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SvennoJ on 10 January 2025
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Main events from January 9th

  • The Israeli military has continued its assault across Gaza, killing at least 22 Palestinians in various attacks since Thursday morning, including 13 people in the besieged north.
  • More than 800 parents of Israeli soldiers and reservists have called on Prime Minister Netanyahu to end his war on Gaza, saying they will not allow the enclave “to become our child’s cemetery”.
  • Lebanon’s newly elected President Joseph Aoun has said the government should be the only party with weapons, in an apparent message to Hezbollah after the group’s devastating war with Israel.
  • The US House of Representatives has passed a bill that will impose sanctions on International Criminal Court officials over their pursuit of war crime charges against Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Gallant.
  • The move has been condemned by rights advocates, including Amnesty International, who said it risks “grave harm” to “victims globally” and to the “US government’s ability to champion human rights”.
  • The Hind Rajab Foundation has filed a case seeking the arrest of Israeli sniper Boaz Ben David in Sweden, who is in the country on holiday, on charges of war crimes and possible acts of genocide.

Biden claims ‘progress’ in Gaza ceasefire deal

The US president suggests that an agreement to end the war and release Israeli captives in Gaza is possible. “We’re seeing some progress,” he told reporters. “I’m still hopeful that we’ll be able to have a prisoner exchange.”

Biden went on to say that he spoke to the newly elected Lebanese president Joseph Aoun, describing him as a “first-rate guy”. “They’re also working very hard with the Lebanese military – accountable to the Lebanese people, not Hamas, not Hezbollah, not any other group,” he said.

It is not clear what Biden, 82, meant by his remarks. Hamas has minimal presence in Lebanon.


Ilhan Omar says human rights lawyers ‘should be celebrated, not punished’

The progressive congresswoman has weighed in on today’s House vote to sanction ICC officials over arrest warrants for Israeli leaders.

Omar, who was among the Democrats who opposed the bill, wrote in a post on X that “human rights lawyers and others documenting the worst atrocities committed on this planet are heroes who should be celebrated – not punished when the war criminals they pursue are allies of the United States”.

The congresswoman also took aim at the broad text of the bill, which could see not only ICC officials, but anyone who aids the international court in its prosecution, sanctioned.

“The way this bill is written, Israeli survivors of the Hamas massacres on October 7th who gave testimony about the crimes they endured could be sanctioned for cooperating with the ICC,” she said.

“This bill would also be a significant blow to efforts to secure justice for Putin’s victims in Ukraine, and for the victims of both genocides in Darfur, including the one that is ongoing.”

Muslim group accuses US of ‘hypocrisy’ after Sudan genocide determination

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has welcomed the Biden administration’s determination that Sudanese rebels, the Rapid Support Forces, committed genocide in the country’s civil war. But the group said the move shows double standards in the approach to Israeli atrocities in Gaza.

“We welcome the US government’s long overdue decision to explicitly renounce the so-called Rapid Support Forces and condemn the genocidal war crimes its forces have committed during Sudan’s civil war,” CAIR’s deputy director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said in a statement.

“The United States should publicly demand that the RSF surrender and that the Sudanese military transfer power to a representative, democratically-elected government.”

Mitchell added, however, that the recognition of genocide in Sudan “highlights the extreme hypocrisy” of the US administration’s “support for the genocide in Gaza”.

“Genocide is genocide, regardless of whether Israeli or Sudanese forces commit it,” he said. “No one will take the United States seriously if we only selectively oppose genocide.”

Hind Rajab Foundation files case in Sweden against Israeli sniper

The Belgium-based foundation, named after the six-year-old killed by Israeli shelling in Gaza City in 2024, has filed its latest criminal complaint against an Israeli soldier for alleged abuses in Gaza.

The case in Sweden accuses Boaz Ben David, an Israeli sniper from the 932 Battalion of the Nahal Brigade, of committing war crimes, crimes against humanity and possible acts of genocide.

The foundation seeks to hold individual Israeli soldiers accountable for violations in Gaza, evidence of which many soldiers have posted on their own social media accounts.

On Thursday, the foundation said, “Ben David’s posts show him actively participating in sniper operations and vandalizing civilian property”.

While also submitting evidence for the ongoing ICC investigation, the foundation typically pushes to use national laws to bring the accused to justice. It has filed cases in Ecuador, the Netherlands, France and Cyprus, among others.

Most recently, an Israeli soldier fled Brazil as authorities opened an investigation at the behest of the foundation. In recent days, Israel’s military has warned soldiers about travelling abroad and imposed new restrictions on speaking to the media.