LONDON: Few Palestinians expect Israel to heed the UN’s call for maximum restraint, but even the threat of a rising death toll is unlikely to halt further protests in Gaza.
The political horizons for Gaza’s almost 2 million inhabitants are severely constrained by an Israeli-Egyptian blockade, a divided leadership, and a lack of concrete action either regionally or internationally toward peace.
Washington has yet to present any detailed peace plan and many Palestinians believe all they can do is try to make sure they are not forgotten amid the carnage caused by other regional conflicts, including Syria and Yemen.
Yehia Abu Daqqa, a 20-year-old student, said he had come to demonstrate and honor those killed in the past. “Yes, there is fear,” he told AP. “We are here to tell the occupation that we are not weak.”
Meanwhile, Hazem Qassem, the Hamas spokesman, emphasized that demonstrations would be peaceful.
“Maintaining the peaceful nature of the protests will strike all fragile Zionist propaganda,” he said.
The “March of Return” protests on the Gaza-Israeli border, organized by a network of Palestinian activists, are intended to draw attention to refugees displaced in 1948 by the creation of Israel. Refugees make up more than 90 percent of Gaza’s population and the protests will culminate on May 15, the 70th anniversary of Israel’s birth and a day the Palestinians call the “nakba” or catastrophe.
This year the anniversary will prove especially stark for Palestinians because the administration of President Donald Trump is scheduled to open a US embassy in Jerusalem. Israel annexed East Jerusalem — which the Palestinians want as their capital in a future state — after the 1967 war in a move that is not recognized under international law.
Many Gazans believe they have little to lose. Unemployment is around 50 percent, health care is meager and the blockade has turned the territory into an open-air prison.
A decade of Hamas rule has failed to improve the lives of ordinary Gazans. The divide between Hamas and the Fatah party led by Mahmoud Abbas has worsened, while the Palestinian president has found himself marginalized by Washington in spite of his previous overtures.
The humanitarian situation is set to deteriorate even further as Trump withholds aid payments to the Palestinians, accusing them of unwillingness to discuss peace with Israel. The US is by far the largest donor to UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency).
Many Gazans barely remember a brief window of hope in 2005 when Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from the territory. For a short time, there was talk of economic regeneration backed by the World Bank and other organizations.
All that faded, particularly after Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2006 and the international community backed Israel by refusing any contact with the Islamist organization.
Israel and Hamas militants have fought three wars since 2008. With Washington’s apparent abandonment of a two-state solution that would be acceptable to most Palestinians, another war cannot be ruled out.
Desperate Gazans believe they have nothing to lose
Desperate Gazans believe they have nothing to lose
US announces start of effort to ‘eliminate Daesh fighters’ and weapons sites in Syria following deaths of Americans
- “This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says
- President Trump earlier pledged “very serious retaliation” but stressed that Syria was fighting alongside US troops
WASHINGTON: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has announced the start of an operation to “eliminate Daesh fighters, infrastructure, and weapons sites” in Syria following the deaths of three US citizens.
“This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance. The United States of America, under President Trump’s leadership, will never hesitate and never relent to defend our people,” he said Friday on social media.
Two Iowa National Guard members and a US civilian interpreter were killed Dec. 13 in an attack in the Syrian desert that the Trump administration has blamed on the Daesh group. The slain National Guard members were among hundreds of US troops deployed in eastern Syria as part of a coalition fighting IS.
Soon after word of the deaths, President Donald Trump pledged “very serious retaliation” but stressed that Syria was fighting alongside US troops. Trump has said Syrian President Ahmad Al-Sharaa was “extremely angry and disturbed by this attack” and the shooting attack by a gunman came as the US military is expanding its cooperation with Syrian security forces.
A US official told The Associated Press that the attack was conducted using F-15 Eagle jets, A-10 Thuderbolt ground attack aircraft and AH-64 Apache helicopters. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive operations, said more strikes should be expected.
When asked for further information, the Pentagon referred AP to Hegseth’s social media post.
White House officials noted that Trump had made clear that retaliation was coming.
“President Trump told the world that the United States would retaliate for the killing of our heroes by Daesh in Syria, and he is delivering on that promise,” White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement.
Trump this week met privately with the families of the slain Americans at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware before he joined top military officials and other dignitaries on the tarmac for the dignified transfer, a solemn and largely silent ritual honoring US service members killed in action.
The guardsmen killed in Syria on Saturday were Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, and Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, 29, of Marshalltown, according to the US Army. Ayad Mansoor Sakat, of Macomb, Michigan, a US civilian working as an interpreter, was also killed.
