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What’s Happening in Forgotten Gaza?

Fighters from Hamas' Al-Qassam Brigades in the Gaza Strip. (Reuters file)
Fighters from Hamas' Al-Qassam Brigades in the Gaza Strip. (Reuters file)
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What’s Happening in Forgotten Gaza?

Fighters from Hamas' Al-Qassam Brigades in the Gaza Strip. (Reuters file)
Fighters from Hamas' Al-Qassam Brigades in the Gaza Strip. (Reuters file)

While the world is focused on the war in Lebanon and its dangers, the situation in Gaza has been largely overlooked.

Despite ongoing suffering, it has received little attention, especially with winter rains approaching, which are adding to the hardships faced by its residents.

Israeli forces are continuing their military operations in Gaza, although they have eased somewhat.

On Tuesday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health reported that Israeli airstrikes led to four massacres in the last 24 hours, killing 23 people and injuring 101.

The latest attack targeted displaced people in the al-Fattah neighborhood, resulting in numerous casualties.

As the conflict enters its 361st day, the toll in Gaza has reached 41,638 dead and 96,460 injured since October 7, worsening the humanitarian crisis.

The Israeli army claims to have destroyed 90% of Hamas’s military capabilities, including half of its tunnels and assassinating several of its leaders.

However, it admitted that Hamas has regained control and is suppressing dissent violently.

Israeli officials allege that Hamas has been monopolizing humanitarian aid entering Gaza, taking a portion for its leaders and selling the rest at high prices.

As a result, the cost of a single cigarette has soared to 20 shekels (about $6), and Hamas still controls smuggling operations for goods through its members in the West Bank.

Goods entering Gaza through private wholesalers face heavy taxes from Hamas. The Israeli army claims that Hamas has set up a trade system with the West Bank and Türkiye, allowing it to pay salaries to its members.

This system enables traders in Gaza to buy goods from the West Bank, with payments processed through Hamas. Money sent from Türkiye is used to pay wholesalers in Hebron or Nablus.

Hamas also posts on Telegram, inviting healthcare workers to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis to collect their salaries, as well as teachers to specific schools for payment.

Hamas leaders maintain command centers in various neighborhoods, which are known to the public.

Those who go to these centers seeking help may face serious consequences, including detention for questioning, punishment, or even death for minor offenses like theft.

Israeli generals say the failure to recruit local leaders for Gaza is largely due to fear of Hamas’s violent crackdown.

With the Palestinian Authority refusing to take on any responsibilities in the enclave, Hamas remains the only group managing affairs.

In response, Hamas is working to reopen markets, shops, and restaurants selling traditional sweets like knafeh and baklava across Gaza. They are also cleaning streets, removing debris, and improving drainage systems.

In light of the situation, the Israeli army is preparing to appoint a “temporary military governor” to oversee Gaza.

It recognizes that military rule will involve daily interactions with the local population and Hamas operatives, leading to a prolonged occupation and resistance.

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As It Attacks Iran's Nuclear Program, Israel Maintains Ambiguity about Its Own

FILE - This file image made from a video aired Friday, Jan. 7, 2005, by Israeli television station Channel 10, shows what the television station claims is Israel's nuclear facility in the southern Israeli town of Dimona, the first detailed video of the site ever shown to the public. (Channel 10 via AP, File)
FILE - This file image made from a video aired Friday, Jan. 7, 2005, by Israeli television station Channel 10, shows what the television station claims is Israel's nuclear facility in the southern Israeli town of Dimona, the first detailed video of the site ever shown to the public. (Channel 10 via AP, File)
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As It Attacks Iran's Nuclear Program, Israel Maintains Ambiguity about Its Own

FILE - This file image made from a video aired Friday, Jan. 7, 2005, by Israeli television station Channel 10, shows what the television station claims is Israel's nuclear facility in the southern Israeli town of Dimona, the first detailed video of the site ever shown to the public. (Channel 10 via AP, File)
FILE - This file image made from a video aired Friday, Jan. 7, 2005, by Israeli television station Channel 10, shows what the television station claims is Israel's nuclear facility in the southern Israeli town of Dimona, the first detailed video of the site ever shown to the public. (Channel 10 via AP, File)

Israel says it is determined to destroy Iran’s nuclear program because its archenemy's furtive efforts to build an atomic weapon are a threat to its existence.

What’s not-so-secret is that for decades Israel has been believed to be the Middle East’s only nation with nuclear weapons, even though its leaders have refused to confirm or deny their existence, The Associated Press said.

Israel's ambiguity has enabled it to bolster its deterrence against Iran and other enemies, experts say, without triggering a regional nuclear arms race or inviting preemptive attacks.

Israel is one of just five countries that aren’t party to a global nuclear nonproliferation treaty. That relieves it of international pressure to disarm, or even to allow inspectors to scrutinize its facilities.

Critics in Iran and elsewhere have accused Western countries of hypocrisy for keeping strict tabs on Iran's nuclear program — which its leaders insist is only for peaceful purposes — while effectively giving Israel's suspected arsenal a free pass.

On Sunday, the US military struck three nuclear sites in Iran, inserting itself into Israel’s effort to destroy Iran’s program.

Here's a closer look at Israel's nuclear program:

A history of nuclear ambiguity Israel opened its Negev Nuclear Research Center in the remote desert city of Dimona in 1958, under the country's first leader, Prime Minister David Ben Gurion. He believed the tiny fledgling country surrounded by hostile neighbors needed nuclear deterrence as an extra measure of security. Some historians say they were meant to be used only in case of emergency, as a last resort.

After it opened, Israel kept the work at Dimona hidden for a decade, telling United States’ officials it was a textile factory, according to a 2022 article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, an academic journal.

Relying on plutonium produced at Dimona, Israel has had the ability to fire nuclear warheads since the early 1970s, according to that article, co-authored by Hans M. Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project with the Federation of American Scientists, and Matt Korda, a researcher at the same organization.

Israel's policy of ambiguity suffered a major setback in 1986, when Dimona’s activities were exposed by a former technician at the site, Mordechai Vanunu. He provided photographs and descriptions of the reactor to The Sunday Times of London.

Vanunu served 18 years in prison for treason, and is not allowed to meet with foreigners or leave the country.

ISRAEL POSSESSES DOZENS OF NUCLEAR WARHEADS, EXPERTS SAY

Experts estimate Israel has between 80 and 200 nuclear warheads, although they say the lower end of that range is more likely.

Israel also has stockpiled as much as 1,110 kilograms (2,425 pounds) of plutonium, potentially enough to make 277 nuclear weapons, according to the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a global security organization. It has six submarines believed to be capable of launching nuclear cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles believed to be capable of launching a nuclear warhead up to 6,500 kilometers (4,000 miles), the organization says.

Germany has supplied all of the submarines to Israel, which are docked in the northern city of Haifa, according to the article by Kristensen and Korda.

NUCLEAR WEAPONS IN THE MIDDLE EAST POSE RISKS

In the Middle East, where conflicts abound, governments are often unstable, and regional alliances are often shifting, nuclear proliferation is particularly dangerous, said Or Rabinowitz, a scholar at Jerusalem's Hebrew University and a visiting associate professor at Stanford University.

“When nuclear armed states are at war, the world always takes notice because we don’t like it when nuclear arsenals ... are available for decision makers,” she said.

Rabinowitz says Israel's military leaders could consider deploying a nuclear weapon if they found themselves facing an extreme threat, such as a weapon of mass destruction being used against them.

Three countries other than Israel have refused to sign the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons: India, Pakistan and South Sudan. North Korea has withdrawn. Iran has signed the treaty, but it was censured last week, shortly before Israel launched its operation, by the UN's nuclear watchdog — a day before Israel attacked — for violating its obligations.

Israel's policy of ambiguity has helped it evade greater scrutiny, said Susie Snyder at the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, a group that works to promote adherence to the UN treaty.

Its policy has also shined a light on the failure of Western countries to rein in nuclear proliferation in the Middle East, she said.

They “prefer not to be reminded of their own complicity,” she said.