Police clash with pro-Palestine protesters in Montreal

_{Tear gas is fired as police clash with protesters during a rally on Thursday in support of Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, in Montreal, Canada}

Israeli protesters march towards Jerusalem, demand captives release

A group of Israeli protesters is marching towards Jerusalem as part of a three-day demonstration to pressure the Israeli government to sign a deal for the release of the remaining Israeli captives held in Gaza. They are expected to reach the city tomorrow.

Ceasefire negotiations resumed last week with US, Israeli, Qatari and Egyptian officials shuttling between Egypt and Qatar to find an agreement.

Yesterday, Hamas accused Israel of “stalling to buy time to foil the current round of negotiations”, while White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said there are “still miles to go before we close – if we are able to close” a deal.

Chances to seal a deal remain slim as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed that he would not sign any agreement that did not allow Israel to achieve its war’s goals, including the destruction of Hamas.

Gaza talks explore alternative to Israeli troops on Gaza-Egypt border: Report

Israeli and Egyptian ceasefire negotiators are in talks about an electronic surveillance system along the border between Gaza and Egypt that could allow Israel to pull back its troops from the area if a ceasefire is agreed. That’s according to two Egyptian sources and a third source familiar with the matter quoted by the Reuters news agency.

The question of whether Israeli forces stay on the border is one of the issues blocking a potential ceasefire deal because both Hamas and Egypt are opposed to Israel keeping its forces there.

Israel is worried that if its troops leave the border zone, referred to by Israel as the Philadelphi Corridor, Hamas could smuggle in weapons and supplies from Egypt into Gaza via tunnels that would allow it to re-arm and again threaten Israel.

A surveillance system, if the parties to the negotiations agree on the details, could therefore smooth the path to agreeing to a ceasefire.

ICJ to issue advisory opinion on Israeli occupation on July 19

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) will issue an advisory opinion on the legal consequences of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory on July 19, the court said in a news release.

The UN’s highest court held historic hearings into Israel’s occupation in February of this year. The court heard from 52 countries and three organisations on the legal consequences of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.

Katz slams Erdogan’s comments on NATO cooperation with Israel

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz has hit out at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for rejecting NATO cooperation with Israel.

“First of all, Erdogan, you decide nothing,” Katz said on X, adding that a country that supports Hamas and “the Iranian axis of evil” should not be a member of the Western alliance.

Erdogan earlier told a news conference at the NATO summit in Washington that “until comprehensive, sustainable peace is established in Palestine, attempts at cooperation with Israel within NATO will not be approved by Turkey.”

Decisions at NATO must be approved unanimously by all members, so Turkey can block a push by NATO to cooperate with Israel.

‘We must not forget Gaza’: Bernie Sanders

As US and international attention turns to the American election and Biden’s political struggle, Senator Bernie Sanders has stressed the need to keep focus on the suffering in Gaza.

“While much of the media is focused on the drama of the US presidential election, we must not lose sight of what is happening in Gaza, where an unprecedented humanitarian crisis continues to get even worse,” the progressive US senator said in a statement.

He highlighted the growing death toll and hunger and hygiene crises in the besieged territory.

“Yet, in the midst of this horror and violations of international law, the United States continues to send billions of dollars and thousands of bombs and other weapons to support this war. We, as Americans, are complicit,” Sanders said.

Ex-Israeli PM warns Israel has ‘no defence’ for crimes in West Bank

Ehud Olmert, who led the Israeli government in the mid-2000s, has issued a warning for Israeli leaders over the escalating settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

He suggested that the country will not be able to defend itself if charged with crimes over its conduct there.

“I am warning Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: The day is drawing near when arrest warrants will be issued against you for the crimes being carried out every day in Judea and Samaria by Israel, with the support of its government, while you intentionally turn a blind eye to it,” he wrote in an op-ed for Haaretz, using a biblical name for the West Bank.

“The events in Gaza can be defended, because it’s possible to claim they are not a result of policy, order or intention by Israel, not even by you. In the worst case, as we all know, you are not really managing, leading or directing. After all, you’re not responsible for anything.”

How deluded are Israeli politicians, reading the last paragraph. The effect of decades of impunity.

More about the NATO summit

https://www.reuters.com/world/erdogan-says-turkey-will-not-approve-nato-attempts-cooperate-with-israel-2024-07-11/

NATO is Not a ‘Defensive Alliance’. Journalist Exposes the West’s Big Lie

This week, Biden and leaders of other NATO member nations convened in Washington, DC for the 75th-anniversary summit of the so-called “defensive alliance.” NATO’s proxy war with Russia in Ukraine and the US’s increasing military encirclement of China were major focal points of the discussion. Rania Khalek and Eugene Puryear discuss how 75 years of NATO’s relentless war drive is pushing us closer and closer to WWlll.



Long version

Chain of fools - The Grayzone

Max Blumenthal and Aaron Mate discuss plans announced by NATO at its Washington DC summit to escalate conflicts across the globe and its expand its ranks, the vindication of their reporting on Israel's scandalous Hannibal Directive, the ongoing meltdown over Joe Biden's cognitive decline, and much more.


Europe needs to make it's own defensive alliance, get out from under NATO and the US. Enough with demonizing China and using Ukraine as a meat shield. At least Erdogan is standing up to Nato not to do the same in the ME to further provoke Iran.

Pentagon official announces ceasing of Gaza pier operations, US taxpayers duped | Janta Ka Reporter



The US on Friday sensationally announced that the Gaza pier built at a staggering cost of $320 million will soon cease to operate. The pier was in the news last month after reports emerged that the US troops had used this to help Israelis in rescuing hostages. More than 400 innocent Palestinians were killed in the process.

The pier was 'operational' for a total of 20 days, delivering about as much aid as went into Gaza per day pre-war Gaza.

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/how-much-has-us-built-gaza-aid-pier-helped-get-aid-into-gaza-2024-07-11/
About 8,500 tons of aid has been delivered to the pier via Cyprus, a Cypriot source said, roughly the equivalent of 425 aid trucks.

That's $37,647 per ton, more than double the cost of air drops (16K per ton) Total fail.

Versus about $180 per ton on average to move food aid by truck. 320 million dollars could have moved 89 thousand fully loaded trucks.

Joe Biden Is FINISHED - And Catastrophe Looms



The question is - is he finished now and stands down as Democratic presidential nominee, or is he finished when he loses against Donald Trump?

“I’m Bored, So I Shoot”: How Israeli Troops Are Authorized to Shoot Palestinians Virtually at Will

We speak with reporter Oren Ziv of +972 Magazine, whose latest investigation details how Israeli forces in Gaza have been authorized to open fire on Palestinians virtually at will.

Six soldiers who fought in Gaza describe a near-total absence of firing regulations, with soldiers shooting as they please, setting homes ablaze, leaving corpses to rot on the streets and more.

“It seems soldiers were shooting not from a tactical reason or a real military reason, but just out of being bored, to pass the time or just because they could,” says Ziv. “Soldiers felt they can do whatever they want, that they won’t be accountable. And all this is done also with the awareness of the commanders.”

We also hear from Yuval Green, one of the reservists who spoke to Ziv and who now refuses to continue serving in the Israeli military. “I believe that continuing this war and continuing the death of Palestinians and Israeli soldiers is not right. I believe that right now the right thing to do is to sign the ceasefire treaty that is going to release the hostages and end this war,” Green says.

UNRWA’s Lazzarini says funding guaranteed until September

Speaking to the press after a pledging conference, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini says funding for the UN Palestinian refugee agency had been guaranteed through September.

He added that the pledged amount was not yet known but would be disclosed in the coming days.

Out of the 16 countries that suspended funding after Israeli allegations against UNRWA, 14 have now resumed funding. The US and the UK did not resume funding, but Lazzarini said he was confident Britain – which elected a new government last week – would soon resume its financial support.

Israel claims charity worker killed in strike was Hamas fighter

The Israeli military has alleged, without providing any evidence, that one of the four aid workers with a UK-based charity that it killed was a member of Hamas’s internal security forces.

Hossam Mansour was among four Al-Khair Foundation staffers killed when the Israeli military bombed a warehouse in al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, on Friday.

The Israeli military claimed that Mansour “took a significant and continuous part in the preservation and presence of Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip, while undermining Israel’s efforts in the region”.

Israel has previously accused the Al-Khair charity, which provides food assistance to people in Gaza, of transferring funds to Palestinian armed groups “under the guise of humanitarian activity”.

In April, Israeli forces killed seven aid workers from US-based NGO World Central Kitchen in an air strike, and has killed 195 staff with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) since October.


The Al-Khair foundation donated to UNWRA which Israel wants to designate as a terrorist organization that undermines Israel's ethnic cleansing ideology, so I guess in their eyes it's the 'truth'.

https://www.unrwa.org/tags/al-khair-foundation

Gaza’s ‘vicious cycle’ of malnutrition, disease as number of displaced people grows

The 1.9 million people displaced by Israel’s war on Gaza face “harrowing conditions”, the UN reports in its latest situation update, including at one shelter in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah where 14,000 people have access to only 25 toilets.

Worsening malnutrition is also making people vulnerable to disease in a “vicious cycle” of inadequate food, lack of clean water, little sanitation and lack of access to basic health services, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says in its latest Gaza report.

And the mass killing continues, with 182 people reported killed and 458 injured between Monday and Thursday this week alone.

Displaced people face harrowing conditions in #Gaza.

In one school, 14k ppl share 25 toilets.

25% of the daily fuel required to sustain humanitarian operations entered so far in July, causing a near 40% drop in public water distribution.

Full update: https://t.co/zQ708l95n0 pic.twitter.com/iyGLpe2RU0

— OCHA oPt (Palestine) (@ochaopt) July 12, 2024

Hamas wants guarantees Israel won’t resume war after Gaza captives freed

Ahmed Abdul-Hadi, the head of Hamas’s political office in Lebanon, has told The Associated Press (AP) news agency that the Palestinian organisation wants written guarantees from mediators that Israel will not return to war after the first group of Israeli captives held in Gaza is released.

Both sides have agreed on a general framework for a ceasefire deal, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that any agreement “must allow Israel to return to fighting until all the objectives of the war are achieved”, which includes the destruction of Hamas.

Hamas insists that “negotiations should continue for a permanent ceasefire until a permanent ceasefire is reached”, as opposed to the wording in the current ceasefire proposal, under which the ceasefire should continue as long as negotiations continue.

“Netanyahu can stop the negotiations and thus resume the aggression” at any time, Abdul-Hadi told the AP. “We want something in writing to ensure that negotiations continue … in order to reach a permanent ceasefire,” he said.

Palestinian fighters in better position ‘than in early days of war’, says Hamas official

More from the AP interview with Ahmed Abdul-Hadi, the head of Hamas’s political office in Lebanon:

Abdul-Hadi said the “military situation is very solid for the resistance and is better than the early days of the war”, while denying reports that Hamas leaders inside the war-torn territory had exerted pressure on leaders outside to accept the current ceasefire proposal due to the pressure of Israeli military attacks on the Palestinian enclave.

He also said that Hamas does not expect to resume its role as the governing party in Gaza after the war.

The form of future governance in Gaza, Abdul-Hadi said, will be “a Palestinian matter that is agreed upon by the Palestinian people” and is not part of the current ceasefire talks.

“We do not want to rule Gaza alone again in the next phase,” he said. “We want to have a partnership and national consensus.”

A meeting between Hamas and its main rival, Fatah, is expected to take place in China later this month after being postponed last month, he said.

Argentina designates Hamas a terrorist organisation

Argentina has designated Hamas a “terrorist organisation” and ordered a freeze on all of the group’s financial assets, in a largely symbolic move by the country’s far-right President Javier Milei, as he seeks to align more closely to the US and Israel.

Announcing the decision, Milei’s office cited the Hamas-led October 7 attacks on southern Israel, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 250 people taken captive.

“Argentina must once again align itself with Western civilization,” Milei’s office said.

On his first state visit as president in February, Milei flew to Jerusalem in a show of support for the Israeli government and promised to move his nation’s embassy to the contested capital – drawing praise from Netanyahu and criticism from Palestinians.

Although raised a Roman Catholic, Milei says he has a deep spiritual connection with Judaism. He is a staunch supporter of Israel, and compared the October 7 attacks to the Holocaust, describing them as “21st-century Nazism”.

Life inside the UN school shelters targeted for attack by Israel

An estimated 1.9 million people are displaced in Gaza due to Israel’s unrelenting war on the Palestinian territory.

Palestinian families who fled their homes due to Israeli attacks have sought refuge where they can, many in school converted to shelters for the displaced across the Gaza Strip.

Last week, Israel carried out air strikes against four shelters in four days, killing dozens of Palestinians and leaving many injured. Here’s a look inside one school shelter in Dier el-Balah in central Gaza:

<sub>Tent camps on the grounds of the UNRWA-run school shelter in Deir el-Balah on Thursday


Washed clothes hang from balconies at a school operated by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza’s Deir el-Balah on July 11</sub>


Classroom converted to sleeping dormitories at the school shelter

Israeli forces pull back to Gaza coastal road after attack on Tal al-Hawa area

Israeli forces have reportedly redeployed along the coastal road in northern Gaza and south of Gaza City after withdrawing from the battered city’s Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood at dawn on Friday, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project (CTP) report.

Palestinian fighters continued to blast Israeli forces with rocket-propelled grenades and improvised explosive devices west of Tal al-Hawa on Friday, according to the ISW/CTP report, as Israel’s ground offensive against Gaza City enters a second week amid reports of a “massacre” of civilians in the neighbourhood.

South of Gaza City, Israeli troops deployed on the Netzarim Corridor came under fire from mortars and rockets, while Palestinian fighters continued to battle in Rafah city in the south where they fired mortar shells and rockets at Israeli troops.

Rockets and mortars were also fired towards military targets in Israel on Friday, in at least three attacks launched from Gaza, the US-based defence think tanks said.

Israeli military announces operations across the Gaza Strip

The Israeli military has announced that it has carried out several operations across the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours, including:

_{Palestinians, some using donkey carts, make their way over rubble and past destroyed buildings after the Israeli military withdrew following a two-week offensive in the Shujayea neighbourhood, east of Gaza City, on July 11}