CrossFireArarbia

Tom Fletcher: No ‘Vocabulary’ to Describe The Destruction

CrossFireArabia
July 17, 2025

Conditions in Gaza have reached an unspeakable level of devastation with children paying the highest price, top UN officials told the Security Council on Wednesday, warning of soaring child deaths, starvation and a shattered health system amid continuing bombardment and displacement.

Tom Fletcher, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, said there was no “vocabulary” left to adequately describe conditions on the ground.

“Food is running out. Those seeking it risk being shot. People are dying trying to feed their families. Field hospitals receive dead bodies, and medical workers hear stories firsthand from the injured – day after day after day,” he said.

Starvation rates among children reached their highest levels in June, with more than 5,800 girls and boys diagnosed as acutely malnourished.

“Last week, amid this hunger crisis, children and women were killed in a strike while waiting for the food supplements to keep them alive.”

UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher briefs the Security Council

A classroom full of children, lost every day

UNICEF’s Executive Director Catherine Russell told ambassadors that an average of 28 children are killed in Gaza every day – “the equivalent of an entire classroom.”

Over the past 21 months, more than 17,000 children have been killed and 33,000 injured across Gaza.

Many of those children, she said, were struck “as they line up for lifesaving humanitarian aid – further proof that there is no safe place for civilians anywhere in Gaza.”

“Children are not political actors. They do not start conflicts, and they are powerless to stop them. But they suffer greatly, and they wonder why the world has failed them,” she added.

“And make no mistake, we have failed them.”

Critical infrastructure collapse

Gaza’s health system “is shattered,” Mr. Fletcher reported – only 17 of 36 hospitals and 63 of 170 primary health centres are even partially functioning; shortages mean up to five babies share one incubator.

Seventy per cent of essential medicines are out of stock, half of all medical equipment is damaged, pregnant women are giving birth without care, women and girls manage their periods without basic supplies.

Meanwhile, water production capacity has plummeted leaving the entire enclave (95 per cent) facing water insecurity.

“With clean water increasingly difficult to access, children have little choice but to drink contaminated water,” Ms. Russell said, noting that this is increasing the risk of disease outbreaks.

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell briefs the Security Council

Aid impeded, fuel at trickle levels

Mr. Fletcher further described the scale of challenges to moving something as simple as a bag of flour into Gaza.

He noted multiple layers of approvals that Israel requires, scanning, re‑loading, multiple handoffs, damaged roads, delays at holding points, insecurity and desperate civilians grabbing supplies off trucks.

Last week – after almost 130 days – some fuel entered Gaza, as Israeli authorities agreed to allow two trucks in per day, five days a week. However, petrol – fuel for ambulances and other critical services – has not been permitted.

Between 19 May and 14 July, just 1,633 aid trucks – about 62 per cent of loads submitted for clearance – entered Gaza, far below the average of 630 daily truckloads moved during the previous ceasefire, Mr. Fletcher said.

Appeals to Israel, Hamas – and the Council

Both officials pressed for immediate, safe, sustained, demilitarised humanitarian access through all available crossings, consistent fuel flows, protection of civilians at distribution points, and restoration of the UN‑led aid pipeline that briefly functioned during earlier pauses in fighting.

They also reiterated the UN’s call for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages held in Gaza and called on all parties – including Hamas and other armed groups – to respect international humanitarian law.

Mr. Fletcher asked the Security Council to assess whether Israel, as the occupying power, is meeting its obligations to ensure food and medical supplies reach civilians.

“We hold all parties to the standards of international law in this conflict. We don’t have to choose – and in fact, we must not choose – between demanding the end to the starvation of civilians in Gaza and demanding the unconditional release of all the hostages,” he said.

“We must reject antisemitism – we must fight it with every fibre of our DNA. But we must also hold Israel to the same principles and laws as all other States.”

UN News

Opinion

Bombing Damascus, Arab Silence!

CrossFireArabia
July 17, 2025

In a scene that reflects its utmost political and military arrogance, Israel, Wednesday, bombed the Syrian General Staff and the Republican Palace in the heart of the capital, Damascus.

This blatant attack crosses all red lines, interfering in Syria’s internal affairs as if it were the world’s superpower, openly defying international law and humiliating some Arab regimes with its silence and suspicious incompetence.

This is not a passing event, nor is it merely a “security message,” as Western media attempts to gloss it over. It is a blatant aggression against the sovereignty of an Arab state, striking its most important symbols of sovereignty in broad daylight.

The military strikes are a declaration of rebellion against international law and an insistence that Israel remains “above the law,” capable of destroying any Arab capital without fear of punishment or even blame.

What does Israel want?

It wants to brazenly say:

“I decide who lives, who is bombed, and whose voice is forcibly silenced.”

It seeks to impose the logic of force and dictate new rules in the region, titled: There is no place for an Arab state with independent decision-making, capable army, or a resistance project.

What is happening in Syria today has happened and is happening in Gaza, in southern Lebanon, in Iraq, in Yemen, and in every region trying to breathe outside the Zionist orbit.

The challenge is not only facing Syria…but all Arabs.

Anyone who thinks that these raids target Syria alone is delusional.

Every Arab country is now on the waiting list.

Today, Damascus is being bombed, and tomorrow… who will be next? Baghdad? Beirut? Yemen, Khartoum? Riyadh, Cairo? No one is immune to this arrogance as long as silence is the only response.

It is the Arab silence that has encouraged Israel to persist. The disagreements, divisions, and humiliating normalization are what have reassured Tel Aviv that no one will hold it accountable, or even condemn it.

What’s needed now: Break the silence and stop the collapse.

It’s time for the Arab nation to wake up from its slumber and realize that what is happening is not a “Syrian crisis” but a “collective Arab setback.”

Overt and gratuitous normalization with Israel must be halted immediately.

The Joint Arab Defense Charter must be activated, even if only verbally at first.

The steadfastness of Syria—its people, army, and institutions—must be supported, because the ultimate target is every Arab state. Everyone’s turn will come if Arab silence continues.

Israel is not destiny… and if the Arabs want to, they can.

Our history is full of moments of steadfastness and victory, but we need an awakening of conscience and a political will to halt this unbearable collapse.

Israel does not respect the weak, nor does it take into account those who remain silent.

Unless it is curbed now, every Arab state will one day find itself in its crosshairs, without support or dignity.

This opinion was written by Awni Al Rjoub in Arabic and published in Jo24.

News

Houthis Launch Three-Pronged Attack on Israel

CrossFireArabia
July 17, 2025

Yemen’s Houthi group announced Wednesday it targeted Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport, Eilat port and a military site in the Negev region in a series of coordinated missile and drone attacks.

“The Houthi missile force launched a ballistic missile of the Zulfiqar type at Lod Airport (Ben Gurion) in the Tel Aviv area,” Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said in a prerecorded statement.

He added that the strike forced “occupying Zionist settlers into shelters and halted airport operations.”

Saree said the group also conducted operations using drones. Two drones targeted an Israeli military site in the Negev region, while others were aimed at Ben Gurion Airport and the port of Eilat according to Anadolu.

Earlier, the Israeli army said it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen, triggering air raid sirens in several southern areas. The army did not mention any drone activity in its statement.

Air raid sirens sounded across multiple towns and settlements in the Negev and Dead Sea areas, according to Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth daily.

Meanwhile, Israel’s Channel 12 reported that the port of Eilat will suspend operations starting Sunday due to financial distress, largely attributed to a sharp decline in revenue caused by the ongoing Houthi naval blockade in the Red Sea.

According to the report, the port has accumulated roughly 10 million shekels ($2.9 million) in debt, primarily due to unpaid municipal taxes. The network said ships that previously docked at Eilat have diverted to Ashdod and Haifa ports on the Mediterranean, citing “aggressive Houthi activity in the Red Sea.”

The Houthis have intensified missile and drone strikes on Israel since Israeli forces resumed their attacks on the Gaza Strip in March after two months of a shaky ceasefire.

Since November 2023, the group has also targeted commercial shipping in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea in support of Palestinians in Gaza, where nearly 58,900 people have been killed in an Israeli onslaught.

Uncategorized

Israelis Cry For Help on The Gaza Battlefield

CrossFireArabia
July 17, 2025

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.

Opinion

Middle East in a Cracked Mirror

Dr Khairi Janbek
July 16, 2025

By Dr Khairi Janbek

Every time the “new Middle East” which by the way has exciting resonance, be it conspiratorially or optimistically, is raised, one sees the new concept as exactly resembling exactly the old Middle East or is of the same replica.

We have grown accustomed to seeing the big turmoil in the Middle East, wars and regime changes, and each time we fall into the trap of seeing a conspiracy to change the boundaries of the Middle East, boundaries created with accords between Britain and France after WWI and which all countries of the region decry and condemn yet ironically fighting tooth and nail to preserve.

But what is this bogey which insinuates conspiracies and evil behind the cloak of a new Middle East.

Infact it started off idealistically as a reformist movement, basically economic as well as political reform, but with constant instability in the region, the term started to take another meaning, basically new alignments and new political understandings for the countries of the Middle East.

Essentially the way one sees it, the term now refers not to geography or reform – economic or political – but rather who are going to be the major players in the regions, who will be pulling the strings and will they relate to each other despite their contradictions and convergences.

For much of the recent history of the region the Trinity of Turkey, Israel, and Iran were the frame which contained the Arab problems within the Arab world, but as we have been seeing in recent history, these major players became part of the problems of the Arab world through their interference, seeking expansion or guaranteeing what they claim to be their national security concerns.

Now, and in the Donald Trump era, the concept of a new Middle East is still on track regarding the notion of who will be the new forces pulling the strings in the area, as for all intents and purposes, Iran as it seems has been relegated to a more background position regarding the affairs of the region, and Turkey with a circumscribed role, especially that the PKK, the leitmotif of Turkish interference in the area have laid down their arms.

Of course, now Israel is the power par excellence and the major player, but it needs a balancing actor from the Arab world this time, and the most likely candidate is Saudi Arabia.

However a Saudi balancing actor to Israel, is just not an easy feat to achieve, because such an actor cannot be based on contradictions alone, but also requires convergence. And this supposed convergence relies on the point of principle, the two-state solution to the Palestinian problem.

Now one is really not aware of the reasons behind Netanyahu’s rejection of the two-state solution, but certainly he is a hostage of his political alliances that keep his government afloat, thus making him avoid going back to court, and even worse, a possible jail term. As certainly for his allies, the rejection of a two-state solution is a point of principle.

Consequently, one believes, without the common ground with Saudi Arabia, of putting back on the table the issue of the two-state solution, there won’t be a new Middle East of two major actors, but rather one temporary major actor, being Israel for a temporary new Middle East!