CrossFireArarbia

Quranic Centers Serve as Protection

CrossFireArabia
June 29, 2026

CROSSFIREARABIA – The Children of Gaza found the Quranic Memorization Centers a place of learning during the summer holidays. These centers relieve them from the emptiness they are facing as hundreds of thousands of them have been displaced with their parents and live in tents and/or UNRWA schools. Above all these centers are serving as places of protection from constant Israeli raids and bombs that continue on different parts of the Gaza Strip. In one of the Quranic Memorization Centers in Dier Al Balah tens of children sit facing each other in different circles repeating in one voice Quranic verses. The centers are aimed to return then back to their “natural life” which they lost during the war that was launched on them after 7 October, 2023. “My sons have found a place to be in and to spend time as school stopped for the summer,” said Umm Ahmad Al Najjar. These is why she quickly enrolled them in such a center.

Uncategorized

Gaza’s Dead Wait For Burial

CrossFireArabia
June 29, 2026

CROSSFIREARABIA – 12-year-old Mohammed Riyad Ghabboun isn’t waiting for a new house atop the rubble of his family’s home in the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City. Instead, he’s waiting for the remains of family members who have been buried under the rubble for the last eight months, hoping Civil Defense teams will finally dig them up and place them proper graves.

Just steps away, a single excavator is working tirelessly, searching for approximately 8,500 bodies and remains under the rubble of homes destroyed by the Israeli occupation army during its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip. Civil Defense teams, with support from the International Committee of the Red Cross, resumed recovery operations on Saturday with extremely limited resources, amid warnings that continuing at this pace would take years.

The recovery of bodies in Gaza had repeatedly stopped over the past months due to shortages of fuel and heavy equipment.

The last announcement by the civil defense teams in Gaza regarding the recovery of bodies from under the rubble was on 12 May. But this Saturday, its teams began searching for eight missing members of the Ghabboun family at this very spot.

The Israeli war of annihilation on the Gaza Strip, which ended with a ceasefire accord on 10 October, 2015, left more than 73,000 Palestinians dead and over 173,000 wounded. It also caused widespread destruction, affecting approximately 90% of the civilian infrastructure, which exacerbated the limited capabilities of the Civil Defense Department and hampered the efforts of its teams to gain access to thousands of victims trapped under the rubble and huge chunks of debris.

Amid the ruins of the Ghabboun family home in the Sabra neighborhood, Civil Defense teams began their search for the bodies of eight martyrs buried beneath the debris of the house, which was bombed by Israel in October 2025.

Difficult and Slow Operations

Mahmoud Bassal, spokesman for the Civil Defense in Gaza, told Anadolu Agency that the recovery operations are proceeding very slowly due to significant difficulties stemming from a lack of resources and heavy equipment. He added about 8,500 bodies and remains are still buried under the rubble of destroyed homes in many areas of the Gaza Strip, noting there are numerous obstacles hindering the work, including a shortage of equipment and potential field hazards.

“We are issuing a humanitarian appeal to all relevant parties to assume their responsibilities, as the available resources are insufficient to deal with the enormous number of victims and missing persons under the rubble,” he continued.

Basal called for “providing the necessary heavy machinery, excavators, and specialized recovery equipment so that we can completely resolve this issue.”

“Continuing to work at this slow pace will take many years, as we are currently operating with only one excavator, which could break down at any time,” he explained, pointing out that if heavy machinery were provided, “the work would not exceed three months.”

The Civil Defense’s capabilities have been severely damaged in the war, and its available resources now are wholly inadequate for the scale and extent of the destruction in the Gaza Strip. Removing the rubble requires specialized excavators, machinery, and technical teams, he stressed.

That is why the work is so painfully slow and moves haphazardly in fits-and-starts. Under the first phase of the ceasefire agreement in effect in Gaza since October 10, 2015, Israel was supposed to allow the entry of the necessary heavy equipment and machinery, but it has not done so, according to governmental and factional sources in Gaza.

Meanwhile and amidst the search operations, 12-year-old Mohammed Ghaboun stands anxiously awaiting the recovery of the remains of several family members he lost eight months ago.

He, a former survivor of an Israeli airstrike that killed eight members of his family months ago, says, “I have mixed feelings of longing and sadness as the operation to recover the bodies of my family members gets underway.”

“Since the operations started I have been in a state of anticipation and anguish, and I hope that I will be able to see their bodies and bury them in their graves,” he told the Anadolu Agency.

Painful Memories

The absence of equipment not only delays the recovery of bodies but also exacerbates the suffering of the families of the missing, who remain unable to bury their loved ones. Meanwhile, rescue teams face significant difficulties and dangers in the field, particularly at sites of destruction.

For his part, the elderly Youssef al-Zaharneh recalls the moment his house was bombed during the war. “It was sheltering approximately 45 displaced people, mostly women and children,” he recollects.

“The five-story building was bombed without warning, killing some of its residents and injuring others,” Al-Zaharneh told Anadolu Agency, explaining three of his sons were killed in the bombing. “The bodies of two were recovered in pieces, while the third remains missing under the rubble.

As a grieving father, my feelings at this moment are incredibly difficult as I wait for my son’s body to be recovered from under the rubble. All I want is to find a part of his remains or bones so I can bury him and give him a grave I can visit,” he pleads.

“The pain inside me is intense, and I await relief from God,” al-Zaharneh continued.

The volume of rubble resulting from the widespread destruction in the Gaza Strip is estimated at between 50 and 68 million metric tons, according to United Nations estimates and experts.

This enormous amount of rubble covers vast areas of residential and civilian areas, making the search for victims and the recovery of bodies a complex task that could take years, given the limited resources and equipment currently available.

This article, originally appeared in the Palestinian Information Center, is reprinted in crossfirearabia.com

Opinion

The Lebanese-Israeli Accord is War on The Resistance

CrossFireArabia
June 28, 2026

Dr. Nassib Hateit

The announcement of the Lebanese-Israeli agreement, sponsored by the United States, constitutes a dangerous turning point in the war against the Lebanese resistance and its people. It is intended to compensate for the occupation army’s field failures in achieving its objectives of disarming and eliminating the resistance, after suffering significant moral and military losses and realizing its inability to achieve these illegitimate goals on its own.

The enemy’s impotence has driven it to resort to using the Lebanese government, whose legitimacy and constitutionality are still guaranteed by the resistance forces (in the dual alliance). This provides the government with a constitutional—albeit immoral—cover for cooperating with the enemy and legitimizing a comprehensive war against the resistance. It also involves assembling a US-led military coalition that includes Arab and international (multinational) parties, mirroring the “Desert Storm” coalition led by the United States against Iraq.

The aim is to support a beleaguered Israel and eliminate the resistance in all its cultural, economic, social, and health-related aspects, not just its military ones. This agreement confirms the beginning of a new phase of confrontation following the end of the “Hundred Days’ War,” in which Israel failed to achieve its objectives, despite the resistance suffering approximately 20,000 martyrs and wounded, the destruction of tens of thousands of homes, and the destruction and occupation of more than 50 villages and towns.

This shifts the war from a confrontation between Israel and the Lebanese resistance to a war between the resistance and an international coalition led by Washington, with the participation of Israel and the Lebanese government and opens the door for the involvement of Arab and foreign armies, most notably the new Syrian regime army, which US President Trump announced he would task with eliminating the resistance.

This will be facilitated by the Lebanese government’s initiative to formally request the support of Ahmed al-Sharaa’s government for the Lebanese army and will force the resistance to fight on three fronts:

Against the Israeli enemy in the south

Against the US military, multinational forces, and the Lebanese army within Lebanon

Against the Syrian army and takfiri groups in the Bekaa Valley. The US has effectively nullified the first clause of the Memorandum of Understanding with Iran through the Lebanese-Israeli negotiations in Washington, placing the memorandum in a precarious position that threatens its collapse. According to its terms, violating the first clause invalidates the remaining clauses. This precariousness is further evidenced by the timing of the agreement’s announcement, coinciding with the US airstrikes in the Strait of Hormuz. It reinforces concerns that the 60-day period the US needs to reassess its position might be shortened or canceled, or that it could be exploited to forcibly separate the Lebanese and Iranian tracks through the Lebanese government. The aim would be to break the military and political alliance between the resistance and Tehran, and to further fragment the axis, isolating its members and preventing them from uniting their forces to compensate for the imbalance of power.

This agreement grants the Israeli enemy a clean bill of health by the Lebanese government, implicitly acknowledging that the invasion was a response to threats from the resistance. It also includes a pledge not to file any complaints or seek compensation before international institutions and courts—a clever preemptive move by the enemy to shield its military and political officials from accountability and represents a complete surrender by the Lebanese government, which has become something akin to the “12th Division” of the occupation army.

The initial response to this surrender document should be as follows:

Restraining this government and ceasing the sin of granting it legitimacy and constitutionality. It must abandon its hesitation, ambiguity, and incompetence in ministerial representation, the latest glaring example of which is passing the agreement’s presentation to the cabinet without objection from the resistance ministers, who merely issued a statement that condemns them more than it exonerates them.

The Islamic Republic of Iran should take the initiative to freeze the implementation of the MoU with the United States, given that Washington is responsible for this agreement, which contradicts the memorandum’s first clause. The Resistance Axis (Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, and Yemen) has declared its complete readiness to engage in the new round of war, united and collectively, without delay, and to move from a state of “finger on trigger” to one of “fire.” Otherwise, the Axis’s fronts will fall one by one, as Israel and America plan.

The coming phase is the most dangerous since the outbreak of war in 2023 due to the expansion of the fronts and the multiplicity of parties participating against the Resistance. It comes after a war of attrition and exhaustion that has plagued the Resistance and its support base for three years, necessitating the formulation of a new defensive strategy. The Lebanese government must be considered an “unfriendly” entity, having made the Resistance a common enemy for itself and Israel. Participation in a government that collaborates with the enemy against the Resistance is unjustifiable, as experience has proven its futility.

We are not weak… the proof is the global mobilization against us, which cannot be countered with motorcycles and statements!

Manage the power you possess wisely! Take advantage of the enemy’s motto against you (kill first) and kill the government “politically” and bring it down to prevent it from carrying out its plans!

Dr Hateit is a Lebanese writer. An architect by training from Nabatieh in south of Lebanon he teaches at the Institute of Fine Arts in the Lebanese University and is a political columnist contributing to different Lebanese newspapers. This article is published in the Arabic Al Rai Al Youm website and reprinted in crossfirearabia.com.

News

Women Mourn Their Dead

CrossFireArabia
June 27, 2026

Two Palestinians, including a woman, were killed and seven others injured on Saturday in an Israeli drone strike targeting two displacement tents west of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, in the latest reported violation of a ceasefire in place since October 2025. Islam Hassan Abu Shamala, a Palestinian woman, was among those killed in the strike, while seven others were injured, medical sources told Anadolu. Witnesses said an Israeli drone struck two adjacent tents on Al-Rashid Street near the entrance to Roni Street in the Al-Mawasi area west of Khan Younis. They added that the strike destroyed both tents, damaged nearby shelters, and caused multiple casualties in the area.

Culture