US says its Israel policy unchanged after report on leveraging weapon sales
The White House says Washington is not changing its support for Israel after NBC News reported the Biden administration was considering using weapon sales to Israel as leverage to convince the Israeli government to scale back its offensive in Gaza.
“Israel has a right and obligation to defend themselves against the threat of Hamas, while abiding by international humanitarian law and protecting civilian lives, and we remain committed to support Israel in its fight against Hamas. We have done so since October 7, and will continue to. There has not been a change in our policy,” a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council was quoted as saying by the Reuters news agency.
Hamas made weapons from unexploded Israeli ordinance: Report
Israel has blamed underground smuggling routes for how well-armed Hamas and other Palestinian fighters have become despite a 17-year-old blockade on the Gaza Strip. But recent intelligence shows Hamas has been able to build many of its rockets and antitank weaponry from an unlikely source – unexploded Israeli ordinance dropped on Gaza over many years.
A report by The New York Times quotes weapons experts as saying the failure rate of some of the weapons used by Israel may be as high as 15 percent, providing Hamas with a considerable source of arms over a long period.
Palestinian envoy to UK denounces Israeli ‘smear’ campaign
Husam Zomlot has said that Israel is orchestrating a “libel and smear campaign” against him for comments he made on Israel’s “right to self-defence” in the context of its war on Gaza. “Israel is engaged in a decades-long act of repression of the occupied, colonised and besieged Palestinian people. Self defence cannot be a cover for genocide. Self defence applies to the occupied not the belligerent occupier. This is international law,” he wrote on X.
This libel and smear campaign by the Israeli propaganda machine and its supporters is an opportunity to reiterate: Israel is not defending itself, it is defending its illegal colonial occupation and apartheid. Israel is engaged in a decades-long act of repression of the occupied,… pic.twitter.com/xP1sxr3Xpk
— Husam Zomlot (@hzomlot) January 28, 2024
Most Hamas tunnels under Gaza remain intact: Report
The majority of the hundreds of kilometres of tunnels dug under Gaza by Hamas remain untouched and difficult to access for the Israeli military.
As the war on Gaza nears the end of its fourth month, the Israeli military has managed to damage or render inoperable an estimated 20-40 percent of the vast underground network, according to a Wall Street Journal report quoting multiple unnamed US officials. This is while Israel has so far tried a variety of methods to clear the tunnels, including flooding them with water – ignoring concerns about the impact on Gaza’s freshwater supplies and above-ground infrastructure.
US officials reportedly say Israel would need many more troops to clear the rest of the tunnels, which also hold Hamas leaders and captives.
Israeli soldiers continue to film themselves destroying Gaza
Israeli soldiers continue to film themselves as they destroy Gaza and mock Palestinians and post the videos on popular social media apps.
In one of the latest videos published from the besieged Strip, a soldier can be seen flashing the sign of the horn and smiling as yet another neighbourhood is blown up by explosives planted inside homes by the Israeli military. In another video posted on TikTok, which appears to have been filmed from an armoured vehicle, an Israeli bulldozer can be seen destroying a house with a white flag in front of it.
Beni Suhila, Khan Younis |
Neighborhoods blown up by Israeli soldiers pic.twitter.com/ya3GbG1z38
— Younis Tirawi | يونس (@ytirawi) January 28, 2024
