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

SvennoJ on 27 July 2024

Antigovernment protesters in Tel Aviv call for Gaza ceasefire

Israeli protesters have taken to the streets on Tel Aviv calling for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to step down.

In Tel Aviv, where Netanyahu still controls a stable majority in parliament, many protesters waved Israeli flags while others carried signs criticising his handling of pivotal issues such as bringing captives back from Gaza and agreeing to a ceasefire.

The weekly protests have grown more frequent as the war in Gaza rages on.


Demonstrators clash with security forces during a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in Tel Aviv

 

Netanyahu to bring forward return from US to convene security cabinet

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is cutting short his trip to Washington to return to Israel following the attack on the Druze village of Majdal Shams, his office has said.

In a post on X, it said Netanyahu would immediately enter consultations with the security cabinet.



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SvennoJ on 27 July 2024

Victims of Majdal Shams attack Syrians, not Israelis

The Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari has condemned the air attack on Majdal Shams, saying that the victims were Israeli citizens.

Mouin Rabbani, an analyst at the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies in Montreal, said the statement was incorrect.

“The victims were not Israelis, they were Syrians,” he told Al Jazeera, adding that the Golan Heights were occupied by Israel in 1967 but that the Druze population there does not hold Israeli citizenship.

Israel claimed that the attack was carried out by Hezbollah, which the group has denied. “Israel has for months been threatening a major offensive in Lebanon and the Israeli public also feels strongly that the government should deal with the threat of Hezbollah before a new school year begins in September,” Rabbani said.

It is “entirely plausible”, the analyst added, that the attack will trigger an escalation, for which Netanyahu may have gotten a green light from the US during his trip to Washington, DC.

 

Israel’s Ben-Gvir says ‘red line’ crossed in Majdal Shams

Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has said that a “red line” has been crossed in the Majdal Shams attack, adding that this should be allowed “no more”. The far-right minister referred to the bond between the Druze and Jewish communities, which he said was commonly referred to as a “covenant of blood” and a “life covenant”.

He extended his condolences to the families of the victims for the “severe disaster that befell us all”.

Iranian ambassador says Tehran does not expect wider war in Lebanon

Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, has said that Tehran “does not expect” a wider war in Lebanon, amid fears of a possible escalation after the attack on the occupied Golan Heights which Israel blamed on Hezbollah.

Amani also said that Iran does “not want” but does “not fear” an escalation, and that its enemies know what it can do to protect the “resistance” in the region.


‘Lebanon should burn,’ Israeli energy minister says

Israel’s Minister of Energy Eli Cohen has said that “Lebanon should burn” after the attack that killed 11 young people in the Druze town of Majdal Shams, in the occupied Golan Heights.

“We must take significant action in the north, which will exact a heavy price on Lebanon and Hezbollah,” Cohen said on X.

“What cruel terrorist organisation shoots at playing children?”, he added, before extending his condolences to all those “who lost their loved ones today”.

UNIFIL ‘more concerned than ever’ about Lebanon-Israel escalation

The United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon (UNIFIL) has sounded the alarm about a possible escalation in the war between Israel and Lebanon, which has so far been largely confined to the border areas.

UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti told Al Jazeera Arabic that the peacekeeping force was “more concerned than ever about the possibility of the conflict expanding in southern Lebanon” following the attack on Majdal Shams.

Tenenti said his team was communicating with actors on both sides of the border to reduce tensions at the Blue Line, which divides Lebanon from Israel and the Golan Heights.

Israel’s Gantz says time to strike deal in Gaza, open new front with Lebanon

Former war cabinet member Benny Gantz has said that the time has come to reach a deal in Gaza for the release of captives and open a new front with Hezbollah.

“The government will be afforded wide support from outside the government for any determined and effective response that will restore security to the citizens of the north,” he said on X.

Gantz referred to the victims of the occupied Golan Heights attack as “innocent Israeli children in the Druze village of Majdal Shams”, despite the residents not holding Israeli citizenship.


The timing of this atrocity is mighty suspicious. Though most likely it's a stray rocket. It's a small miracle it took this long before a disastrous mishap happened. Shows all the more that Israel's regular 'mishaps' in Gaza aren't accidents.



SvennoJ on 27 July 2024

Israel deliberately shooting children in Gaza, trauma surgeon says

Feroze Sidhwa, a trauma surgeon who spent two weeks at the European Hospital in Khan Younis in March, told Al Jazeera that Israeli forces were deliberately targeting children.

“We regularly saw, on a daily basis, children shot in the head and chest – often more than one at the same time,” he said, speaking from French Camp, California.

“It’s hard to believe that’s just a consequence of war. I can’t imagine how that’s not deliberate.”

He also said that Israel’s direct attacks on the healthcare system have been devastating. “It’s impossible for the healthcare system to function in this environment, with hospitals being destroyed and even deprived of clean water at this point,” he said.

“[Then there are the] direct attacks on healthcare workers themselves – the healthcare workers in Gaza are extremely dispirited – they know they’re being targeted by the Israelis.”


Israeli forces shoot boy, obstruct medics as Balata raids continue

Israeli forces shot and wounded a 17-year-old Palestinian boy in the Balata refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, before also firing on ambulance crews that tried to help him, according to the Wafa news agency.

The ongoing raid is the fourth Israeli operation in the refugee camp in the past 24 hours, Wafa reported. In the latest attack, Israeli forces bulldozed parts of the Al-Araishi Mall, the agency said.

In an earlier incursion, Israeli forces killed two Palestinians, including a 17-year-old boy. Israeli shelling also wounded a medic who was trying to evacuate those injured in the earlier attacks, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS).

WHO chief worried about civilians, patients in Deir el-Bala

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus took to X to express concern over the deadly Israeli attack on the Khadija School, which was being used as a field hospital and shelter.

“Deeply worried about the safety of civilians and patients in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, following the latest reports of airstrikes in areas where many displaced people are sheltering,” he wrote.

“Such attacks also strain fragile health facilities and put them at risk of closure,” he added, calling for a ceasefire and for civilians and health workers to be protected.



SvennoJ on 27 July 2024

Multiple Israeli air attacks reported in Lebanon

We have just received reports of Israeli air attacks on several locations across southern Lebanon.

Explosions have been heard in the southern city of Tyre and surrounding areas.

Three villages close to the border have also been hit. These “frontline villages” have been repeatedly hit during the course of the ongoing confrontations between the Israeli military and Hezbollah.


UN officials in Lebanon call for ‘maximum restraint’

The UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, and the head of the UN peacekeeping forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL), Aroldo Lazaro, have issued a joint statement on the rocket attack on Majdal Shams in occupied Golan Heights.

“We deplore the death of civilians – young children and teenagers – in Majdal Shams,” Hennis-Plasschaer and Lazaro said.

They also urged all parties to “exercise maximum restraint and to put a stop to the ongoing intensified exchanges of fire”, saying that escalation could “engulf the entire region in a catastrophe beyond belief”.

UNIFIL and the UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon are “in contact with both Lebanon and Israel”, they added.

What is the Golan Heights?

The Golan Heights is a strategic plateau bordering Lebanon, Israel and Jordan. While it is internationally recognised as part of Syria, two-thirds of the area has been occupied by Israel since it was captured in the 1967 Six-Day War. Syria attempted to retake the area in 1973, but failed.

A UN observer force has been supervising the ceasefire line ever since.

Israel has built dozens of illegal settlements in the occupied Golan Heights – and in 1981, declared that it was annexing the territory. About 20,000 illegal Israeli settlers now live there, alongside approximately 20,000 Druze Arabs.

Mouin Rabbani, a non-resident fellow at the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies, said the occupied Golan Heights are a “mountain range that allows Israel to threaten the rest of Syria”, including the Syrian capital, Damascus.

“It’s worth recalling that after 1967, Israel built its first settlements not in the West Bank, but in the Golan Heights,” Rabbani told Al Jazeera. “And it annexed the Golan Heights formally in 1980, for which it was condemned by the UN Security Council. There were diplomatic negotiations between Israel and Syria during the 1990s, but these failed because ultimately, Israel was unprepared to accept a comprehensive withdrawal to the pre-June 1967 lines.”

Israel has since built major intelligence installations there, and following the war on Gaza, Hezbollah has launched attacks on these facilities, as part of its effort to support Palestinians under attack in the coastal enclave, Rabbani noted.

“I think there’s another element here,” he added. “As you know, the International Court of Justice recently ruled Israel’s rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including East Jerusalem, to be unlawful and illegal and said it must end immediately. Although the Golan Heights was not part of that case, I think the determinations made by the ICJ about the occupied Palestinian territories apply just as clearly to the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.”



SvennoJ on 27 July 2024

Australia should press Israel not to invade Lebanon, says Greens leader

Adam Bandt, the leader of the Australian Greens, has called for the Australian government to pressure Israel not to invade Lebanon in the wake of the deadly attack on Majdal Shams.

“Labor must pressure the extremist Israeli government to end its genocide in Gaza and not escalate war by invading Lebanon,” Bandt said in a post on social media.

Fire breaks out in southern Lebanon village

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting that Israeli attacks have caused fires to break on the town of Khiam in southern Lebanon.

Other locations hit in the Israeli assault include:

  • The port city of Tyre in southern Lebanon
  • The town of Abbasiya, near Tyre
  • Burj al-Shemali, a municipality near Tyre where a refugee camp for Palestinians is located
  • A field between the towns of Chmistar and Taraiyya in the Bekaa Valley, Hezbollah’s stronghold in eastern Lebanon

The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) said that fires are becoming increasingly common amid the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, with Israel using highly incendiary white phosphorus munitions as well as launching fireballs with catapults to deliberately burn vegetation.

 
Death toll from Golan Heights attack rises to 12

The Israeli military says at least 12 people have been killed in the rocket attack on Majdal Shams. All the victims were aged between 10 and 20.

Earlier, the military also said that the rocket that struck the football pitch was an Iranian-made Falaq-1 and that a Hezbollah commander named Ali Muhammad Yahya had directed the attack from a launching site in Shebaa in southern Lebanon.

As we’ve been reporting, Hezbollah has denied responsibility for the attack, with Axios, a US news outlet, reporting that the armed group told the UN that the incident was the result of an Israeli anti-rocket interceptor hitting the football pitch.


Emergency personnel inspect an area in Majdal Shams after a rocket attack on the area on July 27



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SvennoJ on 28 July 2024

Ireland, Iraq, Arab League condemn school attack

Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris condemned the bombing, saying it was a “further demonstration of brutal, unconscionable violence”. He added that targeting an area populated with displaced families is “inhumane and despicable”.

The Iraqi Foreign Ministry also denounced the attack and called for global action, saying that “this massacre is a continuation of the hostile acts and crimes committed by the Zionist entity against defenceless civilians”.

The Arab League, meanwhile, criticised the international community’s silence on the Israeli military’s “heinous massacre” and called on the UN Security Council to pressure Israel to end the “genocide”.


Palestinians inspect a destroyed school building following an Israeli attack in Deir el-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, July 27


Islamic Relief ‘appalled’ as school ‘massacre’ displaces families again

The humanitarian group released a statement expressing concern at the deteriorating situation in Gaza after “yet another deadly massacre at a school” where Palestinians were sheltering.

“Israel’s policy of constantly forcing civilians to move from one place to another, and then attacking the schools and camps where they are told to go, is making the humanitarian crisis even more catastrophic by the day,” Islamic Relief said in the statement.

The statement highlighted that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have again been displaced by Israeli orders in recent weeks, with “some families now displaced nine or 10 times since the crisis escalated” and called on international governments to demand an immediate ceasefire and “an end to the constant forced displacement”.


An injured Palestinian woman is carried to an ambulance following an Israeli strike on the Khadija school housing displaced people in Deir el-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip on Saturday


Another Israeli soldier dies of wounds from Gaza war

The Israeli military says a 21-year-old soldier has died about one week after he was seriously wounded in fighting in southern Gaza. According to The Times of Israel, 331 Israeli soldiers have been killed in fighting in the Gaza Strip and along Israel’s borders, since October.


More than 300 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the start of the ground operation inside the Strip


Wounded patients dying at Al-Aqsa Hospital due to lack of medication

Doctors are watching the wounded people die on the floor of the emergency department at Al-Aqsa Hospital of Deir el-Balah.

There is a lack of medicine and medical supplies, leaving the doctors with no capacity to intervene and save lives.

This is the result of yesterday’s attacks on the school in western Deir-el Balah. A field hospital was set up inside the school, in coordination with the ICRC [Red Cross], used before transferring patients and injuries from Al-Aqsa Hospital. It worked as a supporting facility to reduce the pressure on the hospital. It came under attack yesterday.

About 120 critically injured people arrived at Al-Aqsa Hospital from there. At least 36 people were pronounced dead; this number is confirmed by the Health Ministry and management of the hospital. At least 15 children are among those killed.

Some arrived in pieces in plastic bags, they arrived shredded because of the intensity of the bombs and shrapnel.


Gaza death toll rises

At least 39,324 Palestinians have been killed and 90,830 others injured in Israel’s war on Gaza since October 7, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

At least 66 Palestinians were killed in the past day alone, the statement added.



SvennoJ on 28 July 2024

Anger in Tel Aviv as Netanyahu leaves US without deal


Israelis rallying in Tel Aviv, expressed anger as the Israeli prime minister ended a visit to Washington, DC without announcing a deal to bring home Israeli captives held in Gaza


Israel refusing treatment to Palestinian detainee with partial paralysis: Report

Wafa is reporting that Israeli authorities have refused to provide medical treatment to 23-year-old Ibrahim Ammar Abbas, who is imprisoned at the Naqab (Negev) prison and is suffering from partial paralysis.

Abbas was arrested from a checkpoint in Jenin on April 23 of last year, and his family told Wafa he became partially paralysed on July 15 of this year. They appealed to human rights organisations to intervene and help save his life, the agency reported.

Abbas is currently being held in administrative detention, without charges or trial.


Israeli forces arrest at least 6 in occupied West Bank overnight

The arrests have been carried out mainly in Ramallah and Jenin, according to the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society. Among those arrested were two children and former prisoners, the organisations said.

Since the war began, Israeli forces have detained more than 9,845 Palestinians, the statement added.

Last edited by SvennoJ - on 28 July 2024

SvennoJ on 28 July 2024

Israel wants a status quo in which Palestinian death is treated as normal

Omar Baddar, a Middle East political analyst, called out the double standards in global reaction to killings in Israel and Palestine.

He said the global concern over the rocket attack on Golan Heights stands in stark contrast to their muted responses to Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip.

“Really, if this incident [in Golan Heights] were to take place a thousand times over, it still would not even come close to the number of Palestinian children that Israel has killed in the Gaza Strip. And even if you isolate [Saturday] alone, you have Israeli attacks across Gaza [that] have killed more than more than 50 Palestinians. So those ought to be much bigger news, if you’re looking specifically at the numbers and the scale of the casualties,” Baddar told Al Jazeera.

“Yet nobody looks at this as a crisis, simply because we’ve normalised Palestinian death. And what Israel basically is suggesting here is that the status quo ought to be an environment in which Israel can slaughter Palestinians by the thousands, with complete and total impunity. But if Israelis get hurt or killed, then this is a crisis and this is grounds for spreading the war.”

Baddar said the international community – if it were seriously interested in de-escalation – must not allow a “status quo in which Palestinian death is treated as normal and Israel has complete and total impunity”.

He added, “If we are interested in resolving the situation, we have to resolve the core issue right now, which immediately means a ceasefire in Gaza. And in the long term, that has to include resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict so that tensions with Lebanon and with Yemen and elsewhere can actually be defused and we can move towards a better future for everyone.”

 

Israel-Lebanon cross-border attacks in numbers

The attack on the Druze town of Majdal Shams that killed 12 people on Saturday was the deadliest in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights since Israel-Hezbollah cross-border attacks intensified last October.

According to Reuters, the latest attack brings to a total of 44 people killed on the Israeli side of the Israel-Lebanon border since October, including at least 21 soldiers.

In Lebanon, at least 543 people had been killed by Israeli attacks as of June, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED).

Hezbollah’s denial of responsibility for rocket attack opens door for de-escalation

Omar Baddar, a Middle East political analyst, says he believes the rocket attack on the Golan Heights was “almost certainly an accident”, regardless of who was responsible for it.

“No party in the entire region has either a political interest or a military interest in targeting a kid’s soccer game in a Druze town in the occupied Golden Heights. And it’s also worth noting that there is a desire on both the part of Hezbollah and Israel to avoid a full-scale war,” he told Al Jazeera from Washington, DC.

“We would need an independent investigation to actually really know what’s unfolded in this case. But Hezbollah’s denial is itself at least an indication even if it were to turn out to be a Hezbollah rocket, it certainly is not an intentional targeting of that soccer game,” he added.

“So this would open the door for some sort of de-escalation and the question is whether Israel is interested in taking that path or do they see a conflict with Hezbollah as inevitable and are they going to take this opportunity as a good PR moment for them to escalate in that direction.”



SvennoJ on 28 July 2024

Israeli warning sirens in Majdal Shams came too late: Report

The Times of Israel is reporting that Israel sounded warning sirens before the deadly rocket attack in Majdal Shams, but it was too short of a notice for the victims to flee.

The newspaper quoted Hagari, the Israeli military spokesman, as saying that initial investigations show rocket sirens sounded in the town “but this is an immediate alert – too short”.


Israel military says it attacked Hezbollah sites overnight

The Israeli military has just issued a statement confirming the air attacks in Lebanon.

It said its fighter jets targeted weapons depots and other Hezbollah infrastructure in Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon, in Shabriha and Burj el-Shemali near the southern city of Tyre, and the villages of Kafr Lila, Rab al-Thalathine, Khiam and Tayr Harfa.


Israel bombs house in Lebanon’s Baalbek District

The latest attack came in the Baalbek District of the Baalbek-Hermel governorate, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA).

An Israeli drone hit a house there on the outskirts of the town of Taraya (Taraiyya) with two missiles at dawn today, and the damage was limited to material, the report said.

According to the NNA, the previous attacks came on the outskirts of the towns of Aabbassiyeh, Tayr Debba and Toura in Tyre district, targeting an open area that did not lead to any injuries.

It also launched a raid on a house in the town of Burj al-Shemali, which resulted in casualties and severe damage to property, infrastructure and houses surrounding the targeted area, the report said.

There was also a raid on Tayr Harfa town, which caused extensive damage to property and crops.


Israel-Hezbollah conflict ‘at a tipping point’

Past midnight, Israel carried out seven air strikes across southern Lebanon nearly simultaneously. This was a clear message from Israel, but it was not the expected response.

Israel promised a “harsh response” to the rocket attacks in Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that killed many civilians. What we witnessed overnight is the normal activity that we have seen in the past 10 months of fighting between Hezbollah and the Israeli military.

The Israeli army said it targeted Hezbollah weapon depots and military structure, so we are now waiting for a response until Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returns to Israel after cutting short his US trip.

He said he would chair a security cabinet meeting later this afternoon, but before leaving the US he said he would not remain silent and that this would not be left on the agenda.

Druze mourn after rocket hits occupied Golan Heights killing youth

The rocket attack on a football field in the town of Majdal Shams, occupied Golan Heights killed at least 12 people, with all the victims aged between 10 and 20. It’s the deadliest attack on an Israeli site along the country’s northern border since fighting between Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah began.

Hezbollah has denied responsibility for the attack, with Axios, a US news outlet, reporting that the group told the UN that the incident was the result of an Israeli anti-rocket interceptor hitting the football pitch.



Members of the Druze minority hold a photo of Alma Fkhrden, 12, during her funeral in Majdal Shams


Israeli forces and medics rush casualties from the site of the rocket strike


Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (centre) visits the site where the rocket fell



SvennoJ on 28 July 2024

Iran warns Israel against ‘new adventure’ in Lebanon

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani says in a statement that “any ignorant action of the Zionist regime can lead to the broadening of the scope of instability, insecurity and war in the region”.

Kanaani warned that Israel would be held responsible for “the unforeseen consequences and reactions to such stupid behaviour”.


Israel says Hezbollah ‘crossed all red lines’

Hezbollah has “crossed all red lines” in Majdal Shams, the Israeli Foreign Ministry says, despite the Iran-backed armed group’s denial of its involvement in the attack that killed at least 12 youths in the Druze town in the occupied Golan Heights.

“Saturday’s massacre constitutes the crossing of all red lines by Hezbollah,” the ministry said in a statement. “This is not an army fighting another army, rather it is a terrorist organisation deliberately shooting at civilians.”

Hey, you just described yourself.


Hezbollah will pay price for Majdal Shams attack: Gallant

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant says his country mourns for “the innocent boys and girls killed” in the Golan Heights, referring to a rocket that reportedly killed 12 people a day earlier in the Syrian region occupied by Israel.

Israel said it would strike hard against Hezbollah after accusing the Lebanese group of killing children and teenagers in the attack that hit a football field in the Druze village of Majdal Shams.

“There are 150,000 Druze in Israel, as well as millions of Jews and Arab Israelis. We live side by side and all suffer from Hezbollah’s terror. We will ensure Hezbollah, the proxy of Iran, pays a price for this loss,” Gallant said on X.

His comments came despite Hezbollah denying any responsibility for the strike.


Germany condemns Golan Heights rocket attack, calls for ‘cool heads’

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has condemned what she said was the “deplorable” rocket strike on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, which killed 12 youths.

“The perfidious attacks must stop immediately. It is important to act with cool heads. Far too many people have died already in this conflict,” Baerbock wrote on X in reference to the Gaza war, which risks spreading to Lebanon where Hezbollah is based.


Druze official asks Israeli ministers not to politicise Majdal Shams funerals

Jaber Jadban, the chairman of the Druze authorities’ forum, has written a letter to the Israeli government ministers, according to Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper. He asked them not to attend the funerals of the 12 youths killed in yesterday’s attack on Majdal Shams, the report said.

“Because of the sensitivity of the situation, we ask not to turn the massacre into a political event. Requesting a quiet religious funeral according to Druze custom,” the letter said.


US urged to restrain Israel after Golan Heights attack: Lebanon minister

Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib says Lebanon’s government asked the United States to tell Israel to hold back on a major escalation after a rocket killed 12 youths in occupied Golan Heights.

Bou Habib said the US asked the Lebanese government to pass on a message to Hezbollah to show restraint as well.