‘Shock and disgust’: US protesters decry applause for Israeli PM in Congress

It was quite the juxtaposition.

Just as Benjamin Netanyahu was being given a standing ovation by members of Congress on Capitol Hill, outside thousands of protesters were saying he was not welcome.

And, around exactly the same time, the police started pepper spraying some of the protesters.

There was a general sense of shock and disgust among the protesters.

Not just at the members of Congress who are applauding – whom the protesters say don’t represent them. But the fact that their taxpayers’ money isn’t just going to kill men, women and children in Gaza. It is also being spent on police to pepper spray and violently act towards peaceful protesters outside Capitol Hill.

Father of captive labels Netanyahu speech ‘third-rate act of political theatre’

Jonathan Dekel-Chen, the father of Israeli captive Sagui Dekel-Chen, has labelled Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at US Congress a “third-rate act of political theatre” intended only to “strengthen him among his coalition partners in Israel”.

According to Israeli journalist and commentator Nadav Eyal, Dekel-Chen said the “speech did nothing to improve Israel’s national security or its standing in world opinion”.

“It did nothing to heal the damage Bibi has caused for years with the Democratic Party. It did nothing to bring the return of our hostages closer. It was painful and embarrassing to watch as an Israeli,” he said.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators stage protest against Netanyahu

Protesters against the war in Gaza and US weapons sales to Israel gather outside the US Capitol before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers an address to a joint session of Congress in Washington, DC, US, on July 24










_{US Democratic party Representative Rashida Tlaib holds a protest sign reading ‘Guilty of Genocide’ during Netanyahu’s speech to Congress}

While the protests were peaceful for the most part, of course the outliers are being blown out of proportion.


CNN fact checked one claim Netanyahu made, but they could easily make a list longer than they did for Trump's speech at the RNC

Fact check: Netanyahu falsely claims there have been ‘practically’ no civilian fatalities in Rafah, besides one incident

https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/24/politics/fact-check-netanyahu-rafah-claims/index.html

In his speech to Congress on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that during his recent visit to Rafah, when he asked how many civilians were killed in Rafah, the commander told him “practically none, with the exception of a single incident where shrapnel from a bomb hit a Hamas weapons depot and unintentionally killed two dozen people.”

The “incident” Netanyahu referenced occurred in May and killed at least 45 people at a camp for displaced Palestinians. The airstrike injured more than 200 after a fire broke out at the camp following the strike, most of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry and Palestinian medics.


And CNN still doesn't fact check the 'weapons depot' claim. Which was very likely another lie.

https://news.sky.com/story/gaza-officials-say-more-than-20-people-killed-in-israeli-shelling-on-tent-camp-amid-outrage-over-earlier-airstrike-13144571

He [IDF] claimed the munitions would have been too small to ignite a fire on their own, and that the military was looking into the possibility that weapons were stored in the area. It has not been possible to independently verify his claims. The fire triggered by the bombing also could have ignited fuel, cooking gas canisters or other materials in the densely populated tent camp housing displaced people.

That seems much more likely in a humanitarian encampment. Plus a lot of flammable material in the tents and the tents themselves.

In the same week of that strike, at least 29 Palestinians were killed in two separate Israeli attacks on displacement camps in Rafah, according to Palestinian and UN officials. CNN has seen firsthand video shot by stringers in Rafah and spoken to several health officials, humanitarian workers and eyewitnesses who have reported civilian fatalities as a result of Israel’s military assault on the southern city.

Civilians continue to get killed daily in Rafah, CNN still trying to downplay reality while doing the utmost minimum fact checking.

Families of US captives in Gaza ‘profoundly disappointed’ by Netanyahu speech

In a joint statement, the families of the eight US captives in Gaza said Netanyahu’s failure to guarantee in his speech to Congress that the captives would be coming home was “profoundly” disappointing.

The families said the Israeli leader had “failed to present any new solutions or a new path forward”.

Netanyahu has “failed to commit to the hostage deal that is now on the table even though Israel’s senior defence and intelligence officials have called on him to do so”, the families said.

They called on Netanyahu to get the deal done “before it is too late”.

_{An anti-Netanyahu protester holds a sign outside the US embassy branch office in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Wednesday, ahead of the Israeli prime minister’s address to the US Congress in Washington, DC}

Israel postponed ceasefire talks again already for at least another week.

Israeli captives’ families decry ‘crisis of trust’ with government

The families of those still held in the Gaza Strip are demanding an urgent meeting with the Israeli negotiating team that is expected to depart for Cairo for more talks soon.

They said in a statement that the prime minister has not responded to their inquiries about a ceasefire-and-exchange deal for two weeks.

“This foot-dragging is a deliberate sabotage of the chance to bring our loved ones back. It effectively undermines the negotiations and indicates a serious moral failure,” they said about the delay in sending negotiators for advanced talks.

Netanyahu visit aimed at sustaining war: Expert

Netanyahu was in the US not to end the war on Gaza, but to sustain it, according to Marc Owen Jones, associate professor of Middle East at Hamad Bin Khalifa University.

“He was essentially there to ask for more weapons to conduct what has now been determined as a plausible genocide to cheering Republicans,” he told Al Jazeera.

He said he was struck by the emphatic clapping and applause from Republicans while protests were ongoing outside.

“More anti-Netanyahu protesters were arrested in the US than they were in Israel. That to me is indicative of the nature of this toxic relationship between the US and Israel,” Jones said.

The expert said it was “outrageous” that Netanyahu used the issue of the captives still held in Gaza during his speech, because he has been a main obstacle in their return. “Netanyahu was there not for Israelis, he was there to serve Republican Americans to get more weapons to continue a war that many Israelis don’t even want.”

Jones said Biden is a “lame-duck president” at the moment and Netanyahu knows that. The Israeli PM, he believes, would more readily welcome another Donald Trump presidency because that would allow him to continue the war.

‘It was depressing’: Gaza resident disappointed with Netanyahu’s US address

The Israeli prime minister’s speech at the US Congress has disappointed many displaced Palestinians who hoped for a clearer signal of an imminent end to the war in Gaza.

“It was depressing, he didn’t even mention ceasefire at all, not even once,” said Tamer al-Burai, a resident of Gaza City, now displaced in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.

“People awaited some surprise, a ceasefire announcement by Netanyahu as a gift to [US President Joe] Biden, but they slept with much disappointment, as Netanyahu said he was determined to pursue war,” Burai told Reuters via a chat app.

Chief of UN children’s agency says aid situation ‘beyond catastrophic’

UNICEF director Catherine Russell says each week brings “new horrors in the Gaza Strip” as attacks on school shelters and sites for displaced people kill hundreds of Palestinians – many of them women and children.

Children injured in the earlier part of Israel’s war on the Palestinian territory are being injured again, Russell said, while the poliovirus joins the latest dangers faced by Gaza’s war-weary population.

“As families are repeatedly forced to move to escape the immediate violence, the humanitarian situation is beyond catastrophic,” Russell said in a statement.

“At least 278 aid workers in the Gaza Strip have already been killed – a record number – while others are put in harm’s way, or prevented from doing their jobs,” she said, calling for an immediate ceasefire and the free flow of aid into the territory.

Palestinian boy, 13, dies from injuries after shot 5 times by Israeli forces

Defense for Children International said Saif Ziad Ali Omair was shot five times on July 11, allegedly while throwing stones at Israeli soldiers in the village of Meithalun, south of Jenin, in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli forces opened fire from inside an armoured vehicle, hitting the 13-year-old four times in the abdomen, hand, leg and pelvis. The boy was then shot again, in the chest, by an Israeli soldier who stepped out of the armoured car and shot the teenager as he lay, grievously injured, on the ground.

Saif succumbed to his wounds on July 23, the child rights group said.

Israeli soldiers and armed settlers have now killed 58 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank so far this year, and a total of 139 have been killed since October 7, the group said.

Hundreds of wounded Palestinians arrive at field hospitals daily: ICRC

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says its members, as well as those of the Red Crescent in the Gaza Strip, are trying to protect the families of its members while also providing medical aid in a “catastrophic situation”.

Mousa Krezem, a member of the organisation in the besieged enclave, said he has been displaced four times in Rafah in the south, where the Israeli military is advancing with a deadly ground invasion.

“I am currently living in a tent,” Krezem said.

The Red Cross Field Hospital in Rafah, which has 60 beds, continues to provide medical care to about 200 people daily, the ICRC said.

Israeli military says it has recovered bodies of 4 captives from Gaza

The Israeli military has announced that it has recovered the bodies of four Israeli captives, two civilians and two soldiers, during an operation in the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

The civilians were named as 56-year-old Maya Goren and 33-year-old Oren Goldin, while the soldiers were named as 19-year-old Sergeant Kiril Brodski and 20-year-old Staff Sergeant Tomer Yaakov Ahimas.

All four were killed during the Hamas-led October 7 attacks on southern Israel and their bodies were taken to Gaza.

The Israeli military said troops with the 98th Division and members of the Shin Bet agency reached the site in Khan Younis and recovered the bodies, without offering more details.

It is now estimated that 112 of the 251 captives taken to Gaza on October 7 remain within the war-torn territory.

Israeli military confirms body of fifth captive returned from Gaza

The Israeli military has confirmed that it has returned the body of a fifth captive from Gaza. They named the man as Ravid Katz, a member of the Nir Oz kibbutz security team who was killed on October 7 and his body taken to the Palestinian enclave.

All five had already been declared dead by the Israeli military.


Am I the only one that thinks it rather odd to go through all the trouble to transport dead people into Gaza? And what is left of a body after 9 months?
Buried in moist fertile soil, unembalmed bodies decay quickly and after 9 months there will usually only be bones remaining as found in mass graves in Bosnia. The mass graves found at Al Shifa and Nassar had very decomposed bodies just after a few weeks.

ICC Israeli arrest warrants – UK, Germany, US trying to block procedure

Dozens of organisations and countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany and the US, are trying to delay the International Criminal Court from issuing an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The court’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, requested warrants for Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders, Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh, in May for alleged war crimes.

Released prisoners in Gaza show signs of torture

_{Palestinian prisoners released on Thursday displayed physical signs of torture}

The Israeli military has released a group of at least eight Palestinian prisoners in central Gaza, with some showing signs of severe torture. The group, which included two women, arrived at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah in the morning after being released from Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank.

“The prisoners who were released are completely exhausted. One of the females was unable to walk and was carried inside the emergency department on a stretcher,” said Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, reporting from Deir el-Balah.

Khoudary said those released were not arrested at the same time. One of the male prisoners, an aid truck driver, was arrested at the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing. One of the released women said she was arrested when she visited the occupied West Bank with her child for treatment.

“They all said they were tortured, they all said they were threatened. They all said they were deprived of medicine and clothes. They were asked about Hamas members and Israeli captives in the Gaza Strip.”

Significant overcrowding, lack of hygiene, hunger, and cold inside Israeli prisons have led to diseases spreading. Human rights groups say the arrest of Palestinian women and girls has increased and they face torture, ill-treatment, and intentional neglect.

Since October 7 visits by the Red Cross to prisons in Israel have been stopped, suspending accountability.

One unidentified freed prisoner described his ordeal in a video statement.

“We were arrested by the Israeli soldiers who forced us to the ground and kept battering us. We were tortured for 30 consecutive days, our hands and legs tied throughout,” the bearded man of about 30 years old said.

“We were thrown pieces of stale bread as food and denied medicine too. We were electrically shocked, and verbally and physically abused day and night. I was even electric-shocked in my mouth.”

Palestinians in Gaza continue to be forced south: UN

Palestinians in the devastated northern part of the Gaza Strip, where the trickling flow of humanitarian aid has been slower than other parts of the enclave amid Israeli military attacks, are continuing to be forced to move south, according to the UN.

The organisation said it is working with its partners to register and deliver aid to them, as they are forced to trek dangerous roads and drag the little belongings they have.

Palestinians in Gaza ‘exhausted by the continuous displacement’: UNRWA

The UN’s agency for Palestinians refugees (UNRWA) says many Palestinian families are continually forced to move around inside the Gaza Strip, where there is no safe place.

“Children are crying and screaming, everybody is in this horrible position once again. It keeps happening over and over and over,” said UNRWA spokeswoman in Gaza Louise Wateridge.

“They are forced from place to place, promised safety where there is none.”

No space for a single tent’ in al-Mawasi after Khan Younis invasion

The Palestine Red Crescent Society says the Israeli military is pounding the Khan Younis governorate in southern Gaza for a fourth consecutive day, forcing thousands more people to flee.

“In the so-called ‘humanitarian area’ in al-Mawasi, there is no space even for a single tent due to the overwhelming number of people desperate for safety,” PRCS said. “The Israeli occupation prevents displaced persons from Gaza and the north from returning to their homes.”

‘Israel allowed 710 aid trucks to enter Gaza in July while 500 trucks needed per day’

The international charity ActionAid UK reports that humanitarian workers are continuing to deliver aid to Palestinians in Gaza despite the dangers but supplies are dwarfed by actual needs on the ground.

The group cited UN data in saying 710 aid trucks have been allowed by the Israeli military to enter the enclave so far this month when Gaza needed at least 500 trucks of aid per day before October 7.

“Twenty trucks carrying ActionAid supplies, including period products and hygiene kits, have been stuck in Egypt for at least two months due to the backlog created by restrictions on entry points into Gaza, with efforts to coordinate entry still ongoing,” it said.

It vehicles are among the 1,500 UN or NGO trucks bound for Gaza that are currently waiting in Egypt, according to a recent snapshot assessment published by ActionAid and other organisations.

Israelis continue killing, displacement of Palestinians in occupied West Bank: UN

Between October 7 and Monday, a total of 563 Palestinians had been killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem by Israeli forces or armed Israeli settlers, the UN reports.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Israeli forces have killed a total of 548 Palestinian people since October and Israeli settlers have killed 10 Palestinians. In the case of seven killings, it was not known if the perpetrators were soldiers or settlers.

During the same period, OCHA has documented 1,143 attacks by Israeli settlers on local Palestinians.

Israeli authorities have also demolished or forced the demolition of 1,247 Palestinian-owned structures in the occupied West Bank, including 481 homes, resulting in the displacement of 2,836 Palestinian people, including 1,245 children.

Israeli soldier succumbs to car-ramming injuries: Military

The 24-year-old captain died from injuries sustained on July 14 in a car-ramming attack at the Nir Zvi intersection in central Israel, the Israeli military said in a brief post on social media.

A second Israeli soldier was slightly injured in the attack, which was reportedly carried out by a Palestinian man from occupied East Jerusalem who was shot and, according to Israeli authorities, later died from his injuries.

Israeli military carries out arrests across the West Bank

The Israeli military has arrested at least 11 people, including a journalist, in raids across the occupied West Bank in recent hours, the Wafa news agency reports.

Israeli forces stormed the town of Abwein, north of Ramallah, and arrested four people, while a fifth man was arrested from the town of Silwad, east of Ramallah.

The Israeli military has also arrested five men in the town of Beit Ummar, north of Hebron, as well as journalist Hazem Nasser from the Iktaba suburb of the city of Tulkarem, Wafa reports.

Three Israeli soldiers wounded in West Bank shooting attack

Three Israeli soldiers have been wounded in a drive-by shooting on the road between Qalqilya and Nablus in the occupied West Bank, according to local media reports.

The attack occurred when an unidentified gunman opened fire from a vehicle near the towns of Azzun and an-Nabi Elyas. A hunt for the perpetrator is now ongoing.

Ambulance crews are treating the three men for minor injuries.

Multiple demolitions reported across occupied West Bank: UN

The UN has confirmed receiving multiple reports of Palestinian homes being demolished by Israeli forces today.

The Wafa news agency had earlier said Israeli bulldozers demolished three Palestinian-owned residential facilities in the village of al-Jiftlik in the Jordan Valley and a residential apartment in the village of al-Walaja northwest of Bethlehem.

According to UN data, Israeli forces have destroyed at least 11,159 Palestinian structures since 2009, displacing over 17,000 people.

Israel arrests 22 Palestinians in overnight raids in West Bank: Rights groups

Israeli forces have arrested at least 22 Palestinians from the occupied West Bank overnight, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society and the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs.

The two organisations said those arrested included journalists and former prisoners as well as a child.

The detentions took place in Ramallah, Hebron, Tulkarem and the occupied East Jerusalem.

Children injured following Israeli strike on home in Bureij camp

Earlier, we reported that the Israeli military had bombed a house near the entrance of the Bureij camp in central Gaza.

The Wafa news agency now reports that seven people, mostly children, have been injured in the strike, which targeted the Abu Gharqoud family home. Their condition is still unknown.

Local media has also reported Israeli helicopter fire and shelling north of the camp.