Jerusalem Archives - Page 2 of 8

The Argentinian Priest of Gaza

CrossFireArabia
July 20, 2025

Fr. Dr. Rif’at Bader

Fr. Gabriel Romanelli, a young priest of the Society of the Incarnate Word founded in Argentina in 1984, was the first priest to arrive in Jordan for pastoral and spiritual service since 1996. I had the honor to be one of the first people to welcome him during my work in Madaba. He came to learn Arabic and he mastered the language.

Fr. Gabriel represents notable priests and pious pastors who live with their people. I recall that on September 30, 2023, he was in Rome to participate in the investiture of Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa of Jerusalem as cardinal in the universal Catholic Church. A few days later, events erupted on October 7, 2023, and Fr. Gabriel remained in Rome for several days until he returned to Jerusalem. He was very sad when he saw the aggression taking place on Gaza while he was in Jerusalem, and he had a daily longing to go to Gaza to be with his people.

At the time, Fr. Yousef As’ad, an Egyptian affiliate with the same religious order, was there living with his people in Gaza. Since October 7, he had to do everything at hand, and he truly excelled in depicting the image of the good and faithful shepherd. What encouraged the people of Gaza to remain steadfast was the almost daily phone call by the late Pope Francis, except for days when communications were disrupted in Gaza. However, this phenomenon provided the people of Gaza with reassurance, courage, patience, and steadfastness.

We have seen wounded Fr. Gabriel Romanelli while he was checking on the wounded and caring for them. He was not concerned with his own wounds; he rather cared for the wounds of his people in Gaza. Gaza’s small number of Christians has dwindled due to the bitterness of time and the bloody events that have taken place in this distressed strip. The Christian presence in Gaza was bright, pioneering, and wonderful, yet it has dwindled to a few hundred people sheltering next to the Church of the Holy Family and the Church of Saint Porphyrius.

Where pain, wounds, and death prevail, then sectarianism and competitiveness diminish, while humanity emerges in its most glorious manifestations. We were very jubilant during feasts when seeing priests–despite the harshness of days—accompany their people, while going from one church to another conveying well wishes to pastors of churches and their blessed people.

The suffering and bloodshed to which the Christians were exposed in Gaza is only part of the suffering experienced by all shades of the Palestinian people, and experienced daily through this bloody conflict that dates back far beyond October 7, namely spanning 76 years of daily suffering and daily avid and athirst for freedom, peace, justice, and independence.

We greet the Palestinian people on their legendary steadfastness, which history will one day mark as being one of the stories of steadfastness and heroism experienced by people on daily bases. Congratulations are conveyed to the Palestinian people for their national unity as well as Christian- Muslim cohesion. This is the greatest message of confronting an occupation force, which has occasionally sought to create a schism between the religious shades of people by claiming that Christians are neutral.

Christians in Gaza are an integral part of the Palestinian people’s composition. Consequently, the martyrdom of three people in the church marks Palestinian national unity, whereby independence will one day be attained on national soil.

Fr. Dr. Rif’at Bader wrote this for the Jordan Times and it is reprinted here in crossfirearabia.com

Analyses

How Will Israel Stop The Houthi Missiles!

CrossFireArabia
May 30, 2025

By Dr Marwan Asmar

Houthis missiles continue to rain down on Israel and that’s not an understatement. Only in this past month of May Israel was subject to 16 ballistic missiles. That’s almost one every two days. Sometimes two missiles were fired in one day.

On Thursday another ballistic missile was fired on Tel Aviv that stopped a football match for at least 10 minutes in a packed stadium of 30,000 people. Among the spectators, who were ordered to lie down, was Israeli president Isaac Herzog who was scurried to safety.

The incoming missile for Ben Gurion Airport set sirens in over 300 major cities, towns, villages and settlements between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

In addition to that, and something that has become normal for Israelis since 7 October, 2023, 3 to 4 million hurried to underground shelters disrupting their lives and work processes.

This is not to say anything about the continuing psychological blows inflicted on them, and on a daily basis. This is the first time they have been subjected to what has become a set of nightmare occurrences first from Hezbollah and now the Houthi missiles travelling over 2000 kilometers north diagonally over the Red Sea to hit Israeli targets.

Thursday’s attack was in response to Wednesday’s Israeli bombing – the second time since 6 May – of the Sanaa International airport. Israeli bombs already destroyed the airport and the last attack made through 10 Israeli warplanes finished off the only aircraft left that belonged to the Yemeni airlines. The plane had just arrived in Sanaa from the Jordan capital of Amman.

And a day before that the Houthis had fired another missile on Tel Aviv. While most of the missiles are fired down by the Israeli forces before they reach their targets they have created tremendous confusion in the Israeli airwaves. Today tens of airlines have stopped flying to Tel Aviv despite the pleadings of the Israeli government that Israeli airports are safe.

Since January 2025, 35 ballistic missiles have been launched on Israel from different locations in Yemen. Also, since early this year, 14 so-called attack drones were launched from Yemen to strike targets in Israel.

As well, and only since March 29 missiles and 9 drones were fired from Yemen because Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu relaunched the war on Gaza on 19th March. Despite the Israeli precautions and ground batteries that shot down these missiles, they have created much debris on the ground when they came down to earth.

With the 16 ballistic missiles launched in May, four drones were also fired on different Israeli cities, statistics provided and confirmed by the Israeli army. It further states that since 7 October 2023 the Houthis launched 70 missiles on Israeli sites, including ports, airports, the Mossad headquarters in Tel Aviv and many more.

The Israeli army state these exclude the 330 drones that were fired on Israel over the past 19 months of the Israel genocide on Gaza taking the number of Palestinian deaths to 54,321 with the number of injuries at 123,770.

As a result, the Houthis succeeded in imposing an air embargo on Israel in May as their leadership insists. Their projectiles have stopped 10s of international airlines from flying to the Ben Gurion Airport with British Airways and the low-cost Ryanair being the latest to suspend flights.

These are the latest to follow the Lufthansa group which include SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and Eurowings. They have already stopped going to Tel Aviv and are watching the situation carefully before they take the step of resetablishing air connections.

Since 4 May other planes that suspended flights to Israel include Latvian airline, AirBaltic, easyJet, United Airlines, Iberia and Transavia.

However, among the few foreign airlines that recently resumed flight services to Israel are Air France, Delta, Wizz Air, Ethiopian Airlines, Etihad Airways and Greece’s Aegean Airlines states The Times of Israel.

Unprecedented

The Thursday ballistic missile was unprecedented because the Israeli president was watching. The match had to stop while he was rushed away to safety. The Israeli media says the match was stopped twice when the missiles were launched from Yemen and when tens of thousands of people were told to lie on the ground for 20 minutes and a second time when spectators booed Herzog.

The Houthi leadership already warned the Israelis to do “what it will” because it will not stop firing the ballistic missiles on Israel until the latter stops its war on Gaza.

They say that Israel can bomb Yemen as much as it wants but it will not stop the missiles on Tel Aviv and different areas like Eilat. Despite putting on a strong face Israel is in a quandary. About 30 Israeli warplanes took part in destroying the Sanaa Airport on 5 May but the Yemenis have not flinched.

Now, the Israeli Minister Israel Katz is in a vehement mood and is warning that Israel will continue to bomb and re-bomb existing sites till the end if need be. Truth be told however, the Israelis are bombing indiscriminately as they don’t know and figure out where the Houthis missiles are being fired from in Yemen.

Netanyahu is convinced that Iran is supplying the Houthis with the missiles and that’s why he wants to hit the country but the problem with that is the Trump administration at present is talking to Tehran about reaching an agreement on its nuclear file and is sending direct messages to Netanyahu to lay off that country and not attempt any foolish act like striking its nuclear facilities.

Thus only time will tell how international relations will unravel especially since Trump reached a deal with the Houthis at the beginning of May that they would stop bombing them if they desist from attacking American ships and planes. The previous months or so the US waged a military campaign on the Houthis that led to nowhere but a costly war of $1 billion.

With the US out of the way, it can be said the Houthis are having a field day on continuing their strikes on Israel. Their message is simple: Stop bombing Gaza and we will stop striking Israel.

Opinion

Can ‘Realist’ Trump Pull Off Gaza Ceasefire?

CrossFireArabia
May 15, 2025

By Michael Jansen

During his ongoing visits to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the Emirates, US President Donald Trump seeks to focus on business opportunities and investment in the US rather than address the negative political realities to which he contributed during his first term (2017-2021).

At that time, he dismissed the two-state solution in favour of “The Deal of the Century” which would give Palestinians a degree of autonomy within Israel. He defunded UNRWA, recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, moved the US embassy there, and said the US no longer considers Israeli settlements illegal overturning a 1978 policy. The fate of the refugees, Jerusalem, and settlers were meant to be negotiated under the two-state solution by the sides under the 1993 Oslo accord. He closed the US consulate in occupied East Jerusalem which served Palestinians and the PLO office in Washington. Trump recognized Israeli annexation of Syria’s occupied Golan.

Trump began his second term by calling for the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza which would be redeveloped as a Middle East Riviera instead of exerting pressure on Israel to end the Gaza war and enable its reconstruction. Under Trump’s real estate venture Gazan Palestinians were supposed to settle in Egypt and Jordan, which along with all the Arabs flatly rejected this proposal. Egypt drew up a counterproposal to reconstruct devastated Gaza while its population stays put.

His resort scheme has angered the Arab public from the Gulf to the Atlantic. His call for Saudi Arabia to establish relations with Israel has been rejected as Riyadh has said it will normalise when there is a Palestinian state with its capital in Jerusalem.

Since Trump made Saudi Arabia his first foreign destination in 2017 during his first term, the region has changed significantly by pivoting to the East. Saudi Arabia and the Emirates have cultivated ties with Russia – Riyadh’s partner on oil production and pricing – and China which buys Gulf oil and exports billions of dollars in goods to the Gulf. The Emirates, Egypt and Iran joined BRICS (the grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) while Saudi Arabia applied but did not follow through. China mediated Saudi-Iranian reconciliation. This has ended Iran’s isolation in the region.

On the positive side, early in this term Trump opened talks with Iran over its nuclear programme to replace the 2015 deal from which he withdrew in 2018. A fifth round of talks is expected. Although Trump wants to be a peacemaker, he has threatened war if the talks fail.

As a peacemaker, Trump bombed Yemen heavily to force Yemen’s Houthis to end attacks on international commercial and naval vessels in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. The Houthis and US agreed to end this confrontation. Trump has not, however, halted Houthi drone and ballistic missile attacks on Israel which the Houthis say will stop if Israel observes a ceasefire or ends the war on Gaza.

Trump has not planned to stop in Israel during this Gulf tour, indicating that there is some distance between him and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. He has not only refused to ceasefire in Gaza but also maintained a ten-week blockade of the strip. He could have done both to ease Trump’s swing around the Gulf where Gaza is high on the agendas of the rulers and public. Since Netanyahu has carried on with his Gaza war, Trump has ignored him when resuming talks with Iran on limiting its nuclear programme in exchange for lifting sanctions and agreeing to a ceasefire with Yemen’s Houthi. The ceasefire has been welcomed by Washington’s Arab allies, particularly Saudi Arabia which had been urging an end to US attacks on Yemen before Trump began his tour.

Without Israeli involvement, the US has also negotiated with Hamas over the release on Monday of US-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander. For Trump, this is a greatly desired success in the US. In Israel, families of hostages who are not US-Israel dual citizens fear their relatives will be forgotten by Netanyahu who is determined to not only continue with the war but also to expand it once Trump departs from the region. Hostage families are not alone in their suspicions. A majority (54 per cent) of Israelis said that the war was being driven by personal rather than security reasons. Only 21 per cent agreed with Netanyahu’s prioritisation of eliminating Hamas over rescuing the hostages. A March poll showed 70 per cent of Israelis wanted Netanyahu to resign.

He has adopted this stance for several reasons. First, right-wingers in his coalition have vowed to pull out if he ends the war. Second, once the war is over, Netanyahu will be called upon to account for lax Israeli security in the south where Hamas breached the fence on October 7th, 2023, killed 1,200 Israelis and visitors and abducted another 251. There was no excuse for laxity. Young female Israeli soldiers deployed as “watchers” along that part of the border with Gaza, warned repeatedly that Hamas was conducting drills and manoeuvres ahead of an attack. Their warnings were not taken serioiusly by senior Israeli officers. Some of these women were killed and some captured. Third, as long as the war is being waged, Netanyahu will not have to explain how lightly armed Hamas fighters have managed to carry on the fight while the mighty Israeli army and air force levelled Gaza and killed 53,000 Palestinians. Netanyahu has a lot of explaining to do.

Jansen is a columnist for the Jordan Times

News

Fires Continue to Rage in Israel

CrossFireArabia
May 2, 2025

Israeli newspaper Maariv reported, Friday, that fires swept the country resumed in fully force at the western suburbs of Jerusalem.

“Hours after the massive fire in the Latrun area (between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv) was brought under control, the fire resumed in the area today.”

Maariv added that Israeli firefighting crews rushed to the scene in a bid to put out the burning flames.

But, the Israeli Fire Authority said in a post on the X platform that: “There are no dramatic events currently in the fire zones in Jerusalem.”

The fire in Israel is out of control and spreading!
it's a punishment from Allah!pic.twitter.com/KEUu0yv1Pn
— Donya 🇵🇸 (@donyaihsan) April 30, 2025

It added: “Several points of smoke rising are being monitored, and firefighting forces and aircraft continue to work to bring the fires under control.”

On Thursday evening, Israel announced that it had brought under control the fires that swept through the area between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, about 30 hours after they broke out and consumed approximately 20,000 dunams.

Hebrew media outlets, including the official broadcasting authority, reported that the fires were likely caused by “the negligence of hikers,” rather than by arson.

Contrary to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s accusation that individuals started them, Channel 12 reported that “the central fires in the Jerusalem Hills were not set deliberately and are believed to be the result of negligence.”

Authorities are investigating the cause of the fires in the same area where similar, less intense blazes occurred last week.

The Times of Israel news website quoted President Isaac Herzog as saying, Thursday: “This fire is part of the climate crisis that must not be ignored. It requires us to prepare for serious and significant challenges and to make decisions, including appropriate legislation.”

The fires between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, the largest in years, have forced the evacuation of 10 towns and settlements and have spread due to high temperatures and strong winds in the forested area as reported in Anadolu.

Uncategorized

Netanyahu’s Convoy Hits Motorcyclist

CrossFireArabia
April 29, 2025

The convoy of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was involved in a car accident, Tuesday evening, outside his office in west Jerusalem.

The accident is trending on the social media with much images including breaking news of the accident.

According to the Jerusalem Post a vehicle in the convoy hit a 17-year-old motorcyclist as it was leaving a ceremony in remembrance of Israeli soldiers killed in the war on Gaza.

The English Israeli daily said it was not clear whether Netanyahu was in one of the vehicles at the time, however Kan, the Israeli official broadcaster, confirmed Netanyahu was in the convoy but he emerged unharmed.

KAN also confirmed that Netanyahu convoy collided with the motorcycle.

This is not the first time Israeli government officials have been involved in accidents. In April 2024, the Israeli media reported that the car of Israeli Education Minister Haim Biton was involved in a traffic accident in Jerusalem, seriously injuring his father.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir was also involved in a traffic accident in April 2024, resulting in his hospitalization and treatment according to Jordan24.

The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that a vehicle belonging to the personal security unit of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s convoy was involved in a traffic accident near Cinema City in Jerusalem.

The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation (Kan) reported that “the prime minister’s convoy was involved in a traffic accident and stopped moving.”

Kan confirmed that Benjamin Netanyahu was unharmed in the accident, which occurred near his office in Jerusalem.

The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation indicated that “the prime minister’s convoy collided with a motorcycle. Netanyahu was in the convoy, but he moved away from the vehicle involved in the accident.”

It is worth noting that this accident is not the first involving an official Israeli government official. In April 2024, Israeli media reported that the car of Israeli Education Minister Haim Biton was involved in a traffic accident in Jerusalem, seriously injuring his father.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir was also involved in a traffic accident in April 2024, resulting in his hospitalization and treatment.