Israelis Cry For Help on The Gaza Battlefield

By Dr Marwan Asmar

More Israeli soldiers are committing suicide than ever before. The answer for that is simple: They don’t want to be in Gaza.

But it’s tough luck! Their political masters led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu say they must continue to fight, even if they lose their life in order to beat Hamas and quash the Palestinian resistance but this is not happening.

The road is long and murderous for both sides.

Today, it is the Palestinian factions who are taking up the military, bloody fight. Since Israel’s war with Iran ended towards the end of June, Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters stepped up their operations against Israeli soldiers in the different areas of Gaza. The military operations have become immense and with a sense of vigor in towns, cities, conurbations and neighborhoods the Israeli army said it had teeth-combed from any Palestinian fighters.

These operations, initially mainly involving sniping Israeli soldiers, but more importantly developed into ambushes, booby-trapping destroyed houses and bombs daringly carried by Palestine fighters and strung on Israeli tanks and troop carriers, are today stronger than ever happenings in this 21-month-war that started soon after 7 October, 2023. 

Today, they stand as a symbol of resistance despite the utterances constantly made by Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Israel Katz who keep saying that the Israeli army is systematically dismantling Hamas and its military wing of fighters. But this is just fanciful imagination designed for the disoriented Israeli street that longer wants war but can’t muster enough courage to till Netanyahu and his extremist government to end the conflict.

After the war with Iran, Netanyahu stepped up his hawkish stances, mainly for domestic purposes, ie to stay in power and not go to jail regardless of what is happening on the Gaza war front and despite his peace claims for a ceasefire instigated by US president Donald Trump and the Israeli negotiating team sitting in the Qatari capital of Doha.

The team of men appear to be there as match-stick dolls waiting at the beck-and-call of Netanyahu and certainly not for the first time, and used time-and-again in this genocide and incessantly during the former Joe Biden administration era, which attempted to reach a ceasefire over the whole of 2024 but to no avail. 

In this war Netanyahu had over-ridden all objectives and ultimatums to reach a peace deal and now being incessantly made by Trump, the last during his visit and the third since Trump entered the White House in January 2025. Today despite the character and push geared by Trump, Netanyahu’s will is still stronger and forceful. 

But that may partly be because of the Zionist lobby in Washington that is today stronger than ever because of the purse-strings. Meanwhile Washington continues to be the financier of this genocide by providing Israel with mass weapons.

Netanyahu is on a crusade to end Hamas, and anyone who says ‘no’ to Israel. He is ignoring the voices of his top military men in the army that started to be made in the early days of this onslaught. And he continues to ignore them even today regardless of the fact the Israelis know that “you can’t beat Hamas and the other Palestinian factions” regardless of what literally was done to Gaza, turning it into rubble and eyesore wreckage.

Figures are mind-boggling. 100,000 tons of TNT thrown on Gaza in this genocide creating huge mounts of rubble – an unbelievable 50 million tons of wreckage – that would take 15 years to clear-out through 100 trucks working full time. This is not to say anything about the human factor where more than 60,000 men, women and children were slaughtered at a very conservative estimate.

Despite the killing and destruction today, the Palestinian resistance groups and fighters are regrouping and thinking and conjuring up new armed strategies and think tanks to beat the Israeli army with. In turn, the army is barely standing up according to Israeli experts with the military in a flaccid state of command and action from the north to the south of the Gaza Strip and in areas that have been brought to the ground over late 2023, 3024 and 2025 with the Israeli force complaining that they have “run out of places” to bomb in Gaza.

In this genocide, the Israeli airforce and tanks repeatedly missiled and bombed areas – homes, schools hospitals in different stages in a sense of heightened vengence that was displayed time and again. There were no fighters here but ordinary civilians made to move countless times and turned into domestic refugees living in tents and ramshackled UNRWA schools.

The Israeli military top brass, including generals, majors and rank-and-file soldiers have long complained through protests and petitions but these have fallen on the deaf ears of many in the political echelons of power like Netanyahu who refused to listen to them.

Meanwhile the shocks of the Gaza battlefields continue to bite. Israeli soldiers are today desperately taking their lives because of the psychological tremors they have been subjected to Gaza. One of the soldiers who killed himself recently, three in less than a week and a half, was responsible for carrying the dead bodies of soldiers killed in Gaza and Israel’s last war on Lebanon. Before committing suicide he applied to be committed to a psychiatric ward but needed to wait. On the fatal day, he set his car on fire with him inside.

Israel’s army is falling apart at a soundbyte speed but nobody is listening. On 25 June seven Israeli soldiers were burned alive in their tank in southern Gaza, in an area where the Israeli army was supposed to be in total control. This was particularly gruesome since the army admitted it took time to identify their charred bodies.

Their death set the ball-rolling for more. Almost every since then there has been reported daily deaths of soldiers killed in a fierce war involving Palestinian fighters. Sometimes the numbers go up from one to five and more. This is not to say anything about those that are injured in direct clashes.

The Israelis are forced to admit this because of their helicopters that arrive at the scene to pick the dead and injured and take back to nearby Israeli hospitals which has become an all-too familiar sight in this genocide.

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    CrossFireArabia

    Dr. Marwan Asmar holds a PhD from Leeds University and is a freelance writer specializing on the Middle East. He has worked as a journalist since the early 1990s in Jordan and the Gulf countries, and been widely published, including at Albawaba, Gulf News, Al Ghad, World Press Review and others.

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    Guterres Condemns Israeli Strikes on Beirut

    UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday “strongly” condemned Israeli airstrikes on the Lebanese capital when the US and Iran are nearing an agreement to end hostilities.

    “I strongly condemn today’s Israeli strikes on Beirut,” Guterres wrote on US social media company X. “The strikes took place despite the ceasefire & at a time when the US & Iran are expected to reach an agreement that will pave the way to a peaceful resolution of this conflict.”

    He noted that the conflict has had a “devastating impact on the world’s economy.”

    The secretary-general expressed hope for a “successful outcome” to the diplomatic efforts between Washington and Tehran, and urged all parties to show “maximum restraint at this crucial moment.”

    US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that a peace agreement with Iran remains on track for signing within a “few hours,” despite the Israeli strike on Beirut. He said the attack “should not have happened” and urged all sides to “stand down.”

    Officials in Iran have disputed the timeline, with Iranian media saying Tehran has not yet taken a final decision.

    At least seven people were killed and several others when the Israeli army launched airstrikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut and areas in southern Lebanon on Sunday, Lebanese media said.

    The Israeli army has continued targeting Lebanon since early March when Hezbollah retaliated to the Iran war, killing 3,800 people and displacing more than 1 million. Anadolu

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    Limited Iran Strike: Concept and International Dimensions

    By Dr. Samira Bitam


    In the race for global dominance, America, as always, is committed to playing the political game as the world’s policeman. It believes it has the right to manage its diplomatic and economic affairs in a way that secures its leading position, regardless of whether the targeted country has a legitimate defense or the pretext used to launch its strikes. The objective is paramount, and the target, often due to its nuclear advancements, is seen as an obstacle to America’s complete dominance.

    The crucial question remains: What are the future implications of a new world order that will differ from its predecessor in both the number of poles and the size of the participating countries in alliances? Everyone is vigilant and eager to secure a piece of the global pie, aiming to maintain international standing, security, and open, free competition, all in pursuit of economic strength and astute policy.

    In reality, Iran has never been an enemy of America, but the USA considers it its strongest competitor due to its possession of nuclear weapons—the same weapons possessed by Pakistan, Russia, North Korea, and others. Iran is currently under American scrutiny, and there has been, and continues to be, talk of a limited strike. In the language of politics, every word has a hidden meaning that cannot be understood superficially. “Limited” could refer to a small strike, perhaps targeting a sensitive location, or it could be a verbal threat indicating America’s seriousness about launching an attack on Iran at any moment. Caution is necessary because such attacks have international repercussions and provoke international reactions. We don’t believe America will repeat the same strike against Iran as it did against Iraq if it hasn’t carefully considered its options.

    Iran possesses a silent political language that conceals the reality of its possession of weapons of mass destruction. What some newspapers publish may only represent a fraction of what remains undisclosed. For example, the “Whale” torpedo, specifically designed to destroy American warships, represents perhaps the most crucial element of a comprehensive defense system. According to Israeli estimates, the “Whale” torpedo weighs approximately 500 kilograms and operates underwater at extremely high speeds. To alleviate the burden on American aircraft carriers, Israel assesses that a single torpedo cannot destroy an aircraft carrier unless Iran employs precision operations. Israel’s concerns were evident in Netanyahu’s statement that Israel is facing difficult circumstances. This is understandable, given its gamble on redrawing the map of the Middle East, a gamble that risks failure. The international community will not remain passive, and repeated American aggression against peaceful nations will not go unpunished as before. Governments have reached a level of awareness sufficient to rise up in defense of their borders and territories. Iran will not be the only one affected, as the objective is an existential conflict that will allow Trump to secure his place in history.

    The state of the Arabs today is no less lamentable than it was yesterday, when Iraq found itself mired in a sectarian war fueled by external forces, aimed at destroying its prestige and preventing any progress. America achieved its goals and plans, even though Bush, then president, implicitly admitted his mistake towards the Iraqis. The target was not a nuclear weapon, but a regime that had become a threat, leading to increased pressure on Middle Eastern countries. This occurred amidst a deliberate and even explicit fragmentation of the region, normalization of relations with certain countries, and their sponsorship of attacks like those of September 11, 2001, which targeted the World Trade Center in the United States.

    America’s expenditure of dollars on the newly named Department of War will only add to its burdens. The country is already suffering from internal economic problems and social ills, issues that Trump has neglected, giving them the same attention he has devoted to his war agenda. Meanwhile, the international community is increasingly turning away from such dark policies. The Iranian episode in the global arena is being orchestrated through statements, pronouncements, and verbal sparring, all aimed at disseminating information as mere rhetoric, unreliable for uncovering the whole truth. Some weapons that Iran has not disclosed remain a mysterious enigma, threatening the stability of neighboring countries and those hosting American bases. Should America strike Iran, the entire scene would escalate into a third world war, leading to further political attrition and economic collapse. Statistics show a significant decline in maritime trade, and militias would become active on the borders of countries that have not taken a clear stance on global events. Being a friend of America does not exempt a country from being drawn into conflict, even under the flimsiest of pretexts. International law has been shaped to serve the Zionist-American vision of global hegemony, and membership in the United Nations will not alter this reality. The language of engagement today is the language of force, not negotiation and restraint. The weapons used in wars may not be limited to conventional arms; they may include biological weapons, ideological weapons, and other types that remain undisclosed until the last moment. This is because the cards of the international game are never fully revealed, and the element of surprise is always present. Every country has its own foreign policy and international stances. However, the blame lies with the Arab states that have succumbed to the aggression that devastated Gaza and destroyed its infrastructure. Every action has a reaction, and those who participated in the barbarity of the aggression against the Gaza Strip and merely condemned it will not escape the consequences of a third war, should one erupt.

    Systems are not preserved through silence; rather, they collapse through their own inaction, cowardice, and humiliation. The next war, should it erupt, will bring with it many new realities that will lead to the emergence of a new world order, one that shows no mercy to the weak. The weak are those whose economies are fragile, whose people’s awareness is low, and whose workforce is neither serious nor aware of the magnitude of the stakes that await them. The world will inevitably witness a transformation that will alter perceptions, shift power dynamics, and tip the scales in favor of those who deserve it, without sentimentality or favoritism. Instead, there will be justice for just causes, because global change begins with an act of aggression and ends with a balance of power.

    Opportunities.

    The details of a limited strike, should it occur, will determine the new roadmap. Focusing on the initial strike will clarify the initial ambiguity before any attack.

    Regardless of Trump’s aggressive reactions, whether towards the media or his opponents, his racism in some situations has been blatant. While Trump’s approach to managing affairs is troubling, it has also presented an opportunity for those working closely with him. By observing his habits and reactions, his adversaries can deduce information that allows them to manipulate or control him. Despite their success in this regard, no one can underestimate the difficulty of steering him in the same direction the following day, as Michael Wolff testifies in his book, “Fire and Fury: The Trump White House.”

    Can Iran discern Trump’s seriousness from his jest if the matter concerns the outbreak of a third war, the duration and scope of which are unknown unless Trump decides to end it? Time will tell.

    Dr. Samira Bitam is an Algerian writer. This is a translated version of an article she write for the Al Rai Al Youm website

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