The deteriorating humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip as a result of the Israeli war and settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank have received the attention of international newspapers, in addition to the rapid field developments in Syria and Yemen.
The American New York Times highlighted the very deteriorating situation of the health system in the Gaza Strip, due to the intense Israeli bombing of hospitals.
The newspaper quoted medical workers as saying that one of the worst damages resulting from the Israeli bombing was the targeting of gas, water and electricity lines in hospitals, in almost impossible working conditions to treat large numbers of wounded with very limited medical supplies.
The British newspaper The Times focused on canceling the Christmas celebration in Bethlehem, south of the occupied West Bank, due to the difficult conditions.
The newspaper considered the decline in the number of Christians in Bethlehem and the West Bank “a broad demographic threat that places the Church of the Nativity facing a dangerous future.”
She pointed out that the aggressive practices of Jewish settlers are increasing, and threaten to isolate Bethlehem behind a fence of settlements sponsored by the Israeli government.
In turn, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz said in its editorial that the suppression of critics of the Israeli government had become the prevailing practice during the era of what the newspaper called Minister of Insecurity Itamar Ben Gvir (Minister of National Security).
The newspaper saw that Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is behaving as if it were an oppressive regime trampling on its citizens, and that the police are a tool in its hand, and the Public Prosecution is cooperating with it. It also urged the opposition in Israel to wake up before it is completely silenced.
The Syrian scene
The main article in the American magazine Foreign Affairs called on Washington to give priority to working with the new Syrian government and its allies, to ensure the safe and sound disposal of the remaining chemical weapons in Syria.
The article also called for “working to hold all officials in Bashar al-Assad’s regime accountable for their crimes in carrying out chemical attacks.”
The British Financial Times reported that the Banias oil refinery, the largest in Syria, stopped working after the flow of Iranian oil stopped, noting that the oil shortage constitutes a major challenge to the Syrian interim government.
The newspaper quoted the head of the refinery, Ibrahim Muslim, as saying that members of the new Syrian government told him that they expected the sanctions on the country to be lifted, allowing Syria to import oil from non-Iranian sources.
An analysis in the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth concluded that the Israeli strike on Hodeidah and Sanaa in Yemen will not lead to any real impact on the power of the Houthis.
The analysis found that the broad joint Israeli-American move alone is the most effective in dealing with the Houthi threat, with the help of accurate intelligence information about the Houthis’ military sites, despite the difficulties.
Source : American press + Israeli press + British press
