West Bank on fire
...while negotiations without warring parties were ongoing in Doha (Qatar) and Hezbollah confirmed that retaliation to Fouad Shokor's assassination will happen regardless of ceasefire in Gaza.
Today, 16th August 2024, we turn our eyes back to Palestine, with initial focus on the West Bank, rather than Gaza.
As reported by Al Mayadeen in this article, last night Israeli settlers armed with assault rifles and Molotov cocktails attacked a Palestinian village east of Qalqilia in the West Bank, as you can see in the video below (more can be found inside the Al Mayadeen article in the link above).
Palestinian houses and vehicles were deliberately set on fire, while the Israeli forces nearby let them do their thing quietly by not intervening.
Hell on earth! Hell caused by the Israeli settlers protected by the various Itamar Ben Gvir, Bezalel Smotrich and Benjamin Netanyahu, who in turn are protected by the Outlaw US Empire, its EU/NATO vassal states and some Arab countries who are turning away from those they call “brothers”.
Just think that a few days ago Israel launched two airstrikes in the West Bank, as reported in this AP article. The Israelis are even using airstrikes inside the West Bank as in the Gaza Strip, allegedly to hit Palestinian militants. They are criminals!
Although most of our attention is often towards the Gaza Strip, the West Bank is also suffering, though at a smaller scale than Gaza, with at least 606 Palestinians killed and ~5,400 others wounded by the Israeli occupation forces and Israeli settlers since the start of the war on Gaza on 7th October 2023, as reported in the aforementioned Al Mayadeen article.
The Guardian today has reported that even Israeli leaders, such as the Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the President Isaac Herzog, have condemned the settlers’ actions… of course only verbally. Don’t believe them! They are not going to punish or put the settlers in jail, otherwise the Israeli police would have stopped them before they could set the Palestinian village on fire. Also Josep Borrell, Vice-President of the European Commission and High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, has condemned the Israeli settlers’ actions, confirming his “intention to table a proposal for EU sanctions against violent settlers’ enablers, including some Israeli government’s members”, as you can see in the tweets below - the problem is: when is he going to do it? How many more villages have to be burned down? How many more Palestinians need to die before he even tables a proposal, which will need unanimous approval from the EU’s 27 member states, who are notoriously divided over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
In the meantime, negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza have taken place without Hamas in Doha (Qatar) between yesterday and today, but Al Mayadeen has reported no breakthrough. Here is a quick summary, created from Al Mayadeen Short News (all formatting mine):
Official spokesperson for the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs: The Doha round of negotiations on Gaza has been concluded, and we will issue a statement on the outcome of the talks.
Joint Egyptian-Qatari-American statement:
Over the past 48 hours in Doha, senior officials from our governments have engaged in intensive talks.
The talks were serious and constructive and took place in a positive atmosphere.
The United States, with support from Qatar and Egypt, presented to both parties a bridging proposal that is consistent with the principles laid out by President Biden on May 31, 2024 and SC resolution no. 2735.
This proposal builds on areas of agreement over the past week and bridges remaining gaps in the manner that allows for a swift implementation of the deal.
Working teams will continue technical work over the coming days on the details of implementation including arrangements to implement the agreement's extensive humanitarian provision, as well as specifics relating to hostages and detainees.
Senior Hamas source: What the movement's leadership was informed of today regarding the results of the Doha ceasefire meetings does not include a commitment to what was agreed upon on July 2.
Senior Palestinian Resistance official to Al Mayadeen: The Doha negotiations did not yield any developments, and “Israel” is clinging to its positions.
AFP, citing officials:
Hamas demands “a complete ceasefire, a complete withdrawal from the Strip, a normal return of the displaced and a (prisoner) exchange deal” without restrictions.
Hamas will not accept “new conditions” from “Israel” in a proposal put forward during talks in Doha.
“Israel's” “new” conditions include keeping troops inside Gaza along its border with Egypt.
Based on the above, it is quite clear that these negotiations are leading nowhere. After all, what would you expect from talks that do not include the two warring parties?
It is also worth reporting what Hezbollah Deputy Secretary-General, Sheikh Naim Qassem, said yesterday in connection to ceasefire negotiations, as per another Al Mayadeen article, i.e. that “Hezbollah's retaliation to the assassination of Martyr Fouad Shokor is ‘separate from the aggression on Gaza and the ceasefire agreement’". This is in contrast with the recent statements of three senior Iranian officials, affirming that Iran would hold back from direct retaliation against Israel for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on its soil, if the negotiations in Doha yielded a ceasefire in Gaza, as I reported in my previous article on the Middle East crisis.
So, it looks like there is some disagreement within the Axis of Resistance and each party may decide to carry out their revenge independently from each other, though just yesterday the leader of the Yemeni Ansar Allah movement, Sayyed Abdul-Malik Badreddine al-Houthi, said that the Axis of Resistance will definitely respond to “Israel”, as per this other Al Mayadeen article:
He [Sayyed al-Houthi] also dismissed the skepticism propagated by Israeli media, insisting that “the response is certainly coming”, and urged people not to be swayed by doubt.
Addressing the delay in the response, the Ansar Allah chief clarified that it was a calculated move intended to inflict the most pain on the enemy, particularly in light of the American mobilization to impede it. He emphasized that this delay has had a “practical impact on the enemy”, leading to unprecedented fear, such as the cancellation of flights.
So, nothing is clear yet and for the moment we will just have to wait and see what happens next, though the failed negotiations in Doha suggest that all parties of the Axis of Resistance may soon respond in unison against the Israeli assassinations of Fouad Shokor and Ismail Haniyeh.
I will conclude this article with the following video (with Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s voice-over, as well as Arab and English subtitles) that Hezbollah released today, unveiling its sophisticated underground missile facilities.
(For more information, please refer to this short IRNA article and/or this longer Al Mayadeen article).
UPDATE (17/08/2024): If you are wondering why Iran’s revenge is so late in coming, I strongly recommend this interesting article by Lorenzo Maria Pacini on the Strategic Culture Foundation website.
all the talk - no matter from anyone in the west, including the sychophants in israel - are worth a pinch of coon shit... all of them talk a good line, but are missing in action where it really counts.. the west bank dynamic has been allowed and encouraged and none of these sweet sounding reprimands from all of these doofus amount to a hill of beans.... thanks ismaele..