Change comes from within, hopefully opposition in Israel can gain traction. Lot of infighting happening as well.
Ahmad Tibi accuses Israel of “legitimising” genocide against Gaza
The member of Israel’s Knesset (parliament) Ahmad Tibi says that “this is how the Nazis spoke about the Jews”.
“The finance minister said that there are two million Nazis in Gaza,” Tibi says, referring to recent statements by Bezalel Smotrich. “This is how you legitimise genocide.” Tibi’s comments come after another member of the Knesset, Oded Forer, said he is working on having lawmaker Ofer Cassif expelled from parliament over his public support for a South African motion accusing Israel of genocide before the International Court of Justice.
Both Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir have called for the “voluntary migration” of Palestinians from Gaza, while Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu had suggested that Israel could drop a nuclear bomb on the coastal territory.
Protesters call for election as Netanyahu’s popularity plummets
Polls are indicating the growing unpopularity of Benjamin Netanyahu.
One by Kan, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation, says 64 percent of Israelis believe Netanyahu’s performance in the war after 90 days is not good and Benny Gantz’s National Unity Party will win 33 seats if an election is held. Netanyahu’s Likud will win 20.
There have been tens of thousands of people protesting in Tel Aviv over the past few days. It started with demonstrators saying “bring the captives home”, but now the rhetoric is shifting towards calling for another election. They want to see the Netanyahu government gone because of a lack of trust.
But it’s not just pressure in the streets, there’s a lot of political pressure levelled against him.
Gantz and two others refused to go to a cabinet meeting today and this comes amid a wider security cabinet meeting completely falling out and being cancelled after a few hours when they were supposed to talk about “the day after the war”. Gantz put the blame directly on Netanyahu.
‘Netanyahu is not fit to lead the country’: Lapid
Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that opposition leader Yair Lapid has called on Benny Gantz, Gadi Eizenkot and Gideon Saar to leave the government.
“The government is not capable of leading the country, and Netanyahu is not fit to lead the country,” Lapid argued. Lapid said his Yesh Atid party was ready to support a change of government either through elections or by forming an alternative government.
The newspaper quoted Lapid as saying the three ministers entered the government “because they believed it was for the good of the country, but they cannot support it”. “As long as they are there, as long as they sit under Netanyahu, they give it legitimacy,” he said.
Smothrich and Ben Gvir needs to be thrown out as well
Israel needs to resettle Gaza so ‘Nazis don’t annihilate us’: Finance minister
Bezalel Smotrich, the ultranationalist finance minister, says Israel must resettle the Gaza Strip or it will need to contend with “two million Nazis who want to annihilate us”.
Smotrich, a champion of illegal West Bank settlements, has repeatedly made inflammatory remarks about Israel’s post-war intentions in Gaza. He recently sparked an international outcry over his comments calling for Palestinians in Gaza to leave. Before the war, Smotrich sparked a backlash after saying the Palestinian people are “an invention” of the past century.
Ben-Gvir says war cabinet ‘no mandate’ to limit Gaza attack
Itamar Ben-Gvir, the hardline national security minister of Israel, is unhappy with comments the defence minister made about limiting the scope of war.
He says the war cabinet – comprised of Benjamin Netanyahu, Yoav Gallant and Benny Gantz – “does not have the mandate” to unilaterally take Israel towards a “war of attrition”. His comments are part of a pattern of growing discord among the top Israeli politicians and military commanders. They also reflect Ben-Gvir’s unyielding stance on Palestinians, which includes permanently displacing them from Gaza.
Last week, he made more headlines by saying mass emigration of Palestinians and reconstructing Israeli settlements in Gaza is “the order of the hour”.
Impeachment begins against supporter of ICJ genocide lawsuit
The chairman of the Israel Beitenu faction, Oded Forer, is collecting 70 signatures to bring about the removal of Ofer Cassif from the Israeli Knesset, according to Israeli media outlet Maariv.
Cassif – a representative of the far-left, Arab-majority Hadash coalition – earlier expressed his support for this week’s hearing at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) assessing South Africa’s accusations of genocide against Israel.
“The treasonous words of MK Cassif can no longer be heard while the blood of our soldiers and citizens cries out from the ground,” Forer was quoted as saying. “[Cassif] chose during the war to join one of the most destructive initiatives for the security of the State of Israel and thus he supports the struggle of Hamas against Israel. He must soon find himself beyond the borders of the Knesset and preferably beyond the borders of Israel.”
‘Plague of leaks’: Netanyahu wants ministers to take polygraphs
Prime Minister Netanyahu says he wants his ministers and others in top meetings to take polygraph tests as he condemned a “plague of leaks” taking over his cabinet. "Everyone who sits in cabinet and security discussions” should do this as things “cannot go on as they have so far”, he said, demanding a law be drafted to make this happen.
The embattled Israeli leader’s comments come after heated disputes among government and military officials with several ministers subsequently refusing to participate in meetings.
‘Divisions’ in Israeli government as ministers boycott meeting
Infighting among Israeli officials is growing as three ministers from the opposition National Unity Party, including party leader Benny Gantz, refused to take part in Sunday’s weekly cabinet meeting.
The boycott comes after a high-level security cabinet session discussing the future of Gaza descended into a shouting match on Thursday after right-wing ministers and military officials clashed.
Change needs to happen fast though
‘Horror growing by the minute’: Israeli rights group decries starvation policy
B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, says the starvation of people in Gaza is “not a byproduct of war but a direct result of Israel’s declared policy”.
“The images of children begging for food, people waiting in long lines for paltry handouts, and hungry residents charging at aid trucks are already inconceivable. The horror is growing by the minute, and the danger of famine is real. Still, Israel persists in its policy.” Changing this policy, the organisation stated, is not just a moral obligation but a requirement under international humanitarian law.
“Starvation as a method of warfare is prohibited, and when a civilian population lacks what it needs to survive, parties to the conflict have a positive obligation to allow rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian aid, including food.”
Just 6,000 aid trucks enter Gaza over past three months: Israeli group
Gisha – Legal Center for Freedom of Movement says this is the equivalent of 12 days of operations before October 7.
“Truckloads aren’t the only indicator but can give a sense of scale,” said Tania Harry, executive director of the nonprofit, which campaigns for freedom of movement for Palestinians. “This war [is] being waged in a way that completely impedes the delivery of aid on the massive scale it’s now needed,” she added.
“The UN and other humanitarians don’t deny that they are struggling, but the biggest obstacle they keep citing is lack of safe access. Without a ceasefire, there is no way to reach those in need and scale aid delivery.”
Situation at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital ‘catastrophic’
Dr Tanya Haj-Hassan from Doctors Without Borders spoke to Al Jazeera from Amman, Jordan, about the dire situation her colleagues face in Gaza.
“Unfortunately, most of the NGOs evacuated Al-Aqsa Hospital after flyers dropped warning them the ‘area was no longer safe’ and they needed to evacuate.” Al-Aqsa Hospital is the largest and only functioning hospital in central Gaza and treats about 100 wounded each day, she said. “The situation has been catastrophic over the last few weeks. Our colleagues who were there from multiple different organisations have been reporting horrific scenes. They weren’t expecting to have to evacuate. It was a sudden increase in risk,” said Haj-Hassan.
“A colleague I know in the hospitals said each day there’s an imaginary line in this dystopian grid that determines who’s at risk of being imminently killed. He described them as war crimes disguised as a benevolent prior warning.”
‘Horrific’ number of wounded as concern grows over al-Aqsa Hospital
Fears are rising over the status of al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Deir el-Balah, where 600 patients and healthcare staff went missing.
The international medical charity Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, says it evacuated its medical staff. A bullet penetrated a wall of the hospital’s intensive care unit on Friday and “drone attacks and sniper fire were just a few hundred metres from the hospital”, said Carolina Lopez, MSF’s emergency coordinator there.
The hospital received 150 to 200 wounded people daily in recent weeks.
The International Rescue Committee and Medical Aid for Palestinians said it was also forced to withdraw from the hospital. “The amount of injuries being brought in over the last few days has been horrific,” surgeon Nick Maynard with the IRC medical team said.
Essay Pro