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

SvennoJ on 15 June 2024

Israel's Gaslighting TORN APART By Palestinian-American Analyst - w/. Omar Baddar



From lies about the 'ceasefire deal' to the so-called hostage rescue operation - Palestinian-American analyst Omar Baddar always has incredible analysis.



Why Have Ceasefire Negotiations Over Gaza Repeatedly Failed? - Analysis

We spoke to author and Palestinian academic, Dr Azzam Tamimi, and Daniel Levy a former Israeli peace negotiator, on why they think ceasefire negotiations over Gaza have failed thus far, and what each side actually wants?

An older video (from April) relevant here

Hamas: How Israel created its own nemesis w/Paola Caridi | The Chris Hedges Report

Hamas, like all resistance groups, from the African National Congress to The Irish Republic Army, are as demonized as they are misunderstood. Hamas is a religious, nationalist political movement. It is not, despite what Israel and Washington say, a terrorist organization—although, like most resistance groups (including the Jewish militias that created the state of Israel), it has used terrorism as a tactic.

Because those on the outside do not understand what went into making Hamas—the steady drip of humiliation, violence, and impoverishment that define Israel’s Occupation of the Palestinians—Hamas and its ideology appears incomprehensible. But from the Palestinian perspective, Israel has left the Palestinians with no other choice.

Journalist and historian Paola Caridi, author of "Hamas: From Resistance to Regime," joins The Chris Hedges Report to discuss the roots and nature of Hamas, and what we miss when we unthinkingly cast Hamas as nothing more than a terrorist organization.



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SvennoJ on 15 June 2024

PRCS calls attention to crew members detained by Israel

The Palestine Red Crescent Society has taken to X to highlight the situation of four of its team members, who it says were “forcibly disappeared” and detained by Israeli forces for more than five months.

“PRCS expresses deep concern for the safety of its detained teams, whose fate remains unknown, and calls on the international community to urgently intervene to pressure the Israeli occupation authorities to immediately release our detained teams,” the group said.

UNICEF: Rising heat in Gaza poses grave threat to children

James Elder, the UN’s child relief agency spokesperson, has posted a video on X in which he tours a displaced persons’ camp in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, that houses children who have been orphaned by Israel’s war on Gaza.

Visibly sweating inside one of the tents, he says the rising heat exacerbates the crises of poor hygiene and disease in displacement camps across Gaza.

These concerns were echoed earlier today by UN World Food Programme Deputy Executive Director Carl Skau, who spent two days assessing the plight of Palestinians this week, saying the challenges are “like nothing I have ever seen”.

”The situation in southern Gaza is quickly deteriorating. One million people in southern Gaza are trapped without clean water or sanitation in a highly congested area along the beach in the burning summer heat. We drove through rivers of sewage,” said Skau.



Steady streak of 30c, 31c (86F, 88F) no rain https://www.accuweather.com/en/ps/gaza/258096/weather-forecast/258096

It says air quality fair...

Israelis make entry of aid more difficult amid ‘critical nutritional situation’ in Gaza: UNICEF

Spokesman for the UN’s Children’s Fund (UNICEF) James Elder, speaking from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, said Israeli forces were making it more difficult to get humanitarian aid into the territory.

“It’s a very complicated process to get in because of the restrictions put on top of aid. But we do it. We know the paperwork. We know the hoops to jump through. But it is very difficult to get aid in,” Elder told Al Jazeera.

“For example, in May, humanitarian agents got in half as many trucks of aid as in April. Half as many when we have this critical nutrition situation. Why was that the case? That was the case because in May, of course, we had the Rafah offensive,” Elder said.

“The ‘limited’ offensive in Rafah that led to the displacement of a million people. So less aid is coming in,” he said.

“But it’s not just getting it in. When we get it in, it’s making sure we can get it across the Gaza Strip without aid workers being killed. More aid workers have been killed in this war than any war since the advent of the United Nations,” he added.



SvennoJ on 15 June 2024

Netanyahu says war ‘must continue’ after Hamas ambush kills 8 Israeli soldiers in Rafah

    The Israeli army said that an initial probe into the incident shows that a combat engineer vehicle carrying all eight of those soldiers exploded.

    They are looking into the possibility that it was an antitank missile that was fired, though an initial investigation shows that it was some sort of explosive that was either underneath the vehicle or placed on it by, perhaps, a Hamas fighter.

    Nonetheless, the Israeli army is saying that this was an attack and Hamas confirming that it was their fighters that launched the attack.

    We’ve been hearing from Israeli politicians across the political aisle. [Israeli] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that even though there had been heavy losses in this war and today, specifically, the war and the fighting must continue until all of the goals are achieved.

    Nearly nine months into this war, Israel has not accomplished what it set out to back in October. There are still more than 120 Israeli captives still being held inside of Gaza and since the ground invasion began late last year, the death toll of Israeli soldiers is now at 308.

    Israeli far-right minister calls for ‘complete destruction’ after lethal Hamas ambush in Rafah

    Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has called for “the complete destruction of the enemy” in Gaza following the Hamas ambush that killed eight Israeli soldiers in Rafah on Saturday.

    Smotrich said in a post on social media that Israel was in a “war for our existence”, adding that “our sons fell so we would win”.  “The heavy price of the war obliges us to continue until the complete destruction of the enemy,” he said.

    Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir also said, “We must continue fighting”, in a post on social media. “…to topple Hamas, return all our abductees and assure their families that the death of their loved ones was not in vain.”

    ‘Total victory’ in Gaza war a ‘ridiculous’ goal that is impossible to achieve: Analyst

    Gideon Levy, author and columnist at the Israeli daily Haaretz, said the ambush in Rafah that killed eight Israeli soldiers will raise more questions in Israeli society about the war in Gaza, which is quickly becoming an unwinneable “endless war”.

    “It is not unprecedented but it is a very meaningful figure even though let’s remember that 38 people in Gaza were killed today,” Levy told Al Jazeera.

    “But it is different as eight soldiers is a big, heavy price for Israeli society, especially when it gets into the total number, and the total atmosphere, which, day-after-day, almost every day, we hear about losses of soldiers,” Levy said.

    “And more and more people in Israel are asking ‘What for?’ And, ‘Until when?'”

    “This war might become an endless war. A war of attrition which as strong as the Israeli army is, the Hamas forces can always kill and sabotage and then there will be retaliation. It leads nowhere and it is endless,” he said.

    “They will never achieve this ridiculous ‘total victory’ that Prime Minister Netanyahu is speaking about, and there will be no defeat here. It will go on, and on and on until Israel and Hamas – mainly Israel – will realise that it leads to nowhere and it must stop at any price.”



    SvennoJ on 15 June 2024

    Injuries reported as Israeli military attacks Gaza City, Rafah and Nuseirat refugee camp

    The Israeli military has bombed several homes across the Gaza Strip, resulting in injuries to an unknown number of Palestinians, the Wafa news agency reports.

    An Israeli bomb struck a home in the Tal as-Sultan neighbourhood of Rafah City, while a “violent raid” was launched on a house in Shuhada Shati Square in the Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City.

    The Israeli military has also “blown up” several residential buildings in the town of al-Mughraqa, north of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. No deaths have been reported from these attacks yet, but we will keep you updated with any developments.

     

    ‘Massive explosions, black smoke in sky’: Israelis pound Rafah after deadly Hamas ambush

    We know that the air strikes have intensified in the exact same place where the incident took place. We know that at least eight Israeli soldiers have been killed in this incident. But we still don’t how this incident took place. The upcoming hours are going to reveal a lot.

    The area that was targeted is Tal as-Sultan. It’s in the western parts of Rafah and that area had hundreds of thousands of families that were displaced. Tal as-Sultan is not very far away from the al-Mawasi area in Rafah, where there are a lot of people sheltering.

    No ambulances, no healthcare workers and no journalists were able to reach that area because the Israeli forces were targeting anyone who gets close. But we know there have been a lot of massive air strikes and a lot of massive explosions, and a targeting of residential buildings.

    People from Khan Younis were reporting that they were hearing the explosions and they were seeing the black smoke in the sky.

    Israeli settlers invade Palestinian homes in Jordan Valley, assaulting residents: Report

    Illegal Israeli settlers raided Palestinian-owned homes in the Al-Jubiyah area of the northern Jordan Valley, in the occupied West Bank, after midnight tonight, the Wafa news agency is reporting.

    Several Palestinians were assaulted, with one injured resident taken to the Ain al-Bayda Emergency Centre for treatment, Wafa added.

    The raid came two days after a similar assault, as Palestinians in the occupied West Bank continue to face mounting violence while the Israeli government expands settlements, which are illegal under international law.

    Israeli military makes arrests, conducts raids across the occupied West Bank

    The Israeli military has stormed the town of Hableh, south of the occupied West Bank city of Qalqilya, and arrested a Palestinian woman, according to local media. Israeli forces have also arrested a man from the town of Beit Rima, west of Ramallah, the Wafa news agency reports.

    The Israeli military has also carried out raids in other locations across the occupied West Bank, including:

    • Qalqilya city
    • Rujib village and the Balata refugee camp, east of Nablus
    • Beit Rima town, northwest of Ramallah, where confrontations have broken out
    • Rujib village in Nablus and the eastern area of the city of Nablus
    • The town of al-Khader near the city of Bethlehem

    Translation: Occupation forces arrest Hadeel Mardawi during the storming of the town of Hableh, south of the city of Qalqilya.



    SvennoJ on 15 June 2024

    Arrests as Israelis demand Netanyahu government reach deal to get captives back



    Israeli police arrest Haaretz photographer at protest rally in Tel Aviv

    Footage from an antigovernment protest in Israel’s Tel Aviv shows authorities forcefully arresting a photographer from the Haaretz newspaper.

    The video shows police leading one protester away in a headlock before an undercover officer is seen pushing photographer Itay Ron onto a bus carrying detainees, ignoring protests from observers that he is a journalist.

    Police said that 12 people in total were arrested at the protest for alleged public order violations on Saturday night, including blocking roads and demonstrating longer than permitted.


    Footage shows UK police assaulting pro-Palestine protesters in Manchester

    Footage has emerged of police forcefully dispersing and beating peaceful pro-Palestine protesters at a march in the northern English city on Saturday.

    In the footage, a police officer can be seen pushing over a man with a walking stick, while other scenes show officers violently throwing protesters to the ground, including women and the elderly.

    Thousands of people attended the march in Manchester, according to organisers, calling for an end to Israel’s war on Gaza and its occupation of the West Bank.


    In contrast to Ireland. It's clear the UK supports genocide.

    ‘Freedom for Palestine’ rally in Dublin







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    SvennoJ on 15 June 2024

    French court extends ban on Israeli participants in arms show

    A French court has banned all “Israeli arms companies, their affiliates and all Israeli delegations” from participating in the Eurosatory weapons trade show, says Palestinian rights group al-Haq, which jointly brought a court case against the organisers of the Paris event.

    Judges also also ordered that the court’s decision to be posted at all entrances to the show, al-Haq added.

    The updated ruling extends an earlier ruling which banned Israeli firms exhibiting at the event, which begins in Paris tomorrow and will run until June 21.

    “Conditions are no longer met to host Israeli companies at the show at a time when [French President Macron] is calling for Israel to cease operations in Rafah,” the French Defence Ministry said at the time.


    ‘Killer robots’ from US Darley Defense, left, and Israel’s General Robotics, right, at the Eurosatory trade show in 2022

    Who is going to be more disappointed. Israel not being able to showcase their new 'Gaza tested' genocide toys, or dubious regimes not being able to buy Israeli genocide toys.

    Arms trade shows should be banned anyway.

    Some Israeli companies were planning to evade ban on French event: Rights groups

    A group of 30 organisations that successfully brought a case arguing Israeli companies should not participate in the Eurosatory weapons trade show say an updated ruling extending the ban comes after some Israeli companies appeared to be still planning to participate in the event.

    “Several declarations by Israeli companies indicated that they would circumvent this ban, by being present at other companies’ stands, and through subsidiaries or other affiliated companies,” the association of 30 organisations, collectively known as Stop Arming Israel France, said in a statement on Saturday after the court extended its initial ban.

    “At least seven subsidiary companies” that “were majority-owned by Israeli companies, were still registered for the show”, the statement added.

    The groups said that the participation of some Israeli companies meant that there remained a “high risk that the exhibition would contribute to international crimes, and violations of international humanitarian law”.



    Some more gaslighting from Italy

    Italian PM says Israel falling into Hamas trap over Gaza

    Asked why the G7 had failed to condemn Israel over its war on Gaza, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni encouraged reporters to “remember who started all this” and said she feared Israel had fallen into a “trap” set by Hamas.

    “It looks like Israel is jumping into a trap. For the trap of Hamas was to isolate it. It seems it is working,” Meloni said.

    Earlier we reported that Meloni wrapped up the three-day global event held in Puglia by saying that Italy is a “friend of Israel”.

    “What we have to do is to work for peace and it is exactly what we’re doing and work for peace we have to dialogue and we have to recognise the right of Israel to be safe,” she said.

    Another one for the ICC to deal with, enabling genocide. The G7 are not working for peace, the opposite. Italy was on the wrong side of history in WW2, and fits right in with Germany yet again.

    Last edited by SvennoJ - on 15 June 2024

    SvennoJ on 16 June 2024

    Israeli military identifies more soldiers killed in Rafah attack

    The Israeli military has announced the names of five more of the eight soldiers killed in an attack by Hamas fighters on a military vehicle in Rafah on Saturday.

    Two of the slain soldiers were 21 years old, two were 20 years old and one was 19 years old. The five were all sergeants in the Combat Engineering Corps’ 601st Battalion. A 23-year-old deputy company commander who also died in the Rafah attack was named yesterday.

    The names of the final two Israeli soldiers killed in the Hamas ambush are set to be released later today.


    Israeli military announces 2 more soldiers killed in tank explosion in northern Gaza

    The Israeli military announced that two more soldiers were killed in combat in northern Gaza on Saturday.

    The men, a 28-year-old and a 49-year-old, both members of the 8th Reserve Armoured Brigade’s 129th Battalion, were killed when an explosive device was detonated against their tank. Two more Israeli soldiers were seriously injured in the attack and have been evacuated for treatment, according to the announcement.

    A total of 10 Israeli soldiers were killed in Gaza on Saturday.

     

    IED on armoured car possible cause of high Israeli death toll in Rafah: Monitors

    The al-Qassam Brigades, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and the National Resistance Brigades carried out attacks against Israeli forces in the Saudi neighbourhood, in western Rafah, on Saturday using rocket-propelled grenades and improvised explosive devices (IEDs), war monitors Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project (CTP) report.

    However, the armed group affiliation of the Palestinian fighters who carried out the attack in Rafah’s Tal as-Sultan neighbourhood that killed eight Israeli soldiers on the same day is not identified in the latest battlefield report.

    The two US-based defence think tanks report that the deadly IED attack targeted a “Namer” armoured combat engineering vehicle of the Israeli military’s 401st Armoured Brigade in Tal as-Sultan.

    According to the report, the vehicle was in a convoy to a captured building in Rafah, where Israeli troops were due to rest. The Namer’s armour should have protected the occupants from the blast, the monitors report, leading to the suggestion that the IED might have been planted directly on the vehicle by a Palestinian fighter.

    At least one rocket was launched from the Khan Younis area of Gaza towards Israel on Saturday, the monitors reported.

     

    Soldiers’ deaths dominate headlines in Israel

    There has been blanket coverage in Israeli media of the deaths of 10 Israeli soldiers, much more coverage than that of Palestinians. It is a reminder to Israelis of how dangerous the war in Gaza is.

    There are Israeli voices – often retired generals and retired military officers – complaining that too many soldiers are being killed because there isn’t an after-war plan.

    Two of the 10 soldiers were killed in a tank incident in the north of Gaza. That area is supposed to have been cleared of Hamas fighters, so Israel’s military says, but it is having to back up there because Hamas is reappearing.


    Israeli forces carry the coffin of Wasim Mahmud, a member of Israel’s Druze community and one of the soldiers killed a day earlier near Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, during his funeral in Beit Jann in northern Israel, Sunday



    SvennoJ on 16 June 2024

    Israel announces ‘tactical pause’ along road in southern Gaza

    The Israeli military says it will pause fighting along a road in the south of Gaza during certain hours to allow humanitarian aid to enter the besieged enclave.

    The army said in a post on X that the pause would begin at 8am (05:00 GMT) and remain in effect until 7pm (16:00 GMT), and would be repeated each day until further notice.

    Aid organisations have long warned that Israel’s offensive on Rafah in Gaza’s south – which began in early May and has displaced more than 1 million Palestinians – blocked access to the two crossings through which the vast majority of food and other essential supplies had entered Gaza amid Israel’s complete blockade of the territory.


    A huge line of aid trucks can be seen waiting on an Egyptian road along the border with Israel, near the Rafah border crossing with Gaza, on May 2

    Israeli army says fighting will continue in southern Gaza despite ‘tactical pause’

    The Israeli army has tweeted in Hebrew that it would continue fighting in the southern Gaza Strip and that the “tactical pause for humanitarian purposes” that it had announced would only apply to humanitarian aid transport.

    The army’s English-language post announcing the pause in fighting had been published 90 minutes before the Hebrew post clarified that Israeli forces would continue their operations in Rafah.



    Israel’s Ben-Gvir slams tactical pause as ‘delusional’

    Israel’s far-right security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has slammed the Israeli military’s plan to pause fighting for scheduled hours along a road in southern Gaza to allow for aid delivery.

    In a post on X, Ben-Gvir said the decision was “delusional”, especially after the recent death of 10 Israeli soldiers, and had not been approved by Israel’s war cabinet. Ben-Gvir has repeatedly called for Israel to slash aid delivered to Gaza during the war and to re-occupy the enclave.

    Gallant, Netanyahu unaware of military’s ‘tactical pause’ plans: Report

    Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was not informed beforehand about the military’s plans for a “tactical pause” along a humanitarian corridor in Rafah and did not give his approval, according to Israel’s Army Radio.

    The pause, to take place every day from 8am to 7pm, will only apply to humanitarian aid transport travelling on the corridor, with Israel’s military operations to continue uninterrupted in Rafah, according to the military.

    N12 news tweeted that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had also not been informed.

    Israel’s Smotrich weighs in on ‘tactical pause’

    Israel’s far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich has joined his colleague Ben-Gvir in criticising the military’s announced “tactical pause” along a humanitarian aid corridor in southern Gaza.

    In a post on X, Smotrich claimed that much of the aid getting into Gaza, where nearly all people are food insecure, is serving Hamas, thus prolonging the war. The military’s announcement of a “tactical pause” for humanitarian aid, he said, shows it is wrongly prioritising international legitimacy over “victory”.

    Smotrich said the only way to win the war is to occupy Gaza and impose a temporary military government until Hamas is rooted out.



    SvennoJ on 16 June 2024

    Questions grow around Israel’s ‘tactical pause’

    As reports come out about the defence minister and PM Netanyahu being unaware of the pause, it remains unclear if the humanitarian passage was agreed on and, if so, how it would work to help get aid to the rest of Gaza.



    Israeli military’s announced ‘tactical pause’ causes domestic ‘firestorm’

    The announcement has set off a predictable firestorm, particularly from the Israeli far right who keep Netanyahu in power, including Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. Some of their far-right views are not that far from those held by a lot of the Israeli population.

    Ben-Gvir has instructed his police not to stop protesters attacking convoys going into Gaza. Around 70 percent of Israelis in recent polling don’t support aid going into Gaza.

    It's clear how one sided the propaganda news is in Israel and why Al Jazeera was banned from Israel. How else to keep such ridiculous high support for suppressing aid. Israel is no different from Russia in deluding (and controlling) their citizens.

    The difference between Russia and Israel is, Russians are made to believe they're fighting in defense against Nato and the West, Israelis are made to believe they are fighting for their survival against all Muslim Arabs. Both are made to believe the rest of the world is against them.
    https://www.norc.org/research/library/new-survey-finds-most-russians-see-ukrainian-war-as-defense-against-west.html

    How much aid really enters Gaza?

    As the population of Gaza starves, there seems to be no reprieve in sight to allow a sufficient ramping-up of aid deliveries.

    Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) says there are no restrictions on the entry of trucks, that more than 8,600 aid and commercial trucks have entered Gaza from all crossings from May 2 to June 13, an average of 201 a day.

    But much of that aid has piled up at the crossings and not reached its final destination because movement within Gaza is so dangerous.

    Meanwhile, a floating pier the US built on Gaza’s coast, ostensibly to provide humanitarian aid, has not worked since the end of May. The pier worked for 11 days before it was paused and now has to be towed to the southern Israeli port of Ashdod for repairs, US Central Command announced Saturday.

    Salama Marouf, head of Gaza’s Government Media Office, has said the pier was “useless” from the beginning, having channelled a total of just 120 trucks worth of humanitarian aid. Aid deliveries over land have also been attacked by Israeli settlers, who have been holding up the aid trucks and destroying the supplies on them.

    According to Amjad Shawa of the Palestinian NGOs Network, “thousands” of families in Gaza, especially children, have been hit by a lack of food and water amid the ongoing war as a maximum of 200 aid trucks cross into Gaza “on good days”.

    “These quantities are not enough to feed the children … most families are spending their days with less than one meal a day, many of them children,” Shawa said.

    Are they still counting half filled trucks (for inspection) though. Not that it matters when 500 to 800 daily are needed and the ceasefire plan calls for 600 daily.


    Israeli military responds to crtiticism of ‘tactical pause’ plans: Report

    According to Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, the military has hit back at claims the government was left in the dark about its announced “tactical pause” along a Gaza aid corridor.

    The decision, it claims, was made by the army’s Southern Command, in line with Prime Minister Netanyahu’s instructions to increase aid flow to the enclave, according to Haaretz.

    Earlier, Israel’s Army Radio reported that neither Netanyahu nor Defence Minister Gallant had prior knowledge of the “tactical pause”, which is to take place every day from 8am to 7pm on a road in southern Gaza until further notice.



    SvennoJ on 16 June 2024

    Israeli society fractured due to military exemption on Haredi Jews

    Exemptions to being conscripted in Israel, like those given the Haredi ultra-Orthodox Jews, are putting “a lot of pressure on Israeli society”, military analyst Elijah Magnier says.

    “This shared burden [to join the military] is really not shared. There is a part of society – around 15 percent – that can get away with it. So it is not only creating political tension but is also creating within Israeli society a friction where people need to serve, they leave their jobs, there is pressure on their families, and they have PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder],” Magnier told Al Jazeera.

    “Already 10,000 soldiers and officers asked for medical and psychological attention because of this war.”

    Ultra-Orthodox Jews have strongly opposed the idea of lifting their exemption, threatening to leave if such a bill passes.

    Magnier added that 42 percent of those enrolled in the army, both professionals and reservists, “don’t want to join the army again; they want to leave” due to the army’s performance and the confrontation with “a strong non-state actor determined not to lose”.


    Israeli police disperse Ultra-Orthodox Jews blocking a highway during a protest against possible changes to regarding the laws for military drafts from which the ultra-Orthodox have traditionally received exemptions near Bnei Brak, Israel


    Israel’s Lapid slams reserve bill extending age for military duty

    Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid says “shame is lost” after the Ministerial Committee for Legislation approved a bill raising the age when reservists may stop reporting for duty.

    “The reservists and taxpayers are collapsing and Netanyahu and the extremists put the burden on them and continue to evade responsibility, and smile,” Lapid said on X. “The government has now approved the extension of the law increasing the burden on the reserve servants. The meaning: more years in the reserves! While the government promotes a mass evasion law for ultra-Orthodox youth,” he said, referring to legislation to lower the age for ultra-Orthodox Jews to be exempt from the draft.

    He called on Netanyahu’s party to “stop the madness”, adding that it was “painful discrimination between blood and blood”.

    “I support the reservists and their families. You are heroes, and we will do everything to be worthy of your heroism. The public should receive an exemption from this wicked government.”


    Israeli government supports draft bill extending retirement age for reservists

    The Israeli government has given its support to a draft bill extending the retirement age for reservists despite backlash from the Israeli public.

    The bill, which has been backed by the defence ministry, calls for the extension of a temporary measure to raise the age for reservists. The measure was initially expected to end at the end of June. The Ministerial Committee for Legislation approves sending the legislation for a three-month extension to the Knesset, where it must pass three readings to become law.

    But the decision has been negatively received. The decision to extend the service for reservists comes as the government has yet to draft the ultra-Orthodox Jews.


    Israeli public divide on conscription becoming ‘deeper and deeper’

    Meron Rapoport, an editor at Local Call, an Israeli news outlet, has told Al Jazeera that the Israeli army needs more personnel after suffering heavy losses throughout the war on Gaza and in cross-border attacks with Hezbollah.

    “The fact that the government, the right-wing coalition, is dependent on the ultra-Orthodox parties comprising of 17 Knesset members – and they refuse to go to service; they want to go to Yeshiva, to religious schools, and they want their young people to stay there – it creates a lot of anger,” Rapoport explained.

    “Even among right-wing supporters who do go to the army, we’re talking about the non-religious, about secular Jews who are voting for the right or even religious people who go to the army … there is a rift that is becoming deeper and deeper,” he said.

    Rapaport added that the decision not to conscript the ultra-Orthodox is “extremely popular” among the public as the war continues.