UN Red Alert Lebanon
Last Wedding in Tantura
Battle of Wills: Resistance V. Israeli Settlements
A Public Letter: Stop Smearing Euro-Med
Israel on Gaza Killing Spree as World Looks Away
UN Red Alert Lebanon
CrossFireArabia- June 10, 2026
Saleem Ayoub Quna
marwan
The Middle East Octopus
Dr Khairi Janbek- March 29, 2025
By Dr Khairi Janbek
When we think of contemporary Iran, one always believes that the Arab Middle East had always been dominated by three Non-Arab American allies: Iran of the Shah, Turkey and Israel. One thinks that those “neighborhood police stations” were the guarantors of stability through their convergence, and at times contradictions in the age of Cold War and oil. However, the Shah of Iran was deposed and the anti-communist Cold War ended, but that didn’t mean that oil stopped becoming important nor that both Russia and China were no longer threats.
One would say, that the rehabilitation of Iran and possibly turning it into a negotiations partner aims at keeping the third angle of the police stations triangle going, because non of the Arab countries, no matter how much they tried, could never replace Iran, because no “Arab police station” is permitted to emerge as a third angle.
Having said that, it would be beyond naive to think that the expansion of Iran’s power and influence happened by stealth or escaped the notice of the US and NATO. After all, Iran grew to become a Red Sea country through its influence on the Houthis in Yemen, a Mediterranean country through its influence in Syria as well Lebanon through Hezbollah, and the major Gulf country through its supporters in Iraq. In fact this Iranian domination of space is what has created a common space between all its long arm organizations in the region.
Essentially, if we compare Iran to an octopus, all those various groups are its tentacles, and they all serve the purpose of Iran’s strategic interests, albeit not through a push-button approach, but through not taking any action which would not please their master Iran. Of course, this puts Iran in a strong position to be a major player in the region and an inescapable negotiations partner for the US, which is also convenient for the Americans, in order to remind their Arab allies who is their protector in a region policed by Turkey, Israel and Iran.
Of course, this takes us to the point of saying that, for all intents and purposes, for the Americans a trusted adversary is more important than distrusted friends, and that it would be absurd to think that all those long arms of Iran in the Arab world can be amputated by military means; they certainly can be weakened, but without the consent of Iran and without the right price, so long as it remains behind them, nothing much can change.
At this point, from what one can only see, is that no one in their right mind or otherwise, will permit a war to emerge in which Israel is pitted against Iran and the US as well as NATO putting all their weight behind Israel and forcing the Arabs to choose their camp. That would be the scenario of the end of the world as we know it , or with major civil wars in the Arab countries controlled by the tentacles of Iran, and no one wants that.
Dr Janbek is a Jordanian writer based in Paris
Gaza: Back to The Killing Fields
- CrossFireArabia
- March 27, 2025
Since resuming its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip on 18 March, Israel has been killing at least 103 Palestinians and injuring 223 more every day. Additionally, it never stopped employing other genocide tactics prior to 18 March, and has imposed lethal living conditions since 7 October 2023 designed to eradicate the Palestinian population in the Strip, including starvation and the tightening of its illegalblockade.
Since dawn on Tuesday 18 March, the Israeli occupation forces have killed 830 Palestinians and injured an additional 1,787 in hundreds of airstrikes, artillery shellings, and fire from military vehicles and drones throughout the Gaza Strip, according to the Euro-Med Monitor field team.
The Israeli occupation army also continues to bomb homes with occupants still inside, killing large numbers of people. The most recent incident occurred at dawn today (26 March) in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, when the Israeli army bombed the al-Najjar family’s home and killed eight Palestinians, including five children.
Without any military justification, the Israeli occupation army has committed the crime of targeting homes—or what is left of them—every day, including targeting tents where civilians have sought safety following almost 18 months of genocide. This is a clear component of a systematic Israeli policy that aims to kill Palestinians, ruin their lives, and impose a horrific reality that makes it impossible to survive.
Two Palestinian journalists were killed by Israel in two different, deliberate attacks on 24 March. Palestine Today TV journalist Mohammed Mansour was killed and his wife was gravely injured when Israeli planes bombed his home in Khan Yunis, in the south of the Gaza Strip. Journalist Hossam Shabat, who worked as a correspondent for Al Jazeera Mubasher, was killed when his car was targeted.
The Israeli army has also recently killed civilian government officials in administrative positions, including supervisors working in the education sector. The victims include Jihad al-Agha, the head of the Supervision Department at the East Khan Yunis Education Directorate, who was killed in an airstrike targeting his home on 23 March along with his wife, child, and three daughters, and Manar Abu Khater, the Director of Education in East Khan Yunis, who was killed along with two of his sons in an Israeli airstrike on Khan Yunis on 24 March.
An individual does not lose their civilian status or become a legitimate target for attack simply because they hold an administrative or civilian position within a governmental or organisational structure, unless they are actively and consistently engaged in hostilities, which was not the case in the situation of al-Agha or Abu Khater.
The Israeli occupation forces have also been invading the Tel al-Sultan neighbourhood in the west of Rafah since 23 March, committing heinous crimes, including unjustified field killings.
According to testimonies given to Euro-MedMonitor, the occupation forces shot civilians while they were trying to escape, leaving their bodies lying in the streets. Around 50,000 civilians are still confined to a small geographic area in Rafah while Israeli military activities, such as shelling, bombing, and raids, are taking place around them.
For the fourth day in a row, the Israeli occupation army has kept the whereabouts of 15 ambulance and civil defence workers in Rafah a secret, raising concerns that they might be killed, subjected to torture, or otherwise mistreated. Since these people are humanitarian personnel protected by the Geneva Conventions, their continued detention without formal notification of their whereabouts or health status is a serious violation of international law and a full-fledged crime of enforced disappearance.
For the roughly 2.3 million people in the Gaza Strip who now face Israeli policies of daily killings and starvation due to the continued closure of the border crossings and the denial of aid and medicine, Israel’s return to widespread killing and the systematic destruction of buildings and property imposes a catastrophic reality on their lives. These acts of genocide are similar to those experienced by residents of the Strip for 15 months before the January 2025 ceasefire. Israel’s recent intensification of its genocide, demonstrated by the increasingly lethal living conditions imposed on Palestinians, will result in slow and gradual death without international intervention.
The public declarations made by Israeli officials regarding their acceptance of United States President Donald Trump’s plan to drive Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip and the proposal of its execution are alarming. Following the destruction of the vast majority of homes, shelters, and buildings in the Strip by the Israeli occupation army, hundreds of thousands of people are being forced to flee yet again, without any shelter, under the pretense of evacuation orders for residents’ “own safety” and ongoing intense aerial bombardment.
These statements represent a reality that is being played out on the ground through mass killings and the imposition of intolerable living conditions, rather than just threats. The US gives political and military cover for the continuation of Israeli crimes in the Gaza Strip by providing financial and military aid, blocking international efforts to hold Israel accountable, and interfering to stop the issuance or implementation of UN resolutions that could stop these violations. Israel’s actions are carried out with the direct support and acquiescence of the US, making the US a major actor in the ongoing crime of genocide.
In just one week, over 200,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been forced to leave their homes, and thousands more are preparing to leave by looking for temporary housing. Meanwhile, basic services and security remain unavailable across the Strip.
The international community’s virtual silence has incited Israel to carry out its crimes, including killing and injuring people without consequence and attacking international organizations and UN headquarters in the Gaza Strip. Israel’s complete disregard for the rules of international law—rules that give UN headquarters and employees special protection—alone is an international crime of the highest calibre that needs to be addressed right away.
All states, both individually and collectively, must fulfill their legal obligations and act quickly to halt the genocide in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian civilians there must be protected in every way possible; the blockade must be lifted completely and immediately; the movement of people and goods must be unhindered; all crossings must be opened without arbitrary conditions; and effective measures must be taken to protect Palestinians from the slow killing and forced displacement plans of Israel and the United States. An urgent international response is needed to appropriately address the population’s immediate needs including the provision of adequate temporary housing.
Houthi Missiles, Trump and The Israeli depth
- CrossFireArabia
- March 27, 2025
The Houthis are back firing at the heart of the Israeli depth. The military escalation is increasing despite US President Donald Trump’s warning that the Yemeni group, also called Ansar Allah, are set to be destroyed. But there is no proof of that as yet!
Ever since Israel restarted its military campaign on Gaza on 19 March, exactly two months after it ceased its military operations on the enclave, the Houthis reinitiated its trajectories, drones and hypersonic missiles on Israel. It adopted an eye-for-eye point of view — that is as long as Israel stops humanitarian aid to Gaza, Houthi missiles would continue on the Zionist state.
The latest Houthi ballistic missiles were fired Wednesday during the day, a first-time shocker for these trajectories are delivered in the middle of the night. It was reported by the Hebrew media that millions hurried to underground shelters where sirens went off in 250 cities, towns, and settlements to the chagrin of many Israelis whose lives were turned upside down in the war on Gaza.
Wednesday will be remembered as a hard day for many as the ballistic missiles, which according to the Israeli army were intercepted and shot down from the air by counter trajectories. Such a series of Israeli military actions sent an intense amount of debris hurling down across a wide area of central and southern Israel including in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Analysts are saying it’s back to the old days of attempting to readdress the strategic equilibrium of Houthis and Hezbollah missiles targeting the Israeli depth. While Hezbollah is on the border with Lebanon, the Houthi missiles, and their success in reaching their targets, were fired all the way from Yemen, 2000 kilometers away into Israel.
This time, and like before during the course of 2024 where hundreds of trajectories were fired on the Zionist entity, the hypersonic missile was meant for the Ben-Gurion Airport, a busy hub for international travelers. Because of the timing of the trajectories it was reported that a significant number of the incoming planes had to be diverted and re-routed to Larnaca in Cyprus as a stopover and wait for the calm to set in.
Again this is a first-time development because the disruption usually lasted for no more than 30 minutes whilst this time around it paralyzed the airport and its aviation systems and meant to send a Houthi signal to the Israelis and their American allies especially, that this would be the status quo from now on unless the onslaught on Gaza is stopped and humanitarian aid allowed in the enclave.
Today, the incoming missiles on the different parts of Israel have been almost daily, at least for the last one week. This is seen as a signal that a new and forceful strategic approach is being adopted by the Houthis who are daring the Americans despite their daily military strikes on Yemen that Israel would continue to be a legitimate target.
The American navy through its USS Harry Truman destroyer in the Red Sea is striking Yemen with such force and vehemence whilst assuring the Israelis that they will do the job and end the Houthi presence.
But this is not having the military effect the Americans would like it to have for Yemen is a big country with its harsh setting and difficult geographical terrain that makes such strikes seem like ‘bee stings” rather than painful blows. On Tuesday, the US struck different locations in Yemen 17 times and before that the strikes were carried out with the same level of intensity.
But the Houthis are not being brought to their knees, a proving fact that has cost the preceding Biden administration an estimated $2 billion to attempt to rein in the Houthis but with no apparent success despite the level of destruction inside the country for Yemenis, across-the-board, and not just the Houthis, have proven to be a formidable force over the years.
It’s still too early to see for how long Trump will follow in the footsteps made by former US president Joe Biden. This is bearing in mind that the new man in the White House doesn’t like to spend US money and therefore will likely lose steam as the days pass bye and especially because the Houthis started to target the US destroyer and any other ships going to Israel with the group determined to continue to upset the international trading system unless their is a reprieve on Gaza.
The above-analysis is written by Dr Marwan Asmar, chief editor of the crossfirearabia.com website.
‘All Attempts at Displacing Gazans Failed’ – A Historical Outline
- CrossFireArabia
- March 27, 2025
One of the most widely circulated press items in the Gaza War was a photo in Al-Dustour daily in its 11 March, 1971 edition under an “Evacuation of the Gaza Strip Begins,” headline. This image traveled around the world, confirming the importance of print journalism and its continued role as a primary source of information for documenting events, and its enduring presence despite digital developments.
Al-Dustour witnessed pivotal moments in the repeated attempts to empty Gaza of its population. The idea of displacing the residents of the Strip began in the early 1950s, when a number of military personnel, bureaucrats, and senior UNRWA officials met and took out old maps to discuss possible displacement destinations. After lengthy discussions, it was decided to push Gaza’s residents toward the vast, sparsely populated Sinai Desert.
The plan targeted the displacement of approximately 60,000 people, equivalent to a quarter of Gaza’s population at the time. Despite the start of preparations, the idea was met with categorical rejection by the residents of the Gaza Strip, who clung to their land and refused to leave.
In 1956, the Zionists occupied the Gaza Strip during the Tripartite Aggression against Egypt. David Ben-Gurion, along with senior military commanders, attempted to forcibly displace the population of the Strip to the West Bank and Sinai. However, pressure from the United States prevented the plan from being implemented and the attempt was foiled. A year later, the occupation was forced to withdraw from Gaza.
In 1967, Moshe Dayan devised a plan aimed at forcing as many residents of the Gaza Strip as possible to emigrate to the West Bank and Egypt. Some residents were eventually deported to the West Bank, but the plan did not achieve the desired results, as relatively few residents left Gaza.
In 1971, while the late Yitzhak Shamir was serving as military governor of the Gaza Strip, he decided to forcibly displace the population. He bulldozed thousands of homes and forced a number of residents onto buses and transported them to the city of Al-Arish. But the plan failed, as the population quickly returned to Gaza, supported by pressure from Arab countries and major powers, which prevented the plan from being fully implemented.
With all attempts at direct displacement having failed, the Zionists found themselves in a predicament; neither killing nor enticement persuaded the people of Gaza to leave their homeland. The occupation then changed its strategy, devising a plan to systematically and slowly destroy Gaza through siege, starvation, and repeated military escalation. Once again, however, the Gazans foiled the plan and held their ground, refusing to leave.
In 1992, the “Greater Gaza” project was proposed during the term of Yitzhak Rabin. Secret plans were drawn up to impoverish the Strip, making life there nearly impossible, and drive its residents to emigrate to Sinai. However, this plan, too, failed.
In 2004, then-Shin Bet chief Avi Dichter devised a plan bearing his name, believing he had found the ideal solution to displace the population of Gaza by encouraging what he called “voluntary migration,” particularly to European and Gulf countries. However, this plan also failed, and the people of Gaza remained steadfast in their land, refusing to leave.
In 2014, the Israeli occupation relaunched its first plan, seeking to remove the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip and push the population of the Strip toward Egyptian territory. However, Egypt confronted and thwarted this plan, preventing it from achieving its goals.
Then came the Trump administration’s so-called “Deal of the Century,” which included unofficial clauses regarding the transfer of Palestinians from Gaza to Sinai. The US administration exerted pressure on Cairo to implement this plan, but Egypt categorically rejected it, also leading to its failure.
Then came the Al-Aqsa Intifada, which Israel exploited to carry out the largest genocide ever carried out, with the aim of displacing the people of Gaza. It practiced murder and siege, cutting off their basic necessities of life, hoping to force them to leave. However, despite the brutality of the aggression, Gaza stood firm, thwarted the plan, and emerged victorious with its unbreakable will.
Trump returned once again to revive his plan, this time attempting to displace the people of Gaza through what he called “soft displacement.” However, he clashed with a tough king who firmly confronted this plan and rejected it without hesitation.
The Zionist entity, with American support, failed to adhere to the temporary truce with Hamas, and the war of extermination resumed, amid a stifling siege, famine, and a scarcity of water and medical services.
Over the decades, the Zionist entity attempted to exterminate and displace the people of Gaza, sometimes by force and sometimes by enticement. But Gaza stood firm, and the banner of steadfastness was passed down from generation to generation. Just as this banner was passed down from generation to generation, so too was the banner of defending the holy sites, passed from one Hashemite king to the next.
The commandments of our forefathers became ingrained in our conscience: to always stand with Palestine. Over these long years, Al-Dustour newspaper has stood with the Palestinian cause, exposing the enemy’s schemes and mobilizing support and backing for justice. Al-Dustour has been a witness to history, conveying Gaza’s voice and echoing its steadfastness. At every critical moment, it was present, documenting, exposing, and defending the truth without hesitation.
A day will come, decades from now, when future generations will pass on images from Al-Dustour’s editions that documented this phase of the conflict with the enemy, testifying to Gaza’s steadfastness and the resilience of its people in the face of attempts at genocide and displacement. Just as Al-Dustour has always been present in the battles of steadfastness, Gaza will remain engraved in its conscience: An immortal story and an indelible symbol.
Ismael Al Sharif is a columnist in Ad Dustour newspaper in Jordan.