The region of Israel and Gaza has been a focal point of geopolitical tensions for decades. Rooted in a complex web of historical, political, and cultural discord, the ongoing conflict reflects larger narratives of territorial disputes and identity crises. This article delves into the recent escalations, shedding light on the geographical, historical, and humanitarian facets of this enduring conflict.

Geographical Overview

Map of Israel and Gaza

The State of Israel is situated in the Middle East, bordered by Lebanon to the north, Syria to the northeast, Jordan to the east, and Egypt to the southwest. The Mediterranean Sea lies to the west. Gaza, or the Gaza Strip, is a small Palestinian territory along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, bordered by Israel to the east and north, and Egypt to the south.

Demographics and Key Locations

Israel boasts a diverse population, whereas Gaza is predominantly Palestinian. Key locations such as Jerusalem and the West Bank are often at the core of the territorial dispute.

Historical Background

Brief History of Israel-Palestine Conflict

The Israel-Palestine conflict has its roots in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when mass Jewish immigration to Palestine, then part of the Ottoman Empire, began. The establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 ignited numerous wars and skirmishes over territorial claims.

Key Events Leading to Current State

Several key events have shaped the current state of affairs, including the Six-Day War in 1967, the Oslo Accords in the 1990s, and the blockade of the Gaza Strip initiated by Israel in 2007.

The Current Conflict

Causes and Key Players

The recent escalation in the Israel-Gaza conflict began with a significant military operation initiated by Hamas, known as Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, on October 7, 2023. The events leading to the current crisis trace back to several preceding incidents and strained relations between Israel and Palestine, particularly in Gaza. The ongoing conflict has seen multiple military engagements and significant casualties on both sides. Here is a comprehensive summary based on the latest available information:

Current Situation:

• Operation Al-Aqsa Storm:
  • Initiated by Hamas on October 7, 2023, as a large-scale military operation targeting various locations within Israel.
  • Several towns, including Be’eri and Ofakim, were captured by Hamas, leading to a standoff with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

 

• Key Military Engagements:
  • Stand-off in Be’eri and Ofakim: Hostages were taken in both towns, forcing a standoff between Hamas and IDF​¹​.
  • Battle of Re’im: The Re’im Army Base was temporarily overtaken by Hamas forces before being reclaimed by the IDF later in the day​²​.
  • Battle of Sderot: Hamas forces engaged with local police and IDF troops in the town of Sderot, causing several casualties before IDF reinforcements regained control of a police station that had been occupied by Hamas​​.

 

• Casualties and Losses:
  • The exact number of casualties is unclear, but various engagements have resulted in deaths and injuries on both sides.

 

• Response and Reactions:
  • Israel has responded with airstrikes targeting key Hamas positions in Gaza, while also mobilizing ground troops for a potential incursion into the Gaza Strip​​.
  • International reactions have varied, with calls for de-escalation coming from multiple global entities.

 

• Recent Developments:
  • As of the latest reports, military engagements continue with no clear resolution in sight.

Recent History of The Region:

• The Israel-Gaza conflict is rooted in the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has seen multiple escalations over the years.
• The tensions have been exacerbated by various factors including territorial disputes, political disagreements, and historical animosities.

Major Incidents and International Reactions

The current conflict has seen rocket attacks, air strikes, and ground offensives, eliciting a wide range of international reactions, from calls for ceasefires to diplomatic mediation efforts.

Humanitarian Concerns

Casualties and Displacement

The civilian toll has been severe with casualties and displacement reported on both sides.

International Aid and Response

Various international organizations and countries have extended aid, while also voicing concerns over human rights violations.

Future Implications

Possible Resolutions

The path towards resolution remains uncertain, yet the international community continues to advocate for a two-state solution and peaceful negotiations.

International Mediation and Agreements

International mediation and agreements are crucial for fostering a climate conducive to peace and stability.

The recent conflict in Israel and Gaza is a stark reminder of a long-standing dispute embedded in a complex historical and geopolitical landscape. The international community’s role in mediating a peaceful resolution is indispensable, as are continued efforts towards understanding and addressing the root causes of this enduring conflict.

One Year After Russia’s Attack on Ukraine and Kyiv

Much has happened in this latest assault by Russia on Ukraine. The major take away is that Putin’s attempt to annex all of Ukraine has stalled. Ukranian forces have not only put up a heroic defense, they have taken the fight back to the Russian military and pushed them back to pre-February 2022 battle lines.

Putin and his gernerals believed that this latest assault would be over in a matter of weeks. How wrong they were. Ukraine’s military are not the same as the military that lost the Crimea peninsula in 2014. The Ukrainian army is a much better trained and equipped version thatn it was back then. The world, with a few notable exceptions has rallied around the Ukranina cause and have been willing to supply and train the Ukrainian armed fores. England, The USA and the members of the European union have come to the aid of Ukraine. Notably, Poland has stepped up and aided Ukraine with weapons, ammunition and humanitarian support.

The war has gone relatively well for the Ukranian’s so far. This is not to say that Ukraine and its people have not been brutalized by the Russian war machine but things have stabalized so much over the winter, that many foreign politicians and dignataries are able to visit Kyiv. Even the United States president Joe Biden was able to meet with Vladamir Zelensky on the aniversary of Russia’s attack on the capital. Biden announced that there will be a new round of sanctions on Russia and any nation that tries to backfill Russia’s war machine. This was met with thanks from president Zelensky.

Ukraine War Map Today

Below we have an animated map of the war in Ukraine. It starts February 2022 and shows advances by Russian and Ukrainian forces to February 2023.

The war is by no means over and it looks like as the European winter starts to thaw that a new assault has started to be prepared by the Russians. However the Ukranian military has been building up and preparing over the winter and it looks like they are ready to start pushing the Russians out of their country. The Ukranina military is fighting to save it’s people and it’s nation. Hopefully this new fighting season proves successful for them.

Coronavirus Outbreak

As of todays date (18th of February 2020) the Coronavirus has infected 73,259 individuals and killed 1,868. The vast majority being from China and of those Chinese most are from Hubei province. As the The humanitarian costs of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak continue to rise we will be updating the above map of the World showing all the regions infected. We will also be real time updating the table below as more data comes in on infections and casualties.

Before updating the above map and the table below we confirm numbers with  China CDC (CCDC), Hong Kong Department of Health, Macau Government, Taiwan CDC, European CDC (ECDC), the World Health Organization (WHO) and USCDC. We also consult the relevant authorities in Australia (Australia Government Department of Health), and Canada.

The JHU is also doing an outstanding job in tracking COVID-19 around the world. They have a very up to date data in a github repository here which we may switch to if the workload gets to high.

 

Table of Coronavirus Cases around the World

Confirmed Cases	Country
72,363	Mainland China
454	Diamond Princess
77	Singapore
66	Japan
60	Hong Kong
35	Thailand
30	South Korea
22	Malaysia
22	Taiwan
16	Germany
16	Vietnam
15	Australia
15	US
12	France
10	Macau
9	United Arab Emirates
9	UK
8	Canada
3	Italy
3	Philippines
3	India
2	Russia
2	Spain
1	Nepal
1	Cambodia
1	Belgium
1	Finland
1	Sweden
1	Egypt
1	Sri Lanka

Above we have a map of Russia and the Ukraine showing the sight of the latest altercation.

The Ukraine has declare martial Law after Russia seized 3 military vessels near the Kersch Straight. Under the terms of a 2003 agreement, the Azov sea and its access point through the Kerch Strait are supposed to be shared by Ukraine and Russia. In 2014 Russia took control of Crimea and the agreement has slowly been eroding away. Russia now controls both the East and West coastline of the Straight and has built what many believe is an illegal bridge across the straights.The kersch Bridge is a 19km bridge that now straddles the straights and connects Crimea directly to Russia.

Russia has upped the protection of the straights since the building of the bridge and this has directly lead to the current altercation between the FSB a Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation and 3 Ukrainian navy boats. Interestingly a strong reaction against Russia has been declared by most members of the United Nations. Even the US Ambassador Nikki Haley has condemned the action by Russia. Mike Pompeo, The US secretary of state is quoted as saying

“The United States condemns this aggressive Russian action. We call on Russia to return to Ukraine its vessels and detained crew members, and to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders, extending to its territorial waters”

We are in for some interesting times in the months ahead. Analysts are saying with less pressure from the United States and with Europe’s reliance on Russian Gas, the European Winter coming on Russia is feeling embolden to press some of it’s nationalistic claims. The feeling amongst analysts is that Russia will back off as summer comes around again.

List of World Cup 2018 Russia, Host Cities and Venues

Here we have a map of the host cities in Russia for the World Cup 2018. Below we have a list of the cities and the stadium names with the capacity of the stadium listed. The only city that has 2 stadiums hosting world cup events is Moscow. The two stadiums in question are Spartak Stadium and Luzhniki Stadium. Luzhniki Stadium is a monster and is Russia’s largest capacity stadium.

• Moscow –
  • Spartak Stadium (capacity: 45,360)
  • Luzhiniki Stadium (capacity: 81,000)
• St. Peterberg
  • Krestovsky Stadium (capacity: 64,287)
• Kaliningrad
  • Kaliningrad Stadium (capacity: 35,000)
• Nizhny Novgorod
  • Nizhny Novgorod Stadium (capacity: 45,000)
• Kazan
  • Kazan Arena (capacity: 45,379)
• Yekaterinburg
  • Yekaterinburg Stadium (capacity: 35,000)
• Saransk
  • Modovia Arena (capacity: 44,442)
• Samara
  • Cosmos Arena (capacity: 44,918)
• Volgograd
  • Volgograd Arena (capacity: 45,568)
• Rostov
  • Rostov Arena (capacity: 45,000)
• Sochi
  • Fisht Stadium (capacity: 47,659)

German election map for the 2017 election

Here we have the German electoral results by region for the 2017 German election. It is as of  September 24, 2017 and the results are by no means final. What we do know already is that Angela Merkel has won a fourth term but AfD makes gains. Angela Merkel ‘s party the CSU has dropped from 49% to 38% in Bavaria. This is the worst result since 1949.

This election appears to be a crossroad for the CSU and the SPD (Social Democrats). Both parties have had historically low results with the AfD (Alternative for Germany) party making big gains. The AfD is a far right wing anti-immigration party and is the first far right party to join the German parliament in decades. With a 13.1 percent result it appears that the AfD will be a force to be reckoned with in the years to come and may even have a role in the upcoming coalition.

The SPD’s deputy leader (Manuela Schwesig) announced soon after the exit poll results

“For us, the grand coalition ends today”

and

For us it’s clear that we’ll go into opposition as demanded by the voter.

With the APD announcing that they are going into opposition, Merkel’s main option to form a coalition is to join with the Free Democrats (FDP) and the Greens. The FDP received approximately 10.1% and the greens received about 8.9% of the vote at this point in time. This coalition is colloquially known as the Jamaica coalition due to the colors of the parties involved making up the colors of the Jamaican flag.

The above 2017 German election map is based on exit polls and some counting of votes. It is likely to change in the next few days but not by much so we now go into a period of negotiations with Angela Merkel and her party trying to fuse together a working coalition.

With the Annexation of The Crimea and with Russia taking an active role in the war in the Ukraine, world opinion of Putin’s Russia has rarely been lower. This was highlighted when the West came together in March to enforce sanctions on Russia. Since then there have been another two rounds which seem to be having a quicker than expected constrictive affect on the Russian economy.

Today the Ruble dropped by 13% against the greenback and the day hasn’t finished. It is in fact the lowest it has been in five years. Oil prices are dropping again and as the Russian economy is linked to energy prices this slump has magnified the power of the sanctions. The fear that Russia would shut off the gas supply to Europe this year hasn’t seemed to eventuate and the speculation is that Russia can’t afford to carry out the threat without a massively detrimental affect on it’s own economy.

The other rumor is that a shady deal between Russia’s state owned Rosneft and the central bank that was supposed to fool the smart money, didn’t. The deal would allow Rosneft to refinance itself out of foreign bank debt and into Russian banks but this now looks like it has backfired.

With oil prices looking like they will be trending down and OPEC saying they expect low prices for a while as well as that they’re not afraid of $40 a barrel oil. Russia could be in a spot of bother as the economy seems to be geared for approximately $80 a barrel. Russian’s must be looking at Putin and wondering is he really worth all the bother? It looks like 2015 is going to be an interesting year on the world stage.

Followers of the Ukraine versus Russia war in Eastern Europe would be aware of the increase in rhetoric among NATO and other European nations, regarding the need for further sanctions against Russia. Europe watches will know that threats never extend to Russia’s big energy producing companies, Rosneft, Gazprom Neft And Transneft.  It appears this all about to change.

A marked escalation in the actions of Europe’s leaders is rumored to be unleashed this Friday the 12th of September 2014. You might want to mark this day in your diaries as it could end up being one of those days in history. If what Peter Spiegel tweeted is accurate then Europe and Russia are in for one very “interesting” winter. One that will be remembered for generations to come.

Peter Spiegel, the Brussels bureau chief of Financial Times has apparently seen a leaked copy of what is being proposed for the next round of sanctions for Russia over it’s involvement in the Ukraine war. Russia denies any involvement in the war but recent reports have Russian troops and combat vehicles actively participating in the fighting in Easter Ukraine. He tweeted:

 

Leaked copy of Fri night #Russia sanctions deal confirms 3 energy cos to be hit by #EU capital markets ban: Rosneft, Gazprom Neft, Transneft

— Peter Spiegel (@SpiegelPeter) September 7, 2014

This is an extremely bold move by the European heads. Winter is fast approaching and Russian gas has a major role to play in keeping Europe warm through those long cold European winter nights. It will also force Putin’s hand in having to announce retaliatory sanctions. This is not as easy at it seems, Russia relies on much of Europe’s food to keep it’s population fed during those even longer and colder Russian’ winter days and nights.

Russian Attack on Ukraine 2022

Below we have an image showing where the initial attack by the aggressive Russian forces on the Ukraine in march 2022. Experts were expecting Russia to only attack the disputed regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. this appears to be incorrect information as the Russian forces have fired artillery shells all over the Ukraine.

Map of the Ukraine War

Above is a map of the contested regions within Ukraine as of August 2014. This is the second in a series of maps about the war in the Ukraine. The first being about the downing of flight MH13 and where it happened. While we hope that all issues are worked and that the fighting stops, if it doesn’t we will continue to publish updated maps of where the war has spread to. If indeed it does spread.

The Ukraine is subdivided into 24 Oblasts (provinces), most of which have not seen any fighting or unrest. The Oblasts that have seen unrest are as follows :

• The mauve province is the Crimea, which has already been annexed by Russia and is considered Russian territory, although this situation has not been recognized by most of the nations of the UN.
• The green provinces have seen pro-Russian protests but relatively little or no fighting. These provinces are Odessa, Mykolaiv, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhia.
• The blue province is Kharkiv and this is a special region that has been occupied by the Regional State Administration or RSA. Effectively this equates to governor of Texas taking complete control of the state and not being beholden in anyway to Washington. This is a matter that still needs to be resolved.
• The red provinces  of Donetsk and Luhansk are the ones that have seen the most intensive fighting. Thousands of people have been killed in these regions and there looks like no end to the hostilities, at least not in the near future. Donetsk is also the province that the ill-fated flight MH17 flying over when it was shot down by surface to air missiles.

 

 

We have been inundated with requests to show how the Ukraine is split when it comes to Russian speakers and Ukrainian speakers.

So we have put together a political map of  the Ukraine showing the make up of Russian speaking population in the Eastern end of the country.

We have also shown where the flight MH17 was shot down. Most of the area currently in dispute, lies within the region of Donetsk. MH17 was shot down North East of the city of Torez that lies within this region.

The Crimea to the south has already been effectively annexed by Russia although this has not been recognized by any nations.

When looking at this map it begs the question. Why was flight MH17 even flying through that region? There has been intense fighting in the area and many other airlines have been avoiding the flight paths that pass through this war zone.

You will note that the Crimea and Donetsk are the two regions that have the highest Russian speaking population in the Ukraine and are effectively the only areas in dispute to date.

Will Russia invade Belarus next?

Now that Russia has effectively annexed The Crimea away from the Ukraine, we can start thinking about what country will be next. Vladimir Putin has stated on a number of occasions that he will take care of Russians no matter where they are found. Belarus has one of the largest Russian populations outside of Russia. Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko is a hard line ruler of this small nation and has already expressed that what happened in the Ukraine will not be happening in Belarus.

Aleksandr harbors Russian sympathies, so things could go either way. Russia may move to bring Belarus under it’s wing, under the pretext of defending Belarus from outside/Western European influence or it could leaves things be. As Russia may feel that Regime in Belarus is strong enough to hold it’s own against outside influence.

Either way it will be a very tense time in Belarus over the next few weeks and months.