Blog

In a series of maps, Al Jazeera shows what it would look like if the Gaza Strip were to be placed in some of the world’s most well-known cities and where entirely destroyed areas would be. You can access the interactive story by AJ Labs here.

From Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Khan Younis, southern Gaza: The situation in al-Shifa Hospital is very complicated and very difficult. But what seems to be the most tragic now is the situation inside. There is no proper medical intervention for them. The Israeli military is calling on patients to leave. Some cannot walk: some need crutches and they need wheelchairs, but they’re not allowed to use them. The Israelis want them to step out of the building with their hands above their heads and leave the hospital. Some are disabled and cannot walk because they lost their legs from heavy bombardment. It’s hard to comprehend these are the demands of the Israeli military, while at the same time playing nice with the media, telling journalists ‘we are offering a safe corridor’.

Published On 10 Nov 202310 Nov 2023 Click here to share on social media This live page is now closed. For the latest updates on the Israel-Gaza war, follow along on our new page here.

The US counts Israel as its closest ally in the Middle East. But it needs Arab partners, too. Over the past weeks, dozens of countries and leaders have asked Israel, directly, indirectly and through the United Nations, to temporarily cease assaults on Gaza. Pleas were ignored or turned down; the UN talks drowned in technicalities and semantics. In a surprise announcement on Thursday, the White House claimed that Israel would allow “limited pauses” in its military operations “for humanitarian reasons”. None has happened so far, but a promise is a promise. KEEP READING Should Israel learn from US mistakes in Iraq and Afghanistan? Nakba survivor displaced in Gaza as tens of thousands flee south Israel is bombing hospitals in Gaza with Israeli doctors’ approval ‘We are minutes away from death’: Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital under attack At the same time, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Gaza should not be re-occupied by Israel and that Palestinians who fled Gaza City should be allowed to return. All of this, even as the US has bolstered its military presence in the region, with two aircraft carrier battle groups deployed in the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, and additional air and land forces reinforcing friendly bases throughout the region. Some of the 3,400 US troops in Iraq and Syria have nevertheless come under isolated and unprecise missile and drone attacks, apparently from various sub-state armed groups. The US has also rushed massive air and sea deliveries of weapons and ammunition to Israel. So what is really happening? Israel is the traditional, strongest and guaranteed American strategic partner in the Middle East, and it is unlikely that, whatever the differences between their administrations may be, that position will ever change. But the US needs its Arab strategic partners, too. In deciding on its Middle Eastern policies and strategies, Washington has many factors to consider. They include, among other things, regional and global security, its relations with Iran, security and cost of oil and gas supplies, freedom and security of international shipping lanes, and containing the influence of Russia and China. It is a complicated mix, even at the best of times. When policies are formulated and implemented by amateurs guided by the partiality of private inclinations, it often spoils years of hard work. Such was the case during the four disastrous years of the Trump administration’s off-the-hip approach to the Middle East. The president’s main “expert” was his then 37-year-old son-in-law. His proposed “peace plan” was fodder for Israeli hawks, but stunned and angered Palestinians. Stepping back from current Gaza-related issues, it is obvious that most American problems in the Middle East originate from two fundamental reasons: the end of the bipolar world and Washington’s relations with Iran. For 50 years after World War II, the division between the American-dominated West and Eastern Communism led by the Soviet Union directed political allegiances. In the Middle East, Israel was in the American camp, as were Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the Gulf states; Syria, Egypt, Iraq and Libya were on the Soviet side. Convincing Egypt to change its allegiance from East to West and sign the peace accord with Israel in 1978 was one of Washington’s major strategic victories in the Middle East during the Cold War. Under the rule of the shah, Iran probably had the most pro-American regime from the Mediterranean to the Pacific, but that equation flipped on its head after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Overnight, the US became Iran’s biggest enemy. In the best tradition of pragmatic foreign policy, the US encouraged and helped Saddam Hussein’s Iraq to invade its bigger neighbour, Iran. The war that dragged on for almost 10 years was practically, if not directly, a US proxy war against Iran. The US fought another proxy war through the mujahideen against Soviet-controlled Afghanistan. While the Cold War was often hard and unfair on the interests of individual small countries involved, the bipolar strategic paradigm had its advantages: Both big protectors took care not to allow local troubles to explode into major wars, usually with success. When communism caved in, the West allowed itself to proclaim “the end of history,” believing that it had won its big strategic struggle once and forever, and that future confrontations would be small and easily controllable. What a mistake. In less than a decade, the US allowed its regional oversight and insight into potential trouble spots to wilt. With much weakened analytical capabilities, the United States ignorantly, arrogantly and overconfidently let itself be led into three successive wars that ended in embarrassing setbacks for Washington. After years of being bogged down in Iraq, the US hastily pulled out when it realised that continuing there cost too much in soldiers’ lives, money and especially its reputation in the Middle East and Islamic countries. In a similar fashion, it pulled out of Afghanistan a decade later. Washington repeated the mistake it made in Iraq by getting involved in the Syrian war, although this time it did not invade openly. Its support for anti-government factions ended up helping, of all factions, the pro-Iranian armed groups gain influence and strength. Syria also cemented its ties with Moscow. The end result: Iran spread its regional influence, and the US failed to check it. Other regional conflicts, too, have shown the limits of US power and influence — whether in its failure to stop the war between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis in Yemen, or to end the impasse in Libya. It is then understandable, that in the year prior to the 2024 elections, Biden wants to appear active in the region with a more balanced approach, aimed at demonstrating that the US still does have the ability to mediate peace. If that means mentioning some things that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his hardline cabinet don’t want to hear — let alone heed — so be it.

     BRUSSELS European Council President Charles Michel, in a recent interview with Belgian newspaper Le Libre, emphasized the need for the European Union to avoid double standards in its approach to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Michel reiterated the recognition of Israel’s right to self-defense, stressing that it must be consistent with international law. “Even wars have rules. We should advocate the application of international law and humanitarian law in this conflict, just as we do in the Ukraine war,” Michel said. Responding to a question about whether European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s support for Israel, expressed without referencing international law during her visit amidst the conflict, had impacted the EU’s credibility as a neutral party, Michel acknowledged that some statements caused confusion and frustration in Arab nations. He also noted that both he and the European Council, along with the EU’s foreign policy chief, have been actively clarifying the EU’s stance, affirming the EU’s commitment to a two-state solution. Israel has launched relentless air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip – including hospitals, residences, and houses of worship – since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas on Oct. 7. At least 11,078 Palestinians have been killed, including 4,506 children and 3,027 women. The Israeli death toll, meanwhile, is nearly 1,600, according to official figures.

LONDON: Tourism in the Middle East has been hit by a significant slump amid the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza, it was reported on Friday. Since the Oct. 7 assault by Hamas on Israel and the subsequent Israeli retaliation against the Palestinian enclave, flight bookings to Jordan are down by half, air ticket sales to Egypt are down by one-third and flights to Saudi Arabia are down 67 percent, data from Spanish travel analytics firm ForwardKeys showed. In the three weeks before Oct. 7, travel to the Middle East had increased by 13 percent compared to the same period in 2019, but as of Friday (Nov. 10), it was down by 13 percent, The Independent newspaper reported. The firm said the conflict was having a negative impact on aviation beyond the Middle East, with global air travel in the fourth quarter of the year predicted to drop by as much as 7 percent as a result of it. “This war is a catastrophic, heartbreaking, human tragedy that we are all seeing daily on our TV screens,” Olivier Ponti, ForwardKeys vice president for insights, said. “That is bound to put people off traveling to the region, but it has also dented consumer confidence in traveling elsewhere too,” he added. javascript:false

At least 10 Palestinians have been killed and 20 wounded, including a paramedic, as Israeli army steps up raids. At least 10 Palestinians have been killed and 20 others injured during a raid by Israeli forces in Jenin city and refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Ministry of Health has said. Intense fighting was reported in the camp on Thursday. Black smoke was seen rising over the city amid multiple explosions and gunfire. KEEP READING Watching the watchdogs: Israel’s siege, bombs drown out its PR stunts The war on Gaza: A masterclass in disinformation Israel’s attacks on Gaza: The weapons and mapping the scale of destruction ‘We are facing a disaster’, Mayor of Gaza’s Maghazi camp warns “Occasionally, you can hear gunshots, there are explosions, and you can listen to an Israeli military drone overhead,” Al Jazeera’s Bernard Smith reported from Jenin. “It all started in the early hours of this morning with a raid on the camp. Nothing unusual about that – raids are a fact of life in the occupied West Bank, particularly here in Jenin.” “But we’re told the military came in and left behind special forces who were looking for Palestinian fighters. Once they were spotted, the special forces called for backup, and this major gun battle has been going on since then,” Smith said. Israel’s military said it was conducting counterterrorism raids in Jenin, but gave no further details. “The Israeli army will always say they are going after what they call ‘Palestinian terrorists’, and that’s the purpose of these raids. But since October 7, they have stepped up operations. While they’re happening all over the occupied West Bank, most of them are here in Jenin, where there are different armed groups,” according to Smith. Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that a large number of Israeli troops entered the camp, accompanied by a bulldozer. Snipers positioned themselves on rooftops as the bulldozer proceeded to destroy roads and infrastructure. Palestinian news outlet Quds Network posted footage of the moments after Israeli forces bombed a house in the Jenin camp. In the video posted to social media, smoke can be seen billowing out of a building after it was hit by what the network says was an Israeli drone. Live shots were fired in the ensuing clashes. “Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank have intensified in the last three hours,” Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Jamjoom reported from Ramallah. “Witnesses in Jenin are reporting explosions, at least five in the last half hour alone, and attribute them to armed Israeli drones,” he added. “Israeli forces have also dropped leaflets saying that the raids will only intensify.” The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said a paramedic was injured with live bullets when an ambulance came under fire during the raid. Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, has condemned the deadly raid on the densely populated camp, where about 14,000 people live. “The occupation that suffers defeat in Gaza will also suffer defeat in Jenin and will not succeed in breaking the will of our people from Gaza to the West Bank,” the group said in a statement. Dozens of Palestinians have been killed in recent months by Israeli forces in Jenin, particularly in the city’s refugee camp where armed groups are present alongside tens of thousands of residents. Since the war began on October 7, Israeli forces have arrested more than 2,000 people across the West Bank, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group. The Israeli military has put the figure at more than 1,000 and said most are affiliated with Hamas. At least 174 Palestinians and three Israelis have been killed across the West Bank since October 7, when Hamas launched an attack on southern Israel that killed more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians. Since then, Israel has launched an air and ground assault on Gaza that has so far killed at least 10,812 Palestinians, including more than 4,400 children. At least 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza are now internally displaced, according to UN estimates, as large swaths of the besieged territory lie in ruins.

To enter Hamas tunnels, Israel will have to resort to military practices decades old and long forgotten. A week after Israeli troops encircled Gaza City and cut it off from the southern part of the Gaza Strip, there seems to be no evidence of a serious attack towards the centre. On Wednesday, a select group of Israel-based foreign reporters was taken to a section of the battlefield, which journalists described as “the fringes of Gaza City”. Nearly every building was destroyed or heavily damaged by aerial bombardment, artillery fire or advancing tanks and infantry. Videos show Merkava tanks grouped in an encampment surrounded by tall sandy berms, almost certainly constructed by the armoured combat bulldozers routinely deployed with advance units. The defensive sand walls are likely to deny Hamas fighters the opportunity for hit-and-run attacks. To an analyst, the position and posture of that 401st Brigade company show more than the Israelis probably wanted to. It tells us the advance will be slow, street by street rather than block by block. It also proves that Gaza City’s hardest battle, the underground one, has not begun in earnest. Some tunnels may have been identified and destroyed as troops advanced, but that is likely a tiny part. The 34 Israeli soldiers whom Israel has admitted have been killed so far were apparently killed individually or in small groups – when tunnel war begins, the numbers are likely to jump in bigger groups. To enter the tunnels, Israeli forces will have to resort to military practices decades old and long forgotten to get around the challenges of fighting underground. Identifying entrances To gain a position to fight in the tunnels, Israel has to identify as many entrances as possible. For a system believed to be up to 500km (310 miles) long, those probably number in the tens of thousands. Advertisement Most are hidden, inside residential buildings, garages, industrial facilities, warehouses, under rubbish dumps and, after more than a month of bombardment, under heaps of rubble. But Israel has been preparing to tackle the tunnels since the 2014 incursion into Gaza. Incessant surveillance by drones, using sophisticated software that analyses movement patterns and can recognise individual faces and match them to a database of known Hamas members, revealed hundreds or thousands of entrances. Informants probably added more, and I would not be surprised if the Weasels (Samur) specialised Israeli tunnel-warfare unit, knows half the tunnel access points. https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.603.0_en.html#goog_1510340482Play Video Video Duration 02 minutes 40 seconds02:40Israeli army gives press tour inside northern Gaza Mapping the tunnels Knowing the entrances is useful, but even if all known ones were attacked, that would not make the tunnels unusable for Hamas. Most tunnels have several entrances at each end so some would always remain open. The tunnel builders, Hamas, have a huge advantage as they know the network. Israeli software might offer hints connecting patterns of movement to reveal that two points are probably connected, but it does not reveal the underground routes, directions, or junctions. Advertisement To map the tunnels with whatever degree of accuracy, commandos must get inside, facing huge dangers and difficulties. The first is technical: Down there, GPS positioning devices are useless as satellite signals cannot penetrate the soil. The solution will most probably use devices that combine magnetic sensors, not affected by going underground, and movement sensors like those used in step counters. A crude and imprecise system, but better than nothing. Getting around Once inside, the Weasels will most likely operate with night-vision goggles rather than give away their position using lights. They will not be able to use radios to communicate with units on the surface, so they will have to use field telephones, technology from over 100 years ago. Soldiers will unroll wires, connecting them on the move, further slowing the advance. Even if they do not meet Hamas resistance, they must stop at every junction and assess where the branches lead. A small force will have to be left at every side tunnel to defend from counterattacks. Every time they find a vertical shaft, which are almost always used for entrances, they will have to pause, map the position and relay it back to units on the surface. Advertisement Surface units will have to find the opening and secure it; if it is in territory not controlled by the Israeli army, they will either have to take it or tell the tunnellers to stop or go around it. This will repeat hundreds of times. In the past, Samur released videos of its tunnel-capable robots that might be useful as trailblazers, reconnoitring passageways and sending back night-vision videos. But they can be used on one level only, as they cannot climb ladders or obstacles. https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.603.0_en.html#goog_1510340481Play Video Video Duration 05 minutes 50 seconds05:50Israeli army has told Palestinians in north Gaza to move south as offensive intensifies Surviving inside For practical purposes, everything has been analysed so far assuming that there is no opposition in the tunnels. That is completely unrealistic: Hamas has surely prepared to put up fierce resistance. Most tunnels are probably booby-trapped with pre-positioned improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Those can be wired to remote detonators, but they can also be triggered by specialised detonators that react to light, vibration, noise, movement, and even increased carbon dioxide concentration when people are present. The tunnels are laced with wires and cables that carry electricity, internet, telephones and military lines. Hamas may have observation and detection devices that would let them know where the Israelis are so they can remotely explode charges in that exact spot. Israelis cannot simply cut all the wires because, like in movies, some detonators might be triggered when their electrical supply is severed. As everyone with a connection to mining knows, explosions in confined tunnels are far deadlier than on the surface. They spread further and suck out oxygen so those who survive the initial blast often suffocate. Hamas may also ignite incendiary compounds that deprive occupants of oxygen and spread as high-speed flash fires or

Civil defence members work around the clock with limited resources and no guarantee of their safety, witnessing horrors. Gaza City – Ibrahim Abu Rish feels fresh, thanks to a barber at al-Shifa Hospital who gave him a haircut. The civil defence rescuer, who has been doing this job for 15 years, has not been home in more than a month. “My home is in Karameh, and the whole neighbourhood got destroyed,” he said. “I haven’t had a chance to see my wife and children yet, who are displaced. My wife calls me many times a day, but I can’t answer her every time.” Abu Rish, 35, has witnessed things over the past month that are worse than anything he could have imagined. The Israeli bombardment of the blockaded Gaza Strip has killed more than 10,500 Palestinians since October 7, most are women and children. Israeli air raids have targeted homes, residential blocks, entire neighbourhoods, schools, mosques, churches and hospitals. “This war has no mercy,” Abu Rish said. “We cannot guarantee our own safety.” At least seven rescue workers have been killed. Advertisement Abu Rish’s colleague Mohammed al-Ghaleez and five other civilians were killed in an Israeli air attack on the al-Tuffah police station on Salah al-Din Street in Gaza City. “The hardest thing I’ve seen is the torn bodies of children, the children under the rubble who we can’t reach,” Abu Rish said. “Bodies litter the streets. The smell of this city is one of rotting, decomposing bodies.” He has also seen people desperate for water drinking from the hoses the civil defence uses to extinguish fires. More than 2,660 people are missing under the rubble, including 1,350 children. “It drives me crazy that we can’t save these people,” he said. “I’ve had to tell people that we cannot rescue them. I could see them, but there was no way to reach them. Imagine waiting for death like this.” The civil defence is sorely lacking in heavy machinery and equipment needed to move the rubble, his colleague Musleh al-Aswad said. Their vehicles are rusty, and if they don’t break down from a mechanical problem, the damaged roads and shrapnel hinder their operations. “We don’t have the resources,” the 40-year-old said. “No fire engines, vehicles, ambulances, machines. People use metal cutters and their hands to dig through the rubble.” Tractors and excavators are rare and, even if available, need fuel to work, which is not available. Telecommunications blackouts add stress and prevent rescue teams from coordinating with each other. “I’ve been in the field since 2007 and in every war since then,” al-Aswad said. “But this one, … what is happening to us is unprecedented.” He sees his family every few days, stealing half an hour with them and making sure they’re OK before changing his clothes to head out again. “We are definitely afraid in our line of work, but our determination is stronger,” he said. “We took an oath to protect our people.” Abu Rish said there hasn’t been a single road that Israeli warplanes and tanks have not targeted, and when they strike, it’s always more than once.