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

SvennoJ on 01 August 2024

Funeral for Ismail Haniyeh begins in Tehran

Funeral services for Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh have begun at the University of Tehran, Iran, with an address from Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.

“Martyr Ismail Haniyeh was the voice of the Palestinian people all over the world,” Ghalibaf said. “He was not only a leader. He was the wise man.”

Ghalibaf added that Haniyeh’s assassination, in Tehran, on Wednesday, would not go unanswered. “Our reply will be there. At the right time and the right place. It is difficult for us to have our guest being targeted and assassinated on our soil,” he said.


The procession is set to head towards Azadi (Freedom) Square in Tehran


‘The nation today is carrying his coffin’: Hamas official addresses Haniyeh funeral

Khalil al-Hayya, the deputy head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, has addressed the funeral service of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

“The nation today is carrying his coffin, and the nation today is raising the flag of jihad [struggle] and resistance towards the goal of liberating Palestine and Jerusalem,” al-Hayya said.

“With the faith of our country and the Palestinian soul, we are sure that the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh will bring anger towards this Zionist entity from the entire people of the world.”


Haniyeh given ‘same treatment’ in funeral as late Iranian president

The fact that Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Iran has made his death all the more painful for the host nation and will likely push it to deliver a fiercer response, said Foad Izadi, an associate professor of world studies at Tehran University.

“When you have a high-ranking official assassinated in the capital city, this is a shock,” Izadi told Al Jazeera.

To honour Haniyeh’s life, Iran is giving him “the same treatment as Ebrahim Raisi”, the late Iranian president who died in a plane crash in May. “This is something for the history books,” he said.




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SvennoJ on 01 August 2024

Opinion in Iran divided on how to respond to Israeli attacks after Haniyeh assassination

Iranians are really irritated by these ongoing killings because this is not the first assassination to have happened in Iran.

In particular, Iranian nuclear scientists have been targeted. And after October 7 when we’ve seen Israel attacking Iranian assets within the country and across the Middle East – in Iraq and Syria, killing the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, and so on.

On the other hand, the Iranian public is quite concerned about any serious retaliation that could lead to a regional war.

So on the one hand, there are expectations that the government should do more when it comes to such attacks from Israel. But on the other hand, they do not want a regional war.


Haniyeh assassination carried out amid Israel’s killing of thousands of Palestinians

University of Tehran’s Tohid Asadi said the funeral of Haniyeh in Tehran marked a “very sad moment” for many Iranians and people around the world who support the Palestinian cause.

“What adds to this sadness is the very fact that it takes place in the broader context in which the brutal Zionist regime is killing ordinary citizens on a daily basis. Thousands of them in the past months,” Asadi told Al Jazeera, referring to the war in Gaza.

“It’s more proof of Israeli aggression that takes place on the ground, targeting Iranian sovereignty,” Asadi said of the assassination of Haniyeh in Tehran.

“They are mad at this current, ongoing situation,” he said.

“Also added to that is the fact that [the killing] is taking place at a politically significant moment in Iranian history. It took place only hours after the new [Iranian] president’s inauguration, and that added to the complexity,” he added.


Iran ‘determined’ to defend national security, sovereignty after Haniyeh killing

Ali Bagheri Kani, Iran’s acting foreign minister, has sent a letter to the UN secretary-general, the head of the UN Security Council and the secretary of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to express condemnation over the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

In the letter, Bagheri reiterated that Iran is “determined to take every necessary measures to defend its national security and sovereignty against any transgressions”.

He added: “This act of terror is just another manifestation of Israel’s decades-long pattern of terrorism and sabotage targeting Palestinians and other supporters and sympathizers of the Palestinian cause across the region and beyond.”

Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, was killed in the early hours of Wednesday in a missile strike targeting the residence he was staying at in the Iranian capital. Iran and Hamas have blamed Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied carrying out the strike.



SvennoJ on 01 August 2024

Blinken calls on ‘all parties’ in Middle East to ‘stop escalatory actions’

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has urged “all parties” in the Middle East to stop “escalatory actions” and achieve a ceasefire in Gaza, after Hamas’s political leader was killed in a strike that Iran blamed on Israel.

Achieving peace “starts with a ceasefire, and to get there, it also first requires all parties to talk [and] to stop taking any escalatory actions,” Blinken told reporters in Mongolia.

That includes yourself and the USA mr. Blinken.


US spy plane spotted off Syria, Lebanon, Israel

The flight-tracking service FlightRadar24 has documented a US Navy reconnaissance plane flying off the coasts of Syria, Lebanon and Israel for more than four hours after the Israeli attack on Beirut and the assassination in Tehran escalated tensions in the region.

The navigational data verified by Al Jazeera’s fact-checking agency, Sanad, showed the EP-3E Aries II Orion arriving on the coast of Israel at about 10am (07:00 GMT) from Chania airport on the Greek island of Crete.

The aircraft gathers tactical intelligence and makes it available to commanders almost instantly.




Blinken playing ‘children’s game’ with calls for Gaza ceasefire

Gideon Levy, a columnist for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, has told Al Jazeera from Tel Aviv that the recent call for a Gaza ceasefire by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken were “empty words”.

“If Blinken and the US administration would have liked this war to be over, this war would be over,” he said. “Continuing to supply Israel with weapons and to beg Israel to stop the war is quite a farce. This is not international relations, this is a children’s game.”

Levy also said Netanyahu did not want to end the war, and that was the reason behind the assassinations in Tehran and Beirut.

Speaking about the Israeli public mood, he said there was no panic about the possible response from Iran and Lebanon against Israel “even though maybe there is a reason for panic”.

“Israelis are very cautious. There are reports of more Israelis buying more products and preparing themselves, but it’s not a big wave of running to the shops and taking everything,” he said. “People think that we are facing the unknown.”



SvennoJ on 01 August 2024

Indonesian president condemns Hamas leader’s ‘murder’

Indonesian President Joko Widodo has labelled Wednesday’s assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh “murder”.

“That was violence, a murder that is intolerable, and took place in the sovereign area of Iran,” he said in a speech at the Jakarta Convention Center. “I suppose all, including Indonesia, strongly condemn violence and murder like that,” he said.

Hamas has accused Israel of carrying out the strike on Haniyeh’s residence in Iran’s capital Tehran. Israel has yet to claim responsibility.


Malaysian PM slams Meta for removing Facebook post about Haniyeh assassination

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has criticised Meta Platforms META.O after his Facebook post marking the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was removed.

Anwar’s now-removed post was of a recording of his phone call with a Hamas official in which he offered his condolences over Haniyeh’s death in Tehran on Wednesday.

“Let this serve as a clear and unequivocal message to Meta: Cease this display of cowardice,” Anwar said on Facebook.

Muslim-majority Malaysia is a vocal supporter of the Palestinian cause, and Anwar, who met Haniyeh in Qatar in May, has previously said he has good relations with Hamas’s political leadership.

The incident is Malaysia’s latest run-in with Meta about pulling down Hamas-related content. Meta has designated the Palestinian group a “dangerous organisation” and bans content praising it.

Malaysia asks Meta for explanation over removal of PM Anwar’s Facebook post

Malaysia’s Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil has said he has asked META.O for an explanation as to why a Facebook post by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim marking the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was removed from the platform.

‘They may kill Haniyeh but not his ideas’: Malaysia’s Mahathir

Malaysia’s former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad has issued a statement mourning Haniyeh’s assassination, saying Israel had killed the “great man” because it “feared and hated everything he stood for”.

Mahathir, who served as Malaysia’s premier for 24 years between 1981 and 2020, described Haniyeh as “a soft-spoken man, yet with the heart of a lion”.

“His courage to stand up for his people obviously stemmed from a clear conscience and guided by a moral compass that is based on humanity and religious conviction,” Mahathir said.

“They may kill Mr Haniyeh but not his ideas and what he stood for,” he said.


I hope not since Haniyeh was much more moderate and interested in peace instead of more war. Which is why Netanyahu wanted him gone. His purpose of Hamas was to keep Palestinians divided between the West Bank and Gaza. No doubt the reconciliations brokered by China between Fatah and Hamas have been a driving force for this assassination.

Israel wants Hamas to become more radical so they justify their genocide and annex more of the West Bank in the chaos. Yet as with all the other assassinations it's already backfiring with calls for more unity.


China hopes Palestinian factions can create an independent state soon

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson makes this statement while addressing a question on the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran.

“China earnestly looks forward to all Palestinian factions, on the basis of internal reconciliation, create an independent Palestinian state as soon as possible,” Lin Jian said during a regular press briefing.



SvennoJ on 01 August 2024

All Israeli government offers us is ‘endless war’: Lapid

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid has condemned the government for failing to free the captives in Gaza while simultaneously dragging the country into an “endless” conflict.

“All the government offers us is more war, more war, and endless war, which will continue for years until we not only defeat them but also ourselves,” wrote Lapid in a post on X.

“It is our duty to remember that there is another way,” he said. “It is possible to negotiate a captive exchange and bring them back home.”

Translation: “Three hundred days since the disaster. For three hundred days the abductees have been underground and all the government offers us is another war and another war and a war forever, which will last years until we defeat not only them, but also ourselves. It is our duty on this day to remember that it is possible otherwise. You can do a hostage deal, bring them home.”


What countries has Israel attacked since October 7?

According to an analysis of data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), Israel is responsible for 17,081 incidents of air/drone raids, shelling/missile attacks, remote explosives and property destruction in eight countries since October 7, including the occupied Palestinian territory, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Yemen, Jordan, Iran and Iraq.

A majority of these attacks were on the Palestinian territory, specifically the Gaza Strip, with 10,389 incidents accounting for more than 60 percent of the total offensives.

There were at least 6,544 incidents of Israeli attacks on Lebanon (38 percent), followed by Syria with 144 such incidents recorded.



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SvennoJ on 01 August 2024

Israel says Hamas commander Mohammed Deif killed

Israel’s military says it has intelligence confirmation that Hamas commander Mohammed Deif was killed in a July 13 air strike targeting him.

The attack, which hit tents housing displaced people in al-Mawasi in southern Gaza, killed more than 90 people, but there was no confirmation at the time Deif was among them. Hamas said he had evaded the assault.

Now Israel says it can confirm Deif was killed.

Translation: Scenes published by the Israeli army of what it claims was the moment of the assassination of the leader of the Qassam Brigades, Mohammed Deif, two weeks ago in Gaza.

No shame publishing dropping 2,000 pound bombs on civilians


‘We must not stop’: Israel’s Smotrich on alleged killing of Deif

Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has claimed the alleged killing of Hamas commander Mohammed Deif signifies that “the defeat of Hamas is closer than ever”.

“We must not stop a moment before victory!” he said on X, claiming Israel has killed “many thousands of terrorists including very senior ones”.

“We will continue like this until we destroy them all, restore security and return the kidnapped people home,” Smotrich added.



How did Israel’s military target Deif?

The Israeli military carried out a massive air raid on al-Mawasi, a designated humanitarian safe zone, on July 13, claiming to target Hamas commander Mohammed Deif and senior Hamas member Rafi Salama.

The bomb and missile barrage was among the bloodiest of the war, killing more than 90 Palestinians and injuring more than 300 others, including children and paramedics, prompting a global outrage.

Speaking to Al Jazeera after the assault, the UN’s special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territory, Francesca Albanese said Israel had likely violated international law by striking the designated humanitarian zone.

“I’m disgusted by the tolerance of Israel’s impunity which is enabling the genocidal war,” Albanese had said.


‘Forced us into tents … then pursued us with bombs’

Journalist Waad Abu Zaher is one of the survivors of Israel’s massive air raid on al-Mawasi, where missiles fell near the tents for displaced people.

The attack, she said, turned the tent camp into a death zone. “I was running around, surrounded by corpses, blood, [scattered] pots of [the] children who had lined up at the food kitchen, and gallons of water,” she had told Al Jazeera.

“I saw a pregnant woman lying on the ground, bleeding from between her legs, next to an injured child whose arm was gone.”

She added: “Israel not only forced us to live in tents unsuitable for human life, but also pursued us here with bombs and missiles.”



Hamas member says no confirmation of Israeli claim of Deif’s killing

In a post on Telegram, Hamas member Izzat al-Rashq says there is no confirmation over the Israeli claim that it killed Deif last month.

“Confirming or denying the martyrdom of any of the Qassam leaders is a matter for the leadership of the Qassam Brigades and the leadership of the movement,” the post said.

“Unless either of them announced, none of the news published in the media or by any other party can be confirmed.”



SvennoJ on 01 August 2024

Beirut attack’s civilian death toll rises to 5: Ministry

The number of civilians killed in the Israeli air strike that killed a Hezbollah commander and an Iranian military adviser in Beirut has risen to five after one of those wounded succumbed to their injuries, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

The civilian death toll includes three women and two children, the ministry said.

The attack also killed Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr and Iranian military adviser in Lebanon, Milad Bidi.


‘Fire of anger and revenge intensifying’: Iran’s IRGC commander

Hossein Salami, commander-in-chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has issued a statement, offering condolences to IRGC adviser Milad Beidi, who was killed in an Israeli attack in the suburbs of Beirut on Tuesday.

Beidi’s legacy will “inspire the zealous and revolutionary youth of today and tomorrow”, Salami said in comments carried by Iran’s official IRNA news agency.

His killing, Salami added, will further fuel the “fire of anger and revenge” towards Israel.



Lufthansa cancels Tel Aviv flights, France warns citizens

The Lufthansa Group has cancelled all its passenger and cargo flights to and from Tel Aviv with immediate effect through August 8, says a spokesperson for the German airline.

“The reason for this is the current development in the region,” the spokesperson said.

France has also warned its citizens against travelling to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory amid risks of “military escalation”.

“Due to risks of military escalation in the Middle East, citizens are strictly advised … against travelling to Israel and the Palestinian Territories,” the French foreign ministry said on its website, according to a report by Anadolu.

It also warned French nationals against travelling to Lebanon.



SvennoJ on 01 August 2024

Nine arrested in Hebron: Report

Israeli forces have carried out a series of raids throughout the Hebron governorate in the occupied West Bank, taking nine people into custody, the Wafa news agency reports.

The raids took place in Hebron city, the town of Beit Kahil and the town of Dura, according to Wafa.

These latest arrests follow our reports of an earlier detention campaign in Nablus, where at least six people were apprehended by the Israeli military.


Israeli forces arrest 35 in latest West Bank raids: Prisoners’ group

Most of the arrests on the last day took place in the governorates of Hebron, Nablus and Ramallah, while others were in Jenin, Tubas, Jericho and Jerusalem, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society.

Among those detained were children, including a girl, said the group.

With these latest raids, Israel has made a total of 9,890 arrests in the occupied West Bank since October 7, it added.


Israeli forces injure 4 unarmed Palestinians crossing border from West Bank

At least one injured Palestinian has been arrested after Israeli forces shot and injured four residents of the occupied West Bank who were allegedly trying to cross into Israel without a permit, according to Israeli media.

Three of the four Palestinians injured in the incident managed to flee back to the town of Faqqua in the Palestinian territory, Israel’s Hayom newspaper reported, adding that they were not armed.

A growing number of West Bank residents have resorted to crossing into Israel irregularly since Israel banned issuing work permits for all Palestinians over the October 7 attack on the country led by Hamas from Gaza.

Palestinian workers in Israel, who were estimated at 22 percent of the workforce before the war, used to bring much-needed cash to the West Bank. With Israel now having banned their entry, they barely make up 2.3 percent, according to a survey by the International Labour Organization (ILO). The rate of joblessness in the occupied West Bank has reached nearly 32 percent, it said.



SvennoJ on 01 August 2024

MSF calls for Nasser Hospital to be protected

Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, has shared a post calling for Nasser Hospital in Gaza to be protected.

In a video posted on X, an MSF staff member said the hospital was the last location in Gaza where medical equipment could be sterilised and oxygen generated. “There is nowhere left after Nasser. It is the end of the line,” he said.

Israeli attacks have forced multiple hospitals across the Gaza Strip to close since October, with some hospitals managing to reopen, with reduced capacity.


Israel says aircraft attacked 35 sites across Gaza, missile launchers destroyed

Israel’s military said fighter jets and other aircraft carried out attacks on 35 targets across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, including groups of “terrorists”, buildings and other infrastructure.

Israeli ground forces operating in the Tal as-Sultan area in Gaza’s southern Rafah city also destroyed a building used by Hamas fighters, and air attacks and Israeli artillery targeted missile launchers in nearby Khan Younis, the military said in a post on social media.


‘They broke our hands and feet’: Israel releases 15 Palestinian prisoners

Video footage verified by Al Jazeera’s fact-checking agency, Sanad, has shown 15 Palestinian prisoners at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah city after their release by the Israeli forces through the al-Karara (Kissufim) border crossing.

The men recounted their torture in Israeli detention centres, saying they were beaten, deprived of food, forced to remain in harsh physical positions throughout the day, and attacked by dogs.

“They broke our hands and feet,” one of the former prisoners said.


They say they were beaten, deprived of food and attacked by dogs

Four Palestinians killed in Nuseirat

An Israeli military attack has killed at least four Palestinians in central Gaza’s Nuseirat camp, report our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic.

It follows an earlier strike on a home in the camp that killed three other people.

Dead, injured from Israeli attacks in Gaza City, Rafah

Israeli forces have attacked a home in Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, killing or injuring at least two people, report our colleagues on the ground.

To the south, Israeli forces have also fired a drone at a mosque in Rafah’s Tal as-Sultan neighbourhood, causing additional casualties, according to our colleagues’ reports.



SvennoJ on 01 August 2024

Marking 300 days of genocidal war on Gaza

Israeli military has waged 3,457 massacres so far: Gaza media office

Three hundred days into the war on Gaza, Israel has carried out 3,457 “massacres” in the enclave, according to the Gaza Government Media Office, leaving:

  • 39,480 people killed
  • 10,000 people missing
  • 91,128 people injured

That means more than 6 percent of Gaza’s pre-war population of 2.2 million is now killed, injured or missing, according to the media office’s figures.

Of those killed, there are:

  • 16,314 children
  • 10,980 women
  • 520 people buried in mass graves
  • 35 people who died of starvation

Nearly all those still in Gaza have been pushed out of their homes, and more than 1.7 million of them have contracted infectious diseases due to the dismal conditions in displacement camps, said the media office.

Among those who are sick or wounded, 13,000 need urgent treatment abroad, it added.


The state of Gaza’s infrastructure after 300 days of war

Israel’s military has dropped 82,000 tonnes of explosives on Gaza since the war broke out, wiping out much of its infrastructure and causing $33bn in direct losses, reports the Gaza Government Media Office.

It says the attacks have destroyed:

  • 198 government buildings
  • 117 schools/universities
  • 610 mosques
  • 3 churches
  • 150,000 housing units
  • 206 archeological sites
  • 34 sports facilities
  • 3,030 kilometres of electrical networks
  • 700 water wells

It also says the attacks have partially destroyed or rendered uninhabitable:

  • 117 schools/universities
  • 211 mosques
  • 280,000 housing units

It adds that the attacks also targeted 34 hospitals and 68 health centres, putting them out of service.