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

SvennoJ on 31 July 2024

Protests in the occupied West Bank after Haniyeh assassination

A protest has been going on in downtown Ramallah condemning the killing of Ismail Haniyeh, and similar demonstrations have been going on across the West Bank, bringing life to a halt amid a general strike.

We’ve been hearing calls during these protests for Palestinian unity, this is a demand we’ve been hearing again and again as people want the leadership to come together and bring divisions between Fatah and Hamas to an end.

They’ve been reading the news of a “national unity” agreement with apathy and they want to see action being taken and the deal implemented.


Pro-Palestine demonstrations take place in Istanbul

Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters have marched through the streets of Istanbul after Haniyeh’s killing.  Turkey condemned the assassination, saying the attack aimed to spread the Israeli war in Gaza on a regional level.

“It has been revealed once again that the government of Netanyahu has no intention of achieving peace,” Turkey’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

Although the strike on Haniyeh was widely assumed to have been carried out by Israel, Israel made no claim of responsibility and said it would make no comment on the killing.


Pro-Palestinian demonstrators in Istanbul, Turkey, protest the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran, July


Tunisians protest assassination of Haniyeh

Hundreds of people gathered in Tunis to protest Haniyeh’s assassination. The demonstrators, carrying Palestinian flags and chanting slogans, expressed their outrage at what they viewed as a targeted attack by Israel in Tehran.

The assassination took place less than 24 hours after Israel said it killed Hezbollah’s most senior military commander in the Lebanese capital Beirut.


Demonstrators carry pictures of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in Iran, during a protest in Tunis, Tunisia July 31

March in support of Palestine in Tunisian city of Sfax

Tunisian activists on Wednesday also turned up in large numbers for a march in support of Gaza in the streets of the southeastern city of Sfax. The participants waved the Palestinian flag and the flags of the resistance factions and chanted slogans in support of the Palestinian cause.



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SvennoJ on 31 July 2024

UN Security Council emergency meeting over Hamas chief killing begins

UN Under-Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo is giving the opening remarks at the emergency meeting over the killing of Hamas chief in Tehran.

DiCarlo said a path to de-escalation is needed at this dangerous time. “The international community must work together to avoid any action that will make the conflict much bigger and wider very quickly,” she said.

“We need swift diplomatic efforts towards de-escalation [and] the Security Council plays a crucial role in this regard.”

UNSC is useless, can't implement their own resolutions anyway.



US calls on UNSC to stand with Israel

Robert Wood, US deputy ambassador to the UN, has taken the floor at the Security Council.

The US has again blamed Hezbollah for the rocket attack on a football field in Majdal Shams on Sunday, despite the Lebanese group having denied responsibility.

“We call on the Security Council to send an unambiguous message to Hezbollah by standing with Israel as it defends itself against Hezbollah’s repeated attacks,” Wood said.

He added that other Iranian-backed groups have been conducting “brazen attacks” that endanger regional peace. If Iran does not abide by UNSC resolutions, then the body must consider taking additional measures to “hold Iran accountable and address repeated action by its terrorist proxies”, he said.

Wood, who is addressing the UN Security Council on behalf of the US, says Washington was “not aware of or involved in the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh”.

“We have no independent confirmation as to Hamas’s claims regarding his death,” the US official said. “It is best not to speculate on the impact that these events will have. A broader war is neither imminent or inevitable.”

Wood urged the UNSC to pressure Iran to stop escalating its attacks on Israel through its proxies, as well as arming and financing “terrorist groups”.

Robert Wood has become an expert in gaslighting.


UK resolute in support to Israel and its ‘right to defend itself’

Barbara Woodward, UK ambassador to the UN, has told the UNSC that the UK is resolute in its support for Israel and its “right to defend itself in line with international humanitarian law”.

Woodward cited the drone strike by Yemen’s Houthi group on Tel Aviv earlier this month and the rocket attack on Majdal Shams on Sunday as evidence of Iran’s destabilising action.

“We have repeatedly been clear in this council of Iran’s role in destabilising the region through its use of proxies, including Lebanese Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis. This must cease,” the UK ambassador said.

“The attempt of Iran and its proxies to use the war in Gaza as justification for further violence is perverse, and we reject it entirely.”

Another gaslighter. Fuck the US and UK. You created this mess and are perpetuating this mess.

What do you do when the biggest criminals have veto power? UNSC might as well be disbanded, useless.


Israel ‘must be stopped’, Palestinian official tells UNSC

Feda Abdelhady Nasser, the deputy permanent observer of the State of Palestine to the UN, has told the Security Council that “Israel has been the oppressor, tormentor and murderer of Palestinians for decades, and it is the longstanding destabiliser of our region”.

“It must be stopped,” she said. “We call once again with utmost urgency on the Security Council, General Assembly and all law-abiding, peace-loving nations to act forthwith to bring a halt to the horrific, criminal Israeli aggressions against the Palestinian people and on our region.”

Nasser demanded accountability for the killing of Haniyeh and for the “murder and injury of over 130,000 Palestinian children, women and men across these past 300 days of horror and hell in Gaza”.

“The international community has a choice to make – let it be for peace and security, do not let Israel drag us all to the abyss,” she added.



Haniyeh’s assassination shows Israel intends to expand the war to the entire region: Iran

The Iranian ambassador to the UN has addressed the UN Security Council. Here are the main points made by Amir Saeid Iravani during the emergency meeting:

  • Haniyeh’s assassination is another manifestation of Israel’s decades-long pattern of terrorism and sabotage targeting Palestinians and their supporters.
  • Israel was also pursuing the political goal of disrupting the first day of Iran’s new government.
  • Iran condemns in the strongest possible terms this terrorist act and the most serious violation of international law and national security.
  • This is a serious breach of peace and security that requires immediate action by the UN Security Council.
  • It also suggests that Israel’s intention is to expand the war to the entire region.



Israel calls Iran ‘engine of death and destruction’ at UNSC

Israel’s representative, Jonathan Miller, has told the UN Security Council that its emergency meeting had been called for by the world’s greatest “sponsor of terrorism” Iran.

“Iran is not merely a sponsor of terrorism, it is the very machine driving the engine of death and destruction that threatens us all,” he said.

“We urge the international community to hold Tehran accountable for its crimes,” Miller added, citing the recent rocket attack on Majdal Shams as an example. The Iran-backed Hezbollah group has denied responsibility.

By contrast, Miller said Israel conducted a “precise strike against a Hezbollah commander, a senior terrorist with the blood of Israelis and many others on his hands”.

By contrast, Israel responded to an unintentional strike with a deliberate strike that killed 5 civilians and wounded 70+ more.


More deflection. It's become crystal clear it's Israel that is the engine of death and destruction, backed by the US, UK, Germany, Canada and the rest of the Western world.

Syria says Golan Heights attack ‘weaponised’ by Israel

Syria’s UN ambassador Koussay al-Dahhak has dismissed as “lies” claims that a rocket attack on Majdal Shams, in the occupied Golan Heights, targeted Israel’s population.

“Syria reiterates that Syrian Arab Golan is and has always been Syrian Arab territory,” al-Dahhak said, adding that the Druze community that lives in the area has long rejected Israeli citizenship.

The attack was nonetheless “weaponised by Israel to continue its aggression on the states of the region”, he added.

Al-Dahhak also contested Israel’s claim that it is defending itself. “Syria reiterates that an occupying entity cannot claim that they are defending themselves,” he said.

Last edited by SvennoJ - on 31 July 2024

SvennoJ on 31 July 2024

BREAKING: ISRAEL ATTACKS BEIRUT; HAMAS LEADER K*LLED IN IRAN; ISRAELIS PROTEST FOR R*PE TORTURE

Israelis Riot In Support Of Torture




Already buried under the recent assassinations.



SvennoJ on 31 July 2024

More reactions from UN Security Council members

Here are what some of the members of the UN Security Council said at the emergency meeting on the assassination of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh:

  • China: “This act was a blatant attempt to sabotage peace efforts. [China urges Israel] to halt all its military operations in Gaza and immediately stop its collective punishment of the people in Gaza.”
  • France: “We call for the utmost responsibility and restraint in order to avoid a regional conflagration.”
  • Guyana: “The history of colonialism has shown us, Mr President, that no people consent to subjugation and certainly not of the kind that Israel has visited on the Palestinian people. The desire for freedom is innate.”
  • Malta: “Efforts towards an immediate and permanent ceasefire to the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza must not cease.”
  • Russia: The “political assassination [of Ismail Haniyeh] … strikes a serious blow, primarily for the mediated negotiations between Hamas and Israel aimed at a ceasefire in Gaza.”

Lebanon warns UNSC that war would ‘spread to the whole world’

Lebanon’s Charges d’Affaires for the UN, Hadi Hachem, has warned the UNSC that a conflict in the Middle East would have global repercussions.

He said that while the exact circumstances behind the attack on Majdal Shams were still unknown, it could have taken place because “Israel has occupied the area since 1967” while failing to implement numerous UN resolutions calling for it to withdraw from the Golan Heights and other occupied territories.

“Israel’s claim that it seeks to protect the population it occupies is a display of hypocrisy,” Hachem said.

“The real goal of Israel is to prolong and escalate the hostilities and it is ironic that the killer of tens of thousands of children in Gaza sheds tears for the children of the occupied Syrian Golan.”

Hachem also warned the international community to prevent the outbreak of a regional conflict. “What starts in the Middle East will spread to the whole world,” he said.


Incidentally I'm currently listening to the (Canadian) news broadcast. The tone has certainly changed. They're talking about the US has to change course "The US is not a bystander" "This war could not be waged without the active and enthusiastic support of the United States" "The path Israel is on is something akin to pyromania across the region"


Summary of today since everything is moving so fast

What happened on Wednesday?

  • Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Iran’s capital, Tehran.
  • Hezbollah confirmed its top commander Fuad Shukr was killed in Tuesday’s Israeli strike on Beirut.
  • An Al Jazeera journalist and a camera operator were killed in an Israeli attack on Gaza. Ismail al-Ghoul and Rami al-Rifi – both 27 – were killed in the Shati refugee camp in an Israeli strike on their vehicle.
  • Several countries, including Germany and the US, have urged their citizens to either leave Lebanon or not visit at all at this time.
  • Protests have erupted in the occupied West Bank, Tunisia and Turkey to condemn Haniyeh’s killing.
  • Yemen’s Houthis have said that Israel should expect a “wave of retaliation” following Haniyeh’s assassination.
  • UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has denounced strikes on Beirut and Tehran as a “dangerous escalation”.


SvennoJ on 01 August 2024

Israeli military shells Maghazi camp, killing at least 8

The Israeli military has shelled a vehicle at the entrance to the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, killing at least eight people and injuring others, the Wafa news agency reports.


Israeli military bombs home in Nuseirat, killing 3: Reports

The Israeli military has bombed a home in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing at least three people, according to local media reports.

At least four people were also injured in the attack, which targeted the Saad family home north of the camp.

Palestinians mourn Al Jazeera journalists killed in Israeli strike


Al-Ghoul and al-Rifi were reporting from the Shati refugee camp, the birthplace of assassinated Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, when they were targeted and killed

According to preliminary figures by the Committee to Protect Journalists [CPJ], at least 111 journalists and media workers are among those killed since the start of the war on October 7.


The last photo of slain Al Jazeera journalist Ismail al-Ghoul

Al Jazeera journalist Ismail al-Ghoul and his cameraman Rami al-Rifi were killed in an Israeli strike on their vehicle in the Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza on Wednesday.

They were reporting from the destroyed house of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated earlier in the day in the Iranian capital Tehran.

The Israeli military carried out an air strike on their car after the pair had finished their coverage and were making their way to the al-Ahli Arab Hospital.

Al-Ghoul and al-Rifi were wearing “press” vests and their car was clearly marked as a news media vehicle when they were targeted by Israeli forces.



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SvennoJ on 01 August 2024

Israeli military arrests son of prominent Palestinian resistance fighter

The Israeli military has stormed the town of Kober, north of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, and arrested Palestinian man Ward al-Barghouthi, according to local media reports.

Ward is the son of a prominent local resistance fighter, the late Abu Assef al-Barghouti, who was jailed in the 1970s for killing an Israeli citizen. Israeli forces were seen tearing down images of Abu Assef in the street during their storming of Kober.

Israeli forces have also carried out raids and arrests across the occupied West Bank in recent hours.

Incidents include:

  • A man has been taken from his home in the Talaat Balibla area
  • Israeli forces stormed Nablus city
  • Israeli forces raided the town of Deir Istiya, northwest of Salfit

Israeli forces arrest Palestinians after Israeli settlers seized their farmland: UN

Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed six Palestinians and injured 78 others in the occupied West Bank in the past week, the UN humanitarian agency (OCHA) has said in its latest update.

In one incident, in the village of Hizma, Jerusalem, Israeli settlers seizing Palestinian farmland injured two Palestinian shepherds and cut down 40 trees, OCHA said. When Israeli forces arrived at the scene, they “arrested four Palestinians and then withdrew”, OCHA added.

The update also said that Israeli soldiers and settlers have destroyed more than 100 structures used for water and sanitation across the occupied West Bank since October, including pipelines and toilets.


Israeli military carries out arrest campaign in Nablus

The Israeli military has stormed the occupied West Bank city of Nablus and the nearby town of Urif, arresting at least six people, the Wafa news agency reports.

Israeli forces stormed the city and re-arrested two former Palestinian prisoners at their homes, while a student was also arrested at the An-Najah University.

The Israeli military also stormed Urif, south of Nablus, and arrested a man.



SvennoJ on 01 August 2024

Palestinian official demands accountability at UN for assassination of Hamas leader

Feda Abdelhady Nasser, the deputy permanent observer of the State of Palestine to the UN, has told the Security Council that “Israel has been the oppressor, tormentor and murderer of Palestinians for decades, and it is the longstanding destabiliser of our region”.

“We demand accountability for Israel’s assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, as we have continually demanded accountability for the wanton murder and injury of over 130,000 Palestinian children, women and men across these past 300 days of horror and hell in Gaza,” she said.

Iranian military adviser Milad Bidi also killed in Beirut blast

Milad Bidi, an Iranian military adviser in Lebanon, was also killed in the Israeli attack on Beirut, Lebanon on Tuesday night, Iran’s IRNA news agency has reported. Israel has claimed responsibility for the missile strike, which killed Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said at least five civilians were also killed, including children, after half of the targeted buildings in the densely populated neighbourhood collapsed and a nearby hospital suffered minor damages.

 

Alarm raised at UN Security Council over risk of all-out war in region

Japan’s deputy UN representative, Shino Mitsuko, pushed for increased international efforts to prevent a regional conflict at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, which was called in response to the assassinations of Hamas and Hezbollah officials in Iran and Lebanon.

“We fear the region is at the brink of all-out war,” Mitsuko told the meeting in New York on Wednesday evening.

The assassination of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran occurred less than 24 hours after Hezbollah’s most senior military commander, Fuad Shukr, was killed in an Israeli missile strike, described as an “assassination operation”, in the Lebanese capital Beirut.

Fu Cong, China’s ambassador to the UN, told the council meeting that failure to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza was responsible for worsening regional tensions.

“Countries with major influence must put more pressure and work more vigorously … to put out the flames of war in Gaza,” he said.



SvennoJ on 01 August 2024

Austin reaffirms US support for Israel amid spiking regional tensions

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has reaffirmed Washington’s support for Israel’s “right to self-defence” during a call with Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant.

“I reaffirmed our ironclad commitment to Israel’s security and right of self-defence against threats from Iranian-backed terrorist groups and our support for a diplomatic resolution along the Israel-Lebanon border that will allow citizens on both sides to return home safely,” he said in a post on X.



Assassinating the negotiator is not self-defense. What about the right to self-defense of Palestinians, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iran. Israel just blew up chances of a diplomatic solution. Your unconditional support for Israel's terrorism is the problem.


And what are you actually supporting...

Israeli veterans release testimony of Sde Teiman prison camp guard

Breaking the Silence, an advocacy group of Israeli military veterans, has published the testimony of a soldier who served in the prison camp for detainees from Gaza.

Sde Teiman has been in the international spotlight this week after nine Israeli soldiers were detained for the serious abuse of a Palestinian prisoner at the camp.

“For months, we’ve been hearing gruesome testimonies from detainees, soldiers, doctors and more about the horrific conditions and abuse at the Sde Teiman prison camp,” the advocacy group said in a post on social media.

The soldier told the rights group of prisoners held in “a covered enclosure, like a cowshed”.

“We were in a facility that had two cells. When I say cells, I mean large cells. They called [them] ‘pens’. One pen [had] 70 people and one [had] 100 people [sitting] in rows on ultra-thin outdoor mattresses” on an asphalt floor, the soldier said.



SvennoJ on 01 August 2024

Calls for Palestinian unity after Haniyeh killing

In the protests that took place in several areas in the occupied West Bank, people have recounted the demand that we’ve been hearing for a long time now, that national Palestinian unity needs to be restored.

This is something that Palestinians have been urging their political leadership to do: Their leaders to reunite and reunify under one umbrella.

We’ve seen that sign of unity from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, from the Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa, both releasing statements condemning the assassination and mourning Haniyeh as a national Palestinian leader, especially that he led, at one point, the Palestinian government as prime minister.

All in all, in the Palestinian streets, people say that they’ve been getting used to Israel killing their national figures, but they say that their demands for justice and freedom from the Israeli occupation will continue.

They say they will keep striving to end Israel’s occupation and become free.


People gathered to condemn the assassination of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh, in Ramallah, the occupied West Bank, on Wednesday


International outcry over assassination of Hamas political chief Haniyeh


Pro-Palestine demonstrators wave Palestinian flags as they take part in a rally to protest the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in the Fatih district of Istanbul on July 31


Demonstrators gather in honour of Ismail Haniyeh in Tunis, Tunisia, on Wednesday


Iraqi women attend a march in Baghdad, Iraq, to condemn the killing of Haniyeh


Masked boys hold replica assault rifles during a protest in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, to condemn the killing of Haniyeh


People hold posters of Haniyeh during an anti-Israel protest in Tehran, Iran



SvennoJ on 01 August 2024

Australia’s FM tells Australians to leave Lebanon now

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong has shared a video on social media warning Australians to leave Lebanon immediately.

“My message to Australian citizens and residents in Lebanon is now is the time to leave,” Wong said in the message.

“There is a real risk that the conflict in the region escalates seriously,” she said, adding that Australia is “working with partners in the region to push for restraint and de-escalation”.

Australia is home to more than 248,000 people with Lebanese ancestry, one of the largest populations of Lebanese people outside of Lebanon.

Israel’s killing of Al Jazeera journalists an attempt to ‘erase’ Palestinian identity

Israel’s genocide in Gaza has targeted those who “speak truth to power” and is aimed at eroding the “collective identity of the Palestinian people”, the US-based Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) activist group has said.

In a post on social media condemning Israel’s killing of Al Jazeera Arabic reporter Ismail al-Ghoul and cameraman Rami al-Rifi in Gaza on Wednesday, JVP said Israel seeks to “erode the collective identity of the Palestinian people” by killing media workers and destroying Palestinian cultural sites.

“The world must act to protect Palestinians in Gaza, the journalists and medics, the cultural heritage, the schools and the farmland, from further destruction and hold the Israeli government accountable for their war crimes,” JVP said.

“Safeguarding Palestinian history and identity is more essential than ever,” it added.

Israel is a ‘rogue state’, wants to destabilise the region: ex-PLO leader

Hanan Ashrawi, a Palestinian political leader and a former member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee, said Israel’s “gangster style assassination and extrajudicial executions” are designed to “inflame the whole region”.

The killings of Hamas’s political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut, Lebanon, were carried out to “sabotage any chances” of a ceasefire deal in Gaza and regional de-escalation, Ashrawi said.

“These are attacks not just on the capitals of sovereign states but also on significant leaders to ensure total provocation [and] destabilisation,” she wrote on social media.

“Israel is a rogue state that represents a real [and] present danger globally,” she said.


Former Palestine Liberation Organization Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi