On Gaza, Palestinians feel very much alone

As the death toll rises in Gaza, Palestinian analysts and commentators are feeling forsaken by the wider Arab world. These days, they feel, the famous Palestinian protest song “where is the Arab nation” could hardly be more relevant.

“Many complain that everyone has ‘given up on Gaza’ and left the people to fend for themselves,” a reporter for London-based Al-Hayat wrote on Monday.

Some 25 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Friday, most of them terrorists according to the IDF, in the latest round of fighting between Israel and Gaza. About 150 rockets have been fired at Israel since the weekend.

For some, the feeling of helplessness has been replaced by an urgent call for action.

“We demand you to arm Gaza too,” reads the headline of a column by Abd Al-Bari Atwan, the firebrand editor-in-chief of Al-Quds Al-Arabi, a pan-Arab daily that focuses on Palestinian affairs.

Atwan wants the Gazans’ plight to get the same sympathy as Syrians in Homs and Idlib. He called in his column for robust international action against the aggressor, namely – in his view – Israel.

“Perhaps the death of Palestinian martyrs does not raise the interest or curiosity of American officials,” writes Atwan, “but we wonder why the same is true for Arab foreign ministers.”

The escalation is also being seen as an opportunity for Hamas and Fatah to bolster their planned reconciliation, showering each other with platitudes and uniting against the common Israeli enemy.

On Sunday, Palestinian media gave wide coverage to a small demonstration of several dozen Palestinians in Manara Square in downtown Ramallah, a Fatah stronghold.

The Bethlehem-based Ma’an news agency has tried to explain Israel’s motivation in attacking Gaza to its readers by saying Netanyahu is trying to “export” his government’s failure and break Israel’s international isolation by showing that Palestinians do not want peace and are planning terror attacks within Israel.

The Israeli escalation, writes Ma’an, comes during a long-lasting calm between Israel and the Palestinian factions.

Palestinian Authority mouthpiece Al-Ayyam says Israel’s assassination of terror leader Zuhair al-Qaissi on Friday was unprovoked and was designed to draw a fierce response from the “resistance factions” in the Gaza Strip.

Columnist Talal Awkal  wrote commending Hamas for maintaining an “undeclared ceasefire,” noting that the Israeli attacks are meant to embarrass the Islamist group.