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Forums - Politics Discussion - Israel-Hamas war, Gaza genocide

SvennoJ on 28 May 2024

Why bother, concentrate on the land crossings. Unless you agree with Israel to further starve the population.

US pier to be temporarily removed from Gaza coast for repairs

The Pentagon says the military pier off the coast of Gaza is being removed for repairs and will be returned once it is fixed. Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said the pier will take over a week to put back together and will be done at the Israeli port of Ashdod.

Construction of the $320m floating pier was completed in mid-May to provide aid to the Gaza Strip. It has been criticised as a complicated and costly alternative that tries to deflect attention from demanding a much simpler solution – for Israel to fully open all land crossings to Gaza and to secure aid trucks going in.

Yep, it's just a deflection, pretending to care.


Video released by Islamic Jihad allegedly shows Israeli captive

The armed group released a video appearing to show Alexander Trufanov, 28, an Israeli citizen who was taken on October 7.

Trufanov’s mother said it made her happy to see her son, but “it was heartbreaking” that he had been a captive for so long. “The proof of life from Alexsander [Sasha] Trufanov is additional evidence that the Israeli government must give a significant mandate to the negotiating team,” said a statement from the Hostages Families Forum.

‘There is no time, we need a deal now before it’s too late’

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid says his country needs “a deal now before it’s too late” following the release of a video of Israeli captive Alex Trufanov by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad armed group in Gaza.

“The sign of life that came tonight from Alex reminds us that there is no time,” he posted on X, together with a photo of 28-year-old Trufanov.



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SvennoJ on 28 May 2024

One million people forced to flee from Rafah: UNRWA chief

Philippe Lazzarini provided the latest update about the situation in the southern Gaza city.

One million people in Rafah have been forced to flee over the past three weeks.

“Heavy bombardment continued overnight in the area including in Tal Al Sultan where the UN main offices in Gaza are. Most of our staff could not make it to work. They are packing up and moving. They are terrified.”

Moreover, he said, the UN organisation is running out of basic medicine and medical supplies.



What happened when Israel attacked Rafah?

Thirteen out of 21 people killed by Israel in an air raid on the so-called “safe area” of al-Mawasi were women and girls.

This was the second attack since Sunday, which killed 45 people and wounded more than 200 others. Many shelters burst into flames with their occupants still inside.

Israel targets western Rafah as forces expand ground operation

Shelling hit Rafah’s western Tal as-Sultan district, killing at least 16 people, the Palestinian civil defence and the Palestine Red Crescent Society say.

Seven of the dead were in tents next to a United Nations facility about 200 metres (656 feet) from the site of Sunday night’s air strikes and deadly fire.

“It was a night of horror,” said Abdel-Rahman Abu Ismail, a Palestinian from Gaza City who has been sheltering in Tal as-Sultan since December. He said he heard “constant sounds” of explosions overnight and into Tuesday, with fighter jets and drones flying over the area.

Abu Ismail said it reminded him of the Israeli invasion of his neighbourhood of Shujayea in Gaza City, where Israel launched a heavy bombing campaign before sending in ground forces in late 2023. “We saw this before,” he said.


Israel forces ‘invading deeper’ into Gaza

Yesterday Israeli forces and tanks were stationed on Philadelphi corridor, al-Zaroub Hill, around the Kuwaiti Hospital and al-Awda roundabout. These areas are in the heart of Rafah. There are people who were trapped in areas I mentioned and it was hard for them to evacuate.

People were shot at with Israeli quadcopters as they tried to evacuate. Palestinians are telling us that they suddenly found Israeli tanks surrounding those places and they did not have any way to get out.

So, Israeli forces are invading deeper into Rafah. It’s not only the ground invasion, but also the artillery shelling and air strikes.


The marker is on the Kuwaiti Hospital, al-Awda roundabout is a little North-West of al-Awda Mosque



US wants to see more dead and dying civilians, keeps stalling and deflecting

US says Israel Rafah assault still ‘limited’ after deadly bombing

The United States says it still considers Israel’s assault on the southern Gazan city of Rafah to be “limited in scope” despite attacks that killed at least 70 people in displacement camps over the past three days.

“Right now it is still our assessment that what is happening in Rafah, what the [Israeli military] are doing, it is limited in scope,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters.

US President Joe Biden is not turning a “blind eye” to the deaths in Israel’s strike on Rafah over the weekend but has no plans to change policy yet.

“This is not something that we’ve turned a blind eye to, nor is it something we’ve ignored or neglected,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters. He had been asked “how many charred corpses” it would take for Biden to change course on support for Israel.

At the same time, Kirby said he had “no policy changes to speak to” following Sunday’s strike in which 45 people were killed as a blaze tore through a camp for displaced people, adding that the incident “just happened”.

The comments come after Israeli tanks were seen in the heart of Rafah city, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are sheltering with no safe place to go.

 

‘As much an American genocide as it is an Israeli genocide’

The Council on American-Islamic Relations has condemned the US government for continuing to stand by Israel after the attack on displaced Palestinians in Rafah killed at least 45 people.

“Day after day, massacre after massacre, and the Biden administration continues to ship the bombs to the far-right, openly genocidal Israeli government that it uses to slaughter Palestinian children, women, medical personnel, journalists, international aid workers, and the sick and elderly, and continues to shield Israel from international accountability,” said Nihad Awad, CAIR’s national executive director.

“This genocidal brutality, which is being exposed daily by piles of charred and dismembered Palestinian civilians, must stop. Sadly, because of President Biden’s insistence on sending more bombs to enable Netanyahu’s war crimes in Rafah, this is now as much an American genocide as it is an Israeli genocide.”



SvennoJ on 28 May 2024

US, UK warplanes hit targets in western Yemen province: Report

Houthi-affiliated media Al Masirah says aircraft launched two raids on the al-Jabanah area, west of Hodeidah.

The United States and United Kingdom have targeted Houthi positions in Yemen since the rebels started attacking vessels in the Red Sea in opposition to Israel’s war on Gaza.

Earlier, a missile attack damaged a ship in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen. The attack happened off the port city of Hodeidah, near the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, according to the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre.

The vessel “sustained damage” in the assault and later reported an “impact in the water in close proximity to the vessel,” the UKMTO said. “The crew are reported safe and the vessel is proceeding to its next port of call.”



Algeria to propose UN action to ‘stop killing in Rafah’

Algeria will propose a draft United Nations Security Council resolution to “stop the killing in Rafah”, Algeria’s UN Ambassador Amar Bendjama told reporters.

The comments come after a closed-door meeting of the 15-member body on Israel’s devastating eight-month war on the Gaza Strip.

“Algeria will circulate this afternoon a draft resolution on Rafah,” Bendjama said. “It will be a short text, a decisive text, to stop the killing in Rafah.”

 

‘No safe’ place in Rafah: Doctor

International medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) shared “heartbreaking” audio from a doctor in Tal as-Sultan – the site of Sunday’s massacre.

“We are scared for ourselves, for our children,” she said, adding there is “no safe space here after what happened with the burning of the tents”.

How tenuous is the peace deal between Egypt and Israel?

A deadly exchange of fire at the Rafah border crossing comes amid fragile political relations.

Officially, Egypt and Israel are at peace. But beneath the surface, a diplomatic dispute has been brewing for weeks. Israel pushed ahead with its assault on Rafah – the area of southern Gaza bordering Egypt – despite Cairo’s many objections.



SvennoJ on 28 May 2024

Biden PIER SINKING INTO SEA After US Troops Injured


 

BBC reporter clashes with US official to expose double standard on Israel

 

IDF Deliver Findings Over Rafah Massacre; They Don’t Make Sense





SvennoJ on 29 May 2024

Palestine Red Crescent mourns 30th worker killed in Israeli attacks

The humanitarian group said Issam Rouhi Mohammed Aqel, a member of its staff who worked at the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, was killed in an Israeli air raid that hit his home in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.

“This brings the total number of martyrs among the PRCS’s staff to 30, of whom 17 were killed while performing their humanitarian duty,” the group said in a post on X.

WHO delivers fuel, supplies to Gaza City hospital amid intense hostilities

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), said the agency delivered 15,000 litres (3,963 gallons) of fuel, 14 hospital beds, medicines and trauma supplies to al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City.

The supplies are enough to cover the needs of 1,500 people, Tedros said in a post on X. The mission, which managed to reach al-Ahli Hospital “amid ongoing intense hostilities”, was the WHO’s first to the north of the Gaza Strip since May 13.

“Al-Ahli hospital is serving twice the number of people it is designed for, lacking essential surgical supplies, and salaries for the staff. No lifesaving surgery can be performed in the evening due to the lack of specialized staff,” Tedros said.

“Road destruction, lack of safe access and fuel for missions is continuing to impede movement to the north. The city is full of debris and solid waste. We repeat our appeal for a ceasefire.”

Israeli air raids rain down on Palestinians returning home near Jabalia

Following reports of an Israeli military withdrawal from the al-Faluja area in the west of the Jabalia refugee camp, residents who began to return faced air attacks and artillery fire resulting in dozens killed and injured.

Medical crews and volunteers are tirelessly extracting bodies from under the rubble amid dire conditions, with Israeli forces continuing a 17-day bombing campaign of the area in northern Gaza. The devastation is immense, particularly after Israeli ground forces entered.

Witnesses report ongoing attacks on civilians and rescue teams, hindering evacuation efforts and documentation of the destruction.

Al Jazeera’s Anas al-Sharif, reporting from Jabalia, describes the perilous situation amid the relentless Israeli assaults:

 

Israel denies latest strike on civilian camp near Rafah that killed 21 people

The Israeli military has denied carrying out attacks on a tent camp housing displaced families in al-Mawasi, near Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, which have killed at least 21 people.

“Contrary to the reports from the last few hours, the [Israeli military] did not strike in the Humanitarian Area in al-Mawasi,” it said in a statement.

At least 12 of those killed in Tuesday’s attacks were women, medical officials in Gaza have said, while 64 people were wounded in the attacks, with 10 in critical condition. Israel previously designated al-Mawasi, in western Rafah as a humanitarian area to which Palestinians should evacuate for their safety.

The attack comes just two days after a strike on a tent camp in the Tal as-Sultan area near Rafah killed 45 Palestinians. The strike sparked a fire that spread rapidly, razing the encampment to the ground.


Displaced Palestinians walk on a road amid tents in the al-Mawasi camp near Khan Younis in southern Gaza on May 24

 

Three Palestinians killed in Israeli shelling of Khan Younis

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting that two children were among the three people killed in an Israeli attack in Gaza’s southern Khan Younis. The shelling targeted the home of the Abu Jazar family, AJA reported.

 

Strong waves break up US military’s $320m Gaza aid pier

The US-led effort to operate a maritime aid corridor to Gaza has collapsed after strong waves broke up a temporary pier that took $320m dollars and 1,000 US soldiers to construct.

The pier was supposed to last until September but survived for just more than a week. During that time, it received about 1,000 metric tonnes of food.

The Pentagon says it will replace the pier but it is unclear when.


1000 metric tons is 50 trucks is equivalent to 50 trucks via Rafah / Kerem Shalom. 320 million + 150 million over budget, 470 million USD for 50 trucks, nearly 10 million dollars spend per delivered truck load....



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SvennoJ on 29 May 2024

Australia’s parliament votes against recognising Palestinian state

Australia’s federal parliament has voted against recognising Palestine as an independent state.

Here’s how the House of Representatives voted on the motion put forward by the Greens:

  • Yes: 5. The Australian Greens and Independent Andrew Wilkie.
  • No: 80. Representatives from the Labor government, as well as the Liberal and National parties.

Australia was one of 143 countries that voted in support of Palestine’s becoming a full UN member in the UN General Assembly earlier this month.

Several countries have announced they will recognise the State of Palestine so far this year including Barbados, the Bahamas, Ireland, Jamaica, Norway, Spain, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Australia is still dealing with its own bloody colonial past. 
https://www.bigissue.com/culture/books/australias-bloody-past-of-british-colonialism/
It's not surprising countries with colonial skeletons in their closet keep backing Israel's colonial genocide and not willing to recognize the 'natives' as people with equal rights.

Saudi Arabia condemns Israel’s ‘continued genocidal massacres’

Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry has denounced Israel’s attacks on the tents of “defenceless” people in Rafah and called for international action to stop the “continuous genocidal massacres committed by the Israeli occupation forces against the Palestinian people”, according to the official Saudi Press Agency,

The ministry said Israel’s blatant violations of international law and norms were taking place against a backdrop of silence and “puts the credibility of the institutions of international legitimacy at stake”.

It added, “The kingdom stresses the need for the international community to assume its responsibilities today more than ever before, to stop the massacres against the Palestinian people and hold those responsible accountable.”



Former US presidential candidate Nikki Haley writes ‘finish them’ on Israeli shell

Failed US presidential hopeful Nikki Haley has been photographed writing, “Finish them”, on an Israeli shell as she toured military locations on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon.

Danny Danon, a member of the Israeli parliament and former ambassador to the United Nations, posted the photo – which was taken as he accompanied Haley on her border visit – to his social media account.

“‘Finish Them’. This is what my friend the former ambassador Nikki Haley wrote,” Danon said in his post that shows a kneeling Haley writing on an artillery shell with a purple marker pen.

Haley was the US ambassador to the UN under former President Donald Trump and her term overlapped with Danon.


Images from Israeli Knesset member Danny Danon’s X social media account.



SvennoJ on 29 May 2024

Israeli soldiers beat two Gaza detainees to death: Report

Israel’s Haaretz newspaper is reporting that an internal military probe found Israeli soldiers beat two Palestinian detainees from Gaza to death.

The detainees were beaten on their way to the Sde Teiman detention facility in the Naqab desert (commonly known in English as the Negev) and died later, Haaretz reported, citing two unnamed sources.

“While several soldiers were questioned about the incident, no one has been arrested on suspicion of causing their deaths,” the news outlet reported.

Haaretz has previously reported that at least 27 detainees from Gaza have died in Israeli military custody at Sde Teiman and other bases.

Released detainees and whistleblowers have long accused the Israeli military of subjecting detained Palestinians to severe abuse, including sexual violence, as well as torture through severe beatings, dog attacks, strip searches, waterboarding, and denial of food, sleep and toilet access.



There is no accountability. Another 'investigation' that led nowhere. It won't be any different for the tent massacre, nor the follow up massacre on Tuesday.

Women, girls suffer most in Israel’s war on Gaza: UN women’s agency chief

Sima Bahous, the executive director of UN Women, said more than 10,000 Palestinian women have been killed in the seven months of Israel’s war on Gaza – including scores of women and children “horrifically killed” by an Israeli air strike while sleeping in tents in what was supposed to be a safe zone in Rafah.

“This war must stop because women and girls are bearing the brunt of it,” Bahous told a UN Security Council meeting on Tuesday.


Palestinian women and children flee Rafah with their belongings following renewed Israeli strikes in the city in the southern Gaza Strip on May 28



Mexico seeks to join South Africa’s genocide case against Israel

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) says Mexico has filed an application with the world tribunal to intervene in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel.

In its declaration, Mexico stated that it “seeks to intervene, in order to provide its view on the potential construction of the content of the provisions of the Convention relevant to this case”, the court said.

Three other countries have also asked the ICJ for intervention in support of the South African case against Israel.

They are Colombia, Nicaragua and Libya. Belgium, Egypt, Ireland, Maldives and Turkey have also stated their intention to join the case, while Germany said it will intervene in support of Israel.

Germany shows its true colors.



SvennoJ on 29 May 2024

Pro-Palestine protesters occupy train station in Italy

A large crowd of pro-Palestinian protesters have occupied a train station in the Italian city of Bologna to campaign against the war in Gaza. Footage from the protest shows large crowds on the platform and standing on the tracks, chanting as they wave Palestinian flags.

Air strikes on north and central Gaza as Israeli tanks push into Rafah in south

As well as the attack on a family home in Khan Younis that we reported earlier had killed three people, including two children, deaths and injuries have been reported following an Israeli air attack on the Shatat family’s home in the Sheikh Radwan area of northern Gaza.

The Wafa news agency also reported an attack on a civilian home north of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza and that several people were injured in an attack on a house in the Sabra neighbourhood of Gaza City.

In southern Rafah, Israeli tanks are now stationed in the centre of the city’s Yibna and Shaboura refugee camps. Local sources report that Israeli aircraft are bombing while armoured vehicles are attacking homes in the centre and west of the city with heavy machine guns, according to Wafa.

Israeli forces round up Palestinians in raids across West Bank

Israeli soldiers continued their nightly raids across the occupied West Bank, rounding up several Palestinians, including a journalist in the city of Hebron.

The Wafa news agency named the journalist as Bilal al-Taweel.

A second man was arrested in a raid on his home in the town of Yatta, south of the city of Hebron, and a Palestinian woman was taken into custody at a checkpoint in the Old City of Hebron, the agency said.

Israeli forces also arrested two others – a girl and a young man – during a raid on the Shu’fat refugee camp near Jerusalem, according to Wafa. The soldiers used tear gas and sound bombs during the raids, it reported.

Wafa and other Palestinian media outlets also reported raids elsewhere in the West Bank, including:

  • The city of Qalqilya
  • The Shuweika suburb and the town of Anabta, near the city of Tulkarem
  • The villages of Abu Falah and Kafr Malek and the town of Turmus Aya in the Ramallah and el-Bireh Governorate
  • The town of Qabalan, south of the city of Nablus


SvennoJ on 29 May 2024

Algeria’s UNSC resolution calls on Israel to halt Rafah offensive immediately: Report

The Reuters news agency said the draft text demands a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, the release of all captives held by Hamas and essentially orders Israel to cease its military operations in Rafah.

The text uses the strongest UNSC language and says it “decides that Israel, the occupying Power, shall immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in Rafah”, Reuters reports.

Diplomats told Reuters the security council could vote on the draft resolution within days.

A UNSC resolution needs at least nine votes in favour and no vetoes by permanent member – the US, the United Kingdom, France, Russia or China – to pass.

The US has already shielded Israel by vetoing three draft council resolutions on the war in Gaza.

Israel sends revised ceasefire proposal, but it ‘will not deliver the goods’: Report

No progress has been made on the stalled ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas but Israeli officials have sent mediating countries a revised document outlining their stance in the last 24 hours, the Haaretz newspaper reports.

Citing an anonymous senior official, Haaretz said that the new proposal offers some flexibility on Israel’s demands, including the number of captives to be released in the first phase of the deal and the length of the initial ceasefire.

But the Israeli proposal “will not deliver the goods”, the anonymous source said, as it does not meet Hamas’s demands of an end to the fighting and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.

“There won’t be a deal as long as Israel is refusing to stop the fighting. All reports of an ‘Israeli flexibility’ don’t point to any real progress or possibility of returning hostages home,” he said.

Report Mossad chief threatened then-ICC prosecutor ‘deeply disturbing’: Law expert

Toby Cadman, an international law specialist, said there must be “consequences” following reports that the International Criminal Court’s then-Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda was threatened over a war crimes investigation involving Israel.

Cadman was commenting on The Guardian newspaper report that Yossi Cohen, the former head of Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, had allegedly attempted to pressure Bensouda to abandon her 2021 investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Cadman said it was commendable that the ICC prosecutor “did not bow to that pressure”.

“When we look at the substance of what has come out of The Guardian investigation… that is, of course, direct interference with an independent investigation. There has to be consequences for that,” Cadman told Al Jazeera.

“We rely on these institutions to be able to operate independent of political pressure and these kind of direct threats to the senior most official from the prosecuting side is deeply, deeply disturbing,” he said.

The Guardian reported that Bensouda had briefed a small group of senior ICC officials about Cohen’s attempts to persuade her and that she was concerned about the “persistent and threatening nature of his behaviour”.


Fatou Bensouda at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the Netherlands, in May 2021



SvennoJ on 29 May 2024

Israeli military drones shoot ‘anyone who moves’ in Rafah: Report

Israel forces carried out new air strikes in southern Gaza’s Rafah overnight and in the early hours of the morning as tanks pushed through to the centre of the city that was a “safe zone” until recently for Palestinians fleeing attacks by Israeli forces elsewhere in the territory.

The French news agency AFP said that its journalists in Rafah reported new strikes early Wednesday, hours after witnesses and a Palestinian security source said Israeli tanks had penetrated the heart of the city.

“People are currently inside their homes because anyone who moves is being shot at by Israeli drones,” Rafah resident Abdel Khatib told the AFP.


The 'limited operation' (according to the USA) in Rafah continues

Intense fighting as five Israeli brigades advance on Rafah

Israel may have used “unmanned ground vehicles” to lead its incursion into the west of Rafah city, war monitors report, while “intense gunfire” was heard as Israeli forces pushed deeper into the city’s centre, forcing civilians to flee.

Palestinian fighters resisting the ground invasion launched attacks in Rafah’s south and centre on Tuesday, including detonating a building rigged with explosives while Israeli soldiers were inside, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project (CTP).

According to the latest battlefield report from the US-based defence think tanks, Israel deployed an additional brigade to the Rafah ground invasion on Tuesday, bringing the total involved in the operation to five.

The ISW/CTP also reported on three Israeli brigades operating in the Jabalia refugee camp in the north of Gaza and two brigades in central Gaza on Tuesday.

An Israeli brigade is said to have between 2,000 and 5,000 soldiers, depending on its operational capability and mission.


Smoke rises from Israeli strikes in Rafah city in the southern Gaza Strip on May 28

Rafah field hospital forced to evacuate

Al-Quds Field Hospital, run by the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), has been forced to move out of the al-Mawasi area of Rafah due to nearby Israeli artillery shelling and bombardment.

The field hospital, one of the few health facilities that was remaining in Rafah, has moved up to the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis, according to the PRCS.

As we’ve been reporting, air attacks have repeatedly hit tent camps in al-Mawasi in recent days, killing and wounding dozens of Palestinians, many women and children.


Israeli military moves further into Rafah, has full control of Philadelphi Corridor

The Israeli military continues to create more tragedies in Rafah.

Over the past three days, it has intensified its aerial bombardment of Rafah, including al-Mawasi evacuation zone.

The Israeli military continues to push deeper into the city, supported by intense air attacks and heavy artillery shelling. The shelling has extended to the vicinity of the Kuwaiti Hospital, which is completely out of service. All of Rafah’s field hospitals, with the exception of one, are also out of service.

The military now has control over the Philadelphi Corridor and is advancing deeper into the remaining part of the corridor – to the western part of Rafah city.

Meanwhile, it continues to herd people from one place to another. Those who have been told to stay in al-Mawasi evacuation zone to avoid being bombed are finding themselves on the move again, seeking shelter elsewhere. But there is no safe place in a war zone.

Bombing is taking place everywhere, not only in Rafah, but also in Khan Younis and in the rest of the Strip.