Transcript of Press TV panel discussion of Gaza ceasefire

Transcript submitted by a reader

PressTV: 0:00
Well, for further insight on that story, we’re now joined by independent international affairs analyst [Dr.] Gilbert Doctorow, who is joining us from Brussels. We’ll also be joined by more guests in this segment as well. Mr. Doctorow, welcome to the program. Let’s jump right in and please give us your thoughts on the ceasefire agreement and its implementation.

Gilbert Doctorow PhD:
I’d like to revise the wording on what is being resolved. This is not the Israeli genocide in Gaza, it is the American genocide in Gaza. And for anyone who doubted that question, the way that this seemingly signed agreement, ready-to-be-signed agreement has been negotiated was very illustrative of how power is exercised by the States. This agreement, if it goes through, will do so precisely because of the intervention of Donald Trump.

1:01
The Biden administration has been incapable or I should say uninterested in finding a solution that might in some way ruffle the feathers of Mr. Netanyahu and Israel. Mr. Trump used his brutal businessman’s approach to the question, sent his emissary to see Netanyahu on Saturday, overruling the objections of the Israeli Prime Minister that we don’t do business on Saturday, on the Shabbat. And he forced through by very tough language, on Netanyahu, a change in position, making possible the agreement, which is yet to be finalized, but very likely will be finalized.

1:48
I called this out because it tells you, it answers the question that many here in the alternative media in the States have been debating for a half year or more, whether Israel is the tail that wags the dog, or whether the United States is wagging Israel as its tail. I have come out before saying that it is the United States that calls the shots, and what happened now in negotiations that are mediated by Qatar proves that point.

PressTV: 2:23
Let’s also bring in academic and political commentator Mohsen Saleh, who’s joining us from the Lebanese capital Beirut, Mr. Saleh. Great to have you with us as well.

First of all, give us your initial response to the Gaza ceasefire. We saw images of jubilation around Muslim countries celebrating this achievement in the steadfastness of the Palestinian resistance. Talk to us about that as well. And also if you would like to add anything to what I guess in Brussels, Mr. Doctor would just said, highlighting that this was not just an Israeli genocide against Palestinians, but it was an American genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

Mr. Sala, are you with us? All right, I believe we do not have that connection just yet. Let’s cross over to Ahmed Al-Najjar, a correspondent who’s with us on hand in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza.

Ahmed, welcome to the program. Let’s talk about what has happened since the announcement of the ceasefire between Hamas and the Israeli regime. You can also tell us about the reactions there. And also we’ve seen the Israeli genocide continues despite the announcement of this truce and they continue to indiscriminately kill Palestinians in Gaza.

Al-Najjar: 3:58
A few hours ago we were here in Khan Yunis City next to [Nasser] hospital, broadcasting the celebrations of the people, the last moments of the people anticipating the moment the agreement, the announcement of the agreement that a ceasefire has been reached and we will get into effect within the few, next three days.

4:19
The people here, the celebrations erupted all over the Khan Yunis City and all over the Gaza Strip, in the streets, in displacement camps. However, the people are still in a state of uncertainty whether they are going to make it to the ceasefire actually getting to effect. All the celebrations that erupted here expressed their happiness and approval that finally after more than 15 months, their suffering will come to an end — the suffering of displacement, the suffering of starvation, the suffering of deprivation will all come to an end. And the suffering of the constant fears of being bombarded and being massacred in one of Israel’s attacks will finally be ended.

5:08
However, here we are right a few hours after that agreement and the situation here pretty much like any day of the past 467 days: the families are still struggling to find the basic humanitarian needs they need. The children are still carrying buckets to fill up their water, and they are waiting in queues in front of the community kitchen to get something to satisfy their hunger. And they are certainly still not safe, with the Israelis intensifying their attacks. Over the past few hours since the announcement of the ceasefire agreement, at least 30 Palestinians were killed with several attacks all over the Gaza Strip, but particularly focusing on the Gaza City, on the north. A surge of attacks that targeted multiple residential buildings all over Gaza City, pounding them as if this genocide was starting all over again for the people there. We’re talking about more than 20 Palestinians massacred in a residential block within a Sheikh Radwan neighborhood that has [been] pounded with several fire builds just over the night hours.

6:26
Families have been buried under the rubble, and at least 20 Palestinians so far have been confirmed to be killed. We’re talking about another attack that took place within the middle area of the Gaza Strip, within a Daraj neighborhood. Another residential building was targeted, killing at least 15 Palestinians, leaving them under the rubble. The Gaza City is in a state of complete cutoff of humanitarian needs or any means of survival. We’re talking about medical facilities, self-defense facilities who have been subjected for more than 100 days [to an] onslaught by the Israeli occupation that completely blocked these services from operating within Gaza City or northern Gaza.

7:12
However, the aggression still persists here in southern Gaza, where the families are seeking shelter in the western parts of Khan Yunis Cty in Al-Mawasi [which] the occupation has designated to be safe and humanitarian. And even after the announcement of the agreement to reach a ceasefire, the people are still subjected to the continuous pounding by Israeli artilleries and naval boats within the western coastline of Al-Mawasi and also within the eastern parts of Khan Yuni city and Rafah city.

7:45
The heavy artillery shellings can be heard all over the city and in Ghizan Rushwan in particular, an overnight attack. It is also an area designated within the safe humanitarian zone, but another residential building belonging to Allahan family was targeted over the night, killing at least two members of the families and injuring several others. So this is the situation here. The people here are hoping that this time, this announcement would bring them an end to their suffering. However, they are still subjected and what they are certain about [is] that they are far beyond being safe, as Israel still pushes ahead with more attacks and more killings of the Palestinians here, wherever they are.

8:36
Right, stay with us please, Ahmed. We’re going to bring in hopefully Mohsen Saleh from the Lebanese capital, Beirut. Mr. Saleh, are you with us right now?

Mohsen Saleh:
Yes, I do.

PressTV:
Yes. All right, welcome to the program, Mr. Saleh. Let’s jump right in. I want to get your perspective on the announcement of this ceasefire. Senior Hamas official has welcomed the agreement in Gaza, calling it a result of the resilience and resistance of the Palestinian fighters and their firm stance against Israel. Break that down for us, and also give us your thoughts on the the images of jubilation that we’re seeing in various Muslim countries at the news of this ceasefire.

Saleh: 9:25
Well, to add, just to go into the subject, to add the blood and patience, blood and patience of the Palestinians and the toleration of the conspiracies of the Americans and some of the Arabs and some of the Palestinians even in the West Bank in the Authority, Gaza factions of resistance achieved one of the greatest victories in the history of the Palestinian question. Now they can say that Palestine is moving towards achieving liberation and going into freedom.

10:06
Palestinians will not bow down for the Israelis and the Americans and all the killing machines of the West. They tried to kick out the Palestinians from the north and from Gaza in order to displace them and put them in Sinai or other places in Jordan or any place. They recorded that. They said that they raised their voice, that Palestine is ours.

With the support and the approval of the resistance, axis of resistance, they have achieved and written one of the greatest chapters and it’s shining chapter with blood, patience, and toleration, and continuation of their resistance in the North and in the South, in any place, in the West Bank. Now Palestine, in my opinion, I would say Palestine is one of the states, regardless of the acknowledgement of the West and the United States. Now Palestine is in the history, not Israel. Israel now is defeated. Netanyahu could not achieve his agenda and could not break Hamas.

11:21
Hamas and other factions of the resistance, Jihad and others, they recorded and they said we are here and they continued to say that we are here and they until yesterday they have made a lot of pressure on the Israelis to withdraw. Now in Israel they say that we are defeated. We could not achieve the breaking of Hezbollah or the Hamas resistance in Lebanon or in the–

To all these people who are trying to propagate that the axis of resistance is defeated, is weakened, I would say the axis of resistance is one of the greatest powers in the region, and they continue in spite of the recess– now it’s a recess, it’s not a ceasefire, it’s not a truce, it’s a recess– in order to go back into war with this unless this degeneration of the Israeli society or construction of the West fall down. And it will fall down.

12:28
The cabinet will fall down, socially will fall down, economy will fall down. Trump is not– in my analysis, Trump is not for the sake of Israel, for the sake of capitalism and now Israel failed to improve its situation in order to do anything with the resistance. So Trump will — may — abandon or at least give up some of its … well, aspirations or temptations in order to to hegemonize the region.

13:03
Now the region by the resistance I guess will continue. And the peoples, what we need is good media, social media, in order to record what have been achieved through Gaza and Lebanon and Yemen as well, and Iraq. Regardless of what has happened in Syria, now the axis of resistance is trying to recollect its power as well as the others. Well our enemies are not in a good shape.

13:37
Our shape probably [is] better in terms of sociology, in terms of psychology, in terms of whatever you want to say. But at least culturally we are saying that the factions of resistance have made a great job, and they have recorded one of its victories in spite of pain, pain, pain and resist. Blood have achieved also another victory against this … well, miraculous, well, technological, but the miraculous of the blood of the Palestinians and the Lebanese have achieved and fulfilled its promises for the peoples of Lebanon and the region and Palestine, I guess more than what has happened in the minds of the technology of the West and the Americans.

PressTV: 14:27
Right. I’m going to stay with you, Mr. Saleh, for the next question. We know that the Palestinian resistance stated it will only agree to the release of Israeli captives if the agreement includes the release of Palestinian prisoners. This condition, it was imperative. It also represented a significant political and military victory for the resistance as well, which was showcasing how adamant they were in imposing their demands. So what can you tell us about how that condition and achieving and grasping that condition actually reflects on the strength and the position of the resistance in the negotiations.

15:16
Mr. Saleh, that was for you.

15:22
All right, I believe we lost that connection.

Saleh:
–was not in a good manner.

PressTV: 15:30
Can you hear me now Mr Saleh?

15:33
Okay, we do not have that connection right now. I’m going to allow my colleagues to sort that out. We’re going to go back to Mr. Gilbert Doctorow. Mr. Doctorow, about the the Gaza ceasefire, the UN chief, Antoni Guterres, he said that it’s imperative that this Gaza ceasefire leads to the removal of aid obstacles, which is one of the fundamental issues right now, the famine, the starvation, the humanitarian catastrophe that has resulted [from] the 15-month genocidal onslaught against Palestinians in Gaza. That has to be one of the key points, the key highlights here, is that enough aid has to get in. And just the ending of the killing and the murdering and slaughtering of Palestinians is not enough. There’s the reconstruction of Gaza and ultimately this all has to lead to the real solution. And that would be the liberation of Palestinians and self-determination for the Palestinians.

Doctorow: 16:32
Well, I agree with you. This has to be the focal point. I appreciate the remarks of the preceding speaker in defending the axis of resistance. However, let’s remember that two million Palestinians in Gaza have had their lives destroyed. Yes, maybe only 46,000 are officially dead. Perhaps it’s really 100,000 have been killed. But the rest, the two million people who are living in Gaza have had their lives destroyed. The wealth that has accumulated over generations, all of their livelihoods, all of this has been swept away.

17:11
So it has been a devastation for the Palestinian people in Gaza, and that cannot be ignored. One of the benefits that may come out of this agreement for peace, or for truce anyway, is the removal of the Netanyahu government. I think there is a reasonable chance that the most refractory, the most violent members of the Netanyahu cabinet, like Kvir and Smokrige will resign, that the Netanyahu government will fall. And the man may be taken away in chains to pursue court proceedings against him, which would be entirely appropriate, even if they won’t be trying him for the reasons that he should face justice, namely the genocide.

17:52
However, I think the remarks of the previous speaker celebrating the victory of the axis of resistance, I think this is premature. The reality is, almost among all expert opinion in the West anyway, is that the various resistance organizations, whether it’s Hamas, Hezbollah, or the groups, have been devastated by the Israeli forces.

18:22
Israel has established a temporary victory in the military sense in its immediate neighborhood. The same experts are saying that this victory cannot be long sustained, that there are too many conflicts in the territory that Israel is laying claim to, not least of which with Turkiye, which suggests that eight months, 10 months down the road, the whole thing will unwind and Israel will be facing an existential threat that is beyond its own abilities to master. So the end game is not arrived. We have a possibility of a truce, which is very much needed. We have a possibility of its becoming a permanent cessation of hostilities in Gaza, which will be wonderful.

19:08
And for this, I come back to the point. We have to thank Mr. Trump’s daring and brutal approach to Netanyahu, which contrasts sharply with the kind of relationship, the supportive relationship, the unquestioning relationship of America towards Israel in the last year and a half.

PressTV: 19:36
Right, let’s go back to Mr. Mohsen Saleh, who’s with us from the Lebanese capital Beirut. Mr. Saleh, I addressed a question to you before we went back to our guest in Brussels, and that was the demand by the Palestinian resistance that it will only agree to the release of Israeli captives if the agreement includes the release of Palestinian prisoners as well. What can you say, how do you view the adamancy of the stance of the Palestinian resistance that is reflected in the ceasefire negotiations coming from a strong standing point that this will only happen if Palestinian prisoners are released as well?

Saleh: 20:19
Well, as you know, the resistance relied on its power in the north part of Gaza and in the southern part. It also relied on its patience and the peoples. They have nothing to lose. They have to ask for these captives, for these detainees, the Palestinian detainees in the prisons of the Israelis. I guess it’s not that fair, but I guess they have achieved what they have asked for from the outset of this battle, that if the Israelis will free the prisoners, the Palestinian detainees, so the Palestinian Hamas and others, they have no problem in freeing or in leaving these hostages, the Israeli hostages.

They have achieved and if the Israelis went to this ceasefire in last May, I guess they would have saved a lot of genocidal– well, people in Palestine and they have saved themselves. But I guess in spite of all their stubbornness they could not achieve anything. And now the Palestinians, Hamas exactly, will dictate the future of Gaza. And they will free more Palestinians from the Israeli prisoners, and also the aides on the borders from Rafah.

21:56
They have achieved a lot, I guess, in terms of [relieving] the situation of Gaza in order to continue its battle in freeing Gaza and the people in Gaza and also in the West Bank. We are talking here about common destination between Gaza and West Bank and also the whole question of Palestine. Now the Israelis cannot ignore that they have committed a lot of crimes, they have to be brought into the court in terms of the International Criminal Court. And Netanyahu will– and Gallant and others will– be brought into justice and probably will be imprisoned in terms of their atrocities and their massacres against the Palestinians. The Palestinians now, actually, they have achieved a lot for the future of the issue of Palestine and the Palestinians.

23:02
So the Palestinians cannot rely on the authorities of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah. They have to rely on the resistance from not from now on from the beginning but now from now on they can’t say that our representative is the Palestinian Authority. On the contrary, Hamas, because Hamas is asking also for prisoners from Fatah and from the the Popular Front and other factions. So Hamas is not monopolizing the whole issue.

PressTV: 23:39
Let’s get a quick word in from our correspondent Ahmed Al-Najjar who is with us from Khan Yunis in southern Gaza. Ahmed, we’ve been hearing from our guests about the resistance strength and the achievements that it has maintained during this genocidal onslaught for over 15 months now. Until the final day of the Israeli-American genocide there, until these ceasefires implemented, the occupying forces continue to suffer losses, with their soldiers falling at the hands of the resistance fighters. What does this say about the effectiveness of the resistance in Gaza?

Al-Najjar: 24:19
On the contrary to what Israel hoped to achieve by this genocidal campaign on Gaza and by the continuing deprivation and blockade on the local population here of turning the families and turning the people here against the resistance, making them feel that the resistance is responsible for their suffering.

The chants that we’ve been hearing here by the people who celebrated the announcement of the ceasefire agreements, all are advocating the resistance, and all are praising the noble aspects of retaliation and the noble aspects of the continued operations of the Palestinian resistance all over the Gaza Strip. The Palestinians are expressing their pride of the resistance. [They have] still, in Beit Hanun in northern Gaza, been inflicting significant losses on the Israeli occupation there and also in Rafah for more than eight months now. The resistance is still present there, despite the Israelis announcement of dismantling resistance, despite the Israelis trying to show it as belittled and being away from the scene here in the Gaza Strip. But the reality here tells a complete different story.

25:41
The Palestinians are just waiting for the moment the ceasefire will get into effect to get what the resistance has promised for them. For the past rounds of negotiations, resistance announced multiple times that anything but the rightful and the worthy rights of the Palestinian people, they deserve a reward that are worthy of their pain and suffering over the past 15 months.

26:08
And what we have now is that the Israeli occupation is forced to accept the terms of the Palestinian resistance here, in terms of the return of the Palestinians who have been displaced through northern Gaza or to their town here in Khan Yunis or in Rafah. And also the freedom of Palestinian detainees who for tens of years have been forgotten in Israeli jails, and also the return of those who were kidnapped during this genocide.

26:35
Yesterday we spoke to several families who expressed their happiness that they’ve been hearing that this agreement, upon this agreement, their relatives, their family members who have been kidnapped by the Israeli occupation, there is a great chance for them to return within the upcoming days after the ceasefire get into effect.

PressTV: 27:04
Okay, we’re going to say goodbye to our correspondent, Ahmed Al-Najjar, who’s joining us from Khan Yunis in southern Gaza.

We are keeping a close eye on all the latest developments and details coming from the announcement of the ceasefire between Palestinian resistance movement Hamas and the occupying Israeli regime which will most likely trigger the start of the end of this genocidal massacre and genocide of war starting from Sunday.

27:31
We still have on hand Mr. Gilbert Doctorow, independent international affairs analyst, who’s with us from Brussels. Mr. Doctorow, the Hamas official, Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas official in Gaza, the top Hamas man there, he emphasized that the Palestinian people will never forgive nor forget those who participated in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. This goes along the lines of what you mentioned earlier, that this was not just an Israeli genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza, but this was a US genocide against Palestinians there.

So in the long run, when we’re talking about accountability, apart from the Israeli regime, should those countries like the United States that aided and abetted and funded this genocidal massacre, should they also be held accountable when that day comes?

Doctorow: 28:23
I believe that’s essential. The United States has spread chaos and violence across the world, practicing the old Roman Empire principle of divide and conquer in order to maintain its global hegemony. No one, absolutely no one among American authorities has paid a price for this very damaging, this hostile policy towards the world at large for the sake of its own profitability and control of global affairs. It is time that the United States be held accountable and officers who are responsible directly for the crimes committed through the hands of Israel in Palestine be brought to justice.

29:15
I have in mind President Biden and all of his advisors who have been so involved in the details of these atrocities committed by Israel. That means Blinken, that means Sullivan, and the other close assistants to the president. They should be named, they should be indicted, and they should face court proceedings, which at a minimum will make it impossible for them to travel outside the United States. That is essential. There’s time for the United States to face the courts, for the officials to understand that being the global hegemon has not protected them against their complicity, their enabling crimes against humanity.

PressTV:
Okay, we’re going to leave it there. Independent international affairs analyst Gilbert Doctorow joining us from Brussels. And also thanks to academic and political commentator Mohseh Salah, joining us earlier from the Lebanese capital, Beirut.

30:15
We’re going to go for a short break but we’ll be back.