Palestine

Information on Recent Developments

Sana'a, Yemen, March 15

World Condemns Israel's Fourth Criminal Raid on Al-Shifa Hospital
in Northern Gaza

Claiming that hospitals are sheltering resistance fighters, on March 18 at 2:00 am local time, Israel's criminal Defense Forces launched another horrific raid on Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza. According to witnesses, the al-Rimal area of Gaza City, where the hospital is located, had been hit by airstrikes. The Gaza Health Ministry said the raid had caused a fire at the entrance of the complex, resulting in cases of asphyxiation among displaced women and children in the facility. The Ministry said people were trapped inside the surgery and emergency units of one of the buildings, while communication had been cut off. "There are casualties, including deaths and injuries, and it's impossible to rescue anyone due to the intensity of the fire and targeting of anyone approaching the windows."

Al-Shifa Hospital following attack, March 18, 2024

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said "special forces, supported by infantry and tanks, conducted a 'precise operation' based on intelligence that the hospital was again being used by Hamas leaders." They said they were fired upon when they entered the compound and that they killed 20 gunmen.

IDF said spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said of the raid on Al-Shifa: "We apprehended more than 200 terrorist suspects that are now being questioned. We eliminated more than 20 terrorists inside the hospital compound." One Israeli soldier was killed in the fighting, he said. He claimed that "Hamas tried to reestablish its base in the hospital and use it as a shelter for terrorists on the run. We will not allow this and will attack and continue to attack any place Hamas tries to reestablish its grip."

Among those killed in the attack was Faiq al-Mabhouh, head of police operations in Gaza who was coordinating with local clans and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees to transfer aid into northern Gaza in a secure and orderly manner. Specifically, Al-Mabhouh is said to have organized a convoy that brought in 13 truckloads of aid on March 17 to northern Gaza for the first time in four months, where the IDF did not turn back the trucks nor massacre those seeking aid.

As has occurred on all previous occasions, eye witness accounts and the evidence put the lie to Hagari's account of events aimed at covering up the crimes the Zionists wantonly commit.

For instance, Hagari went so far as to claim that during this raid, the Israeli military would be conducting a "humanitarian effort," by providing food and water. He also insisted that there is "no obligation" for patients and medical staff to evacuate the hospital. Al Jazeera's correspondents on site later reported that Israeli troops used loudspeakers to order the hundreds of people sheltering at the hospital to evacuate. Later on, the Israeli military ordered all civilians near Al-Shifa or in the broader Remal neighbourhood of Gaza City to flee south.

Gaza's Ministry of Health stated that those who attempted to flee the raid were fired upon by snipers and a quadcopter (a drone with four rotors). 

A person who has been sheltering at Al-Shifa for over three months, named Abdel-Hady Sayed, told the Associated Press that people were "trapped inside" and that the Israelis would "fire at anything moving ..." News reports indicate that at least 50 people were killed in the raid.

Witnesses said that Al Jazeera Arabic's correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul was severely beaten by Israeli soldiers before he and a colleague were arrested and taken to an unknown location. His vehicle, cameras and equipment were all destroyed. They were released some 12 hours later. They reported that along with others detained they ere stripped of their clothing and further beaten. 

A prolonged siege and raid on Al-Shifa in November 2023 had effectively destroyed its ability to provide care. The largest hospital complex in the Gaza Strip, it was only recently made able to provide some basic services. Gaza's Ministry of Health said some 30,000 people were trapped inside Al-Shifa.

While this was going on, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continued to repeat that the raid on Rafah will take place as soon as the military is ready, while Hagari spoke about evacuating the 1.4 million people taking refuge in Rafah to "humanitarian islands" where they will be given food and water.

A day before the assault on Al-Shifa, Al-Qassam Brigades released a video showing the killing of Yitzhar Hoffman, an Israeli officer in the elite Shaldag Unit, who is believed to have been the commander responsible for besieging and storming of Al-Shifa Hospital in November 2023. They also released a statement, providing context to the video showing the attack on Al-Shifa in November to be one of the bloodiest chapters of the war, as was the Israeli strike on the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City on October 17, 2023 where hundreds were killed.

U.S. Attempts to Destroy Resistance, Stall Ceasefire and Enable Israel to Continue Acting with Impunity

The Palestinian people in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, continue to resist the heinous crimes Israel is committing against them with utmost courage. They are supported without letup by the courageous humanitarian workers, media which works with integrity and the peoples of the world. Meanwhile, even as U.S./Israeli crimes escalate, it becomes increasingly obvious that the U.S. is doing everything within its power to put a new governing authority in place in Occupied Palestine as well as in Israel. It seeks to give the occupation a lease on life by destroying Palestinian measures to create a national unity government which upholds the aims of the Palestinian resistance.

News reports inform that while Israel's slaughter of Palestinians continues unabated, the Israeli occupation army announced that, before its expected ground assault on Rafah, it intends to direct a large portion of the 1.4 million displaced Palestinians living in the southern Gaza town of Rafah towards "humanitarian islands" in the centre of the Strip.

"Israeli army spokesman, Daniel Hagari, said that transferring those in Rafah to the designated areas, which he said would be done in coordination with international actors, was a major part of the army's preparations for the expected invasion of Rafah. Israel says Hamas maintains four battalions in Rafah that it wants to destroy," Middle East Monitor (MEMO) reports.

Hagari added: "We need to make sure that 1.4 million people or at least a significant amount of the 1.4 million will move. Where? To humanitarian islands that we will create with the international community."

To hear the word humanitarian come out of the mouths of the likes of the IDF and Israeli Government has become par for the course. The U.S., Canada and other countries which support Israel propagate the filthy Israeli disinformation that Israel is carrying out its slaughter by making sure it does everything in its ability to make sure civilians are not harmed. In this vein, Hagari stressed that these islands would provide temporary housing, food, water and other necessities for the evacuated Palestinians, MEMO writes.

This is the same Israel speaking that impedes the entry of trucks carrying aid at the Rafah Crossing from Egypt. The MEMO report added: "He did not mention when Rafah would be evacuated nor when the attack on the city would begin, explaining that Israel wants the timing to be appropriate from an operational standpoint and for it to be coordinated with Egypt, which said it does not want an influx of displaced Palestinians crossing its borders."

Hamas Comprehensive Proposal for Ceasefire

On March 14, Hamas issued a statement informing that it presented to mediators Egypt and Qatar a comprehensive vision of a ceasefire deal in Gaza that is based on stopping the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. The plan included providing relief and aid, the return of displaced Gazans to their homes, and the withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces from the Gaza Strip, it added.

The proposal Hamas presented to mediators also encompasses its vision of the prisoner exchange file, stressing that the resistance movement will remain committed to the rights and concerns of the Palestinian people.

The movement did not announce details of the plan, however, Reuters reported the following day that the proposal entailed the release of women, including "female recruits," children, elderly, and ill captives in exchange for the release of 700-1,000 Palestinian prisoners as part of the initial exchange.

According to Reuters, Hamas said it would agree on a date for a permanent ceasefire after the initial exchange of captives and detainees, and that a deadline for an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza would be agreed upon after the first stage. All captives and detainees from both sides would be released in a second stage of the plan.

Israel's Prime Minister dismissed Hamas' proposal saying it was based on "unrealistic demands." He has repeated announcements that Israel will invade Rafah to wipe out Hamas.

Palestine Authority Submits to U.S. Pressure to Appoint New Prime Minister

Also in the news on March 14, Palestine Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas appointed a new prime minister, Mohammed Mustafa. The U.S. praised the move in glowing terms with National Security Council (NSC) spokesperson Adrienne Watson issuing an immediate statement which said, "We welcome the appointment today of Dr. Mohammed Mustafa as Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, and we urge the formation of a reform cabinet as soon as possible. The United States will be looking for this new government to deliver on policies and implementation of credible and far-reaching reforms. A reformed Palestinian Authority is essential to delivering results for the Palestinian people and establishing the conditions for stability in both the West Bank and Gaza."

The NSC is President Biden's principal forum for national security and foreign policy decision-making. The statement once again confirms that the PA is acting on U.S. orders as part of machinations to put facts on the ground in the occupied territories which the U.S. thinks will save Israel's aim of continuing its occupation of Palestinian lands and achieving its dream of a "Greater Israel." This is taking place at a time the Biden administration also connives to remove Benjamin Netanyahu from the office of the Prime Minister in Israel and bring in a more compliant government. Evidence of this is the reception given to the member of Israel's War Cabinet Benny Gantz in both Washington, DC and Ottawa.

In response to the PA appointment of a new PA Prime Minister, four Palestinian resistance organizations -- Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Palestinian National Initiative -- issued a joint statement on March 15 opposing the move. The statement said that forming a new government without national consensus was a "reinforcement of the policy of exclusivity and a deepening of division, at a pivotal historical moment, when our people and their national cause are in dire need of consensus and unity."

"These steps indicate the depth of the crisis within the PA's leadership, its separation from reality, and the large gap between it and our people [...] which is confirmed by the opinions of the vast majority of our people who have expressed their loss of confidence," the statement said. It added that Palestinians needed a "unified national leadership," in preparation of free and fair elections with the participation of "all components of the Palestinian people."

"We also call on all national forces and factions, especially the brothers in the Fatah movement, to take serious and effective action, in order to agree on managing this historical and pivotal stage," the organizations said. They added that that must be taken "[i]n a way that serves our national cause, and fulfills the aspirations of our people to seize their legitimate rights, liberate their land and sanctities, and establish their independent, fully sovereign state with Jerusalem as its capital."

Yemen's Support for Palestinian Resistance

In other news, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, leader of Yemen's Ansarullah popular resistance movement, announced on March 14, that the Yemeni forces would expand their operations to include Israeli or Israeli-linked vessels that pass through the Indian Ocean and through the Cape of Good Hope. The announcement was also made at the one-million person march in Sana'a on March 15 where the spokesman of Yemen's Armed Forces, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, released a statement saying that in addition to targeting Israeli vessels or those associated with the occupying regime in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea since October 7, 2023, it is starting pro-Palestinian operations in the Indian Ocean as well.

The Yemeni forces, he said, "carried out three operations against three Israeli and American ships in the Indian Ocean with a number of appropriate naval missiles and drones, and the three operations successfully achieved their goals."

Yemen has denounced the United Nations Security Council's March 18 condemnation of its maritime operations in support of Palestine in the Red Sea, saying that the international body is dangerously serving U.S. interests and supporting the genocide in Gaza. The Security Council condemned "in the strongest terms" Yemeni strikes against Israeli-linked ships as well as U.S. and British assets in the Red Sea and demanded that all such attacks "cease immediately."

In a statement on March 19, the Yemeni Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said, "The UN Security Council's statement concerning Yemeni operations in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea reflects dangerous subservience to criminal U.S. interests, and at the same time confirms support for the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza."

"It would have been better for the UN Security Council to stop [the U.S.] from supplying weapons to the usurping Zionist entity, because of which thousands of massacres have been committed against people of Gaza," the Yemeni statement said. It reiterated that Yemen's maritime operations in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea are closely connected to unfolding developments in Gaza, conducted for humanitarian reasons, and enjoy solid support of the Yemeni nation and all freedom-loving people worldwide.

"The operations of the Yemeni Armed Forces will continue, and will not stop unless the criminal Zionist aggression against Gaza stops and the siege on the territory is lifted," the statement concluded.

On March 8, Yemen's Ansarullah movement conducted a test flight of a hypersonic missile and is gearing up to integrate these missiles into its military arsenal, a military source affiliated with the movement told Sputnik. "Missile forces of the movement have successfully tested a missile that can reach speeds of up to Mach 8 (10,000 kilometres per hour or 6,200 miles per hour) and is powered by solid fuel. Yemen plans to begin manufacturing it for use in attacks in the Red and Arabian Seas and the Gulf of Aden, as well as against targets in Israel," the source said.

Support for Palestinian Resistance in Many Arab Cities

Evening prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque, Friday, March 15, 2024

Many Arab cities witnessed marches and protests following Friday prayers on March 15, in which thousands of protesters participated in support of the Palestinian people and to denounce the brutal aggression of the Israeli occupation against the Gaza Strip, and to protest against the war of starvation against its inhabitants.

In East Jerusalem, about 90,000 people performed the evening and Tarawih prayers in the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the first Friday of Ramadan in response to the call of Hamas to thwart IDF threats to not permit worshipers to enter the mosque. In Morocco, the Moroccan Authority for Supporting the Nation's Causes announced the organization of 125 demonstrations in 60 cities in solidarity with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and in protest against the Israeli aggression. In Jordan, thousands of Jordanians participated in marches after Friday prayers, organized by the National Forum for Supporting the Resistance, which included demonstrations in six Jordanian governorates and cities, denouncing the war of starvation in the Gaza Strip. 

In Yemen, Yemenis demonstrated on Friday in the capital, Sana'a, in solidarity with the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. The Saba News Agency, affiliated with the Ansarullah group, reported that Sana'a witnessed a million-person demonstration under the slogan "Yemen's Ramadan, a flood that triumphs for Gaza." The protesters raised Yemeni and Palestinian flags and banners denouncing the genocidal war waged by the Israeli occupation army against the besieged Palestinian people. Several Yemeni governorates also witnessed similar demonstrations in support of Gaza and in condemnation of the Israeli crimes.

Deepening Crisis Within Israel

Other news agencies carry reports from various sources which point out that Israel has already lost the war. Israeli newspaper Maariv on March 17 published an analysis by retired Israeli Major General Yizkhak Barik that "Israel cannot lie to its people for a long time and has already lost the war with the Palestinian Resistance movement Hamas." Barik wrote, "We have already lost the war with Hamas, and we are also losing our allies in the world." "What is happening in the Gaza Strip and against Hezbollah in Lebanon will blow up in our faces sooner or later, and then the truth will be revealed in all its hiddenness," Barik wrote, accusing the Israeli leadership of living "in an illusion." Barik warned that Israel is not ready for a regional war, which would be "thousands of times more difficult and serious than the war in the Gaza Strip." He wrote, "Every day our soldiers are killed and seriously injured [in Gaza] by booby traps and explosives when they enter houses without any inspection, and without using appropriate measures."  The Major General concluded, "If a regional war breaks out that destroys the country, there is no doubt that in the history of the people of Israel, they will be remembered forever."

For its part, Al Mayadeen reports as follows on March 17:

"Israeli Security Minister, Yoav Gallant, held an alternate meeting with the heads of Israeli security and military apparatuses after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to convene the war cabinet on the [night of March 16], according to Israeli media outlets.

"Headlining the meeting's agenda was the prisoner exchange file, as participants were informed of intel regarding a possible prisoner exchange deal. Top security and military officials, alongside members of the Israeli negotiating envoy, discussed the proposals presented by the Israeli side during mediated talks with the Palestinian Resistance. Their focus centred on the obstacles hindering the finalization of a deal.

"Netanyahu had refused to convene a meeting of the Israeli war cabinet, which is experiencing continuous turmoil as a result of strategic and in-house disputes. The Israeli Prime Minister has been accused of sidelining members of the war cabinet when it comes to crucial decisions and positions such as the prisoner exchange file.

"This most recent news adds to evidence of such claims, as Netanyahu denied Gallant, as an essential member of the war cabinet and the larger coalition government, from going over the file with other members of the war cabinet and top Israeli officials.

"This comes at a time when Israeli analysts are increasingly pointing to a 'dangerous strategic predicament,' resulting from a long war of attrition it approaches on both the Northern Front with Lebanon and the Southern Front with the Palestinian Resistance in Gaza.

"Amos Harel, a military analyst for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, criticized the Israeli Prime Minister saying that he is the one who should be held responsible for exacerbating 'unique' troubles that Israel is facing.

"The analyst said that Israel's woes are a direct result of Netanyahu's personal ambitions and his attempt to escape 'justice.' He added that Netanyahu does not 'present Israelis with the dangers of the security and political situation, but instead, he shares legends about his successes and achievements along with false hopes of absolute victory.'"

Canadian Parliament's Amended Motion Calling for Ceasefire Is a Scam

Lawyers4palestine posted a justified evaluation of the amended motion adopted by the House of Commons on March 18 calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. They said on Instagram: "Unfortunately, this motion is a scam." This is because it states that Israel has the right to defend itself and in defending itself must respect international humanitarian law when, in fact, international law does not recognize the right of an occupying power to "defend itself." By amending the language of the motion from "military goods" to "arms exports" the Liberals ensured the status quo where Canada continues to approve "non-lethal" military exports to Israel, Lawyers4palestine elaborated.

Prior to the vote on the amended motion, Canada's Foreign Minister Melanie Joly made it clear that no motion in Parliament was going to change her government's foreign policy! The amended motion, as well as being non-binding, gives the government all the leeway it needs to carry on "business as usual' in support of Zionist Israel and the crimes it is committing.

The 14 amendments proposed by the Liberals and accepted by the NDP essentially turned the motion originally presented by the NDP on February 27, into a reiteration of already-stated government policy. It emphasized the constant mantra of the Trudeau government that 1) Israel has a right to defend itself, 2) Hamas is a terrorist organization that must be defeated and lay down its arms, and 3) that Canada will work with its international partners to pursue the goal of peace in the Middle East and for a negotiated two-state solution.

The NDP agreed to amend the motion and the Conservative Party, rightly, pointed out that the amendment fundamentally changed the original motion which, among other things, called for Canada to officially recognize the state of Palestine. The vote was 204 to 118 in favour of the amended motion.

It all showed how irrelevant Parliament is when a vote can be called that violated the rules of parliament in that it was a completely different motion to the one on the table, not an amendment, and  that it had not even been translated into the other official language. It also revealed a speaker who, it seems, is merely an adjunct of the Liberal cabinet. 

The just and principled stand of the worldwide movement in defence of the Palestinian people is that Israel must be stopped and held to account for its crimes, full support for the Palestinians' right to be, to resist the occupation and to return to the lands from which they were expelled by force, and that it is the Palestinian people who will decide how their state will function. The Canadian Parliament has once again declared that it will not take measures to hold Israel to account and considers that it has the right, with its international partners to interfere in the internal affairs of the Palestinian people. Refusal to recognize the state of Palestine is a clear message that Canada and its partners do not recognize Palestinians' right to be as a sovereign nation, without which there is no "solution."

(With files from Palestine Chronicle, Palestine Information Centre, MEMO, Middle East Eye, Sputnik, Al-Mayadeen, White House.)

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This article was published in

Volume 54 Number 19 - March 20, 2024

Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/MS54191.HTM

Website:  www.cpcml.ca   Email:  editor@cpcml.ca