In Memoriam
With great sorrow, we report that our colleague, the journalist Essam Abdullah (pictured above) has been killed and many others wounded by direct shelling from Israel on their team late yesterday afternoon in South Lebanon.
Statement from the NCF Secretary General
We are immensely concerned by current events provoked by the atrocity committed by Hamas in Israel. Conscious of measures in place to move the population of Gaza City to the South, we trust and are confident that this is to avoid collateral damage to civilians, and the State of Israel will adhere to the rules of war in the manner in which any Western power would do. We are certain and completely confident that this is not a precursor to the demolition of Gaza City which would of course be unconscionable.
Latest from Gaza
The Head of the Next Century Foundation in Gaza, Adel Zaanoon, sent us this message from Gaza City at 3 p.m. today. We copy it verbatim:
Yes habibi we are OK. Our family is OK. The situation is very very difficult more and more; everywhere shelling, and bombing, especially North of Gaza Strip. They are hiting against Tel el Hawa, el Rimal, and the East of Gaza City; in the South maybe less, but dozens of air strikes on Khan Younis, Rafah and in the middle of Gaza Strip near the border, a lot tank shells all the time, all the time.
The situation is a catastrophe, especially for the refugees who left their houses from the North of the Gaza Strip to the end of Gaza (i.e. at the northern border with Israel). A lot left but thousands of Gazans are still leaving ’till now, today and yesterday. The deadline will end at 4 o’clock this afternoon.
Rafah is completely closed. No goods, no aid, coming across to Gaza from Rafah. Today is the fifth day of closure and the Egyptian side put some blockades of cement on the door and the gate between Gaza and Egypt. You know Eretz (i.e. the crossing to the North) is completely closed from the destruction there.
There are more and more efforts from Egypt, Abu Mazin, Qatar, Turkey, and others to talk with America and Israel direct or indirect but ’till now nothing about any truce or any humanitarian ceasefire.
Israel’s New Coalition Government and its Implications
As the crisis in Gaza unfolds, Israel’s government is changing. Before Hamas’ attack on October 6th, public opinion regarding Netanyahu’s leadership was wavering. There had been months of protests regarding a judicial reform that critics said would weaken the power of the courts and concentrate it in the hands of the government. Then, under Netanyahu’s leadership, the largest security breach in the country’s history occurred and left over thirteen thousand people dead and over a hundred and fifty held hostage. Now, a coalition government is in the works along with a new war cabinet to guide the country through the conflict.
Two prominent leaders from opposing parties were invited to join a coalition government of national unity with Netanyahu (his Likud party has 32 Knesset seats) because of the current Israel-Palestine war. The first was Benny Gantz, the head of the National Unity Party (12 Knesset seats) who has agreed to take the reins with Netanyahu. Gantz is the former Minister of Defense and served as the General Chief of Staff of the IDF from 2011 to 2015. The second is Yair Lapid, the leader of the main opposition party, Yesh Atid (24 Knesset seats). Lapid, however, declined the invitation because of three main issues: extremists in government, an unclear security cabinet structure, and “the continued presence of those at fault for the ‘unpardonable failure’” to prevent Hamas’ attack.
The security cabinet structure is still subject to change. As previously written in an NFC blog, the security cabinet oversaw Israel’s foreign and defense policy. The Chairman is Prime Minister Netanyahu and it currently includes six members appointed by law, four additional members, and four permanent invitees. Now negotiations are uderway regarding the exact shape of the government of national unity. However, in the face of the war, a smaller war cabinet within the security cabinet has been formed. The purpose of this smaller cabinet is to make more efficient decisions during the conflict.
The members of the war cabinet are Netanyahu, Gantz, and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Gallant was at the helm of the recent blockade on Gaza and is in contact with NATO as Israel receives support from many of its Western allies. Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and former army chief Gadi Eisenkot will sit in as observers. Dermer is the Minister of Strategic Affairs and was previously Israel’s ambassador to the United States from 2013 to 2021. Including someone with strong U.S. ties could be a way to signal the support that Israel has from its most important ally. Eisenkot is the author of the Dahiya doctrine often employed by the IDF. It is a strategy that encourages the use of “disproportionate power” to destroy civilian infrastructure in order to stop the enemy from using it in their favor. This tactic is now already in use. The IDF has targeted areas that are theoretically protected under international law.
Some of the main worries about the security cabinet revolve around how much real decision-making power Netanyahu’s most extreme allies will have during the conflict. Lapid was apprehensive about joining the coalition government partly because of Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich and Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir. Smotrich and Ben-Gvir are some of the most extreme national settler leaders. Ben-Gvir’s representatives said he opposed the formation of a separate group within the war cabinet. Lapid highlighted that the proposed ‘double’ cabinet does not have “clear lines of authority.” On the other hand, they are supposedly excluded from the group with the most power, the war cabinet within the security cabinet. The lack of clarity means that we do not know if this ‘sidelining’ is real or a way to placate concerns about their influence. After all, Netanyahu was partly pressured into the coalition government as a result of discontent regarding his failure to prevent Hamas’s attack. Only time will tell.
