OK it seems aid will be getting into Gaza tomorrow, but into specific areas. It'll be leaving Doha tomorrow. I can't help but feel wary.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) warned that Israel has started an offensive on Rafah without an official announcement to avoid international pressure. Overnight, Israel heavily bombed Rafah, killing at least 14 Palestinians in the area where more than one million people are displaced, the majority of them living in tents. “Israel began to destroy Rafah on a daily basis and in a systematic manner through repeated attacks on homes, bombing them, and killing and wounding dozens of civilians,” the PA’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday. It added that to avoid condemnation and international pressure to halt such attacks, “Israel… did not wait for permission from anyone, and did not announce” the operation publicly. The escalation of Israeli airstrikes and artillery shelling in Rafah comes as the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is visiting the region where talks between Israel and Hamas continue in Qatar, but has not seen any breakthrough to reach a ceasefire and hostages’ exchange deal.

Israel has bombed several areas in Rafah overnight, targeting mainly Palestinian homes and residential blocks, according to Wafa, including the neighborhoods of Musabah, Khirbet Al-Adas, and Al-Jeneina. On Tuesday, Majed Al-Ansari, the spokesperson for Qatar’s Foreign Ministry, said that an attack on Rafah would negatively affect the ceasefire talks in Doha. “Any attack on Rafah will lead to a humanitarian catastrophe and will negatively affect the progress of the talks,” he said. Ansari added that mediators are working on a temporary ceasefire deal to allow humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. 

“It is still too early to talk about any breakthrough in the negotiations, but we are optimistic about that,” he said, according to Al-Jazeera Arabic. 

-- From "‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 165" by Mustafa Abu Sneineh for Mondoweiss, 19 Mar 2024

Cease-fire talks in Cairo aimed at brokering a pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and securing the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners have stalled, less than a week before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Officials in Washington and the region have come to regard the holiday, which is set to begin on Sunday, as an unofficial deadline to reach a deal amid concerns that clashes during Ramadan could further inflame the region.

Negotiators from Qatar, Egypt, and the United States have scrambled to piece together a deal that would see up to 40 Israeli hostages released in exchange for a six-week cease-fire, an increase in aid deliveries to the besieged Gaza Strip, and the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners from Israel’s jails.

Three days of talks in Cairo this week failed to reach a breakthrough, with both Israel and Hamas trading accusations of hindering an agreement. Hamas has failed to respond to Israel’s requests for a list of living hostages who could be released as part of a deal, while senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said on Tuesday that the militant group is seeking a permanent cease-fire and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces, which represents a significant expansion of the parameters of the proposed deal.

“We are afraid of getting to the point of no return, where the level of escalation would reach an all-out war in the region,” said Majed al-Ansari, a foreign-policy advisor to the Qatari prime minister, speaking about the need for a cease-fire by Ramadan. His urgency was echoed by U.S. President Joe Biden, who warned of a “very, very dangerous” situation if an agreement wasn’t struck by Ramadan.

The onset of the holy month brings with it a number of specific events and circumstances that could very easily lead to a dramatic escalation not just in the Israel-Hamas war but also in the simmering tensions across the Middle East.

Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s war cabinet, said in a speech last month that Israel would begin offensive operations in Rafah, in southern Gaza, if remaining hostages were not released by the start of Ramadan. Some 1.5 million Palestinians have sought refuge in the city, and aid groups have warned of a “bloodbath” if Israeli troops launch an assault on the city.

More than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, which has come under punishing bombardment by Israeli forces seeking to root out Hamas militants in the wake of the brutal Oct. 7, 2023, attack, which left some 1,200 Israelis dead and 253 taken as hostages into Gaza.

With aid supplies severely restricted, humanitarian groups have issued increasingly dire warnings about the potential for famine in northern Gaza. World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned on Monday that children have begun to die from starvation.

“There’s a lot of clocks running here,” said Zaha Hassan, a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “And that’s all coming to a head this week.”

Without a cease-fire, scenes of ongoing death and destruction in Gaza are likely to weigh heavily on the minds of Muslims across the region going into Ramadan, the most sacred period in the Islamic calendar, which is marked by prayer, reflection, and charity. “It adds a layer of distastefulness and outrage to an already pretty horrendous situation,” said Khaled Elgindy, the director of the Middle East Institute’s program on Palestine. “It adds more pressure on Arab governments to at least look like they’re doing something.”

The Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in Jerusalem, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, is sacred to both Jews and Muslims and has long been a flash point for tensions in the ancient city, particularly during Ramadan, as tens of thousands of Muslims seek to visit the mosque during Ramadan and for Friday prayers. “There’s nothing like threats to Al-Aqsa that ignites the streets,” said Joel Braunold, the managing director of the Abraham Center for Middle East Peace.

Clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police at the mosque in 2021 prompted Hamas to launch a barrage of rockets into Israel, which responded with hundreds of airstrikes that killed more than 200 Palestinians in Gaza.

Hamas views itself as the guardian of Al-Aqsa and Jerusalem, Hassan said. Hamas, which is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, code-named its Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.”

Officials in Israel are concerned that Hamas may be deliberately delaying cease-fire negotiations to use Ramadan to inflame tensions in the region, said an Israeli official who requested anonymity to speak candidly about the talks.  Last week, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh called on Palestinians to march on Al-Aqsa at the start of Ramadan, while a spokesperson for Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another Gaza-based militant group, called for a “month of terror” in a recent speech.

On Wednesday, Israel’s National Security Council issued a warning to the public that terrorist groups are likely to use the ongoing war and tensions around Al-Aqsa to incite their supporters to carry out attacks on Israelis as well as Western targets.

Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, whose portfolio includes the holy site, had called for severe restrictions to be imposed on Muslim worshippers accessing the site—including Arab citizens of Israel. But in an apparent effort to reduce the potential for unrest, the Israeli government announced on Tuesday that the number of worshippers allowed access to the site would be similar to previous years.

“Ramadan is holy for Muslims, and the sanctity of the holiday will be preserved this year, as it is every year,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement but added that it would reassess the situation weekly based on the security situation.

While officials in the region are looking to reach a deal by the beginning of Ramadan in a bid to keep a lid on tensions, the start of the holiday does not necessarily spell the end of diplomatic efforts to secure a cease-fire deal. If there is sufficient momentum, a deal could still be struck during Ramadan, Braunold said.

Doha’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Majed al-Ansari, said on Wednesday night that his government was “appalled” by leaked remarks allegedly made by Netanyahu in which he criticised the country’s mediation efforts over the war in Gaza, adding that the Israeli leader’s comments were “irresponsible and destructive” but “not surprising”.

“If the reported remarks are found to be true, the Israeli PM would only be obstructing and undermining the mediation process, for reasons that appear to serve his political career instead of prioritising saving innocent lives, including Israeli hostages,” Ansari wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Netanyahu’s office is yet to issue a response in the public spat, which threatens to complicate the already arduous negotiations on aid, a ceasefire and the release of approximately 130 hostages believed to still be in captivity in the Gaza Strip.

On Thursday, Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, fanned the flames with a post on X accusing Qatar of being responsible for the 7 October Hamas attack, calling the Gulf state the “patron of Hamas” and “a country that supports terrorism and finances terrorism”.

Ansari’s statement came in response to recordings of Netanyahu’s closed-door meeting with family members of hostages earlier this week obtained by Israel’s Channel 12, in which he reportedly said Qatar’s role in the mediation process was “problematic”.

The prime minister allegedly told the relatives he had intentionally not thanked Doha for its efforts to date and that he had expressed anger towards the US, Israel’s most important ally, for deciding to keep a military base in the semi-democratic oil state.

“Qatar in my opinion is no different, in essence, from the UN. It is no different, in essence, from the Red Cross, and in some ways it is even more problematic,” he said. “I am prepared to use any actor at the moment that will help me get [the hostages] home. I haven’t any illusions about [Qatar]. They have leverage.”

Hamas confirms truce extended by two days

In a statement, the Palestinian group says that the temporary truce was extended in agreement with Qatar and Egypt and in accordance with the same conditions.

(16:20 GMT)

Qatar foreign ministry: Truce in Gaza extended by two days

Majed Al-Ansari confirms in a statement that “an agreement has been reached to extend the humanitarian truce for an additional two days in the Gaza Strip”.

(16:15 GMT)

Via al jazeera 27 november 2023

Gaza: Catar acusa Israel de deixar palestinos passarem fome

Divulgação/UNRWA População palestina se desloca na Faixa de Gaza Em comunicado sobre a situação do conflito no Oriente Médio divulgado nesta quarta-feira (28), o porta-voz do Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros do Catar, Majed Al Ansari, pediu à comunidade internacional para que pressionasse o governo de Israel a permitir a ajuda humanitária em Gaza. O representante alegou que é “doloroso” ver…

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Get his ass, Doc

Le Hamas n'a rien confirmé, mais dans la bande de Gaza, ils célèbrent déjà un cessez-le-feu en une victoire

Le porte-parole du ministère qatari des Affaires étrangères, Majed Al-Ansari, a publié ce soir (jeudi) une déclaration selon laquelle le Hamas a donné une “approbation initiale positive” à l’accord – et a ensuite corrigé que l’organisation terroriste n’avait “accepté l’accord que positivement”. , et n’a pas confirmé ses détails, qu’ils n’ont pas encore confirmés. Il y a probablement un litige. Au…

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Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday, during a weekly media briefing, that the international community is not doing enough to prevent Israel from deliberately starving Palestinians in Gaza. “So far, we have not seen any real pressure from the international community to allow full and unconditional entry of aid [into Gaza],” said Majed al-Ansari, the ministry’s spokesperson. He added that 2.5 million Palestinians are “living in complete absence of health and emergency services,” more than one million in Rafah town in southern Gaza. UN humanitarian officials briefed the Security Council on the food security in Gaza on Tuesday. Carl Skau, the deputy executive director of World Food Programme (WFP) said there is “a real prospect of famine by May [in Gaza].” “Gaza is seeing the worst level of child malnutrition anywhere in the world,” Skau said, with “one child in every six under the age of two is acutely malnourished.” For thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, “famine is just a step away,” the UN warned. 

-- From "‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 145" by Mustafa Abu Sneineh for Mondoweiss, 28 Feb 2024

The person who holds the key to the Middle East’s extraordinary hostage crisis is neither Israeli nor Palestinian, but rather the young and taciturn ruler of Qatar. Since taking power 10 years ago, the 43-year-old Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has been hellbent on positioning his tiny country—one of the world’s richest, with the third-largest gas reserves and sixth-highest per-capita income—as a player in global geopolitics. He has mostly failed to achieve the stature he craves, even after hosting the soccer World Cup and solicitous European officials cut off from their once-reliable Russian gas supplies.

The war between Israel and Hamas—a group indebted to Qatar—has handed Thani an opportunity to attain a profile higher than any other Arab leader in a long time. He is in a unique position to help safely deliver more than 200 hostages. Unlike his neighbors in the region, he isn’t worried about an uprising or a challenge to his rule from political Islamists. Instead, he hosts Islamist militant groups including Hamas, alongside a trade office for Israel and thousands of American troops at the Al Udeid Air Base, from which the United States routinely carries out operations in the region.

There is no doubt that Thani’s sympathies lie with the Palestinians. His foreign ministry “solely” blamed Israel for Hamas’s attack and has not once condemned the brutality. And yet Doha’s sway over Hamas might be the only hope for families desperate for a reunion with their abducted sons, daughters, grandparents, and other loved ones.

In 2012, as war raged in Syria and Hamas’s leadership opposed the Syrian government, Doha provided it with shelter. Qataris said the decision was taken in coordination with the United States and with the blessing of then-U.S. President Barack Obama. Hamas owes Qatar not just for offering refuge to its leaders and providing a base to plan and parley with its Iranian patrons, but also for millions of dollars in annual foreign aid, which help the poor in Gaza, pays for electricity—and also allegedly bankroll Hamas’s bureaucracy.

Thus far, Qatar has managed to convince Hamas to release four captives, all women. “We remain hopeful with regard to the hostage situation,” Majed Al Ansari, the official spokesperson for Qatar’s Foreign Ministry, told Foreign Policy. “There has been some progress and breakthroughs on the negotiations, especially if we compare where we started with where we are right now.”

A day before the release of two Israelis, a senior official aware of the ongoing negotiations told FP that more civilian hostages would be released over the week and in the coming weeks. “It’s moving slower than we expected,” the official said. “The bombing of the hospital delayed negotiations,” he added, in reference to the explosion at al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City. “There has been positive movement, however, as in the beginning Hamas wanted a complete swap, including civilians. Now they want to release them for nothing,” he said, attributing the shift to Qatar’s mediation skills.

Israel and many of its Western allies believe that Thani exercises far more leverage on the group than he is probably letting on. He could, arguably, apply more pressure on its leaders to free the hostages. “The international community should call on Qatar, which finances Hamas, to enable the immediate release of the hostages held by the terrorists,” Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said at the United Nations Security Council meeting this week. “We know that Qatar can exercise influence over Hamas, and we have no reason to believe it won’t do it,” Peter Stano, lead spokesperson for the external affairs of the EU, told FP at his office in Brussels.

The official aware of the ongoing negotiations said Hamas is asking Israel to stop bombing so it can gather more than 200 captives scattered around Gaza—some in the custody of Islamic Jihad, an even more extremist armed faction, and some holed up in residential areas by Palestinian civilians.

Once the civilians have been released, Hamas hopes to negotiate a prisoner swap— Palestinian prisoners in exchange for armed Israelis—he added. Separately, Hamas’s leadership has said it has enough hostages to seek the release of “all our prisoners.”

Qataris are concerned that if Israel keeps dropping bombs and Hamas feels it is nearing its demise, negotiations might collapse. A rising death toll in Gaza and the fear that hostages may die has also led to increased calls for humanitarian “pauses.” The EU has called for them, and even U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said pauses must be considered to protect civilian lives.

Behind the scenes, however, Qatar is competing with others in the region also keen to appear to champion the cause and prove their relevance to the West.

Turkey has offered to arbitrate, if asked by both parties. It has some sway over Hamas, whose leaders have also sought refuge in Turkey. But despite Islamist camaraderie between Hamas and the Turkish president, Arabs may still prefer an Arab leader to play the lead. Doha and Ankara are allies and have said they are coordinating.

Oman has been a reliable and relatively neutral partner for the West when it comes to dealing with Iran, since it helped build the foundation a decade ago for direct talks between American and Iranian officials that culminated in the U.S.-Iran nuclear deal. But it does not have direct influence over Hamas.

Qatar faces the stiffest challenge as would-be mediator from Egypt. Cairo and Doha have long squabbled over diplomatic primacy in the region, which also played a role in the release of two Israeli hostages and has mediated several ceasefires between Israel and Hamas in previous clashes. “Always during the previous military actions between Israel and Hamas, always Egypt played the role of a mediator,’’ Emad Gad, an Egyptian politician and political analyst, told FP over the phone from Cairo. Gad said there is no doubt that, “indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas will happen in Egypt.’’

Sultan Barakat, a professor at the Qatar Foundation’s Hamad Bin Khalifa University, wrote in a 2014 academic paper that Qatar’s diplomacy in regional conflicts has traditionally been more successful in defusing short-term crises than providing long-term solutions to conflicts. But now, he believes, Qatar stands a better chance than Egypt in not just mediating the release of hostages but also an enduring caesefire. “Israel wants to push millions of Palestinians in the Sinai. Egypt can’t mediate if it is also at the receiving end of the conflict,” Barakat said over the phone from Doha. Several EU governments have prominently reached out to Qatar, rather than Egypt, in hopes of freeing their citizens held hostage.

Saudi Arabia, for its part, has lost some credibility as a mediator with Palestinians, as it had apparently channeled most of its diplomatic energy in the run-up to this war on normalizing ties with Israel. Iran, meanwhile, is despised by most Arabs, and those who signed the Abraham Accords with Israel in 2020 have disqualified themselves as arbiters. Qatar, a tiny nation with massive riches, however, has steadily maneuvered itself into a position where it can talk to Israel with the Palestinians’ benefits in mind.

Thani is young and very rich, and his one clear goal is to acquire a long-lasting legacy. He has a shot now, if he can save the hostages and in exchange convince Israelis to agree to a cease-fire. That might decide the future role Qatar plays in resolving the world’s most intractable conflict.

Medicine for hostages and Palestinians arrives in Gaza

Medicines for Israeli hostages and Palestinians have arrived in the Gaza Strip, Qatar said on Wednesday.

Under an agreement brokered by Qatar on Tuesday, medical supplies will be delivered to Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza in exchange for medicines and humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip. Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson Dr. Majed Al-Ansari wrote on X:

Over the past few hours, medicine & aid entered the Gaza Strip, in implementation of the agreement announced yesterday for the benefit of civilians in the Strip, including hostages. Qatar, along with its regional and international partners, continues mediation efforts at the political and humanitarian levels.

On Wednesday, a humanitarian shipment of medical supplies left Doha for Egypt before being transported to Gaza.

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Liberati 10 ostaggi israeliani e 30 palestinesi

AGI –  “Secondo i termini del settimo giorno dell’accordo di pausa umanitaria, 30 palestinesi saranno rilasciati oggi in cambio del rilascio di 10 ostaggi a Gaza. In questa lista sono stati conteggiati i 2 cittadini russi rilasciati ieri”. Lo rende noto Majed Al Ansari, portavoce del ministero degli Esteri del Qatar. Nelle ore precedenti erano state rilasciate la ventunenne Mia Schem e la…

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Gaza: quinto grupo de reféns é libertado pelo Hamas

  Mohammed Abed/AFP Hamas loberta grupo de reféns Nesta terça-feira (28), o Hamas libertou um quinto grupo de reféns preso na Faixa de Gaza. A informação foi dada pela Cruz Vermelha. Segundo o Clube dos Prisioneiros Palestinos, o governo de Israel deve libertar 30 palestinos presos ainda hoje. Os militares israelense informaram que este grupo deve somar cerca de 12 reféns libertos, sendo 10 israelense e 2 estrangeiros. Entretanto, a informação ainda não é certeira, sendo baseada nas informações passadas pela Cruz Vermelha. O porta-voz do Ministério das Relações Exteriores do Catar, Majed Al Ansari, informou no perfil do Twitter que o grupo que está sendo liberto pelo Hamas é formado por nove mulheres e um menor de idade. Desse grupo, uma pessoa é austríaca, uma é filipina e outros dois são argentinos. Sobre os prisioneiros palestinos, Al Ansari diz que serão libertos "15 menores e 15 mulheres." O braço armado do movimento Jihad Islâmica Palestina, as Brigadas Al Quds, informaram nesta terça-feira que entregaram os civis que estavam detidos, sendo parte de um acordo de troca com Israel. Entretanto, eles não informam quantos civis foram libertos. O acordo de trégua entre Israel e o Hamas começou na última sexta-feira (24) e duraria até a madrugada desta terça-feira, mas acabou sendo estendida posteriormente no domingo por mais dois dias. Esta é a quinta turma de reféns feita desde sexta, sendo a primeira feita desde a prorrogação. A guerra entre Israel e o Hamas se estende há quase dois meses, quando houve o primeiro ataque terrorista ocorrido no dia 7 de outubro contra o território israelense, deixando mais de 1400 mortos. Fonte: Internacional Read the full article

Tears Gate After hitting a third Israeli ship, America is preparing to launch a military strike against the Houthis Updates on the Al-Aqsa Flood operation presented in this episode of Samri Channel.

The beginning of the continuing prisoner exchange operations between the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, and Israel. The Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip returned Israeli prisoners, as part of the second batch of the truce agreement, which came in accordance with the conditions of the resistance and the exchange deal with Palestinian prisoners. The return of this batch of Israeli prisoners comes after the second day of the 4-day truce, after the Israeli occupation authorities were forced to submit to the conditions of Palestinian resistance. The Martyr Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades documented its handover of the second batch of prisoners it had to the Red Cross.

The video showed Al-Qassam resistance fighters escorting the prisoners to cars belonging to the International Red Cross, while the latter waved to the resistance fighters. The Al-Qassam Brigades decided to delay the return of the second batch of Israeli prisoners until the occupation complied with the terms of the agreement, related to the entry of relief trucks into the northern Gaza Strip, accusing “Israel” of not allowing the entry of 200 aid trucks daily, which is the number stipulated in the agreement. Al-Qassam said that the postponement of the prisoner handover was also due to the occupation’s failure to adhere to the agreed upon prisoner release standards.

On Friday, the first day of the truce, 10 Thai prisoners were released from the Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip as part of the first batch, and Iran facilitated their release based on the request of the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Presidency of the Parliament in the country, according to what the British newspaper “The Telegraph” reported, and what was confirmed by a spokesman. Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nasser Kanaani. It is noteworthy that the spokesman for the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Majed Al-Ansari, reported that he was able to “overcome obstacles, through Qatari-Egyptian communications,” after delaying the release of prisoners due to Israeli obstruction.

Al-Ansari said that 39 Palestinian prisoners will be released in exchange for the release of 13 Israeli prisoners in the Gaza Strip, in addition to 7 foreigners, outside the framework of the agreement. In turn, the Hamas movement said that it responded to the Egyptian-Qatari efforts, which were active throughout the day, in order to ensure the continuation of the temporary truce agreement. The movement confirmed that “the Egyptian and Qatari sides conveyed the occupation’s commitment to all the conditions stipulated in the agreement.” Following the return of the first batch on Friday, the Israeli Wallah website quoted relatives of the Israeli prisoners as saying that the prisoners “did not go through anything harsh, and they received humane treatment.” Relatives of the Israeli prisoners added that “there were no horror stories they experienced as they expected,” adding that “they were not beaten, from the moment they were captured.”

In another context, the Associated Press reported, citing an American official, that a ship owned by an Israeli billionaire was targeted in the Indian Ocean, adding, “The ship was attacked by a suspected Iranian drone in the Indian Ocean while Israel is waging a war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.” ". On the other hand, Al-Mayadeen channel quoted private sources as saying, “The ship that was targeted in the northern Indian Ocean received a hit that caused it to catch fire.” In the same context, the head of the Arab Affairs Department at the Israeli Kan channel, Roi Kayes, confirmed that “no confirmation has been received from Israeli authorities about the authenticity of the incident or the ownership of the ship by an Israeli.” The Ansar Allah Houthi group had detained an Israeli ship in the Red Sea, stressing that it would continue to carry out military operations against Israel until the war on the Strip stopped. The Yemeni military media published scenes showing the moment the Israeli ship was seized.

After the first ship that was seized by the Houthis and the second ship that was also targeted, this is the third Israeli ship that was targeted.. A drone targets an Israeli cargo ship in the Arabian Sea in international territorial waters off the coast of Yemen..

#Palestine #Yemen #Gaza