Currently Online 
‘Complicit’ US government should be ‘ashamed’ over genocide denial
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) denounced Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin after he said “we don’t have any evidence of genocide” in Gaza.
“We strongly condemn Secretary Austin for his dishonest and delusional genocide denial, which completely ignores the fact that the Israeli government made racist, genocidal threats at the start of this war and then spent six months acting on those threats,” said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad in a statement.
“Secretary Austin and the rest of the Biden administration should be ashamed for making our nation complicit in what is obviously a genocide.”
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, left, testifies on Capitol Hill on Tuesday
‘At this point, it looks like a Rafah invasion is inevitable’
Mohamad Elmasry from the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies says the slight ray of hope over a potential Gaza truce during talks in Egypt has now faded away.
“It looked like we took a step forward a few days ago, but I’m back to feeling more pessimistic as it feels much like the same. The US has used this to sort of pat itself on the back and say, ‘Look, we’ve done something,'” Elmasry told Al Jazeera.
It is up to the US how the next step in Israel’s war on Gaza plays out, he added. “It goes where the United States wants it to go. To what extent is the US willing to use its leverage, to what extent is the US ready to put its foot down and pull the plug on all of this?
“At this point, it looks like a Rafah invasion is inevitable,” Elmasry said.
Palestinians and the world must not lose hope
The feeling of numbness, of paralysis among Palestinians is one of the aims of the Israeli “attrition” strategy. A war of attrition is meant to create the conditions to drain, exhaust and weaken an opponent. It is meant to diminish the capacity to fight back.
Israel’s goal is the emotional, moral and mental depletion of those resisting its occupation and colonisation so they lose motivation and commitment to engage and mobilise in the face of brute repression.
Understand this: what stands between our eradication and our survival is you, the global community. As Israel unleashed its genocidal force onto us, it implicated the rest of the world.
More stalling, can't handle a few protestors who will block roads to the new crossing just as easily without intervention.
Israeli army setting up new border crossing, not opening Erez: Report
The Israeli army is currently establishing a new border crossing to bring humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip “and at this stage is giving up on opening the Erez crossing, fearing it will be blocked by Israeli protesters”.
This is according to Israeli Army Radio correspondent Doron Kadosh.
The Israeli military hopes the location of the new crossing, to be built in northern Gaza, but in a less central location, will make it difficult for protesters to block the entry of aid into the besieged Palestinian enclave, he reported.
‘False report’: Israeli minister denies only one brigade remains in Gaza
Regional Cooperation Minister David Amsalem has told the Israeli Army Radio that the information about forces leaving Gaza completely, except for one brigade, is “a false report”.
“I usually don’t follow what the IDF [Israeli army] spokesman says. I know what the chief of staff says – there are forces in Gaza of considerable size that fight on a daily basis,” he was quoted as saying.
The remarks come three days after the Israeli military announced a mass withdrawal of troops from southern Gaza to prepare for future operations, including in Rafah.
Israel’s ex-justice minister calls on military chief to quit
Haim Ramon has said the chief of staff of Israel’s armed forces, Herzi Halevi, should step down after half a year of war in Gaza. Halevi, in the aftermath of Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, took responsibility for Israel’s security failure and said the military would face a full accounting of it after waging war.
Ramon, in comments carried by Israel’s Arutz Sheva media, said it is now time for Halevi to “make good on [his] responsibility and resign”.
“I believe and hope that Halevi’s resignation will spark a chain reaction, and the entire senior command of the [Israeli military], which is responsible for the failure, will stand up and resign following the example set by the chief of staff,” Ramon was quoted as saying.
