No Israeli Win in Al Shujaiyia!  

The battle for the Al Shujaiyia starts but this will again be a tough fight for the Israeli army who are determined to subdue the area despite high expectations to the contrary.

Israeli troops under air-cover and aerial bombardment, are entering the destroyed town for the third time and in as many months but to no apparent success.

For the Israeli army, this neighborhood stands as a sore thumb, and a degrading one. Here, the Palestinian resistance rubbed the noses of the Israeli army despite their high-tech dumb bombs provided by their American backers.

Al Shujaiyia, which lies one kilometer away from the siege into Israel, holds bad memories for the Israeli army. Jewish soldiers know that, so do their superiors but the extreme government of Benjamin Netanyahu does not want to listen.

In Al Shujaiyia the Israeli were marred. Their nervous, trigger-happy soldiers killed three of the Israeli hostages back in December, 2023 under what is euphemistically-termed ‘friendly fire”.  Despite the three opaqually waving white flags and shouting in Hebrew, they were shot point-blank many argue under the Israeli military Hannibal doctrine that states soldiers and hostages should be killed rather than taken alive.

Today Israeli ground troops invade the ruined town yet again, determined to get their pound of flesh and despite the rubble and the wreckage which they instituted.

There are no homes here, but people have refused to leave, making do with what they have, living in their bomb-crated homes. But this is another turn story in their “war life”.

 The Israeli army says its invading the beleaguered neighborhood once again because of their intelligence sources saying there are Palestinian resistance fighters here. But this is a surprise. These fighters never left and reformed their strength with maneuverability and slickness.

The Palestinian resistance in Gaza today is a broad movement: They include Al-Quds Brigade, Al-Qassam Brigade, Al-Aqsa Brigade, and the PFLP and are fighting the Israeli occupier in tandem with strategic moves to beat the enemy.

In reality, Al Shujaiyia has always remained resistance territory. It has been the grave of Israeli soldiers. But the Israeli army like to say that as a public relations exercise to give the feeling they are winning. They said that in Jabalia, in Beit Lahia, in Al Zaytoon and in Khan Younis, stressing they entered these places, ended the presence of the Hamas resistance there, and left.

If they quashed the Palestinian resistance there, why would they enter these places many times after?

In the first hours of their entry in Al Shujaiyia, Israeli troops faced at least 10 military operations against them by Hamas and Saraya Al Quds fighters.

The drainage of Israeli troop and hardware losses continued with news of one Merkava 4-tank blown up as well as troop carrier not to say anything about the IED planted bombs on the ashphalt carved Baghdad Road.

Like elsewhere, the army is hoping for victory here, but there seems to be a deluge of Palestinian fighters coming from below grounds to continue the fight against the Israeli occupation invaders. In Al Shujaiyia they will have no respite.

Once historians sit and write the history of this war, they will find Al Shujaiyia has been the toughest for the Israeli army despite the enormous levels of destruction where the fight has been between vastly unequal opponents: Guerilla groups trained in the art of urban warfare versus an unwieldly Israeli army beset by organizational and logistical movements but deadly just the same.

In this war it has been the Palestinian fighters in jeans and home-made missiles from pipe tubes that proved their worthiness over the Israeli enemy.

The entry of Israeli troops however, has caused havoc on the population of Al Shujaiyia which has been a usual affair in this war as civilians have suffered the most. Up till till now they managed to stay in their wrecked homes but no more with reports of hundreds leaving their neighborhood to an even bleaker future.

Its a vicious war machine after nine months of bloody mayhem and conflict. The killings continue, the bombardment never stops and the injured, the lucky few are dragged from under the rubble while thousands are eaten alive by mother earth. At least 15 people were killed in the first few hours of troops entering the neighborhood.

As usual Israeli troops – and they know it – will not be able to get to the resistance fighters. All the Israeli army will be doing – and this is a credit to their already soured professionalism – is create more death, injury, displacement among the civilian population.

  • CrossFireArabia

    CrossFireArabia

    Dr. Marwan Asmar holds a PhD from Leeds University and is a freelance writer specializing on the Middle East. He has worked as a journalist since the early 1990s in Jordan and the Gulf countries, and been widely published, including at Albawaba, Gulf News, Al Ghad, World Press Review and others.

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    Gaza Cracks Trump’s Image as ‘Peacemaker’

    By Giorgio Cafiero

    The Gaza ceasefire had been extremely fragile ever since its implementation on Jan. 19. Many analysts doubted that phase two would begin, and the main question was about when, not if, the ceasefire would fall apart. It came as no surprise when Israel completely ended the ceasefire on March 18 and resumed its genocidal war on Gaza, killing roughly 600 [1] Palestinians within the first four days after the truce collapsed.

    It is beyond disturbing to think about what will come next for the 2.2 million people in Gaza, especially given that Israeli authorities imposed [2] a blockade on all humanitarian aid on March 2. While briefing the UN Security Council on the day Israel resumed its war, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher said [3] “food is rotting and medicines are expiring.” The Israelis quickly undid all humanitarian progress achieved by international actors during the 42-day ceasefire. “Essential survival resources needed are now being rationed,” warned [4] Fletcher.

    For all the misleading and outright inaccurate reporting in the Western media, it is clear that Hamas wanted phase two to begin, which was supposed to take place on March 1. However, Israel wanted phase one extended and was against moving into phase two. Had the second phase begun, Hamas would have handed over all the remaining Israeli captives. Now, amid this intense warfare, Hamas claims it is considering US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff’s “Bridge Proposal,” which aims to extend the collapsed ceasefire into next month, beyond Ramadan and Passover, to permit negotiations for a permanent ceasefire to end this war.

    It is not difficult to understand why this genocide resumed on March 18. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies in the government were crystal clear that they did not support the ceasefire and wanted Israeli military operations against Gaza to resume. It was only pressure from the incoming Donald Trump administration during the final days of Joe Biden’s presidency that led Tel Aviv to agree to the tenuous ceasefire. Now that the Trump administration removed that pressure on Israel and the American president went all-out with his rhetoric about “hell” in Gaza, Netanyahu received the green light from the White House to continue the genocide.


    Trump’s desires and reality

    What US President Donald Trump realistically sought to achieve with his obscene rhetoric about a “clean out” [6] of Gaza and outlandish talk of transforming the war-ravaged enclave into the “Riviera of the Middle East” [7] is a question for another article. Nonetheless, it is easy to conclude that such language emboldened the most right-wing and aggressive Israeli elements, including those in the government. These extremists have spent decades fantasizing about a second Nakba and establishing a Palestinian state outside Palestine.

    Put simply, for Netanyahu and those around him to champion this plan of mass ethnic cleansing and forced displacement of millions of Palestinians into Egypt, Jordan, and perhaps also some Gulf Arab countries, continuing the war on Gaza is a necessary part of this process. After all, human history has shown that people don’t volunteer to leave their ancestral homeland but typically only do as a result of massive bloodshed.

    The Israeli leadership understands this about the Palestinians and their quest to remain on their land. So much was on display with the leaflets [8] that Israel’s military recently dropped on Gaza, which threatened to make Trump’s plan for a “clean out” of Gaza the new reality.

    To be sure, Israel’s domestic politics and Netanyahu’s own legal situation were relevant factors too. By restarting the war on Gaza, Netanyahu was able to secure stability within his own coalition. Now, not only is there no reason for him to fear more cabinet members quitting the coalition, but former Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir who left in January because of the ceasefire has returned [9] due to the genocide’s resumption.

    Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s testimony in his corruption trial, set for the day that the war on Gaza recommenced, was postponed, [10] highlighting how “security developments” [11] shield him from legal consequences for his alleged [12] breach of trust, bribery, and fraud.

    A key question is, where does this all leave Trump? After all, he campaigned on being a “peacemaker” president. While delivering his inaugural address just over two months ago, Trump declared, [13] “We will measure our success not only by the battles we win but also by the wars that we end — and perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into.”

    At this point, Trump might find himself trapped in Gaza, preventing him from reducing the US military footprint in the Middle East. Trump is escalating conflicts in the region—from Gaza to Yemen and possibly soon Iran—that could keep the US bogged down in this part of the world, which is the opposite of his promises regarding US foreign policy if elected to a second term. It remains to be seen how Trump’s support for Israel’s actions in Gaza and his escalation in Yemen—closely tied to Palestine—will impact his standing among his MAGA base.

    The author is the CEO of Gulf States Analytics

    [1] https://www.euronews.com/2025/03/22/israel-orders-idf-troops-to-advance-deeper-into-gaza-as-renewed-operation-expands

    [2] https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/02/middleeast/israel-halts-gaza-humanitarian-aid-intl-hnk/index.html

    [3, 4] https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/03/1161246

    [5] https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-intensifying-gaza-strikes-press-hamas-into-freeing-hostages-defence-2025-03-21/

    [6] https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/27/middleeast/trump-clean-out-gaza-middle-east-intl/index.html

    [7] https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/trumps-gaza-israel-plans-riviera-rcna190748

    [8] https://www.newarab.com/news/israel-drops-leaflets-saying-no-one-will-care-if-gazans-vanish

    [9] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/18/israels-ben-gvir-to-rejoin-netanyahus-government

    [10,11,12] https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/report-netanyahus-testimony-corruption-trial-postponed-due-gaza-war

    [13] https://www.whitehouse.gov/remarks/2025/01/the-inaugural-address/

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    The Middle East Octopus

    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

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