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

SvennoJ on 26 June 2024

Hamas ‘replenishing’ weapons stockpiles, recruits in Gaza: Monitors

US-based defence think tanks, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project (CTP) said Hamas will likely use the end of Israel’s “intense phase” of ground operations in Gaza to “reconstitute its combat units” and reassert “governing authority”.

Israel’s Army Radio announced on Tuesday that Israeli forces will transition to raid operations once they have declared Hamas defeated in Rafah, which the military says will happen in the coming days.

However, the latest battlefield report by ISW/CTP points out that thousands of Palestinian fighters departed Rafah prior to the Israeli ground incursion and these forces could provide the “human resources to reorganise themselves into composite, fully combat effective units”.

The think tanks, which have previously noted the limitations of Israeli raids, reiterated the limited effectiveness of the plan in Gaza.

“Hamas is capable of regrouping in the Gaza Strip in the absence of sustained military pressure and a viable alternative to its rule. Raids can temporarily disrupt but will not stop a reconstitution process,” the ISW/CTP report states.


Israeli shelling kills, injures people in Gaza City: Report

Israeli forces have shelled several areas of Gaza City, killing and wounding an unknown number of people, reports the Wafa news agency.

The attacks targeted the neighbourhoods of Zeitoun, Sabra and Tal al-Hawa. Towards the centre of the Strip, Israeli artillery hit the eastern party of Bureij refugee camp, as well as farmland west of Nuseirat.


Death toll from Israeli air strike on home in Beit Lahiya rises to 15

We have reported earlier that Israel’s air strike had levelled to the ground the Abu Awad family home in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahiya town, killing four people.

Al Jazeera’s team on the ground now says the death toll reached 15 and rescuers are still working to pull victims from under the rubble. Gaza’s Department of Medical Services said that about 40 people, mostly women and children, were inside the house when it was struck.


Palestinians and civil defense teams take part in the search and rescue operations after Israeli airstrike hit residential building in Beit Lahia, Gaza


Civil defence rescues 13 people from bombed home in Gaza City’s Daraj area

Gaza’s Civil defence says its crews have responded to the scene of a bombed home in Gaza City’s Daraj neighbourhood. The rescuers have managed to pull 13 people alive from the home, located on Jaffa street, the announcement said on Telegram.



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SvennoJ on 26 June 2024

Gaza’s death toll rises

Israeli attacks in Gaza have killed 60 people and injured 140 in the last 24 hours, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. More victims are still believed to be trapped in areas rescue workers cannot reach, it added.

The latest casualties bring Gaza’s total death toll since October 7 to 37,718, with an additional 86,377 wounded.


Six trucks with medical aid enter southern Gaza: PRCS

Six truckloads of much-needed medical aid have passed through Gaza’s Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS).

The relief group says it will distribute the supplies, donated by Morocco, to hospitals suffering from severe shortages.

Aid flow into Gaza has dropped since the Rafah crossing closed in early May, reducing already meagre supplies of food and medicine even further.


Seven killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza’s Nuseirat and Khan Younis

We are getting reports of several deadly attacks in central Gaza.

In one attack, Israeli artillery strikes hit a residential apartment in the Nuseirat refugee camp, killing at least five people, according to our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic.

Another attack in the town of Khuza’a in eastern Khan Younis killed two more people, according to their reports.


Israeli forces carry out deadly attack on home in northern Gaza’s Jabalia

Our colleagues on the ground are reporting another deadly attack in northern Gaza, this time in the central area of Jabalia.

The attack targeted a home in the city, killing and injuring an unknown number of people, according to their report.



SvennoJ on 26 June 2024

Israeli forces arrest 20 in latest West Bank raids

Most arrests took place in Hebron and Jenin governorates, while others were in Bethlehem and Qalqilya, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society.

Among those arrested was the mother of a Palestinian man who is wanted by Israeli authorities and several other former detainees, said the group.


Palestinian homes demolished in occupied West Bank’s Beitillu and Jericho

Israeli forces have demolished a Palestinian home in the village of Beitillu, west of Ramallah, and two more in the city of Jericho in the occupied West Bank, according to the Wafa news agency.

The houses in the Matar neighbourhood, east of Jericho, were owned by Firas Abu Al-Zeit and Kamal Mahmoud Baraka, and the one in Beitillu belonged to Mohammad Wajih Bazar, the report said.

The homes were demolished for lacking building permits, according to Israeli officials, a common reason cited for the destruction of Palestinian homes even as Israeli settlements – illegal under international law – expand.

They are among more than 990 Palestinian structures to be demolished or confiscated in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since October 7, displacing more than 900 people, according to UN figures.


Israeli forces demolish nine Palestinian homes in occupied West Bank: Report

Israeli forces have carried out nine demolitions of Palestinian homes throughout the occupied West Bank today, according to the Wafa news agency.

They include:

  • Four homes near Jericho
  • Three homes in the Masafer Yatta community, south of Hebron
  • One home in Beitillu village, west of Ramallah
  • One home in Jerusalem’s Silwan neighbourhood

This month alone, Israeli forces have demolished 47 Palestinian structures, including 35 inhabited homes, in the West Bank, according to the Ramallah-based Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission.



SvennoJ on 26 June 2024

Norway pension fund divests from Caterpillar Inc due to Israeli military sales

The largest pension fund in Norway has announced it will no longer invest in Caterpillar Inc over the US construction equipment manufacturer’s sales to the Israeli military, Reuters news agency reports.

KLP said it had excluded Caterpillar from its portfolio over concerns the Israeli military is using its heavy machinery to carry out human rights abuses and violate international law, including the demolition of homes and infrastructure, in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

KLP said it had engaged in dialogue with Caterpillar over several months, but did not receive satisfactory assurances on the issue, resulting in a June 17 decision to divest shares worth 728 million Norwegian crowns ($69m).


An Israeli armoured Caterpillar D9 bulldozer manoeuvres near the Israel-Gaza separation fence

India exports rockets and explosives to Israel amid Gaza war

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/6/26/india-exports-rockets-explosives-to-israel-amid-gaza-war-documents-reveal

On June 6, in the aftermath of Israel’s bombing of a UN shelter at Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza, the Quds News Network released a video of the remains of a missile dropped by Israeli warplanes.

Amid the tangled parts, a label clearly read: “Made in India.”

Documents seen by Al Jazeera and company statements suggest weapon parts from India, a country that has long advocated dialogue over military action in resolving conflicts, are quietly making their way to Israel, including during the continuing months-long war in Gaza.

Analysts say a lack of transparency on India’s transfers helps them slip under the radar.



SvennoJ on 26 June 2024

Cross-border fires in Lebanon, Israel as fighting continues across the frontier



An Israeli firefighter puts out a fire in a field, ignited after a drone from southern Lebanon was shot down near Kfar Dishon in the Upper Galilee in northern Israel on Tuesday

A fire broke out after an Israeli air attack on a building in the Shebaa region in the southeast of Lebanon on Wednesday morning


Israeli military claims strikes on Hezbollah posts in southern Lebanon

According to Israel’s military, its warplanes hit several Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon overnight, including an observation post in the area of Matmoura and additional infrastructure in Shebaa.

In a post on X, the military shared purported footage of the strikes.


‘Too dangerous’: Israeli air raids hammer southern Lebanon

Over the last three hours, there has been an increase in Israel’s air strikes where we are here in southern Lebanon.

Behind me is the town of Khiam which was hit this morning. I can still see smoke rising from some of the strike sites. Strikes also hit other areas of southern Lebanon near the border.

We’d like to go down there, but we can’t because, frankly, it’s too dangerous. We’re told that any car that moves in that town could be a potential target for the Israelis.

On the other side of Khiam is the Israeli settlement of Metula. Hezbollah has targeted that settlement in the past, they say, with guided missiles.

The fear is that this could turn into an all-out war.


Fire breaks out after Israel shells southern Lebanon’s Bint Jbeil outskirts

Israel has shelled the outskirts of southern Lebanon’s Bint Jbeil town, prompting the outbreak of fire, according to local media.

The video footage circulating on social media showed plumes of smoke being scattered by the wind near a road. The fire was later contained, according to the reports.

Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported that the Israeli artillery shelling targeted the outskirts of the towns of Kfar Kila, Burj al-Muluk, Tallet al-Aziziyah, and the Marjayoun Plain.

Caption translation: The fire broke out as a result of an Israeli artillery bombardment that targeted the al-Falawat area on the outskirts of Bint Jbeil, in the at-Tiri district, behind al-Aytam station, and it was controlled.



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SvennoJ on 26 June 2024

Israel to recruit retirement-age reservists for new brigade unit: Report

Israel’s military is planning to create a new light brigade unit composed of retirees and volunteers, including ultra-Orthodox citizens, due to a troop shortage, according to Israeli news site Walla.

The unit, called Brigade 96 or “David’s Division”, is expected to have 40,000 personnel, both men and women, according to Walla.

They will include soldiers, commanders and officers from infantry brigades, special units and other security organisations, it said.

The plan comes as Israel’s government moves forward with a bill increasing reservists’ retirement age by one year, in an effort to boost troop numbers more than eight months into the Gaza war.

Israel to impose extra tax on salaried workers this month to address budget deficit: Report

Israel’s government will impose an exceptional tax on salaried workers in June to help reduce the budget deficit caused by the country’s war on Gaza, according to the Israel Hayom newspaper.

The tax will be equivalent to one working day, deducted from employees’ June salaries, the report said.

The development affects both public and private sector workers.

Earlier this month, Israel’s Finance Ministry announced that its budget deficit for the past 12 months had jumped to 137.7 billion shekels ($37bn), equivalent to 7.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

Six senior Israeli figures call on US Congress to ‘disinvite’ Netanyahu: Report

Ex-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, former Mossad chief Tamir Pardo and four other senior political figures have published a joint letter in the New York Times, calling on the leaders of the US Congress to prevent Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from giving a speech to US lawmakers on July 24.

“Congress has made a terrible mistake” by inviting him, the letter said, adding that “Netanyahu’s appearance in Washington will not represent the State of Israel and its citizens”.

The address “will reward his scandalous and destructive conduct toward our country”, the claimants said, stressing that the prime minister “failed to come up with a plan to end the war in Gaza or free dozens of hostages”.

“Congressional call for him should have been conditional on resolving these two issues, as well as calling for new elections in Israel,” the letter concluded.


Explosion rocks Israeli-Palestinian co-existence organisation in Israel’s Lod city

An explosion went off last night at the office of an Israeli organisation that promotes co-existence with Palestinians, damaging its premises, the NGO says.

Police suspect the explosion, at the office of the Abraham Initiatives in the central Israeli city of Lod, was caused by a grenade, according to a statement from the NGO cited by Israeli media. The explosion did not cause any casualties.

The organisation said it expects “police and law enforcement to carry out a speedy and fundamental investigation into the serious incident, and bring the perpetrators to justice”. 



SvennoJ on 26 June 2024

Israel's Propaganda Campaign To Control Discourse Uncovered by Lee Fong

UNRWA chief reveals horrific numbers not reported by media ; West in the dock



SvennoJ on 26 June 2024

US involved in talks with Israel, UN agencies on aid challenges

The United States has been involved in discussions with United Nations agencies and the Israeli government over the past few days to try and work through security challenges the UN is facing as it delivers humanitarian aid in Gaza.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters Washington is continuing to push to resolve their “legitimate concerns about the safety and security of their personnel”.

“There are some of the requests where Israel has legitimate security concerns, and what we’re trying to do is broker agreements that give the UN personnel the assurances they need, that they can operate securely while still protecting Israel’s legitimate security concerns,” Miller explained on Wednesday.

He also addressed the difficulties in distributing the aid within Gaza.

“I think everyone’s aware that has been the chief impediment to actually getting food to the Palestinian people. It’s not getting aid into the pier, it’s not getting into Kerem Shalom. It’s then making sure that it can be distributed from those points onward,” Miller said.

More than 495,000 people across the besieged Palestinian territory are facing “catastrophic food insecurity”, according to a report published on Monday by the United Nation’s hunger monitoring system, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification.

Stop supplying bombs. It's that simple to make it safer for aid distribution.


Looting adds to logistical woes of Gaza aid delivery by sea

A US aid official has said thousands of tonnes of food, medicines and other aid piled up on a Gaza beach are not reaching those in need because of a dire security situation on the ground.

Doug Stropes of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) explained Gaza continues to be an active combat zone with a “general sense of lawlessness”.

According to Stropes, truck drivers trying to deliver via a US-built pier are either getting shot at or having their cargo seized by “gang-like” groups.

The looting “appeared to have expanded beyond just self-distribution”, he said. “It expanded recently beyond just those in need stopping the vehicles and getting the assistance out, and it appears to be organised — not in the sense of a large-scale organisation, but there are organised elements that are stopping and taking the commodities from the trucks.”

Israel has closed almost all land border crossings and is not allowing aid to be distributed through them, as the UN and aid organisations are demanding. Israeli forces have also shot at people who have been guarding the aid trucks to prevent looting, at times killing them.

Attacks across Gaza ongoing

The past 24 hours have been quite violent, bloody, and quite brutal for Palestinians in Gaza.

There have been more attacks on densely populated areas, whether it is in the northern part of the Strip, the central area of Nuseirat or further to the southern parts of Gaza, where the Israeli military is still operating aggressively, destroying and systematically demolishing residential homes in Rafah city.

These attacks are taking place on a population that has been herded from one place to another, already displaced more than once.  Many parts of Gaza are already struggling on a daily basis with forced dehydration and starvation.

It’s not only the unpredictable bombs that are killing people. Even if we say, for argument’s sake, the bomb stops falling, people are going to die because of the dire situation in Gaza.


Deaths, injuries reported in Israeli attack in northern Gaza

Al Jazeera’s journalists on the ground are reporting casualties following an Israeli bombing that targeted the Finance Roundabout south of Gaza City.



SvennoJ on 26 June 2024

Israel has never admitted to unlawfully killing a journalist

Some 152 journalists and media workers have been killed since the beginning of this conflict.

The Israeli military has never once given an admission of an unlawful killing of a Palestinian civilian or even a journalist. They maintain that they go after Hamas targets and sites.

Some legal experts say that perhaps this is to remove the Palestinian journalists who are there to bring us the stories on the ground that we see every day.

As we know foreign journalists are not allowed into the Gaza Strip unless it is through Israeli army embeds where they control what the media sees. They are not allowed to go on their own into Gaza.


Investigation finds more than 20 journalists from one outlet killed in Gaza war

The Guardian has published an investigation into the Israeli military conduct that suggests that certain Palestinian journalists are viewed as targets for attack.

A senior Israeli official, Olivier Rafowicz, told one of The Guardian’s media partners that there is no difference between working for a media outlet affiliated with Hamas and being a fighter in the  Qassam Brigades.

He went on to elaborate that there is “no difference between the political and the military wing of Hamas”. Those statements prompted the Israeli military to release a correction and a retraction, saying that these are not its official standards.

A spokesperson reiterated that the Israeli military does not target media personnel: “Rafowicz erred as these comments mischaracterise [the Israeli military’s] targeting policy.” Targeting journalists violates international law.

However, human rights experts have pointed to the high death tolls among Palestinian journalists on the ground in Gaza. More than 103 Palestinian media workers have been killed so far, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

In its investigation, The Guardian found at least 23 members of the Al-Aqsa network, a media channel linked to Hamas, were killed.


Israeli parliament approves bill to extend ‘Al Jazeera Law’: Report

According to the Jerusalem Post, the Knesset has given initial approval to extend and permanently implement the “Al Jazeera Law“, a measure that grants Israeli authorities the power to shut down foreign media sources deemed to be a threat to national security.

Wednesday’s preliminary vote concerned a law passed in April. That law allowed the government to block Al Jazeera’s broadcasts in Israel and shut down its offices.

The measure, however, was designed to be temporary, setting up a system of judicial review and government reapproval of the decision every 45 days, the Jerusalem Post reported. An expiration date was also set for July 31.

But Wednesday’s bill cancelled the July 31 expiration date, paving the way for the law to become remain in force indefinitely.

It also extended the need for government reapproval from every 45 days to every 90 days and added a provision that the communications minister could “direct government agencies responsible for the issue to stop the channel’s broadcast”.

A spokesperson for Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi explained that this would enable the government to block not just cable, but also satellite broadcasts.

Civil rights groups have argued that the “Al Jazeera law” violates freedom of expression, freedom of the press and the right to information.



SvennoJ on 26 June 2024

EU top diplomat says potential Israel-Hezbollah was would impact bloc

In a meeting on Wednesday, European Union Representative Josep Borell said he and Lebanese Foreign Minister Bou Habib discussed ways to ensure there is an “immediate de-escalation” across the Blue Line — the border demarcation between Lebanon and Israel.

He also indicated they would ramp up efforts to find a political solution to lessen tensions.

“Lebanon, Israel and the region cannot afford another war. The EU would be affected too,” he posted on X.



Spread of war to Lebanon ‘potentially apocalyptic’: UN aid chief

The United Nations humanitarian chief has voiced alarm at the prospect of Israel’s war in Gaza spreading to Lebanon. “I see it as the flashpoint … It’s potentially apocalyptic,” Martin Griffiths, whose term finishes at the end of the month, told reporters in Geneva.

  • US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said: “Another war between Israel and Hezbollah could easily become a regional war, with terrible consequences for the Middle East. Diplomacy is by far the best way to prevent more escalation.”
  • German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock warned that any “miscalculation” could trigger all-out war and urged “extreme restraint”.
  • Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Western powers of backing Israel as it sets “its sights on Lebanon”, seeking “to spread the war to the region”.


US reiterates support for possible invasion of Lebanon

US reiterates support for Israel amid tensions with Hezbollah, calls for de-escalation

White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has met with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, according to a statement released by the White House on Wednesday.

“Mr. Sullivan reaffirmed the United States’ ironclad commitment to Israel’s security, including in the face of threats from Iranian-backed terrorist groups such as Lebanese Hezbollah,” the statement read.

“They discussed ongoing US efforts to support de-escalation and a diplomatic resolution to the ongoing hostilities in Lebanon that would ensure the return of both Israeli and Lebanese families to their homes in the border regions.”

Moreover, Sullivan reassured Gallant that the Biden administration was committed to making sure Israel has “all it needs to defend itself militarily and confront its Iranian-backed adversaries”.

The meeting also touched on Israel’s war on Gaza, as the two men discussed the need to “increase and sustain the flow of humanitarian assistance”.

Israeli forces hit southern Lebanon: Report

Lebanon’s National News Agency reports that that an “enemy [Israel] drone” exploded in the town of ad-Dhahira.


Israeli forces fire on Khiam along southern Lebanon border

Israeli attacks have targeted the southern city of Khiam in Lebanon for a second consecutive day.


435 people killed in southern Lebanon since ‘aggression’ with Israel started

The Lebanese Ministry of Health says at least 1,366 people have also been injured. It added that 35 percent of those people were injured by explosions, 44 percent by shocks, and 16 percent by chemical exposure.

Translation: In the follow-up to the Israeli aggression against southern Lebanon, the Ministry of Public Health published the cumulative health emergency report for June 26