AP News, (4 hours ago), The Israeli army has raided and detained staff at two of the last functioning hospitals in Gaza’s north, "...Israel bombarded towns across southern Gaza Tuesday with airstrikes, .. pressing ahead with its offensive with renewed backing from the United States, despite rising international alarm... Israeli troops have raided a series of hospitals and shelters in the north, detaining men in a search for militants and expelling others taking refuge there... Gallant said that in southern Gaza, operations will take “months,” ... “We will not stop until we reach our goals,” he said... Rafah, which is in the southern part of Gaza and where Israel has told Palestinians to seek shelter, has been repeatedly bombarded, often killing large numbers of civilians...Fierce battles also raged in northern Gaza, which has been reduced to a wasteland seven weeks after Israeli tanks and troops stormed in..."

Read on

https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-news-12-19-2023-226fdce935f5797ba8abc9ae4ad857cb

See Also:

https://www.researchgate.net/post/War_Peace

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Science_and_history_serving_political_and_ideological_totalitarianism

IDF is continuing to massacre civilians by tens of thousands, injure hundreds of thousands, and deport millions of them. It destroys hospitals on the heads of the sick and Practitioners, schools on the heads of students, and homes on the heads of residents. CBS News, (9 hours ago), Israel-Hamas war will go on for "many more months," Netanyahu says "..Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday that Israel's war on Hamas in Gaza will continue for "many more months," pushing back against persistent international cease-fire calls after mounting civilian deaths, hunger and mass displacement in the besieged enclave. Netanyahu thanked the Biden administration for its continued backing, including approval for a new emergency weapons sale, the second this month, and prevention of a United Nations Security Council resolution seeking an immediate cease-fire. Israel argues that ending the war now would mean victory for Hamas, a stance shared by the Biden administration..

The Health Ministry in Gaza said Saturday that more than 21,600 Palestinians have been killed.. since the deadly Oct. 7 ..165 Palestinians were killed over the past 24 hours. It has said about 70% of those killed have been women and children... The war has displaced some 85% of Gaza's 2.3 million residents,.. Thousands of tents and makeshift shacks have sprung up on Rafah's outskirts next to U.N. warehouses. Displaced people arrived in Rafah on foot or on trucks and carts piled high with mattresses. Those who did not find space in overwhelmed shelters pitched tents on roadsides. "We don't have water. We don't have enough food," Nour Daher, a displaced woman, said Saturday from the sprawling tent camp. "The kids wake up in the morning wanting to eat, wanting to drink. It took us one hour to find water for them. We couldn't bring them flour. Even when we wanted to take them to toilets, it took us one hour to walk."

Read on:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-hamas-war-will-go-on-for-many-more-months-netanyahu-says/

See Also:

https://www.researchgate.net/post/War_Peace

Le Monde, Dec. 31, 2023, by Jean-Pierre Filiu (Professeur des universités à Sciences Po), Le destin de l’Europe en 2024 se jouera à Gaza (The destiny of Europe in 2024 will be decided in Gaza, Own Translation). Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin, who are banking on the return of Donald Trump to the White House, will do everything to prolong the war in Gaza, which would be disastrous for the European Union, both in the Middle East and in Ukraine. "The historian knows from experience how opinions gradually adapt to conflicts that develop over time. It is no less disturbing to note that the war in Gaza has become trivialized even more quickly than that in Ukraine The losses in Ukraine are, however, much more military than civilian, while the milestone of one percent of the population killed is about to be crossed in Gaza. Such a dizzying figure would represent 650,000 on the scale of France dead, including 250,000 children, as well as millions of wounded, mutilated, traumatized and orphans..."

Read on (in French)

https://www.lemonde.fr/un-si-proche-orient/article/2023/12/31/le-destin-de-l-europe-en-2024-se-jouera-a-gaza_6208510_6116995.html.

See Also:

https://www.researchgate.net/post/War_Peace

As things stand, it is worth remembering that the “Nagging Issue”, Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow is: "To War or not To War, That's the Question to ask NATO"; and for a good reason. The Telegraph (8 hrs), 2024 will be a critical year for the West and the world "The new year dawns with the West being drawn in the direction that every diplomatic sinew has been straining to avoid – direct conflict with either Russia or Iran, or both. The relentless Russian air and missile attacks on civilian targets in Ukraine seem designed to demoralise its people just as the West is cooling in its support almost two years after the invasion...As the West’s promise to back Ukraine “for as long as it takes” begins to fray at the edges, Putin will sense that his earlier calculation of waning interest abroad is beginning to show dividends. Sanctions have not brought Russia to its knees nor triggered a coup. Will 2024 see Nato back away further, especially in a US election year?

Matters are complicated by the spreading war in the Middle East. The West has been desperate to see this confined to an Israeli-Hamas fight, but the longer it goes on, with untold suffering in Gaza, the greater the likelihood that it will spread... The diplomatic and military conundrum at the start of this year, therefore, is whether it will be possible to continue taking a stand against Russia and Iran without triggering a direct conflict with either or both. As a nuclear power, Russia will persist in making dark threats about the consequences of Western involvement... The world is potentially facing its most critical year since the end of the Cold War and arguably since 1945. The autocrats must be faced down or the outlook is bleak indeed."

Read on:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2023/12/31/2024-will-be-a-critical-year-for-the-west-and-the-world/

See also:

https://www.researchgate.net/post/War_Peace

Wael Dahdouh: an Icon of Martyrdom and Resilience of the Palestinian People. AP News, Rafah, Gaza Strip (AP), Jan. 8, 2024 An Al Jazeera journalist is the fifth member of his family killed by Israeli strikes on Gaza. "An apparent Israeli airstrike killed two Palestinian journalists in southern Gaza on Sunday, including an Al Jazeera journalist who lost four close relatives earlier in the war. Hamza Dahdouh is the son of veteran Al Jazeera correspondent Wael Dahdouh, whose wife, two other children and a grandson were killed by a previous Israeli strike. Dahdouh has continued to report on the fighting between Israel and Hamas even as it has taken a devastating toll on his own family, becoming a symbol for many of the perils faced by Palestinian journalists, dozens of whom have been killed while covering the conflict... Speaking to Al Jazeera after his son's burial, Dahdouh vowed to continue reporting on the war. “The whole world must look at what is happening here in the Gaza Strip,” he said. What is happening is a great injustice to defenseless people, civilian people. It is also unfair for us as journalists.”

Dahdouh was reporting on the offensive in late October when he received word that his wife, daughter and another son had been killed in an Israeli airstrike. His grandson, wounded in the same strike, died hours later... In December, an Israeli strike on a school in Khan Younis wounded Dahdouh and Al Jazeera cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa. Dahdouh was able to run for help, but Abu Daqqa bled to death hours later as ambulances were unable to reach him because of blocked roads, according to Al Jazeera. Earlier in December, a strike killed the father, mother and 20 other family members of another Al Jazeera correspondent, Momen Al Sharafi..."

Read on:

https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-journalist-killed-jazeera-86db4604dde19caa9c29366225a6648e

Photo: From the Article

See Also:

https://www.researchgate.net/post/War_Peace

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Science_and_history_serving_political_and_ideological_totalitarianism

I am posting this reply on another thread. https://www.researchgate.net/post/Russia_and_Ukraine_are_two_BROTHER_republics_of_the_USSR_What_are_they_now_and_what_will_happen_to_them_in_the_future (P 288) "@*** wrote, "This news is sad, it's a fact, but it cannot make us forget the suffering of the Israelis..". Please note that No one is asking you to forget the suffering of the Israelis or any other suffering. I believe that Human Suffering is One or is Not. It appears however and unfortunately it is so, that some sensitive souls who are very attached and picky about all universal values are not offended when the suffering concerns “the other”."

Interesting questions to ask European Elites: Scholars, Politics and Intellectuals: "Why do individual attitudes to refugees vary? Are they primarily a function of one’s attitudes to immigration more broadly or do they have distinct contextual determinants? To what extent are attitudes to different types of refugees distinct from each other and how do they interact? To what extent are they formed by non-immigration issues, particularly those related to the cause of the refugee flow?" The paper by Alexandru D. Moise, James Dennison & Hanspeter Kriesi 2024, "European attitudes to refugees after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, West European Politics, 47:2, 356-381" tries to answer these questions and examines "the case of European attitudes to Ukrainian, as well as Afghan and Somali, refugees following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine using an original two-wave panel in France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, and Poland."

The paper is available on:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/01402382.2023.2229688

See Also:

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Science_and_history_serving_political_and_ideological_totalitarianism

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Depopulation_versus_Overpopulation_Demographic_Growth_Transition_and_Decline_What_else_Demographic_Crisis_or_even_Demographic_Crash

Discussion Release: To WW3 or Not To WW3, That is The Question!... to Ask Scholars, in light of the Wars and Conflicts threatening the World's Security. https://www.researchgate.net/post/To_WW3_or_Not_To_WW3_That_is_The_Question_to_Ask_Scholars What Work of Pedagogy, Explanation, Teaching, and Analysis the Scholars of the World must undertake, to generate Peaceful Narratives likely to promote the Defusing of Current or Potential Conflicts in all Areas under tension. Twelve Paramount Red Spots have been inventoried [1]: (i) Europe vs. Russia (C1); (ii ) China vs. Taiwan (C2); (iii) South Korea vs. North Korea (C3); (iv) Pakistan vs. India (C4); (v) Japan vs. China (C5); (vi) Japan vs. North Korea (C6); (vii) Greece vs. Turkey (C7); (viii) Israel vs. Middle East (C8); (ix) U.S. vs. China (C9); (x) U.S. vs. Russia (C10); (xi) U.S. vs. Russia Allies in Latin America (Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela) (C11); (xii) U.S. vs. Iran (C12). What are the Historical Facts that support these Conflicts? The Ins and Outs that drive them? the Global Security Issues they Involve? Possible and Impossible Solutions to Imagine? What Conciliation Steps should be put in place to Avoid Possible Escalations and Encourage Their Defusing? This Discussion, intended to be Academic, aims to Stimulate Reflections, Analyses, and Opinions, to constitute a Platform for Exchange between Scholars likely to bring about Prospects for Peace in the World.

[1] Ruiz Estrada & Mario Arturo, 2022 "Welcome to the World War 3 (WWIII), Available at SSRN

Preprint WELCOME TO THE WORLD WAR 3 (WWIII)

In the Same Vein. On Red Spot (i) Europe vs. Russia (C1). Masters, J. (2022). Ukraine: Conflict at the crossroads of Europe and Russia. Council on Foreign Relations. 1. Ukraine has struggled to forge an independent path, torn between Europe and the United States in the West and its long-standing ties to Russia in the East.

Summary: The conflict in Ukraine is viewed by some as part of a renewed geopolitical rivalry between Western powers and Russia. A former Soviet republic, Ukraine has deep cultural, economic, and political bonds with Russia. In 2014, Russia annexed Crimea, a part of Ukraine, and it is keen not to let the country become more aligned with Western institutions, chiefly NATO and the European Union.

The research poses and develops the following questions: Why has Ukraine become a geopolitical flash point? What are Russia’s interests in Ukraine? What motivated Russia’s moves against Ukraine? What triggered the crisis? What are Russia’s objectives in Ukraine? What are U.S. priorities in Ukraine? What are U.S. and EU policy in Ukraine? What do Ukrainians want?

Available on:

https://indianstrategicknowledgeonline.com/web/Ukraine_%20Conflict%20at%20the%20Crossroads%20of%20Europe%20and%20Russia%20_%20Council%20on%20Foreign%20Relations.pdf

See Also:

https://www.researchgate.net/post/To_WW3_or_Not_To_WW3_That_is_The_Question_to_Ask_Scholars

To War or not to War, That is the Question to Ask Europe. Masters, J. (2022). Ukraine: Conflict at the crossroads of Europe and Russia. Council on Foreign Relations. 1. Ukraine has struggled to forge an independent path, torn between Europe and the United States in the West and its long-standing ties to Russia in the East.

Summary: The conflict in Ukraine is viewed by some as part of a renewed geopolitical rivalry between Western powers and Russia. A former Soviet republic, Ukraine has deep cultural, economic, and political bonds with Russia. In 2014, Russia annexed Crimea, a part of Ukraine, and it is keen not to let the country become more aligned with Western institutions, chiefly NATO and the European Union.

The research poses and develops the following questions: Why has Ukraine become a geopolitical flash point? What are Russia’s interests in Ukraine? What motivated Russia’s moves against Ukraine? What triggered the crisis? What are Russia’s objectives in Ukraine? What are U.S. priorities in Ukraine? What are U.S. and EU policy in Ukraine? What do Ukrainians want?

Available on:

https://indianstrategicknowledgeonline.com/web/Ukraine_%20Conflict%20at%20the%20Crossroads%20of%20Europe%20and%20Russia%20_%20Council%20on%20Foreign%20Relations.pdf

See Also:

https://www.researchgate.net/post/To_WW3_or_Not_To_WW3_That_is_The_Question_to_Ask_Scholars/1

In the Same Vein. Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty, Jan. 19, 2023. West Must Be Prepared For War With Russia, NATO Official Warns Ahead Of Major Military Drills. "NATO has warned that the West should step up preparations for the unexpected,including a war with Russia, as Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine is nearing the two-year mark amid worries over possible political fatigue among some of Kyiv's Western allies. "We have to realize it's not a given that we are in peace. And that's why we [NATO forces] are preparing for a conflict with Russia," Dutch Admiral Rob Bauer, the NATO military committee chief, said in Brussels ahead of the start of the alliance's largest exercise since the end of the Cold War. The alliance needs to be on high alert for war and "expect the unexpected," Bauer said, adding, “In order to be fully effective, also in the future, we need a warfighting transformation of NATO.” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius also warned that the war in Ukraine could expand to neighboring countries. "We hear threats from the Kremlin almost every day -- most recently again against our friends in the Baltic states," Pistorius told the Tagesspiegel newspaper on January 19..."

Read on:

https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-west-war-russia-nato-admiral-bauer-drills/32783552.html

In the Same Vein. Public Sénat, Jan. 18, 2024, Arms deliveries to Ukraine: a Senate report warns about French production capacities. Senators on the Foreign Affairs Committee are urging the government to step up military support for Ukraine, particularly in the supply of munitions and advanced equipment. Because time is on the side of the Russians, according to their report, the result of discussions with high-ranking interlocutors in Ukraine at the end of December. (Own Translation) "For the senators, the challenge is not only to continue strategic aid, but to strengthen it, "in quantity as well as in quality", at a moment that has become a "hinge" for the rest of the war The Ukrainian counter-offensive launched in June having ended in failure, the parliamentarians report a "feeling of deterioration of the military situation" among their interlocutors met last month. They also warn against the risk of a prolongation of the conflict with Russia, which intensified its bombings in December and which, above all, presents a clear advantage in terms of masses of men who can be mobilized against Ukraine... For the commission chaired by Cédric Perrin, the issue is therefore to respond to a country whose fate will have a significant impact on the European Union. “If we do not help Ukraine to win, we will be next in three, five or ten years,” confided to the senators French in December, Andrzej Grzyb, chairman of the national defense committee of the Polish Diet..."

Read (In French) on:

https://www.publicsenat.fr/actualites/international/livraisons-darmes-a-lukraine-un-rapport-du-senat-alarme-sur-les-capacites-de-production-francaises

See Also:

https://www.researchgate.net/post/To_WW3_or_Not_To_WW3_That_is_The_Question_to_Ask_Scholars