Click to see full-size image. (Israeli Defense Forces)
As Israel presses forward with its major offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Saudi Arabia appears to be moving away from pursuing peace for the first time in decades.
The offensive launched by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) last week is aimed at occupying all of Gaza City. Israel believes that the offensive would eventually force Hamas to disarm, release all the remaining hostages and hand over control of the Strip.
With the IDF’s 162nd and 98th divisions advancing in the city and its outskirts on September 21, strikes continue to claim the lives of more Palestinians.
The Health Ministry in the Strip announced that 75 Palestinians were confirmed killed over the past 24 hours, and more than 300 wounded by Israeli fire during the same duration. The toll includes four people previously killed whose bodies were recovered from rubble. It brings the tally of war dead claimed by Gazan health officials to 65,283.
Right before the announcement, eight Palestinians, including children, were killed and dozens others were wounded in an Israeli strike that targeted Gaza City’s Daraj neighborhood, according to the Strip’s Civil Defense.
Despite the scale of the Israeli offensive, resistance continued. Two rockets were launched during the day from the northern part of the Strip at the nearby Israeli coastal city of Ashdod. The IDF said that one rocket was intercepted by air defenses, while the second struck an open area.
Separately, the IDF acknowledged that ten of its troops were lightly injured when a military vehicle they were in overturned during operations in northern Gaza.
The Israeli offensive, codenamed “Operation Gideon’s Chariots B,” has already displaced more than half of the one million Palestinians who were living in Gaza City, according to the IDF’s own estimate.
This has caused tension with Egypt, which reportedly boosted its military presence in the Sinai Peninsula along the border with the Strip out of a fear of a major border breach by Palestinians being cornered there by the IDF.
Israel’s military escalation is not causing tensions with Egypt only, however. A recent report by Israel Hayom revealed that Saudi Arabia was moving away from pursuing peace.
According to the report, which cited American and Arab diplomatic sources, the final trigger to this shift by Riyadh was a call between Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and the office of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud that took place a few weeks ago after the collapse of the Doha talks on a hostage-ceasefire deal for Gaza.
The discussion touched on Israel’s recent war with Iran, the talks with Syria, and the situation in Lebanon, but its focus was Gaza.
Riyadh asked what Israel’s strategy was for ending the war and for the day after. Dermer stressed that Israel was determined to defeat Hamas and ensure it could never reemerge, all while dismissing proposals to discuss who would govern Gaza after the war and noting Israel’s opposition to any role by the Palestinian Authority.
After the call, the conclusion in Riyadh was that Israel was not ready to move in any direction involving talks with Palestinian Authority on a demilitarized Palestinian state, perhaps not even after the war.
An Arab diplomat told Israel Hayom that Saudi Arabia is now excluding Israel from its vision for the region’s future, which it is advancing with the United States.
It’s worth noting that a more public Saudi stance against normalization with Israel began to appear since the attack on Hamas leadership in Qatar earlier this month, which was viewed as a threat to all gulf nations, including the Kingdom.
“Peace with Israel is off the table because [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and his government do not want peace. We presented Israel with an offer of recognition, security and reconciliation, but this extremist government is not interested in peace.” retired Saudi Gen. Abdullah al-Qahtani said in a recent interview with Nas Radio, stressing that normalization would not occur unless an independent Palestinian state was recognized.
This Israeli stance could, possibly, push Saudi Arabia to take new routes. Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem has already urged the Kingdom to turn “a new page” with his group and set aside past disputes to create a unified front against Israel. Saudi envoy Faisal bin Farhan headed to Lebanon right after the remarks. Although the visit is pre-planned, reports suggest that he could meet with Nabih Berri, Speaker of the Parliament and the top ally of Hezbollah.
Israel from its side appears to be more interested in a security agreement with Syria, whose emerging Islamist-led government is more likely to make compromises. Netanyahu reported progress in talks with the war-torn country on September 21.
“Our victories against Hezbollah opened a window to unimaginable possibilities, that’s the possibility of peace with our neighbors to the north,” the primer said. “We’re conducting contacts and there has been certain progress with the Syrians, but that’s still a vision for the future.”
Netanyahu is set to convene a meeting to discuss an emerging security agreement with Syria, the office of one of the attendees told The Times of Israel a day earlier.
The news outlet later reported, citing a senior official in the administration of U.S. President Donlad Trump, that a security agreement between Israel and Syria is “99%” complete, with an announcement expected within the next two weeks.
“We’re 99% the way there. I think in the next two weeks, we’ll have an announcement, if not at the end of the week,” the official said, noting that the main issues left to resolve are the precise timing of the announcement and domestic considerations in Syria.
“It’s really a question of timing and also the Syrians communicating it to their people,” they added.
Ironically, the Syrian rush towards Israel came as the country began to face tangible pressure from some of its Western allies over the war in Gaza. On September 21, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia announced recognition of “independent, sovereign State of Palestine”.
Israel will likely press forward with its ongoing offensive in Gaza, despite mounting international pressure and growing tensions with Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The upcoming security agreement with Syria would give Netanyahu a major boost, both internationally and domestically. Amid all of these developments, an agreement with Hamas seems unlikely.
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gaza will be completely cleansed of cockroaches…heheheh
no, the jews are still there
the main jew sits in the kremlin. corrupt crooks dump and erdogan are just taking money from jews. they are not jews themselves, they are just ordinary dirty swindlers who should be in prison. not the 10,000 alawite idiots who, in their madness, gave their weapons to hts. if we weren’t complete lunatics, they would use the gun to kill themselves family and themselves.
that is what you jews say now and every year you lying vermin have the nerve to cry about your fake 6 million remember goyim amalek 6 bizillion. truth is less then 350k jews ever died in ww2 out of 60milion d ead.
yet you professional vict ims keep whining and c rying to extort reparations and billions out of the goyim. its time we truely see what you devils are about you just showed your true nature as a psychopathic jew
everything israel is doing to their closest cousins the palestinians rn is what they claim the germans did in ww2 and what is the truth you jews did all of this to the peoples of europe millions or russians ukranians baltic peoples germans italians balkan people lost their lives because of your jewish ussr commisars who graped and murdered them.by the millions in ww2 and the aftermath when the communist jews took.over all of eastern europe
dr william pierce best explains what you jews did to europe and what you are doing now to your closest cousins the palestinians: h ttps://ww w.bitchute.co m/video/otlzquakqvpz
we are all palestinians, what the jews do to their closest cousins think what they are going to donto us:
ht tps://w ww.bitchute.co m/video/vugzyjj1ztv3
soon the same will happen to russia!!!
heheheh
i hope you all haven’t forgotten about brics 2024 in kazan. there, putler and erdogan agreed on the details of the disgusting betrayal. i hope and wish that god will repay them for their disgusting betrayal by disintegrate brisc and russia.
they are failing and can’t do sh*t so they scream their desperation.
this is the sweet, sweet sound of shrieking desperation.
enjoy.
is it possible saudi arabia is pulling the strings behind egypt’s mobilization? or are those countries finally realizing that israel is an existential threat?
don’t be absurd. it’s meant to lock the palestinians into a kill box and ensure they don’t escape into the sinai. the elites work together to eliminate the common people, religion and ethnicity are irrelevant to the cult of power.
it would seem that way but egypt’s military buildup goes far above border security… israel has brought up concerns in the past year and wondered why egypt is modernizing and building its military.
… and then of course you have the attack on qatar which defies all logic… the risk assessment there is very questionable… and the lack of rationale is consistent with narcissistic psychosis which has a huge blind spot in risk-benefit analysis.
in other words israel as a state, is governed by a collective psychopathology which is already known — but still baffling when you see the level of lapses in judgement by the zionist regime.
the fact that today britain, canada, and australia made a joint statement that they intent to recognize palestinian statehood is actually a big telltale of the fallout these idiots created.
just empty words to give appearance that they are doing something to help palestininan while in fact doing nothing to stop the genocide. even recognizing a palestinian state, who will be its inhabitants? the souls of all those that have been killed?
guess they always had the strong feeling that the day would come where the khazar, ashkenaz and what ever of em would sort out after choosen and more choosen and an arab jew comes in jewish castes even under sephardim, so dont expect wonders but i mean if even these arab kikes have lost hope for something above hell with israel in existence we are a lot farer away from good than most people might think.
i have no illusions. i believe the hegemon will not fall without a fight and the jews themselves want a third word war to further decimate european influence in a millennia old vendetta.
saudi arabia and pakistan made a defense pact, this means the saudis have access to nuclear defense. finally, they figured out, they are to be seized by the greater israel project.
nuclear defense that you need to ask for first is no nuclear defense, in case of an attack with these you would have exactly as long to react as the rockets of your enemy need to fly to you.
but i dont would think israel would be so stupid.. saudis are a no go, they know that they cant substitute the amount of oil they supply, especially since the west proclaimed war on chinese and russian, so also on a lot more oilexporteurs like nearly every asian country beside the few gulf states. btw, why should they nuke the saudis?^^
a nuke is something the jew wants to see getting dropped in europe, but not infront of his own door.. like you said would that mean a nuclear knock exchange of global dimension, so trust me if israel is that stupid they gets the second one, simply cause no country will watch this degenerated scum conquer the whole region, killing maybe hundrets of millions and dozens of countrys for a few million rats..
israel is always ignorant in any and all of its of it actions. it is never open or willing to allow reason or negotiation. attempting discussion with israelis only get you the same result as screaming in anger at the moon. a waste of your life span. time you will never get back