Taqqiyah mixed with truth. What do you believe, dear Reader? A taste:
[IsraelTimes] Politically independent Gaza City mayor, academics and businessmen warn of total economic and infrastructural collapse in first joint letter urging US president to pressure IsraelBefore the ongoing Israel-Hamas
..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...war, Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about
oppressionand
disproportionate response...
Chamber of Commerce head Ayed Abu Ramadan was one of the key figures in the enclave’s economy, representing Gaza’s traders both inside the Strip and abroad.
Over the past two years, Abu Ramadan said, his situation has been "less difficult" than that of most Gaza residents — for instance, he currently lives in an apartment rather than in a tent, a rare luxury in a territory in which the United Nations
...boodling on the grand scale...
estimates 90 percent of residential buildings to have been damaged or destroyed by Israel.
But like many others in Gaza, Abu Ramadan longs for one thing: an end to the war. In recent days, Abu Ramadan and 16 other prominent local figures in Gaza sent, through intermediaries, a letter to US President Donald Trump
...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US...
calling on him to pressure Israel and halt the fighting that began with Hamas’s bloody invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023. The group believes Trump received the letter by Friday.
"You have the power to succeed where others failed, to stop the bloodshed, protect innocent lives and set the stage for a just and lasting peace," the signatories wrote in the letter to Trump, which was obtained by The Times of Israel.
"We know that the only one who can stop this war is Trump. He is one of Israel’s biggest supporters, and clearly, his influence on Israel is significant. He is the only one who can move the needle on this issue," Abu Ramadan told The Times of Israel in a phone call from southern Gaza.
In a series of once almost unthinkable conversations between Gaza-based Paleostinians and an Israeli news outlet, The Times of Israel spoke with four of the signatories this week. In unison, they called for an end to the war and distanced themselves from the Hamas terror organization that rules the Strip, saying the group no longer has the support of the public.
The letter is the first of its kind during the war in which members of Gaza’s elite are calling for a ceasefire and peace with Israel. According to the signatories, the letter reached Trump just as the White House was finalizing his plan to end the war.
WHO IS BEHIND THE LETTER?
The most prominent signatory is Gaza City’s mayor, Yahya al-Sarraj. Before the war, about 1 million people lived in Gaza City, making it not only the largest metropolis in the Strip but also the largest Paleostinian city overall.
As with any other governing role in Gaza, the position of mayor traditionally required subordination to Hamas’s governing structures. But in a WhatsApp conversation with The Times of Israel, al-Sarraj categorically denied that he or the municipality had any affiliation with Hamas.
"The municipality is a local authority independent administratively and financially, and is not subordinate to any political entity or faction. Its role is only to serve citizens and provide services in water, sewage, sanitation, and urban planning," he said. al-Sarraj also described himself as politically independent, with an academic and professional background unrelated to any political movement.
"The Paleostinians in Gaza love peace and want an immediate halt to the killing and destruction," he stressed, adding that "the letter was sent now in order to push and encourage the US president to move forward with steps to end the war and not to miss the opportunity — for the benefit of all sides."
Senior local figures from Gaza’s civil society, including businesspeople, academics, and doctors, have rarely spoken out over the past two years.
Abu Ramadan acknowledged that many among Gaza’s elite fled the Strip during the war. Between November 2023 and May 2024, the Rafah crossing into Egypt was open, allowing departures on ostensible medical grounds for those who could pay several thousand dollars to Egyptian companies operating the crossing, even without meeting medical criteria for treatment abroad.
"Of course, the departure of the elite — traders, businesspeople, doctors, and ordinary families, about 120,000 people in all — had a negative effect, even on morale, and on health and the economy," Abu Ramadan said.
But, he added, "That doesn’t amount to 1% of the impact of the genocide. We can withstand any conditions, but the massacre now underway is extremely difficult." (Israel categorically denies perpetrating a genocide in Gaza, where Hamas notoriously embeds itself in the civilian population to use its people as human shields.)