Trucks carrying aid move, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Hussam Al-Masri

In what may be perhaps the most significant single strategic move since the start of the war in Gaza, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office announced this weekend that, “the entry of all goods and supplies into the Gaza Strip will be halted.”

Contrary to claims of “war crimes” and “starving civilians,” this new approach to Gaza is not only completely consistent with international law — but is likely to save civilian lives on all sides and bring the war to a close far more quickly than any other approach.

The massacre of October 7, 2023, saw the largest murder of Jews since the Holocaust. The internationally-designated Hamas terror organization, along with Palestinian civilians and UN staff, invaded Israel, killed over 1,200, took 251 hostage, committed mass torture and mass rape, and brought about 16 months of war.

As I wrote the other day, Israel and Hamas completed “Phase 1” of a three stage ceasefire agreement, which resulted in the release of some of the Israeli hostages. However, the parties have so far failed to negotiate the terms of “Phase 2.” US Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, presented a framework for continuing negotiations, which Israel accepted but Hamas rejected.

In response, Israel made this weekend’s announcement, and closed Gaza to aid deliveries.

Israel maintains a legal weapons blockade on Gaza, which is governed by the Geneva Conventions, The Hague Conventions, and the San Remo Convention. Under these agreements, a legal blockade is permitted as a defense against armed attack. Israel’s blockade of Gaza, which began in 2007, fits this requirement, as it is a response to Hamas’s ongoing rocket barrages on Israeli civilians.

Under these same international rules, the blockading party may not intentionally starve civilians as a tool of warfare. This effectively means that the blockading power is required to transfer humanitarian aid into the blockaded area — a requirement that Israel has fulfilled at a massive scale.

However, the aid that enters into Gaza is typically not transferred to civilians. To the contrary, Hamas, habitually steals international aid, as well as torturing and killing civilians who attempt to take the aid for themselves.

This reality has been confirmed by multiple international sources including the United Nations, and has been caught on camera numerous times.

Hamas uses stolen aid supplies to fuel its rockets, equip its troops, and sells some of what’s left to civilians as a way of raising funds for its war effort. Indeed, many of the resources Hamas used on October 7, and in the months since, were taken from aid supplies, including the tunnels where Israeli hostages are currently held, which were built with cement funded by America’s USAID agency.

In effect, Israel has been fighting a war of survival while also funding both sides: a strategy doomed to fail. This kind of national suicide is absolutely not required by international law.

To the contrary, Article 23 of Geneva Convention IV specifically states that a power is not required to allow the passage of humanitarian aid unless it is satisfied that the aid will not be diverted to enemy combatants. Therefore, not only is Israel not required to transfer aid under the present circumstances, but pressuring Israel to do so is, in itself, a war crime.

International law is structured this way for good reason: funding both sides of a conflict only serves to prolong hostilities and thus increase completely avoidable harm to civilian populations on all sides.

In this case, aid to Gaza ends up almost exclusively in the hands of an internationally -designated terror organization that is also an enemy combatant. The international community has had 18 years since the beginning of the blockade in 2007, and 16 months since the October 7 massacre, to find a solution to this particular war crime, yet has both failed and refused to do so. The consequence has been to prolong the current war, the captivity of the Israeli hostages, and also war’s deleterious impact on the lives of both Israeli and Palestinian civilians.

For the moment, this war crime of compelling Israel to provide aid to enemy combatants, in violation of Article 23 of Geneva Convention IV, has come to an end. This can only result in a quicker defeat of Hamas, and a quicker end to the current war. Such a result will, in turn, provide immeasurable benefits to Israelis, to Palestinians, and to the entire world at large.

Daniel Pomerantz is the CEO of RealityCheck, an organization dedicated to deepening public conversation through robust research studies and public speaking.

The post Israel Cut Off Aid to Gaza After Hamas Rejected Ceasefire Deal — And That’s Completely Legal first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Kfir Bibas. Photo: Hostages and Missing Families Forum.

The confirmation of the murders of the red-haired Bibas boys was a gut punch for Israelis. For some pro-Palestinian activists, it was an opportunity to blame the victims.

Last Tuesday, the South African-based Gift of the Givers, the self-described “largest disaster response, non-governmental organisation (NGO) of African origin on the African continent,” decided to share a short video justifying the kidnapping of Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir and blaming Israel for their deaths.

It was bizarre for a supposed human rights organization to share this pro-Hamas propaganda. Some of this mystery can be explained by Gift of the Givers’ alleged membership in a Hamas funding network. The United States sanctioned the charity umbrella group Union of Good in 2008 for funding Hamas. The union’s website in the early 2000s listed Gift of the Givers as a South African-based member.

The South African government’s anti-Israel hostility may also help explain why Gift of the Givers felt comfortable sharing the victim-blaming material. The South African government has been one of Israel’s most vocal critics and a key player in Hamas’ strategy of using Palestinian suffering to isolate the Jewish State.

Six weeks after Hamas’ October 7 atrocities, South Africa’s leader had already accused Israel of war crimes “tantamount to genocide.” A month later, the government in Pretoria initiated an International Court of Justice (ICJ) case based on this false accusation. Pretoria’s Hamas cheerleading has caused friction with Washington, with Trump citing the ICJ case as part of his decision to cut aid to South Africa this February. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is trying to reset relations with the United States, but hasn’t declared his intention to reset his approach to Palestinian terrorism.

The clip that Gift of the Givers shared began with a gunpoint recording of a ragged Yarden Bibas, Ariel and Kfir’s father, in Hamas captivity, blaming Israel’s prime minister for the death of his wife and children.

The seemingly coerced condemnation was intended to prove Israel’s guilt — and Hamas’ innocence.

The video then justified Shiri’s abduction by claiming that Palestinian terrorists “arrested” the “soldier,” and that she worked for the army and had been a member of Israel’s intelligence services. A Gazan fighter in the video even attempted to portray the kidnapping of children as a humanitarian gesture, saying, “upon her arrest, we allowed her to take her children out of mercy for them.” If those terrorists had an ounce of mercy, they would not have kidnapped babies into Gaza.

The video also repeatedly claimed that the “Nazi Israeli army” killed the Bibas family in one of its “indiscriminate airstrikes.” That fact was completely disproved by the Israeli government in forensics evidence it shared around the world, but no one seemed to care.

The attempt to draw comparisons between Israel and the Nazis is both an inversion of reality and employs the antisemitic tactic of delegitimizing Israel by claiming that the victims of Nazism have now become its perpetrators. Much like the erroneous charge of genocide, this absurd accusation erodes an important definition related to human rights.

Gift of the Givers has had other antisemitism controversies of late, with leaders declaring, “Zionists … run the world with fear. They control the world with money.”

October 7 was a “mask off” moment for many, including Gift of the Givers. The humanitarian organization and its leaders have been increasingly bold in their support of antisemitism and pro-Hamas propaganda. And why shouldn’t they, when their government serves as Hamas’ lawyer at the ICJ and accuses Israel — the victim of genocidal acts — of being the perpetrator?

David May is a research manager and senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy. Follow David on X @DavidSamuelMay. Follow FDD on X @FDD.

The post Pro-Palestinian Activists Blame Bibas Children for Their Own Murders first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Pro-Hamas students rally at the encampment for Gaza set up at George Washington University students. Washington, DC, April 25, 2035. Photo: Allison Bailey via Reuters Connect

Last week, Abdullah Ocalan asked his fighters in Turkey and Syria to lay down their weapons and declare a ceasefire. They agreed.

Who is Abdullah Ocalan? He is the leader of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), listed as a terrorist group by Turkey, the US, and other countries. He has been imprisoned by Turkey under rather harsh conditions since 1999.

Whether the ceasefire will hold and lead to some degree of independence or at least easing of oppression by Turkey remains to be seen. If nothing else, this step by Ocalan shows that a leader can have an impact on his followers even from prison.

What is the connection to the Gaza situation? It has been clear to many players in the Middle East that Hamas cannot stay in power, and that it needs to be demilitarized. As we know, Israel has been calling for this since October 7. The US administration knows this, too. And Arab states are well aware that this is a necessity for ending the war in Gaza, though for the most part they are afraid to say so publicly.

Perhaps just like with the PKK, the process needs to be initiated from the top to the bottom.

It is unlikely that the current leadership in Gaza itself will take the first or any steps. Mohammed Sinwar, the brother of Yahya Sinwar, and his colleagues believe that their permanent residence in Gaza tunnels gives them at least a long term, if not permanent, lease on life and rule. Only one of the Palestinians who were recently released from Israeli prisons in exchange for Israeli hostages, publicly called for peace with Israel. He spent 40 years in an Israeli prison, he is quite elderly and not influential or known.

On the contrary, many released Palestinians were rushing immediately to their old jobs, i.e., terrorism. There is a zero chance that Marwan Barghouti, the most prominent resident in an Israeli prison who was responsible for organizing many deadly terrorist attacks, would do what Ocalan just did — call for disarmament and real ceasefire. The input needs to come either from Gaza’s population or from Gaza leaders living abroad and Arab leaders in the neighborhood.

The Gazans are too oppressed and dependent for everything on Hamas, so they keep quiet, though a recent poll shows a marked decrease in Hamas popularity.

Gazans put a lot of blame for the destruction of their homes and for looting of humanitarian aid on Hamas, though many of them also fervently hate Israel and Jews. The latter was particularly palpable during the transfer of hostages, alive and dead.

Qatar, the financier and enabler of Hamas, a state claiming to be “an honest mediator and broker of peace” should stop financing and supporting Hamas, and it should expel the Hamas politburo from its soil. Instead of making a real contribution by pressing Hamas to release all hostages unconditionally, it called last week for UNRWA to return to Gaza (or as they called it, to “Palestine.”)

Egypt will present a proposal for rebuilding Gaza at an emergency Arab summit in Cairo in the coming days. Whether it includes disarmament and/or expulsion of Hamas from Gaza, and at least temporary relocation of Gazans into Egypt, is doubtful. But any reconstruction of Gaza with Hamas remaining in any position of power is total waste and folly. Hamas does not care about Gaza’s population; its only goal is to destroy Israel. Egypt is hoping that Europe would underwrite this adventure, but the EU would be foolish to go for it while Hamas and its affiliates are in power.

I have no idea what prompted Ocalan to declare a ceasefire. He has been in prison since 1999 – 26 years, and he is in his 70s. Does he want to live out his final days in peace, does he think a good outcome is possible for his people, that enough people have died, or that the regional situation is changing with Israel defeating Hezbollah, Assad gone from Syria, and Iran weakened by Israel’s intervention?

We can only wish and hope that his new approach would inspire Hamas to do something leading to real peace. Unfortunately, we know one thing for sure from their recent rejection of a new peace deal: there will be no ceasefire until Hamas is gone.

In the 10h year of the rather slowly progressing Trojan War, things start heating up as described in the Iliad. Achilles, the greatest warrior of the Greek army, sits on the sidelines offended by Agamemnon, the leader of the Greeks. Patroclus, Achilles’ closest friend, goes into battle and is killed by Hector, the son of Priam, the king of Troy.

Achilles, devastated by Patroclus’ death, calls for revenge and drags Hector’s body attached to Achilles’ chariot. Fellow Greeks are appalled by Achilles’ defiling Hector’s body. Achilles is inconsolable until Priam comes to beg Achilles to release the body of his son for a funeral. Priam also brings a hefty ransom. Achilles takes pity on the old grieving father, accepts the ransom, releases the body and sits down with Priam to mourn the death of Hector. Achilles agrees to two weeks of truce to allow for a funeral and grieving for Hector.

Hamas should study the Iliad to imbibe some compassion and empathy both for its “enemies” and its own people.

Dr. Jaroslava Halper has been a professor of pathology at The University of Georgia in Athens, GA for many years. She escaped from communist Prague because of antisemitism, and lack of freedom and free speech. The gradual increase of antisemitism and anti-Zionism in certain circles in her second homeland, and the devastating October 7 massacre by Hamas, led her to realize that more active engagement is necessary to combat antisemitism, including anti-Zionism. 

The post Can Hamas Be Defeated — Or Are We Fooling Ourselves? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.