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

SvennoJ on 16 July 2024

Unexploded Israeli missile used against Israeli tanks: War monitors

Hamas fighters have claimed they recovered an unexploded Israeli missile and used it to target two Israeli tanks in Gaza City’s Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood causing casualties, defence think tanks monitoring the war have reported.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project (CTP), both based in the US, said the use of the salvaged Israeli missile was the only attack reported by Palestinian fighters in Gaza City on Monday, after weeks of devastating ground operations by Israeli forces.

To the south of Gaza City, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) fighters used mortar shells against Israeli unit deployed on the Netzarim Corridor and in southern Rafah city, PIJ and Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades fighters fired rocket-propelled grenades, thermobaric shells and mortars at Israeli forces in the Yibna area.


A damaged Israeli tank being towed by a tracked military vehicle in Israel close to the Gaza Strip on July 9


Body, two injured people recovered in al-Nafaq Street, Gaza City

A body and two injured people have been recovered after Israeli forces targeted an apartment in al-Nafaq Street in Gaza City, ambulance and emergency services have said.

Meanwhile, in the central Gaza Strip, our colleagues on the ground report that the number of people killed in Israeli raids has risen to 35.


Footage shows destruction at Gaza aid distribution site in the wake of Israeli attack

Video footage verified by Al Jazeera’s fact-checking agency Sanad has documented the impact of the Israeli air attack on the UNRWA-run Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.

The air raid targeted a hospice distributing food to displaced people.

The footage showed people observing the damage in the bombed-out building that had a huge hole in the roof, collapsed side walls and cracks in the beams holding up the ceiling. A banner in front of the building identified it as a hospice.


Israeli army says it continues fighting in Rafah

The Israeli army says it continues to fight in the Rafah area in southern Gaza where it claims to have killed a number of fighters and destroyed tunnels and infrastructure belonging to armed groups.

The military report also said Israeli soldiers carried out military operations in the centre of the Strip, while the Israeli air force attacked about 40 targets, including sniper and observation posts, being used by fighters.

The military has repeatedly said that its attacks are aimed at Hamas targets. But UN officials, aid groups and witnesses argue that Israel consistently violates rules on avoiding civilian areas.


Number of people killed in Gaza rises to 38,713

At least 38,713 people have been killed and 89,166 wounded in Israeli attacks since the start of the war on Gaza, according to the latest update by the Health Ministry in the besieged and bombarded territory.



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SvennoJ on 16 July 2024

Displaced Palestinians return to their homes in Gaza City despite destruction

Despite the wipespread destruction in Gaza City caused by Israeli bombs, displaced Palestinians are returning there.

Israeli raid kills at least 13 in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis

An Israeli raid on the Attar area on the western outskirts of Khan Younis has killed at least 13 people and injured 26, according to the enclave’s Ministry of Health. Four children were among the dead, an Al Jazeera correspondent said.

The air strike hit near an area of tents housing displaced families, the ministry said.

Meanwhile, the director of the Indonesian Hospital in North Gaza said four bodies and five wounded people have arrived at the hospital, following an Israeli bombing that targeted people at the Sheikh Zayed roundabout.


Eight Palestinians killed in Israeli air raid on school: Ministry

At least eight Palestinians have been killed and several injured in an Israeli air attack in central Gaza, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry. The strike hit a school in the Nuseirat refugee camp, the ministry said.


Video shows aftermath of Israeli bombing of school in Nuseirat

Photographer Momen Sameer has posted a video on Instagram showing the aftermath of an Israeli bombing of a school sheltering displaced people in the middle of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

The video, verified by Al Jazeera’s fact-checking agency Sanad, shows people trying to extinguish a fire caused by the shelling.


Death toll in Khan Younis rises to 17: Ministry

The death toll has risen to 17 after an Israeli air attack on the Attar area of the Mawasi refugee camp in the Khan Younis governorate, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. More than 26 people were also injured, it said in a statement on Telegram.


Israeli bombing of school kills 23 people in Nuseirat: Gaza government

We have reported earlier that at least eight people had been killed in an Israeli air attack on a school in central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp.

According to Gaza’s Government Media Office, the death toll stands at 23, with 73 people also injured in Israeli bombing of the UNRWA Al-Razi School in the camp.


SvennoJ on 16 July 2024

Netanyahu ordered Israeli army to turn off recording of meetings after October 7

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the Israeli army to turn off its recording system in the command centre of military headquarters after the start of the war, according to a report in the Haaretz newspaper.

That means that all security cabinet meetings, which are recorded routinely, were not taped as the army complied with the order, the report in the Israeli newspaper said.

Netanyahu insisted, the report added, that only specific security cabinet meetings he wanted would be recorded or transcribed by his office and not by the army.

The report also revealed that soon after October 7, the prime minister moved all security cabinet meetings to his office in Tel Aviv. The move was aimed at holding meetings in a place Netanyahu could control rather than trusting the army not to record them, a source told Haaretz.


Israel minister demands West Bank annexation if UN court rules against it

Hardline Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called on the prime minister to annex the occupied West Bank if the International Court of Justice (ICJ) rules Israeli settlements are illegal this week.

Smotrich told reporters, “No one will move the people of Israel from their land”, the Times of Israel quoted him as saying yesterday.

It's not their land...


Lebanese state, not just Hezbollah, should pay ‘heavy price’: Israeli minister

Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen has called for his country to open a new front in the north, making the state of Lebanon and not only the Hezbollah armed group pay “a heavy price” for the attacks on northern Israel.

“We are at the end of the Phase 3 in Gaza, so we need to move to the north and charge them a significant price,” Cohen said in an interview with Israel’s Radio Kol Barama.


Minister warns against withdrawal from Netzarim, Philadelphi corridors: Report

Orit Struck, Israel’s minister of settlements and national missions, has issued a threat to Netanyahu during her visit to the Karem Abu Salem crossing between Israel and Gaza, known in Israel as Kerem Shalom.

“We are in Kerem Shalom, and 50 metres [164ft] from us is Rafah. Whoever thinks of raising his hand to get the [Israeli army] out of here should first come here and look the residents in the eyes,” she was quoted as saying by Israel’s Maariv newspaper.

“We said clearly that if they get the [army] out of the Netzarim Corridor and the Philadelphi Corridor, we will dismantle the government. Netanyahu knows this very well,” she added, according to the report.

The Philadelphi Corridor refers to the strip of land that represents the entirety of the border area between Gaza and Egypt. The Netzarim Corridor, named after the Netzarim Jewish settlement in Gaza that was dismantled in 2005, separates northern Gaza from southern Gaza.



SvennoJ on 16 July 2024

UK Conservative Party clears ex-minister of anti-Semitism charges

Sir Alan Duncan, Britain’s former Minister of State for Europe and the Americas, has been cleared of any wrongdoing by the Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) after investigating him for anti-Semitism allegations, according to the non-profit International Centre of Justice for Palestinians.

The former member of parliament said during a news conference that the investigation panel found that his comments “did not go beyond political debate” and “were not anti-Semitic and could not properly be regarded as such”.

Sir Alan, who stood down as a parliamentarian in 2019, criticised – in an interview with LBC in April – those in British politics who “refuse to condemn [illegal Israeli] settlements” in the occupied West Bank.

“The time has come to flush out those extremists in our own parliamentary politics,” he said at the time.

According to a statement by the ICJP, Sir Alan said anti-Semitism must be ruthlessly called out where it genuinely exists. He also highlighted the problem of weaponising the term, with a defiant tone as he said: “They have tried to threaten me, but I will not be bullied or silenced.”

Israel’s restrictions on movement in Hebron hurdle to ‘essential services’: ICRC

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says the restrictions on movement imposed by Israel, specifically in the “H2” area in Hebron’s Old City, “make it difficult, and sometimes impossible, for Palestinians to access essential services”.

Israeli authorities have imposed these restrictions for more than 20 years, leaving an impact on “basic services many need daily to survive”, the ICRC said on X.

The H2 area of Hebron in the occupied West Bank is 20 percent of the Palestinian city, where about 700 Israelis live in illegal settlements and the Israeli military has full control.

H2’s Palestinian population is about 35,000.

The ICRC has worked with the local community to install solar panels on the rooftops of affected households. “This helps them generate income by providing power to other residents in the community, and have improved access to electricity,” the post said.



SvennoJ on 16 July 2024

‘This catastrophe must end’ in Gaza: Knesset member

Ayman Odeh, a Palestinian citizen of Israel and head of the Hadash-Ta’al list in Israel’s parliament, has said that the war on Gaza is increasing the risk of a wider regional escalation.

“The region stands, in these moments, on the brink of a precipice. At any moment, a bloody, destructive regional war can erupt. More and more pain and death. Parentless children. Parents burying children. This catastrophe must end,” he said on X.

‘We are killed by American missiles’: Nuseirat school attack survivor

Video footage verified by Al Jazeera’s fact-checking agency Sanad has seen a young man carry the remnants of the rockets that targeted a school in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

He lamented that the displaced Palestinians were being killed by Israel with American missiles. “We found children beheaded and people turned into corpses and body parts inside the school, and I cannot describe the scene from the horror of the bombing,” he said.

The footage documented the destruction and the body parts scattered in the courtyard of the school, which was crowded with displaced people.

 

Nasser Hospital in chaos after arrival of injured people from Nuseirat

There is chaos inside the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis after the arrival of a large number of critically injured people from the bombed school in the Nuseirat refugee camp.

The Israeli attack on Al-Razi middle school in the heart of the camp – such a busy area – happened during a rush hour when the streets around the overcrowded school was full of people.

The past few days have witnessed the direct, deliberate attacks on six UNRWA schools in Gaza.

These are learning spaces turned into shelters and evacuation centres for the hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians from the northern Gaza, Gaza City, and more recently, from Rafah and Mawasi.



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SvennoJ on 16 July 2024

Israel bombed 70 percent of UNRWA-run schools in Gaza: UN

Nearly seven out of 10 UNRWA-run schools have been bombed in Gaza since the beginning of the war, according to the UN agency for Palestinians.

“Over 95% of these schools were used as shelters when hit. 539 people sheltering in UNRWA facilities have been killed,” UNRWA said on X. “Nowhere is safe. The blatant disregard for UN premises and humanitarian law must stop.”

Aftermath of Israeli attack on UN school sheltering displaced people


Palestinians inspect a UN school sheltering displaced people, following an Israeli attack in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip

 
Save the Children condemns Israeli attacks on schools, hospitals in Gaza

British aid group Save the Children has called the recent attacks on schools and hospitals in Gaza as “horrific”.

“The healthcare and education systems are being decimated before our eyes,” it said on X, calling for a ceasefire. “Children cannot continue to be at the forefront of this conflict. Hospitals and schools should never be targets.”


Lack of fuel creating crisis of clean water in Deir el-Balah

Here in Deir el-Balah, where the municipality is saying they cannot provide safe drinking water to about 700,000 people, we’ve seen the struggle on a daily basis for the past few days.

There are extreme shortages of water, and many of the water wells in the area have shut down because of the shortage of fuel. Fuel is the lifeline of hospitals, the lifeline of water wells, the lifeline of all the desalination plants, as well as the waste treatment plants.

Without fuel, we’re going to be seeing exacerbated problems. Already people are queuing for hours right now just to get a little bit of water. The needs are greater than what’s available right now.



SvennoJ on 16 July 2024

BBC is mysterious, no articles about the recent massacres, yet they publish a full article on Muhammed Bhar

Gaza man with Down's syndrome attacked by IDF dog and left to die, mother tells BBC

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz9drj14e0lo

There was always his family. When he was bullied at school, and beaten, they were there to embrace him when he came home. And when the war started and he was terrorised by the sound of bombs falling, someone always said things were going to be ok.

Muhammed was heavy and found movement difficult. He spent his days sitting in an armchair. If he needed anything, there was a niece or nephew to help.

Muhammed Bhar was 24 and had Down’s syndrome and autism. His mother, Nabila Bhar, 70, told the BBC: “He didn’t know how to eat, drink, or change his clothes. I’m the one who changed his nappies. I’m the one who fed him. He didn’t know how to do anything by himself.”

On 27 June the war came back to the Bhar family’s neighbourhood and Muhammed’s small world shrank further. Along with other residents of Shejaiya, east of Gaza City centre, the Bhars were given orders to evacuate by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

The IDF was advancing into Shejaiya in pursuit of Hamas fighters fighting from tunnels and houses. But the Bhars were tired of moving.

In a weary tone, Nabila, who is a widow, reeled off the names of relatives’ homes where they’d sought shelter.

“We evacuated around 15 times. We would go to Jibreel's place, but then there would be bombing at Jibreel's place. We would go to Haydar Square, but then there would be bombing at Haydar Square. We would go to Rimal, but then there would be bombing at Rimal. We would go to Shawa Square, but there would be bombing at Shawa Square.”

...

On 3 July, according to the family, the IDF raided their home on Nazaz Street. Nabila says there were several dozen soldiers with a combat dog - animals used to find Hamas fighters, and check for booby traps and explosives.

At first she heard them “breaking in and smashing everything” before the soldiers and dog arrived in the room.

Referring to Muhammed, she says: “I told them, ‘He’s disabled, disabled. Have mercy on him, he’s disabled. Keep the dog away from him.'”

Nabila saw the animal attack Muhammed.

“The dog attacked him, biting his chest and then his hand. Muhammed didn’t speak, only muttering ‘No, no, no.’ The dog bit his arm and the blood was shed. I wanted to get to him but I couldn’t. No-one could get to him, and he was patting the dog’s head saying, ‘enough my dear enough.’ In the end, he relaxed his hand, and the dog started tearing at him while he was bleeding.”


Bloodstains on Muhammed's chair were pictured by family members who found his body a week later

Around this point, says Nabila, the soldiers took the young man into another room, and away from the dog. They tried to treat his wounds.

“They took him away, put him in a separate room, and locked the door. We wanted to see what happened to him. We wanted to see Muhammed, to see what had become of him," says Nabila.

"They told us to be quiet and aimed their guns at us. They put us in a room by ourselves, and Muhammed was alone in another room. They said, ‘We will bring a military doctor to treat him.’” At one point, according to Nabila, a military doctor arrived and went into the room where Muhammed was lying.

Muhammed’s niece, Janna Bhar, 11, described how the family pleaded with soldiers to help him. “We told them Muhammed was not well, but they kept saying he was fine.”

After several hours, it is not clear how many, the family was ordered at gunpoint to leave, leaving Muhammed behind with the soldiers. There were pleas and cries. Two of his brothers were arrested by the army. They have still not been released. The rest of the family found shelter in a bombed out building.




They returned a week later to a sight that haunts Muhammed’s brother Jibreel. He produces his mobile phone and shows our cameraman a video of the scene.

Muhammed’s body is lying on the floor. There is blood around him, and a tourniquet on his arm. This was most probably used to stop heavy bleeding from his upper arm. Jibreel points to gauze used to bandage a wound, and remarks on the blood that clotted after the tourniquet was applied.

“They were trying to stop the bleeding. Then they left him without stitches or care. Just these basic first aid measures. Of course, as you can see, Muhammed was dead for a period of time already because he was abandoned. We thought he wasn't at home. But it turned out he had been bleeding and left alone at home all this time. Of course, the army left him.”

...

The family is demanding an investigation but with fighting still going on, and so many dead, it is hard to be hopeful that will happen any time soon. In response to queries from the BBC the IDF said they were checking on the report.

Nabila is left with an image of her dead child that refuses to go away. “This scene I will never forget… I constantly see the dog tearing at him and his hand, and the blood pouring from his hand… It is always in front of my eyes, never leaving me for a moment. We couldn't save him, neither from them nor from the dog.”



SvennoJ on 16 July 2024

Israeli military to start sending out draft orders to ultra-Orthodox on Sunday

The orders are the first stage in the assessment and evaluation process that the army carries out for new recruits, in advance of the recruitment cycle in the coming year.

“The summons orders were issued as part of the [military’s] program to promote the integration of members of the ultra-Orthodox community into its ranks,” Israel’s military said in a statement on its official Telegram channel.

It said it is working to recruit “from all parts of society due to its status as the people’s army and in view of the increased operational needs at this time, given the security challenges” – meaning the war on Gaza.

The conscription of ultra-Orthodox Jews is among the most contentious issues in Israeli public discourse, raising sentiments of unfair treatment, especially with the war on Gaza that has left many soldiers dead.


Israeli Haredi Jews block highway over pending army conscription

Video posted on X by a correspondent for Israeli newspaper Haaretz shows police removing a child belonging to Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community from a busy road.

Israeli Army Radio reported that the protest included dozens of people, and the Haaretz journalist says that police are making arrests.

Earlier, we reported that the Israeli army will begin sending out conscription orders to members of this community, long given religious exemption from military service, this Sunday.


Netanyahu vows more pressure on Hamas

The Israeli prime minister made the statement after both sides expressed hope earlier this month that renewed ceasefire talks would bear success.

Those talks appear to have again stalled, but Hamas on Sunday said they were ongoing, despite a strike on a “safe” zone in al-Mawasi, southern Gaza that Israel said was targeting the leader of the group’s armed wing. The strike killed at least 90 people.

“This is exactly the time to increase the pressure even more, to bring home all the hostages – the living and the dead – and to achieve all the war objectives,” PM Netanyahu said at an event today.

He again vowed to take Hamas out of the leadership of the enclave.



SvennoJ on 16 July 2024

Lebanon state news agency says three children killed in Israeli attack

The agency is reporting that three Syrian children were killed in an Israeli attack on agricultural land in southern Lebanon’s Umm al-Tut.


Hezbollah, Israel claim cross-border attacks as civilians reportedly killed

Earlier, Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported that three Syrian children were killed in an Israeli raid in Umm al-Tut in southern Lebanon.

Prior to that, the agency reported that two people riding a motorcycle were killed in an attack near Kfar Tebnit in southern Lebanon. A Lebanese security source told AFP that the two killed were “civilians” of Syrian nationality who were working in the area.

Following that, Hezbollah said it launched “dozens of Katyusha rockets” at northern Israel’s Kiryat Shmona “in response to the Israeli enemy attacks”. The group cited “the death of two civilians”.

Israel, meanwhile, said its air force “struck a launcher in the area of Blat that was identified firing projectiles toward the Kiryat Shmona area”, as well as “a Hezbollah terrorist cell” in the Yarin area, which is nearby to the location where the children were reportedly killed.



SvennoJ on 16 July 2024

HRW slams EU’s inability to jointly condemn Israel’s killing of Gaza civilians

Human Rights Watch has inked a letter calling out the EU’s inability to jointly condemn Israel’s killing of civilians in Gaza due to the persistent refusal of some member states.

The EU has “yet to collectively acknowledge, denounce, and adopt appropriate measures to address the Israeli authorities’ war crimes and other international humanitarian law (IHL) violations, some of which have led to the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza,” the letter said.

The group said the EU faces “growing and well-grounded” accusations of double standards on Israel and Palestine, “which are harming the EU’s reputation as a global champion of human rights and international law”.

The double standards, they attribute to some countries and civil rights groups, are in reference to the EU’s use of slogans and generic statements of concern, instead of condemning war crimes and other IHL violations, “and adopting effective and persuasive measures to address them”.

Some detainees sexually assaulted in Israeli prisons: Lawyer

Editor’s note: This reporting contains graphic descriptions of torture and sexual assault.

A lawyer for the Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs has said that a prisoner gave eyewitness testimony of other detainees being sodomised or sexually assaulted.

According to the commission and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, Khaled Mahajna spoke with journalist Mohammed Arab, who was detained in Gaza and taken from Sde Teiman in the Negev Desert and was later taken to Ofer prison, near Ramallah.

At Sde Teiman, Arab said he witnessed prisoners “being raped, including a detainee who was completely stripped and had a fire extinguisher hose inserted into his rectum, and the extinguisher was discharged inside him. The detainee is in a very serious physical and psychological condition”.

“Another detainee was completely stripped and electrocuted, his genitals were yanked, in addition to other methods of sexual abuse that are difficult to describe,” Arab told Mahajna, according to the organisations’ statement.