Norway, Ireland and Spain officially recognized the existence of a Palestinian state. This is a historic development. Norwegian Premier Jonas Gahr Store said Oslo will recognize the state as of 28 May. “There can’t be peace in the Middle East if there is no recognition,” he said.
The announcement by Norway, Ireland and Spain to recognize an independent Palestinian state comes when the Israeli deadly war on north Gaza is raging once again.
Zero distance Jabalia
‘By God leave it, this is for me, by God leave it…’
Two Palestinian resistance fighters fought, during battle, over who should destroy an Israeli tank at zero distance in Jabalia.
Each wants to have the honor of devastating the tank which could lead to his own death but the fighting continues. The war between the Israeli army which entered the camp two weeks ago and the Palestinian resistance remains at its highest in Jabalia, just above Gaza City.
The social media continues to display different scenes of Palestinian heroism. One videoclip that continues to trend is that of a Palestinian sniper on top of the roof of one building in the entrapped camp. At first, he gets shot in the ankle but rises and continues to fire at Israelis soldiers but is soon killed. Quickly, his friend picks up his gun and continues shooting at the soldiers till, he too, becomes a martyr.
Jabalia has become the next fight for the Israeli army which wants to dominate and control the Gaza Strip. But all they are doing is killing civilian by bombing their houses.
The Palestinian fighters however, keep emerging from underground tunnels, the majority of which remain intact according to Israeli military and intelligence sources and are likely to continue for the foreseeable future.
300 homes destroyed
In Jabalia, the Israeli army have destroyed at least 300 houses around the Kamal Al Adwan Hospital, the only health institution in North Gaza which is too, about to go out of service.
The Israeli army has a knack for going after the hospitals of Gaza. They have destroyed most of the 36 hospitals in the enclave under the pretext of going after Hamas fighters. However, all they did was kill patients and civilians and tried to cover their evil deeds in mass graves whether in Al Shifa snd/or in Al Nasser Hospitals in Khan Younis and more.
The Israeli army is not relenting despite the major daily losses in their ranks. Soldiers are seen as acceptable collateral damage despite the daily carnage they are enduring and maybe this is a penance for the continual destruction they carried out in Gaza for the past eight months.
In the north of Gaza, the Palestinian resistance have started to use new tactics like wire-bombing already destroyed houses and wrecked facilities which the Israeli army uses to carry out their war. Jabalia was the first place to use such tactics but the Izz Al Dien Al Qassam Brigade just announced the booby-trapping of an agricultural school in Biet Hanoon in which 10 Israeli soldiers were killed there.
The Israel army has pushed back into north Gaza starting with Jabalia, Beit Hanoon and Biet Lahia but there is more. This is not to forget that Israel is effectively fighting in Rafah in the south of the enclave and which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists on a full invasion but which is yet to materialize.
Nevertheless, the Israeli army has already created a new wave of displacements from Rafah which used to house 1.4 million Palestinians. Today, 900 thousand people have gone back to Al Mawasi and central Gaza under the Israeli big guns.
Meanwhile the war in Jabalia and the north of Gaza continues with more Palestinians’ civilians bloodshed.
However, the new and official recognition by three major European countries – Norway, Spain and Ireland – of an independent Palestinian state, puts Israel back in the dock to end its heinous war on Gaza and wake up to a new stark realization.
Dr Marwan Asmar is an Amman-based writer covering Middle East Affairs
