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Gaza, Surrealism and Empty Stomachs

CrossFireArabia
July 31, 2025

By Michael Jansen

“Let them eat cake” is a careless remark traditionally but falsely attributed to France’s Queen Marie Antoinette at a time peasants had no bread and were starving. She and her husband King Louis the 16th were beheaded in 1793 during the French Revolution which overthrew the monarchy.

This past week Donald Trump spent five days in Scotland playing golf at two courses which he owns while 2.3 million Palestinians faced famine and starvation due to a four-and-a-half-month Israeli blockade of Gaza. During a press conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Trump finally acknowledged there is “real starvation” in Gaza. Later in the day, he claimed he had “told Israel maybe they have to do it a different way.” This suggested by adopting a new, less punitive policy. He was speaking after Egyptian and Qatari-mediated negotiations on a 60-day ceasefire had broken down, the US and Israel blamed Hamas and left Doha, delaying a full resumption of aid.

Hamas had demanded a return to UN and international agency deliveries of water, food, medicine, and fuel which have been blocked by Israel since March 2nd, Israeli withdrawal from areas of Gaza occupied since Israel broke the ceasefire on March 18th, and an end to Israel’s war on Gaza once the ceasefire expired.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had refused all these demands and was backed up by his good friend Donald Trump. Instead of thinking of starving Gazans, Trump stated, “Hamas didn’t really want to make a deal. I think they want to die, and it’s very bad. It got to the point where you [Israel] have to finish the job.” He did at that time admit that images of starving children in Gaza were “terrible” but added, “They’re stealing the food,” echoing the Israeli accusation that Hamas is guilty of depriving Gazans of food. This has been denied by the World Food Programme and the UN agency looking after Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.

Israel has been fighting Hamas since October 7th, 2023, when it killed 1,200 and abducted 250, but Israel’s armed forces have failed to “finish the job.” Trump has given Israel permission to fight on indefinitely without totatally ending the blockade.

Alarmed by the “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza, Germany, France and Britian have called on Israel to end the conflict, “immediately lift restrictions on the flow of aid and urgently allow UN and humanitarian NGOs to resume operations. “Israel must uphold its obligations under international humanitarian law.”

Pressure from these three countries, the UN, and international humanitarian agencies has compelled Israel to declare 10-hour tactical pauses in the fighting in three areas of Gaza. During these pauses which could last a week or so, Israel is to allow air drops of supplies by Jordan, the Emirates and Israel, permit scores of lorries laden with aid to enter the strip, and create “humanitarian corridors” for aid deliveries. These “concessions” are far from a ceasefire and the reopening of all crossings into Gaza for between 500-600 lorries a day. Furthermore, this number must be greatly increased to compensate for Israel’s blockade which has deprived Gazans of sustenance as well as water, electricity and fuel.

Specialised food to treat malnutrition must be included as starving people cannot absorb normal food. Parcels being delivered contain rice, lentils, and beans which cannot be cooked by many of the 90 per cent of Palestinians who have been displaced from their homes and live in tents in crowded camps. There is no wood in Gaza for fires and Palestinians rely on rubbish and plastic which pollute the environment. Palestinians cannot survive on the other items the parcels: sugar, salt, and flour. The latter they can exchange at bakeries for bread.

If ever the previous flow of humanitarian aid is restored, Gazans will need fresh vegetables, fruit, meat and chicken to revert to a nutritious diet. They used to be raised on Gaza’s farms or brought into Gaza by commercial firms from Egypt, Israel, and the West Bank.

In Sunday’s New York Times, World Central Kitchen (WCK) founder Jose Andres proposed a programme which could help resolve Gaza’s hunger crisis. He called for the reopening by Israel of humanitarian corridors to all aid groups working in Gaza and permission to operate multiple communal kitchens. While WCK has been providing hot meals in Gaza since the war began in 2023, he proposed an increase in the production from thousands to one million hot meals a day and to feed families where they dwell. He said five large cooking facilities would have to be built in safe zones “where bulk supplies can be delivered, prepared and distributed without risk of violence.” These kitchens “would supply hundreds of smaller community kitchens “at the neighbourhood level throughout Gaza, empowering communities as essential partners.”

This project depends on obtaining the agreement of Israel and equipment, raw food and fuel supplies which could be provided by aid agencies and concerned governments.

The author is a columnist for the Jordan Times

News

Hamas Releases US-Israeli Hostage

CrossFireArabia
May 12, 2025

The International Committee of the Red Cross received Israeli-American soldier Idan Alexander from Hamas on Monday evening. His family confirmed he would travel to Doha later in May to meet President Trump and Qatar’s Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

Hamas had captured Alexander in Gaza during the war as he served in the Israeli military. The release followed direct talks between Hamas and the U.S., and came as part of broader efforts to secure a ceasefire, open border crossings, and allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.

The handover took place in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. The Israeli military confirmed it received Alexander and said he is in good health.

Hamas said it released Alexander after “important talks” with the U.S. and praised the American administration’s efforts. The resistance movement emphasized that serious and responsible negotiations produce results in freeing prisoners. Continued military aggression, they warned, only prolongs prisoners’ suffering and risks killing them.

Hamas declared its readiness to begin immediate negotiations for a permanent ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces, lifting the blockade on Gaza, a prisoner exchange deal, and reconstruction of the war-torn enclave. It also called on U.S. President Donald Trump to intensify efforts to end “Netanyahu’s brutal war against children, women, and unarmed civilians in Gaza.”

Earlier Monday, Israeli media reported full preparations were in place to receive Alexander. His family confirmed he would travel to Doha later in May to meet President Trump and Qatar’s Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

Channel 12 said the Israeli army received orders to halt fire in Gaza from midday to ensure a smooth handover. A military helicopter brought Alexander’s family to the Re’im base near the Gaza border to await his release.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Israelis demonstrated outside the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, demanding the release of all Israeli prisoners.

Earlier in the day, Abu Obeida, spokesperson for Hamas’s military wing, said on Telegram that the group had decided to free Alexander. The 21-year-old soldier, originally from New Jersey, had served in the Israeli army and became the 39th prisoner released by Hamas since January 19, when a temporary ceasefire was reached. That deal later collapsed in March when Israel resumed its offensive.

U.S. Middle East envoy Steven Witkoff arrived in Israel for the release. Adam Boehler, the U.S. envoy for hostage affairs, posted a photo from the plane flying him and Alexander’s mother to Israel to receive the soldier.

Boehler praised Hamas’s decision and called for the return of the remains of four other U.S. citizens reportedly killed and still in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office issued a statement saying Israel remains committed only to securing a safe corridor for Alexander’s release—not to a broader ceasefire or exchange. Talks for other Israeli prisoners, they added, will continue while Israel prepares to intensify attacks.

Netanyahu claimed Alexander’s release came without concessions, crediting U.S. support and Israeli military pressure. “We are in critical days,” he said, “and Hamas now has a deal on the table that could lead to the return of our captives.”

Haaretz quoted a senior Israeli source saying Israel demands that Hamas release at least half of the Israeli prisoners—dead or alive—before it enters full negotiations to end the genocide.

The Times of Israel reported that Hamas had received assurances from a mediator that releasing Alexander would improve their standing with Trump. The resistance movement reportedly hopes the move will encourage the U.S. president to pressure Netanyahu into accepting a broader deal according to the Quds News Network.

Opinion

The Gaza Death Trap

CrossFireArabia
May 6, 2025

While everyone waits for the full-blast war on Gaza which Israel promises to continue, Tel Aviv must know this will not be an easy matter not least of all by the Benjamin Netanyahu government whose ministers are split over allowing the army to resume its “fighting” position in Gaza.

Not everyone holds the view of extremist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. He wants to resume, or continue, a large scale offensive on Gaza and reoccupy the enclave forever! For these opposing ministers as well as a large number of army soldiers and officers are not in favor of going back to fighting in Gaza because (a) of the bloody situation and danger soldiers were subjected to since 7 October, 2023, and because they want the rest of the remaining hostages – 59 and about 24 still thought to be alive – to be returned.

They fear – and reflecting major sections of society who have been demonstrating daily in Tel Aviv and other major Israeli cities under the of banner “bring them home,” – that increasing the wheels of war on Gaza would be signing the death warrants of the remaining hostages, originally marked at 250 and over 40 of them killed by indiscriminate Israeli bombing of the different areas of enclave over the past 17 months or so of fighting.

In the eyes of Smotrich, and he doesn’t mince his words, the return of the hostages is now secondary and what is crucial is to destroy Hamas and end its presence in the Gaza Strip.

But this is not happening. Since the resumption of the Israeli war on Gaza on 19 March, 2025 the resistance led by the Islamic organization and the other Palestinian factions have also resumed their fighting. While it is true, Hamas was slow in getting back to the war, preferring to give the ceasefire and peace talks a chance, and which led many to say the resistance are finished, this was far further from the truth.

Fighting again

Exactly one month later after 19 March, the Palestinian resistance led by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, re-started their fight against the Israeli army and the targeting of its soldiers; the Zionist army had maintained an active presence in the different areas of the Gaza Strip since the ceasefire took effect on 19 January, 2025 when the newly-elected US president was installed in the White House.

After much waiting and the gradual realization that Israel was no longer interested in the ceasefire nor in ongoing talks in Doha and Cairo, Hamas and Islamic Jihad reignited their war tactics on the Gaza battlefield. They realized Netanyahu, as prime minister of an extreme right-wing government, was no longer interested in maintaining a ceasefire.

Analysts maintained that Netanyahu was encouraged by Trump’s conflicting and dangerous stance on Gaza on top of which was the dramatic and subsequently abhorred idea of expelling the 2.1 million population of Gaza to build the Strip as the newly-plushed Middle East Riviera.

Although he quickly backed down due to Palestinian, Arab and even world pressure, Netanyahu interpreted this hugely-wrongful idea as greenlight to continue to hammer Gaza from the air and reimpose the starvation policy of its population.

Although the people got the backend of the Israeli willful mad firepower while shutting down the curtain on aid entering the 364-kilometer enclave, Hamas and the other Palestinian groups begun to regroup and re-started its military operations against the Israeli army in Biet Hanoon in the northern Gaza Strip to Gaza City in the center, Shujaiyia to the west, Khan Younis lower down and Refah, further south on the border with Egypt.

Like before, since 7 October, 2023, the resistance has now embarked on the increasing use of ambushes and booby-trap operations of luring Israeli soldiers and targeting Israeli tanks, armored vehicles and bulldozers while firing at them through locally-made, cheap but effective and deadly missiles that resulted in many of these soldiers being killed and badly-injured – numbers in the thousands – while many of the tanks and bulldozers either blown up and/or put out of action.

Towards the end of April onwards, this strategy was reactivated at full length and on different days sniping Israeli soldiers and targeting armoury would rise in multiple and different operations through the Gaza Strip. What is today of major worry to the Israeli army is that these geographical areas which were supposed to be “cleaned up” from Palestinian operatives are becoming active once again which means that for the Israeli army its back to square one.

The Israeli army had literally destroyed many of the major cities, towns, neighborhoods, villages of Gaza not once but many times. They entered places like Khan Younis, Jabalia, Shujaiyia, Nuseirat, Rafah and many more multiple times and declared them free from Palestinian resistance groups but these fighters just continue to emerge as seen recently and to the chagrin and frustration of the Israeli army.

Such frustration has led Israeli politicians like Netanyhu, and arch anti-Palestinian politicians like Itamar Ben-Gvir, Minister of National Security and hated by some Israelis for his extreme rightwing views to call for the re-occupation of Gaza, something that Netanyahu is actively contemplating. The prevailing view that once the army gets into Gaza once again, and on a mass scale, they can never leave! There are many in the army who have long rejected such an idea because they know of the “bloody situation” their soldiers would face.

However, the Israeli government and its army continues to operate under a set of illusions it is refusing to budge away from simply because Hamas and the Palestinian resistance presence is still operating in Gaza and in a robust mode to fight and kill Israeli soldiers and destroy their tanks and military hardware.

This is in addition to the fact the Israel and its army is getting nowhere near to freeing the rest of the hostages and who are likely to die if Israel embarks on a bigger war on Gaza and which Netanyahu and his extremist government are determined to do despite the warnings of the Israeli army which admits the rest of the hostages could die in any bigger military offensive.

Trump in region

Throughout this war there was always one external factor that played a permanent role in fuelling the Israeli genocide of Gaza and that was the United States through its provision of military support to Tel Aviv first under the Joe Biden administration and now under Trump.

If he could be persuaded to stop the supply of weapons to Israel, Netanyahu will finally stop the war on Gaza. Trump is on record, especially when he was running for the White House he would stop the war in Ukraine and Gaza. But will he? First of all, the Israeli lobby is entrenched in the US government.

However, there is one important factor that can pressure the Trump administration and that is the Arab countries. Trump is soon visiting Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries including Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. If enough pressure can be applied from these quarters then surely the US president can move on the Gaza issue and halt any plans that Netanyahu is concocting for the enclave.

The Trump visit is being made in mid-May and its already played as a “bilateral” tour between the United States and these states whilest focusing on investment. And this is where their influence can be made with investment, economics and politics moving on one pedestal.

So the ball at the present time is in the hands of the Arab Gulf countries!

This comment is written by Dr Marwan Asmar, chief editor of the crossfirearabia.com website.

Opinion

Netanyahu Has Irked Trump. Why?

CrossFireArabia
April 9, 2025

What should one make of the recent White House meeting between US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu?

Well, this time Netanyahu was almost summoned to the White House to be told few home truths. This meeting was not like the first time when Netanyahu came to the White House in early February when it was all glow to be unexpectedly told that Trump wants the USA to take over Gaza.

This time around, the meeting was more subdued, almost in a rush, like an after-thought on the part of Trump who keeps chopping and changing as he figures out how he wants to conduct America’s foreign policy in his second “robust” administration.

This time around, although Trump displayed the usual friendliness to Netanyahu, he was somewhat distant because of the tariffs the White House is set upon to start imposing on the rest of the world including best-friend Israel. Its leaders, businessmen are still in shock because Washington has slammed a 17 percent tariff on its products entering the United States.

Israeli industrialists continue to be up-in-arms. It was they who appealed to Netanyahu to seek Washington clarification because they argued that the new tariffs will cost them up to $3 billion in losses, reduce Israeli exports by 26 percent and increase unemployment by 26,000. They are already in a bad situation because of the war on Gaza but this latest step will surely cripple them.

At the White House meeting last Monday, with a chitchat in front of the cameras that looked as if it was a rehearsed meeting with Trump dominating the conversation and everyone taking their que to speak only when they are told, he pointed out to Netanyahu that he “may not” consider reversing tariffs on Israeli exports because “we give Israel $4 billion a year. That’s a lot.” He really sounded like lecturing to the Israelis.

For a man considered to be greatly influenced by the Israeli lobby that seemed to be tough talking for in the immediate conversation Trump told Netanyahu that there would be and for the first time direct face-to-face talking with Iranians about their nuclear file.

This seemed to be another unsuspecting blow. If there was a “shock” on his face, Netanyahu didn’t show it as he just nodded; the Israeli Prime Minister was looking for a tough military stance on Iran, possibly going to war and striking the country’s nuclear facilities. It was he, who persuaded Trump in 2018 to exit from the 2015 nuclear deal brokered by the UN with other world powers of Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany at the behest of the Barack Obama administration.

Now with Trump in the driving seat, and wanting a “tainted-Donald” deal, Netanyahu couldn’t but agree with an alluring American president. If he had any misgivings, he kept them to himself except to say Tel Aviv and Washington had an objective not to let Iran have nuclear weapons, but Tehran constantly said and throughout the past years that their nuclear program was for peaceful purposes unlike the clandestine extensive Israeli nuclear program.

Although he may not have outwardly shown it, Trump may have been a little irritated by Netanyahu in other ways. Take Gaza for example when Israel restarted its war on the enclave on 19 March exactly two months after a ceasefire took effect ending a 15-month genocide and which was brokered by Trump and his team lead Steve Witkoff.

The recent talks in the White House, and shown in front of the cameras suggest Trump would have like more time for the Doha negotiations to take hold between Hamas and Israel to see the release of the 59 remaining hostages – which include one American who is still deemed to be alive – hidden in the Gaza enclave.

The relaunching of the war, and so quickly, and with the breaking of the 19 January ceasefire is adding to the tension between Washington and Tel Aviv and is sending signals that Netanyahu wants to continue the war in Gaza and doesn’t particularly care about the remaining hostages, and whether they come out of their nightmare dead or alive.

Trump, and as shown by the White House meeting, is showing a diversion from thoughts projected by Netanyahu. As well as Iran, he has told Netanyahu, he favors Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and that he has a ‘very, very good relationship with Turkey and with their leader…”, adding that “I happen to like him, and we never had a problem” and he offered to mediate between Israel on any problem between the two countries.

Such words may have suddenly added to the glum mood of the Israeli PM who fears that Turkish influence in Syria despite the fact it is Israel that is today bombarding different Syrian cities and occupying parts of their territory, a situation that increased after the toppling of the Bashar Al Assad regime on 9 December, 2024 by a new government in Damascus, and which is seen as a threat to Israeli security by Tel Aviv.

What is worrying Netanyahu is the fact Trump recognizes Turkish influence and Syria and Ankara’s relationship with the new government in Damascus, and apparenty the man in the White House, is “ok” with it.

With all this going on, Netanyahu is not sure anymore of the way the White House is going despite the fact that Washington continues to be the main supplier of weapons to Tel Aviv. But with Trump as “fickle-minded” as he is, all cards are on the table for a new and changing relationship between the USA and the rest of the world with the strong possibility of including Israel in the new international set of thinking.

This comment is written by Dr Marwan Asmar, chief editor of the crossfirearabia.com website.

Opinion

US-Hamas Talks: Netanyahu’s Double-Wound

CrossFireArabia
March 10, 2025

The current talks between US officials and Hamas leaders in Qatar is certainly a deep wound for the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who had long promised that he would finish off the Islamic organization in Gaza for good.

Indeed, it’s a double-wound for Netanyahu and his extremist government who had been under an illusion, perhaps a strong word to use, that US President Donald Trump would long share the Israeli extremist objectives of taking over Gaza, getting rid of its people en masse, and end Hamas rule in the 364-kilometer enclave.

‘We’re the United States. We’re NOT an agent of Israel’ — Trump’s hostage envoy Boehler

Israel unhappy after US direct talks with Hamas pic.twitter.com/4BU5YWy7bJ
— RT (@RT_com) March 9, 2025

Trump, especially over the past few weeks, had certainly given the Israelis that impression, especially when he blurted out at a devastating press conference with Netanyahu in the White House in early February 2025, that what he wants is to create a Middle East Riviera in Gaza that would include ‘voluntarily’ displacement of the 2.2 million Palestinians living there and swiftly end Hamas-rule. The president added what he wants to do is for the United States to take over Gaza and make it a top property front-beach development.

The whys, ifs, and hows didn’t matter whilst the details were left to be ironed out for later, while the focus zoomed on what Trump was saying which literally seemed to be straight off the top of his head as unrehearsed “blabber” non – certainly not members of the new administration – knew about as the new man in the White House dictated his shallow views and hearsay.

To Netanyahu it was music to his ears and he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He just stood, smiled, glared and looked into the cameras pleased with his friend. To say the least however, he was gob-smacked and taken off-guard.

Trump’s bombshell announcement created an almost mass hysteria among the Palestinians, Arab world and internationally with people aghast, not knowing what to say, what to do and how to respond. Trump had then just announced the trampling on decades of international law – behest through the United Nations resolutions condemning Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza and its heinous and vile military rule.

Enters Hamas in US thinking

However, Netanyahu’s smirk was soon wiped off when it became clear that Trump was offering him Dutch-courage support while directly talking to Hamas officials at the same time. The Israelis become livid, especially when they got to know about the on-going meetings through third parties and leaked sources.

Today, Netanyahu is in a state of a quandary. For the first time he is finding that the political strings and threads are no longer in his court anymore as was the case with the former administration and despite the fact Trump just unfroze the MK-84 2000-pound bombs to Israel which Joe Biden slammed on Israel in May 2024 and adding that the security of Israel remains his top priority.

But today Netanyahu has become deeply-troubled with what is being regarded as double-talk and double-dealing! The bombs supply were to be a palliative to what is being “cooked” behind closed doors.

In Trump, and through his team led by Steve Witkoff and Adam Boehler, Netanyahu is finding out that the new republican president in the White House is not an easy man and despite the strong Israeli lobby in Washington he doesn’t necessarily mean what he says and he is always looking out for America as the No. 1 interest. It is high politics trickery designed to get things done.

For the first time in this 16-month war on Gaza which Israeli started after 7 October, 2023, Netanyahu is finding himself in a corner, no longer able to pay just lip-service to the multitude of talks held in Doha and Cairo over the months of 2024 and which led to nowhere but increased the destruction of Gaza and the killing of its people.

Although Trump maybe a very good friend to Israel – a claim registered in his earlier administration when he moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem, a first-ever move by a US president and openly-backed the continued occupation of the Golan Heights, the businessman-politician is not interested in wars and has moved immediately to stop the three-year-old Ukraine war with Russia and now is dilly-dallying with Gaza.

The current talks in Doha are aimed to extend the ceasefire to be executed in three stages reached on 19 January, just one day before Trump officially entered the White House. While stage I has just ended, the Netanyahu government is foot-dragging, not wanting to move onto the second and third stage mainly because of ideological, domestic political reasons and his eminent threat of going to prison on corruption charges.

Netanyahu fears continuing the ceasefire deal would mean the end of his government that is controlled by extremists who want the war on Gaza to continue and have stated time and again that they would bring the government down if Netanyahu makes a deal that is less than re-occupying Gaza and stamping out Hamas which continues to be a fanciful dream.

Present talks

But the present US talks in Gaza with the Islamist organization that ruled the enclave since 2007, and under a tight Israeli siege that continues today, is creating a flurry of muted tense relations between Tel Aviv and Washington occasionally coming out in-the-open as was the case through a leaked phone call between Boehler, a new man in charge of the hostages file in the US administration and Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, a close Netanyahu ally.

His protest was made recently by refusing to go with his Israeli team to join the latest bout of negotiations in Doha to kick-start the second stage of the ceasefire and release more hostages at their current number of 60 including one US-Israeli soldier and four American bodies that have been killed by Israeli bombardment and kept during Israel’s war on the enclave in the last months.

At the present time four meetings were held between American and Hamas officials with the last headed by chief of the movement Khalil al-Hayya. To say the least, Israel is irritated, angry, and dumbfounded and what is happening. Netanyahu is simply flabbergasted at Trump which he always regarded as a deep personal friend of him and Israel. He and Dermer had impressed on the US administration not to take Hamas directly but it is clear the latter has not and is not heeding to the suggestion and going their own separate way.

Through different media sources and to the annoyance of the Israelis Boehler has stressed that talks so far has been “very helpful” and indicated that a resolution of the freeing of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza would be finalized in the next few weeks.

The world is watching to see how this intricate situation will unfold. The Trump administration is trying to play down their meetings with the Hamas leaders, but this is not working, especially as Boehler keeps talking to the media about how constructive the talks are going and the fact that these Hamas leaders are “pretty nice guys,” and these “guys are just like us,” as he recently told CNN.

The next few weeks will show more. When he came to office, Trump said that if Hamas doesn’t surrender, he would turn Gaza into hell. Judging from what is happening on the ground today such a comment is merely rhetorical.

The above-analysis is written by Dr Marwan Asmar, chief editor of the crossfirearabia.com website.