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

SvennoJ on 16 June 2024

GHASSAN ABU SITTAH : What we are witnessing is physical & biological GENOCIDE

Professor Ghassan Abu-Sittah is a multi-award-winning Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon, with a worldwide reputation as one of the world’s leading specialists in Craniofacial surgery (facial deformities), aesthetic surgery, cleft lip and palate surgery and trauma related injuries.

He worked in Gaza during the first and second intifada, but also in 2008-2009, in 2012, in 2014, during the great march of return in 2018 and finally in October-November 2023.

Biden Caught LYING About U.S. Boots on the Ground in Israel???



"In its latest war powers report to Congress, the White House has omitted any reference to Israel, concealing the fact that military personnel are permanently deployed in the country. The report, required to be submitted every 6 months, is supposed to keep the American people informed about the deployment of U.S. troops who might face combat.

The omission is just one of several by the Biden administration, which seems intent on obscuring its role in the perpetual war on terror and other military adventures overseas. The report, released on Friday to virtually no media coverage, details U.S. military deployments to regions as obscure as the Lake Chad Basin. But it says nothing whatsoever about the U.S. military presence in Israel amid the obvious dangers associated with Israel’s war in Gaza and Iranian missile strikes."



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SvennoJ on 17 June 2024

Three killed in Israeli attack on Gaza City

Three people, including a woman, have been killed in an Israeli air raid on a home in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood of Gaza City, the Wafa news agency is reporting.

Others were severely injured in the attack, Wafa added.

Children injured, killed in Bureij attack taken to Al-Aqsa Hospital



Nine Palestinians, including at least five children, were killed in the attack.

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital has been overwhelmed with injured patients as Israel’s intense bombardment of nearby densely populated refugee camps continues.



Rescue workers recover 2 bodies from Rafah

The Palestinian Civil Defence in Gaza has reported that its crews retrieved the bodies of two people killed in an Israeli bombing of the Tal as-Sultan neighbourhood, the Wafa news agency is reporting.

Israeli warplanes also bombed the area near the Emirati field hospital in central Gaza, Wafa added.


Israeli military bombs home near Gaza City, killing 2

Local media is reporting that the Israeli military has bombed a home in Gaza City, northern Gaza, killing at least two people. Some 13 people have also been injured in the strike, which struck Gaza City’s Zarqa neighbourhood.


Israeli bombing targeted farmland near Deir el-Balah

Israeli bombing has targeted agricultural lands east of Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, the Wafa news agency reports.

Analysis from the UN Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) found that 33.13 percent of Gaza’s agricultural land had been damaged as of February 2024, a significant increase from October 2023, when just 5.36 percent of crop fields, arable and fallow lands were damaged.


Israel destroys Rafah crossing departure hall

Israel’s military is continuing its aggressive operations in the Rafah city.

Not only are we seeing major destruction and systematic demolition of residential homes in the eastern … central and western parts of the city, but also getting the Rafah crossing out of service completely.

It has been shot at for the past 40 days and its properties have been severely damaged and destroyed. As of earlier hours today, the departure hall of this crossing has been completely destroyed and incinerated.

This is the only exit point for the [Gaza Palestinians] to the outside world. Now, it is not going to be operational any time soon.


Israeli attacks continue in Rafah despite military’s announced ‘tactical pauses’: UNRWA

Philippe Lazzarini, the UNRWA chief, has said “operationally nothing has changed” in southern Gaza, where Israel’s military said it would observe daily pauses in fighting along a key aid corridor.

The military had said it would implement “pauses” during daylight hours from the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) land crossing to the Salah a-Din highway, a main north-south road.

However, Prime Minister Netanyahu appeared taken aback by the military plans, announced yesterday, calling them “unacceptable”.



SvennoJ on 17 June 2024

Israeli strikes have wiped out ‘entire bloodlines’ in Gaza: AP investigation

The Associated Press has found at least 60 cases in which families in Gaza have lost at least 25 of their members to Israel’s strikes during its war on Gaza. Some Israeli attacks have taken out “four generations from the same family”, according to its report.

Al Jazeera broadcast engineer Mohamed Abu Al-Qumsan lost 19 members of his family in one strike on the Jabalia refugee camp, his extended family is mentioned in the AP report.

The following families in Gaza are among the hardest hit, according to AP:

  • Eighty members of the extended Abu Abu Al-Qumsan family were killed
  • The Mughrabi family lost more than 70 members in a single air strike in December
  • The Abu Naja family had 50 of its members killed in October strikes, including at least two pregnant women
  • More than 100 members of the Doghmush clan were killed in several weeks of strikes

 

Neighbourhoods ‘completely razed’ in eastern Rafah

On the second day of Eid, the situation remains quite difficult.

Overnight, attacks took place across the Gaza Strip – from the northern city of Beit Hanoon all the way to Rafah city, coupled with heavy artillery strikes along the eastern border.

That includes heavy strikes on central and eastern parts of Rafah. Israeli forces also continued systematically demolishing homes in the east and near the Philadelphi Corridor [southern Rafah]. These areas are completely razed, with no remaining residential buildings and no agricultural land left.

In a separate wave, the Israeli military carried out heavy artillery strikes in central Gaza, including on Bureij and Maghazi refugee camps and the southeastern part of Deir el-Balah city.

Everything seems to be contributing to one thing: making Gaza uninhabitable.

Israel kills Palestinian journalist Mahmoud Qassem: Gaza government

The Government Media Office in Gaza has announced Israel’s killing of Mahmoud Qassem, a Palestinian journalist working with digital publication Palestine Online. It did not elaborate on the location and the date of the killing.

His death brought the number of journalists killed during Israel’s war on Gaza to 151, it said in a Telegram post.



SvennoJ on 17 June 2024

Israel openly planning ‘criminal action’: Palestine’s UN envoy

Earlier we reported that Israel’s war cabinet met to discuss “steps to strengthen settlements” in the occupied West Bank, in response to more countries recognising Palestinian statehood, in part due to the Palestinian Authority’s advocacy at the United Nations.

Majed Bamya, the State of Palestine’s deputy permanent observer to the UN, has responded in a post on X.

  • The Israeli government “feels entitled to impose sanctions on Palestine and the rest of the world for their legitimate action”.
  • The Israeli government is “openly committing to undertake criminal action in response to lawful and peaceful action taken” by sovereign states to recognise the State of Palestine.
  • States are recognising Palestine to show their commitment to Palestinians’ right to self-determination and to the rule of international law.
  • They are also showing commitment to the two states of Palestine and Israel “living side by side in peace and security, in line with UN resolutions”.
  • The Israeli government “expresses outrage at the very thought of ever being held accountable for its crimes”.

Israeli MPs lobby for Gaza resettlement: Report

Several far-right Israeli MPs say they will launch an official lobby advocating for resettling Gaza, saying they believe it is the only way to “protect Israel’s security”, reports Israel’s Haaretz newspaper.

The lobby, led by Limor Son Har-Melech of the ultra-nationalist Otzma Yehudit party and Zvi Sukkot of the Religious Zionism party, will be established tomorrow in Israel’s Knesset, according to Haaretz.

“Only by a dense presence of Jewish settlements throughout Gaza will it be possible to prevent the continuation of terrorist threats and deter the enemy”, said a press release by Son Har-Melech and Sukkot, cited by Haaretz.

They claim a push to resettle Gaza will also pressure Hamas to release Israeli captives.

“If Hamas realises that in addition to [losing] rule in Gaza, it is also on its way to losing land in Gaza, it will be pushed into a corner and agree to the release,” their press statement claimed.



SvennoJ on 17 June 2024

Israeli military carries out raids across the occupied West Bank

The Israeli military has stormed several locations across the occupied West Bank tonight, according to the Wafa news agency and local media. They include:

  • The city of Qalqilya, where they have arrested the mother of a man wanted by Israeli authorities
  • The Aqbat Jabr camp near Jericho, where Israeli forces have stormed a house in the camp and assaulted its residents
  • The town of Silat ad-Dhahr and the villages of al-Fandaqumiya and Faqqua in Jenin governorate
  • The town of ash-Shuyukh, northeast of Hebron
  • The village of Urif and the town of Aqraba, south of Nablus


Israeli raids, arrests near Ramallah

Israeli forces have raided homes in several villages near Ramallah and arrested at least three people, according to the Wafa news agency. The raids took place in the villages of Silwad, Kafr Malek, Deir Nidham, and Ni’lin, all located in the Ramallah governorate, according to Wafa.



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SvennoJ on 17 June 2024

Haniyeh says Hamas’s ceasefire response aligns with deal’s principles

The head of Hamas’s political bureau Ismail Haniyeh has said the group is ready to accept an agreement that guarantees a permanent ceasefire. He says it also wants a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, reconstruction, and an exchange deal.

In light of Haniyeh’s comments, Youcef Bouandel from Qatar University says disunion within Israel’s war cabinet and wider society is boiling over and “strengthening the hand” of Hamas in ceasefire negotiations.

Despite huge PR push, is US plan for Gaza doomed to fail?

After rejecting a ceasefire for months in Israel’s war on Gaza, the Biden administration wants to see an end to the fighting. But how “permanent” is the US-Israeli plan for a “permanent ceasefire” in Gaza?

The intentional vagueness of the proposal to bring a “sustainable period of calm” to the Gaza Strip is the biggest obstacle preventing a deal, argues Michael Hanna of the International Crisis Group.

Hanna spoke to Al Jazeera’s Steve Clemons in the latest episode of The Bottom Line.



SvennoJ on 17 June 2024

Israeli public divide on conscription becoming ‘deeper and deeper’

The Israeli government is considering extending an emergency law that delays the age military reservists can retire from the service. That comes as a committee is discussing making conscription mandatory for ultra-Orthodox religious students.

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

Israeli army creates division for retirement-age reserves due to ‘urgent need’

The Israeli army is creating a new division for reservists over the retirement age of 40 to meet the “urgent need for more troops”, an Israeli Army Radio correspondent said.

The division of five reserve brigades is in the “advance stages” of planning and will draw on other Israelis who were previously exempt from serving, Doron Kadosh said in a post on X.

Israeli military Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi recently said enlisting draft-age ultra-Orthodox Jews was “an obvious necessity” while visiting the site of a deadly Hamas ambush on Israeli troops, in Gaza.

As we also reported earlier, the Israeli government has also supported a draft bill extending the retirement age for reservists despite a backlash from the Israeli public.

Ex-Knesset member who cited Hitler in speech about Gaza to speak at Australian event

A far-right former Israeli lawmaker who quoted Adolf Hitler while discussing the takeover of Gaza and expulsion of Palestinians is scheduled to speak at an event hosted by the Australian Jewish Association this week.

Moshe Feiglin will speak in an online event called Israel 2024 and Beyond on Wednesday evening, according to the Association’s website. In a video shared recently on social media, Feiglin said: “As Hitler said, ‘I cannot live if one Jew is left’. We can’t live here if one ‘Islamo-Nazi’ remains in Gaza.”

He added he wants to “turn Gaza Hebrew”. Feiglin was a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party from 2013 to 2015 before launching his far-right Zehut party.



SvennoJ on 17 June 2024

Antigovernment protesters block roads in Israel

Israeli antigovernment activists are continuing their protests for a second day, part of their declared “week of disruption” calling for new elections.

This morning, protesters blocked several highways and junctions in Israel, reports The Times of Israel. This includes Highway 1, the main road connecting Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, posts on Israeli social media show.

High-school students in central Israel also staged walkouts as part of the protests, according to The Times of Israel. At 7pm (16:30 GMT), protesters will gather at the Knesset for a rally, after which they will march towards the residence of Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Netanyahu’s son targets Israel’s military in fiery Twitter post

Yair Netanyahu, the US-based son of the Israeli prime minister, has taken to Twitter to lash out at Israel’s military and intelligence services, who he suggests bear responsibility for the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel.

Reacting to the Israeli High Court’s decision to suspend a probe into those institutions’ possible failings leading up to October 7, Yair Netanyahu wrote: “What are they trying to hide? If there was no treason, why are they so afraid for external and independent parties to check what happened?”

The junior Netanyahu, who actively comments on Israeli politics on social media, has faced scorn for staying in the US while hundreds of thousands have been called up to serve during the war.

His father has been strongly criticised for repeatedly refusing to take responsibility for his government’s failure to prevent the October 7 attack. Earlier in the war, the prime minister deflected blame onto Israel’s intelligence services.



SvennoJ on 17 June 2024

Israelis displaced by Hezbollah attacks will return home ‘one way or another’, says Hagari

Here’s more from Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari’s statement earlier, where he warned that Israel is on the “brink” of “wider escalation” amid “increasing aggression” from Hezbollah.

“Hezbollah is endangering the future of Lebanon, so that it can act as a shield for Hamas,” said Hagari, adding that Hezbollah has fired “over 5,000 rockets, anti-tank missiles and armed drones from Lebanon” towards Israel, since October.

Despite his warnings, Hagari said Israel would ensure Israelis displaced from northern Israel would safely return to their homes, “one way or another”.

Tens of thousands of Israelis have been staying in government-funded hotel rooms for months after evacuating their homes near Israel’s southern borders with Gaza and northern borders with Israel, according to reports in The Times of Israel.

The Israeli government on Sunday said it had extended the hotel stays of Israeli evacuees from areas bordering Gaza until August 15, The Times of Israel reported.


Only a Gaza ceasefire can calm Israel-Hezbollah tensions: Analyst

Ending the Gaza war is the only way to ease Israel’s boiling tensions with Lebanese group Hezbollah, and return from the brink of “all-out war”, says Hassan Barari, a professor of international relations at Qatar University.

The US understands the potential flare-up between Israel and Hezbollah, a key Hamas ally, and is trying to push for a ceasefire in Gaza, but Israel “has set the bar impossibly high” to reach such a deal, Barari told Al Jazeera.

“The bottom line for the Palestinians in general and Hamas in particular is to end the war, to have a permanent ceasefire,” said Barari. If [Israel] wants to end the war in the north and in the south … they need to genuinely think about ending the war [in Gaza].”

Israeli drone attacks car in southern Lebanon’s Chehabiyeh

Israel has reportedly killed one man in a drone attack on a car on the outskirts of Chehabiyeh in southern Lebanon. Footage circulating on local social media accounts showed a plume of smoke rising from a hill with homes in the background.



SvennoJ on 17 June 2024

Netanyahu dissolves war cabinet: Reports

Netanyahu has announced the end of Israel’s war cabinet, after ministers Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot resigned from it a week ago. The Israeli prime minister made the announcement during a meeting of the political-security cabinet last night, Israel’s Maariv and Ynet news sites reported.

However, he is expected to continue to hold “security consultations” on the war with key officials, including those who had stayed in the now-disbanded war cabinet, according to Ynet.

Netanyahu snubs Ben-Gvir, Smotrich by dissolving war cabinet

    The war cabinet was set up in the days after October 7, essentially as a way of trying to show national unity.

    Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, the former chief of staff of the Israeli military, joined. One of Gantz’s reasons for being willing to join at the time was to stop the far right from having any influence on the prosecution of the war.

    Well, now Gantz and Eisenkot have withdrawn, essentially leaving only Netanyahu and the defence minister.

    Netanyahu’s dissolved the war cabinet, Israeli media is reporting, because Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, those far-right ministers keeping Netanyahu in power, have been agitating to join it. Rather than let them into the cabinet, Netanyahu’s dissolved it.

    The reporting is that Netanyahu will now use sort of a kitchen cabinet – speaking to some smaller advisers on what decisions to take regarding the continued prosecution of the war.



    War is a racket.

    Israel’s weapon exports hit all-time record last year, bringing in $13bn: Ministry

    About 36 percent of the weapons export deals in 2023 were related to air defence systems, according to an annual report by Israel’s Defence Exports Department of the Defence Ministry.

    This is compared to 19 percent the year before, according to Haaretz.

    Other significant exports were radar and electronic warfare systems (11 percent), fire and launch equipment (11 percent), drones and avionics (9 percent) and ammunition and armaments (8 percent), the report said.

    It also said that in the last five years, the scope of Israel’s defence exports has doubled and it has broken its export record for three years in a row.

    In 2023, nearly half of defence exports (48 percent) were destined for countries in Asia and the Pacific, 35 percent were for Europe, 9 percent for North America, 4 percent for Latin America, 3 percent for the countries that are part of the Abraham Accords and 1 percent for countries in Africa, the report said.