in Tel Aviv on Saturday, Israeli police said in a statement.

The Israel Police also warned protesters not to light bonfires as demonstrators march through the streets, saying it can be “life-threatening” around the crowd.

“We will act with zero tolerance towards those who disrupt the order and behave violently towards police officers,” authorities said in a statement.

With the war in Gaza raging for six months the patience of Israel’s allies is running out. As the death toll in the enclave continues to climb, it’s becoming increasingly clear that Israel has no viable plan for how to end the war or what comes next.

The determination to continue pursuing Hamas in Gaza despite the horrific humanitarian consequences is leaving Israel increasingly isolated on the global stage, with its government facing pressure from all sides.

Multiple international organizations have warned Israel may be committing genocide, and even the country’s closest allies are now openly criticizing Netanyahu. Calls to halt arms shipments to Israel are growing in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Netanyahu and his government are under mounting pressure at home, with protesters back on the streets in large numbers calling for his resignation.

Israel launched the war immediately after the deadly October 07, 2023 attacks by Hamas. At that time, the Israeli government said the operation had two goals: eliminating Hamas and bringing back the hostages taken by the militants to Gaza. Six months into the conflict, neither goal has been reached.

Also, speaking from a funeral procession Saturday for a slain military officer, Iran’s highest-ranking commander vowed that an Israeli strike on its embassy complex in Damascus will not go unanswered. The remarks come as the US braces for a significant Iranian attack on US or Israeli assets in the Middle East, according to a senior administration official.

Al Quds Day observed worldwide

Millions of people across the world held huge rallies to mark ‘Al Quds Day’ to express solidarity with Palestinian people and condemn Israeli crimes. This year Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip has attached specific significance. 

The event observed on the last Friday of Ramadan is commemorated by Palestinian supporters every year.  

In Pakistan, political parties including Jamaat-e-Islami and Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen staged rallies across the country in support of the Palestinians and against the Israeli killing in Gaza. 

The protests were held in different cities including Karachi, Quetta, Muzaffarabad, Kashmore, Bhalwal, Parachinar, Chichawatni, Rajanpur and Jacobabad.

On the occasion, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called on the international community to exert pressure on Israel to halt its oppression of the Palestinian people in Gaza.

He underscored Pakistan's unwavering support for Palestine, advocating for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

The premier pointed to decades-long Israeli occupation of Palestine and denounced the international community’s silence in the face of human rights violations by the regime. 

On the outskirts of Srinagar in Indian controlled Kashmir, Muslims slammed the Israeli massacres in Gaza. They called for ending the Israeli violence and genocide in the Palestinian territory. 

A massive rally also took place in Mumbai, India. The protesters expressed support for the Palestinians and their cause. They also slammed the Israeli genocide in Gaza which has left 33,000 people dead since October 07, 2023.

Indonesia was also the scene of protests against Israel on Al Quds Day. The protesters denounced the regime’s war of genocide on Gaza. They blamed the US for standing by the regime.

The demonstrators displayed a poster depicting President Joe Biden as a clown during a rally outside the US embassy in Jakarta.

Malaysians also rallied to express solidarity with Palestinian people and the cause of Palestine.  

In Thailand, people took part in a rally in support of Palestinians in front of the Israeli embassy in Bangkok. 

Bahrainis demand closure of Israeli embassy. Theycame on the streets to voice support for Palestinians, particularly the residents of the Gaza Strip. They condemned the Israeli brutality against the Gazans. 

The protesters called for the closure of the Israeli embassy in Manama and the expulsion of the regime’s diplomats from the Arab country. 

Bahrain and the Israeli regime established diplomatic relations in 2020 as part of the United States-brokered Abraham Accords.

Millions of Yemenis also marked Al Quds Day. Protesters in the capital Sana'a condemned Israel’s brutal war on Gaza. 

In a statement, the protesters said the Palestinian nation has been subjected to the US-Israeli genocide for six months. 

The statement called on all Arab and Islamic countries to fulfill their responsibilities in the face of the savagery of the US and the Israeli regime.

Other countries in the Arab world including Iraq and Jordan saw huge protests on Al Quds Day. 

Protesters in Tanzania's coastal city of Dar es Salaam also rallied as they were holding the Palestinian flag. The protesters chanted anti-Israeli slogans and condemned the regime’s vicious crimes against Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.

Al Quds Day rallies in Nigeria turned deadly as police clashed with protesters. Reports suggest security forces killed several people in the city of Kaduna who were protesting against the Israeli crimes. 

Police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse the pro-Palestine demonstrators.

Europe also saw rallies marking International Quds Day. In Britain, demonstrators gathered outside the Home Office in Marsham Street before heading into Horseferry Road, along Millbank, past the front of the Houses of Parliament and finishing in Whitehall where speeches were delivered. Prior to the rallies, more than 500 officers were deployed in central London.

In Poland, protesters held banners as they gathered to spend night near the US Consulate in Krakow to protest against Israeli attacks in Gaza.

 

If Iran attacks US interest in Middle East?

Israeli airstrike on an Iranian Embassy compound in Syrian capital has spurred fears of a renewed aim at the US interests in the region, despite the US officials claiming no advanced knowledge of the attack. 

Former U.S. officials and experts say the strike, which Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said killed two senior members and five officers Monday in Damascus, could mean renewed attacks on the US troops and bases in Iraq and Syria by Tehran-backed proxies.

Though the US has denied any involvement in the Damascus strike — which happened during the day on a diplomatic building near Iran’s Embassy — being Israel’s biggest ally has put Washington in the crosshairs of any retaliation from Iran.

Experts agree that any Iranian response has to be carefully calibrated to avoid a costly all-out war involving the US or its key regional ally.

By not responding, Iran will look weak, both its own forces and to its allies. It seems Iran is also very cautious about getting into any encounter with the United States or with Israel. 

The Pentagon indicated that officials were concerned Israel’s strike against Iran may increase the risk to US troops in the region.

Israel has not taken responsibility for the airstrike, the US assessed that Israel was responsible.

Israel also appeared to be preparing for blowback from the strike Thursday, when its military announced it was suspending leave for reservists.  

Israel cancels troops leave over Iran threat

Israeli authorities seem to believe an Iranian response is imminent and could come as soon as Friday, which is Quds Day — or Jerusalem Day — the last Friday in the Muslim Holy month of Ramadan. It is a day which has frequently been used to stage pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel rallies, particularly in Iran.

On Thursday, GPS systems were being disrupted in central parts of Israel, a defensive measure designed to interfere with weapons which rely on it to set their location.

GPS is already disrupted in northern Israel, near the border with Lebanon, where Israel and the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah have exchanged fire almost daily for the last six months.

Israeli citizens reported being unable to use location-based app services in major cities like Tel Aviv and Jerusalem far from active combat zones.

Monitoring website GPSJAM showed widespread interference with location signals across Israel.

A BBC producer said her GPS had located her in Cairo when she was in Jerusalem, and other users have shared similar accounts on social media.

IDF spokesman Rear Adm Daniel Hagari confirmed the country is using GPS blocking — which is sometimes referred to as "spoofing".

Israelis have been urged to manually set their location on the app which issues alerts about incoming rocket attacks to ensure it remains accurate amid the GPS interference, the Times of Israel reported.

Iran has vowed to respond after a strike on its consulate building in Syria on Monday — which Israel was widely believed to be behind — killing 13 people, including a senior general.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced it is halting all leave for soldiers serving with combat units.

It comes a day after reservists were called up to bolster air defence units.

Separately, the IDF has urged people not to panic-buy. Writing on X, formerly Twitter, Rear Adm Hagari said, "There is no need to buy generators, store food and withdraw money from ATMs.

"As we have done until today, we will immediately update any change if it is in an official and orderly manner."

Israel has not commented on the targeting of a building on Iran's diplomatic compound in Damascus, the capital of Syria, but has been blamed by the country's leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi previously said the strike would "not go unanswered", though it is unclear what actions Iran could take in response.

Among the 13 people killed in the strike were seven officers in Iran's Revolutionary Guards, including senior general Mohammad Reza Zahedi and his deputy.

Zahedi is one of the most high-profile Iranian figures believed to have been killed by Israel in the country's long campaign of targeted assassinations.

Israel has previously acknowledged carrying out strikes in Syria on targets it says are linked to Iran or its allied armed groups.

Israel targeted aid workers systematically

Celebrity chef Jose Andres told Reuters in an emotional interview on Wednesday that an Israeli attack that killed seven of his food aid workers in Gaza had targeted them systematically, car by car.

Speaking via video, Andres said the World Central Kitchen (WCK) charity group he founded had clear communication with the Israeli military, which he said knew his aid workers' movements.

"This was not just a bad luck situation where ‘oops’ we dropped the bomb in the wrong place," Andres said.

"This was over a 1.5, 1.8 kilometers, with a very defined humanitarian convoy that had signs in the top, in the roof, a very colorful logo that we are obviously very proud of," he said. It's “very clear who we are and what we do.”

Andres said the IDF was aware of the convoy's whereabouts, opens new tab. He called for investigations of the incident by the US government and by the home country of every aid worker that was killed

"They were targeting us in a deconflicting zone, in an area controlled by IDF. They knowing that it was our teams moving on that road ... with three cars," he said.

The aid workers were killed when their convoy was hit shortly after they oversaw the unloading of 100 tons of food brought to Gaza by sea. Israel's military expressed "severe sorrow" over the incident and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it unintentional.

Andres said there may have been more than three strikes against the aid convoy. He rejected Israeli and US assertions that the strike was not deliberate.

"Initially, I would say categorically no," Andres said when asked if he accepted that explanation.

"Even if we were not in coordination with the (Israel Defense Forces), no democratic country and no military can be targeting civilians and humanitarians," he added.

Asked for comment on Andres' remarks, an Israeli military spokesperson referred to prior comments by chief of staff Herzi Halevi in which he called the incident a grave mistake and said the attack was not carried out with the intention of harming WCK aid workers.

Andres said he was personally supposed to be there with his team but was not able to go back to Gaza at the time.

The US needs to do more to stop the war, he said. Andres spoke to President Joe Biden on Tuesday.

"The US must do more to tell Prime Minister Netanyahu this war needs to end now," he said. He questioned Biden administration moves to supply aid in Gaza while also arming Israel.

"It's very complicated to understand ... America is going to be sending its Navy and its military to do humanitarian work, but at the same time weapons provided by America ... are killing civilians," he said.

The chef also wondered aloud how Netanyahu could wage a war to save Israeli hostages when they may be dying under the rubble of the same weapons Israel used against Palestinians.

 

Biden’s scaled down Iftar dinner

The White House held a scaled-down Iftar dinner to celebrate Ramadan, after some invitees turned the president down over frustrations in the Muslim community over his policy toward Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

US President Joe Biden met with Muslim leaders before having a small dinner with senior Muslim officials in his administration, first lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband.

“President Biden will host a meeting with Muslim community leaders to discuss issues of importance to the community,” the White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters, explaining these leaders would rather have a meeting than a dinner.

The White House “adjusted the format to be responsive,” she said.

One of the attendees, Dr Thaer Ahmad, an emergency room doctor who spent at least three weeks in Gaza, told CNN that he walked out of Tuesday’s meeting before it ended.

“Out of respect for my community, out of respect for all of the people who have suffered and who have been killed in the process, I needed to walk out of the meeting,” Ahmad said.

Ahmad, who said he was the only Palestinian-American in the meeting, said “there wasn’t a lot of response” from Biden.

“He actually said he understood, and I walked away,” Ahmad told CNN.

The event is a sharp contrast to last May when Biden hosted a reception for Eid. Dozens of attendees cheered Biden at the White House as he told the crowd: “It’s your house.”

Muslim members of Congress who attended that event included Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, who is Palestinian American.

They are now among the biggest critics of Biden’s Gaza policy.

Emgage Action, a Muslim American advocacy group, said it declined an invitation to Tuesday’s dinner, citing Biden’s “continued unconditional military aid to Israel,” which they say has led to a “humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions.”

Many Muslims, Arabs and anti-war activists have been angry with the administration’s support for Israel and its military offensive in Gaza that has killed tens of thousands and caused a starvation crisis in the narrow coastal enclave of about 2.3 million people.

Israel is the leading recipient of US foreign aid, and the US vetoed multiple votes at the United Nations calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza assault that began after the Hamas attacked Israel on October 7.

Muslim and anti-war groups held a protest Iftar in Lafayette Park near the White House. They distributed dates and water bottles to break the fast at sunset.

 

Iran blames United States and Israel for attack on its embassy in Syria

Iran is engaged in the first part of its response to an airstrike on Monday in Damascus, which it blames on Israel. It also blames the United States.

This shows how Iran is seeking to link the incident that killed several key Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members to a wider regional struggle in which Iran is engaged in trying to reduce US influence in the region.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian has highlighted the attack on the consulate compound in Damascus and also sought to spotlight what Iran claims is the “American administration’s responsibility.”

Iran buried members of the IRGC killed in Damascus, which included Quds Force commander for operations in Syria and Lebanon Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, his deputy, and five of their accompanying officers, according to Iran’s pro-government Fars News.

Meanwhile, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi phoned Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and lashed out at the West for continuing to provide financial and military support to Israel amid the Gaza war, and stressed the Zionist regime does not adhere to any of the humanitarian and international principles.

“There is no doubt that Zionists and their supporters are responsible,” Raisi said.

“The Syrian president stressed that the Zionist regime seeks to escape from the quagmire it is caught in by the Palestinian resistance in the besieged enclave and emphasized the need to support the axis of resistance,” the report noted.

At the same time, in a statement to the UN, the Iranian envoy said, “Yesterday, we urgently notified the Security Council members of yet another flagrant violation of international law committed by the Israeli regime within Syria territory.

As reflected in our letter, on April 01, 2024 our diplomatic premises in Damascus came under terrorist attacks carried out by the Israeli regime.

Seven missile airstrikes from the occupied Golan Heights, specifically and intentionally targeted the diplomatic premises of Iran including the consular section building and the ambassador’s residence.”

The Iranian envoy said, “The final and accurate death toll remains uncertain as the entire diplomatic premises has been destroyed, with individuals trapped under the rubble.”

Iran wants the United Nations Security Council to do more in the wake of the airstrike. Iran has also sought to get Russia’s support and to mobilize condemnation in the Gulf countries which have reconciled or normalized with the Syrian regime in the last two years.

This means that they have a vested interest in condemning an attack on a diplomatic post in Damascus. The fact is the building next to the Iranian consulate was not a purely diplomatic site, as it was used by the IRGC.

However, from the standpoint of the Gulf states, it is worthwhile to appear to condemn the strike. Iran and Saudi Arabia also reconciled last year, meaning Riyadh has an interest in appearing to condemn the attack.

Iran is trying to mobilize this diplomatic support before lashing out with its promised retaliation.

 In the past, Iran has attacked Erbil in Iraq when it wanted to retaliate. In 2020 it fired ballistic missiles at a base in Iraq in retaliation for the US killing of IRGC Quds Force head Qasem Soleimani.

Iran has already mobilized its militias and proxies in various countries since October 07 to attack Israel and US forces in Iraq and Syria. In addition, the Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah targeted US forces in Jordan in January.

As such, the Iranian claim that is retaliating is a bit of a stretch, because it is Iran that has been attacking throughout the region. However, Iran wants the sympathy of other countries and it wants an official record of this attack in Damascus, so it can claim a right to respond. Iran also wants to leverage this with Russia, China and other states. 

 

Iran accuses Israel of bombing its embassy in Syria

According to Reuters, suspected Israeli warplanes bombed Iran's embassy in Syria on Monday in a strike that Iran said killed seven of its military advisers, including three senior commanders, and that marked a major escalation in Israel's war with its regional adversaries.

Reuters reporters at the site in the Mezzeh district of Damascus saw emergency workers clambering atop rubble of a destroyed building inside the diplomatic compound, adjacent to the main Iranian embassy building. Emergency vehicles were parked outside. An Iranian flag hung from a pole by the debris.

"We strongly condemn this atrocious terrorist attack that targeted the Iranian consulate building in Damascus and killed a number of innocents," said Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad who was seen at the site along with Syria's interior minister.

Iran's ambassador to Syria said the strike hit a consular building in the embassy compound and that his residence was on the top two floors.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement that seven Iranian military advisers died in the strike including Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander in its Quds Force, which is an elite foreign espionage and paramilitary arm.

Israel has long targeted Iran's military installations in Syria and those of its proxies, but Monday's attack was the first time Israel hit the vast embassy compound itself.

Israel has ramped up those strikes in parallel with its campaign against Iran-backed Palestinian group Hamas.

More than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's offensive in Gaza, according to Palestinian health authorities.

Israel' military has escalated airstrikes in Syria against Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Iranian-backed Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, both of which support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Israel typically does not discuss attacks by its forces on Syria. Asked about the strike, an Israeli military spokesperson said, "We do not comment on reports in the foreign media".

The New York Times cited four unnamed Israeli officials as acknowledging Israel had carried out the attack.

Iran's UN mission described the strike as a "flagrant violation of the United Nations Charter, international law, and the foundational principle of the inviolability of diplomatic and consular premises."

Saying the strike was "a significant threat to regional peace and security," the Iranian mission urged the UN Security Council to condemn the attack and said Tehran reserved the right "to take a decisive response."

Hezbollah, the Lebanese group seen as Iran's most powerful armed proxy in the region, vowed to retaliate. "This crime will not pass without the enemy receiving punishment and revenge," the group said in a statement.

Muslim nations including Iraq, Jordan, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates also condemned the attack, as did Russia.

Earlier, Iran's ambassador to Syria Hossein Akbari, who was unharmed, told Iranian state TV that five to seven people, including diplomats, were killed and Tehran's response would be "harsh".

Iranian state media said Tehran believed Zahedi was the target of the attack. His deputy and another senior commander were also killed along with four others.

Iran's Arabic Language Al Alam Television said that Zahedi was a military adviser in Syria who served as the head of the Quds Force in Lebanon and Syria until 2016.

Qatar: Al Udeid US Air Base

According to a CNN report the United States has quietly reached an agreement that extends its military presence at a sprawling base in Qatar for another 10 years.

The deal, which has not been announced publicly, highlights Washington’s reliance on the tiny Gulf country that has recently played a central role in mediating the release of Americans from captivity in Gaza and Venezuela.

The Al Udeid Air Base, located in the desert southwest of Doha, is the biggest US military installation in the Middle East and can house more than 10,000 American troops.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin personally visited Al Udeid and thanked Qatar for their increased spending on the base.

Austin made no mention of the renewal and the Biden administration has not publicized it – at a time when Qatar has come under growing scrutiny for hosting senior Hamas leaders.

Qatari officials have countered that it was only after a US request during the Obama administration that Hamas was allowed to open a political office in Doha.

The base has been a pivotal hub for the US Central Command’s air operations in or around Afghanistan, Iran and across the Middle East. The Qatari and British Air Forces also operate from the base.

The extension comes as the US has bolstered its presence in the region amid escalating threats from Iran-backed militant groups in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

After Hamas kidnapped some 240 hostages from Israel on October 07, 2023 Qatar has been the primary go-between with Hamas to broker the initial release of scores of the Israeli and international hostages. It continues to be central in the talks to try to revive hostage negotiations, coordinating with the CIA and Israel’s Mossad, as well as Egypt.

Their part in the months of negotiations over Americans detained by Venezuela was less public but came to light after President Nicolas Maduro released 10 Americans last month in exchange for a close ally accused by the US of laundering hundreds of millions of dollars.

Qatar’s involvement in both sets of negotiations has been seen as an extension of the mediating role the country has taken on with other US enemies, including Iran and the Taliban. 

Its vast oil and natural gas wealth, coupled with ability to act as a facilitator, allow Qatar to punch above its weight.

While their hosting of Hamas leadership was no secret, the brutality of the October 7 massacre in Israel has ignited criticism of Qatar and calls for them to expel Hamas.

President Joe Biden has spoken about his conversations with Qatar’s emir but at times hasn’t given them the credit they feel they deserve.

Biden did not mention Qatar in a November op-ed in The Washington Post, while Egypt and other Middle East allies were referenced. Nor did Biden highlight Qatar’s part in the release of the detainees in Venezuela in his official statement.

Thousands of Afghans were flown from Kabul to Al Udeid during the chaotic American withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. US military personnel struggled to provide for the massive influx of refugees from what Biden called “one of the largest, most difficult airlifts in history.”

Qatar has committed billions of its own funds upgrade the facilities for US Airmen at the base. Al Udeid became CENTCOM’s main air base in 2003, shifting forces and assets from the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, where the presence of a large number of American military personnel was more sensitive and controversial.

“We’ll do this through Qatar’s commitment to contribute significant resources to increase capabilities here at Al Udeid Air Base, and that will support both of our forces for years to come,” Austin added.

 

 

Enough is Enough, Muslims must stop trading with United State and its allies, immediately

Since October 2023 Israel has killed nearly 35,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children. It has been using munitions mainly supplied by the United States of America and its allies.

The US has also vetoed resolutions seeking ceasefire in Gaza.

Lately, the super power has approved sending more munitions to facilitate genocide by Israel in Gaza.

During these days Muslim countries have done nothing except requesting United States and its allies to request Israel to stop killing.

Enough is enough; the time has come for the joint army of Muslim countries to attack Israel.

If they are afraid of taking military action against Israel, they should suspend trade with the United States and its allies immediately, at the least.

On top priority Muslim countries should stop selling oil to United States and all those countries which are supplying munitions to Israel to kill Gazans  

Who Supply Israel Murder Weapons?

Over 9,000 Palestinian women have been killed since the start of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip. Mothers have been the largest share of Israeli killings, at an average of 37 mothers per day since October 07, 2023.

The numbers above, from the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza and the Red Crescent Society respectively, only convey part of the suffering experienced by 2.3 million Palestinians in the Strip.

There is not a single section in Palestinian society that has not paid a heavy price for the war, although women and children are the ones who have suffered most, constituting over 70% of all victims of the ongoing Israeli genocide.

These women and their children are killed at the hands of Israeli soldiers, but they are murdered with US-western supplied weapons.

We are told that the world is finally turning against Israel, and that the west’s nod of approval to Tel Aviv to carry on with its daily massacres may soon turn into a collective snub.

This claim was expressed best in the March 23 cover of the Economist magazine. It showed a tattered Israeli flag, attached to a stick, and planted in an arid, dusty land. It was accompanied by the headline “Israel Alone”.

The image, undoubtedly expressive, was meant to serve as a sign of the times.

Its profundity becomes even more obvious if compared to another cover, from the same publication soon after the Israeli military conquered massive Arab territories in the war of June 1967. “They did it,” the headline, back then, read. In the background, an Israeli military tank was pictured, illustrating the west-funded Israeli triumph.

Between the two headlines much, in the world and in the Middle East, has changed. But to claim that Israel now stands alone is not entirely accurate, at least not yet.

Though many of Israel’s traditional allies in the west openly disown its behavior in Gaza, weapons from various western and non-western countries continue to flow, feeding the war machine as it, in turn, continues to harvest more Palestinian lives.

Does Israel truly stand alone when its airports and seaports are busier than ever receiving massive shipments of weapons coming from all directions?

Almost every time a western country announces that it has suspended arms exports to Israel, a news headline appears shortly afterwards, indicating the opposite. Indeed, this has happened repeatedly.

Last year, Rome had declared that it was blocking all arms sales to Israel, giving false hope that some western countries are finally experiencing some kind of moral awakening.

Alas, on March 14, Reuters quoted the Italian Defense Minister, Guido Crosetto as saying that shipments of weapons to Israel are continuing, based on the flimsy logic that previously signed deals would have to be ‘honored’.

Another country that is also ‘honoring’ its previous commitments is Canada, which announced on May 19, following a parliamentary motion that it had suspended arms exports.

The celebration among those advocating an end to the genocide in Gaza were just getting started when, a day later, Ottawa practically reversed the decision by announcing that it, too, will honor previous commitments.

This illustrates that some western countries, which continue to impart their unsolicited wisdom about human rights, women’s rights and democracy on the rest of the world, have no genuine respect for any of these values.

Canada and Italy are not the largest military supporters of Israel. The US and Germany are. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, in the decade between 2013 and 2022, Israel has received 68% of its weapons from the US and 28% from Germany.

The Germans remain unperturbed, even though 5% of the total population of Gaza has been killed, wounded or are missing due to the Israeli war.

Yet, the American support for Israel is far greater, although the Biden Administration is still sending messages to its constituency – majority of whom want the war to stop – that the president is doing his best to pressure Israel to end the war.

Though only two approved military sales to Israel have been announced publicly since October 07, the two shipments represent only 2% from the total US arms sent to Israel.

The news was revealed by the Washington Post on March 06. It was published at a time when US media was reporting on a widening rift between US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“That’s an extraordinary number of sales over the course of a pretty short amount of time,” a former senior Biden Administration official told the Post. Jeremy Konyndyk reached the obvious conclusion that the “Israeli campaign would not be sustainable without this level of US support”.

For decades, the US military support to Israel has been the highest anywhere in the world. Starting 2016, this unconditional support exponentially increased during the Obama Administration to reach US$3.8 billion per year.

Immediately after October 07, the weapons shipments to Israel reached unprecedented levels. They included a 2,000-pound bomb known as 5,000 MK-84 munitions. Israel has used this bomb to kill hundreds of innocent Palestinians.

Though Washington frequently alleges to be looking into Israel’s use of its weapons, it turned out, according to the Washington Post, that Biden knew too well that Israel was regularly bombing buildings without solid intelligence that they were legitimate military targets”.

In some ways, Israel ‘stands alone’, but only because its behavior is rejected by most countries and peoples around the world. However, it is hardly alone when its war crimes are being executed with western support and arms.

For the Israeli genocide in Gaza to end, those who continue to sustain the ongoing bloodbath must also be held accountable.

 

Israel warns European countries against Palestinian state recognition

According to Reuters, Israel has told four European countries that their plan to work toward recognition of a Palestinian state constituted a prize for terrorism that would reduce the chances of a negotiated resolution to the conflict between the neighbours.

Spain said that in the name of Middle East peace, it had agreed with Ireland, Malta and Slovenia to take first steps toward recognizing statehood declared by the Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and in the Gaza Strip.

Gaza has long been under the rule of the Islamist group Hamas, which rejects peace with Israel and attacked it on October 07, 2023 triggering a devastating war that has stoked violence in the West Bank, where Israel has extensive Jewish settlements.

"Recognition of a Palestinian state following the October massacre sends a message to Hamas and the other Palestinian terrorist organizations that murderous terror attacks on Israelis will be reciprocated with political gestures to the Palestinians," Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on X.

"A resolution of the conflict will only be possible through direct negotiations between the parties. Any engagement in the recognition of a Palestinian state only distances reaching a resolution and increases regional instability."

Israel governing coalition includes pro-settlement far-rightists has long ruled out Palestinian statehood. That has put it at loggerheads with Western powers which support its goal of defeating Hamas but want a post-war diplomatic blueprint.

Growing number of countries ready to recognize Palestine

The leaders of Spain, Ireland, Slovenia and Malta have announced they stand ready to recognize the State of Palestine as the only way to achieve peace and security in the war-ridden region.

The four leaders gathered on the margins of a summit in Brussels on Friday to discuss their readiness to recognize Palestine, adding they stand ready to do so when it can make a positive contribution and the circumstances are right.

“We are agreed that the only way to achieve lasting peace and stability in the region is through implementation of a two-state solution, with Israeli and Palestinian States living side-by-side, in peace and security,” a joint statement by the four heads of government reads.

Speaking after the summit, Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob said he believed a lot could be done in the next week to strengthen political backing for a Palestinian state in the United Nations. Golob added he was sure that the moment when conditions for establishing a new government in Palestine will be ripe could be a few weeks, maybe a month away.

Nine of the EU’s 27 member states currently recognize Palestinians’ right to a state according to the so-called 1967 borders, which includes the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.

Malta, along with eastern states such as Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Romania and Slovakia, have recognized the Palestinians’ right to statehood since 1988. In 2014, Sweden became the first member state to unilaterally recognise Palestinians’ right to statehood while a member of the bloc.

The Slovenian premier confirmed a representative also attended the meeting on behalf of the Belgian government, seen as another staunch supporter of Palestinians’ fight for statehood.

Belgium currently holds the 6-month rotating Presidency of the Council of the EU, responsible for overseeing its work and therefore likely restricted from signing such declarations.

Although the European Union supports the two-state solution – which would deliver statehood for Palestinians – and is the single biggest donor of aid to Palestinians, it has not yet unanimously backed the recognition of a Palestinian state.

“The debate on the recognition of Palestine was not on the table,” European Council President Charles Michel explained on Friday.

“But I will share with you what I think about it. I think that if the idea is to start a kind of process so it’s possible to take into account steps that could be made on both sides – by the Palestinian Authority, for instance, and by Israel – then it could be a useful process.”

Since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, both Ireland and Spain have repeatedly expressed readiness to recognize Palestine, and spearheaded efforts to toughen the EU’s stance on Israel in response to the excessive loss of life in Gaza.

In a breakthrough on Thursday, the EU’s 27 leaders unanimously called for a ceasefire in Gaza for the first time since the outbreak of the war between Israel and Hamas.

Last November, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez vowed that his newly formed government would make the recognition of Palestinian statehood its main priority in terms of foreign policy.

Speaking after the Brussels summit on Friday, Sánchez suggested to reporters that Spain preferred to move in lockstep with other EU countries rather than recognizing a Palestinian state unilaterally, an idea it has flirted with in the past.

“We want to take this step united. It’s a decisive step in order to lay the foundations of a lasting peace,” he said, adding that the EU should carefully calibrate the right moment to take the step.

Sánchez also suggested that the fact the four leaders represented all sides of the political spectrum – with Spain and Malta governed by centre-left parties, Slovenia by a Liberal party, and Ireland by a centre-right party – showed there was broad political consensus that the recognition of Palestine is necessary for any future peace process.

In February, Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar also confirmed a group of member states were in talks to formally recognize Palestine to enable a more equal negotiation to happen when the war raging in Gaza comes to an end.

 

Stopping military operations in Gaza

Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a meeting in Jeddah on Wednesday.

During the meeting, they discussed the latest regional and international developments, foremost of which were the developments in the Gaza Strip. The efforts to stop military operations in Gaza, and dealing with its security and humanitarian repercussions were figured high in their talks.

The entire population in Gaza is experiencing high levels of acute food shortage, with around 1.1 million people or half the population living through catastrophic food insecurity.

Famine is now projected and imminent in the North Gaza and Gaza Governorates and is expected to become manifest during the projection period from mid-March 2024 to May 2024.

The famine is projected to occur in Gaza’s northern governorates if conflict escalates, including the impending ground offensive in the southern city of Rafah, and if the hostilities continue to obstruct the flow of humanitarian aid to parts of Gaza where people in need reside.

Some households face massive food shortages, being in the phase four and five categories and the latest data shows that people are resorting to eating animal fodder, scavenging or begging.

“There is an imminent risk of famine in North of Gaza and a risk of famine across the [Gaza] Strip,” Nour Shawaf, the MENA policy adviser at Oxfam, told Al Jazeera.

The Crown Prince and Blinken also reviewed bilateral relations and areas of cooperation between the two countries and issues of mutual concern.

The meeting was attended by Minister of Defense Prince Khalid bin Salman, Saudi Ambassador to the United States Princess Reema bint Bandar, Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Faisal bin Farhan, and Minister of State, Cabinet Member and National Security Advisor Dr. Musaed Al-Aiban, as well as the US Secretary of State’s accompanying delegation.

Netanyahu to defy allies on Rafah invasion

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reaffirmed his determination to launch an offensive in Rafah, defying international criticism. The city is crammed with some 1.5 million Palestinians from other parts of Gaza seeking refuge.

His comments come as the German chancellor, on a Middle East trip, restated his opposition to the plan.

Netanyahu said "no international pressure will stop Israel" from achieving all of its war aims.

"If we stop the war now before achieving all of its goals, the meaning is that Israel had lost the war and we will not allow this," Netanyahu told a meeting of his Cabinet.

He said Israel must be able to continue its war, with the aims of eliminating Hamas, releasing all hostages and ensuring Gaza "no longer pose a threat". "To do this, we will also operate in Rafah."

Netanyahu said the offensive in city at the southern tip of the Gaza Strip "will happen" and will take "several weeks". He also lashed out at his critics; saying to them is your memory so short?

"So quickly you forgot about October 07, the worst massacre committed against Jews since the Holocaust." Those attacks, in which about 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 were taken hostage from Israel, sparked the current war.

The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza says more than 31,400 have been killed.

Israel's plans have been heavily criticized by the international community, with the UN and US also warning that a full-scale assault in Rafah could be disastrous.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the UN's World Health Organization, on Friday appealed to Israel "in the name of humanity" not to launch such an attack on Gaza's southern-most city.

US President Biden has warned Israel against expanding its invasion in the city, calling it a "red line".

Nevertheless, Netanyahu's office approved plans for a military operation in Rafah on Friday, adding that the army was preparing for the evacuation of civilians.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it planned to move displaced Palestinians in Gaza to what it called "humanitarian islands" in the middle of the strip. It is not clear what the "islands" will look like, or how they will operate.

Ceasefire talks were expected to resume in Qatar in the coming days. Israel had planned to send a delegation to join the negotiations, but ministers were yet to agree on its mandate.

Israel approves plan to attack Rafah

Israel on Friday approved a potential assault on the Gaza city of Rafah while also keeping ceasefire hopes alive with plans to send another delegation to Qatar for talks on a possible hostage deal with Islamist militant group Hamas.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said he had ok'd a plan to attack the city on the southern edge of the shattered Palestinian enclave where more than half of its 2.3 million residents are sheltering after five months of war.

Global allies and critics have urged Netanyahu to hold off attacking Rafah, fearing mass civilian casualties. But Israel says it is one of the last strongholds of Hamas whom it has pledged to eliminate and that residents will be evacuated.

In Washington, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said the US had not seen the Rafah plan, but would like to. He told a regular briefing a Hamas ceasefire-for-hostages proposal was within the bounds of what was possible and expressed cautious optimism about it.

Hamas has presented a Gaza ceasefire proposal to mediators and the US, which includes release of Israeli hostages in exchange for freedom for Palestinian prisoners, 100 of whom are serving life sentences.

A statement from Netanyahu's office on the Rafah attack plan said Hamas' demands for the release of hostages remained unrealistic, but an Israeli delegation would still head to Doha once the security cabinet had discussed its position.

The Israeli statement said the Israeli Defence Force was preparing operationally and for the evacuation of the population of Rafah.

It gave no time frame and there was no immediate evidence of extra preparations on the ground.

Negotiators failed this week to reach a ceasefire agreement in time for the Ramadan Muslim holy month. Washington and Arab mediators are still determined to reach a deal to head off an assault on Rafah and let in food to stave off starvation.

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri accused Netanyahu of "manoeuvring ... to conduct more crimes of genocide."

"He isn't interested in reaching an agreement," he told Reuters.

Israel has rejected claims of genocide, saying it is purely focused on destroying all Hamas fighters.

There is increasing friction between Washington and Israel, which officials in President Joe Biden's administration say is waging war with too little care for civilians.

US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish elected US official and a leader of Biden's Democratic Party, called on Thursday for Israelis to replace Netanyahu, whose hardline policies he said were wrecking Israel's international standing.

In the centre of Gaza City late on Friday, an Israeli air strike destroyed a seven-floor residential building, killing or wounding several people, the spokesman of the civil emergency service there said. He said emergency workers were searching the rubble for casualties.

 

 

US announces sanctions against Israeli settlers

The United States has announced sanctions against three more Israeli settlers and, for the first time, two farming outposts, as part of new measures by Washington and London to stop the violent displacement of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

Fares Samamreh may not carry a gun, but he has a global superpower defending him. He's still losing the fight.

A Palestinian sheep farmer on the sun-tinged slopes of the South Hebron Hills in the occupied West Bank, his battle with his neighbor, an Israeli settler called Yinon Levy, has drawn both the US and the UK into the dispute.

"Yinon Levy came here three years ago and started bothering me," Fares said, his head wrapped in a piece of white cotton, his eyes narrowed in a permanent squint against the sun.

"Before the war [in Gaza] it was the usual thing; they would come with drones. But a few days after October 07, it became serious. They all had guns. They started coming to us day and night. I have little kids, some of them are four and five years old."

Fares said Yinon was one of a group of local Israeli settlers who would regularly come to harass his sheep with their dogs and weapons, and even, he says, to assault his family.

"They destroyed water tanks, closed down roads, they fire at the sheep," he said. "He told my wife if we didn't leave here, we'd all be killed."

He said when his wife then swore at him, Yinon Levy hit her with the butt of his gun.

Soon afterward, Fares and his family left their village of Zanuta. Activists say it's one of four communities around the settler's farm that have been abandoned by their residents.

Yinon has denied acting violently toward Palestinians in the area -- and said he didn't own a gun until very recently.

But he's the subject of sanctions from both the US and the UK.

The road to Yinon's farm is straight out of a children's picture-book; a narrow path that winds back and forth up a steep hill, slopes and valleys dropping away to the horizon on either side.

At the top, a spacious bungalow stands next to a large shed, full of bleating sheep smothering the strains of pop music from a radio.

"We're safeguarding these lands to ensure they remain under Jewish ownership," Yinon said. "When there is a Jewish presence, then there is no Arab presence. We keep a watchful eye on the land, ensuring that no unauthorized construction takes place."

Most countries deem the settlements, which are built on land captured by Israel in 1967 in the Middle East War, to be illegal under international law, although Israel disagrees. The settler outposts are also illegal under Israeli law.

The UK said that Yinon and another man had "used physical aggression, threatened families at gunpoint, and destroyed property as part of a targeted and calculated effort to displace Palestinian communities".

Yinon denied the allegations, and said that the Israeli government was on his side.

"I'm not worried," he told the BBC. "This is not against me personally - it's against those who obstruct the creation of a Palestinian state. There's no legal process against me [in Israel]. Here, everything is fine."

Both the UK and the US say there is a threshold of evidence that must be met - but neither have made that evidence public and declined to share it with the BBC.

We sent Yinon a video appearing to show him on Palestinian land, approaching activists with a snarling dog. He said it was misleading, and that he was defending his flock.

We sent him another video apparently showing him entering another Palestinian village with a gun last October. He declined to comment.

The sanctions came after a surge in violence in the West Bank, following the October 07 Hamas attacks and Israel's war in Gaza.

The UN says violence by Israeli settlers included physical attacks and death threats, and that the number of Palestinians displaced from their homes last year doubled to 1,539 - with more than 80% of them leaving after October 07.

The UK has said Israel is failing to act, and has described "an environment of near total impunity for settler extremists in the West Bank".

Yinon said that he had received support from Israeli politicians.

"Many called and encouraged us," he said. "Everyone said that when the bad people are against you, you must be doing something right."

One of the politicians who publicly backed Yinon in the wake of the sanctions was Zvi Sukkot of the ultranationalist Religious Zionism party - a settler himself.

He said that settler violence was a "marginal phenomenon" and that those like Levy were the victims of conspiracies.

"When we have a functioning judicial system in Israel, we don't want our allies to say, 'we'll do the job for you'," he said.

"If there was evidence against Yinon Levy, he would be in Israeli prison. Who is Britain to come and say, 'we are smarter than Israeli intelligence'?"

The Israeli police commander responsible for investigating complaints in the West Bank told Sukkot's parliamentary committee this week that half the complaints filed about settler violence there were false, and that they originated from "radical left-wing organizations in Tel Aviv".

Against this backdrop, sanctions on a handful of individual settlers have not shifted Israeli policies in the West Bank, but they are having a financial impact.

Yinon's Israeli bank account was frozen last month.

Some of those currently under US and UK sanctions have used crowdfunding to finance projects for their area - including one for a synagogue and educational centre at another hilltop outpost called Moshe's Farm.

Its owner, Moshe Sharvit, was sanctioned along with Yinon Levy last month.

On Thursday the US expanded sanctions to cover several new targets, including the farm itself - putting this kind of funding at risk.

These sanctions may be more symbolic than substantial, but they signal American displeasure - both to Israel's leaders, and to the parts of President Biden's Democratic base who have been dismayed by images of the war in Gaza, in an election year.

The chairman of the local Yesha (settlers) Council, Shlomo Ne'eman, called it "a disgusting phenomenon" and said the West Bank was being used as a scapegoat.

"I think more than anything, what drives the response of the UK [and] the US is the fear of one settler attack that goes 'out of control'," said Yehuda Shaul, founder of the Ofek Centre, a think tank which campaigns to end Israel's occupation.

"The West Bank [then] erupts like a volcano. And we have another front, as if Gaza is not enough, and the road to regional war is almost unstoppable then."

Two sheep farmers in the occupied West Bank - one backed by a superpower, the other by the Israeli state. If the lifestyle here is simple, the politics are complicated.

From Yinon's hilltop farm, you can clearly see the ruins of Zanuta perched on the next hill, with the home Fares Samamreh left months ago.

Many of the houses are ravaged - roofs and furniture taken by their owners into exile; walls smashed by settlers to prevent them returning, activists say.

The deserted village is slowly being taken over by vast banks of wild mallow.

On a post near the entrance, a large Star of David has been scrawled in blue paint.

Settlers here point to attacks by Palestinians, and say they are scared. But it's Palestinians who are leaving.

Aid ship reaches Gaza coast

According to Reuters, the first ship carrying food aid reached the coast of the Gaza Strip on Friday, where hopes for a ceasefire to rescue the population from starvation suffered a new blow after Israel rejected the latest truce counter-proposal from Hamas.

The charity World Central Kitchen (WCK) aims to deliver the aid on a temporary jetty, though precise details of how supplies would reach shore have not been made clear.

If the new sea route is successful, it may help to ease the hunger crisis affecting Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of people face malnourishment and hospitals in the worst-stricken northern areas have reported children dying of starvation.

However, aid agencies have repeatedly said that plans to bring in aid by sea and through air drops will not be enough to satisfy the territory's vast needs.

Since October 2023 the Israeli assaults have killed more than 31,000 people and driven nearly the entire 2.3 million population of Gaza from their homes.

The United Nations says all of Gaza's 2.3 million people are suffering from a food crisis and a quarter of them are on the precipice of famine, especially in the north.

Israel, which sealed off all land routes into Gaza apart from two crossings on the territory's southern edge, denies blame for hunger and says aid agencies should do a better job distributing food.

The agencies say they need better access and security, both of which are the responsibility of Israeli forces that have blockaded the strip and stormed its cities.

The distribution of the limited aid that arrives has been chaotic and frequently violent under the watch of Israeli tanks.

In one of the worst reported incidents yet, Gaza health authorities reported at least 21 people had been killed and 150 wounded on Thursday night, blaming Israeli forces for opening fire into a crowd queuing up for food at a road junction near Gaza City.

There are increasing signs of friction between Washington and its close ally Israel over the conduct of the war, which officials in President Joe Biden's administration say is being waged with too little care for Palestinian civilians.

US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the highest ranking Jewish official in the United States and a leader of Biden's Democratic Party, called on Thursday for Israelis to hold an election and replace Netanyahu.

He described Netanyahu as an obstacle to peace who was destroying Israel's international standing. "Israel cannot survive if it becomes a pariah," Schumer said.

Netanyahu's Likud Party said his policies had widespread public support. "Senator Schumer is expected to respect Israel's elected government and not undermine it," it said. "This is always true, and even more so in wartime."