Month After War on Gaza: Palestinian Deaths Top Russia-Ukraine War Toll

A damaged road after Israeli forces stormed the Jenin camp in the West Bank on Sunday (Reuters)
A damaged road after Israeli forces stormed the Jenin camp in the West Bank on Sunday (Reuters)
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Month After War on Gaza: Palestinian Deaths Top Russia-Ukraine War Toll

A damaged road after Israeli forces stormed the Jenin camp in the West Bank on Sunday (Reuters)
A damaged road after Israeli forces stormed the Jenin camp in the West Bank on Sunday (Reuters)

The number of deaths one month since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza reached frightening numbers as the situation becomes increasingly horrifying, portending more victims.

Israel announced the war could be extended for several months, perhaps even a year.

Palestinian sources confirmed that the number of Palestinians killed in one month exceeded the number of deaths in the Ukraine war, which reached 9,806 victims over nearly two years.

Palestinian health authorities said the death toll from Israeli strikes had exceeded 10,328, while Israel estimates their number at more than 20,000, including 4,237 children and 2,716 women, in addition to 25,956 injuries.

More than 120,000 homes were destroyed and about 1.2 million citizens were displaced.

In the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Israel killed 220 people, arrested 2,215 others, and demolished 120 homes.

According to Israeli reports, the number of deaths is more than that of the 1967 war that Israel fought against three Arab armies, with 779 deaths, including 850 civilians and 5,500 injuries.

The Israeli government evacuated 115,000 residents, while about 109,000 decided to leave from 29 settlements surrounding the Gaza Strip and 22 others on the Lebanese border.

According to the Israelis, the war began in response to Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, and the capturing of 240 Israelis and foreigners as hostages.

Israel officially declared war on Hamas to “annihilate” the movement and terminate its ability to rule and its military capabilities.

Tel Aviv admitted it had taken a new form of warfare, bombing Gaza without mercy from afar, using the air force, navy, artillery, and tanks to destroy any place where Hamas leaders or any of its armed members were located, even if it was crowded among civilians.

It claims Hamas leaders are using civilians as human shields. As a result of these claims, Israel has bombed hospitals and schools.

Three weeks into this terrible bombing, the Israeli army began a ground operation searching for Hamas leaders and kidnapped Israelis.

Israel insists that the attack has nothing to do with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and that the movement is pursuing a brutal path in its war against Jewish civilians and even Muslim Arabs.

In response, Palestinians say Israel has been insisting on besieging the Gaza Strip for 16 years, and from time to time, launched a military operation in which it destroys the enclave, killing thousands of Palestinians and exacerbating the economic and social situation there.

They said Israel continues its occupation of the West Bank and Judaization of Jerusalem with massive settlement projects, violating the sanctity of al-Aqsa Mosque. It carries out widespread arrests and degrades prisoners.

Moreover, Tel Aviv allows settlers to carry out bloody criminal attacks on Palestinians and denies their rights.

- The hysteric Israeli response

Palestinians said the Hamas attack came within the framework of resistance to the occupation’s projects, describing the Israeli response as hysterical because Tel Aviv did not imagine Palestinians were capable of penetrating their fortified defenses and carry out a successful military attack.

They added that Israel wants to implement its old plans to destroy Gaza and deport its people to Egypt, with the hope of expelling the Palestinians from the West Bank to Jordan later.

Palestinians called the war the second Nakba, saying the Israeli army drops a thousand tons of explosives every day to implement those goals, with the support of the US administration and Western governments.

The US and the West are not fulfilling their moral and humanitarian duty to deter the Israeli war of annihilation, they stressed.



Italy Plans to Return Ambassador to Syria to Reflect New Diplomatic Developments, Minister Says

Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks while meeting with members of the G7, on July 11, 2024, during the NATO summit in Washington. (AP)
Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks while meeting with members of the G7, on July 11, 2024, during the NATO summit in Washington. (AP)
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Italy Plans to Return Ambassador to Syria to Reflect New Diplomatic Developments, Minister Says

Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks while meeting with members of the G7, on July 11, 2024, during the NATO summit in Washington. (AP)
Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks while meeting with members of the G7, on July 11, 2024, during the NATO summit in Washington. (AP)

Italy plans to send an ambassador back to Syria after a decade-long absence, the country’s foreign minister said, in a diplomatic move that could spark divisions among European Union allies.

Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, speaking in front of relevant parliamentary committees Thursday, announced Rome’s intention to re-establish diplomatic ties with Syria to prevent Russia from monopolizing diplomatic efforts in the Middle Eastern country.

Moscow is considered a key supporter of Syrian President Bashar Assad, who has remained in power despite widespread Western isolation and civilian casualties since the start of Syria’s civil war in March 2011.

Peaceful protests against the Assad government — part of the so-called “Arab Spring” popular uprisings that spread across some of the Middle East — were met by a brutal crackdown, and the uprising quickly spiraled into a full-blown civil war.

The conflict was further complicated by the intervention of foreign forces on all sides and a rising militancy, first by al-Qaida-linked groups and then the ISIS group until its defeat on the battlefield in 2019.

The war, which has killed nearly half a million people and displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million, is now largely frozen, despite ongoing low-level fighting.

The country is effectively carved up into areas controlled by the Damascus-based government of Assad, various opposition groups and Syrian Kurdish forces.

In the early days of the conflict, many Western and Arab countries cut off relations with Syria, including Italy, which has since managed Syria-related diplomacy through its embassy in Beirut.

However, since Assad has regained control over most of the territory, neighboring Arab countries have gradually restored relations, with the most symbolically significant move coming last year when Syria was re-admitted to the Arab League.

Tajani said Thursday the EU’s policy in Syria should be adapted to the “development of the situation,” adding that Italy has received support from Austria, Croatia, Greece, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Cyprus and Slovakia.

However, the US and allied countries in Europe have largely continued to hold firm in their stance against Assad’s government, due to concerns over human rights violations.