Day 271 roundtable: Israel disintegrates; Battle of Shujaiya

On day 271 of Israel’s genocide, following a news roundup from Gaza, we were joined on The Electronic Intifada livestream by contributor and football journalist Abubaker Abed live from the Gaza Strip. Abed spoke about the worsening living conditions in tents housing displaced people in Gaza.

There are “lizards and snakes” as well as insects spreading in the tents as the summer temperatures soar, Abed told The Electronic Intifada. Abed pointed to the rapid spread of disease and infections, including scabies and hepatitis, as sanitation and clean water are now distant luxuries for Palestinians in Gaza.

“You can see people outside, they are queuing up for water for hours under this scorching sun, for just a gallon,” he said.

Abed also spoke about the relief that watching soccer tournaments can bring to Palestinians in Gaza.

“We find solace in football, we find solace in watching the tournament,” Abed said.

“We wait for hours to charge our batteries,” Abed added. People are sometimes lucky to catch part of the game or highlights before they need to recharge their devices.

“But we [are] still following the score lines. We’re still watching those players. We thank the teams in the fan bases,” especially the ones that “have been supporting Palestine,” Abed said.

Israeli army’s cigarette economy

Meanwhile, as it pursues its genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, Israel appears to be falling apart from within.

Members of the ultra-rightwing coalition are sniping at each other and at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Meanwhile, Israel’s top generals have once again leaked to The New York Times that the government has no strategy for a war the exhausted and depleted military cannot win.

We were joined to discuss that and more by Shir Hever, military embargo coordinator for the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC).

Hever joined us last month for an episode of The Electronic Intifada podcast to talk about Israel’s internal collapse. He spoke to us on Wednesday about significant developments indicating the further disintegration of Israel’s economy, governing structures and society.

Hever spoke about the effect of Israel’s genocide in Gaza on Israel’s arms sales around the globe and whether military failures on the ground have affected this economy.

Hever explained how a sub-economy of cigarettes revealed an erosion of military discipline as Israeli soldiers in Gaza lose motivation.

“Every officer in Gaza carries packets of cigarettes in order to tip the soldiers,” Hever said.

“Because there is an economy of cigarettes that has developed among the soldiers in Gaza as if they’re prisoners in a prison, they develop their sub-economy,” he added.

“Soldiers will not obey orders unless they’re paid with cigarettes. Can you imagine a military force [where] the officers have to tip the soldiers so that they will clean the base?”

Hever also discussed the Israeli government’s decision to extend reserve duty for soldiers, as they are running out of troops to wage the war in Gaza, he said.

This “means that all the soldiers that are already in their forties and expected to leave active military duty and be released from the reserves, were told no, you’re gonna stay for another year, just this year when you’re supposed to be released.”

Hever is the author of The Privatization of Israeli Security and The Political Economy of Israel’s Occupation.

“Difficult trip”

We were also joined by award-winning British Palestinian novelist and playwright Ahmed Masoud, who grew up in Gaza.

The Israeli military killed Masoud’s brother in January. His step-grandmother, Yusra, died more recently of a heat stroke while living in a tent in Khan Younis, south of Gaza.

“She’s actually in a way my real grandmother as it were, because she was the one who looked after me,” Masoud told The Electronic Intifada.

Masoud was able to evacuate his mother to Egypt days before the Rafah crossing indefinitely shuttered after months of uncertainty about her health condition and whether she was alive or dead.

Getting his mother to Cairo was “a massive operation,” he said.

“Registering her name on the border, paying $10,000 to a corrupt Egyptian company in Cairo, getting the whole money in cash in dollars … to pay for that, trying to sort of convince my sister to live with her,” was a long ordeal that took time, effort and an emotional toll.

Masoud was able to visit her in Cairo last month.

“I think it was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done in my life, one of the most difficult trips,” Masoud added.

“I never thought for many months that I would actually be able to see her again and hug her like that and actually be able to connect with her.”

Battlefield report

Meanwhile, contributing editor Jon Elmer covered the battlefield on the ground in Gaza, and how the Palestinian armed resistance is confronting the invading Israeli army.

Elmer focused on the battles in two regions: Shujaiya, in eastern Gaza City, as well as the ongoing defense of Rafah, the southernmost area of the Strip.

Elmer displayed a curated selection of videos published by resistance factions fighting the Israeli military in Gaza.

Elmer showed footage of two Palestinian fighters from the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, hand-delivering explosives and placing them on an Israeli tank before detonating it from a distance.

The Qassam fighters approach the tank from the side, “which would allow them protection” as “the tank gun can’t turn fast enough, even the mounted machine gun can’t turn fast enough to catch them running.”

Elmer explained how fighters place explosives strategically on the tank’s vulnerable points.

“The back door and the turret gap are the two most important spots, and you see these fighters run up and put it right into the turret gap. And that’s what causes that explosion,” Elmer explains.

The Israeli military re-invaded the Shujaiya neighborhood last week.

“It is the home of the strongest Qassam Brigades fighting formation,” Elmer explained, as he displayed footage of Palestinian fighters setting up ambushes for Israeli soldiers.

At the end of the livestream, the team discussed the UK elections and US policy towards Gaza.

These are just some of the many topics we cover on The Electronic Intifada livestream. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel.

With Ali Abunimah, Nora Barrows-Friedman, Jon Elmer, Tamara Nassar and Asa Winstanley