image source, Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images
People wait for bread in front of a bakery that was partially destroyed in an Israeli raid in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on November 4.
Arab and Israeli newspapers focused on analyzing the current situation of the war currently taking place between Israel and Hamas, nearly a month after the movement’s surprise attack on Israel on October 7th.
We begin our tour with an article in the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper by Saudi writer Abdul Rahman Rashid, under the title “How will the Gaza war end?”
The writer says that the world is facing a “terrible humanitarian” crisis and the beginning of a different political project, noting that it is possible for Israel to succeed in achieving its goal and eliminating the Hamas movement.
But he points out that Hamas’s exit from the equation “will not eliminate the Palestinian cause and its rights.”
“There may be a role for the Palestinian Authority in managing Gaza.”
The writer considered that those he described as “enemies,” Hamas and Netanyahu, “are the two groups most closely allied against the peace project, and they worked to obstruct it.”
According to him, they are the losers in the war, as Hamas may lose Gaza, and Netanyahu may lose the presidency of the government due to his failure to prevent the attack of last October 7.
But he believes that this war may breathe life into the peace train, and not the other way around, “even in light of this humanitarian catastrophe, the worst in the history of the Israeli conflict in half a century.”
The writer cites the Oslo Accords, which ended the description of the Fatah movement as a military organization and granted Yasser Arafat a political status according to which he succeeded in returning to Ramallah and the occupied West Bank.
However, there is a stumbling block that the article points out, which is that the movement’s military wing does not recognize any role for its leaders residing outside the Gaza Strip, such as Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Mashal.
The movement has been militarily managed since 2017 by its military leaders, especially Yahya Sinwar.
But the writer says, “Because of the movement’s besieged situation and what will follow, its leaders abroad may have a seat at the table for possible peace negotiations later.”
At the end of the article, the Saudi writer warns that if Hamas agrees to give up its weapons, there is a challenge, which is that “no Arab country is ready to host them for fear of the accompanying dangers,” which he did not name.
But he ends his article on an optimistic tone, saying that there may be a role for the Palestinian Authority in managing Gaza, “and here we see a light in Gaza’s dark tunnels.”
image source, Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Effects of the Israeli bombing on the Gaza Strip
“Do not ask us to end the war in Gaza.”
We read another article from Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper by Israeli writer Jonathan Yaffey, entitled “Do you still stand with Hamas? You are either anti-Semitic or stupid, and most likely both!”
The writer strongly criticizes those who describe them as standing on the side of Hamas, adding that beheading children, kidnapping them, and rape cannot be justified in any context, in reference to what Israel claims happened during the attack launched by Hamas on Israel.
The writer says: “Do not ask us to end the war in Gaza,” adding that the Israelis have lost hope of living in peace next to their Palestinian neighbors.
The writer likens talking to those who are demanding to stop the war on Gaza, to talking to a wall built of bricks, indicating that talking to them is useless.
The writer believes that if the Israeli government does not eliminate the Hamas movement, it will kill the Israelis, saying: “If we do not pursue these patients and eradicate them, they will continue to kill us and them.”
The writer goes on to say: “I live in central Israel, in the greater Tel Aviv area… Today my family was brought into the safe room three times, because rockets were fired at our town.”
He refers to an incident that occurred years ago, according to him, when a missile destroyed a pediatrician’s clinic in the area where he lived. He also says that his children have not been able to attend a single day of school regularly for more than a month, due to the ongoing war.
The writer ends his article by saying that he cannot explain to his children the reasons for Hamas detaining a nine-month-old infant inside the tunnels for a month.
image source, Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Children sitting in Nuseirat camp after the Israeli bombing
“Every bombing in Gaza kills children.”
We end the newspaper tour by reading an article from Haaretz newspaper by Israeli writer Gideon Levy entitled “If we cannot see the eyes of Gaza’s dead children, can we see the children at all?”
The writer begins his article by saying that there is no difference between killing one child and another.
The writer wonders: “Is the shock of the children who were killed in Jabalia supposed to be less than the shock of the children who were killed in Be’eri?”, referring to the town of Be’eri, against which Hamas launched an attack in the Gaza Strip last October.
The writer also confirms that the children of Israel are dear to his heart more than anything else.
He adds: “We cannot help but be shocked by the mass massacre committed against children in Gaza, just because our children were also killed!” The writer blames Israel and Hamas for the killing of children in the Gaza Strip.
The writer says that these children “lived in poverty, misery, and under siege, and searched for refuge, without a present or future, largely because of Israel,” according to him.
The writer goes on to say that an Israeli infant was killed in the town of “Nairoz” in the Gaza Strip by Hamas with unspeakable cruelty.
While the Israeli army killed children in Jabalia “coldly”, in horrific numbers.
The writer Pitt compares these two incidents, describing them as lacking in morality, but he points out that the number of children killed in Gaza reaches an unprecedented toll of 3,900 children.
As the Israeli writer describes, the weekend was very bloody.
He talks about several video clips, but the most shocking of them is the one that showed the torn bodies of eight children hugging each other in two plastic bags, on their way to a mass grave.
The writer cites another incident, when “an ambulance carrying wounded on its way to the Rafah crossing was bombed by the Air Force.”
The writer goes on to say that Israel “claims” that there are terrorists inside, which has led to the coastal road to which the displaced are trying to flee south, “on Israel’s order,” being filled with bodies, including many children.
The writer says: “Every bombing in Gaza kills children,” explaining that Israeli children were killed in a more cruel manner. But the children of Gaza and the children of Israel, as well as their families, are, in the end, human beings.
The writer ends his article, citing the statements of US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken when he was asked about his feelings when he saw the children of Gaza being pulled from under the rubble. He replied, saying: “The scenes of the children of Gaza under the rubble hurt me… and I see my children in them.”
