Israel on Path to Make Gaza Unlivable While Seeking to Destroy Hamas
Boys watch smoke billowing during Israeli strikes east of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on May 13, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas
Tel Aviv continues its Rafah operation with no clear end-game strategy, while the US is turning a blind eye to the ongoing massacre, Dr. Tamer Qarmout, an associate professor in public policy at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, told Sputnik.Israel dispatched tanks on raids into Rafah on May 29 after conducting a deadly strike on a displacement camp located in the region on Sunday. According to CNN, US-made munitions were used during the Sunday attack that claimed the lives of at least 45 people and injured 200 others. Nonetheless, the Biden administration insists Tel Aviv’s actions do not constitute a major ground operation that crosses any US red lines.”In Israel’s vision, they want to achieve a full victory,” Dr. Tamer Qarmout, an associate professor in public policy at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, told Sputnik. “And for them, a full victory involves releasing the captives and most importantly, ending Hamas’ rule in Gaza completely. (…) Now, it has been almost eight months of this war, and obviously Israel hasn’t been able to achieve any of these goals.”According to Qarmout, it might take years for Israel to root out Hamas and other Palestinian resistance factions. The question is whether the world will tolerate the ongoing genocide of Gazans, he noted.
WorldFighting in Gaza Will Last at Least Another 7 Months – Israeli Security Council HeadYesterday, 10:52 GMTOn May 29, Tel Aviv signaled that its war in Gaza would likely continue throughout 2024 at least. Meanwhile, Israeli Army Radio cited War Cabinet Minister Gadi Eisenkot who claimed it will take “three to five years for a significant stabilization” in the strip.”With all the massacring and the genocidal war Israel has embarked on, we see now the international community is really fed up from this, the ICC, the ICJ rulings, and Israel and the US are becoming pretty much isolated,” said Qarmout. “What’s happening now is the realization by many Israeli military leaders, including politicians, but not Netanyahu and his rightwing government that these goals are hard to achieve.”What the Netanyahu cabinet can achieve is destroying Gaza from a civil perspective, making it an unlivable place, but it doesn’t mean they would finish off Hamas, according to the academic.”The Israelis so far don’t have an exit, a way out of the Gaza swamp, the way I put it. And so far, what they’re doing is destroying the civil order in Gaza, destroying the livelihood of Gaza itself,” Qarmout said, adding that Tel Aviv is presently in discussions with the US, European and Arab countries about ruling the post-war strip. “Israel wants to have an upper security hand over Gaza, but they don’t want to bear the price or the cost of re-occupying Gaza and being in charge of its 2.5 million inhabitants.”
AnalysisIs Post-War Gaza Power-Sharing Deal Between Israel and Arab States Feasible?5 May, 09:04 GMTAccording to Al Jazeera analysis, the Gaza Strip has shrunk by nearly 32 percent due to a buffer zone imposed by the Israeli military. The media outlet claims that judging from satellite images the total area of the strip has been diminished by approximately 120 square kilometers (about 46 sq miles).Over 800,000 Palestinians have been forced to flee Rafah since the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) started their operations in the area.The expert added that it’s astonishing that Israel went on a genocidal spree in Gaza to target a single paramilitary group – Hamas.”Not all Gazans are Hamas. Hamas is only one fraction, one military-political fraction of the Palestinian society. (…) Ordinary Palestinians have no say or an opinion of the whereabouts of Hamas. So they cannot be collectively targeted because Israel is unable to reach Hamas militants. So they go and hit civilians in revenge for their failure.”According to Qarmout, Israel is continuing to push ahead with its military plans despite the world’s growing condemnation because it’s shielded by Washington: “The US has provided an umbrella of protection through the UN, through the veto power in the Security Council.”
WorldICJ Orders Israel to Halt Military Offensive in Rafah26 May, 05:35 GMTThe International Court of Justice (ICJ) on May 24 urged Israel to “immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”However, Tel Aviv interpreted the ruling to its favor, claiming that what it is being asked is not to commit genocide in Rafah. “We did not commit genocide and we will not commit genocide,” Netanyahu’s national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, told Israel’s N12 broadcaster on May 25.”As far as I understand, the Israelis are not bound by any criteria because they have an implicit US ‘Green Line’,” said Qarmout. “From the onset of this war, the US has drawn many red lines and Israel has been in breach of all these red lines, and the US has been silent on it. Every time they find an excuse or justification to defend Israel.””The US is very complicit in this conflict. And it cannot take any higher moral grounds and say: ‘Well, we advise the Israelis, whatever’. But in reality, that does not matter, in this criminal war actions matter,” the academic concluded.
AmericasBiden Destroyed His Chances for Reelection by Supporting Israel in Gaza War – Jeff MonsonYesterday, 11:54 GMT
