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Israeli Army Expects Calm in Gaza to Last for Years

An Israeli soldier uses a weapon amid clashes with Palestinians in the West Bank. Reuters file photo
An Israeli soldier uses a weapon amid clashes with Palestinians in the West Bank. Reuters file photo
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Israeli Army Expects Calm in Gaza to Last for Years

An Israeli soldier uses a weapon amid clashes with Palestinians in the West Bank. Reuters file photo
An Israeli soldier uses a weapon amid clashes with Palestinians in the West Bank. Reuters file photo

The Israeli military believes that calm achieved in the Gaza Strip after the last round of fighting is estimated to last for a long time due to the Israeli army’s capacity to deter attacks from both Hamas and the Islamic Jihad.

A report by Israel’s Kan 11 channel said that these estimates are based on several factors, including Israel’s deterrence capacities, Hamas’ political and economic calculations in the Strip, and the Israeli army’s success in separating the Islamic Jihad from Hamas.

The report said the Army Chief of Staff, Aviv Kohavi, believes that his forces were capable of deterring Hamas during the May 2021 war, and also the Islamic Jihad following the three-day clashes that began on August 5.

Israel had then killed 49 Palestinians, including leaders in the Islamic Jihad’s affiliated al-Quds Brigades, in addition to children and women.

According to Israeli security assessments, the May 2021 war on the Gaza Strip offered economic facilities that helped Gaza's economy grow.

Hamas reportedly fears losing these civil and economic services, which Israel is now offering to Palestinians.

Meanwhile, Israel was capable of deterring the Islamic Jihad during the last round of clashes this month because the group was operating without Hamas.

Senior military and security officials said that the calm recently established in Gaza will last for a long time because Hamas is aware it will lose economic facilities in the event of a confrontation with Israel and because the Islamic Jihad will not engage in another battle without direct support from Hamas.

The Israeli channel quoted Kochavi as saying that Hamas is currently deterred from engaging in a new war with Israel while the chances of the Islamic Jihad’s acting alone against the Israeli army have become weak.

“Hamas is deterred, and we have struck the Islamic Jihad in the West Bank and Gaza,” Kochavi said, recalling that Israel launched several attacks on the Jihad’s structure in the West Bank, including the arrest of its officials and the killing of its armed members.

In a previous statement, Public Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev said that one of the Israeli military’s achievements during the recent military operation in the Gaza Strip is that Hamas decided not to join the fight alongside the Islamic Jihad.

He explained that Hamas’ decision is mainly due to economic reasons as the Movement desires to keep 15,000 Palestinian workers from Gaza from entering Israel daily.

Early this month, the Israeli military launched airstrikes against targets inside Gaza during which it killed Taysir al-Jabari, a top Islamic Jihad leader, and Khaled Mansour, the Islamic Jihad commander for southern Gaza.

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Arab World

Rescue Teams Search for Survivors in Building Collapse that Killed at Least 2 in Northern Lebanon

A Lebanese flag is pictured, in the aftermath of a massive explosion, in Beirut's damaged port area, Lebanon August 17, 2020. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
A Lebanese flag is pictured, in the aftermath of a massive explosion, in Beirut's damaged port area, Lebanon August 17, 2020. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
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Rescue Teams Search for Survivors in Building Collapse that Killed at Least 2 in Northern Lebanon

A Lebanese flag is pictured, in the aftermath of a massive explosion, in Beirut's damaged port area, Lebanon August 17, 2020. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
A Lebanese flag is pictured, in the aftermath of a massive explosion, in Beirut's damaged port area, Lebanon August 17, 2020. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

At least two people were killed and four rescued from the rubble of a multistory apartment building that collapsed Sunday in the city of Tripoli in northern Lebanon, state media reported.

Rescue teams were continuing to dig through the rubble. It was not immediately clear how many people were in the building when it fell.

The bodies pulled out were of a child and a woman, the state-run National News Agency reported.

Dozens of people crowded around the site of the crater left by the collapsed building, with some shooting in the air.

The building was in the neighborhood of Bab Tabbaneh, one of the poorest areas in Lebanon’s second largest city, where residents have long complained of government neglect and shoddy infrastructure. Building collapses are not uncommon in Tripoli due to poor building standards, according to The AP news.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry announced that those injured in the collapse would receive treatment at the state’s expense.

The national syndicate for property owners in a statement called the collapse the result of “blatant negligence and shortcomings of the Lebanese state toward the safety of citizens and their housing security,” and said it is “not an isolated incident.”

The syndicate called for the government to launch a comprehensive national survey of buildings at risk of collapse.

Arab World

Israel to Take More West Bank Powers and Relax Settler Land Buys

A view of Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, in the West Bank, Sunday, June 18, 2023. (AP)
A view of Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, in the West Bank, Sunday, June 18, 2023. (AP)
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Israel to Take More West Bank Powers and Relax Settler Land Buys

A view of Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, in the West Bank, Sunday, June 18, 2023. (AP)
A view of Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, in the West Bank, Sunday, June 18, 2023. (AP)

Israel's security cabinet approved a series of steps on Sunday that would make it easier for settlers in the occupied West Bank to buy land while granting Israeli authorities more enforcement powers over Palestinians, Israeli media reported.

The West Bank is among the territories that the Palestinians seek for a future independent state. Much of it is under Israeli military control, with limited Palestinian self-rule in some areas run by the Western-backed Palestinian Authority (PA).

Citing statements by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defense Minister Israel Katz, Israeli news sites Ynet and Haaretz said the measures included scrapping decades-old regulations that prevent Jewish private citizens buying land in the West Bank, The AP news reported.

They were also reported to include allowing Israeli authorities to administer some religious sites, and expand supervision and enforcement in areas under PA administration in matters of environmental hazards, water offences and damage to archaeological sites.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the new measures were dangerous, illegal and tantamount to de-facto annexation.

The Israeli ministers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The new measures come three days before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to meet in Washington with US President Donald Trump.

Trump has ruled out Israeli annexation of the West Bank but his administration has not sought to curb Israel's accelerated settlement building, which the Palestinians say denies them a potential state by eating away at its territory.

Netanyahu, who is facing an election later this year, deems the establishment of any Palestinian state a security threat.

His ruling coalition includes many pro-settler members who want Israel to annex the West Bank, land captured in the 1967 Middle East war to which Israel cites biblical and historical ties.

The United Nations' highest court said in a non-binding advisory opinion in 2024 that Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories and settlements there is illegal and should be ended as soon as possible. Israel disputes this view.

Arab World

Arab League Condemns Attack on Aid Convoys in Sudan

A general view shows the opening session of the meeting of Arab foreign ministers at the Arab League Headquarters (Reuters)
A general view shows the opening session of the meeting of Arab foreign ministers at the Arab League Headquarters (Reuters)
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Arab League Condemns Attack on Aid Convoys in Sudan

A general view shows the opening session of the meeting of Arab foreign ministers at the Arab League Headquarters (Reuters)
A general view shows the opening session of the meeting of Arab foreign ministers at the Arab League Headquarters (Reuters)

Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit strongly condemned the attack by the Rapid Support Forces on humanitarian aid convoys and relief workers in North Kordofan State, Sudan.

In a statement reported by SPA, secretary-general's spokesperson Jamal Rushdi quoted Aboul Gheit as saying the attack constitutes a war crime under international humanitarian law, which prohibits the deliberate targeting of civilians and depriving them of their means of survival.

Aboul Gheit stressed the need to hold those responsible accountable, end impunity, and ensure the full protection of civilians, humanitarian workers, and relief facilities in Sudan.