Weekly Middle East war megathread - week of November 4

Israel’s ousted defense minister says the military has done all it can in Gaza (NPR)

On his last day as Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant told family members of the Israeli hostages in Gaza that the Israeli military had achieved all of its objectives in Gaza and that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was responsible for holding up a ceasefire deal that would end the war and get the remaining hostages home.

Netanyahu fired Gallant last week, saying that trust between them had “eroded” and that “significant differences” had emerged between himself and Gallant about how to proceed in the war in Gaza.

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Gallant, who served as defense minister for the entirety of the war until now, told them that there was a deal on the table in July that would have brought the hostages home in two phases – Gallant said he urged Netanyahu to accept the deal but that the prime minister refused.

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Since July, thousands more Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military in Gaza – bringing the death toll up to more than 43,000 according to the ministry of health – and several more hostages have been confirmed dead as well.

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Dickmann paraphrased Gallant’s words to them: “‘We don't have any more rivals, any more enemies that we can even kill right now, because they're all dead. We killed all of them.’ As the Minister of Defense, he said, ‘I did my job’.” Gallant was referring to a series of high level Hamas leaders who have been killed by the Israeli military, including leader Yahya Sinwar in October.

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Gallant’s firing, according to an Israeli official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, was announced on the day of the U.S. presidential election because the Biden administration would be otherwise distracted and wouldn’t be able to protest the decision.

But it didn’t stop the Israeli public from protesting across the country, shutting down major highways, lighting fires and eventually being quelled by police. Many saw this as one more move toward the breakdown of Israel’s democracy.

Qatar withdraws as mediator between Israel and Hamas, reports say (BBC)

Anonymous Qatari sources told the AFP and Reuters news agencies that Hamas's political office in Doha "no longer serves its purpose" due to "a refusal to negotiate a deal in good faith".

Qatar is ready to resume its role as a mediator were Israel and Hamas to show "sincere willingness to return to the negotiating table", the sources reportedly said.

Hamas have had a base in the Qatari capital since 2012, reportedly at the request of the Obama administration.

In anonymous briefings to Reuters, US officials said the Qatari government had agreed to tell Hamas to close its political office 10 days ago.

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The call for Hamas to be expelled from Qatar appears to be an attempt by the outgoing Biden administration to force some sort of peace deal before the end of his term in January.

Were Hamas to be forced to leave Doha, it is unclear where they would base their political office. Key ally Iran would be an option, although the assassination of former leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July suggests they may be at risk from Israel if based there. It would also not give them anything close to the same diplomatic channels to the West.

A more likely option would be Turkey. As a Nato member but also a Sunni majority state, it would give the group a base from which to operate in relative safety. Last April President Erdogan hosted then Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh and his delegation in Istanbul, where they talked about “what needs to be done to ensure adequate and uninterrupted delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, and a fair and lasting peace process in the region".

The move would also most likely be welcomed by Ankara, which has often sought to position itself as a broker between east and west.

Iran has developed fentanyl-based chemical weapons

To be frank I don't really believe this but I did find it interesting they brought up that Iran used Chemical Weapons. Which, while it is well known that Iraq used them, I don't remember coming across too much research which suggested that Iran used them.