Israel and the Palestinian Territories 

Thousands Take To Streets In Gaza In Rare Public Display Of Discontent With Hamas

Several thousand people briefly took to the streets across the Gaza Strip on Sunday to protest chronic power outages and difficult living conditions, providing a rare public show of discontent with the territory’s Hamas government. Hamas security forces quickly dispersed the gatherings. 

Marches took place in Gaza City, the southern town of Khan Younis, and other locations, chanting “what a shame” and, in one place, burning Hamas flags before police moved in and broke up the protests. Police destroyed mobile phones of people filming in Khan Younis, and witnesses said there were several arrests. Dozens of young supporters and opponents of Hamas briefly faced off, throwing stones at one another. 

At Egypt Summit With Fatah, Hamas Chief Calls To Exploit Israeli ‘Internal Divisions’

Palestinian factions kicked off a meeting in Egypt on Sunday to discuss reconciliation efforts between rival groups as violence in the West Bank surges. During the summit, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh urged Palestinians to exploit the “window of opportunity” provided by the “unprecedented internal divisions” in Israel over the judicial overhaul, as well as Israel’s “tense international relations” with its allies, and its inability to break the will of the Palestinian people and their “escalating resistance.”

“We are facing an exceptional stage in the course of the conflict, which requires us to think collectively and take exceptional decisions on how to confront [Israel’s] policies and rein in these extremists,” Haniyeh said. 

Six Israelis Wounded, One Seriously, In Terror Shooting In Ma’ale Adumim

Six Israelis were shot and wounded, one of them seriously, in a terror attack in the West Bank settlement city of Ma’ale Adumim on Tuesday afternoon, police and medical officials said. 

According to law enforcement officials, the Palestinian terrorist opened fire at a group of people, including diners at a burger restaurant, in a plaza outside a main shopping mall in the settlement, before being shot dead by an off-duty police officer while attempting to flee the scene. The Magen David Adom (MDA) ambulance service said one of the victims, a man in his 40s, was listed in serious condition. MDA said four victims — a 14-year-old boy and men aged 28, 29 and 37 — were listed in moderate condition. Another man in his 20s was lightly hurt, according to hospital officials.  

The Shin Bet security agency identified the terrorist as 20-year-old Mohannad Muhammad Suleiman al-Mazra’a, from the nearby West Bank town of al-Azariya. The Shin Bet said al-Mazra’a, who worked as a cleaner at a local community center in Ma’ale Adumim, had a permit to work in West Bank settlements but not in Israel proper. 

The shooter does not appear to have been affiliated with a specific Palestinian faction, but Hamas officials felt his actions were worthy of praise. In an interview with Hamas’ Al-Aqsa TV, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said that "the young rebels in Jerusalem and the West Bank continue their intifada and actions against the Zionist occupation” and added that the attack was "an act of retaliation for the damage to the sanctity of Al-Aqsa Mosque" and also "a move to thwart the Israeli intention to build the Temple."  

Lebanon and Hezbollah 

Nasrallah Urges Muslims To Punish Qur’an Desecrators If Governments Fail To Do So

Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said Saturday that if governments of Muslim-majority nations do not act against countries that allow the desecration of the Quran, Muslims should “punish” those who facilitate attacks on Islam’s holy book. 

He said Muslims should watch for the outcome of an emergency meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which took place in Baghdad on Monday, to discuss the organization’s response to the Quran burnings. The organization and its member states should “send a firm, decisive and unequivocal message to these governments that any repeat of the attacks will be met with a boycott,” Nasrallah said. If they do not, he said, Muslim youth should “punish the desecrators.”  

He did not elaborate on what such a boycott and punishment should entail. Members of the crowd, who carried banners with religious slogans alongside the flags of Hezbollah, Lebanon, and Palestine, chanted, “Oh, Quran, we are at your service; Oh, Hussein, we are at your service.” 

The comments by Hassan Nasrallah came in a video address to tens of thousands gathered in Beirut’s southern suburbs to mark Ashoura, a Shiite holy day commemorating the 7th-century martyrdom of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Islamic religion’s founder and an important figure in Shiite Islam.

Nasrallah often uses religious occasions to send political messages to followers, and on Saturday, he slammed recent incidents in which the Quran was burned or otherwise desecrated at authorized demonstrations in Sweden and Denmark.

Syria

Israeli Media Reports On Trip Of Quds Force Commander To Syria 

Israel’s Kann News, citing Lebanese sources, reported that the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force visited Syria recently to review the readiness of militia forces. This trip comes as Syria’s foreign minister also visited Tehran in recent days, meeting with senior officials there. Reporting suggests mid-level operational coordination between Russia and Iran has increased amid the war in Ukraine in a challenge to U.S. forces.  

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