 Hello, you're watching daily debrief and the regional escalation of Israel's genocidal war on Gaza continues and Friday the United States bombed Iraq and Syria perpetually in retaliation to strikes on its basis earlier this week. Now, 85 targets were allegedly struck by the US. This is a developing story, so we might see more strikes by the time this episode is out. This has increased the risk of regional escalation very clearly. Meanwhile, the Israeli bombing on Gaza has continued even as there is talk of some ceasefire. So in this weekend episode, we go to Abdul to discuss all this. Abdul, thanks so much for joining us. We do know that at least 85 locations have been hit as per the latest reports and, you know, we could have more strikes by the time this episode comes out. So it is a developing story. But what has really, what has been the, what is the state name? What does it look like the US is trying to do at this point? Well, as per the claims made by the US Department of Defense, Anzobaydan, this is primarily these attacks were carried out in order to stop Iraqi resistance forces to attack their bases. As we all know, ever since the war in Gaza began, US bases across the region have been attacked more than 150 times by the resistance forces in Iraq and Syria. And that has basically led to the killing of at least three US soldiers and around 40, 40 plus US soldiers were also injured in the last major attack. And their idea is to basically target as many places as possible to basically destroy the infrastructure which is used by the resistance forces to attack the US bases. That is the logic with which the US has been operated US basically carried out this bombing. They're also trying to send a message to Iranians in as they think that this these attacks are carried out by the Iranian backed forces. Of course, both of these assumptions, it seems are quite, you can say fictitious in in many ways, primarily because Iran is not directly involved. Iran has claimed that it is not directly involved in the attacks. And the the attacks on the US bases and the reason is primarily a result of the US policies of occupation, illegal bases all across the region, which people do not like. And therefore, they're assisting it. And of course, the war, their US support to the war in Gaza, Israeli war in Gaza. So given the then their complete refusal to understand the root causes of these attacks, it seems that the US attacks are another provocation to kind of which may which basically will kind of invite further attacks on US bases. In fact, the resistance forces have already claimed that on the same day when the US was bombing different parts of Iraq and Syria, they carried out attacks on An Al-Assad and Al-Talh bases. So yeah, it seems that US is trying to escalate the war in Gaza and make it as because there are already attacking Houthis in Yemen. And this will basically provoke further retaliation from the resistance forces. And Abdul, I think the million dollar question, which is really on everyone's minds is that what is the extent of this escalation that we're talking about? We don't know that for instance, definitely sections in Israel want to really make this a region wide war, drag in Iran into this, maybe sections in the US as well. On the other hand, we also have other sections in the US which are trying to sort of, which are not necessarily very keen on this. And we know that once if something of this sort happens, the consequences could be extremely disastrous. So do you also see measures to sort of maybe not take tensions to that extent? See, as far as US policy is concerned, of course, there is another proposed visit by Anthony Lincoln that would be the fifth in the region since the war in Gaza began in October. And apparently he's going to visit most of the US allies in the region along with Palestinian Authority headquarters in Ramallah. Apparently it is related to the war in Gaza, but of course, this has also because US since the first day has basically at least in public maintained that they do not want the regional escalation to happen, though their actions might be contrary to this proclamation they have made. In fact, they have provoked further attacks by the forces inside Syria and Iraq and by Houthis since they started attacking their bases. So there is of course a contradiction in the US policy which is which on the one hand they are talking about trying to deflate the situation, not make it regional, but at the same time they are basically taking actions which basically invite further escalation. So though, as you to answer your question, of course, there seems on this, at least on Prince in principle, that the US is repeating that they do not want escalation and therefore, there are rumors also spread that the attacks basically were carried out in coordination with the Iraqi government, which of course was denied later. And therefore, this was an attempt to make that though this is though this is attacked in Iraq, it is not something which is happening without the consent of the Iraqi government. But that is not true as the latest statement has proved. So the whatever attempts which US is saying that they want to take to not escalate the situation in the region is basically at this moment seems baseless. This has no base there. It is only on paper or rhetorical, but the actions basically are provoking much and much reactions. Dragging the Iranians, for example, in every statement is basically another set of provocation which they are making. They are refusal to understand that the Houthis are not targeting the international shipments. They are only targeting the ships which are moving towards Israel. Even refusal to acknowledge that is basically a kind of hint towards they are moving towards reason escalation. So yeah, as far as the steps are taken from the US, there is no concrete step taken to kind of deflate the situation apart from the rhetorics made time and again. But if you see the restraints observed by actors, regional actors, for example, Hezbollah in Lebanon, despite the repeated provocations made by Israelis, as you rightly pointed out to kind of drag them into the war, they have been very reserved to their responses and they have only targeted the military targets inside northern Gaza and avoided any other attacks. In a similar way, Houthis have also not carried out attacks as per their potential and Iranians of course have never had time and again said that they do not want to get involved into the war and they have warned the US also not to do the same. And the only thing the root cause which basically causing all of it is the war in Palestine in Gaza. And again, there you will see that there is no attempt made by the US to kind of implement the ceasefire that there are talks, of course, but those talks, how fruitful those talks would be is anybody's guess because the Iranian Israeli leadership has time and again refused all the possibilities of a ceasefire right now. And in fact, every time there is a talk of ceasefire, they start another ground offensive in some or other part of the Gaza. So yeah, on the ground, there is no concrete step taken to deflate the situation by the powers which are responsible for the current state in the region. Abdullay, Warren, Gaza just wanted to also, you know, make an analysis from you on that. And I think the biggest news right now is the question of these talks about a ceasefire. There's been a lot of reporting on that in rumors that it is being studied. So could you give us an update as to as of now what is happening? Of course, again, a situation which could change in a few hours as well. So as of now, as we record, what is happening? See, whatever we know so far, it seems that Qatar is claiming that there is a substantial progress on the ceasefire negotiations. And according to Qatar's claim, both parties, it means Hamas in Palestine and Israeli representatives are positive about bringing in ceasefire. But as I said before, the Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has kind of, despite the fact that acknowledgement that there is a talk going on, they have said that the war will go on for a few more weeks at least. And they have started a new ground offensive. In fact, they plan to start a new ground offensive in the Rafa, which is the, you can say the basic center where most of the Palestinians who have been displaced from all across, all across Gaza are basically living there. And so mostly the highest huge number of people are living there and they are planning to start a ground offensive there. So this is the current situation at the moment. There is no further development, at least in public, which we know about what is the fate of the ceasefire. And it seems that Anthony Blinken's visit in the region may lead to further push towards consolidating the gains which Qataris are claiming they have made in the talks. But apart from that, at least from the Israeli side, there is no indication of any ceasefire in the immediate future. Rablul, finally, if you mentioned the Rafa offensive, could you just take us through what is happening with the offensive right now as well? See, at this moment, of course, there are, there is a very strong, you can say, feeling insecurity among the people in, in people which are basically twice displaced already. And it seems that they will, they are gradually, they will be forced to move out from that region as because Israel, as we have seen what happened in Khan Yunus and what happened in the northern Gaza, they basically attack whatever, whether it is a refugee camp, whether it is the hospital, whether it is any other, any other installation which basically is created primarily to shelter the Palestine, shelter the displaced Palestinians. It means there is already a massive attack on Rafa going to happen at any time it is, it may start and that will lead to further displacement of four thousands, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, which are already living in a very bad humanitarian condition. We have seen the pictures how people are living there without proper shelter, the children are deprived of basic amenities, they are hungry, they are without any shelter, without any medicine and so on and so forth. And this may further lead to the attack, which is imminent is basically going to further displace the Palestinians from Rafa. And the fact is there is no one, nowhere else where they can move because nowhere else in Gaza is safe. So it seems that Israel is trying to kind of, kind of club them all Palestinians in whatever place they are going, they are attacking, they are forcing them to move so that they cannot kind of have any breathing space and that basically is going to happen and is already happening because of the fear in Rafa.