By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

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

SvennoJ on 13 August 2024

‘Ceasefire urgently needed to protect Palestinian lives’

Ahead of the UN Security Council’s meeting on the Israeli air raids on the al-Tabin school, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) says it is “deeply concerned” at reports of the high civilian casualties, including children.

“Schools are protected under International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and should never be a target,” the organisation said.

“Ahead of today’s UN Security Council meeting on the attack, the IRC reiterates its call for parties to uphold IHL and for all measures to be taken to protect civilians. A ceasefire is urgently needed to protect Palestinian lives, enable the release of hostages, and scale up aid delivery.”


PA prime minister urges going ‘beyond statements’ to help Gaza

The Palestinian Authority’s prime minister has urged the international community to go beyond statements expressing rejection or concern and turn to action.

The global community needs to take “concrete actions to address the massive humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and the attempts to transform it into an uninhabitable place”, Mohammed Mustafa said in a post on X.

The account of the prime minister also released images of the Palestinian man who lost his wife and their four-day-old twins today in an Israeli air strike on the enclave.

The US is certainly going beyond statements....

Blinken approves sale of more than $20bn in arms to Israel

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has approved the sale of military equipment, including fighter jets, to Israel that are worth more than $20bn.

The announcement by the Pentagon comes despite the mounting death toll in Gaza and as the Biden administration pushes for a ceasefire deal.

Earlier this week, Washington released $3.5bn to Israel to spend on US weapons and military equipment in line with Congress legislation.

 
F-15s, missiles, shells: Latest US weapons sales to Israel

Here are the weapons sales to Israel that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has just approved.

Some, including the fighter jets, could take years to deliver while equipment like tank shells could arrive immediately.

  • 50 F-15IA AND F-15I+ aircraft for $18.82bn
  • Nearly 33,000 tank cartridges for $774.1m
  • Modified M1148A1P2 family of medium tactical vehicles for $583.1m
  • Advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles for an estimated $102.5m
  • 120mm high explosive mortar cartridges for $61.1m

“The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to US national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability,” the US Department of State said about the F-15s, which are made by Boeing.

 

Blinken slams Ben-Gvir… but approves arms sales to Israel

The US Secretary of State says in a statement that the White House is “firmly against” the Israeli national security minister’s leading of prayers at al-Aqsa Mosque compound. Blinken said the move “demonstrated blatant disregard for the historic status quo with respect to the holy sites in Jerusalem”.

“These provocative actions only exacerbate tensions at a pivotal moment when all focus should be on the ongoing diplomatic efforts to achieve a ceasefire agreement and secure the release of all hostages and create conditions for broader regional stability.”

Backed by armed forces and far-right supporters, Ben-Gvir has stormed the compound multiple times since the start of the war, specifically when ceasefire talks have appeared to progress.



Around the Network
SvennoJ on 13 August 2024

Frustration as UNSC convenes for urgent meeting over Gaza

Twenty-four is the number of times the UN Security Council has met since October 7 for emergency meetings, dealing with Gaza. That’s a lot. As you can tell from the briefings … we are in a place that’s getting worse, not better in Gaza.

The UNSC has passed four resolutions, primarily 2735, which was passed in June and calls for a ceasefire … that has been ignored and not implemented.



Algeria asks UN Security Council to ‘act firmly’ in support of the Palestinians

Algeria’s representative at the United Nations, Amar Bendjama, has been addressing the UN Security Council’s urgent meeting over Israel’s August 10 attack on the al-Tabin School in Gaza City, which killed more than 100 Palestinians.

“This is not how the council should address the Palestinians’ plea… [and] quest for justice,” Bendjama said. “Our council has the legal and moral, [and] primary responsibility to act firmly to shoulder its mandate in preserving international peace and security.”

Bendjama called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and expressed Algeria’s support of mediation efforts led by Qatar, Egypt and the US. "There is no room for delaying or overcomplicating negotiations by adding new conditionalities or new demands,” he said.


Algeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Amar Bendjama


Palestine’s UN envoy: Israel is a ‘rogue state’

Palestine’s UN envoy Riyad Mansour has been addressing the UN Security Council’s urgent meeting over Israel’s August 10 attack on the al-Tabin School in Gaza City, which killed more than 100 Palestinians.

“Israel does not care about your condemnations, it dismisses your resolutions, it does not even listen to your debates,” Mansour told the UNSC.

“As countries, as a Security Council, you had a responsibility to act months ago to stop this impunity. As the genocide continues, you have a responsibility to react, to save human lives and preserve the foundation for peace and security,” Mansour said.

“Israel is a rogue state, with a rotten government” due to the impunity it has enjoyed so far, he added.



SvennoJ on 13 August 2024

Israeli extremists want to resettle Gaza - Clip from 'Israel's Reel Extremism'

"If you need to kill a million, let it be a million." In a harrowing clip from Zeteo's first-ever documentary, 'Israel's Reel Extremism,' members of the extremist Kahanist movement speak openly about their plans to resettle Gaza. "There is no such thing as 'Palestinians.'" Produced by Zeteo & Basement Films.


https://zeteo.com/p/israel-documentary-social-media

Israel’s Reel Extremism is an on-the-ground examination of Israel and its society after many months of war, seen initially through the prism of viral social media posts from Gaza - and exclusive interviews with the soldiers behind them. These posts across TikTok and Instagram, some shared millions of times, show soldiers humiliating bound Palestinians, ransacking their homes, joking as they detonate schools and whole districts, and laughing as they launch high explosive ordnance into densely-packed areas. The award-winning team behind this Basement Films production traveled to Israel to interview soldiers, radical activists, rightwing politicians, and media personalities, revealing an Israeli Jewish society that, in the aftermath of October 7th, is gripped by vengeance and hate.

This is a documentary pitch that Basement Films, an award-winning production company in the UK, came to Zeteo with when no one else in the mainstream media on either side of the Atlantic was willing to consider it – and when you see the material in the final film, you’ll quickly understand why. 

“Liberal supporters of Israel need to face this horrifying reality,” notes Simone Zimmerman, the Jewish-American peace activist featured in the documentary Israelism. It’s “hard to watch, but hard to look away from,” says Daniel Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator.



SvennoJ on 13 August 2024

At UNSC, US calls for a ceasefire deal to prevent wider war

More from the UN Security Council’s emergency meeting on Gaza:

US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the council that a broader regional conflict was “not inevitable”.

“The United States’s overall goal remains to turn the temperature down in the region, deter and defend against any future attacks and avoid regional conflict. That starts with finalising a deal for an immediate ceasefire with hostage release in Gaza,” she said.

Thomas-Greenfield added that the US was prepared to make “a final bridging proposal: one that resolves the remaining implementation issues in a manner that meets the expectations of all parties”.

She did not provide details, however.



Israel attacks UN, Palestine envoy as UNSC hears of dire situation in Gaza

Israel’s Ambassador Gilad Erdan made all these false claims, attacking the UN official that was sitting right next to him, attacking Palestine’s envoy Riyad Mansour, attacking Palestinians.

But taking all that away – because it’s easy to get kind of distracted by that and think that might have been actually his motivation – is to really take a step back and look at the humanitarian situation on the ground in Gaza.

And we got some of that during this briefing.

We heard that just within a 48-hour period, three schools that were being used as shelters were attacked by Israel. This is from the UN, from people on the ground there.

And that there have been 21 strikes on schools that are being used by Palestinians as shelters since July 4. And that just in the past two weeks, a quarter of a million Palestinians have been displaced – just in the past two weeks!

We’ve also heard from a UN official during the beginning of this briefing about how humanitarian aid into Gaza has gone down, not up, because Israel has closed the Rafa border crossing into Gaza since May. And we also heard that nearly 90 percent of the entire Gaza Strip has been put under some sort of evacuation order.



SvennoJ on 13 August 2024

Jewish group shuts down Los Angeles freeway in war protest

IfNotNow, the US-based Jewish group that is against US support for the war on Gaza, reports that demonstrators shut down a freeway in Los Angeles in protest of the war.

Group says two accused of ‘terrorism’ still held without charge by UK

The Palestine Action network of activists says that two of its members continue to be held by the UK government without any “terrorism” charges specifically introduced even though they were detained along with five others under the country’s Terrorism Act.

“This not only vindicates the activists but proves the state was abusing their powers by holding them under draconian laws – all in a bid to protect an arms firm perpetrating genocide,” the organisation said.

British counterterrorism police charged seven people with violent disorder over a break-in at a building belonging to Israeli defence firm Elbit in southwest England.

Demonstrators recreate Palestinian prisoners’ plight in Australia

Protesters in Australia have tried to direct attention towards the dehumanising treatment of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention, where countless victims have said they have been tortured and abused while others have died.



Around the Network
SvennoJ on 13 August 2024

Eight US soldiers wounded in last week’s drone attack in Syria

The drone attack on a military base in Syria last week injured eight US soldiers, according to the Pentagon.

Air Force spokesperson Major General Patrick Ryder told reporters the eight soldiers were treated for traumatic brain injury and smoke inhalation, adding that three personnel have already returned to duty.

There are currently about 900 US military personnel operating in Syria and about 2,500 more stationed in Iraq. The US is facing pushback for its military presence in both countries. The soldiers’ stated mission is to fight ISIL (ISIS) and “extremism”.

Biden links Gaza deal to Iran standing down from assassination retaliation

It’s really interesting that we heard that from President Joe Biden. We really haven’t seen him since he decided to not run for re-election.

It was really one of the first time reporters have been able to ask him any questions and the fact he linked the Gaza ceasefire to Iran not retaliating for the assassination of Hamas’s political leader on its soil, I think is very, very telling.

While most people had made that connection, the president was very clear, saying that he believes the ceasefire could lead to Iran standing down, in so many words.

People are going to be asking about the timing of this.

If you look back through the history of the Biden administration, when it comes to dealing with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in Israel, they definitely tend to favour carrots as opposed to sticks. In fact, we’ve seen them use very little of the immense leverage over Israel in this now longstanding war against the people of Gaza.


Iran says it is not involved in Gaza ceasefire talks

The Associated Press news agency is reporting that Iran is not considering sending representatives to the upcoming negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Iran’s mission to the UN told the AP:

“We have not engaged in the indirect cease-fire negotiations between Hamas and the regime, facilitated by Egypt, Qatar, and the US, and hold no intention for involvement in such negotiations.”

The statement comes as the US pushes for a ceasefire in the hopes that such a deal will prevent Iran and its allies from launching retaliatory attacks against Israel following the assassination of Hamas’s political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut.



SvennoJ on 13 August 2024

‘Justifying genocide, famine, gang rape’ now part of Israeli mainstream: Riyad Mansour

Palestine’s UN envoy, Riyad Mansour, told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council (UNSC) that the memory of the Holocaust has become “instrumentalised” in Israel to justify crimes against humanity.

Instead of the memory of the Nazi persecution of Jews “serving as an un-breachable barrier against the commission of such atrocities”, it is used as their justification, Mansour said.

“Something terrible is happening in Israel, something that has made justifying genocide, famine and gang rape mainstream ideology,” he told the UNSC meeting, which was called by Algeria over Israel’s August 10 attack on the al-Tabin School in Gaza City, which killed at least 100 people as they attended dawn prayers.

Mansour also told the UNSC that “Israel does not care about your condemnations. It dismisses your resolutions. It does not even listen to your debates… Israel is a rogue state, with a rotten government due to the unbridled impunity it has enjoyed so far”.



US has the power to end Israel’s war on Gaza ‘right now’

Tarek Khalil, a Palestinian human rights activist, said the US had the power to force Israel to sign a ceasefire deal in Gaza by withholding weapons.

“The fact that we’re not even discussing the annual aid that Israel already receives from the United States is really beyond belief,” he told Al Jazeera from Chicago.

“You’ve had the international community, you’ve had the United Nations, the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court – Israel has been condemned and embarrassed worldwide and it still continues its barrage of attacks against the defenceless civilian population of Gaza.”

“The United States can do something right now. It can end [the war] tonight. Right now,” Khalil said.

The US should not be appeasing “Israel by providing it with more weapons – ‘Here’s more weapons, please stop using them’,” he said. “No. How about you just deny the sale, deny any future aid to Israel and also enforce – not just call for a ceasefire – but enforce a ceasefire?

“This could end right now if the United States had the courage.”

Palestinian group calls for closure of ‘Israeli torture camps’

The Al Mezan Center for Human Rights has called for accountability for Israeli abuses against Palestinian detainees, saying recent testimony and evidence from Israeli detention centres “reveal a level of violence that resounds with the atrocities documented in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib”.

Citing lawyers, Al Mezan said Palestinian prisoners and detainees are enduring severe physical and psychological torture in Israeli facilities.

This includes “being hung in stress positions, beaten with hammers, having their nails pulled out with wire-cutting pliers, attacked by dogs, and beaten with soldiers’ fists, feet, and rifle butts,” Al Mezan said. Detainees “have been exposed naked to the scorching sun while standing on sharp gravel stones, subjected to verbal abuse, and threatened with rape, death, and bombing, along with threats against their families”. They have also been “deprived of food, water, sleep, and access to sanitation for extended periods, all while facing extremely harsh living conditions,” Al Mezan said.

The torture has resulted in several deaths but there is no definitive record of the total number of Palestinian deaths in Israeli custody, Al Mezan said. It noted that the Palestinian Prisoners Club has disclosed the full identities of 22 Palestinians who have died as a result of torture or medical negligence since October 7, while the Israeli rights group B’Tselem said that at least 60 Palestinians, including 48 from the Gaza Strip, have died behind bars since the war began.

Al Mezan said the international community must take prompt and decisive measures to protect Palestinian detainees and called for the “immediate closure of Israeli torture camps where Palestinian detainees are forcibly disappeared”.



SvennoJ on 13 August 2024

Father of slain twins says he did not get the chance to celebrate their birth

We’ve been reporting on Israel’s killing of four-day-old Palestinian twins in the city of Khan Younis.

Mohamed Mahdi Abu al-Kumsan, the twins’ father, spoke to Al Jazeera about what happened.

“I went to get my children’s birth certificates. My wife gave birth days ago and I did not have the opportunity to celebrate their birth. She had a c-section and she was very tired. She was unable to leave the house,” al-Kumsan said.

Muhammad left his family at home and returned with the children’s birth certificates to find them killed. The twins – Aisel and Aisar Abu al-Kumsan – were buried in the same body bag as their mother, who was a doctor.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said that a total of 115 infants who were born after Israel launched its war on Gaza have been killed due to the “bombing and the aggression”.

Teen killed by Israeli forces, imam among 3 detained in nightly West Bank raids

Israeli forces shot and killed a 16-year-old Palestinian in Anata town, east of occupied Jerusalem, in another night of military violence in the occupied West Bank.

According to the Wafa news agency, the teenager, Shadi Wissam Sheha, was shot while allegedly throwing stones at Israeli soldiers deployed behind the separation wall. He was declared dead from gunshot injuries at the hospital, Wafa reports.

Three people were arrested later, including an imam, following raids on Qalqilya city and the nearby town of Habla.

Wafa reports that Nida al-Amer, the Imam of the Al-Iman Mosque in Qalqilya, was taken away following a raid on this home in the city. Soldiers reportedly “destroyed and vandalised” the mosque’s contents during a search. Two young Palestinian men were also arrested in home raids in Hableh town, located to the south of Qalqilya.

Other incidents included:

  • Israeli soldiers fired tear gas and detonated sound bombs during a raid on al-Khader town, south of Bethlehem.
  • Local Palestinians fought with soldiers who raided the Shu’fat refugee camp and the Wadi al-Joz neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem.
  • Settlers attacked Palestinian homes and motorists with stones and clubs after closing the al-Maleh road junction in the northern Jordan Valley.
  • Raids were carried out on the towns of Yatma and Qabalan, located south of Nablus, and Ya’bad town, southwest of Jenin.


SvennoJ on 13 August 2024

Former Israeli Peace Negotiator Daniel Levy: U.S. Is Part of "Axis of Zionist Extremism"

The United States, Qatar and Egypt are urging Israel and Hamas to hold a new round of negotiations to finalize a ceasefire deal in Gaza.

However, Hamas is urging mediators to enforce the ceasefire terms proposed by President Biden in May that Hamas already agreed to and that Israel rejected.

Daniel Levy, president of the U.S./Middle East Project and a former Israeli peace negotiator under Prime Ministers Ehud Barak and Yitzhak Rabin, says U.S.-led efforts for a ceasefire are likely to fail as long as the Biden administration remains unwilling to pressure Israel.

"It's quite clear Netanyahu does not want a ceasefire deal," says Levy, who adds that the Washington playbook of unlimited support for Israel and threats to keep other regional actors in line could pull the U.S. into a wider Middle East war. "America is playing the role as a member of the axis of Zionist extremism."

UK hate riots inspired by Israel lobby's favorite hooligan

The Grayzone's Max Blumenthal and Aaron Mate take a closer look at the Israel lobby's backing of Tommy Robinson, who helped inspire anti-Muslim riots across the UK, and examine the role of new Netanyahu confidant Elon Musk in fueling the rampage.

MASS EXODUS? Israel's Economy SELF DESTRUCTS

 

US official abruptly ends press meet after reporter grills on secret US-Iran talk

US State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel on Tuesday lost his cool after a reporter asked him about America’s secret contact with Iran over Israel-Gaza conflict. Even though he had promised to allow a couple of more reporters to ask their questions, Patel abruptly ended the press meet in visible anger.



SvennoJ on 14 August 2024

At least 2,650 Palestinians from Gaza remain in Israeli custody: Rights group

The Palestinian group Al Mezan estimated that approximately 2,650 Palestinians taken from the Gaza Strip after October 7 are currently in Israeli custody. They include 12 children and two women.

Among them, approximately 300 are facing trials, Al Mezan said, while 2,350 are classified as “unlawful combatants” without a defined detention period or specific charges.

The facilities they are being held in include,

  • Ketziot Prison in al-Naqab
  • Shikma Prison in Ashkelon
  • Ofer Prison
  • Ofer Military Camp
  • Nafha Prison
  • Sde Teiman Camp
  • Kishon Prison in Al-Jalama
  • The Al-Moskobiya and Petah Tikva detention centres

Israel’s war on children in Gaza


Palestinian children pose for a picture near their tent set on a road’s median at a makeshift displacement camp set up along a road in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on August 13


Palestinian girls carrying water walk past a wall mural at a makeshift displacement camp set up on a roadside in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on Tuesday


A paramedic helps an injured Palestinian child brought to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah in the aftermath of an Israeli attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp, central Gaza, on Tuesday


Palestinian toddler Rim Abu Hayya, the sole survivor of her family who were killed in an Israeli bombardment that hit their house in the east of Khan Younis, is carried by her aunt Ayat in a tent shelter west of Khan Younis on Tuesday

Israel has killed 2,100 babies under two in Gaza: Rights monitor

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor reports that out of nearly 17,000 Palestinian children killed by Israel in the Gaza Strip since October 7, about 2,100 were babies under the age of two.

“The number of Palestinian children – whether infants or children in general – killed by the Israeli army is horrifying, and the rate of their killing is unprecedented in the history of modern wars,” says the Geneva-based organisation.

“It also represents a dangerous trend based on the dehumanisation of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Israel’s military targets Palestinians and their children daily, methodically, and widely in the most heinous and brutal ways possible, and virtually without pause for 10 consecutive months.”


Food aid entering south Gaza drops to lowest level since October

A US-based famine monitoring agency says the amount of humanitarian food supplies entering Gaza through crossings in the south were at their lowest levels in July since Israel’s war on the enclave began.

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) said that only 724 humanitarian trucks with food or mixed items entered through the Karem Abu Salem crossing in July. They carried roughly 5,035 to 5,566 metric tonnes of supplies.

A further 54,764 to 60,529 metric tonnes of food supplies carried on commercial trucks also entered through the crossing, but the network said that increased “commercial cargo entry into Gaza may not necessarily translate to improved food availability and access within Gaza, particularly given low household purchasing power”.



Israeli evacuation orders disrupting efforts to restore hospitals, WHO says

The World Health Organization (WHO) said Israel’s expanding evacuation orders are threatening efforts to restore functionality at the European Hospital in southern Khan Younis.

The facility, which has 650 inpatient beds, has been out of service since July 1, the agency said.

Of the 16 partially functional hospitals across the Gaza Strip, only 12 are partially accessible due “to insecurity or physical barriers, such as damage to both patient and ambulance entrances and surrounding roads”, the WHO said.

The UN agency added that there were no functioning hospitals in southern Rafah – where Israel has launched a ground offensive – for more than nine consecutive weeks now.