Orientul Mijlociu

For over a decade, Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu collaborated with the emirate of evil, Qatar, in pushing $1.5 billion dollars to Hamas in Gaza – enabling it to build an army 30,000 strong and its massive missile arsenal, and equip itself with a variety of other weapons and munitions sufficient for a prolonged war. These funds also enabled Hamas to build an underground city with dozens of kilometers of tunnels and command and battle posts, with a hi-tech early warning system.

On October 10, 2023, Hamas leader abroad Khaled Mash’al published an announcement calling on the entire Islamic ummah (nation) to join the jihad battle for Al-Aqsa Mosque and to provide economic aid to the Gaza Strip. He stressed that this call was addressed first and foremost to all the Arab countries closest to Israel, with an emphasis on Jordan.

Dr. Mahmoud Al-Shajrawi of the Palestine Scholars Association in the Diaspora said on an October 9, 2023 show on Al-Quds Al-Youm TV (Palestinian Islamic Jihad – Gaza) that his organization issued a “wonderful” fatwa stating that it is permissible to kill Israelis wherever they may be, whether it is in the West Bank, within Israel’s 1948 border, or in the Arab countries that have normalized relations with Israel.

Regardless of the precise strategy of the Palestinian group Hamas, or any other Palestinian movement for that matter, the daring Palestinian military campaign, deep inside Israel, on Saturday, October 7, was only possible because Palestinians are simply fed up.

Uncertainty is rising for Syrian refugees everywhere. Borders are tightening in Europe, deportations from Lebanon and Turkey are increasing, and Syria remains inhospitable for returning refugees. Jordan is considered to be a Syrian refugee “success story” due to its record of hospitality. However, Syrians who reside in the country are increasingly concerned about changes in the government’s posture toward them. They fear that their host government may be running out of patience and they may soon be pressured to leave.

The situation in Gaza continues to deteriorate as the health sector collapses and bodies begin piling up in front of hospitals.

Three days into the Israeli siege and bombardment, the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is quickly worsening, with the death toll now over 1,400 and the number of displaced surpassing 300,000.

“Flood Of Vengeance – From Syria To Palestine (Source: Al-Watan, Syria, October 8, 2023.

Arab online news outlets, among them those affiliated with the Syrian opposition, are reporting on intensified preparations by Hizbullah and Iranian militias in Syria, in advance of the possibility that the current war between Israel and Hamas will expand to the Syrian front.

Azerbaijan’s late September military operation to retake the ethnic Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, the self-styled “Republic of Artsakh,” caused most of the residents to flee to Armenia and the government of breakaway region to announce it will dissolve by 1 January 2024.

The United States is flowing military supplies to Israel as the country battles against Hamas terrorists, President Joe Biden said Tuesday.

“We stand with Israel,” the president said during an announcement at the White House.

Senior Hamas official Ali Baraka said in an October 8, 2023 interview that aired on Russia Today TV that Hamas had been secretly planning the invasion of southern Israel for two years, even as it was making it seem like it was busy governing the Gaza Strip. He explained that this is the reason Hamas did not join the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in its previous round of fighting against Israel. He said that Hamas notified its allies in other Palestinian factions, in Hizbullah, in Iran, in Turkey, and in Russia only after the invasion started, and he stated that any prisoner exchange deal should involve Hamas prisoners held in the United States. Later in the interview, Baraka said that Hamas has a license from Russia to locally produce bullets for Kalashnikovs, that Russia sympathizes with Hamas, and that it is pleased with the war because it is easing American pressure on it with regard to the war in Ukraine.