By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
SvennoJ 1 day ago
Edit Thread

Gaza reoccupation will be ‘recipe’ for ‘regionwide radicalism’

While talks indicate a ceasefire may be close in Gaza, whether both parties are seeing eye to eye on a potential deal is still uncertain, according to Galip Dalay, a nonresident senior fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs.

“For many on the Israeli side, [a ceasefire] has been reduced to hostage release … whereas for the Hamas side, for the Palestinian side, it’s not only about the hostage release … it’s about ending the war, it’s about withdrawal from Gaza,” Dalay told Al Jazeera, speaking from Istanbul, Turkiye.

“And unless there’s real pressure from the United States, unfortunately, we cannot be sure what is going to happen here … whether Trump will make a difference, that we don’t know yet,” he added.

As the war rages on, there is also less chance that more captives will come out alive, Dalay said. “The quicker the deal is done, the better for the hostages, but also for the Gazan people,” the analyst said.

However, a ceasefire should not evolve into ideas about a reoccupation of Gaza, including the construction of illegal Israeli settlements there, as some ministers have been touting, Dalay warned.

“That will be a recipe for catastrophe, for [the] next catastrophe, and that will be a recipe for regionwide radicalism.”

Video shows Israeli forces infiltrating West Bank camp in an ambulance



The footage from a surveillance camera, verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad agency, shows the moment Israeli special forces infiltrated the Balata refugee camp using an ambulance on December 19.

The raid resulted in the death of two Palestinians, including a woman.

Nicola Perugini, a professor of international relations at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, noted the Israeli move came as its military accuses Hamas of using medical facilities for military purposes in Gaza, something UN officials say it has offered scant evidence for.

“The Israeli army hiding in an ambulance to carry out an operation in Balata refugee camp, Nablus. The same army that destroyed Gaza’s hospitals based on the fabricated accusation that they are a network of military command centres,” Perugini said in a post on X.

Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for Palestine, also slammed the Israeli actions.

“Misusing the protected status of medical vehicles and personnel is a flagrant violation of the Geneva Conventions and may constitute a crime of perfidy. By systemically disregarding IHL [international humanitarian law], Israel has rendered the legal frameworks meant to protect civilians, completely meaningless,” she wrote on X.