Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lambasted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday for Israel’s attack on the Hamas negotiation team in Qatar last week, saying, “Ideologically, Netanyahu is like a relative of Hitler.”
“Just as Hitler could not foresee the defeat that awaited him, Netanyahu will face the same ultimate fate,” he added while returning from Doha, where he attended an emergency Arab-Islamic summit following the Israeli airstrike according to Anadolu.
Erdogan called the attack on the Hamas negotiation team “a blatant challenge to international order and international law” and said Israel’s leadership has “turned their radical mindset into nothing more than a murderous network built on fascist ideology.”
The Turkish president also addressed Western countries’ recognition of Palestine, saying it would put further pressure on Israel and pledging to raise the issue again at the United Nations.
He expressed hope that “the front of humanity will gain broader support” at the upcoming UN General Assembly.
Lastly, Erdogan also addressed Türkiye’s diplomacy in Libya, emphasizing the protection of the country’s sovereignty and unity. “We are committed to safeguarding Libya’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and political unity, and all our actions are guided by these objectives,” he said.
He noted that Türkiye has supported the legitimate Tripoli government from the outset, while recent policies have also sought to open diplomatic channels with eastern Libya. “This reflects Türkiye’s multidimensional diplomatic efforts, regional vision, and commitment to achieving peace,” Erdogan said.
He added that the Benghazi administration’s approval of the maritime jurisdiction agreement signed between Türkiye and Tripoli would be a “significant gain under international law.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a politician above all else. He is dogmatist in rejecting a Palestinian state, and a pragmatist when he talks about it, but all that depends on the position taken by the United States.
Ever since one can remember from the days of the Oslo Agreements, a Palestinian state, as a term swung between two conceptions: A future project on the ground, and a slogan up-in-the-air to pander on, and as many from my generation remember the rather acerbic comment: Gaza-Jericho First of 1993 which came to be the first and the last.
The Israeli government of that time, believed that it would bring the Palestinians to independenance as interlocutors in determining the occupied West Bank of Jordan that came about by discussing the issue through a joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation.
However, the little that was agreed upon started to be eroded by the first Netanyahu government, which at times implicitly and at times explicitly acted in the way so as to negate the Oslo agreements with impunity.
One would like to say that since then plenty of water has passed under the bridge, but when it comes to the Palestinian issue, it’s always the same water and the same bridge.
At this point one must say that everywhere in the media there are supposedly leaks and plans about the day after with regards to the Gaza Strip. However, the only consensus between the international community at large and officialdom of the Arab world, is that Hamas should surrender its weapons. But really what happens next?
Silence in the Arab world rules the scene which is in a way saying what cannot be said, which is in other words don’t involve us directly but we shall try to do what we can. This is habitually the Arab position in always being reactive rather than active.
And now on the international scene is the big drive to recognize a Palestinian state, which is for the time being affirming a point of principle, and towards which Israel is actually debating the annexation of the West Bank, as if to say, if the West Bank is reoccupied by Israel, where is this Palestine you want to recognize?
And adding insult to injury, the Washington administration has refused entry to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the PNA leadership to attend the UN General Assembly meetings. This indicates that it does not recognize that there is a leadership of the Palestinians.
However, and despite saying this, one wishes to be able to say that we might be jumping the proverbial gun, in the sense that, the issue is just a matter of tit-for-tat telling states: You recognize Palestine we take measures to counter that, but alas the Israeli annexation was contemplated long before the international recognition of a Palestinian state.
Now, what will it mean if Israel does go ahead and annexes the West Bank and cancels the Palestinian authority? Well, once again the international community, to the exclusion of the USA, will have to consider the West Bank as and Israeli occupied territory, and once again, the world will have to go back to the Security Council for an attempt to resolve the issue.
Dr Khairi Janbek is a Jordanian columnist living in Paris, France.
Palestinian dresses immortalize history, heritage, and tradition of the now displaced Palestinian villages.
The “Heaven and Hell” dress was named so because it was made of red and green silk fabric and was worn for weddings and special occasions in the displaced village of Lifta and some other villages in Jerusalem.
The white dress of the bride is from the displaced village of Yazur in the Jaffa District: It was made of white fabric, mostly red, with several cheerful colors… with beautiful floral designs on the dome and sides.
“Blood covered my face. My hair was burning. The fire in my hair was the only light I could see,” Tasneem whispered, recalling the night her world collapsed.
I can’t imagine an end to this war. I can’t even define the peace of imagining what it would look like, because war has stolen everything from Gazans, even the light in their eyes.
Just months earlier, 19-year-old Tasneem was preparing for her tawjihi, Palestine’s crucial high school exams that decide a student’s future. Like thousands of other students in Gaza, she dreamed of scholarships, university, and a life beyond the blockade. Instead, she was fighting to keep her eyesight, grieving her sister and father, and carrying her schoolbooks through displacement camps.
Her story is one among thousands. According to Gaza’s Ministry of Education, 15,553 school students and 1,111 university students have been killed since the genocide began. Another 23,411 schoolchildren and 2,317 university students were injured, many left permanently disabled. For Gaza’s youth, war has not only destroyed classrooms but also their bodies and futures.
The Night That Changed Everything
It was October 10, 2023, at 2:30 a.m. in Bani Suhaila. Tasneem and her sister Hadeel stood at the window when shelling lit up the street near the Asfour station.
“Suddenly, smoke, dust, and fire blinded me,” Tasneem said. “Blood covered my face. My hair caught fire. I couldn’t see. I couldn’t breathe. My hair burning was the only light around me.”
When she looked back, she saw Hadeel lying on the floor in flames. “That moment is the hardest I’ve ever lived through,” she said through tears.
Tasneem stumbled down the stairs as flames consumed the upper floor. Shattered glass cut deep into her feet. Her leg broke when she slipped. Outside, the sky glowed red and the streets burned.
“I sat on the street with my hands on my head,” she recalled. “I just wanted this nightmare to end.”
Tasneem, after her last surgery in Gaza — blind in one eye, barely seeing with the other.
Loss Upon Loss
Tasneem thought her entire family had died. Whispering the shahada, she braced for death. But her parents were alive, and in the chaos her mother tried to comfort her. “Mama, my face is all distorted. I can’t see, only blood,” Tasneem cried. Moments later, they discovered the unbearable truth: Hadeel had been martyred.
Her injuries were severe; a burst eyeball, retinal detachment, and deep cuts that required stitches. Gaza’s hospitals, overwhelmed and starved of resources, made her wait hours before doctors could treat her.
Just three days later, tragedy struck again. Her father, Adli Baraka, was killed in another Israeli strike. “I felt like I lost all my vision and hope,” she said.
The Fight for Sight
On October 11, a private doctor warned her family that her condition was critical. Without immediate surgery, she would go blind. With Gaza’s health system collapsing, the operation was performed without anaesthesia, crude stitches to hold her eye together.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza reports that around 1,500 people have already lost their eyesight during this genocide, while another 4,000 are at risk due to shortages of medicine and equipment. UNRWA has warned of catastrophic consequences as Israel continues to block vital aid, including supplies for eye surgeries.
For Tasneem, the pain was relentless. Doctors warned her not to cry, not to stress, not to strain her eye. But how could she obey, when she had just buried her sister and father, and was living under bombardment?
Dreams Against the Rubble
On November 3, 2023, after weeks of delays, Tasneem was finally evacuated to Egypt for emergency surgery. By the time she arrived, her right eye was blind. Surgeons injected silicone oil in hopes of saving her remaining sight.
Despite advice to stay in Egypt and continue treatment, Tasneem returned to Gaza. Her younger siblings were still there, and after her father’s death, she couldn’t abandon her mother. She gave up comfort and medical care to be with her family.
Tasnim Baraka after undergoing surgery on her eye in Egypt, November 2023. Her mother took this photo as they hoped for a chance at healing after weeks of devastation.
Now she lives in a tent, suffering headaches, worsening pain, and the weakening of her other eye. And yet, she studies. Every time she fled — from Bani Suhaila, then Rafah, then Deir al-Balah — she carried her schoolbooks with her.
“The doctors told me reading could make my eyes worse,” she admitted. “But I still took my books. They are my last hope.”
Her books are not just paper and ink; they are her defiance. In a genocide that has stripped her of almost everything, they are the one dream she refuses to surrender.
The Unseen Wounds of War
The physical injuries are only part of Tasneem’s struggle. Shame keeps her indoors. “When I wear the eye patch outside, I feel so ashamed,” she said. “I’m a young girl who wants to live like other young ladies.”
Her mother, Ghada, reminds her daily that she is beautiful, no matter the scars. But emotional healing is nearly impossible in a place with no safe spaces, no medical aid, and no support for trauma survivors. Every step of Tasneem’s recovery has come not from international organizations, but from her family’s sacrifice.
A Message to the World
When I asked Tasneem what she wants now, her answer was simple:
“I wish the war would end. I want the suffering to stop. I want proper medical care for my eye and to continue my education like other girls. I don’t want to lose my eyes — I need them as a child needs something with all of its heart.”
Tasneem’s story is one of tens of thousands. Gaza’s children are not just casualties of bombs; they are being starved, blinded, and denied the chance to learn. Her voice is a reminder that these are not numbers — they are young lives, interrupted but still fighting.
“Put yourselves in our place,” Tasneem said, her one good eye filling with tears. “You couldn’t live one minute as we do.”
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said Friday that Israel’s decision to occupy the Gaza Strip reveals the true nature of its war, “an unjustified campaign against Palestinian civilians.”
In a statement, the ministry condemned the Israeli Security Cabinet’s newly approved plan as a “dangerous and illegal escalation.”
“This decision reveals that the Israeli war was never defensive; it has always been a war of extermination and forced displacement against the people of Gaza,” the ministry said, warning of the “certain death” of civilians remaining in the strip according to Anadolu.
“This development cannot be ignored,” the ministry said.
The ministry announced it is launching a political campaign targeting decision-making centers in the international community, urging governments and institutions to “assume their legal, political, and moral responsibilities” and act to halt Israel’s actions.
The statement came hours after Israel’s Security Cabinet approved a proposal by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to have the military take control of Gaza City.
Israel has been facing mounting outrage over its destructive war on Gaza, where more than 61,200 people have been killed since October 2023. The military campaign has devastated the enclave, which is facing famine.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
CrossFireArabia
Dr Khairi Janbek
