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

SvennoJ on 20 June 2024

White House says Netanyahu’s remarks on US weapons ‘perplexing’

The White House has described Netanyahu’s comments on US-supplied weapons as “incorrect”.

Netanyahu on Tuesday said he told Blinken it was “inconceivable” that in the past few months Washington had been “withholding weapons and ammunitions” to Israel.

“It was perplexing to say the least, certainly disappointing, especially given that no other country is doing more to help Israel defend itself against the threat by Hamas,” White House spokesman John Kirby told reporters.


Netanyahu says he will take ‘personal attack’ in effort to receive US ammunition

The Israeli prime minister makes the comments just two days after criticising the Biden administration in a video statement for “withholding weapons” to his country in recent months as it presses its war on Gaza.

“I am ready to suffer personal attacks provided that Israel receives from the US the ammunition it needs in the war for its existence,” he posted on X.


Israelis demonstrate against Netanyahu in front of his house

Video posted on social media shows large crowds outside of the home of Israel’s prime minister in Caesarea, in the north of the country. They are denouncing PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and its policy in the war on Gaza, and demanding early elections to replace him.

The footage shows the heavy presence of Israeli security personnel in the vicinity of the Israeli prime minister’s house.

Nearly half of Israelis don’t trust government to do what is right for country

A new poll of Israeli public opinion conducted by the Pew Research Center shows that 47 percent of Israelis do not trust that the government will do what is appropriate for Israel, while 53 percent expressed the opposite opinion.

“Israeli Jews are about three times as likely as Israeli Arabs to say they trust the national government [61 percent vs 23 percent]. Indeed, nearly four-in-ten Israeli Arabs [37 percent] say they do not trust it at all”, the study adds, breaking the results down by ethnicity.

The study also shows that Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is the most popular politician in Israel with 61 percent approval, followed by Minister Benny Gantz with 51 percent.




Dunno if this is more productive than Israel's approach, threatening the court

Hamas plans a legal response to ICC arrest warrants

Hamas says it is planning a legal response against the International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor’s request for arrest warrants against its top leaders.

Calling the war crimes accusations against three of its top leaders – Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh and Mohammed Deif – “baseless”, Hamas said it would argue Palestinians have “the right, indeed the duty, to resist occupation by all means available, including armed resistance”.

The ICC’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan said in May the three Hamas leaders bore responsibility for the attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed at least 1,139 people with 250 captives taken to Gaza.

The same day, Khan announced he is seeking arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

In its statement, Hamas said the prosecutor “erred in considering that the state of conflict began on October 7”, asserting it began in 1948 with Israel’s establishment.

While armed resistance is valid, hostage taking and targeting civilians is not. The leaked plans clearly stated the aim of taking hundreds of hostages. There's only one exception POW: "while engaged in combat under orders of their government, is captured by the armed forces of the enemy"

https://www.icrc.org/en/document/prisoners-war-what-you-need-know

Just as Israel can't claim self-defense for kidnapping and torturing people, neither can Hamas in the name of armed resistance.



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SvennoJ on 20 June 2024

Talking about racism and islamophobia

Rebel News admits it owns truck displaying anti-Muslim ads

Israeli BDS Coordinator Says Boycott of Israel is WORKING



SvennoJ on 21 June 2024

Intense fighting in Rafah, air strikes on Gaza City residential homes

It is still intensifying and escalating in Rafah where it is a battlefield right now between the Palestinian resistance factions and the Israeli army.

Fighting is taking place in the Shaboura refugee camp and also in the Saudi neighbourhood. At least 65,000 Palestinians remain in Rafah and refuse to evacuate despite the endless air strikes and artillery shelling.

It is also the same in the northern parts of the Gaza Strip, where air strikes continue to target residential homes in the Shujayea neighbourhood in the heart of Gaza City.

The Palestinian civil defence teams were able to recover the bodies of four Palestinians after four days of being targeted … four days ago in the Nuseirat camp. We just received their bodies in Al-Aqsa Hospital, and Palestinians are still being displaced from one place to another, striving to find water and food.

Israeli military carries out deadly strikes across the Gaza Strip

The Wafa news agency has reported several deadly Israeli military attacks across the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours, they include:

  • At least eight people have been killed after the Israeli military bombed a house in the Zeitoun neighbourhood, southeast of Gaza City.
  • At least two people have been killed and 12 injured in an Israeli strike on the al-Hasayna area in Nuseirat, central Gaza.
  • At least one person was killed and others injured in an Israeli strike on Deir el-Balah.
  • Rescue crews have recovered the bodies of three children and their mother from under the rubble of the al-Rai family home, which the Israeli military bombed two days ago in the Nuseirat refugee camp.


Relatives of Palestinians, who died after an Israeli strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp, mourn at the morgue of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah, Gaza, on June 18


Israeli tanks, artillery, air strikes hit targets in Gaza’s north, south and centre overnight

Israeli forces are pounding targets in the vicinity of the Saudi neighbourhood in the west of Rafah city and also blowing up residential buildings in the area, our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic report.

Israeli tanks are also firing on eastern areas of Khan Younis in the central Gaza Strip, while artillery fire has hit northern areas of the Nuseirat refugee camp, which is also located in Gaza’s centre.

In the north of the territory, overnight air strikes have resulted in casualties, including the bombing of a house in Gaza City’s eastern Shujayea neighbourhood.


Israeli military announces two soldiers killed in northern Gaza

The Israeli military has announced that two soldiers were killed in a mortar attack in northern Gaza on Thursday. Both men, a 25-year-old and a 27-year-old, were reservists fighting in the Alexandroni Brigade. A further three soldiers from the same brigade were seriously wounded in the same incident.

Hamas has claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it targeted a military position with mortar fire near the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City.

The latest deaths bring the total number of Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza – or along its border – to at least 312 since the start of the ground invasion of the Palestinian territory in October. A further 1,950 Israeli soldiers have been injured in the war so far.


Video clip captures terrifying moment of Israel strike near Khan Younis hospital

Palestinian people are going about their business in the vicinity of the Nasser Medical Complex in central Gaza’s Khan Younis when the Israeli strike rips into a nearby building sending a dark cloud of smoke, sparks and pulverised masonry into the night sky.

It is not known from the video, which was obtained and verified by our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic, if there were casualties from the attack on the house.


Three killed in Khan Younis; Israeli helicopter and warplanes blast Rafah: Reports

Three people have been killed in an early morning Israeli attack in the east of Khan Younis, the Palestinian state news agency Wafa reports.

The bodies of the two adults and a child were taken to the European Hospital in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis. Two people were also injured in an Israeli attack on two homes in the Tuffah and Shujayea neighbourhoods of Gaza City in the north.

Israel artillery shelling hit the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City, the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, and areas around Deir el-Balah, including the Maghazi refugee camp, Wafa reports.

An Apache attack helicopter used machineguns against eastern areas of Rafah city and an Israeli warplane hit Rafah’s centre, the news agency also reports.


Five killed in Israeli attack on municipal building in Gaza City

There has been yet another attack that happened within the past hour when an Israeli air strike targeted a Gaza municipality facility in the heart of Gaza City in al-Wehda Street, a very important area in the Gaza City, where a large number of people from both the eastern and western part of Gaza City have sought refuge.

Initial reports say that four municipality employees and one passer-by were killed in the attack, and multiple others injured.

It’s important to emphasise that we’re not looking at an area that is only being used by the municipality and their employees, but also by people who have been pushed and forcibly displaced and who have been sheltering inside a residential home close by.

Their family members who work for the municipality, happened to be inside this facility when it was targeted. It’s a public garage of the municipality where they keep their trucks and most of the equipment that they use during the cleanup of areas struck by the Israeli military.

They have all been transported to al-Ahli Arab Hospital (Baptist Hospital), despite the fact that the location of this public facility is very close to al-Shifa Hospital, but since al-Shifa is no longer functioning, this was the only option.



SvennoJ on 21 June 2024

As intended, the effect of systematically targeting local police. Desperation has set in.

Lawlessness hampering aid delivery in southern Gaza: Report

Lawlessness is a major obstacle to humanitarian aid distribution for southern and central Gaza, a United Nations official has told The Associated Press (AP) news agency.

Armed men are regularly blocking convoys, holding drivers at gunpoint and rifling through their cargo, according to a UN official who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

An estimated 1.3 million Palestinians – more than half of Gaza’s entire population – who were displaced from Rafah by Israel’s ground invasion of the city are now sheltering in tent camps and cramped apartments without adequate food, water or medical supplies in southern and central Gaza.


UN aid trucks on Salah al-Din Street in the east of Gaza City on Wednesday


US says 656 metric tonnes of aid delivered through humanitarian pier

The Pentagon has said that more than 656 metric tonnes (1.4 million pounds) of aid was delivered through a US-built aid pier off the coast of Gaza on Thursday, only hours after it resumed operations.

The pier, which was temporarily removed last week due to poor weather conditions, was re-anchored and resumed operations on Wednesday, according to Pentagon press secretary, Pat Ryder.

The faltering $320m project has been widely criticised by aid groups as an ineffective substitute for Israel reopening land, border crossings for humanitarian supplies to enter Gaza.

UN still reviewing whether agencies, staff can use US-built Gaza aid pier

The United Nations is still assessing whether it is safe for UN agencies and personnel to take part in humanitarian aid deliveries using the US military’s pier on Gaza’s coast amid claims the floating dock may have been used by Israeli forces during their bloody June 8 operation to free captives.

There is currently no timeline for completing the assessment, UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said on Thursday, the AP news agency reports.

If the UN Department of Safety and Security decides that staff can resume operations via the pier, “then the World Food Programme stands ready to do so based on its core principles”, Haq said, referring to the UN’s commitment to neutrality and independence in humanitarian activities.

The Israeli operation, which killed more than 270 Palestinian people and injured hundreds more, was linked to the US pier when an Israeli helicopter touched down near the dock to whisk away the four freed Israeli captives and an injured Israeli soldier. Both US and Israeli forces deny the pier played any role in the operation.


Israeli attacks preventing supply deliveries to hospitals

We’re seeing pressure put on healthcare facilities due to the large influx of injuries and casualties from Israeli attacks, and the fact that relentless attacks are taking place near hospitals is causing a great deal of concern and panic.

There is concern for the sustainability of these healthcare facilities as the attacks are preventing the arrival of any basic supplies to these hospitals. They have destroyed infrastructure and roads leading to hospitals, hindering everything and causing delays in the delivery of medical supplies and the movement of ambulances when they are dispatched.

The Israeli attack in the vicinity of Nasser Hospital has caused a great deal of damage to the area, including an evacuation centre, which was previously a UNRWA school.

The attack happened to be livestreamed as many social media activists were present in the area and were able to broadcast the air strike live. There have been a number of casualties brought to the Nasser Hospital in the past half an hour due to the strike.



SvennoJ on 21 June 2024

Diseases spreading again in Gaza, says hospital director

We’ve been reporting about the spread of disease and lack of clean water in Gaza.

The director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Jabalia has given us some updates on the situation:

  • Some diseases are spreading again, including hepatitis C
  • Lack of healthy food and clean water is aiding the spread of diseases
  • We can only offer some medical solutions for malnourished children
  • We demand the entry of fuel, food and medical supplies because we are facing a disaster in the Gaza Strip


‘Up to 800 patients and thousands of displaced people’ crammed inside Al-Aqsa Hospital

Dr Bushra Othman, a surgeon working at Gaza’s Al-Aqsa Hospital, has warned of extreme overcrowding and limited resources in the emergency department of the hospital, particularly when there are attacks nearby.

In a conversation with Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud from inside the hospital, Othman said there were only three doctors working in the emergency department.

“This is a hospital that would normally have a couple of hundred beds and doesn’t necessarily get to treat a lot of patients. There are now up to 800 patients and thousands of displaced people,” Othman said, adding that the increased number of displaced makes it challenging for doctors to identify patients.

“Unfortunately, because there’s no structure and there’s no system, you actually don’t know always where your patients end up or where you might be able to find them in order to provide the treatment that they require.

“There are only a couple of hospitals that are still partially in control and this will be one of them.”


Children in ‘severe pain’ due to lack of analgesia in hospitals: Doctor

We bring you more from inside Al-Aqsa Hospital, where our colleague Hani Mahmoud spoke to Dr Bushra Othman, a surgeon at the medical facility. Othman pointed out that there are only a couple of hospitals in all of Gaza that are still partially functional, Al-Aqsa being one of them.

“There’s not necessarily the equipment to be able to monitor [the patients] in terms of taking their vital signs like blood pressure and heart rate,” Othman said, pointing out that a large number of injured are children.

“A lot of these kids are in severe pain because of their wounds. There isn’t enough adequate analgesia to be able to give them. They require care, which sometimes is unnecessarily not able to be provided here.”


Intense heat in Gaza could worsen health crisis for Palestinians, WHO warns

The World Health Organization warns that scorching heat in the Strip could exacerbate health problems for Palestinians displaced by Israel’s war on Gaza.

The World Food Programme has warned that a serious public health crisis is looming in Gaza due to the lack of clean water, food and medical supplies. “We’ve seen massive displacement over the last weeks and months, and we know that combination and the heat can cause a rise in diseases,” said Richard Peeperkorn, WHO’s representative for Gaza and the West Bank.

“We have water contamination because of hot water, and we will have much more food spoilage because of the high temperature. We will get insect mosquitoes and flies, dehydration, heat stroke.”

Extreme heat has killed hundreds worldwide as the Northern Hemisphere summer begins.

Peeperkorn said in Gaza, due to poor water and sanitation conditions, the number of cases of diarrhoea was 25 times higher than usual. Contaminated water and poor sanitation are linked to diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery and hepatitis A, according to the WHO.

The WHO has been unable to carry out medical evacuations from Gaza since the closure of the Rafah crossing in early May. Peeperkorn said an estimated 10,000 patients still required medical evacuation from Gaza, half of whom are suffering from ailments related to the war.


Palestinians ride vehicles past buildings destroyed during a previous Israeli bombardment in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on June 21



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SvennoJ on 21 June 2024

Palestinians struggle for normal life in the shadow of war







‘There is a war within each individual’

Arwa Damon, founder and president of NGO Inara, is in Gaza on a humanitarian mission for the second time.

She told Al Jazeera from Deir el-Balah that children are exhibiting signs of severe and traumatic psychological distress and pointed to a conversation told to her by a father with his five-year-old boy.

“Maybe it would have been better if we had just died and stayed at home rather than having to live like this,” she quoted the boy as saying. “[The father] was talking about how the next war is going to happen once the bombs stop.

“You hear this repeatedly over and over again. There is a war within each individual. Despite all of this madness and tragedy, it’s also providing a certain level of distraction from the true measure, scale and scope of everything that has been lost,” Damon said.

‘No room to breathe’

Arwa Damon, founder and president of NGO Inara, says that what separates Gaza from other war zones is the “sheer and total psychological obliteration”.

“The traumas, the triggers are relentless. There is no escaping, no respite, no room to breathe … no concept of a safe space,” she told Al Jazeera from Deir el-Balah. The Rafah border crossing, the only evacuation point for Palestinians in Gaza has been blocked off.

She recalled a little boy who has a shrapnel injury to his abdomen. If he is unable to get out of Gaza for medical treatment, he will have a permanent disability or possibly die.



SvennoJ on 21 June 2024

UN expert calls on arms companies to cease exports to Israel

Michael Fakhri, the UN special rapporteur for the right to food, has urged arms companies to “cease all arms exports to Israel now”.

“They are complicit in war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide,” he wrote in a post on X.

Fakhri’s comments come following a call from the UN for the US, Germany, the UK and arms manufacturers – including Boeing and Lockheed Martin – to halt weapons exports to the country, saying they “risk complicity in violations of international law”.

https://x.com/MichaelFakhri/status/1803924412099629520

UN experts warn investment firms of legal risk related to Israeli arms supplies

A group of UN experts has warned weapons manufacturers and investment companies of the legal risks posed by supplying Israeli forces with munitions as the country faces alleged war crimes in Gaza.

The group of independent UN experts said the “sale, transfer and diversion of arms, munitions and other military equipment to Israel” must cease, and banks and investment companies investing in weapons manufacturers are also at risk of prosecution under international law.

While arms manufacturers who supply Israel with weapons are at “risk of being complicit in serious violations of international human rights and international humanitarian laws”, their financial investors must also be “called to account”, the experts said.

“Failure to prevent or mitigate their business relationships with these arms manufacturers transferring arms to Israel could move from being directly linked to human rights abuses to contributing to them, with repercussions for complicity in potential atrocity crimes,” the experts said in a statement.

Among some of the better-known institutional investors named and “urged to take action” were Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Norges Bank Investment Management, and Wells Fargo & Company.



SvennoJ on 21 June 2024

Israeli forces shoot three people during raid on Ramallah

The Israeli military has raided the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, shooting three people, leaving one man in critical condition, the Wafa news agency reports.

Israeli forces have prevented paramedics from reaching the critically injured man, who was wounded in the city’s Qaddoura refugee camp, Wafa reports. The Israeli military has also stormed the nearby town of Silwad, northeast of Ramallah.

Israeli military carries out arrests, raids in the occupied West Bank

The Israeli military has arrested four Palestinians in different locations across the occupied West Bank, according to local media.

Israeli forces arrested one man after storming his house in the town of Silwad, northeast of Ramallah, while a second man was arrested in the town of Azmut, east of Nablus.

Two Palestinians have also been arrested in the city of Qalqilya, including the father of a man wanted by the Israeli military. He has reportedly been detained to pressure his son to turn himself in.

Israeli raids have been reported in other locations across the occupied West Bank, including:

  • The town of Seneria, south of Qalqilya
  • The town of Bizzariya, northwest of Nablus
  • The city of Dura, south of Hebron
  • The Jalazone refugee camp, north of Ramallah



Israeli military arrests 8 men in Jalazone camp

The Israeli military has arrested eight men after storming the Jalazone refugee camp, north of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, the Wafa news agency reports.

Earlier we reported that the Israeli military had stormed the camp and raided several homes. They have now withdrawn from the camp, according to local media.

Three Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in occupied West Bank

At least three people were killed after Israeli special forces shot at a vehicle in the centre of Qalqilya, northern occupied West Bank. The Israeli forces also reportedly besieged a building in the centre of the city.

A Red Crescent official in Qalqilya told Al Jazeera that Israeli forces prevented his crews from approaching the car that was targeted.

At least 549 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and settler attacks in the occupied West Bank since October 7. Another 5,200 have been wounded.



SvennoJ on 21 June 2024

EU’s Borrell, Jordan FM lament ‘catastrophe’ in Gaza, ‘deterioration’ in West Bank

The EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has spoken to Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi about the “ongoing catastrophe” in Gaza as well as the deteriorating situation for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

In a post on social media, Borrell said he and the minister were gravely concerned that “full humanitarian access is still being denied” to the people of Gaza amid an Israeli border blockade of the war-torn Palestinian territory.

Despite a binding – though unenforced – order by the International Court of Justice, Borrell said fighting has not ended in Gaza, Israeli captives have not been released, and a ceasefire proposal announced by US President Joe Biden has not been implemented.

Safadi said he spoke to Borrell about the urgency of the EU taking “real action to stop Israel’s war crime against the Palestinian people”.

“A radical, racist Israel Govt shouldn’t be given impunity. It must face sanctions & be held to account,” he wrote on social media.

Smotrich using ‘fog of war’ to annex occupied West Bank

The Israeli army has transferred responsibility for dozens of bylaws at the Civil Administration – the Israeli body governing in the occupied West Bank – from the military to officials led by the far-right minister Bezalel Smotrich at the Defense Ministry, The Guardian has reported.

The order, posted on the military’s website on May 29, is significant because it removes “any pretence by Israel that its presence in the occupied West Bank is temporary,” Nour Odeh reported from Ramallah.

Smotrich, as the de facto ruler of the territory, has installed people loyal to him ideologically to ensure that any expansion of illegal Israeli settlements would not face any hindrance and that any Palestinian activity in about 60 percent of the West Bank would be confronted and treated as illegal, she said.

“This is not Smotrich going rogue; what he’s really doing is using the fog of war, slipping that order in a few days ago using all of what’s happening in Gaza in order to not attract attention,” Odeh said.

“But really, very honestly implementing a coalition agreement that has pledged to take over the West Bank, annex it legally, administratively, and politically to Israel in defiance of international law.”



SvennoJ on 21 June 2024

Israeli mother tells Netanyahu to stop playing ‘petty politics’ with lives of captives in Gaza

The families of Israeli captives demonstrated outside the private residence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the town of Caesarea on Thursday, calling for elections to be held and a ceasefire-for-captives deal to be agreed.

“We came to tell the prime minister we will not allow you to play petty politics on the backs of the hostages,” said Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan is held in Gaza, the Haaretz newspaper reports.

“We will not let you abandon the hostages, abandon the north and take an entire country captive for your political survival. It will not happen,” she said.


Protesters attend a demonstration against Benjamin Netanyahu’s government near the Israeli prime minister’s private residence in Caesarea, Israel, on June 20


‘Stop Bibi, Stop Madness’: Anti-Netanyahu, anti-military draft protests in Israel


Israeli army wants to leave Gaza, Netanyahu has ‘other ideas’

The Israeli army wants to withdraw from Gaza but PM Netanyahu “has other ideas”, according to Israeli military analyst Amos Harel.

Writing in the Israeli daily Haaretz, Harel said Netanyahu “continues to declare that the all-out war against Hamas will continue for as long as it takes”.

“He’s again scattering promises of total victory to his supporters. In reality, what we have is a war that looks more eternal than a victory,” he wrote, adding that “Netanyahu’s supreme goal remains survival: to get through the Knesset’s summer session and wait in the hope that Trump will be elected president in November.

“That’s preferable for him compared to the alternative of a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, an effective admission of failure to achieve the goals of the combat, and the almost certain resignation of the extreme right parties from the coalition and the collapse of the government,” Harel added.

Earlier this week, Israel’s military spokesman exposed a widening rift between the country’s political and army leadership, questioning Netanyahu’s stated goal of destroying Hamas in the Gaza Strip for the war to end.

After nine months of war in which more than 37,000 Palestinians have been killed, Daniel Hagari told Israel’s Channel 13 broadcaster on Wednesday that the task was impossible.


Ending war in Gaza key to settlement with Hezbollah: Retired Israeli general

Israel Ziv says ending the war in Gaza is key to reaching a settlement with Hezbollah, Israeli Channel 12 reports.

Here are some other points the retired Israeli general made:
  • The pressure on reserve forces has become unbearable and the political situation is dangerous and deteriorating.
  • There’s a growing confidence crisis among the public and difficulty in dealing with the problem of those who fled their homes nine months ago.
  • Israel does not have the ability to withstand more months in light of the bad situation, economic deterioration and political collapse.
  • Great pressure must be exerted on Hamas, the captives must return, the war in Gaza must end and a settlement in the north must be made.