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Tag: Israeli

Israeli attacks on aids trucks deliberate – Envoy

The Ambassador of the State of Palestinian to Nigeria, Mr. Abdullah Shawesh, has said the attacks on aids trucks were deliberately carried out by the Israeli authorities.

Speaking at the Embassy of Palestine in Abuja at the weekend, the envoy highlighted some key issues following the attacks.

He said the Monday attack was to scare those offering support to the displaced and hungry people of Palestine.

Shawesh said the aim of the attacks on the cars conveying aids was to send a warning signal.

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According to him: ‘It was deliberately done. They want to send a clear message to others not to come to Gaza to provide aids and support for the Palestine people.”

The attacks, he added “impose another restriction for providing aids as international agencies have all suspended aids.”

He said that there is an impending hunger and malnutrition as a result of lack of humanitarian access.

The Envoy, quoting World Health Organisation, (WHO) said the long-term effects of malnutrition can compromise the health and well-being of an entire future generation.

He said preliminary toll of the ongoing Israeli war against the Palestinian people over the past 181 days has resulted in 32,916 death and 75,494 injured.

He explained, that two -thirds of the causalities are mainly women and children.

April 7, 2024
How Israeli govt constantly attacks Palestinians, by envoy

The Palestinian Ambassador to Nigeria, Abdullah Abu Shawesh, has said that the Israeli government used to “kill Palestinians for fun.”

Shawesh said this during a media briefing in Lagos.

Palestinians used to be killed for fun. This is shocking. Yes, it is very shocking, but there are lots of evidences. They used to kill us in the daylight before the cameras and no one queried them and they did not investigate,” he said.

The envoy called on the African Union and other International communities to launch and independent investigation into the matter regarding Israel and Palestine in the Gaza dispute.

According to him, more than 30,000 innocent Palestinians have been killed since the war started while many more were missing and others jailed.

He alleged that the Israelis have been killing the Palestinians for a long time.

According to him, “on October 6 last year, the Israeli military excavation killed six Palestinians. Since October 7, 2023, till today, approximately 30,000 Palestinian have been killed, while over 7,000 of them are still missing. A lot of the Palestinian bodies in Gaza were already decomposed in the streets. Can you imagine decomposed bodies in the streets? A lot of collective cemeteries are filled”.

He denied the Isrealis allegation that their families were burnt alive and that babies were beheaded.

“This is completely not true. There is no evidence that there is any single baby beheaded or killed, or any baby had been killed before his family or the family that killed before their baby,” he said.

He reiterated call for an investigation by independent bodies, urging the African Union (AU) to partake in the investigation.

He said: “We need an international independent inquiry commission to come and investigate what happened on October 7. This is very important because everyone will give his claims, but who is going to say this is true or not true?

“Then, anyone who committed any war crime should be held accountable. Again, I call on the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice. This is very important to put an end to all of these claims.

“We need an international investigation, independent community to be established by the Human Rights Council and the EU. We also need the African Union to be part of this investigation.

“In Africa, we share a common history. We have a shared future. It’s our interest, collective interest, to make sure that international law is implemented.

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“We have lost more than 30,000 Palestinians. Gaza is nearly completely leveled. When I say completely leveled, I mean tens of thousands of housing units have completely become rotten. You cannot go back to them at all. Tens of thousands of the homes are still heavily heated. So, it will take a lot of time for reconstruction and rehabilitation. The universities are completely leveled just for fun,” he said.

He expressed displeasure that the United State is supplying arms and ammunition to Israel, while it refuses to call for a ceasefire.

“The United States of America and Israel till today, are denying our right of self-determination which is the basic right for every single person all around the world

“We are losing people everyday. We are losing many of our children. Just yesterday, approximately 200 Palestinian were killed.

“So what we need now is a call for complete and immediate ceasefire. We also need an Investigation Commission to come to investigate what happened on October 6, before October 7, and what happened after October 7 till today. It’s very important,” he said.

According to him, humanitarian aid should come to Gaza.

“Even the water in Gaza today is completely destroyed. So, we used to boil it to make sure that we could drink it, before it became a health issue,” he said.

February 2, 2024
Israeli airstrike on Christmas Day kills 100 people
- Netanyahu vows to expand campaign
- Egypt floats plan to end war
No fewer than 70 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on Christmas Eve in the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in the centre of Gaza, Palestinian authorities in the besieged strip said.

Reports also indicated that 23 people were killed in another Israeli strike on Khan Younis, bringing the total number of deaths overnight to over 100. The figure marked the date as one of the deadliest.

The Palestinian health ministry said at least 12 women and seven children were among those who died in a late-night strike, which destroyed several houses in the refugee camp.

Ashraf al-Qidra, a spokesperson for the health ministry, called the airstrike a “massacre”, adding that the death toll was likely to climb.

Footage from the camp showed dozens of injured, including children, being rushed to the nearby Al-Aqsa hospital, while some of the bodies were piled outside in body bags.

It comes as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will expand its Gaza ground offensive in the coming days despite international efforts to halt the fighting.

Speaking to members of his Likud Party yesterday, Netanyahu said the war “isn’t close to finished.”

Netanyahu spoke after returning from a visit to troops fighting inside Gaza. The comments came as Egypt is floating an ambitious proposal to end the Israel-Hamas war.

“We are not stopping. We are continuing to fight and we are expanding the fight in the coming days,” Netanyahu said. “The will be a long battle and it isn’t close to finished.”

Egypt put forward an ambitious, initial proposal to end the Israel-Hamas war with a cease-fire, a phased hostage release and the creation of a Palestinian government of experts who would administer the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank, a senior Egyptian official and a European diplomat said yesterday.

A father who lost his daughter and grandchildren in the strike told the BBC the family had fled from the north for safety in central Gaza.

At least 70 people are believed to have been killed in the attack, Palestinian authorities said.

“They lived on the third floor of one of the buildings,” he said, adding that the walls collapsed on them. “My grandchildren, my daughter, her husband – all gone.

“We are all targeted. Civilians are targeted. There is no safe place. They told us to leave Gaza City – now we came to central Gaza to die,” the man told the broadcaster.

Read Also: UN Security Council weighs Gaza ‘cessation of hostilities’ resolution

The Israeli military said it was reviewing the incident.

“Despite the challenges posed by Hamas terrorists operating within civilian areas in Gaza, the IDF is committed to international law including taking feasible steps to minimise harm to civilians,” the Israeli forces said.

The Palestinian health ministry said another 10 members of one family were killed in an Israeli strike on their house in the Jabalia camp in northern Gaza.

tions were cancelled in Bethlehem, the Israeli-occupied Palestinian West Bank city, the biblical birthplace of Jesus.

Egypt has put forward an ambitious, initial proposal to end the Israel-Hamas war with a cease-fire, a phased hostage release and the creation of a Palestinian government of experts who would administer the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank, a senior Egyptian official and a European diplomat said yesterday.

Word of the proposal came as Israeli airstrikes heavily pounded central and southern Gaza, crushing buildings on families sheltering inside. In the Maghazi refugee camp, rescue workers were still pulling bodies from the wreckage hours after a strike that killed at least 106 people, according to hospital records seen by The Associated Press — one of the deadliest of Israel’s air campaign.

The Egyptian proposal, worked out with the Gulf nation of Qatar, has been presented to Israel, Hamas, the United States and European governments but still appeared preliminary. It falls short of Israel’s professed goal of outright crushing Hamas after its Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, which triggered the war. It would appear not to meet Israel’s insistence on keeping military control over Gaza for an extended period after the war. It also is unclear if Hamas would agree to relinquish power.
December 26, 2023
‘War will take time,’ says Israeli defence minister after meeting U.S. officials

United States Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin discussed with Israeli leaders yesterday ways to scale back major combat operations in Gaza but said Washington was not imposing a timetable despite international calls for a cease-fire.

Austin and other U.S. officials have repeatedly expressed concern about the large number of civilian deaths in Gaza, even while underscoring American backing for Israel’s campaign aimed at crushing Hamas.

Neither side elaborated yesterday on what needed to change on the ground for a shift to more precise operations after weeks of devastating bombardment and a ground offensive.

At a news conference alongside Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, Austin said: “This is Israel’s operation. I’m not here to dictate timelines or terms.” The U.S. has vetoed calls for a cease-fire at the UN and rushed munitions to Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that Israel will keep fighting until it ends Hamas rule in Gaza, crushes its formidable military capabilities and frees the dozens of hostages still held in Gaza since the deadly Oct 7 attack inside Israel that ignited the war.

Israeli protesters have demanded the government relaunch talks with Hamas on releasing more hostages after three were mistakenly killed by Israeli troops.

Talks were underway yesterday to broker freedom for more hostages, as CIA Director William Burns met in Warsaw with the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency and the prime minister of Qatar, a US official said. It was the first known meeting of the three since the end of a weeklong cease-fire in late November, during which some 100 hostages were freed in exchange for the release of around 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

More than 100 people were killed in Israeli strikes on residential buildings in northern Gaza on Sunday, a Health Ministry official in the Hamas-run territory said.

Speaking alongside Austin, Gallant said only that “the war will take time.” Last week, Gallant said Israel would continue major combat operations for several more months.

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European countries also appear to be losing patience. “Far too many civilians have been killed in Gaza,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell posted on X. “Certainly, we are witnessing an appalling lack of distinction in Israel’s military operation in Gaza.”

Under U.S. pressure, Israel provided more precise evacuation instructions earlier this month as troops moved into the southern city of Khan Younis. Still, casualties have continued to mount and Palestinians say nowhere in Gaza is safe as Israel carries out strikes in all parts of the territory.

Israel reopened its main cargo crossing with Gaza to allow more aid in — also after a request from the US. But the amount is less than half of prewar imports, even as needs have soared and fighting hinders delivery in many areas. Israel blocked entry off all goods into Gaza soon after the war started and weeks later began allowing a small amount of aid in through Egypt.

Human Rights Watch yesterday accused Israel of deliberately starving Gaza’s population — which would be a war crime — pointing to statements by senior Israeli officials expressing the intent to deprive civilians of food, water and fuel or linking the entry of aid to the release of hostages.

December 19, 2023
Israeli-Gaza war: The road always trodden
- By Chijioke Uwasomba
The Gaza Strip is boiling and burning again with an understandably huge collateral damage. The death tolls on both sides of the conflict especially of innocent women and children are increasing in their thousands, eliciting cries from humanitarian organisations in Gaza which have found it extremely difficult to cope with the crisis as the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) deal deadly blows on Hamas and its military machine which has become a thorn in the lives of the Israelis in the attempt by the latter to “reclaim” the Palestinian land “forcefully” taken over by the Israeli state. The condition of the Gazans and by implication some Israeli citizens has worsened since 2007 when Hamas took over power in Gaza

Since the current war between Israel and Hamas began, occasioned by the unprovoked killings and hostage -takings of the Israeli citizens and other nationals on October 7, the United Nations, some say, in its usual divisive and weak political positions and positioning has not been able to come up with a roadmap on how to resolve the crisis and agree on a permanent way forward for the Palestinians and their Israeli neighbours. Apart from the pounding of Hamas and its war infrastructure, many civilians especially children and women are dying as food, fuel, electricity and other human-enabling materials are either in short supply or completely run out.

The latest war, according to informed sources, was triggered by the complete disagreement by Hamas and other Middle East forces opposed to any meaningful move to for a re-establishment of diplomatic relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia. By Hamas’s strategic calculations, its latest war gambit is aimed at stopping other willing Arab countries from having diplomatic relations with Israel. A completely free and normalised relations would not be in the interest of Hamas and its quest for a Palestinian homeland. By hitting Israel, Hamas knew that Israel would respond with a strong-arm tactics and these would provoke Saudi Arabia into halting the on-going move to re-establish relations with Israel thereby getting the support of the Arab league.

It is mind-boggling that peace and good neighbourliness have been missing in the Middle East for many centuries in a region that produced the two leading and heavily subscribed religions in the world. It should be noted that the Middle East crisis began millions of years ago. Both the Jews and the Arabs have come a long way and as history has it, they were sired by one progenitor even though from different women.

God, according to Biblical account had asked Abram (Abraham) who he so much loved to leave the land of Ur (today’s Iraq) to move to Canaan land, a land flowing with milk and honey. Both the Jews (Israelites) and their Palestinian cousins (from Ishmael) had lived in this disputed land area many centuries ago. Each had been in charge at one time or the other up to the Babylonian captivity and other series of occupations and enslavements. Both groups have a strong stake in what is today known as the Palestine. Truth be told: the whole hullabaloo between the two groups is Jerusalem, a land claimed by both groups as theirs because of the assumed holy provenance. From what can be seen between Israel and the Palestine, even if a two-state solution comes into being, there will not be any let up in the bickering between the two neighbours. The ultimate diadem is Jerusalem.

Tehran, the bête noire of the West and active supporter and armer of Hamas may not relent in its support for Hamas, and other Palestinian Jihadist groups including Hezbollah to foment trouble in Gaza and Israel. Neither will Israel herself sit idly by and watch Iran become a hegemonic force in the Middle East. Palestine and its people are truly pawns on the chessboard in the proxy war between Iran, its ideological supporters on the one hand, and the United States, the West and their minions in the Middle East. It is obvious that many destabilising forces have almost made it impossible for the Oslo Accord(s) to work. Hamas and Hezbollah, two strong militant forces which have been declared as terrorist organisations by Britain and other western countries do not want to make peace with Israel and have been gung-ho in their hostile relationship with Israel.

Israel is stunned by its security lapse on October 7, when Hamas and the Palestine Islamic Jihad in their “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood” killed,1,400 Israelis, raped and humiliated many Israelis and other nationals after a ruthless six-hour operation. It is indubitable that Israelis’ rage in its response to Hamas, is aimed at bringing the group to a hors de combat and create a new political atmosphere in Gaza. But this is at a huge humanitarian cost as the conflict has become awful and tragic in Gaza land.

The tactics and strategies of Hamas will not by any standard bring freedom for/to the Palestinian people. This is because Hamas a reactionary organisation with about forty-five percent of the Gazans supporting it. It pretends to be a resistance movement but in all its posturing and raison d’tre, it is not working and representing the interest of the poor Palestinians who live in poverty and under humiliating circumstances. Hamas’s rank and file members live under well protected tunnels while the decision-making echelon lives in faraway Qatar enjoying the best that life could offer. The Gazans and other Palestinians face the horrifying heat of the war each time a conflict arises between Hamas and Israel.

Read Also: NAF air strikes kill several terrorists, destroy four gun trucks in Borno

In the West Bank where Mahmoud Abbas leads the Palestine Organisation, it is curious to note that he enjoys not more than twenty-six per cent support of the people. The leadership of the organisation is seen as very corrupt and is not trusted by the people. In all of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the West Bank, it is the ordinary people that are subjected to cruelty, misery and acute poverty. Both the ordinary Palestinians and their Israeli counterparts suffer more in the unending spasmodic war between the belligerent Israeli forces and the Palestinian forces.

The United Nations has been weak and thoroughly incompetent in resolving the Palestinian question since 1948 when the Israeli state was created. Each time fissiparous forces in the Middle East notice genuine efforts at reconciling the forces at play in the Middle East, they create more crises that put peace in almost jeopardy. The UN should not wait for a spat to occur before it shows permanent interest in the Middle East.

In the crisis that has defined the Middle East, no group is innocent and none can claim to be right. Both the Israelis and the Palestinians are ruled by ancient grudges which every generation of theirs has become part and parcel of. Third parties like the UN and the United States must work hard to ensure that the two-state solution works in the interest of the ordinary Palestinians and the Israelis. As a pragmatic way of bringing the current crisis to an end, Hamas must be made to release and return the over 240 Israelis and other nationals that were kidnapped under humiliating and terrible circumstances on October 7. This is capable of guaranteeing a cease fire beyond the recently announced four-hour daily pause that the Israeli government has given on humanitarian grounds to allow civilians to move southwards.

A permanent solution to the crisis will require a no-holds-barred international conference on the Palestinian question with a view to negotiating a lasting peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians in the larger interest of the Middle East and the world. And from the look of things, this can only be possible with the dismantling of the war machine of Hamas.

•Prof Uwasomba teaches at the Department of English, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife
November 13, 2023
Gaza: Israeli attacks intensify as US envoy faces Arab anger
- Turkey recalls ambassador to Israel over ‘humanitarian tragedy’
The Israeli strikes in Gaza entered into the fifth week Saturday, showing no signs of letting up even as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken faced a rising tide of anger in meetings with Arab foreign ministers.

A report by Gulf Times said Blinken reaffirmed US support for “humanitarian pauses” in the fighting in Gaza to ensure desperate civilians get help a day after Israel’s hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave the idea short shrift.

Speaking at a news conference in Amman about sparing civilians and speeding up aid deliveries, the US top diplomat said: “The United States believes that all of these efforts will be facilitated by humanitarian pauses.”

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi called for all sides to work together to “stop a catastrophe that will haunt the region for generations”.

The Israeli army said its troops had launched an operation in southern Gaza overnight, after deadly strikes hit an ambulance convoy and a school-turned-refugee shelter in the besieged Palestinian enclave.

Israeli forces have encircled Gaza’s largest city, trying to crush Hamas.

The Israeli military said it had come under attack several times from Hamas “tunnel shafts and military compounds” in northern Gaza and had killed many “terrorists” and destroyed three observation posts.

Hamas said it had hit an Israeli convoy with mortar fire.

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The health ministry in Gaza, which is run by Hamas, says more than 9,480 Gazans, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israeli strikes and the intensifying ground campaign.

The ministry said at least 12 people had been killed when Israel struck a United Nations school where thousands of displaced Palestinians were sheltering.

The fighting has provoked anti-Israeli protests around the world, and political opposition from key regional powers, including influential Turkey, which on Saturday recalled its ambassador from Israel.

Meanwhile, Turkey says it has recalled its ambassador to Israel for consultations over Israel’s sustained bombing of civilians in the Gaza Strip and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the besieged enclave.

The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Saturday that Sakir Ozkan Torunlar was being recalled “in view of the unfolding humanitarian tragedy in Gaza caused by the continuing attacks by Israel against civilians and ‘Israels refusal of calls for a ceasefire and the continuous and unhindered flow of humanitarian aid.”

A report by Al Jazeera said tThe move has come as Ankara’s rhetoric has become increasingly critical of Israel, which has killed about 9,500 Palestinians, including 3,900 children, in the Gaza Strip since the October 7 attacks by Hamas, which killed about 1,400 people.

Spokesperson for the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lior Haiat, criticised the decision as “another step by the Turkish president that sides with the Hamas terrorist organization,” in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Turkey hosts members of Hamas, which it does not consider a “terrorist” organisation like the United States and the European Union. It has called for an immediate ceasefire, unlike Western governments.

On Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he was breaking off contact with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Netanyahu is no longer someone we can talk to. We have written him off,” Turkish media quoted Erdogan as saying. But he added that this does not mean Turkey is cutting its relations with Israel and his intelligence chief is in contact with Israeli and Palestinian authorities as well as Hamas.

Erdogan also said that when the war is over, Turkey wants “to see Gaza as a peaceful region that is a part of an independent Palestinian state, in line with 1967 borders, with territorial integrity, and with East Jerusalem as its capital”.

Last month, Israeli diplomats had left Turkey for security reasons after many pro-Palestinian demonstrations erupted across the country. Its Ministry of Foreign Affairs later said it had recalled the diplomats to assess the state of bilateral relations.

According to Erdogan, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi will visit Turkey at the end of November. Erdogan also plans this month to attend a summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Riyadh to discuss a ceasefire in Gaza with regional actors.

Even as international calls for a ceasefire in Gaza grow, Netanyahu has refused any such prospects as the Israeli military pushes into Gaza on the ground and continues to bomb it.

Humanitarian aid started trickling into Gaza late last month from the Rafah crossing, the only passage into the enclave not controlled by Israel, but rights organisations continue to warn that the humanitarian situation is dire.
November 5, 2023
Israeli expanding ground operations in Gaza

Israel is expanding ground operations, as it intensifies Gaza bombing, The Nation learnt.

Israeli authorities also said it has killed the head of Hamas’s paraglider operations during the group’s attack on Israel on 7 October.

He was allegedly responsible for drone attacks on Israeli military posts.

The Israel Defense Force posted on X , formerly known as Twitter: “Overnight, IDF fighter jets struck Asem Abu Rakaba, the Head of Hamas’ Aerial Array.

“Abu Rakaba was responsible for Hamas’ UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles], drones, paragliders, aerial detection and defence. He took part in planning the October 7 massacre and commanded the terrorists who infiltrated Israel on paragliders and was responsible for the drone attacks on IDF posts.”

The Israelis said earlier their ground forces were “expanding operations” targeting Hamas in Gaza

BBC also reported huge explosions in the territory, with Israeli warplanes carrying out heavy strikes.

Hamas says clashes have taken place in northern Gaza – reports say some Israeli troops and tanks have entered.

Communication networks went down around the same time, meaning residents in Gaza can’t be contacted.

The UN General Assembly called for an immediate humanitarian truce, with 120 states voting for a resolution put forward by Jordan.

Israel has been bombing Gaza since the 7 October Hamas attacks that killed 1,400 people and saw 229 people kidnapped as hostages

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says 7,000 people have been killed since Israel’s retaliatory bombing began.

Read Also: Israel/Gaza War: Palestinian envoy,coalition call for ceasefire

Meanwhile, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the charity organisation known as Doctors Without Borders, said it had lost contact with some of its Palestinian colleagues on the ground.

In a message shared on social media , the group said it was “particularly worried for the patients, medical staff and thousands of families taking shelter at Al Shifa hospital and other health facilities”.

“We call for the unequivocal protection of all medical facilities, staff and civilians across the Gaza Strip,” MSF said.

MSF’s website says it moved international medical staff to the south of Gaza on 13 October, following Israel’s evacuation order. Prior to that, the group had an operational theatre at Al Shifa in the north of the Gaza strip. Al Shifa is Gaza City’s main hospital.

Earlier, an Israeli military spokesman alleged that Hamas was using the hospital as a shield for underground tunnels and command centres. Hamas has denied this accusation.

October 28, 2023
The Israeli-Palestinian crisis

While discussing the fate of Jews, Blacks and Arabs sometimes in 1963, Leopold Sedar Senghor, the great African philosopher, poet, author and first president of Senegal referred to them as a “Trilogy of suffering peoples”. As an African, one can empathise with the Jews and Arabs as part of the tripod of victims of the powerful western imperialism. The West dominated Africa and left the aftermath of discrimination following the slave trade, slavery and colonialism on Africans and people of African descent. The Jews suffered from the Spanish Inquisition, anti-Semitism generally in the Anglo-Saxon world pogroms from the Russians and poles and the holocaust from Nazi Germany and their Frankish cousins, the French. The Arabs did not fare better until the vast oil discoveries in their lands in the 20th century. The Palestinian problem goes back to the British mandate established over Palestine in 1918 after the First World War.

Before that time, Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire from 1517 to 1917. The Ottoman Turkish Empire suffered defeat along with the German Empire in 1918 and like Germany, Austria- Hungary (the Hapsburg Empire) and Italy lost all colonies and subject territories ruled over by Berlin, Ankara, Vienna and Rome. During the war, Lord Arthur Balfour, the British Foreign Secretary had promised the Jews a home in Palestine while also telling the Arabs there they would be free from Turkish rule thus promising the same territory to Jews and Arabs .This is the kernel of the problem. When it became impossible to do this following ethnic violence between the two Semitic peoples, the Jews and the Arabs, Britain transferred the problem to the United Nations which favoured the creation of two states in Palestine, one Jewish the other Arab. Israel declared itself an independent Jewish state on May 4, 1948 and the American president, Harry S. Truman recognized the state the same day and thus began the origin of tacit and open American support for Israel no matter what it does.

Since that time the Jews and the Arabs have fought over the issue of who owns Palestine in 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973, 1982 and 2006. This is apart from battles and skirmishes directly between Israelis and Palestinians over decades since 1948. The United Nations has passed many resolutions on the Israeli- Palestinian question, the most famous of which was passed after the 1967 war. This resolution number 242 asking Israel to withdraw to pre-1967 borders which at the same time guaranteed secure borders for Israel was deliberately nebulous and totally unenforceable. The United States has routinely vetoed any resolution that may be injurious to the existence of Israel and other resolutions have been obeyed by Israel in the breach.

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The pivotal role of the United States in unravelling the knotty problem of Arab- Israeli question came between 1993 and 1995 during the Presidency of Bill Clinton when an agreement between the two sides were signed in Washington DC after serious negotiations in Oslo permitting the two peoples working towards a two states solution (The Oslo protocol). Unfortunately, the excitement and enthusiasm did not last long and the old enmity resurfaced. The emergence of the current Binyamin Netanyahu government with his heavy dependence on right wing nationalists who would rather take the entire old Palestine as a Jewish homeland has made the possibility of some kind of two states solution virtually impossible. Gaza and the occupied West Bank have been frozen in time and there has been regular encroachment by Israeli settlers on the West Bank. The Palestinian Liberation Organisation’s control of the West Bank of the Jordan River has become ineffective while Gaza has been fenced in by the Israeli administration thus reducing the situation in Gaza to what critics have described as an open prison in which more than two million Palestinians are herded. It has now been revealed that it seems the Netanyahu policy was to encourage the extremist HAMAS group in Gaza in order to reduce the possibility of a two state solution by exposing the weakness of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) and making it totally untenable to negotiating with HAMAS which does not even recognise Israel. In the meantime, most of the Arab states had reached a modus vivendi with Israel. Recognition had come from Egypt, Jordan, Sudan, the Gulf States, Qatar and under considerable American pressure, Saudi Arabia was seriously considering recognising Israel under the so-called Abrahamic (Ibrahimic) accord.

The position of the Palestinians had become hopeless and no one was seriously talking about a two states solution and the Netanyahu government was encouraging Israeli settlements in the West Bank. In Israel itself, there was the ongoing paralytic protest over the government’s decision to whittle down the power of the Supreme Court over legislations. Critics have suggested that the government somehow was not paying attention to warnings about security breach before the Hamas’ military wing struck on October 7, in which 1400 Israeli citizens were killed and the kidnapping over 200 people living in settlements near Gaza Strip.

This was a great tragedy for Israel which had lived under the illusion that its security was watertight. Most of its Western allies led by the United States rushed to Israeli defence and declared that Israel had the right to defend itself. This Carte Blanche is being exploited by Israel to mean total destruction of Gaza and not just the Hamas party and government. The world-wide demonstrations against Israeli bombing of the Palestinians have forced the Western powers to advise Israel not to impose a regime of collective punishment against the Palestinian people. More than 5000 Palestinians have died under the fire of Israeli bombs not only in Gaza but in the West Bank.

Israel is saying it did not just wake up to levy this war on the Palestinians. They were provoked by the murderous rampage of Hamas on October 7. The policy of Israel is to totally wipe out Hamas and to make it impossible for them and their successors to levy war against Israel. Israel has been involved in asking about one million Palestinians living in Gaza city to move out of the city towards the southern part of the Gaza Strip before it commences ground military operations to wipe out all traces of the Hamas government in Northern Gaza. The world is also getting worried about the conflict metastasising into a wider conflict possibly bringing Iran and consequently the United States into the conflict. This fear must be behind President Joe Biden’s private warning of the Israeli government not to overreact.

The question to ask is what Israel would then do with Gaza city after its military operations. Will it take it over and cleanse it of its Arab population? Will the PLO be installed there at the point of the gun? These are questions which the Israeli government must think through before its military operations in Gaza.

Whatever the outcome of the current crisis in Israel, the critical players must find a solution to the problem of how to satisfy the national feelings of the Palestinians while guaranteeing the security of Israel. Whatever the formula may be worked out, the Jews have no other home than Israel. Anything short of that is a non-starter. Some have suggested a secular state in the whole of old Palestine in which Arabs and Jews will be free to practise their religions. That will not work because Islam and Judaism are not just religions but ways of life. Having suffered the genocide of the holocaust, the Israelis will never agree to any regime in which they are not in total control of their own security. These are the fundamental issues and the world must be seized of the way out of the complex problems. The United States which has from 1948 injected itself into the middle of this complex situation is perhaps the only country that can guarantee Israeli security and persuade the country to find an acceptable geographical solution to the Palestinian problem in which the twin siblings of Israelis and Palestinians can live securely and exist in the same womb.

October 26, 2023
Israeli army denies ‘carpet bombing’ of Gaza Strip

Israeli forces are not carpet bombing the Gaza Strip, military spokesman Richard Hecht said.

While acknowledging that the Israeli airstrikes on the Palestinian territory were bigger than ever before, Hecht said all of the sites being hit were targeted and based on intelligence information.

He said the army was getting specific information in each case about where Palestinian militants were hiding.

He said the attacks were focused on destroying the infrastructure of Islamist group Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip.

For Gaza’s civilians, the situation is increasingly precarious.

Read Also: Water supply cut to Gaza Strip affects 610,000, says UN

According to UN figures, some 339,000 people have fled their homes within the narrow coastal strip.

Last Saturday, Hamas fighters killed more than 1,200 people in Israeli border towns and at a music festival.

Around 150 people were taken prisoner and are being held hostage in the Gaza area.

Israel responded to the massacres with heavy airstrikes.

The territory’s health ministry said Thursday more than 1,200 people have been killed in Gaza and around 5,800 others injured.

(dpa/NAN)

October 12, 2023
Israel promises to end attacks on Israelis

Israel has promised to end all forms of attacks on Israeli citizens.

Michael Freeman, Ambassador of Israel to Nigeria, made this known while addressing newsmen on Wednesday in Abuja.

Freeman, also Permanent Representative of Israel to ECOWAS, expressed concerns over alleged killings of more than 1,000 unsuspecting civilian Israeli citizens by Hamas group, describing such as terrorism.

According to him, Israel will do what it ought to do, to end wars against Hamas attacks.

Freeman said, “So, Israel is going to react, we have declared war on Hamas.

“It is important to state at this point that this is not a war that is between Israel and Palestine; this is not about Israel and Palestine.

“This is about Israel and Hamas, this is about good and evil, this is about civilization and barbarism.

`Either you stand with people who are defending themselves or you stand with those who cut the heads of babies.

“That is what this is about, it is not about anything else.”

He assured of Israel’s plan to do everything within its ambit to avoid civilian casualties in the course of the war against Hamas.

He mentioned that the Israeli move would not be about religion or Islam, Judaism or Christianity, but evil and good.

The ambassador further said that Israel did not desire war in any circumstances, but would remain committed to protecting its citizens in all possible ways.

“If Hamas will surrender this will be over tomorrow morning, if terrorism will be over that is not realistic.

“I am not asking the Palestinians anything, I am saying to the Palestinians I want a better day. I am saying this with focus on Hamas.

“I am focused on dealing with Hamas and I am focused on stopping it,” the envoy added.

Earlier, the Palestinian Ambassador to Nigeria, Abdallah Shawey, underscored the need for application of international laws to resolve the lingering crisis between Palestine and Israel.

Shawey, who made the call while commenting on the on-going war between the two countries, urged the international community to stop treating Israel as a nation above the law.

In his response on the Palestinian Government position about Hamas, the envoy said the group was not a terrorist organisation.

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According to him, there should be fair treatment of all parties, saying the lives of all individuals mattered and thereby, condemned the incessant killings on-going in both countries.

Shawey said, “ The group is not a terrorist organisation, but it is fighting the course of the people, to liberate their land from Israeli occupation.

“The ceasefire agreement between the warring parties depends on Israel, which owns a comprehensive military formation with support from allies like the United States.

“Many women and children were killed, medical doctors displaced and ambulances destroyed in the renewed onslaught, the oldest churches in the world were destroyed by the Israeli forces.”

Hamas is a Palestinian political and militant organisation that governs the Gaza Strip, one of the two Palestinian territories with presence in the West Bank.

(NAN)

October 11, 2023