Israel-Hamas war, Gaza genocide

[SvennoJ]

Pelosi joins call for Biden to stop transfer of US weapons to Israel

Former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a key ally of Joe Biden, has signed a letter from dozens of congressional Democrats to the US president and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, urging a halt to weapons transfers to Israel.

Friday’s letter, which the California congresswoman signed, called on the Biden administration to conduct its own probe into an Israeli air strike that killed seven staff of the aid group World Central Kitchen on Monday.

“In light of the recent strike against aid workers and the ever-worsening humanitarian crisis, we believe it is unjustifiable to approve these weapons transfers,” the letter said. It was signed by Pelosi and 36 other Democrats including Representatives Barbara Lee, Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Ex-CIA chief: In my experience, the Israelis usually fire and then ask questions

In an interview with CNN, former CIA Director Leon Panetta urged Israel to take “some real and concrete steps” to “improve” its standard military operations in Gaza to avoid more civilian casualties, including aid workers.

“You have to be able to verify, to take time to make sure that the information you’re getting is accurate with regards to targets. And I have to tell you that in the past, at least in my experience, the Israelis usually fire and then ask questions.”

Panetta, who also served as defence secretary under US President Barack Obama, said if Israel does not take those steps, or “take initial steps and then go back to business as usual”, the US should consider imposing conditions on providing weapons to its closest ally in the Middle East.

Panetta said Israel has been “badly damaged in terms of reputation” for its military conduct against Palestinians in Gaza.

That reputation was all based on lies and propaganda...

It was already known a number of Israeli civilians died in 'friendly fire' when the IDF reacted on October 7th with helicopters and tanks. This is the first time that Israel admits killing one of the hostages on October 7th. Hannibal directive.

Israeli fire ‘most likely’ killed woman taken captive by Hamas on October 7: Army

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/5/israeli-fire-most-likely-killed-woman-taken-captive-on-october-7-army

An Israeli investigation has found that a woman who was seized during the October 7 Hamas attack was “most likely” killed when an Israeli combat helicopter fired on her kidnappers’ vehicle.

Efrat Katz, an Israeli, and most of the fighters in the vehicle were killed when the aircraft fired on them, the army investigation said on Friday.

The helicopter “fired at a vehicle that had terrorists in it, and which, in retrospect, based on the testimonies, also had hostages in it”, the army said in a statement.

“As a result of the fire, most of the terrorists manning the vehicle were killed, and most likely, Efrat Katz … was killed as well.” The “tragic and unfortunate” event occurred at a time of “fighting and conditions of uncertainty”, Israeli Air Force chief Tomer Bar said in the statement.