Peter Myers Digest: Israel has started selling exploration rights to Oil & Gas fields off Gaza

(1) Israel has started selling exploration rights to Oil & Gas fields off Gaza
(2) South Africa takes Israel to ICC over Gaza Genocide
(3) Oct 7 was designed and allowed by Mossad
(4) Guterres said UN has “neither money nor power” to prevent Genocide in Gaza

(1) Israel has started selling exploration rights to Oil & Gas fields off Gaza

Why Israel Really Invaded Gaza The shocking truth behind the Genocide

Dr Vernon Coleman

11/25/23

(http://www.a-w-i-p.com/index.php?s=Dr+Vernon+Coleman&sentence=sentence&in_blogs=6) – AKA “an old man in a chair”

https://www.bitchute.com/channel/oIqNJgc4Q7Ry/ and https://www.vernoncoleman.com/

It is mid November 2023 and this is video number 331 [check below] – all since I first exposed the covid fraud in February and March of 2020, and, at the same time, predicted a plan for a compulsory vaccination programme – long before they even had a vaccine.

Word has reached me that there are still a few people in the world who don’t understand why Israel is intent on destroying Gaza, killing the inhabitants, including babies and children, and taking over control of the land, coastline and sea bed. Thinking people find it difficult to understand why any nation should commit so many war crimes and enthusiastically welcome its status as the world’s latest rogue state, a terrorist nation guilty of the worst genocide most people can remember witnessing. Hospitals, ambulances, and refugee camps have all been bombed. You can’t get much worse than that. Babies and small children have been slaughtered. The sick, the frail and the elderly have been denied food, water and fuel. And the Israelis seem unembarrassed by an endless stream of lies. We weren’t there. It wasn’t our fault. Martians dropped those bombs. The dog ate our homework. I’ve seen videos which have appalled me and left me with images I’ll never eradicate from my mind.

If a murderer runs amok in a town you don’t go around killing everyone you can find – just because you can. Humans don’t slaughter babies and small children without a shred of regret or shame. But that’s what has been happening. The Israelis attacked hospitals and claimed that Hamas were hiding behind the bedpans. And what did they find? Shergar, the crew of the Marie Celeste, Lord Lucan and an old water pistol – which wasn’t any use because the Israelis have cut off all the water.

The mysteries abound. The Egyptians apparently warned Israel that something was about to happen but the Israelis ignored the warning. Why did they do that? It’s as though they deliberately wanted Hamas to attack. And remember, of course, that Israel and the US were at least partly responsible for the creation of Hamas in the first place.

If you don’t already know what is going on, the next few minutes are going to astonish you, horrify you and leave you sick to the stomach – with the words `so that’s what it’s all about’ appearing unbidden on your lips.

http://www.a-w-i-p.com/media/blogs/articles/10/C/PAL_gaza_gas_oil_MAP_border_77.jpg?mtime=1700737696

As always the magic words are – who benefits – and the key is to follow the money. In this case, the money involved is huge. An incomprehensively large amount of money. And if you’re puzzled about why the US and the UK are backing Israel’s Godless, demonic, barbaric, genocidal attacks then I can explain that too. The truth, as it often does, explains everything.

The fact is that Gaza is blessed – if that is the right word – with an enormous amount of oil and gas. Oil and gas fields off the coast of Gaza contain 1.7 billion barrels of oil waiting to be exploited and 122 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

A barrel of oil contains 42 gallons so multiply 1.7 billion by 42 by the price of a gallon of fuel and you’ll see the sort of numbers we are talking about.

That’s a hell of a lot of dollars, pounds, euros or shekels. I still use an old-fashioned calculator and it can’t cope because the numbers are too big but I’m told that there’s over half a trillion dollars’ worth of gas and oil waiting to be extracted and sold. And that’s just Gaza.

There’s a huge oil and natural gas field under the West Bank too. The Israelis have for years now prevented the Palestinian people from exploiting their own fossil fuel resources.

But Israel has now started selling exploration rights to fossil fuels which belong to the Palestinians. Within days of October 7th they had sold 12 licences to six different companies. Presumably, they just happened to have the contracts all ready to sign. Usually, these things take months or years to set up but the Israelis were selling half a trillion dollars’ worth of someone else’s oil and gas in less time than it takes to buy a washing machine. (I wonder if the climate change nutters who support Israel know about all the fossil fuels.) I am reminded for some reason of the fact that the British Government had a 300 odd page piece of covid legislation ready for publication within hours of its own expert committee deciding that covid was no more dangerous than the flu. Aren’t these people fast with the paperwork these days? What a mystery!

http://www.a-w-i-p.com/media/blogs/articles/10/C/PAL_gaza_gas_oil_MAP_2.jpg?mtime=1700738075

It seems pretty clear why the Israelis want to take control of Gaza and the West Bank. And it isn’t difficult to see why the US Government and the UK Government are supporting Israeli’s war crimes. Someone is going to have to help the Israelis retrieve and market all that oil and gas. They’ll need big oil companies. And there will be huge amounts of tax to be paid by those companies and big fees.

Back in September, a couple of months ago, much of the oil and the gas belonged to the Palestinians, though the Israelis wouldn’t let them do anything with it. Now Israel is flogging what isn’t theirs.

I wonder if the people of Israel think all this money is worth it. They’ve lost their status, their reputation, their honour and their future. Israel is, and will remain, a rogue state, a pariah. Israel is now a godless terrorist nation, guilty of genocide and endless war crimes – they’ve already been reported for committing war crimes. Their political and military leaders are going to be standing in the dock. They will be found guilty and punished.

But, now you know. The genocide in Gaza isn’t about racism or ethnic cleansing. It’s about money. Billions of shekels in lovely oil and gas.

If you don’t believe me – check it out and you’ll find that I’m absolutely right. And now that the truth is out in the open it would be nice to see the people who are defending Israel admitting that this slaughter is all about money. Let’s see American senators and congressmen and British MPs admit that Israel is murdering babies to get control of a good deal of oil and gas.

Please share this short video. Put it on platforms everywhere – even on the evil YouTube. A few people will see it before it’s banned and removed and it’ll keep the bastards on their toes.

I’ve been banned from all mainstream media, YouTube and all social media for years now – for the crime of telling the truth, so I rely on your help.

The censorship isn’t lessening, by the way. I wrote a book about my experiences since I first warned about the covid hoax and the vaccination programme way back in March 2020. The book is called `Truth Teller: The Price’ and it’s available as a paperback a hard cover book and an eBook. Or at least it is in some places. In much of the world the book is banned. You can’t buy it. How’s that for perfect irony: I write a book describing how I’ve been censored, banned and lied about and the book is suppressed. Perhaps it was the stuff about the Wikipedia, or the bit about the CIA that worried someone.

If you want to keep in touch in future please do so by visiting vernoncoleman.com. There are no adverts and no fees and we’re open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There are a number of recent articles which you will, I think, find of special interest. And new stuff goes onto the site every weekday evening.

Finally, please remember you are not alone. More and more people are waking up. And once they’re awake they don’t go back to sleep which means that our numbers are growing daily.

Distrust the Government, avoid mass media and fight the lies. And thank you for watching an increasingly weary old man in a chair.

Dr Vernon Coleman ==

Check his website, it’s great: https://www.vernoncoleman.com/

(2) South Africa takes Israel to ICC over Gaza Genocide

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/south-africa-israel-genocide-united-nations-b2471045.html

South Africa accuses Israel of genocide in complaint to World Court

A case at the UN’s top court urges actions to prevent ‘severe and irreparable harm’ against Palestinians

The <https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20231229-pre-01-00-en.pdf> complaint at the World Court at <https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/the-hague-0> The Hague on Friday alleges “acts and omissions by Israel” in Gaza “are genocidal in character” and have been committed with “the requisite specific intent” to “destroy Palestinians in Gaza as a part of the broader Palestinian national, racial and [ethnic] group”.

Following Israel’s <https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-lebanon-hezbollah-gaza-hamas-b2469151.html> devastating retaliatory military campaign in the beleaguered strip after <https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/judy-weinstein-haggai-hostage-hamas-b2470972.html> Hamas attacks in Israel on 7 October, Israel has “failed to prevent genocide and has failed to prosecute the direct and public incitement to genocide,” according to the filing.

“Israel has engaged in, is engaging in and risks further engaging in genocidal acts against the Palestinian people in Gaza,” South Africa has asserted.

The filing asks the court to implement provisional or short-term measures to halt Israel’s campaign in an urgent effort “to protect against further, severe and irreparable harm to the rights of the Palestinian people”.

Israel has condemned the suit.

“Israel has made it clear that the residents of the Gaza Strip are not the enemy, and is making every effort to limit harm to the non-involved and to allow humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip,” according to a statement from Israel’s foreign ministry.

A hearing has not yet been scheduled but is expected within the coming days or weeks.

South Africa has long criticised Israel’s campaign in Gaza and has repeatedly compared Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and occupied territories to that of its own violent apartheid-era past.

Last month, South Africa <https://apnews.com/article/south-africa-israel-palestinians-icc-referral-6f1dd2b3af534d4d42d56a156968eae4> pushed for the <https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/international-criminal-court> International Criminal Court at The Hague to investigate Israel’s actions in Gaza.

That court prosecutes nations for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, while the International Court of Justice settles disputes between nations.

South African officials <https://twitter.com/PresidencyZA/status/1740797624565772616> said in a statement that the country is “gravely concerned with the plight of civilians caught in the present Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip due to the indiscriminate use of force and forcible removal of inhabitants.”

Officials said “There are ongoing reports of international crimes, such as crimes against humanity and war crimes, being committed” as well as other acts that meet the threshold of genocide under the UN’s Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and which “may still be committed in the context of the ongoing massacres in Gaza.”

Last week, the United Nations Security Council <https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/gaza-ceasefire-israel-aid-united-nations-b2468546.html> narrowly approved a resolution pressing for the urgently needed passage of humanitarian aid into Gaza after more than two months of attacks.

Following several days of negotiations led by the United States, the council stopped short of a resolution calling for an immediate cessation of violence, instead approving a watered-down measure to avoid a veto from the US, which has blocked previous UN attempts to stem the violence.

The long-delayed vote in the 15-member council on 22 December was 13-0. The US and Russia ultimately abstained from voting.

A final version did not include demands for a ceasefire or any immediate pause in the fighting, making it unlikely that the measure to support the flow of aid into Gaza – which is largely in Israel’s control – <https://www.independent.co.uk/world/un-security-council-resolution-gaza-aid-b2468582.html> will slow the violence that has <https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/gaza-death-toll-biden-ceasefire-b2468515.html> killed thousands of Palestinians, <https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/gaza-children-war-israel-b2462281.html> including more than 8,000 children, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

On Thursday, Israeli forces reportedly shot at a UN convoy of armoured vehicles in central Gaza after it was returning from aid deliveries in the north.

“Israeli soldiers fired at an aid convoy as it returned from northern Gaza along a route designated by the Israeli Army,” <https://twitter.com/TomWhiteGaza/status/1740616902282772912> according to Thomas White, the Gaza director for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. No injuries were reported.

“Aid workers should never be a target,” Mr White said.

(3) Oct 7 was designed and allowed by Mossad

Israel Fooled The World In Gaza

“The Hamas attack is just not possible … it can’t be done, except if the Israeli side allowed it.”

By Dr. Ashraf Ezzat

December 28, 2023

This was not supposed to happen. Israel’s powerful military and efficient security services had Hamas bottled up, squeezed, and strangled inside the Gaza Strip.

Sure, every few years there was a so-called conflict that followed a similar pattern: an Israeli provocation, Hamas rocket attacks, ruthless Israeli air strikes, Egyptian mediation, and then quiet again.

But surprisingly and unexpectedly this time around, that pattern has changed … but why? This is the important question … and why now is even the more important question?

The old pattern always worked fine for Israel, but is that pattern not working anymore, or maybe Israel is after a bigger target … bigger than Hamas, the occupied West Bank, and the whole fake issue of resolving the Palestinian plight through raving about two-state solutions for ages now?

Gaza is the only place on earth that is referred to as a strip … what the hell is a strip …. It’s a tiny place that some humanitarians like to refer to as the largest open-air prison on earth, where in fact it should be called a Zionist concentration camp.

Whether you like to refer to the place as the strip or the open-air prison, one fact remains solid and invulnerable; Gaza is the most controlled place on earth, as it has been under complete military siege since 2007.

Gaza is under high-tech surveillance 24/7 … and if some loose surveillance and control is somehow enjoyed inside the strip of Gaza the Israeli intelligence and military surely won’t allow that flexibility along the borders of Gaza, whether it be air, sea, or land borders.

When you have cemented, electrified metal, and barbed-wire borders that are monitored every second of the day and over-secured by drones patrolling the sky of Gaza, digital surveillance cameras along the whole border with Israel, and even live satellite imaging that follows every flicker of abnormality on the Gaza/ Israel borders even if it was of a small fly.

Then breaching that impenetrable secured borders would be a joke, unbelievable joke. It would be impossible … insanely impossible, especially given the limited and primitive resources of the Palestinian fighters in Gaza.

It is just not possible … it can’t be done, except if the Israeli side allowed it.

A few hours after the Hamas attack on Israeli settlements across the Gazan circle, almost all mainstream media outlets went out and described the attack as brutal, barbaric, violent but most importantly unprovoked.

But Little did all of those media outlets know that this attack was indeed a provoked attack … only the provocateur was made to look like and appear in plain daylight as Palestinian fighters from Hamas.

But the truth of the matter is that the whole operation that Hamas pulled out with minimum or no resistance at all from Israel, was designed and allowed by the Israeli intelligence, also known as the Mossad.

The notorious Mossad is the real/hidden provocateur behind this El Aqsa flood cartoonish operation … and don’t forget that Hamas is Israel’s creation in the first place.

Some news platforms referred to the Hamas attack as Israel’s 9/11 attack … and this designation in particular carries some truth to it especially if we bear in mind the enormous worldwide investigations/probes that pointed the finger at the Israeli Mossad as the hidden provocateur behind the 9/11 attacks on the twin towers in New York back in 2001.

Some like to refer to those justified contentions and solid investigations that pointed the finger at the Israeli Mossad as the actual provocateur and designer of the 9/11 attacks as conspiracy theories. But that could not be further from the truth … even though the 9/11 attack was indeed a grand-scale conspiracy and there was a diabolic theory and plan behind it carefully designed and carried out by the Israeli Mossad.

In the 9/11 attacks, The Mossad had planned to inflict a major attack on American soil that would trigger mass political/military reaction … so much so that the American pride and sensibility would be hurt enough to compel them to go to war against whomever the intelligence might specify and target as the enemy … and as usual the US relied heavily on the Mossad intelligence, for whom could the US trust when terrorism rules except the old Israeli ally and friend embedded in the Middle East amongst terrorist neighbors, also known as the Arab countries?

So it was mostly according to Mossad’s intelligence that the mighty US army was willing to head its direction and unleash unprecedented firepower and destruction in an act of stupid and blind revenge.

Back in 2001, Israel was trying to get rid of one of the strongest armies in the Middle East and the Arab world, namely the Iraqi army.

Based on fake intelligence (mostly supplied by the Mossad) about some weapons of mass destruction … the US was blindly dragged like sheep into a war in Iraq

… killing thousands of innocent Iraqis and demolishing Saddam Hussein’s military might in a proxy war, during which thousands of American soldiers were also killed, on behalf of the Israeli army that is often known as the most moral army in the world (for they always fool some other armies and soldiers to fight their dirty battles … namely the gullible Americans)

Likewise, the ridiculously primitive Hamas attack with one singular bulldozer and a couple of air paragliders managed to breach the invincible Israeli wall and borders around Gaza … I mean where are the military/strategic analysts around the world to dig into the truth behind this charade that was dubbed “a sophisticated attack” …

The Hamas attack went unscrutinized and unanalyzed, for the mainstream media controlled by world Zionism were up and ready to sell this attack as another Yom Kippur war that was miraculously and courageously fought by Egyptian and Syrian armies to liberate the occupied land by the Israelis. In fact, no one can draw a parallel between the latest Hamas attack and the 1973 war, for it was one of the greatest liberation battles waged in the last era of traditional wars.

But this time around, the Hamas attack and incursion into Israel was more like an inside operation than a war… This means that some Israeli Mossad agents had obviously infiltrated the Gaza circle of command and convinced Hamas leaders they were giving them a strategic tip on how to breach the borders with Israel and launch their most powerful attacks ever against Israel.

So those Mossad agents let Hamas in on a plan to breach the border with Israel, and then allowed them to wreak havoc across some nearby settlements along the Gazan zone … and to make it look an authentic attack a barrage of the primitive and lovely made-in-Gaza rockets had to be launched across Israel to create a state of public terror

Once the threshold of the Hamas operation reached the level of the mainstream media-orchestrated terrorism (like the beheading of small Jewish babies … an incident that never took place except inside the Zionist mind and machine that is always working on exploiting the holocaust stereotype)

Only then the Mossad operation would be a success … and then it would only need the puppet president of the US to make the awaited statement that America stands solid ( or rather sleeps in the same bed) with Israel.

Afterward, it will be a few hours before the Zionist President Biden orders the mighty USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft to sail and anchor in front of Israel’s coastline … waiting in full military capacity and political naivety to fire and attack Israel’s next enemy on the list in the region, namely Iran.

Long live the United States of Israel

And, may god save Palestine…

(4) Guterres said UN has “neither money nor power” to prevent Genocide in Gaza

The Spark That Lit the Fire: The Untold Story of the October 7 Attacks

The Spark That Lit The Fire: The Untold Story Of The October 7 Attacks

The dramatic, earth-shattering events in Palestine starting on October 7 have taken many people by surprise. However, attentive observers were not among them.

Few expected that Palestinian fighters would be parachuting into southern Israel on October 7; that instead of capturing a single Israeli soldier – as <https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/gilad-shalit> done in 2006 – hundreds of Israelis, including many soldiers and civilians, would find themselves captive in besieged Gaza.

The reason behind the ‘surprise,’ however, is the same reason that Israel is still reeling under collective shock, which is the tendency to pay close attention to political discourses and intelligence analyses of Israel and its supporters – while largely neglecting the Palestinian discourse.

For better comprehension, let us go back to the start.

The Spark

We entered 2023 with some depressing data and dark predictions about what was awaiting Palestinians in the new year.

Just before the year commenced, the United Nations Mideast envoy, Tor Wennesland, <https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/israel-west-bank-palestinians-deadliest-year-united-nations-report-rcna54643> said 2022 was the most violent year since 2005. “Too many people, overwhelmingly Palestinian, have been killed and injured,” Wennesland <https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/israel-west-bank-palestinians-deadliest-year-united-nations-report-rcna54643> told the UN Security Council.

This figure – 171 <https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/israeli-army-settlers-have-killed-more-palestinians-in-west-bank-since-oct-7-than-in-2022/3067197> killed and hundreds wounded in the West Bank alone – did not receive much coverage in Western media. The mounting number of Palestinian victims, however, registered among Palestinians and their Resistance movements.

As anger and calls for revenge grew among ordinary Palestinians, their leadership continued to play its same traditional role – of pacifying Palestinian calls for resistance while continuing with its ‘security coordination’ with Israel.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, 88, carried on rehashing the old language about a two-state solution and the ‘peace process’ while cracking down on Palestinians who dared protest his ineffectual leadership.

Defenseless in the face of a far-right Israeli government with an open agenda to crush Palestinians, to expand illegal settlements and to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state, Palestinians were forced to develop their defensive strategies.

The Lions’ Den – a multi-factional Resistance group that first <https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/10/26/who-are-the-lions-den-armed-group-in-occupied-west-bank-explainer> appeared in Nablus in August 2022 – grew in power and appeal. Other groups, old and new, emerged on the scene throughout the northern West Bank, with the single objective of uniting Palestinians around a non-factional agenda and, ultimately, producing a new Palestinian leadership in the West Bank.

These developments sounded alarm bells in Israel. The Israeli occupation army moved quickly to crush the new armed rebellion, raiding Palestinian towns and refugee camps one after the other, with the hope of turning this nascent revolution into another failed attempt to challenge the status quo in occupied Palestine.

The bloodiest of the Israeli incursions occurred in <https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/2/23/catastrophic-palestinians-recount-deadly-israeli-raid-on-nablu> Nablus on February 23, <https://new.thecradle.co/articles-id/6978> Jericho on August 15 and, most importantly, in the Jenin refugee camp.

The July 3 Israeli <https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/4/no-mercy-palestinians-describe-israels-deadly-raid-on-Jenin> invasion of Jenin was reminiscent, in terms of casualties and degree of destruction, of the Israeli invasion of that very camp in April 2002.

The outcome, however, was not the same. Back then, Israel had invaded Jenin, along with other Palestinian towns and refugee camps, and succeeded in crushing armed resistance for years to come.

This time around, the Israeli invasion merely ignited a broader rebellion in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, creating a further schism in the already deteriorating relationship between Palestinians, on the one hand, and Abbas and his PA, on the other.

Indeed, just days after Israel concluded its attack on the camp, Abbas emerged with thousands of his soldiers to <https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/12/world/middleeast/mahmoud-abbas-Jenin-israel-palestinian-authority.html> warn the bereaved refugees that “the hand that will break the unity of the people .. will be cut off from its arm”.

Yet, as the popular rebellion continued to build momentum in the West Bank, Israeli intelligence reports started talking about a <https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/middle-east/palestinian-territories/1694930869-palestinian-terrorist-groups-call-for-a-new-intifada> plan composed by the deputy head of Hamas’ political bureau, Saleh Arouri, to ignite an armed Intifada.

The <https://www.palestinechronicle.com/why-israel-wants-toassassinate-saleh-al-arouri-and-how-hamas-responded/> solution, according to the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, citing official Israeli sources, was to kill Arouri.

Indeed, Israel’s attention and counterstrategy were focused intently on the West Bank, as Hamas, in Gaza at the time, in Israel’s viewpoint, seemed disinterested in an all-out confrontation.

But why did Israel reach such a conclusion?

Miscalculation

Several significant events, the kind that would have pushed Hamas to retaliate, have taken place without any severe armed response by the Resistance in Gaza.

Last December, Israel had <https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/netanyahu-set-retake-power-head-far-right-government-2022-12-29/> sworn in its most right-wing government in history. Far-right ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich arrived on the political scene with the declared objectives of annexing the West Bank, imposing military control over Al-Aqsa Mosque and other Palestinian Muslim and Christian holy sites and, in the case of Smotrich, <https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/21/middleeast/israel-smotrich-palestinians-intl/index.html> denying the very existence of the Palestinian people.

Their pledges were quickly translated into action under the leadership of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Ben-Gvir was keen on sending a message to his constituency that the seizure of Al-Aqsa Mosque by Israel had become imminent.

He repeatedly <https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/27/israels-far-right-minister-leads-incursion-of-al-aqsa-compound> raided or ordered raids on Al-Aqsa at an unprecedented frequency. The most violent and humiliating of these raids occurred on April 4, when worshippers were <https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/4/5/israeli-police-attack-worshippers-in-jerusalems-al-aqsa-mosque> beaten up by soldiers while praying inside the mosque during the holy month of Ramadan.

Resistance groups in Gaza threatened retaliation. Several rockets were fired from Gaza toward Israel, merely serving as a symbolic reminder that Palestinians are united, regardless of where they are in the geographic map of historic Palestine.

Israel, however, ignored the message and used the Palestinian threats of retaliation and the occasional ‘lone-wolf attacks’ – like that of <https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-08-01/ty-article/man-shot-after-suspected-shooting-attack-in-west-bank-settlement-near-jerusalem/00000189-b124-ddac-a3cd-b575ba010000> Muhannad al-Mazaraa at the illegal Maale Adumim settlement – as political capital to ignite the religious fervor of Israeli society.

Not even <https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/5/2/who-was-khader-adnan-the-palestinian-who-died-on-hunger-strike> the death of Palestinian political prisoner Khader Adnan on May 2 seemed to have shifted Hamas’ position. Some even suggested that there is a rift between Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad following Adnan’s death as a result of a hunger strike in the Ramleh Prison.

On the same day, the PIJ <https://www.jns.org/analysis-an-operation-that-wont-change-gaza-but-can-offer-quiet-to-the-south/> fired rockets into Israel, as Adnan was one of its most prominent members. Israel answered by attacking hundreds of targets inside Gaza, mostly civilian homes and infrastructure, which <https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/05/19/the-mourning-families-of-gaza-the-israelis-can-target-us-whenever-they-want_6027227_4.html> resulted in the death of 33 Palestinians and the wounding of 147 more.

A truce was <https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-strikes-gaza-palestinians-fire-rockets-truce-bid-lingers-2023-05-13/> declared on May 13, again with no direct Hamas participation, giving further reassurance to Israel that its bloody onslaught on the Strip had achieved more than a military purpose – often referred to as ‘mowing the lawn’ – but a political one, as well.

Israel’s <https://www.ft.com/content/f1ec2502-8220-491c-95e0-5f1504ce9554> strategic estimation, however, proved to be wrong, as attested by Hamas’ well-coordinated October 7 attacks in southern Israel, targeting numerous military bases, settlements and other strategic positions.

But was Hamas being deceptive? Hiding its actual strategic objectives in anticipation of that significant event?

‘ROARING FLOOD’

A quick examination of Hamas’ recent statements and political discourse demonstrates that the Palestinian group was hardly secretive about its future actions.

Two weeks before 2023 commenced, at a Gaza rally on December 14, Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, had a <https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/hiding-plain-sight-hamas-leader-sinwar-plotted-destruction-2023-12-01/> message for Israel: “We will come to you in a roaring flood. We will come to you with endless rockets; we will come to you in a limitless flood of soldiers … like the repeating tide.”

The immediate response to the Hamas’ attack was the predictable US-Western <https://www.state.gov/secretary-antony-j-blinken-remarks-to-the-press-on-president-bidens-upcoming-trip-to-israel-and-agreement-with-israel-to-develop-a-humanitarian-aid-plan-for-gaza/> solidarity with Israel, <https://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/article280598609.html> calls for revenge, the destruction and annihilation of Gaza and the revitalized plans of <https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/urgent-action-needed-stop-forced-displacement-and-transfer-palestinians-within-gaza-and-prevent-mass-deportation-egypt> displacing Palestinians out of Gaza into Egypt – in fact, out of the <https://www.newarab.com/news/expelling-west-bank-palestinians-act-war-jordan-fm> West Bank as well, into Jordan.

The Israeli war on the Strip, also starting on October 7, has resulted in unprecedented casualties compared to all Israeli wars on Gaza, in fact, on Palestinians during any time in modern history.

Quickly, the term ‘genocide’ was being used, initially by <https://www.newarab.com/news/expelling-west-bank-palestinians-act-war-jordan-fm> intellectuals and activists and eventually by international law <https://www.un.org/unispal/document/gaza-is-running-out-of-time-un-experts-warn-demanding-a-ceasefire-to-prevent-genocide/> experts.

“Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza is quite explicit, open, and unashamed,” associate professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Stockton University, Raz Segal, <https://jewishcurrents.org/a-textbook-case-of-genocide> wrote on October 13 in an article entitled ‘A Textbook Case of Genocide.’

Despite this, the UN could do nothing. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres <https://tass.com/world/1703575> said on November 8 that the UN has “neither money nor power” to prevent a potential genocide in Gaza.

In essence, this effectively meant the disabling of the international legal and political systems, as every attempt by the Security Council to demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire has been <https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/10/1142507> blocked by the US and Israel’s other Western allies.

As the death toll mounted among a starving population in Gaza – all food deprived per the <https://www.brusselstimes.com/815966/world-food-programme-warns-of-high-risk-of-famine-in-gaza> November 28 estimation of the World Food Program – Palestinians resisted throughout the Gaza Strip.

Their resistance was not only confined to attacking or ambushing invading Israeli soldiers but was predicated on the legendary steadfastness of a population that refused to be weakened or displaced.

Sumud

This sumud (steadfast perseverance) continued, even when Israel began to <https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/10/gaza-un-experts-decry-bombing-hospitals-and-schools-crimes-against-humanity> systematically attack hospitals, schools, and every place that, in times of war, is seen as ‘safe places’ for a beleaguered civilian population.

Indeed, on December 3, UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk <https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/gaza-unbearable-suffering-civilians-demands-end-violence-turk-enar> said that “there is no safe place in Gaza.” This phrase was repeated often by other UN officials, along with other phrases such as “Gaza has become a graveyard for children,” as first <https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/gaza-has-become-graveyard-thousands-children> noted by UNICEF Spokesperson James Elder on October 31. This left Guterres with no other option but to, on December 6, <https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/7/un-secretary-general-invokes-article-99-on-gaza> invoke article 99, which allows the Secretary-General to “bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security.”

Israeli violence and Palestinian sumud also extended to the West Bank as well. Aware of the potential for armed resistance in the West Bank, the Israeli army quickly <https://www.npr.org/2023/11/26/1215227734/since-october-7-israel-has-escalated-attacks-in-the-west-bank-where-hamas-is-abs> launched major, deadly raids on countless Palestinian towns, villages, and refugee camps, killing hundreds, injuring thousands, and arresting thousands more.

But Gaza remained the epicenter of the Israeli genocide. Aside from a brief humanitarian <https://www.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/israel-hamas-war-gaza-news-11-24-23/index.html> truce from November 24 to December 1, coupled with few prisoner <https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-hamas-start-first-truce-gaza-war-2023-11-24/> exchanges, the battle for Gaza -for the future of Palestine and the Palestinian people – continues at an unparalleled price of death and destruction.

Palestinians know full well that the current fight will either mean a new Nakba, like the ethnic cleansing of 1948, or the beginning of the reversal of that very Nakba – as in the process of liberating the Palestinian people from the yoke of Israeli colonialism.

While Israel is determined to end Palestinian Resistance once and for all, it is evident that the Palestinian people’s determination to win their freedom in the coming years is far greater.

Feature photo | Palestinians burn tires and wave the national flag during a protest against an Israeli military raid in the West Bank city of Jenin, along the border fence with Israel, in east of Gaza City, June 19, 2023. Fatima Shbair | AP

Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of six books. His latest book, co-edited with Ilan Pappé, is ‘ <https://www.amazon.com/Our-Vision-Liberation-Palestinian-Intellectuals/dp/1949762440> Our Vision for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders and Intellectuals Speak Out.’ His other books include ‘My Father was a Freedom Fighter’ and ‘The Last Earth’. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA). His website is <http://www.ramzybaroud.net/> www.ramzybaroud.net