Category World News

Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza – For the third consecutive day, Hassan Saad, 38, and hundreds of others took to the streets in Beit Lahiya, demanding an end to their suffering and a halt to the war on Gaza.

Saad is one of the protest coordinators, working with 14 others who he says came together spontaneously to organise the demonstrations.

The main trigger, Saad explains, was a Facebook discussion after new Israeli eviction orders were issued last Monday.

“The nightmare of displacement once again was the primary reason that pushed us to do something to demand an end to the war on Gaza,” Saad told Al Jazeera by phone from Beit Lahiya on Thursday.

“The idea of taking to the streets in protests, holding signs calling for an immediate end to the war, was born.”

Saad was forced to flee Beit Lahiya two months into Israel’s war on Gaza. On January 27, when hundreds of thousands of displaced residents were allowed back to northern Gaza, he returned to the rubble of his home.

Going back to bombings and eviction notices from the Israeli army was more than the Facebook group’s members could bear, Saad added.

He attributes the response to the sense of abandonment felt by Palestinians, as the world, in his words, has left them to face displacement, starvation, killing, bombardment, and arrests alone.

On Tuesday, videos began to appear on social media of hundreds of people in Gaza, particularly in Beit Lahiya, chanting against the war and calling for Hamas to step down.

‘We raise our children, only to lose them’

The demand for Hamas to relinquish power was not an official goal, Saad clarified, rather, the call came spontaneously from protesters.

“It’s difficult to control people’s opinions during protests, especially when they are exhausted and deeply frustrated,” Saad added.

“The people’s demands stem from an unbearable reality … If ending the war requires Hamas to step aside, then so be it.”

However, Saad added, he rejects any political exploitation of the protests to attack Hamas and the Palestinian resistance.

“Whether we agree or disagree with Hamas, they’re ultimately part of our people … They’re not from another planet,” he added.

Commenting on the protests, Hamas Political Bureau member Basem Naim said on Facebook: “Everyone has the right to cry out in pain and raise their voice against the aggression against our people and the betrayal of our nation.

“Whether our people have taken to the streets or not, we are part of them and they are part of us,” he continued, denouncing any exploitation of the situation, “whether to advance dubious political agendas or to deflect responsibility from the criminal aggressor, the occupation and its army.”

As images of the demonstrations in Beit Lahiya circulated, commentators inside and outside Gaza offered differing interpretations.

Some see them as a natural expression of the majority’s demands – an end to Israel’s war of extermination against Gaza.

Others focused on the call for Hamas to relinquish control of the Strip and allow a restructuring to facilitate an end to the war.

Munthir al-Hayek, Gaza spokesperson for Fatah – Hamas’s political rival that dominates the Palestinian Authority (PA) – wrote on Facebook, urging Hamas to “heed the people’s voice” and step down, enabling the PA and the Palestine Liberation Organization to assume responsibility.

On the Israeli side, Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee expressed support for the protests, framing them as wholly anti-Hamas.

In Gaza, these varying framings have sown confusion about the demonstrations’ motivations, but organisers – and al-Barawi – insist that the core demand is ending the war.

Hisham al-Barawi, 52, a protest participant, told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that, contrary to media claims, they were not “led” into the streets by any external forces.

“We’re here to say: ‘enough oppression and death.’ Every two years, we go through wars. We raise our children for years, only to lose them.

“We build our homes, only for them to be bombed in seconds. We’re exhausted … we’re only human!” al-Barawi shouted.

“Hamas … we do not hate them. But I call on them to step down. Their 18 years of rule were filled with wars and escalations. We want to live in peace.”

‘We just want to live’

Marching near al-Barawi was Mahmoud Jihad al-Haj Ahmed, 34, a doctor at Kamal Adwan Hospital.

“Our protests are independent. We want the war to stop. We refuse to have our lives gambled with any further,” he said.

“We need humanitarian aid. We need border crossings to open. We need a dignified life.”

Al-Haj Ahmed recounted Israel killing his parents and sister, but he did not have time to grieve as his work at the hospital consumed him until the day the Israeli army forced everyone inside to leave.

“We have so many children and youngsters who are amputees … so many wounded people who need to travel for treatment, but they’re blocked from leaving,” he said.

“It’s dire.”

Regarding the calls for Hamas to relinquish power, al-Haj Ahmed said that if Hamas stepping down would alleviate people’s suffering, he would support that without hesitation.

“This requires prioritising the greater public interest. The suffering is unbearable,” he said.

“I believe the solution is a completely independent local administration with no political affiliations to govern Gaza and lead us out of this crisis.

“I urge our brothers in Hamas to give others a chance to govern Gaza. The next leadership does not have to be against Hamas, we have many competent national figures who can manage the Strip.”

Saed Falafel, 60, has also been protesting, demanding an end to Israel’s war.

“We want to live. That is our main demand,” Saed said.

“If you walk through Gaza’s markets, you wouldn’t find a single tomato or egg. We’re starving and being killed in every way possible. Within a week, we will be in the grip of a major famine.

“We have no interest in being anyone’s enemies. We are civilians who just want to live in peace and have a life worth living. We want a solution to this catastrophe.

“Anyone in the world with an ounce of humanity and compassion would feel our pain. Act now to help us.

A multi-story building was leveled by an Israeli air attack in Beirut on video. After Hezbollah was charged with firing rockets, Israel’s military detonated a number of bombs on Friday in the capital of Lebanon.

Although the details of a deal reached on Sunday were still being worked out, it appeared that Russia and Ukraine have stopped focusing on one another’s energy infrastructure this week.

“I can confirm that since this date, March 25 … there have been no attacks on energy objects. Heorhii Tykhyi, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told the Kyiv Independent on Thursday that neither Russia’s energy objects nor our energy objects were targeted by them.

The United States appeared to have abandoned the comprehensive ceasefire proposal it signed with Ukraine on March 11 when reaching the partial ceasefire agreement.

Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected it a week later during a phone call with US President Donald Trump, and negotiated a vaguely defined ceasefire on energy and infrastructure instead, to which Ukraine was not a party.

Following negotiations between Ukrainian and Russian negotiating teams, the US finally agreed to sign the smaller deal in Jeddah.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had said on Sunday evening that “a ceasefire in our energy sector can begin today”.

Ukraine was previously accused of violating the ceasefire by Russia.

The Russian Federation’s Ministry of Defense reported that the [Kyiv] regime continued to attack the country’s energy infrastructure despite Zelensky’s public statement.

It accused Ukraine of launching two attack drones over Crimea on Wednesday night targeting an underground gas storage facility, and of launching another drone against a high-tension power line in the Russian regions of Bryansk and Kursk, causing a cascade of blackouts.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces’ General Staff denies the claims made.

According to them, “the aggressor country’s military department makes false and unfounded accusations in order to prolong the war.”

The governors of Crimea, Kursk and Bryansk did not report Ukrainian UAVs in their airspace, as they usually do.

Over the past ten days, Russia has been engaging in diplomatic messaging, accusing Ukraine of violating ceasefires that it had agreed to.

It alleged that Ukraine had destroyed a gas measuring station in Sudzha, in the Kursk region of Russia, on Friday.

Ukraine’s General Staff said Sudzha was “shelled by the Russians themselves” in a “campaign to discredit Ukraine”.

Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, responded with a retaliation. He claimed that Ukraine’s denial “shows how much one can trust the Kyiv regime.”

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova piled on, too.

Ukraine “already attacked the Russian power facility in violation of the United States’ proposed truce.” The question is now how Washington will continue to operate under the “mad terrorist scum.”

Sudzha is the point where a major Russian gas pipeline crosses into Ukraine.

After Russia drastically reduced gas flows to Europe in 2022, the pipeline was essentially defunct, and it ended on December 31 when a Russian-Ukraine transit contract expired.

Over the course of three years of conflict, Ukraine had numerous opportunities to obliterate or shut down Russian gas pipelines that had been crossing its territory.

Russia says Ukraine wants to ‘ thwart ‘ peace plans

Russia’s emphasis on Ukraine’s unreliability has been a constant theme throughout the conflict, and it has grown in recent days in an effort to obstruct its ability to negotiate.

For instance, on March 18, when Putin switched to a partial ceasefire, the Kremlin unilaterally announced that the Ukrainian ceasefire would go into effect immediately and without any prior consent.

Two days later, Zakharova accused Kyiv of violating the ceasefire by attacking the Engels air force base in Russia.

By attacking Russian energy facilities, Zakharova said, “Kyiv wants to thwart peace initiatives, including those proposed by Trump.”

Zelenskyy’s government “exhibited a complete lack of political will for peace,” she claimed.

That attack targeted ammunition, Ukraine’s General Staff said on Thursday. 96 air-launched cruise missiles were destroyed as a result of secondary detonations. According to the staff, the missiles were used in three airstrikes against Ukraine in March and April.

Russia’s Defence Ministry, on the other hand, admitted to striking Ukrainian energy facilities on the first night of Putin’s unilateral ceasefire, and on the following night.

Russia and Ukraine exchanged 175 prisoners of war each, and Russia also gave birth to 22 hospitalized soldiers on March 18. One aspect of the phone call clearly worked.

Russia continued to communicate even on Sunday.

As the agreement was announced, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov denounced Zelenskyy in an interview with Russia’s Channel One, saying, “We cannot take this man at his word”.

Russia used 139 Shahed drones and an Iskander-M ballistic missile to attack Ukraine the same day. 78 of them were fatally shot by Ukraine, disorienting 34 of them electronically.

But other Russian attacks were deadly. A father and his 5-year-old daughter were among the three victims of the drone strike in Kyiv on Saturday. In a drone strike on Friday in Zaporizhia, three people were killed.

The White House did not respond to Russian assertions, spending the week in a defensive crouch after its top national security officials were revealed to have discussed operational defence plans against Yemeni Houthis on a commercial platform, and inadvertently included a journalist in that discussion.

Regarding ceasefire terms, the EU and the US are very different.

After separate Russian, Ukrainian, and US statements that didn’t align, Ukrainian and Russian technical teams were reportedly working out issues with Sunday’s agreement.

In addition to banning strikes on energy infrastructure, the White House said, the agreement aimed to secure safe navigation in the Black Sea and “help restore Russia’s access to the world market for agricultural and fertiliser exports”.

Russia went further, claiming that sanctions against Russian agricultural machinery and shipping could only be lifted if the deal were to become legally binding.

Zelenskyy denied that the US and Ukrainian teams had reached an agreement regarding Russian access to the grain and fertilizer markets.

“We believe that this is a weakening of positions and a relaxation of sanctions”, Zelenskyy told reporters in Kyiv on Tuesday. “This was not on our agenda,” we said.

Zelenskyy and the European Union came to terms.

The European Council of the 27 EU leaders said on March 20 that it “remains ready to step up pressure on Russia, including through further sanctions and by strengthening the enforcement of existing measures … to weaken its ability to continue waging its war of aggression”.

It stated that Russian central bank assets worth $300 billion would remain frozen “until Russia stops its aggression against Ukraine and makes reparations for the harm it caused.”

Anitta Hipper, a spokesman for the European Commission’s foreign affairs, reiterated that statement on Wednesday, saying the EU would consider lifting sanctions if Russia “puts end to its unprovoked aggression” and to withdrew without condition.

The situation on the ground

Throughout the week, Ukraine fought back against continuing Russian assaults that focused on the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine.

Russian forces are weakening, according to Viktor Tregubov, a spokesperson for the Khortytsia operational group of Ukrainian ground forces.

“There are fewer of them, and they have less equipment. He claimed on Saturday that the men fighting there claim to be seeing fewer Russians at the moment. Simply put, “Russia has suffered significant losses.” But they cannot leave this area, because it is still part of their plans to control this part of the Donetsk region”, he said.

Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskii, the commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, reported rising daily casualty rates in Russia. In the last three years of combat, 540 000 Russians have been killed and wounded, exceeding the 900 000 mark, according to reports.

Ukraine’s General Staff on Thursday said a drone strike on the Engels-2 airfield in Russia a week earlier had resulted in the destruction of 96 air-launched cruise missiles from secondary detonations. According to them, the missiles were used in three airstrikes against Ukraine in March and April.

In the Russian region of Kursk, Ukraine has experienced a setback in the past two weeks as a result of a counterinvasion last summer.

One of Ukraine’s stated reasons for that initiative was that it forestalled a new invasion Russia was preparing in its Sumy and Kharkiv regions in the autumn.

Now that Ukraine has been resurrected in Kursk, Zelenskyy told French newspaper Le Figaro on Wednesday.

Russian reconnaissance and sabotage groups were already advancing further into the Sumy region, according to Ukrainian Border Guard spokesman Andriy Demchenko, who spoke to a telethon.

“The enemy does not give up its sabotage activities. In the north of Sumy, the majority of enemy reconnaissance and sabotage organizations were previously exposed. We are now recording enemy groups’ attempts to move closer to the southeast and the southern regions of Sumy, he said, when they attempt to cross the state border.

Demchenko also told a telethon that Russian forces were conducting shelling and air attacks in Sumy. At the height of Ukraine’s Kursk operation, these activities had almost stopped.

At least 300 Russian strikes were recorded by Sumy police in 43 different settlements on the day of the agreement in Jeddah.