Trump ‘playing much tougher with Israel’ than Biden did
Omar Rahman, a fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, says today’s remarks by senior US officials mirror the rhetoric heard during the administration of Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, around Gaza ceasefires.
“Clearly, there are violations happening, especially from the Israeli side, and yet, [the Trump administration is] kind of pointing the finger at Hamas, warning Hamas … while treating the Israelis with kid gloves and not putting any of the attention or blame on Israel,” Rahman said.
In turn, that encourages Israel “to feel like they can violate [the deal] with impunity”.
But Rahman told Al Jazeera that, behind the scenes, the Trump administration is “playing much tougher with Israel” than the Biden administration did. “That’s the situation we’re in. We are hearing mixed messaging, and I do think that Netanyahu is doing what he can to derail things,” he added.
Yeah no doubt. Biden would not have been able to stop Israel on Sunday. And today when the IDF ran into an IED, wounding 2 soldiers, they now said they would investigate when the IED was put there (likely before the ceasefire) instead of starting to bomb again.
Trump smells money and seems hell bent on getting his son in law, Kushner, into (re)construction in Gaza.
That's what Trump and Kushner see, a profitable construction zone along the Mediterranean coast.
Just one 'little' problem in the way
UN official warns of widespread explosive ordnance threat in Gaza
Luke David Irving, the head of the UN’s Mine Action Service (UNMAS) in the occupied Palestinian territory, says people in Gaza face an “incredibly high” threat from explosive ordnance littering the enclave.
Irving noted that five Palestinian children were wounded last week by such weapons buried in the rubble of Israel’s bombardment. That is just one of hundreds of such reports, he said.
“As of today, 328 victims of explosive ordnance, including injuries and deaths, have been reported to UNMAS since October 2023,” Irving told reporters during a briefing at UN headquarters in New York City.
“We expect that this figure is significantly underreported. Unfortunately, we can estimate that many more people have been injured or killed by ordnance littering Gaza over the past two years.”
UNMAS has been able to identify at least 560 explosive ordnances in Gaza in areas the agency has been able to access. “However, we will not know the full extent of the contamination in Gaza until and unless a comprehensive survey can take place,” Irving said.
