Al Mayadeen English

  • Ar
  • Es
  • x
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Features
  • Videos
    • NewsFeed
    • Video Features
    • Explainers
    • TV
    • Digital Series
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Features
Videos
  • NewsFeed
  • Video Features
  • Explainers
  • TV
  • Digital Series
Infographs
In Pictures
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Asia-Pacific
  • Europe
  • Latin America
  • MENA
  • Palestine
  • US & Canada
BREAKING
Sources from Mehr News Agency: The Americans have requested, through intermediaries from various countries, the continuation of negotiations with Iran
Mehr News Agency, citing sources: The Iranian Foreign Ministry is considering a US request to continue negotiations after they failed to halt Iran's nuclear capabilities
Al Mayadeen's correspondent: Five martyrs and several wounded after the occupation targeted a group of civilians in Al-Rimal neighborhood, west of Gaza City
Hamas: The comprehensive failure, military, political, and moral, exposes the falsehoods of the Zionist propaganda machine and reaffirms that our struggle is one of willpower and steadfastness
Hamas: Hamas: The slogans of "crushing defeat" and "total eradication" of the movement have collapsed in the face of explosive tunnels and the Resistance’s ambushes
Hamas: 640 days into the aggression, the occupation has utterly failed to break Gaza’s will or subdue its resistance
Iranian FM spokesperson denies Trump’s claims about Iran requesting a meeting with the US: We have made no such request to the American side
OHCHR: We have concerns that Nasser's arrest is part of efforts to eliminate legitimate forms of Palestinian expression
Al Mayadeen's correspondent: Six killed or injured in Israeli drone strike on displaced persons’ tents in Sanabel camp, al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis
Al Mayadeen's correspondent in Gaza: Several injuries reported as a result of the drone strike on the displaced persons' tent in the Al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Yunis

Gaza Seized the Initiative: Might vs Willpower

  • Jamal Kanj Jamal Kanj
  • Source: Al Mayadeen English
  • 9 Oct 2023 19:31
  • 7 Shares
4 Min Read

The international community's silence has granted "Israel" impunity and has perpetuated the normalization of the Israeli apartheid occupation, imposing a way of life that Palestinians are forced to endure and tolerate.

  • x
  • Gaza Seized the Initiative: Might vs Willpower
    (illustration: Hady Dbouk)

I write as we watch the news of Palestinian fighters from the besieged and starved Gaza strip having seized the initiatives from the Israeli daily incursions on Palestinian camps, and towns murdering civilians. Prior to the launching of Operation Al Aqsa Flood, Israeli murders this year have reached more than 250 Palestinians, including 47 children. This is in addition to the desecration of Muslim and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem and other occupied Palestinian communities.

Gaza has endured a harsh economic blockade for more than 18 years. Palestinians are lynched at the hands of the illegal ultra-Jewish colonizers in cities like Hawara and Hebron. The burning of Palestinian cars, homes, and businesses, under the official protection of the Israeli occupying army and direct support from Israeli racist ministers, has become a daily occurrence. 

Additionally, more than 5,000 Palestinians continue to languish in Israeli jails. The racist Israeli government has introduced new harsh measures, including extended isolation, limited family contact, restricted access to medical treatment, etc. This does not even account for the 1,200 individuals held under administrative detention, which means imprisoned without charge.

The international community's silence has granted "Israel" impunity and has perpetuated the normalization of the Israeli apartheid occupation, imposing a way of life that Palestinians are forced to endure and tolerate.

This background sets the stage for Palestinians to, for perhaps the first time, grab the initiative from the Israeli occupation forces by raiding the prison posts that kept Gaza under blockade, in the world’s largest open-air prison, for nearly two decades.

Related News

Resilience and flexible strategies during the Al-Aqsa Flood

War and diplomacy during and after the flood

Keeping that in mind, it is disheartening to witness the biased coverage by American TV networks and their one-sided pundits, rendering FOX, CNN, and MSNBC indistinguishable in their hypocritical handling of today’s events as well as the 75-year Israeli occupation and the dispossession of Palestinian land.

Alas, American/Western media and political pundits won’t hesitate to describe the Palestinian retaliation against the Gaza economic blockade, the murdering of Palestinians, the defilement of holy sites, the building of Jewish-only colonies on illegally occupied land, as merely a “terrorist” attack, and Israeli prisoners taken to Gaza as “hostages.”  

Meanwhile, the same media industrial complex never ascribed the term hostage for Palestinian, men, women, and children taken half-naked in the middle of the night from their bedrooms by the Israeli army. The pundits on CNN, FOX, and MSNBC never called the 1200 non-charged Palestinians held indefinitely (under 6 month renewable sentence) as hostages.

This blatant double standard becomes evident when comparing the Gaza coverage with Ukraine. If residential towers and homes filled with sleeping families were to be targeted in Kiev, instead of Gaza, we would undoubtedly witness relentless headlines, slow-motion replays of the implosions, and listen to lectures on "Russian brutality" against civilians. However, since it happened in Gaza, with Palestinian victims instead of white Europeans, and the weapons destroying the towers and homes were most likely American-made rockets rather than Russian ones, it is conveniently accepted as "collateral damage" that Western media neither acknowledges nor discusses.

"Israel" had described its daily incursions in the West Bank camps and towns, and earlier wars on Gaza as “mowing the lawn.” The Palestinian lawn, however, has grown stronger, resisting the Israeli lawnmower and rejecting its Palestinian Authority lawn agents.

The Israeli prime minister's threat of severe vengeance adds nothing new, as vengeance has been an integral part of the Zionist philosophy. Palestinians have tragically experienced this vengeance in Deir Yassin and numerous other unknown villages in 1948, during the defenseless camp massacres in Beirut in 1982, and in the continuous "lawn mowing" in Gaza and the West Bank.

Palestinians are well aware that their actions against the Israeli guard posts of the largest open-air prison might come at a significant cost. They face the greatest technology with the most rudimentary weapon system. Palestinians realize they have no match to the American-supplied Israeli military might. However, the latest battle has also demonstrated the unmatched bravery of the Palestinian fighters who went fishing for Israeli soldiers hiding inside the most expensive, and most sophisticated military tanks. 

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect Al Mayadeen’s editorial stance.
  • Operation Al-Aqsa Flood
  • Palestine
  • Israel
Jamal Kanj

Jamal Kanj

Author of “Children of Catastrophe,” Journey from a Palestinian Refugee Camp to America, and other books.

War on Gaza

War on Gaza

Most Read

All
For now, Tehran waits in silence, but it waits on its own terms. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Zeinab el-Hajj)

Ceasefire without terms: Iran’s strategic deterrence in shadow of 9,379 kg

  • Opinion
  • 27 Jun 2025
How is it that the Western regimes, which claimed to support the fake revolutions of Lebanon, Libya, and Syria, waged constant war against the actual Ansar Allah-led revolution in Yemen? (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)

Understanding Yemen 1/2: The Revolution

  • Opinion
  • 30 Jun 2025
The crusade is well underway, 20 months and counting, 77 years and counting. The conflation should be crystalline.  (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)

Which hedge fund owns this sea?

  • Blog
  • 25 Jun 2025
Though the Taleban are not actually waging any war at the moment, like the Ukrainians/NATO and the Zionists/US-UK-EU, they share the same seedbed and are ultimately being used for the same purpose. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Zeinab el-Hajj)

The Ukrainisation of Afghanistan

  • Opinion
  • 26 Jun 2025

Coverage

All
War on Iran

More from this writer

All
The pagers were programmed to detonate during the initial phase of the war, 24 hours later, to disrupt communication channels, and create confusion and disarray in the midst of war. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)

Were the exploding pagers in Lebanon part of a larger Israeli blunder?

'Israel’s' Bloody Negotiations Strategy in Gaza

'Israel’s' Bloody Negotiations Strategy in Gaza

Why would six Israelis receive more attention than 41,000 murdered Palestinians

Why would six Israelis receive more attention than 41,000 murdered Palestinians

The Biden Administration's calls for a ceasefire are as hollow as a jellyfish, and as insincere as a Trump apology. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)

How Blinken’s disinformation perpetuates the suffering in Gaza

Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • x
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS