Today, 10 April, would have been Rachel Corrie’s 46th birthday. We remember her not only for how she died, but for how bravely and beautifully she chose to live—with purpose, conscience, and love.
The Israeli media reports that hundreds of reserve soldiers in Intelligence Unit 8200, in addition to 2,000 professors, have joined the protest petition demanding an end to the Iraeli war on Gaza according to Jordan 24.
Israel’s Channel 12 quoted a statement by Israeli academics in higher education institutions as saying that an agreement is the only solution to return the prisoners being held in Gaza. They stressed that Israeli military pressure will only lead to their deaths.
They point out that the current war only serves political and personal interests rather than security interests.
In turn, Israel’s Channel 13 reported that members of Intelligence Unit 8200 warned in their petition that the continuation of the war is causing the deaths of soldiers and prisoners. It expressed great concern about the increasing cases of refusal to serve among reservists.
Army Radio also reported that about 100 military doctors from the Israeli reserve forces signed the petition calling for an end to the war on Gaza.
On Thursday, Israeli Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir approved the decision to dismiss senior commanders and approximately 1,000 reservists from the service who signed the petition saying they wouldn’t serve in the air force if the Israeli war on Gaza doesn’t stop.
Zamir emphasized the soldiers’ signing of the petition is a serious matter, noting that conscripts at military bases cannot sign petitions against the war and then return to service.
970 current and former reservists in the Air Force published a letter calling for the return of all Israeli prisoners from Gaza, even at the cost of ending the war that has been ongoing for more than a year and a half.
According to the official Israeli Broadcasting Authority, this letter has sparked a storm within the upper echelons of the Air Force.
Defense Minister Yisrael Katz strongly rejected the letter from the Air Force reservists, considering it an attempt to undermine the legitimacy of the war, which he described as “just.”
Among the signatories to the letter were former Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. (res.) Dan Halutz, former Air Force Commander Maj. Gen. (res.) Nimrod Sheffer, and former head of the Civil Aviation Authority, Col. (res.) Neri Yarkoni.
These soldiers’ letter has been featured in all Israeli media outlets, including the Israel Broadcasting Authority, at a time when Israel, with American support, has continued its war of genocide in Gaza since 7 October, 2023.
“We, the fighters of the air force, both reserve and retired, demand the return of the abducted (Israeli prisoners) to their homes without delay, even at the cost of an immediate cessation of hostilities,” meaning the war.
The Israeli military did not rule out the possibility of dozens of active reserve soldiers joining the signatories of the letter, which calls for an end to the war on the Gaza Strip, which has been ongoing for more than 18 months.
Israel estimates that there are 59 prisoners being held in the Gaza Strip, 24 of whom are still alive. Meanwhile, more than 9,500 Palestinians are languishing in its prisons, suffering torture, starvation, and medical neglect, many of whom have died, according to Palestinian and Israeli human rights and media reports.
An Israeli missile suddenly hurls infant Enaam, 50 meters away from her home bombed by Israeli warplanes in the northern Gaza Strip writes Jihad Oweiss in Al Jazeera.
The baby flies up into the sky and miraculously lands on a nearby mattress, as if angels carried her and lowered her onto it, protecting her from certain death. She then sustains facial burns from the explosion of the first missile.
طارت في السماء 50 مترا.. جراح الأطفال المغربي يوسف بو عبد الله يروي قصة نجاة الرضيعة الفلسطينية "إنعام" من قصف إسرائيلي استهدف منزلها pic.twitter.com/RaQAMU39gq
This scene is not a cinematic one: It is a true story that happened in early April and documented by Moroccan doctor Youssef Bouabdallah on his Instagram account. He is visiting Gaza to provide medical care to the wounded.
Something to smile about🌼
Dr Youssef Bouabdallah, a surgeon from Morocco explains how they found a Palestinian baby that survived an Israeli bombing on her home and was found on a mattress “50 metres away” https://t.co/aEqVXlK1SSpic.twitter.com/nKJZgq7MOs
This bloody scenario is among dozens of scenes of ongoing slaughter, expertly orchestrated by Israel and supported by the United States, which has claimed the lives of more than 50,846 martyrs and injured 115,729 since 7 October, 2023.
Flying Bodies and Remains
If the world’s ears cannot comprehend the murderous scenarios being tested by the Israeli occupation army on the residents of the besieged Gaza Strip, the Dar al-Arqam School massacre in Gaza City is proof of this, adding to the open record of genocidal crimes.
فيديو مؤلم جدا 💔💔
الطفلة جنى تقبع تحت الأنقاض ، بين الغبار والدمار بعد قصف الاحتلال واستشهاد عدد من أفراد عائلتها، وبذلت طواقم الدفاع المدني جهوداً مضنية لساعات وبمعدات بدائية حتى إنقاذ الطفلة. pic.twitter.com/HgGhnSSTpF
Palestinian platforms documented the horrific massacre committed by the occupation army on 3 April and what they said showed the moment the bodies of residents blown to pieces by the violent shelling of a school housing displaced persons.
The people of Gaza, especially, cannot get over the sight of bodies being blown apart by the bombing, asserting what they are experiencing is not a war, but “a slow annihilation in which the apocalypse is being perpetrated on earth, without accountability, scale, or justice. While bodies are being torn apart and souls are being scattered, the world is content to count and remain silent.”
To emphasize this, activist Ahmed Al-Khalidi addresses “the complacent” who are surprised by the evacuations of Gaza’s residents by the bombing. He recounts some of the stories of those whose bodies were blown to the top of nearby buildings, those whose remains disappeared and were scattered into the unknown, those who were completely annihilated, and those who were blown away but survived.
Al-Khalidi says in his post: “We found the remains of our neighbors in our house after their six-story home was bombed. The explosion scattered everything: bodies, rubble, and memories.”
He adds: “I once asked a friend who was rescued alive from under the rubble of his house, ‘How did it feel?’ He replied, ‘When the missile exploded, I felt like I’d fallen into a deep hole, spinning violently, but I emerged alive and well.'” He confirms that the same person was later martyred along with his wife and children in a separate bombing.
Psychologist Dr. Saeed Al-Kahlout adds to similar stories, saying: “My martyred sister’s body flew away in one bombing, passing over two buildings and a street, while her husband was found two days later in a nearby neighborhood.”
He continues in a Facebook post: “At the beginning of the war, following a bombing on our neighbors’ house, the neighborhood residents found the body of a martyr, still lying on her bed, on the fifth floor of a building adjacent to the blind martyr’s house. People explained the event by saying, ‘Angels carried her and fled with her to a safe place. She was sound asleep.'”
The new phase of the Israeli war, since its resumption on 18 March, appears to be more bloody and criminal. The occupation army has killed 1,482 Palestinians and injured 3,688, according to data from the Ministry of Health in Gaza.
Gaza residents are witnessing more intense bombardment and a more intense rate of killing, as if the Israeli occupation army is using the Strip as a testing ground for its lethal military weapons, following its violation of the ceasefire agreement concluded with the resistance last January.
Al-Kahlout links the scenes of bodies of martyrs flying to the violent bombardment, saying: “The force of the explosions we are witnessing in this war makes me say that bodies are trying to save themselves by fleeing, even if they fly outside the circle of fire, to escape the hell… The sound of the explosion is as if the sky has split open in its wrath, shaking the ground beneath our feet and deafening our ears until we hear nothing but the howling of fear inside our heads.”
Fear and Panic
Blogger Abu Ghaith Yaghi calls on the world to talk about “dying Gaza” and the difficult nights the residents are experiencing, while “Israel is testing new types of bombs and missiles.”
While activist Mohammed Al-Akashiya asks on his account, “What are they (the occupation) throwing at us?” due to the sounds of shelling reverberating throughout the area, another asserts that the wave of explosions and shelling is terrifying and unprecedented.
Activist Mohammed Haniyeh believes that most of the missiles used after the renewed genocide are different from those before, and have a massive blast wave. He adds: “We now hear the echo of the explosion for a longer period of time. It doesn’t stop instantly, but rather the sound seems to extend and spread, coinciding with earthquakes that last for seconds.”
In the short term, Israel is no longer in a hurry to normalise relations with Saudi Arabia, which it considers the grand prize in the Islamic world. Although its leaders view normalization as necessary, indeed inevitable, over the long run, what Netanyahu and his team currently see is an unprecedented historical opportunity that has not occurred since the founding of the State of Israel. They are thus pushing to implement sweeping and profound changes to the Palestinian situation, through displacement, expulsion, settlement expansion, annexation, and the Judaization of Jerusalem, from Gaza to Jerusalem and the West Bank. For the Israeli right, these policies take precedence over any other strategic interests.
It is not only about the Palestinians. The Israeli right’s ambitions today extend to constructing new and unprecedented spheres of regional influence and redefining Israeli security. This includes striking at any source of potential future threats and establishing Israel as the dominant regional power.
There are three key variables that must be taken into account when analyzing the current geopolitical shifts and the repercussions of Israel’s war on Gaza, not only in terms of the Palestinian issue, but also on a regional and global scale.
The first variable can be described as “Political Netanyahuism.” Today’s Israel is no longer the Israel of the past—this marks the era of Benjamin Netanyahu, especially post-Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood.” This era has unleashed the historical project of the Israeli right-wing in full force, with no intention of reversing course. The key features of this project include, first, a complete abandonment of the peace process, a rejection of the Oslo Accords and their consequences, and the annexation of large parts of the West Bank—effectively nullifying the Palestinian Authority’s political relevance and perhaps returning to a system of disconnected “cantons.” Additionally, this entails the Judaiztion of Jerusalem. Second, Netanyahuism is reflected in a complete structural shift of Israel toward the right, with the near-total erosion of the secular-leftist stream in Israeli politics. Third, it involves the deep penetration of religious ideology into Israel’s security and military institutions, leading to their full domination by religious-nationalist elements.
Even if Netanyahu were to exit the political scene, this would not alter the course of these policies or shift current events. Israel post-Netanyahuism will not be the same as it was before. The historical Zionist dream persists—ideologically, strategically, and religiously—even if tactical approaches differ. This new political reality is not merely shaped by individuals like Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich; rather, they are products of a broader environment and not anomalies within it.
The second variable is the major Arab strategic collapse—a process that began decades ago but reached a far more dangerous stage in the past 15 years, especially after so called “the Arab Spring”. The resulting transformations led to the fragmentation and collapse of numerous Arab states and the weakening of the entire Arab geopolitical map—in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Sudan, and Libya. It now seems as though the Arab geopolitical landscape, shaped after World War I, is disintegrating. This has created a strategic opportunity for Israel to expand, particularly following the recent decline in Iran’s regional influence over the past year in the wake of the war on Gaza.
The third variable is the return of Donald Trump to the White House—this time accompanied by a team that is more Zionist and ideologically aligned with the Israeli right than ever before. The unprecedented genocide unfolding in Gaza, the (implicit) green light granted to settlers and Netanyahu’s government in the West Bank and Jerusalem, and the statements made by Trump’s team concerning Palestine, Iran, Lebanon, and Syria all suggest an unprecedented alliance—perhaps even an organic one—between a hardline right-wing American administration and an extremist Israeli right. Although US policies have historically been biased in favor of Israel, the situation has never reached this level of alignment and support.
These three variables together shape a new political landscape, they significantly impact Jordan’s strategic perspective on national interests and security and necessitate a reevaluation by political elites who previously believed that there were multiple factions within Israel with whom one could engage, or that American influence could constrain the Israeli right, or that an effective Arab strategic space could be mobilized to counter such dangerous transformations.