Airstrikes hit Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday. after Israel ended an offensive in large scale two days in Jenin in the occupied West Bank, which killed at least 12 Palestinians and injured around 100 others. Tsahal deplores the death of an Israeli soldier.
Israeli fighter jets hit the Gaza Strip in response to rockets fired from the besieged enclave to the south of Israel. The Israeli attack on Wednesday reportedly hit an underground weapons factory belonging to Hamas. Residents were forced to flee the Jenin refugee camp where the raid took place. The Palestine Red Crescent Society said it had evacuated 500 families from the camp, a total of around 3,000 people.
This drew condemnation from several countries and organizations. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres expressed his “deep concern” over the assault on Jenin and announced a meeting on Friday to discuss it. Morocco also expressed its solidarity with the Palestinians and called on the international community and the major powers to intervene to put an end to the aggression suffered by the Palestinian people.
Mustapha Tossa, editorial journalist from Paris, gave his expert opinion on this outbreak of violence and this Israeli aggression in Jenin, “In fact, there are several reasons including the one specific to Israel where there is currently a political deadlock with Netanyahu. There is a strong impression that the army and the Israeli government are trying to create a diversion from this blockade. This is the first obvious reason”.
Then developing a second reason, Tossa will say: “ the status quo of neither peace nor war with the Palestinians means that at some point things have to change. So the Israelis are carrying out this operation to give the impression that they are still in a context of war and that they are still threatened either by the Islamic jihad or by Hamas. This status quo means that at one time or another things get out of hand on the Israeli side and sometimes on the Palestinian side.”
The might of the force is on the Israeli side and the military means that have been used in this Jenin operation are almost unheard of and this frightens the international community, Tossa explained, noting that this has provoked reactions of condemnation to the regard to Israel claiming that this operation was not justified and the military means used were not necessary to carry it out.
” Every military operation has a beginning and an end otherwise it wouldn’t be one but it would be a permanent war. So if today Israel announces the end of its military operation, it is either because the objectives it set itself have been achieved, namely the elimination of what Israel considers to be responsible for the aggressions coming from Gaza, or that the internal political objective has been achieved, namely to show that Israel is still there stronger than ever more determined than ever“, supports Tossa.
And this credo, Benyamin Netanyahu, a man of the Israeli hard right, uses it thoroughly to precisely try to mobilize all Israelis around his person. We know the number of internal challenges that he faces, in particular the challenges and opposition to his reforms and his government cast itself. However, added the editorial journalist, the operation will not be likely to calm the internal situation in Israel.
For Mustapha Tossa this kind of attack and confrontation between Israelis and Palestinians are bound to last as long as there is no real peace negotiation between the two parties. Despite the current international situation, “cThis murderous confrontation in Jenin reminds us that the Palestinian question is still there,” says the expert.
With the nature of the international reactions (European, Arab, American, African, etc.), he continues, we realize that in one way or another this question will remain as long as there is not a serious negotiation work between the two “partners” to achieve peace. The internationally accepted solution is that of two states in the territory of 67 with East Jerusalem as the capital for the Palestinians.
The entire international community shares this vision but has not yet found the means to put it into practice, namely putting concrete pressure on the Israelis and the Palestinians to bring them to negotiate this solution. This is what was expressed in the Moroccan Parliament when the great powers and the international community were called upon to put an end to these Israeli aggressions and to intervene for a definitive solution.
Morocco condemned this aggression in firm terms, despite the privileged and special relationship between Moroccans and Israelis, recalled Tossa, who believes that“one can be a friend of Israel and tell it a certain number of truths to push it to subscribe to a logic of peace. Even the American and European friends of Israel criticize it and push it in the way of peace and this, as well for the interests of the Palestinians as for the interests of the Israelis”.
The Kingdom has effective diplomacy that is credible and listened to in the Arab world: King Mohammed VI is chairman of the Al-Quds committee, Morocco is perceived positively both by the Israelis in the context of their specific relations with Morocco enshrined in the Abraham Accords, but also by the Palestinians who will never forget how much Morocco has been by their side in the most difficult times in terms of security, economics, culture or even geostrategy…, analyzes the columnist.
And to emphasize that Morocco has always been a friend and an ally of the Palestinian people, so from this position, it is the credibility of being able to talk to both parties and to be able to work on a solution that could one day bring the two partners to get together. This is what is essential in this conflict, namely a direct negotiation between Israelis and between Palestinians.
Failure to make that peace, Tossa argues, means missing out on the two-state solution that protects both Palestinian rights and Israel’s security. If we allow this opportunity and if we do nothing against the expansionist plans led by a Benjamin Netanyahu who every quarter gives the green light for the construction of new colonies, this means that we are inevitably moving towards the solution of a single state where there would be Palestinians and Israelis “living together”, and this solution is not only refused by the Palestinians, but also by the friends and lawyers of Israel both in Europe and in the United States.
To conclude: Starting from a demographic logic, the one-state solution is not favorable to Israel in the long term and peace will not be achieved with an expansionist policy of settlements and the expulsion of Palestinians from their lands.